Happy New Year

SPANISH EURO INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY COMMISSION
FROM THE DESK OF THE PRESIDENT
PRIZE AWARD DEPARTMENT
C/ Lambllia frente 4є planta 26Є,
22476, MADRID, ESPAСA

Attn: Sir/Madam,

We congratulate you over your email success on our computer Balloting in our SPANISH END OF THE YEAR INTERNATIONAL E-MAIL AWARD PROMOTION PROGRAM 2009. This is a Millennium Scientific Electronic Computer Games in which email addresses were used. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 100,000 company and 50,000,000 individual email addresses from all over the world. It is a promotional program aimed at encouraging internet users; therefore you
do not need to buy ticket to enter for it.

Your email address drew and has won you the sum of 615,810 Euros (Six Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten Euros) in cash credited to file with WINNING REFERENCE NUMBER: ESP/WIN/008/05/10/MA; BATCH NUMBER:EURO/1007/444/606/08; LUCKY NUMBER: 23-7-2-6-12-9; SERIAL NUMBER:6594 and PROMOTION DATE:21St December 2009.

To claim your winning prize, you are to contact the appointed agent directly as soon as possible for the immediate release of your winnings prize with the below details.

1) Your Full Name:
2) Your Telephone Number:
3) Your Mobile Number:
4) Fax Number (If available)

GRUPO CATALANA OCCIDENTE S.A.
MR. JONATHAN FERDNANDO GOMEZ
TEL:0034,6031,25674
FAX:0034,9176,93011
Email: grupocataLan@LuckymaiL.com

Congratulations once again from all our staff.

Mrs. Paulina Domin Hanna (Lottery co-ordinator)
Spanish Euro Internation Lottery commission.
Madrid, 22nd December 2009


Bonus Round:

The Honest $10,000 SPAM

Year In Review (*)

Articles:

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders Strengthens Senate Health Bill

A Democrat's view from the House: Senate bill isn't health reform

Is There a Real McCain?


Quote:

"That is certainly not a position I want to be in — because I am not God."

JUDGE WARREN WILBERT,
judge in the trial of a man charged with killing abortion provider George Tiller because it was necessary to save unborn children; Wilbert ruled Tues. (12/22) that Kansas law doesn't allow a "necessity defense," meaning justifying taking one life to save another.

Say What?

"They've been on this jihad for 70 years...Two-thirds of the country don't want this. And one-third of these jihadists, these health care jihadists do. I guess that's how democracy in the Obama era works."
-- Mary Matalin on health care reform


"The largest corruption crisis in the history of America...It's thousands of times bigger than Watergate because Watergate was only a little break-in by a couple of guys."
-- Rep. Steven King on ACORN


Fox News Survey:

What Should Republicans Do Now?

By You Decide - FOXNews.com

Now that the Senate has passed its version of health care reform, Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are prepping for a tug of war behind closed doors to reconcile differences between the two bills. It's a process that leaves congressional Republicans out in the cold, so: What should they do?


[ ] Nothing -- this is a done deal so move on to other issues, like unemployment and the deficit

[ ] Fight -- many Americans oppose these bills and the GOP needs to keep the pressure on

[ ] Focus on Election 2010 -- Let the voters tell Democrats what they think of their health care reform efforts

[ ] Undecided

Results:

6% -- Nothing -- this is a done deal so move on to other issues, like unemployment and the deficit (6,270 votes)

77% -- Fight -- many Americans oppose these bills and the GOP needs to keep the pressure on (79,202 votes)

16% -- Focus on Election 2010 -- Let the voters tell Democrats what they think of their health care reform efforts (16,580 votes)

<1% -- Undecided (394 votes)

Total Votes: 102,446


Note: Editorial Cartoons by Tom Tomorrow


(*) Ok, maybe it was just a review of the last few weeks of '09

Hometown News - Three Links

Laredo, Texas could soon be largest U.S. city with no bookstore.



When the B. Dalton bookstore shuts in January, Laredo readers will have to travel 150 miles to San Antonio to find the nearest bookseller. The border town will be the largest U.S. city without a bookstore, industry experts believe.


