Saturday - February 04, 2006

Fifty-Eight States!

The Skipper has taken the liberty of re-drawing the map of North America. Read the story below the map and you’ll understand why. Halliburton already has a secret army in place in Alberta ready to overthrow the government and begin adding territory to the USA, which is about to acquire eight new states. We’re considering requests from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. You can forget Quebec though. Too many frogs ....

Big Role Seen For Canada Oil Sands
CALGARY, Alberta (CNN)

Canadian oil sands production will be the biggest contributor to new global crude oil supply by the end of the decade as conventional global reserves are depleted, Canadian bank CIBC has predicted. And in an energy market where state-owned firms control a major portion of global daily production, the oil sands deposits provide one of the few remaining growth opportunities for investors, Jeff Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets, said Tuesday.

“All of the net increase in oil production this year is expected to come from non-conventional sources,” Rubin said in a release. “While deep-water oil is the primary source today, we forecast that Canadian oilsands will become the single biggest contributor to incremental global supply by 2010.” Canadian oil industry officials say recoverable western Canadian oil sands reserves equal roughly 175 billion barrels—putting it in second place to Saudi Arabia in terms of oil reserves.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers predicts that oil sands output from western Canada will account for 75 percent of the country’s total crude oil output, up from a current level of about 40 percent. The Toronto-based bank said a study of 164 new oil fields and projects around the world shows that the price of oil will continue to rise over the next three years if global demand does not begin to wane.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/04/2006 at 10:26 AM   
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Guiness World Record

This has got to be one world record that Craig Irwin probably wishes he didn’t hold. The problem, as I see it, is that this is in North Dakota. I spent four lovely years there at the beautiful resort at Minot Air Force Base. A place so miserable in winter that even polar bears avoid it. It’s enough to drive anyone to drink. This old boy though has a real problem. My advice to him is to dry out in prison, get treatment afterward and .... move to Arizona. Trust me on that ....

Notorious Bad Driver Gets Year in Prison
February 3, 2006, 10:23 PM EST
MANDAN, N.D. (BISMARK TRIBUNE)

A man convicted more than 40 times of drunken driving or driving without a valid license has been sentenced to a year in jail, a day after his arrest on yet another driving charge. Craig Irwin, 45, of Mandan, was sentenced Friday for a driving under revocation offense last year. He was arrested Thursday on charges of driving under revocation and having no liability insurance.

“Mr. Irwin has achieved celebrity status in North Dakota,” Morton County State’s Attorney Allen Koppy told South Central District Judge Donald Jorgensen on Friday. “He’s a poster child for driving under revocation.” Irwin is not scheduled to get his driver’s license back for at least 35 years. State records show that he has had more than 100 citations for driving infractions in the last 22 years, and has not been allowed to drive legally for 20 years.

Irwin told Jorgensen on Friday that he has a drinking problem. Jorgensen’s sentence allows Irwin to knock one day off his jail time for every day he spends in treatment. “I’m going to grant you a chance,” the judge said. Irwin was arrested Thursday after being spotted driving out of a Mandan alley.

“Officers identified him because he’s so well known in the area,” Officer Kelly Wimer said. The state Department of Transportation said Irwin has 420 points on his license. A license is revoked at 12 points. “The record for Craig is very long,” said Marsha Lembke, director of the department’s driver’s license and traffic safety division.

Irwin’s mother, Chris Irwin, of Bismarck, said her son’s alcohol problem began in high school after the death of his oldest brother. “It was devastating,” she said. “It was too much of a shock.” Chris Irwin said her son remarried about four months ago and has a new baby, a stepchild and two grown children, including a son who is going to college. She said he has been employed building a home in the area.

“He adores those children,” she said. Craig Irwin’s attorney, Ralph Vinje, told Jorgensen that he has known Irwin for many years and that he is now “seeing a different person.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/04/2006 at 09:38 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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Paycheck

If you’re looking for this story in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times or on CNN, ABC, CBS or NBC .... good luck. If they even mention it all, it’s on the back pages or in a 10-second summary at the end of a broadcast. No, my little ones. They must not publish anything that makes the evil Chimp Bushitler look good, must they?

