Ron Paul With The Bizarre Glenn Beck PartOne
Ron Paul With The Bizarre Glenn Beck Part Two
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United Hollywood On Now Live
Stories
Danny Ackroyd Sells His Fat Penthouse In New York City
Stories 
DAN AYKROYD, once “live from New York,” may soon be gone from New York, or at least from his spacious penthouse on the Upper East Side.
Mr. Aykroyd, the comedian, actor and writer, who was a mainstay of “Saturday Night Live” in its heyday in the 1970s, along with John Belushi and Gilda Radner, is giving up his triplex penthouse atop a sliver of a postwar high-rise on the Upper East Side.
The apartment occupies half of the top three floors of the 46-story tower at 360 East 88th Street at First Avenue, and includes 3,400 square feet of space, four bedrooms, a terrace and two working fireplaces.
The apartment is in the Leighton House, a high-rise caught up in a housing slowdown in the late 1980s. When many of the condominiums could not be sold when the building opened in 1991, they were rented out.
The penthouse was finally sold for $1.4 million in 1998 and then two years later was bought under the name of Mr. Aykroyd’s wife, the actress Donna Dixon, for $3.7 million, according to property records. The asking price is now $7 million.
“They bought it because it was on 88th and First and is the tallest building in the neighborhood,” said Mr. Aykroyd’s broker, Roger Erickson of Sotheby’s International Realty.
But now the Aykroyds and their three daughters are spending more time on the West Coast and don’t need the spacious New York penthouse.
Another penthouse shares the three top three floors and is a slightly smaller unit with a large terrace. It also has been on the market recently for $7 million, raising the possibility that the two units could be combined for a palatial spread on the top three floors of the building.
But Mickey Roth, a broker at Prudential Douglas Elliman who represents the second owner, said that apartment had recently been taken off the market because the seller hoped to be able sell it for an even higher price.
“This type of apartment is something unique,” Mr. Roth said. “It has nothing to do with the price per square foot in the building.”
E-mail: bigdeal@nytimes.com
If you like U2, you'll love . . . Metallica?
Stories
Software that ‘listens’ to songs could help you find new favorites
Sure, you’ve heard U2. Hard to avoid the Irish rockers, a musical force since the 1980s.But how do you find – let alone decide if you like – some garage band that’s cut the killer new track that no one’s ever heard of?
In his gleaming white lab at Drexel University, Youngmoo Kim has an answer: raw computing power.
He’s an electro-DJ of sorts, part of a new wave that seeks to help consumers sift through the countless downloadable tunes on the Internet. It’s a crowded field, with plenty of Web sites already promising consumers “if you like this, then you’ll like that.”
But most of those sites base their picks largely on what other consumers have purchased – perhaps reinforcing mass-market tastes at the expense of undiscovered gems. Kim and other researchers have embraced a more fundamental approach: using computers to “listen” to the music itself.
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World Trade Center Memorial Delayed By Two More Years
StoriesFrom The Associated Press
(AP) – Construction of the memorial and underground museum commemorating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will be finished in 2011, two years later than originally planned, officials said Tuesday.
Officials had said for years that Sept. 11, 2009, would be the opening date for the museum and the “Reflecting Absence” memorial, which surrounds two waterfall-filled pools marking the World Trade Center tower footprints.
The builders of the memorial adjusted the timetable last year, saying the above-ground plaza would open in 2009 and the underground museum open a year later.
Steve Plate, who oversees the rebuilding of the trade center site for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said Tuesday that the schedule would be pushed back another year.
Agency spokeswoman Candace McAdams said the schedule was revised to reflect a more realistic schedule that became clear after construction began.
“We see the reality, and want to operate on responsible timelines,” Ms. McAdams said. “We’ll work as aggressively as possible to complete the project as soon as possible.”
Mr. Plate, the agency’s director of priority capital programs, said that by 2009, the reflecting pools in the memorial would be built up to street level. By 2010, the cobblestone-filled plaza surrounding the memorial pools will be “nearly complete,” he said. Ms. McAdams said the plaza would be open to the public by that time.
The entire memorial, museum and pavilion will be finished by 2011, Mr. Plate said.
Construction of the memorial began in spring of 2006, and briefly stopped while architect Michael Arad’s design was altered to cut costs that were approaching $1 billion. The redesign — which cut over $200 million in costs — made the museum a bit smaller and moved stone parapets listing the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks to street level.
Top Ten Best/Worst Foods You Could Possibly Eat
StoriesFrom The Guys .Gals who tell us what we probably suspected all along…
The Center For Science in The Public Interest
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1. Artery Crust  Judging by the label, Pepperidge Farm Roasted White Meat Chicken Premium Pot Pie has 510 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat. But look again. Those numbers are for half a pie. Eat the entire pie, as most people probably do, and you’re talking more than 1,000 calories and 18 grams of sat fat.