More Hometown News:

War Without Borders - Smuggling Dollars South

Torrent of Illicit Cash Flows Where the U.S. and Mexico Meet


Hometown News Cont:

Sideshow: Two Lil Wayne buses fail sniff test

A li'l weed was - once again! - found on a Lil Wayne tour bus. About 3 a.m. Friday (12-18), U.S. Border Patrol officers made a routine stop of LW's two buses, on their way to a concert in Laredo, Texas. But K-9 dog detectives sniffed some dank on both buses! Dank indeed was found, and LW and 12 of his entourage were detained. The concert had to be kicked to last night. LW and homies were released. But on Feb. 9, he'll be in NYC to be sentenced (possibly for up to a year) for illegal weapons possession stemming from a bus-related 2007 bust, and then there's controlled-substance badness over his head from several places. Bicycle, LW - hitchhike, pogo stick, space shuttle, do anything but get on that bus. . . . In further Lil Wayne news, Amazon.com mistakenly shipped out 500 copies of his much-delayed, much-anticipated album Rebirth, scheduled for a Feb. 1 release. Leaks are a tradition with LW albums, but this is a true Amazon mess-up.

--Tirdad Derakhshani/Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

Happy Holiday

Holiday Cheer Cont:

Power to the people. Power to the people, right on.

Here we have "American Idol" and "America's Got Talent," but in the smaller United Kingdom they've got "Britain's Got Talent" (hello, Susan Boyle) and "X-Factor" (which used to be "Pop Idol" which is the show that spawned our "Idol.")

Here cranky Simon Cowell is big, but in the UK he's BIG - so big that a grass-roots movement was launched to stop the new "X-Factor" winner, Joe McElderry, from having this year's British Christmas No. 1 song.

That Christmas No. 1 is a big thing across the pond and for the last few years the "X-Factor" winner has easily achieved the season's top hit.

But British music fans rose up against Cowell's control of the charts and created a viral campaign to make another song the Christmas No. 1.

And they didn't go for something by Taylor Swift or anyone else with an easy path to a hit.

No, the song that was chosen was 1992's "Killing in the Name" by political protest band Rage Against the Machine.

Amazingly, the campaign worked. "Killing in the Name" was downloaded more than 500,000 times last week, sending Cowell and "X-Factor" judge Cheryl Cole (Cowell certainly knows how to pick beautiful judges in England), into a tizzy, about how unfair this was to poor, young Joe.

(Sir Paul McCartney, by the way, came out for Rage Against the Machine, even though he had just performed on the "X-Factor" finale.)

Rage is tickled that its charity single (raising money for homelessness) has become its biggest hit ever.

The band said in a statement: "Rage Against the Machine is honored to have been drafted by this historic grassroots campaign to make our song 'Killing in the Name' the No. 1 song on the UK Christmas Week pop chart. This is a huge victory by and for fans of real music and we extend our heartfelt thanks to every fan and freedom fighter who helped make our anthem of defiance and rebellion the Anarchy Christmas Miracle of 2009.

"As promised we will play a free concert in the UK in celebration of this incredible upset victory over the heavily favored X-Factor single. We are also pleased that so much money has been raised for homeless charity Shelter and are happy to donate as well to aid this important cause. While there are many lessons that can be drawn from this historic upset, the main one is this: that ordinary people, banding together in solidarity, can change ANYTHING, be it the pop charts or the world."

How's that for a Christmas message.

-- Howard Gensler/Philadelphia Daily News

Sighting

-- by klipschutz

I was just walking down the street
and there stood Gregory Corso,
looking just like Gregory Corso --
to a T the spitting image
of himself.
(He was, in fact, spitting.)
I congratulated myself on such fine luck
my very first day in San Francisco,
and pushed on.

Circus Devils

A RIOT OF GOLD TEETH
(2001 - 2010)


A retrospective of 33 songs chosen by Robert Pollard, taken from every Circus Devils albums to date, starting from Ringworm Interiors (2001) and ending with Mother Skinny (2010). 74 minutes of listening rapture.


Click here for product info and ordering info.