Well, let the Skipper sum it up for you: the recession that Clinton/Gore dumped on us when the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and the horrible hit the economy took on 9/11 has been pretty much erased. We’re out of the recession the Democrats and terrorists (what’s the difference?) left us in, unemployment is at five-year lows, hourly wages are at the highest ever and inflation is not a factor since the consumer price index has stayed level with wage increases. Got all that? The economy is good and America is chugging along.

Thanks to who? Ahem .... I can’t hear you! Try again .... Thanks to who? Did I hear you mumble “Bush and the Republicans”? Yep. I thought so. Guess what? You’re right. The President’s tax cuts and other incentive plans to small businesses has paid off. All of which, I might add, the Dummycraps opposed with every breathe in their whiney lungs. Remember that when you go to the polls to vote ....

Unemployment Rate Declines in January
Feb 3, 12:53 PM (ET)
WASHINGTON (AP)

Employers stepped up hiring in January, boosting payrolls by 193,000 and lowering the nation’s unemployment rate to 4.7 percent, the lowest since July 2001. The fresh snapshot of the jobs climate, released by the Labor Department on Friday, suggested that the economy started the new year on fairly good footing.

Although the 193,000 gain in payroll jobs in January fell short of the 250,000 new jobs that economists said to anticipate before the release of the report, it still marked a sturdy showing and was the biggest increase in jobs since November.

“There’s no question we’re getting back to better days for job creation,” said Ken Mayland, economist at ClearView Economics. “There’s been a sense of unease in the American workplace and this should help relieve that. The economy is getting on off to excellent start in 2006.” Moreover, job growth in December turned out to be stronger than previously thought. Revised figures showed payrolls expanded by 140,000 - an improvement over the 108,000 new jobs first estimated a month ago. Employment was revised up for some previous months as well.

The unemployment rate dropped to 4.7 percent in January, from 4.9 percent in December. On Wall Street, stocks fell as investors worried the Federal Reserve might raise rates this year more than they had previously thought. The Dow Jones industrials were off 46 points and the Nasdaq was down 19 points in morning trading. President Bush welcomed the new jobs figures.

“We’ve overcome a lot,” Bush said. “I really ascribe that to that, mainly, the entrepreneurial spirit of American is strong. The small business sector is strong. I do happen to think good tax policy helps. I think keeping taxes low is an important way to make sure this economy continues to grow.” In another report, the Commerce Department said that factory orders rose by 1.1 in December, a good sign that manufacturing was off to a strong start in the new year.

This improvement followed an even higher 3.3 percent gain in November and marked the third straight month where new bookings to factories went up. December’s performance was in line with the 1 percent increase in factory orders that economists were forecasting before the release of the report. For all of 2005, factory orders rose 8.1 percent. That followed a gain of 9.7 percent in 2004. Job gains were fairly broad based, with employment growing in construction, manufacturing, professional and business services and education and health care. Those employment gains blunted job losses in retailing and government.

For all of 2005, the economy created nearly 2 million jobs - close to the number posted for 2004, according to annual revisions. In New York, the Institute for Supply Management reported that the service sector grew in January but at a slower pace than the previous month. Its index dipped to 56.8 from 61.0 in December. The new figure was lower than the 60 reading forecast by analysts. A reading of 50 and above points to a growing service sector, while a figure below that signals contraction. January marked the 34th consecutive month of growth for the service sector, ISM said.

Despite good news on some economic matters, Americans still feel anxious about the economy, polls indicate. Bush, coping with relatively low job-approval ratings, is seeking to ease those fears. In his State of the Union address as well as subsequent speeches Bush has been talking about ways to make the country more competitive and is pushing plans to deal with pocketbooks issues, such as high energy prices and rising health care costs.

Bush also is calling on Congress to make his tax cuts permanent. Democrats, however, contend the tax cuts mostly helped the wealthy and are a big reason why the government’s balance sheets are bleeding red ink. Employees’ average hourly earnings climbed to $16.41 in January, up 0.4 percent from December. That increase was slightly larger than the 0.3 percent rise that economists were expecting.

