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Countdown to Steelers kickoff - 80 days. (Pittsburgh v Cleveland @1:00pm)








Local talk radio host of the Sports Contraption, Dave Dameshek, is petitioning to get a "Steel Curtain" memorial for Heinz Field.
To: Dan Rooney, Steelers owner
Hear ye, hear ye! Folks, it is time for the Pittsburgh Steelers to build statues of the legendary players on the "Steel Curtain" defense to be displayed in front of Heinz Field.
How tall, you say? At least 10 feet, but preferably 100! They should be towering, awesome monuments that will shock, awe and shock all enemies of the Pittsburgh Steelers. These "enemies" include but are not limited to the Cincinnati Bengals (when they're not in jail), the dirty Cleveland Browns, the New England Patriots and all of their fans, and all other naysayers.
If you believe in this just and righteous cause, then add your John Hancock to this petition! And if you don't like it, well, suck it!
Sincerely,
Sign the petition here.

Quote of the day: When asked what is best in life?
"To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women." Conan (1982)

Bush watch-
The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned. Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial. President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay's status is imminent.

President Bush is pursuing a globalist agenda to create a North American Union, effectively erasing our borders with both Mexico and Canada. This was the hidden agenda behind the Bush administration's true open borders policy. Secretly, the Bush administration is pursuing a policy to expand NAFTA politically, setting the stage for a North American Union designed to encompass the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. What the Bush administration truly wants is the free, unimpeded movement of people across open borders with Mexico and Canada. The blueprint President Bush is following was laid out in a 2005 report entitled "Building a North American Community" published by the left-of-center Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was launched in March of 2005 as a trilateral effort to increase security and enhance prosperity among the United States, Canada and Mexico through greater cooperation and information sharing. This trilateral initiative is premised on our security and our economic prosperity being mutually reinforcing. The SPP recognizes that our three great nations are bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions.

Iran watch-
Iran has produced more than 220 pounds of enriched uranium, the country's interior minister was quoted Friday as saying about the process that can make fuel for civilian energy or fissile material for a bomb. The semiofficial ISNA news agency carried comments by Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, who said that Iran now has 3,000 hooked-up centrifuges actively enriching uranium.

Islam news-
Angry Islamists protested against Britain's knighthood for Salman Rushdie Friday, as an Iranian cleric said the death sentence on the writer was still valid 18 years on. The Indian-born Rushdie remained at the centre of a firestorm nearly a week after being awarded the honour with demonstrators in Pakistan torching effigies of him and Queen Elizabeth. Rushdie was sentenced to death in a fatwa by Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 for his book "The Satanic Verses", which some Muslims regard as blasphemous.

Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab. The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear her. A teacher wearing a niqab was told by a provincial school to go home. A student who was barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the courts, and lost. In fact, the British education authorities are proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether.

Politica-
Appearing on John Ziegler's evening show on KFI 640 AM in LA, U.S. Senator James Inhofe says he overheard Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) saying they want a "legislative fix" for talk radio.

Sen. Jeff Sessions has likened the current immigration bill — which contains the nuts and bolts of President Bush's guest-worker program — to a rotting fish and charged that the legislation could let foreign-born child molesters obtain U.S. citizenship. But last night, the president flew all the way to the home state of the Alabama Republican — who has emerged as one of the Senate Republicans toughest critics against the measure — to help him raise nearly $1 million for a re-election bid in 2008. And Mr. Bush did so with a big, broad smile on his face.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will not be permitted to use State Department funds to travel to nations that are known to have sponsored terrorism if a Republican amendment to appropriations legislation passes the House on Thursday. The amendment to the $34 billion State and Foreign Operations bill, offered by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), prohibits funds to be used to travel to Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. In a “Dear Colleague” letter released earlier today, King said Pelosi had overstepped her constitutional role as Speaker when she traveled to Syria in April.

Global warming watch-
Paris will sizzle and much of the Mediterranean will wilt according to a new study which raises alarm bells about the heat the region will take from global warming. Today's hottest days could become some of the summer's coolest days by the end of the 21st century if the current rate of carbon dioxide emissions continues, the authors warn. Once-rare heat waves, like that of 2003 which killed 15,000 in France, will become more intense and more common as the number of dangerously hot days in the region increases 200 to 500 percent. That's as many as 49 more unbearable days in Paris, 48 more scorchers in Athens and Valencia, Spain and 55 more broilers in Tel Aviv, the study projects.

Misc-
Wading into an age-old debate, researchers have found that firstborn children are smarter than their siblings — and the reason is not genetics, but the way their parents treat them, according to a study published today. The study of 240,000 Norwegian men in the journal Science found the IQs of firstborns were 2 to 3 points higher than that of younger siblings. (The average IQ is 100.) Though that may not sound like a lot, experts said even a few IQ points could make a big difference over the course of a lifetime — and set firstborns on a trajectory for success.

Bob Barker’s nice comments about Rosie O’Donnell taking over “The Price is Right” have started an avalanche of stories. Will Rosie be exclaiming “Come on down!” soon to contestants? The story will get a little more focused on Thursday when O’Donnell meets with the game show’s producers in Hollywood. That’s the first time all parties will be in the same room. But O’Donnell has issues that could scotch the entire set up. They are: she lives in New York, the show is shot in Los Angeles and the twain just don’t meet.

A 13-year old girl lost both of her feet when a Superman ride malfunctioned Thursday afternoon at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville. The accident happened around 4:45 p.m. Thursday on the Superman Tower of Power, formerly known as the "Hell-a-vator." Riders are strapped in and slowly taken to the top, then dropped at a speed of 56 miles per hour before easing to a stop on the ground. That's what happened here except for one major mishap. A metal cable snapped and severed the feet of the 13-year old girl. The girl's name and hometown have not been released because she is a minor.