Senators Webb (D-VA), Conrad (D-ND) Won't Seek Re-Election in 2012

In a blow to Democrats efforts to retain control of the Senate in the upcoming 2012 election cycle, Democrat Senator Jim Webb of Virginia has announced that he will not seek re-election next year. A Vietnam Vet, Webb served as Secretary of the Navy during Ronald Reagan's second term and in the 1990s would find work as an author and screenwriter.

Although Webb came into office on a sweeping Democrat wave and President Obama won Virginia by 6% in 2008, the state began tilting back towards the Republicans not even a year later when Bob McDonnell beat Democrat nominee Creigh Deeds by a 17% margin in the 2009 gubernatorial race. This was followed by the 2010 GOP 'tsunami' where the Republicans picked up three Congressional seats, leaving them with 8 of Virgina's 11 Congressional districts.

Webb's announcement comes less than a month after North Dakota Democrat Senator Kent Conrad announced that he would not run for a fifth term. This would leave the GOP in an advantageous position to pick up the senate seats from both Virginia and North Dakota.

Queensland Assesses Damage, Rebuilds After Cyclone Yasi Cuts Swath Through North

Still reeling from last month's floods, the Australian state of Queensland was dealt the other half of a one-two punch from nature when the most powerful cyclone to hit Australia in nearly a century made landfall south of Cairns on Feb. 3rd.

Getty Images- Daily Mail

Cyclone Yasi made landfall at Mission Beach, Queensland on the morning of Feb 3rd as a Category 5 storm (stronger than Hurricane Katrina when she made landfall in 2005) bringing with it winds of more than 180 miles an hour and storm surges more than 20 ft high.

Yasi ripped across the coast near Cairns on Wednesday night, tearing apart dozens of homes and damaging hundreds more, cutting power to tens of thousands of people and flattening millions of dollars worth of crops.

Police and army personnel moved through the storm-savaged coastal town of Tully Heads on Saturday, going door-to-door accounting for residents.

Officials spray painted "No Go" as a warning on the worst-hit homes. A few houses were reduced to rubble. A layer of brown sludge covered the ground, leaving a sickening smell wafting throughout the community.

The massive surge of water ripped through homes, taking out walls and pushing resident's belongings into other people's houses and yards.

Residents spent Saturday sifting through the wreckage and dragging people's possessions back to their owners.

Rob McCarrol- The Australian

Amazingly, there were no reports of fatalities in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi. But with the flooding throughout Queensland in January causing an estimated $5 Billion in damages to the region's economy before Yasi was even fully formed as a storm, the cyclone dealt another blow to Queensland, flooding highways and railroad tracks and cutting off entire towns from the rest of the country.

Suart Mceveoy- The Australian

Mining activity was shut down throughout much of Queensland in anticipation of Yasi's arrival, but most of the state's main zinc, copper and coal mines escaped relatively undamaged from the cyclone. However, nearly half of the state's sugarcane crop was thought to have been destroyed and as much as 75% of Queensland's banana crop was wiped out in the storm. With widespread damage to roads and structures, tourism in Queensland will decline as well.

Australia's military has been pressed into service to help clear debris, reopen highways and bring in emergency supplies to those left without food, shelter or fresh water. Some 500 troops were already stationed in nearby Townsville when the cyclone hit and another 3500 are ready to mobilize.

Happy Chinese New Year's From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

I'm a tad late with this, thanks in large part to my not being Chinese, but Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) began on Feb 3rd.

And you know what that means, right? Well....aside from several consecutive days of dragon parades, festivities, family reunions, feasts and decorations throughout many parts of Asia (including our largest creditor) as well as Chinatowns throughout the world- that means 'tis the season for some seasonally appropriate Eye candy from the Far East, of course!

If you're not familiar with the choengsam or qi pao, I was able to provide a fleeting introduction during last year's Chinese New Years. Now granted the model for the garment last year was nothing short of absolutely stunning, but the angle of the photo failed to adequately highlight what I thought was the best part of the cheongsam.

This time around, I was able to find one that did, as you can see above, the vertical slit which can allow the wearer to show some leg if she's so inclined. And in this case, I think we're just a little better off for her doing so.



In case you're wondering, this is the year of the rabbit. Supposedly those born in the year of the rabbit are calm, sociable, level headed and gregarious.

