Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Wife & Daughter Hospitalized in Virginia Crash

The wife and adult daughter of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) were rushed to a hospital after the minivan they were riding in was struck by a tractor-trailer on a Virginia interstate on Thursday afternoon.

Senator Reid’s wife, Landra, and daughter, Lana, were involved in an accident earlier today. They are being treated at a Washington-area hospital. While driving on a Washington, DC, highway, their vehicle was rear-ended by a semi-truck. Mrs. Reid has broken nose, broken back and broken neck. Lana has a neck injury and facial lacerations. Both Mrs. Reid and Lana are conscious, can feel their extremities, and according to doctors their injuries are non-life threatening.

Virginia State Police say that the Reid's minivan was rear-ended by a tractor trailer while travelling in the northbound lanes of I-95 in stop-and-go traffic. The impact sent the Reids' vehicle into the car in front of them. Police say that the driver of the truck, a 59 year old Ohio man, was charged with reckless driving.

I have to say that I'm a little surprised that they listed a broken back and broken neck as 'non-life threatening'. Anybody who's read this blog knows I have some obvious partisan differences with Sen. Reid, but I do wish a speedy and painless recovery for Lana and Landra Reid.

Chile Earthquake Update- Sebastian Pinera to be Sworn In; Looters Have Amnesty Before Crackdown; USAF Sends Medical Personnel; Go West?

Sebastian Pinera, the Chilean tycoon who made his fortune introducing credit cards to the South American nation, will be sworn in as Chile's newest president Thursday, replacing outgoing socialist president Michelle Bachelet less than three weeks after the nation was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded. The conservative Pinera won a January runoff election against center-left Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. The 60 year old billionaire said "We won't be the government of the earthquake, we'll be the government of reconstruction". Pinera ran on a platform of creating jobs, reducing crime and boosting economic growth in 2009. Pinera's election win will end more than 20 years of center-left rule in Chile.

Although Bachelet has come under criticism for the government's slow initial response to the Febuary 27th earthquake, some polls show her as having an approval rating of more than 80%.

Police and military in Chile gave the looters that struck in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake an ultimatum this weekend- return the stolen items no questions asked by Sunday or face a crackdown. Items like fans, cases of liquor, Television sets, furniture, washing machines and stereos were left on the street for the soldiers and Carabineros to pick up and process. Acting on tips from residents, authorities in Concepcion had arrested 20 people in possession of looted merchandise. Police and the Army said they were ready to search house-to-house after televised images of looting shocked viewers in the normally orderly South American country.

The United States Air Force Southern Command announced in a statement on Tuesday that they were sending 84 Airmen to Chile, 63 of them medical personnel. The support team will be equipped to perform surgeries as well as dental, radiological, pharmaceutical and diagnostic work, US Military officials said. The team will relieve Chilean personnel taking part in the relief effort.

Apparently the earthquake was strong enough to move the city of Concepcion 10 feet to the west. Chile's capital of Santiago reportedly moved 11 inches to the west-southwest while on the other side of the Andes, the city of Mendoza reportedly moved significantly and Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires moved an inch to the west. Researchers and geologists were able to measure the shift by comparing GPS date from before the quake with readings taken 10 days later.

William Delahunt To Step Down; Dreanged, Homicidal Spoiled Brats Hardest Hit

Denying that his decision had anything to do with spoiled brats his office kicked loose to kill again 24 years later politics, William Delhahunt (D-MA) announced last week that he won't seek re-election for Massachusetts' 10th Congressional district.

Delahunt was the Norfolk County DA when Amy Bishop fatally shot her brother with a shotgun at their Braintree, MA home in 1986. The shooting was ruled an accident and Bishop was released to her mother before she was even booked.

Professor Amy Bishop stands accused of murdering three of her colleagues and wounding three more when she opened fire on them during a faculty meeting at the University of Alabama Huntsville on February 12th, 2010.

Delahunt said his decision had nothing to do with politics and that he had been wrestling with the decision for some time.

A quick overlay of the 10th Congrssional district map and the electoral map of Massachusetts from the January Special Election shows that aside form Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard and Provincetown, most muncipalities in the district went to Scott Brown, which means that the district could concievably be in play for the GOP this November.

Long Overdue Sports Chowdah Update: Spring Has Sprung; B's Stumble, Savard Out Cold in Igloo; C's Filibuster Washington

(Nati Harnik- AP)

Well, in what feels like the blink of an eye to some we've gone from the closing ceremonies of the winter Olympics to the start of Spring Training. After taking on Boston College and Northeastern in exhibition games last week, Grapefruit League play got underway for Boston with a 2-1 win over Ft. Myers cohabitants Minnesota last Thursday.