_{Graph: Bureau Of Labor Statistics, HIstorical Unemplyment Rate}

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/04/2006 at 09:04 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics •  
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Weekend Skin

Memo: If you’re a stripper in Tampa and you and 24 of your friends get nabbed for cocaine peddling, prostitution, lewdness, exposure of sexual organs, and the improper solicitation of alcohol sales, then the least you can do is make sure you leave the cops with a memorable mug shot. Courtesy of The Smoking Gun. Speaking for myself only, I’d pay every one of these wenches I saw in the mug shots to keep their clothes on ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/04/2006 at 05:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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   Friday - February 03, 2006

Today’s Featured Blogs

Here we go folks.  It may be a short list, but it’s a doozy

• First off, with all the hub-bub about cartoons of The Prophet, we thought a good place to start todays roundup is with Relecool and his amazing collection of photoshops.
• Next, we wanted to re-share the great Die Terrorists Die video.  The original is from Grouchy Media, go vist and watch some of the other amazing videos they have.  (Sway is a great one!) Turn it up loud!
• Finally, we point you to the ever-dilligent Al at Cold Fury for Bike Racing

Posted by Drew458     on 02/03/2006 at 02:43 PM   
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The Untold Story

The media whores in Congress got thrown out too. End of story. It is a sad statement when the President of The United States goes before Congress and the people of this great nation to report on the progress for the past year and every asshat within spitting distance has to come put on a show. Absolutely disgusting ....

Congressmen Ejected
With Sheehan
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006 10:35 a.m. EST
(NEWSMAX)

The ejection of Cindy Sheehan and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with political content garnered plenty of media attention. But few noticed another, quieter drama unfolding as two members of Congress were also unseated – Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., and Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., both members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

McKinney has been accustomed to staking out an aisle seat and therefore assuring a network TV appearance with the president, according to Roll Call’s “Heard on the Hill” column. So McKinney went to the House floor hours in advance of the speech, along with Jackson, and they snagged two choice seats in a section normally reserved for Senators.

Jackson then returned to his office while McKinney remained to hold on to the seats. But three hours after Jackson got back to his office, he received a cell phone call from a frantic McKinney telling him that sergeant-at-arms staffers were kicking her out of the seats. Jackson rushed back to the floor and told the officials: “Why are we reserving seats for people who [didn’t filibuster] Alito?” An official explained that was out of his control.

The confrontation continued for a few tense moments, but ultimately McKinney and Jackson moved away, avoiding a standoff with Senators who wanted the seats. “Why do McKinney and Jackson go through all the trouble of saving seats for hours on end to shake hands with a president they don’t even like?” Roll Call wondered.

The reason, according to Roll Call: TV commercials are expensive and the Congressional Black Caucus, Jackson said, has been invited to the Bush White House only twice, so the State of the Union address is a chance to “show our constituents our proximity to the president.” He added, “They need to know their members of Congress have access to the president.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/03/2006 at 01:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People •  
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Hollywood Hissy-Fit

Y’all know that back home where I come from, we call what all happens when a doofus acts like an ol’ jackass a “hissy-fit”. I ain’t right sure where that word done come from but I reckon it sure describes some of them Hollywood actor people. Yessiree, Bob.

Now I know fer sure they’s a whole lot smarter than me ‘cause they’ns knows all them fancy words like “chickenshit” and “bullshit”. Whooo-eeeee! My mammy would warsh out my mouf with lye soap if’n I used fancy words like that. I sure wish I was as smart as Alec Baldwin. I’m just glad I’m not a smartass like Alec Baldwin.

Come to think of it, why in hell is he still in the country? I thought he done left America to all us dumb redneck hicks five years ago ....

Alec Baldwin Rips Democrats for Failing to Filibuster Alito
By Jim Roberts
Feb 3, 2006
(THE NATIONAL LEDGER)

The Hollywood left is a fun bunch.  As if actor Alec Baldwin didn’t have enough to worry about with the new court documents filed by ex-wife Kim Basinger, Baldwin is now dishing political advice to Dems on the way they bungled the filibuster of new Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. The actor ripped into Senate Dems with a profanity laced tirade.