If you're curious about your Chinese Zodiac, you can check here (scroll down for your date of birth). I remember a few years back having lunch at a rural diner in upstate New York. They had these placemats which a pretty detailed chart showing the years and personality traits of the Chinese Zodiac- this stood out because this wasn't a Chinese restaurant, the owners weren't Asian and it was nowhere near the Chinese New Years.....they apparently were out of kid's activity placemats or thought it was important that we started studying up on our Chinese Zodiac at a reasonably young age.

Today's Train of Though- A Boy Named Soo; Feb 6, 2011

Although at first blush it appears to be something from the upper Midwest, Today's Train of thought brings us back to the western shores of Lake Champlain under more harsh and unforgiving circumstances.

Railpictures.net contributor Kevin Burkholder has managed to capture a good amalgamation of Canadian Pacific's latter day acquisitions on a wintry day in Upstate New York, with Soo Line and Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern motive power handling a Canadian Pacific ethanol train on Delaware & Hudson rails.

Here, Soo Line SD60 #6034 is seen leading a trio of DM&E SD40-2s southbound along the frozen shore of Lake Champlain at Port Henry, NY with unit ethanol train 666-801 on January 16, 2011. The train is bound for Whitehall, NY where it will be interchanged with the Vermont Rail System's Clarendon & Pittsford. From there, it will be routed over the Green Mountain Railroad (another VRS subsidiary) between Rutland and Bellows Falls, VT. From there, it will be interchanged with Rail America's New England Southern and the Providence & Worcester en route to its final destination of Providence, RI.

Soo Line power appearing on the D&H isn't that unusual- six axle Soo motors have been appearing on coal and grain trains traversing the original 'Bridge Line' since the early 1990s shortly after the Canadian Pacific takeover. However, the appearance of DM&E's blue and yellow SD40-2s (some of them purchased secondhand from Canadian Pacific) is relatively new while still looking right at home in such frigid conditions.

Super Bowl of Sports Chowdah Update- NFL Packs it in For the Season;

NFL: As you might've already known, I didn't pay any attention to the pregame hype leading up to the Superbowl all week. Deciding to keep a good thing going, I figured I might as well sit out Bill O'Reilly's pregame interview w/President Obama and Christina Aguilera butchering the national anthem. Hell....at least I didn't get a Super Bowl ticket and travel all the way to North Texas only to be told that I couldn't get in.

Although as it turns out I missed some very worthwhile pregame events like the NFL's tribute to President Reagan's 100th Birthday or a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

But as it turned out, there was a game to be played and it turned out to be a nearly prototypical 'tale of two halves' [and not just because I caught the 1st half on a fading AM radio station and the second half in (sort of) glorious hi-def on a plasma screen- NANESB!].

The Packers got out to a 21-3 lead (two of those the end result of turnovers from Ben Roethlisberger) late in the 2nd quarter before the Steelers were able to find the end zone on an 8 yard Roethlisberger to Heinz Ward TD pass to make it a 21-10 game at the half.

However, the Packers would have to continue in the second half without star cornerback Rod Woodson, who went down in the second quarter with what was initially classified as a 'left shoulder injury' but turned out to be a broken left collarbone.

The Packers would open up the second half by going three and out deep in their own territory, leaving the Steelers with the ball at mid-field on the ensuing punt. From there, the Steelers closed the gap to make it a 21-17 game with a quick-strike drive that relied exclusively on the rushing game.

While the Green Bay offense would continue to sputter, the Packers D would limit the Steelers to a missed 52 yard FG attempt from midfield after Roethlisberger was sacked on a lengthy drive of 4 and a half minutes. Green Bay wasn't able to do much with the ball at midfield other than pin the Steelers deep in their own territory on the ensuing punt.

The two teams would close out the 3rd quarter by trading 3 and outs. Pittsburgh got the ball back in good field position at the very end of the 3rd, but on the first play of the 4th quarter RB Rashard Mendenhall fumbled the ball and Green Bay linebacker Desmond Bishop recovered on the Packer's own 33 yard line (the runback gave Green Bay the ball on their 45 yard line). The Packers took advantage by marching down the field and going up by 6 when Aaron Rogers connected with WR Greg Jennings- this came after Rogers made key completions of 12 and 38 yards on 3rd and 7and 3rd and 10.

The Steelers would come right back with a lengthy drive and cash in on 3rd and 3 from the GB 25 yard line (after picking up 15 on 2nd and 18) before successfully completing a 2 point conversion to make it a 3-point game, with the Packers still on top 28-25 with just over 7 minutes left in regulation.