On Monday afternoon, the Red Sox hosted the Pujols-less St. Louis Cardinals. Josh Beckett got 3 innings worth of work and made it look pretty easy, putting away all 9 batters he faced and striking out 3 of them. Papelbon, Okajima and Ramierez also followed up with one scoreless inning apiece.

Boston led 2-0 until the 7th, when a shaky Manny DelCarmen, allowing a hit, two walks and a run. With 2 on in the 8th, Dustin Richardson induced what looked like a routine groundout with two out that hit an umpire and brought two Cardinals baserunners home and left with an 'apparent injury' according to overthemonster.com. Down 3-2, Angel Sanchez and Che Hsuan Lin were walked and the iffy-hitting Jose Iglesias homered off of St Louis' Eduardo Sanchez and putting the Sox back up by a margin of 5-3. However, Randor Bierd struggled mightily in the top of 9th inning for the Sox after replacing Richardson, hitting a batter and giving up 4 hits without recording an out and letting the Cards retake the lead 6-5 before Scott Patterson came on to close out the inning. However, in the bottom of the 9th, Aaron Bates would reach on an error while Josh Reddick recorded a clutch, game-tying 2 out double, setting up Lin for some Grapefruit League heroics with a walk-off go-ahead single with two out.

The Cards' Chris Carpenter had two innings of work allowing 4 hits and an earned run. Evan MacLane was the losing pitcher for St. Louis. The Red Sox will take on the Marlins tomorrow.

(AP)

The Bruins sought to continue their winning streak after the Olympic break, dropping their first game back to Montreal before going on to beat the Maple Leafs and Islanders. On Sunday, they took the early 1-0 lead against Pittsburgh at The Igloo on a Blake Wheeler power play goal before Pascal Dupuis scored the game-tying goal five minutes later by hacking away at a puck that looked for all the world like Tim Thomas had corralled and was waiting for the whistle to blow. Evgeny Malkin put the Pens up for good less than 2 minutes into the third to make it a 2-1 game, however, the story of the game would be Matt Cooke's late hit on an unwary Marc Savard 14:23 into the third period. Marc Savard was unconscious for a few moments and removed from the ice by a stretcher.

Head coach Claude Julien didn't mince words after the game.

“It’s pretty obvious that was definitely a dirty hit,...[snip] That’s probably the classic blind-side hit to the head.”

Julien also thought that Cooke's blindside hit warranted a suspension while Cooke defended his actions by saying he was simply finishing his check.

Pittsburgh is 4-0 since the Olympic break while Boston is 2-2. The Bruins travel to Toronto for a Tuesday night game against the Maple Leafs- Savard said he hopes to be in uniform for Tuesday's game and is listed as day-to-day.

While I hadn't been paying that much attention to the NBA during the final week Olympics, it looked like the same held true for the Celtics. Seriously.....how could anybody lose to the Nets this year? But fear not! They seem to be offsetting that embarrassment with a 4-0 start to the month of March, taking down Detroit, Philly, Charlotte and most recently, Washington. Trailing by 13 with 6 minutes remaining, the C's managed to pull ahead with a 20-4 run- including 8 points from Ray Allen and another 6 from Rajon Rondo- for the 86-83 win over the Wizards at the Garden on Sunday. The win comes despite one of Kevin Garnett's worst performances in a Celtics uniform, going 0-7 in 30 minutes of play (although he was 8 of 10 from the free-throw line).

The Celtics will travel to Milwaukee Tuesday night to take on the Bucks.

Bush-Hating 9/11 Truther Opens Fire In Pentagon's Metro Station- Tea Party to Blame Or Something

A 36 year old Hollister, CA man was killed in an exchange of gunfire after firing on police officers outside the Pentagon late Thursday.

Authorities say that James Patrick Bedell pulled a handgun on two police officers at the building's entrance adjacent to the Washington D.C. Metro station and opened fire, grazing the two officers manning the checkpoint and was mortally wounded when they returned fire.

Not quite able to make the allegation that Austin suicide pilot Joseph Stack was affiliated with the American Right and the Tea Party movement stick, some MSM outlets such as CNN had repeatedly referred to Bedell as 'anti-government'....gosh, just like the tea parties! [I don't normally watch CNN, but they had me as a captive audience of 1 in the overnight hours of Thursday and early Friday- NANESB!]. Bedell left behind a number of online posts and audio clips accusing the US Military of smuggling drugs out of Central America and orchestrating the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and expressing outrage at his seizure of marijuana plants by law-enforcement in Orange County in 2006. As it turned out, Bedell hated President Bush and was a registered Democrat as well.