The problem is there are too many “chicken-blank” Democrats in the Senate,” the agitated actor told the New York Daily News. “We have a bunch of budding Zell Millers down there,” he complained, referring to the Georgia Democrat who backed President Bush in the 2004 election. Turning his ire towards Miller, Baldwin explained: “I loathe and despise him on a daily basis.” I’m guessing Zell Miller wears that as a badge of honor.

Newsmax reports that Baldwin’s profanity-laced outburst followed comments Tuesday by National Organization for Women chief Kim Gandy, who exploded in over “right wing” claims that Alito is no extremist. “That is such b - - lsh - t!” the foul-mouthed feminist fumed to radio host Steve Malzberg. Actress Meryl Streep did better at containing her Alito rage, lamenting to the News: “I’m so demoralized.”

Is this irony? The reason Democrats struggle with nationwide elections is that they try to appease these left-wing fringe types. Now they are the first ones to whine when some Democrats realize that pandering to the Alec Baldwin’s of the world is what put them into the minority.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/03/2006 at 12:02 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Hollywood •  
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Word For The Day: Xenophobe

No, it doesn’t mean you’re a huge fan of Lucy Lawless and her alter ego, that warrior princess broad. No, the word is something most people prefer to avoid being tagged with. It means a fear of foreigners. In some cases, however, that fear may be justified.

Take foreigners in third world countries, for instance. They’re pretty much off the radar screen .... as long as they stay over there. But when they come over here, things always start to get a little sticky, don’t they? Especially when they check into our hotels and leave behind samples of the flora and fauna of their native lands. Australia is currently finding that out the hard way. Maybe they should set up de-lousing stations at the airports, eh? What say you?

Is it too much to ask for us to require visitors to practice good hygiene when they leave their tents and huts to visit the West? If they’ll do that, I’ll stop poking fun at Mohammed. Deal ... ?

Australia at Risk of a Bed Bug Pandemic
February 3, 2006, 7:34 AM EST
SYDNEY, Australia (AP)

Planning a vacation to Australia? Consider bringing your own bedsheets. Pest control operators have reported a 1,000 percent increase over the last four years in the number of bed bug infestations reported and treated, according to Stephen Doggett, a head scientist with the Department of Medical Entomology at Sydney’s Westmead hospital.

Doggett said Australia and other countries are at risk of a “worldwide pandemic” of bed bugs, due largely to an increase in the number of tourists arriving from developing countries where the biting bugs are common. “Bed bugs have been an ongoing problem in Third World nations and so it’s likely that, just because of the huge amount of people movement, there’s been a great opportunity for bed bugs to be carried round the world,” Doggett said.

He said a number of hotels and backpacker hostels have been forced to temporarily close to eradicate the pests. But Peta Irvine from the Australian Hotels Association said labeling the problem a pandemic was an exaggeration. “I think that’s probably overstating the situation,” Irvine said. “Certainly we have had incidents of them in hotels in Australia and hotels have been really proactive in addressing the problem,” she added. “Unless you start screening people at the borders and start screening their clothing and baggage, you can’t stop them coming in,” Irvine said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/03/2006 at 11:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Stoopid-People •  
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Gunmen Shut EU Gaza Office Over Cartoons
Editors in Jordan, France fired for reprinting Mohammad spoofs
Thursday, February 2, 2006 11:52 p.m. EST (04:52 GMT)
JERUSALEM (CNN)

Palestinian gunmen Thursday shut down the European Union’s office in Gaza City, demanding an apology for German, French and Norwegian newspapers reprinting cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammad, Palestinian security sources said. The gunmen left a notice on the EU office’s door that the building would remain closed until Europeans apologize to Muslims, many of whom consider the cartoons offensive.

Muslims consider it sacrilegious to produce a likeness of the Prophet Mohammad. CNN has chosen to not show the cartoons out of respect for Islam.