Green Bay would respond with a lengthy, time consuming drive that took a little over 5 minutes off the clock and put them deep in the red zone before deciding to kick a FG and make it a 31-25 advantage.

Pittsburgh would be assessed a penatly on the ensuing kickoff and have to start from deep in their own territory. Roethlisberger would be able to get the ball out to the Steelers 33 yard line, but that's as far as they would go because after failing to convert on 4th and 5 with 49 seconds remaining in the game.

So the Green Bay Packers come away victorious in their first Superbowl appearance since 1998- when it was Favre against Ellway.

Packers QB Aaron Rogers went 24 for 39 with 304 yards and 3 TDs and was named Superbowl XLV MVP....I'm not sure if they still do the 'I'm going to Disneyworld' thing, tho'.

Pretty good game, all in all. I thought it would be a complete blowout after the first half, but the Steelers made it interesting for a while in the second. The turnovers simply killed the Steelers, with 21 points coming off of turnovers.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL: Shannon Sharpe, Deion Sanders and Marshall Faulk have been named to the NFL Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee this weekend.

Tom Brady was named the regular-season MVP by all 50 panelists since the AP began using a nationwide panel of media members who cover the league. This is the first time ever a player had been unanimously selected for the MVP award.

NHL: The Bruins were dealt their first loss since the All-Star break on Saturday when they hosted the San Jose Sharks. Sharks netminder Antti Niemi stopped all 26 shots faced while Tim Thomas stopped 16 of 17 shots faced in the 2-0 loss (the 2nd San Jose goal came on an empty-netter later in the game).

Boston's next game will be on Wednesday at home against the Canadiens- this one will be televised on VS at 7PM Eastern, 4PM Pacific. The Habs are coming into TD Banknorth Garden off of a 4-1 loss to New Jersey on Sunday.

NBA: The Celtics didn't do much better on Friday night in Dallas, falling to the Mavericks 101-97 after a late rally by Dallas.

All in all, Sunday afternoon was a pretty good day for the Rajon Rondo, scoring 26 points in Boston's 91-80 win over the Orlando Magic. Paul Pierce had 18 points and Kevin Garnett had 16 on Sunday while Dwight Howard had 28 of his own in a losing effort for Orlando.

The Celtics will travel to Charlotte for a Monday Night tipoff against the Bobcats at 7PM Eastern.

Ronald Reagan at 100

In addition to kicking off Superbowl XLV, today marks what would've been Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday

Being a young kid growing up in a Western New England hill town, I didn't follow politics that closely and for most of his first term, all I knew about Reagan was that he used to be an actor, survived an assassination attempt, punctuated his sentences with 'well...', and the liberal academia in the nearby college towns absolutely hated the man.

The second term was a little different because as I grew older, I became increasingly worried about Communism and the USSR. I mean honestly- who would want to actually live under such a dehumanizing system, let alone subject millions of other people to it?

Instead of accommodating the Soviets, Reagan (along with British PM Margaret Thatcher, Poland's Lech Walesa and Pope John Paul II) would frequently challenge them, most notably in his June 1987 speech at Brandenburg Gate in a then-divided Berlin, Germany in which he urged Soviet Premier Gorbachev to 'Tear down this wall!'.

Indeed, the wall fell a little over two years later and the Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact effectively crumbled, with many of its former nations joining NATO a decade later. The Soviet Union itself would last another two years before breaking up after an unsuccessful coup.

Ronald Reagan passed away in June 2004 at the age of 92 in his Bel Air, CA home.

Scam Within a Scam- Hackers Hit EU Carbon Credit Exchange, Steal €30 Million in Carbon Credits

Trading on the European Union Carbon Exchange was halted after hackers made off with an estimated €30 million in carbon emission allowances from five European countries in late January.

The Czech Registry for Emissions Trading was one of the worst affected by the hack, losing 7 million euros worth of the pollution permits, known as EU Allowances (EUAs).

Some 2 million EUAs were stolen by hackers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Greece, Estonia and Poland within a few days. Each credit allows the bearer one ton of emissions and is worth 14 euros.

EU authorities say they suspect a phishing scam enabled hackers to log into unsuspecting companies' carbon credit accounts and transfer the allowances to themselves, allowing them to be sold on.

The credits are normally traded between companies that have a shortage of or excess emissions allowances for their current operations, and involve instant payment, meaning hackers can create accounts and then delete them as soon as they are paid.