Blogger Patterico also came across an Amazon.com wishlist for somebody with the same name as Bedell that includes topics like the 9/11 Commission and the 'Bush Crime Family'; hardly the laundry list of reading materials for neo-cons, 'Teabaggers' or a card-carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy. Also, isn't the vast right-wing conspiracy supposed to be in league with the eeevil military-industrial complex? If I'm going to play this stupid little game the MSM insists that the rest of us play, why would one of the VRWC's own flip out on the doorstep of their biggest benefactor instead going postal trying to get into the White House, Congress or their nearest Federal Building or IRS office?

Apparently, the Christian Science Monitor isn't above indulging in the latest round of playing 'Gotcha!', citing the Southern Poverty Law Center for that extra dollop of hysteria.

So-called “Patriot” groups, steeped in antigovernment conspiracy theories, grew from 149 in 2008 to 512 in 2009 – an increase that the SPLC report judges as “astonishing.”

"Astonishing" indeed!

Apprently the Southern Poverty Law Center, Christian Science Monitor and husky, pony-tailed bloggers prone to abrupt and intellectually dishonest ideological pivots feels that we've gotten nothing but good governance from the Obama Administration and the same Congress that nationalized General Motors, Citibank and AIG while hell bent on ramming their overreaching, costly and economically crippling legislative agenda down the American public's throat. According to them we have zero reason to be upset and if we are, well, that just makes us anti-government extremists. I'm curious- what "So-called Patriot" group was Bedell a member of? And correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't high-profile temper tantrums directed at the US Military traditionally a brainchild of the American LEFT?

Question to the SPLC and Christian Science Monitor: if the Tea Party or other anti-government protesters were as dangerous and violent you insist they are, wouldn't there be

A) More concrete ties between these groups and high-profile violent acts? Or

B) Many more high-profile violent acts to document?

/It's OK....you all don't have to answer at once.

Obama & Holder Backpedalling From Civilian Trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

After backing off of a Manhattan civilian trial for suspected 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the Obama Administration and Justice Department may be backing completely away from the prospect of a civilian trial and have Mohammed go in front of a military tribunal.

Discussions on where to hold the trial have not concluded and the recommendation
has not been made formally to the president, officials told the Associated Press
on condition of anonymity.
The recommendation is expected to be put before Obama soon...

Look for detention facility for the trial to take place somewhere in Illinois as a favor to Obama's political allies and benefactors- this despite other states like Michigan practically begging for out-of-state prisoners to fill up nearly-vacant prisons in their state.

Chile Earthquake Death Toll Revised; Chile's President Meets W/Clinton, UN Secretary General Moon; More Strong Aftershocks Rock Concepcion

(Reuters/Victor R Caballero)

Authorities in Chile were revising their death toll from last weekend's 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Concepcion as the nation's military started pouring into the stricken areas to restore order and deliver food and emergency supplies.

On Thursday, Chile's Office of Emergency Management listed an estimated 200 attendees at a festival on the island of Orrego near the city of Constitucion as 'missing' instead of confirmed dead. Forensic experts are also arriving in an effort to positively identify some of the bodies pulled from the rubble.

UN Secretary General Ban Kai Moon pledged some US$10 Million from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund for Concepcion and other quake-stricken municipalities as well as emergency supplies like water filters. The Secretary General appeared with outgoing president Michelle Bachelete on a live fundraising telethon this week and will tour the devastated city of Concepcion this weekend.

Earlier in the week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had visited both president Bachelet and Chile's President-elect Pinera to assess Chile's immediate needs (generators, portable kitchens, portable kitchens). The initial supplies from the USA include at least 60 satellite phones, a mobile field hospital and emergency shelter materiels.


An aftershock registering magnitude 6.6 on the Richter scale rocked Concepcion early Friday morning, the strongest aftershock since a magnitude 6.9 temblor shortly after last week's quake. Buildings were evacuated and some patients in Concepcion's hospital were sent home as authorities feared the structure would collapse. Many residents in the region had taken to sleeping outside in the streets, concerned that a strong enough aftershock could collapse their homes.