Masked members of the militant groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinians’ former ruling party, Fatah, fired bullets into the air, and a man read the group’s demands. Palestinian officials said the gunmen were threatening to kidnap European workers if the European Union did not apologize.

_{From: “Mohammed’s Believe It Or Else”}

^{“Image Problem” by Cox & Forkum}

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/03/2006 at 02:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • RoPMA • Satire •  
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   Thursday - February 02, 2006

Today’s Featured Blogs

Ready to go around the blogosphere in eighty words or less? Let’s go see what everyone else is up to out there. Fasten your seat belts and extinguish all smoking materials. Hold on tight ....

• Leather Penguin. “All Your Media Belong To Us”.


• The Other Side of Kim. “The Bigger Nutcase”.


• Macker’s World. “No Common Sense Here”.


• Mr. Minority. “In Your Face”.


• The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller. “Looks Like Something is About to Blow Up in the Islamofascists’ Faces”


• Stop The ACLU. “Alito Splits With Conservatives on First Ruling”.


• The Key Monk. “Inverse correlation: the Hillary exposure dilemma”.


• Basil’s Blog. “I Want to Join the Bad Example Clan Because”.
  _{(Note: Basil recently had his first anniversary of blogging. Go help him blow out the candles. And while you’re there, explain to him that The Skipper is much funnier than Frank J., RightWingDuck or Harvey. Plus The Skipper has more guns. Mheh ...)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/02/2006 at 01:26 PM   
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Bambinator

This is scarey! Robotic deer? Even scarier are rumors of a robotic pig being tested in BFN, Indiana. It is said to be able to talk and converse well enough to fool most ordinary humans over the internet and is being used by the DEA to trick pot smokers into disclosing the location of their secret gardens. Developing ....

Robotic Deer Stops Poachers In The Act
MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (CBS)

A robotic deer is the newest tool by law enforcement in Northwest Indiana to combat against illegal hunters. As CBS 2 Northwest Indiana Bureau Chief Pamela Jones reports, the robotic deer has a swiveling head, and it’s lifelike enough to stop traffic. But it’s really a decoy being used all over Northwest Indiana, and it’s fooling a lot of suspected deer poachers whom Indiana conservation officers are catching in the act.

Indiana State Conservation Officer Gene Davis said: “[The decoy] is gaining popularity because it’s actually being shot more. The people that are hunting that are seeing it they’re just dumfounded by it. They’re thinking a deer is standing along the road, they’ll get out and take a shot at it.”

The decoy’s neck contains an electric motor. An officer plants in the wood and controls it by remote. And sometimes its placement results in the arrests of up to five poachers a day. It’s enough to make hunters and deer-watchers to a double take.

One passerby said: “Well, at first, I thought it was real. And then, I realized it wasn’t after about 10 seconds.” Even if a hunter only shoots the decoy, he or she may be subject to a fine and criminal charges.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/02/2006 at 01:08 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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I’m Going To Be Very Sick

There are criminals and there are insane people and there are even people who are both. Then again, there are people like this. I am going to go off somewhere quiet and get very sick. I have never felt this nauseated in my entire life. I’ll be back shortly ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/02/2006 at 12:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Outrageous •  
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The Wisdom Of Rumsfeld

Honorable Master Donald “Fists Of Death” Rumsfeld (shown at right, demonstrating the “Silent Crane Death Blow") has once again provided us, his ninja warriors of the Temple Of Common Sense, with pearls of wisdom regarding the media in the US:

• Al-Qaeda can lie to the media but the US military cannot.


• The media will criticize the US military but will not criticize Al-Qaeda.


• The media will determine if the country loses its will and that will determine if we lose the war.


• The media likes to write about the media and how they’re watchdogs over the US military.


• The media are like a creeping blight spreading across the lotus garden of tranquility, transforming the golden pond of honesty into a black swamp of deceit and arrogance.

^{(OK, I made that last one up. May Worshipful Master forgive this lowly ronin.)}

Rumsfeld Says U.S. Constrained In Information War
Wed Feb 1, 2006 7:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters)

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday the Pentagon had not done a good job in the information war against enemies like al Qaeda, saying U.S. personnel felt constrained partly due to fear of criticism in the media. “This is an area that we don’t do well—we know we don’t do well,” Rumsfeld told a Pentagon briefing, referring to information operations and psychological warfare aimed at foreign peoples and enemies.