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1. Sweet Potatoes A nutritional All-Star — one of the best vegetables you can eat. They’re loaded with carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. Bake and then mix in some unsweetened applesauce or crushed pineapple for extra moisture and sweetness. |
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2. Strip Tease  McDonald’s Chicken Selects Premium Breast Strips sounds healthy. In fact, ounce for ounce, the Selects are no healthier than the chain’s Chicken McNuggets. A standard, five-strip order has 630 calories and 11 grams of artery-clogging fat. That’s about the same as a Big Mac, but the burger has 1,040 mg of sodium, while the Selects hit 1,550 mg — a whole day’s worth — even without the salty dipping sauce.
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2. Grape Tomatoes They’re sweeter and firmer than other tomatoes, and their bite-size shape makes them perfect for snacking, dipping, or salads. They’re packed with vitamin C and vitamin A, and you also get some fiber, some phytochemicals, and (finally) some flavor. |
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3. Factory Reject  Each slice of The Cheesecake Factory’s 6 Carb Original Cheesecake has 610 calories — that’s the same as you’d get from a slice of its Original Cheesecake. Think of it as an 8-ounce untrimmed prime rib for dessert — with 29 grams of saturated fat, a 11/2-days’ supply. The next time you step on the bathroom scale, you may neverknow that the carbs were missing. |
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Netroots and Chris Dodd Stop Bill To Grant Immunity To Telecoms Who Spied On U.S. Citizens
StoriesFrom the indispensable Nicole Belle at Crooks And Liars Dot Com
Chris Dodd Thanks You For Your Support
By: Nicole Belle
Chris Dodd thanks the netroots for their support and congratulates his colleagues for their help in the fight against retroactive immunity.
“Today we have scored a victory for American civil liberties and sent a message to President Bush that we will not tolerate his abuse of power and veil of secrecy. The President should not be above the rule of law, nor should the telecom companies who supported his quest to spy on American citizens. I want to thank the thousands of Americans throughout the country that stood with me to get this done for our country.”
The progressive blogs, who played a huge role in lobbying the Senate to support Dodd’s leadership against retroactive immunity, are joining in the celebration now that the FISA bill has been pulled until next year.
In an email, Athenae of First Draft writes, “Seriously, that was some awesome with awesome sauce and a side of pure, crispy win.”
Crooks & Liars has video of Dodd’s closing remarks this evening.
Jason Rosenbaum at The Seminal writes, “This victory means Dodd’s filibuster has weight. It also makes it much more likely that he will win round two as he continues to stand up for the Constitution and against telecom immunity.”
Sam Stein at the Huffington Post sets the early narrative – one which I think accurately describes how events evolved over the course of the last few days – in an article titled “Dodd’s Filibuster Threat Persuades Reid.”[..]
Also, thanks to everyone at FireDogLake for all the help driving activism today.
You can keep giving Chris Dodd the props he’s due at ChrisDodd.com
The Nine Dark Lords of the Senate
StoriesThe Nine Dark Lords of the Senate
Wayne Allard: Supports Torture
http://allard.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
202-224-6471 – fax
Kit Bond: Supports Torture
http://bond.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm
No fax
Tom Coburn: Supports Torture
http://coburn.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home
202-224-6008 – fax
Thad Cochran: Supports Torture
http://cochran.senate.gov/contact.htm
No fax
John Cornyn: Supports Torture
http://www.cornyn.senate.gov/contact/index_1.html
202-228-2856 – fax
James Inhofe: Supports Torture
http://inhofe.senate.gov/contactus.htm
202-228-0380 – fax
Pat Roberts: Supports Torture
http://roberts.senate.gov/e-mail_pat.html
202-224-3514 – fax
Jeff Sessions: Supports Torture
http://sessions.senate.gov/email/contact.cfm
202-224-3149 – fax
Ted Stevens: Supports Torture
http://stevens.senate.gov/contact_form.cfm
202-224-2354 – fax
Tears and Drama In Bali As The World Takes On The U.S.A.
Al Gore, Bali, Climate Change, Global Warming, John Bolton, United Nations
Telegraph UK
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor, in Bali
An extraordinary day began with a fresh text of the Bali “road map” which Indonesia’s Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, as president of the conference, presented to delegates saying a “delicate balance” had been achieved.
India’s ambassador immediately made clear that he was not prepared to go along without it being made clear that there was responsibility of industrialised nations to supply developing countries with clean technologies, finance and support to deal with them problem “in a measurable manner.”
The crucial part of the agreement for developing countries had been rewritten overnight in a way that G77 countries said made it unclear that the supply of finance and clean technology, such as clean coal plants, had to be measurable reportable and verifiable.
China piled in, then Pakistan, and it became clear that this was a full scale row.
The conference was stopped, then restarted by Mr Witoelar, leading to wild accusations by China that the UN’s top climate official, Yvo de Boer, had allowed it to re-start while negotiations, chaired by the Indonesian foreign minister, were still continuing.
This Mr de Boer, in tears after two nights without sleep, later denied, to supportive applause.
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Then Mr Witoelar called for another break in which he summoned the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, and the Indonesian President Yudhoyono, to read the riot act to delegates and break the deadlock.
Mr Yudhoyono urged the conference not to allow “the planet to crumble because we can’t find the right wording.”