Investigators in Greece have traced the thefts to at least 8 internet protocol addresses in Romania. Registry officials in Estonia and Germany say they have located some 610,000 allowances stolen from the Czech registry, but the theft not only highlights a lack of security on the international exchanges, but also raises concerns that credits purchased in good faith on the open market could turn out to be stolen from the registries.

Some of the markets reopened with limited activity on Feb 3rd after giving "reasonable reassurances that the minimum security requirements are in place".

It is not the first time the ETS has suffered a security breach. The system was hit by a phishing scam last year that saw 13 European markets shut down, while a cross-border fraud scam in 2008 and 2009 netted criminals 5 million euros, according to Agence France-Presse.

I could go on about how such 'cap and trade' or climate or carbon Exchanges are pretty much worse than useless, but they do a bang up job of explaining that all by themselves- however unintentionally. Hell, Chicago's much-ballyhooed Climate Exchange shut down at the end of 2010.

Leaving aside the fact that such a system would arbitrarily place limits on output from manufacturing, transportation, utilities and energy exploration, how exactly would these trading mechanisms be enforced? It would require a massive bureaucracy and even more red tape- think along the lines of 0bamacare's 1099 mandate, only for air instead of healthcare.

All while obstructing further exploration and drilling for oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, coal in West Virginia or natural gas in the Marcellus shale. This in turn has already driven up energy costs and will only further America's dependence on energy imported from unstable or belligerent nations.

And if anybody think the above problems will magically go away thanks to some sort arbitrary imposition of cap and trade of carbon exchange scheme, I have a bridge in Brooklyn couple of EU carbon credits to sell you.

Egypt Unrest Continues- Natural Gas Pipeline Attacked; Egyptian VP's Bodyguards Killed in Assassination Attempt? Foreign Reporters Attacked in Cairo

Egyptian state TV is reporting that saboteurs taking advantage of near lawlessness in some parts of the country have attacked a natural gas pipeline that runs between Egypt and Israel.

Residents of the El Arish area in the North Sinai region of Egypt reported a loud explosion on Saturday. It's not clear the immediate impact the blast had on supplies to Israel, but a state TV correspondent blamed the act on terrorists.

Earlier in the week, President Hosni Mubarak had promised to step down after the September 2011 elections, but that was not enough to assuage most of the demonstrators.

The protests in and around Tahrir Square in Cairo escalated on Thursday when Mubarak supporters approached the square and occupied rooftops above, clashing with the anti-Mubarak demonstrators and pelting them with rocks and chunks of pavement from above.

By Friday morning,the scene had become even more surreal when more pro-Mubarak demonstrators mobilized by horse and camelback [way to live up to the stereotype, gentelmen- NANESB!] and charged into the assembled crowds, whipping and beating some of the anti-Mubarak demonstrators. Some in the crowd had managed to pull the riders off of their mounts and said that their would-be assailants were carrying Police ID. By nightfall, each side was hurling Molotov cocktails at each other and Egyptian soldiers were attempting to disperse crowds by firing warning shots into the air.

There were also incidents of Western journalists being attacked and some news agencies offices being torched. FOX News' Greg Palkot and Olaf Wiig and CNN's Anderson Cooper and his camera crew were repeatedly punched and kicked by pro-Mubarak crowds that had descended on them in separate incidents in the capital [Just putting this out here, CNN- How about sending Joy Behar to Cairo??- NANESB!]. The Cairo offices of al Jazeera were torched and it's website was hacked on Friday as well while a Swedish TV reporter was recovering from stab wounds in a Cairo hospital.

Reports are also circulating that there was an unsuccessful assassination attempt this week against Egypt's newly-appointed Vice President, Omar Suleiman. The office of Vice President was vacant when Mubarak appointed him to the position on January 29- Suleiman is also chief of Egypt's intelligence services and would likely be the head of an interim govern. It wasn't immediately clear who was behind the attempt, but Egyptian officials said that two of Suleiman's bodyguards were killed and that his motorcade was the target of the would-be assassins.

All Star Break's Over Sports Chowdah Update- B's Double Up Shooting Stars; C's Crown Kings

Well...now that the NHL All Star break is finished (Team Lidstrom Beat Team Staal by an 11-10 final with Tim Thomas stopping 11 of 15 shots faced for Team Lidstrom and Zdeno Chara getting a pair of assists for Team Staal), the Bruins are back in action.

After holding off the all-star host Carolina Hurricanes at RBC Center on Tuesday night by a 3-2 final, the Bruins headed back north for their first home game of the 2nd half of the season, hosting the Pacific Division leading Dallas Stars on Thursday night.