MOTHER SKINNY (2010)


Produced by Todd Tobias. Voice, lyrics and cover art by Robert Pollard. Music by Todd Tobias and Tim Tobias.


Track listing: 1) Sub Rat 2) Lurking 3) Wolfman Chords 4) Hard Art 5) Get On It 6) His Troops are Loyal 7) Kingdoms of Korea 8) Bam Bam Bam 9) Germ Circus 10) 8 Legs to Love You 11) 17 Days on the Pole 12) Freezer Burn 13) Angels of War 14) Living Necklace of Warts 15) The New Nostalgia 16) Cave of Disappearing men (inst.) 17) Mother Skinny 18) All the Good Ones are Gone 19) Pledge 20) Shut Up


Available April 2010.

Cookie Fortune

We treat this world of ours as though we had a spare in the trunk.

Learn Chinese:

North - Bei

Lucky Numbers:

56, 20, 41, 9, 29, 37

Closure

Fishtown Community Branch
[Free Library of Philadelphia]
will be closed on the following
days, including Saturdays and
Sundays:

Thursday, December 17th
Thursday, December 24th
Friday, December 25th
Thursday, December 31st
Friday, January 1st


Signage posted at said location

...

Book Review

ON THIN ICE

"The prognosis isn’t good. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed the polar bear as a threatened species last year after a protracted political battle (the short version: oil companies feared the listing would limit access to new oil fields in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, 30 million acres of polar bear habitat, so the Bush administration stonewalled the listing until after it had auctioned off the oil leases)." -- Bruce Barcott


IN DEFENSE OF TRUTH

"The novelist Louis Begley ends 'Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters' with a question: “Will some day in the near future the crimes of the Bush administration, like . . . the crimes against Dreyfus, disappear under the scar tissue of silence and indifference?” His answer wittily echoes the apocryphal assessment of the French Revolution, sometimes attributed to Chairman Mao, sometimes to Prime Minister Zhou Enlai: “It is too soon to tell.”' -- Ruth Scurr


More:

22 million Bush-era e-mails found

It will be years before the public sees any of them.


Related:



Lieberman - "Independent"

or not?

...

click here for music break

...

Bonus Round



Hello out there in big-bang land

Hubble captures galaxies 13 billion light-years away.


...

Footnote:

Joe Lieberman cartoon by Pat Oliphant

the rehab wars

Can a radical nun and a house full of junkies save Philadelphia from drug addiction?

click here for complete article/story

written by Isaiah Thompson
photographs by Neal Santos
published by Philadelphia City Paper (12/10 - 12/17/09)

Major Fail of the Day

We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfill the demand.

MAJKEN FRISS JORGENSEN, managing director of Copenhagen's biggest limousine company, on the 1,200-plus limos that have been ordered for attendees of this week's climate-change summit


More Info:

5 Things to Watch for at the Copenhagen Climate-Change Conference

Bonus Round:

Greenhouse Gases Threaten Public Health and the Environment

After a thorough examination of the scientific evidence and careful consideration of public comments, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that greenhouse gases (GHGs) threaten the public health and welfare of the American people.

Addendum:

New York Times Editorial - The Endangerment Finding


Footnote:

Political Cartoon - Climate Conspiracy! by Morten Morland @ PolDraw

How is an artist's book made?

Click Here for a fast-time lapse video by Abigail Uhteg.

Check out her website. Good stuff

Book Paper Scissors: An Artists' Book Fair @ the Free Library of Philadelphia

This Saturday, the Philadelphia Center for the Book is hosting their annual Book Paper Scissors Festival, an artists’ book fair complete with workshops.

The event, which is free to the public, features prints, artists’ books, handmade paper, origami, jewelry… pretty much anything and everything made out of paper. A lot of the items on display, from paper sculptures to intricately designed blank books, are made by local, Philadelphia region artists, and will be on sale.

The event takes place at the Free Library of Philadelphia from 10AM to 4PM.

Book Paper Scissors Artists’ Book Fair
December 5th, 2009, 10AM – 4PM
www.philadelphiacenterforthebook.org

Free Library of Philadelphia
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 686-5322
www.freelibrary.org


Info via uwishunu Philly & Eric Smith