Mr Ban said he was “disappointed at the lack of progress” and pointed out the conference was already due to have ended five hours earlier. This was at 1.20 pm local time.
The conference reconvened. South Africa made an emotional appeal for the Americans to reconsider their statement – and was supported by delegation after delegation from the developing world while Miss Dobriansky and James Connaughton, President Bush’s climate change adviser, talked increasingly animatedly off-microphone.
The killer blow came from the Harvard-educated representative of Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad, who used Mr Connaughton’s diplomatic gaffe of earlier in the week to humiliate the Americans.
Mr Connaughton had said: “We will lead. We will continue to lead but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow.” Mr Conrad said, to applause: “If you are not willing to lead, then get out of the way.”
Miss Dobriansky finally pressed her button to speak again and said: “We will go forward and join the consensus.”
After cheers and diplomatic congratulations, the president of the conference assessed that “we are very, very close”, then banged his gavel down on India’s proposal to mark that a consensus had been achieved.
Voting Machines In Colorado Fail Tests
Stories
Pueblo among other Southern Colorado counties to have machines decertified.
By CHARLES ASHBY
CHIEFTAIN DENVER BUREAU
DENVER – All but one Southern Colorado county may be forced into buying
expensive new voting machines and ballot scanners before next year’s elections.
Following testing by the state, Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified nearly all
voting machines used in 49 Colorado counties, including Pueblo.
Those counties use machines made by Sequoia Voting Systems, Hart InterCivic and
Election Systems & Software.
Saguache County was the only county in the region that uses voting machines built by
the only company that passed all tests: Premier, formerly known as Diebold. (Alamosa
County also uses some Premier machines, but saw its Hart machines fail Coffman’s
tests.)
“We’re in big trouble,” said Pueblo County Clerk Gilbert Ortiz, who said the county
spent $450,000 on new Sequoia machines just last year. “We don’t have a lot of time to
come up with a solution here. It’s going to cost us a lot of money any way you look at
it. We’re going to be talking about close to $1 million.”
Coffman said he followed state law in testing the voting machines, which were called
for in a court order from a lawsuit filed last year by a citizens group that claimed all
electronic voting machines were unreliable and insecure.
The judge in the case ordered a recertification of all voting machines in the state,
saying the method used by then-Secretary of State Gigi Dennis, formerly a Pueblo West
state senator, was inadequate.
“I had to strictly follow the law along with this court order,” Coffman said. “If I
were too lenient in determining what passes, then I risk having the state taken to court
by activist groups who will ask for an injunction on the use of electronic voting for the
2008 election.
“If I exceed the requirements of state law and the court order, then I will be sued by
the vendors who manufacture and sell this equipment.”
Coffman’s tests showed:
All Premier machines and ballot scanners passed.
Sequoia’s optical scanners that count ballots were acceptable, but their voting
machines weren’t because of security reasons, such not being password protected, exposed
controls and lack of a paper audit.
Hart’s electronic voting machines passed, but their scanning devices could not
accurately count ballots.
ES&S scanners failed because they couldn’t complete the threshold test of 10,000
ballots, their voting machines could easily be disabled and they lacked an audit
trail.
Coffman said state laws gives vendors and county clerks 30 days to appeal his
findings, which include methods to mitigate problems with their systems if they can prove
they would pass certification tests.
He plans to meet with many of them today in a special task force formed by Senate
Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver. Several county clerks from around the state,
including Ortiz, will be at that meeting.
“I really carefully reviewed this whole process,” Coffman said. “From what occurred in
2006 along the recertification . . . I really sought to strengthen this process. I
created several new layers, including a testing board of four technical experts . . . as
well as an audit team.”
Coffman said more than 3,000 tests were performed on all four vendors, with more than
40,000 pages of documents that were reviewed.
Some of those clerks have also indicated they plan to ask the Legislature when it
convenes next month to consider changes to the voting machine certification laws, or
merely allow them the ability to use all mail ballots for a general election, which
currently is not allowed.
Ortiz said that even though the county’s ballot scanners passed Coffman’s tests, they
are tied into the voting machines. And since they failed the tests, the county would need
to replace them, too.
The Pueblo clerk said he fears he might have to go to the Pueblo County commissioners
to ask for money to buy new equipment, money he knows the county doesn’t have.
Still, he was confident that something will be done to address the issue, but couldn’t
say what.
“It just adds more challenge to what I was expecting to be the most challenging
election year of all time,” Ortiz said. “But I know we’re going to find a way. It’s not
in anybody’s interest to not have elections running smoothly in this state. I have a
great deal of confidence that the elected officials of this state are going to find a
way, but if we don’t make those decisions by February, we could have a catastrophe.”
Only three brands of electronic voting machines tested by the secretary of state are
used in Southern Colorado. In addition to Pueblo County using Sequoia, the remaining
counties in the region use Hart: Alamosa, Baca, Bent, Chaffee, Conejos, Costilla,
Crowley, Custer, Fremont, Huerfano, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero, Prowers and Rio Grande
counties.
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The New York Herald Sun 