Interestingly, Dallas came into Thursday night's game in a similar position as the Bruins- leading their divisions and 3rd overall in their respective conferences.

However, it didn't even take five seconds into the game for things to get physical, with Stars enforcer Steve Ott whaling away on Gregory Campbell literally the second the puck dropped. The Bruins retaliated by sending Shawn Thornton after Dallas forward Krys Barch and Adam McQuaid after Brian Sutherby less than 5 seconds later.


As much as I love my XM, I gotta tell you it isn't the same listening to this transpire on the radio as it would be on NESN hi-def. Ah well, c'est la vie.

Anywhoo, this would be one of those classic instances of the Rodney Dangerfield line about going to the fights and a hockey game broke out. This one largely went to Bruins way, however, getting out to a 4-0 lead in the first period, half of those coming from Patrice Bergeron's stick.

Dallas would get on the board in the 2nd with a Karlas Skrastins tally, but that would be secondary to Danny Paille's shot to the head of Dallas' Raymond Sawada. The hit resulted in a match penalty and immediate ejection from the game for Paille and the NHL will no doubt be revisiting this one.

Despite the deep hole, the momentum seemed to be shifting the Stars' way at the opening of the 2nd when they got a shorthanded tally from Brenden Morrow to cut the lead in half 45 seconds in and Brad Richards would make it a 1-goal game with an even strength goal less than 3 minutes later. However, Tyler Seguin would give the B's some insurance with a goal 2 minutes later and Brad Marchand would put it away for good with an empty-netter with just under 2 and a half minutes left in regulation in the 3rd.

No Tim Thomas tonight- he got the night off after his 24 save performance in Carolina Tuesday and Tukka Rask stepped in making 30 saves on 33 shots faced on Thursday night. As for Dallas, Andrew Raycroft was pulled after facing only 2 shots (with zero saves, no less) and Kari Lehtonen ended up stopping 29 of 32 shots faced.

According to Yahoo! Sports, there were 141 penalty minutes dished out by the officials the last time the Dallas Stars were in the Garden (11/1/2008). Tonight, there were a mere 91 minutes.

The Bruins next game is at home against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday afternoon- 1PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific.

NBA- Don't get me wrong; I'm thrilled with the outcome of Sunday's 109-96 win against the Lakers at the Staples Center, but let's not start planning the parade routes just yet.

Still, all in all a pretty good West Coast swing for the C's. Despite falling into a 45-54 halftime deficit in Sacramento, the C's were able to come back in the second half and win by a final of 95-90 against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday night. Ray Allen led scoring with 22 points, while Rajon Rondo had 17 points and 10 assists.

The Celtics next game in on Friday night at Dallas at 8PM Eastern time on ESPN.

NFL- If you missed the Pro Bowl, you didn't miss much; the NFC won by a 55-41 margin. Having said that, I'm glad the contest is back in Hawaii for some reason.

Blue State Graft Watch: 2 Upstate NY Democrats Indicted in Voter Fraud Case

A Troy, NY city councilman and the Renssalaer County Registrar of Voters- both Democrats- have been charged by a county grand jury in a 59-page, 116-count indictment.

The Rennssalaer County Grand Jury has charged Troy city Councilman Michael LoPorto and Registrar of Voters Edward McDonough with forgery and criminal possession of a forged instrument. Seven other public officials and political operatives are under scrutiny in a scheme in which the accused are said to have forged names, signatures and excuses on absentee ballots in a 2009 Working Families Party primary.

The case involves absentee ballots from the Working Families Party primary in September of 2009 for the Troy City Council and Rensselaer County legislature. It has been alleged the signatures and absentee excuses of unsuspecting voters were forged, all to ensure the Democratic candidates also won the Working Families Party line. Democratic candidates in New York State often run as Working Families Party hopefuls.

[Special Prosecutor Trey] Smith even collected DNA samples from the majority of the Troy City Council and others, which were compared to samples taken from absentee ballots and applications. Those swabbed include five City Councilmen, among them the Council President, as well as four other public officials and political operatives.

In the course of his investigation, Smith contacted a number of voters who supposedly voted absentee only to be told by the individuals that they never received an absentee ballot or that the excuse provided on the ballot ('attending business conference in Boston' or 'recovering from medical procedure') wasn't true.

[hat tip- Lonely Conservative; Robomonkey]