American Recovery & Reinvestemnt Act Funds Creating Jobs and Stimulating Economy.....In China

Citing a report from the Investigative Reporting Workshop, a group of Democrat lawmakers called upon the Obama Administration to suspend funding of an ARRA project directed at construction for renewable energy projects.

more than 80 percent of the first $1 billion in grants to wind energy companies went to foreign firms. Since then, the administration has stopped making announcements of new grants to wind, solar and geothermal companies, but has handed out another $1 billion, bringing the total given out to $2.1 billion and the total that went to companies based overseas to more than 79 percent.

In fact, the largest grant made under the program so far, a $178 million payment on Dec. 29, went to Babcock & Brown, a bankrupt Australian company that built a Texas wind farm using turbines made by a Japanese company

One of the recipients of the stimulus funds is a joint venture between private firm US Renewable Energy Group, Cielo Wind Power of Austin, TX and China's Shen Yang Power Group to build a $1.5 billion wind turbine project in Texas. Other 'green energy' companies have outsourced the manufacturing of wind turbines and solar panels to China. The Investigative Reporting Workshop estimates that as much as 79% of the $2 billion in stimulus funds already distributed slated for renewable energy projects have gone to foreign-based companies.

Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and three other lawmakers wrote Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to request a moratorium remain in place until legislation could be drafted requiring the funds only go to projects that create and preserve American jobs. Energy Department Secretary Steven Chu said that the funds could be allocated and made "available to all qualifying entities"such as the Shen Yang Power Group's wind farm

“In all due respect I remind the secretary (of Energy) there is a four-letter word associated with the stimulus -- J-O-B-S,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told ABC News who interviewed him for a report done in coordination with the Workshop’s ongoing investigation. “Very few jobs here, lots of jobs in China. That is not what I intended or any other legislator who voted for the stimulus intended.”

Truth be told, I'd be alot more impressed with Schumer and other Dem's indignation if they weren't just figuring this out a year and $2 billion later. Or better yet, if they never voted for the Stimulus/American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in the first place.

SEIU Head Andy Stern Appointed To Obama's Debt Reduction Panel

President Obama announced last week his appointees to an allegedly bi-partisan fiscal commission that includes SEIU head and Democrat Party activist Andy Stern, which would more or less prove that this thing is a sham before it even convenes.

Let's stop and think about this for a moment. This paragon of wise spending and fiscal responsibility in the labor movement decided to invest nearly $900,000 in media ads alone for Martha Coakley's senate race. This was while other SEIU Locals in Massachusetts had endorsed Scott Brown, Coakley's opponent.

If you want to see the end result of Big Labor influencing fiscal policy decisions- especially public sector unions, look no further than California. Pension costs for public employees in the Golden State have soared over 2000% while state revenues have increased by 24% in comparison. JP Morgan Chase Chairman Jamie Dimon recently cautioned investors that California is at greater risk of defaulting on their debt obligations than the financially beleaguered EU nation of Greece is.

But even with that in mind, Obama decided to appoint the head of one of the largest public sector unions to his blue ribbon debt reduction panel. The only way this panel could be taken seriously is if they recommend the exact opposite of what Stern recommends.

Sports Chowdah Olympic Finale/Feb 28th: USA's Golden Opportunity Fades in OT; Russian To Conclusions; Those Medal-ing Kids

(Getty Images)

Men's Hockey: OK...congratulations Canada- gotta admit, you were scared there for awhile. Now what were the terms of our wager again? Loser has to have Stephen Harper as their head of state for the next 3 years?

In case you missed it, the USA/Canada matchup was one of those rare confluences of sporting events that lived up to the hype coupled with the fact that they take place once every four years, tops. Even rarer considering that there's virtually no guarantee that the USA and Canada would meet in the gold medal game. The last time the two nations met was the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City (which actually isn't that long ago in terms of Olympic-ness). The two teams met earlier in the tournament to close out round-robin play with USA downing Canada 5-3.

With Canada's Prime Minister and actors Michael J Fox and William Shatner in attendance, both goalies Ryan Miller and Roberto Luongo were looking sharp early, although Johnathan Toews was able to get the first goal of the game for Canada at the 12:50 mark of the first period. Corey Perry would add to that 7 minutes and 13 seconds into the second, although Ryan Kessler would get one past Luongo to put the USA on the board.

Still down 2-1 in the 3rd, Team USA pulled Ryan Miller for an extra attacker with about a minute and a half remaining in regulation. More often than not, the team that's down by one goal and pulls the goaltender for an extra attacker will ultimately end up losing by two goals. Hell- Canada tried this against Team USA last week and all it did was seal Canada's only loss of the tournament. Only this time it was one of those 'Holy crap! It worked!' deals when Zach Parise got one past Roberto Luongo to tie the game up at 2-2 with 25 seconds remaining. One could almost feel the air sucked out of Canada Hockey Place as the home team was so close to sealing the deal, only to have the contest head for overtime.