“How do we compete in this struggle in a way that can counter the ability of the enemy to lie, which we can’t do, (and) the ability of the enemy to not have a free media criticizing them? You don’t see much criticizing of them.” A debate is under way in America over what is permissible for the U.S. government to do to spread its message to foreign audiences as it engages in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and in what it calls a global war against terrorism.

The U.S. military command in Iraq is investigating a military program that funneled money to some Iraqi newspapers to publish pro-American articles. The Pentagon in 2002 closed its Office of Strategic Influence after reports that it planned to plant false news stories with foreign media outlets. “We’re not going to lose wars or battles out there. The only place we can lose is if the country loses its will. And the determinant of that is what is played in the media,” Rumsfeld said.

“And, therefore, the terrorists have media committees, and they plan it. And they manipulate and manage to influence what the media carries throughout the world. And they do it very successfully. They’re good at it.” But Rumsfeld said the risk of being criticized by the U.S. news media had a chilling effect on the U.S. military.

“And they (defense personnel) say, oh my goodness, if you do anything in that area, you get penalized because there’s bad press, there’s bad news, someone doesn’t like it, there’s a congressional hearing, the newspaper has it on the front page because it’s about the media and the media likes to write about the media,” Rumsfeld said. “And our people are chilled and reticent and uncomfortable,” Rumsfeld added.

A document signed by Rumsfeld that was made public last week acknowledged that information spread by the Pentagon to influence foreign audiences increasingly seeps back home and is “consumed by our domestic audience.” The Pentagon is prohibited from targeting American audiences with these “psychological operations.” The Pentagon said the “psychological operations” information was truthful. But the research organization that obtained the document through the Freedom of Information Act described it as propaganda planted overseas that inevitably made its way back to the United States.

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/02/2006 at 12:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Military •  
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Six More Weeks

The groundhog saw his shadow. You know what that means? Six more weeks of Cindy Sheehan babbling bullshit. Six more weeks of MOOS-lims acting like complete jerks. Six more weeks of Democrats whining and complaining. Six more weeks of madness. All because of that damned furry pig. Who is starting to really piss me off. Can’t we just serve Phil up with some nice fava beans and be done with it ... ?

Punxsutawney Groundhog Sees His Shadow
Feb 2, 8:52 AM (ET)
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. (AP)

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, but it was hard to find a complainer in the crowd on Gobbler’s Knob, where the morning temperature was well above freezing and Thursday’s high was expected to hit 48 degrees. There were a few boos at the groundhog’s prediction of six more weeks of winter, but most of the hundreds of revelers instead turned the event into an impromptu Pittsburgh Steelers rally.

Fans in football jerseys sang “Here we go Steelers,” and members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club’s Inner Circle - the top-hat- and tuxedo-wearing businessmen responsible for carrying on the groundhog tradition each year - threw black and gold Steelers “Terrible Towels” as they waited to rouse Phil from his burrow.

The furry forecaster may be popular, but the Pittsburgh Steelers are playing in the Super Bowl on Sunday. “It’s been really wonderful. This is just a ball. I’m having so much fun,” said Nancy Durr, who came from Paxton, Neb., to the small western Pennsylvania town about 65 miles north of Pittsburgh to celebrate her 50th birthday.

She had been outside awaiting Phil’s arrival since about 2:15 a.m., a rub-on Punxsutawney Phil tattoo on each cheek. Others latched on to the Phil frenzy for a publicity boost - for just about anything, from global warming to the lottery. The National Environmental Trust said it’s groundhog-suit-wearing human “will ignore his shadow and will instead rely on global warming evidence to forecast an early spring.” The American Physiological Society was offering experts to discuss “What Punxsutawney Phil can teach us about surviving massive blood loss, preventing muscle atrophy, and more.”

- More on this porcine climatologist here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 02/02/2006 at 11:27 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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