And it was in overtime that the little-known and obscure hockey player named Sidney Crosby was finally able to figure out USA netminder Ryan Miller. 7 minutes and 40 seconds into overtime, the underhyped 'Sid the Kid', who isn't very well known outside of Pittsburgh PA or his native Nova Scotia, took a pass from Jerome Iginla and slipped it in under the pads of Miller for the 3-2 win, the gold and no doubt all sorts of beaver (hey- it is Canada's national critter, y'know). Crosby's only other goal of the tournament was a shootout goal against the Swiss in the preliminaries. Canada outshot the USA 39 to 36, although it was a much closer margin than last week when the host nation outshot the USA 45 to 23.

Overall, great game....Canada just outlasted USA, although they had to be nervous heading into an overtime that was 25 seconds away from never taking place. In a way, this is a sort of reversal of the World Jr. Championships final back in January- USA blowing the late lead on what seemed like a back-breaker, only to win in OT...only Team USA wasn't playing in front of the home crowd in either instance. I also want to take this opportunity to thank Ryan Miller [Ruh-roh! A Bruins fan thanking the Buffalo goaltender!? What is this world coming to!? -NANESB!] for his outstanding performance throughout the tournament. I honestly don't think the USA would've gotten within sniffing distance of a medal if it wasn't for his efforts. One could almost hear the ebullient Rick Jeanneret enthusiastically bellowing 'WHAT A SAVE BY MILLER!' from the broadcast booth.....

So Canada gets the gold, USA gets the silver and Finland won the bronze Saturday in the match against the Slovaks. Although the Slovaks didn't get a medal, their 4th place finish is their best in hockey since splitting apart from the Czech Republic.

And as much as the '98 Games in Nagano or '06 Games in Torino were an argument against having NHL players in the Olympics, the Vancouver games were a ringing endorsement of their presence. Granted the performance by the heavily favored Russians and Czechs were a letdowns, but the efforts turned in by the USA, Canada, Slovaks and Finns made for some very dynamic and entertaining matches. Reportedly NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was deciding against NHL players participating in the 2014 games at Sochi, Russia before the Olympics, although he may rethink his stance after the output from NHL players in the winter games this year.

Medal Count: And the winner is......
-----Gold--------Silver------Bronze
USA: 9 ----------15----------13
Germany: 10------3----------7
Canada: 14--------7----------5
Norway: 9---------8---------6
Austria: 4----------6---------6
Russia: 3----------5----------7
S. Korea: 6--------6----------2
PRC China: 5------2----------4
Sweden: 5---------2----------4
France: 2----------3----------6

Russian Olympic Federation: The polls are now closed, and I see that nobody selected Russia to finish tops in the medal count. Wise move, since the Russkies finished with only 15 medals- a disappointing 6th place overall with 11 fewer medals than host country Canada and 22 less than the USA. This has not gone unnoticed by Russian president Dmitri Medvedev, who has called for Russian Olympic officials to resign en masse in the wake of Russia's worst showing in the winter games since the Tsars were in power. Two events the Russian's traditionally dominate include figure skating and men's hockey; no Russian athlete won a gold in figure skating for the first time in over 50 years and the Russian hockey team's aspirations to leave Vancouver with a medal were crushed in a 7-3 spanking at the hands of host nation Canada in the semifinals. Russia basically has four years to get their shit together before hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi....which is only some 50 miles from that mountainous little republic of Georgia that they decided to invade back in 2008 in time for the opening ceremonies at the Beijing Summer Olympics.

NBC Coverage: In a nutshell, it sucked. OK, I thought having Al Michaels on hand for the gold medal game between USA and Canada was a nice touch, but the hockey coverage leading up to it was atrocious- most of it being shunted off to networks that hardly anybody watches and not everybody got with their cable or satellite subscription plan, or weren't available in HD on top of showing some Team USA matches on tape delay. I'm convinced the only reason NBC didn't pre-empt the gold medal match between the USA and Canada to show curling or ice-prancing is because those events were over and done with. Over time, I was more amused than bothered by the MSNBC ads depicting Ed Schultz and Keith Olberman's gangly stepson Rachel Maddow as some sort of rational, unbiased moderates when it's becoming more and more apparent MSNBC is where Air America hosts go to die. Or at least their careers do.