Has anyone checked the font on the death certificate, or are we expected to believe a CIA or White House pronouncement? If the sources are Pakistani, that’s even less reliable.

He has probably been dead for years, given his medical history, but it was too useful to too many people to have him around to scare the Republicants and other children.

He could have died in his sleep, surrounded by his family and you still have to take your shoes off at the airport and carry a ziplock bag for liquids.

CNN notes that Missouri takes levee battle to U.S. Supreme Court

(CNN) — Missouri on Sunday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt a plan to intentionally breach a levee on the rain-swollen Mississippi River, flooding Missouri farmland in an effort to save an Illinois town.

Earlier, Missouri filed a federal suit to block the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from following through on its plan to breach the Birds Point-New Madrid levee. A federal judge on Friday ruled against Missouri, saying a 1928 law permits the breach of the levee to ease pressure on the river.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster filed an application for an injunction to the high court on Sunday. It was assigned to Justice Samuel Alito, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s website.

The Corps of Engineers says the action is necessary to save the town of Cairo, Illinois, although it will flood rural Missouri farm communities. “I know that the price being paid is high,” said Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh on Saturday.
…

As of 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET), the gauge at Cairo — where the Ohio River meets the Mississippi River — stood at 59.97 feet, a record level. Flood stage is 40 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

The Corps believes that if they don’t relieve the pressure on the system and pull off some of the water, the rest of the system is subject to collapse. They are going to be sued by someone, regardless of what they do. The system is 20 feet above flood stage, and experiencing a 100-year event. It is highly unlikely, given that level, that nothing will fail and the water will simply pour into the Gulf of Mexico.

There are no good choices in this scenario, only some that hopefully impact fewer people.

The BBC reports that a Air France flight data recorder recovered

One of two flight recorders from an Air France plane that crashed in 2009 off the coast of Brazil has been recovered, officials say.

France’s Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that the device was “in good physical condition”.

French search teams last week found the outer casing of the so-called black box recorder, but not its memory.

The Air France Airbus plane went down in the Atlantic on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on board.

If it can be read, it will go a long way towards explaining what happened. The picture indicates that it is still in good shape, but they won’t know for sure until it is inserted into a “reader”.

There are two recorders. One records the cockpit conversations for 30 minutes before it loses power, and the other records the data stream for the instrument panel.

The CBC is carrying a story about will probably increase the friction between the US and Canada: U.S. cables dissect Canada’s leaders: WikiLeaks

The whistleblower website WikiLeaks has released sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables that reveal their behind-the-scenes take on Canada’s party leaders — on the eve of the federal election.

The cables released to several media outlets cover a six-year period that ended in early 2010. They not only provide a distillation of media accounts on key Canadian political events by U.S. officials, but include accounts from Canadian party insiders.

Among the revelations included in the diplomatic documents are accounts of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s “vindictive pettiness,” Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s “lack of energy and hands-on leadership,” and New Democrat Leader Jack Layton’s “mouse of a party.”

There is nothing new in the cables, and most people have come to the same conclusion except for Jack Layton and the NDP. As one of the commenters on this article pointed out, the NDP might be “the mouse that roared” in tomorrow’s election. More people are coming to the conclusion that many of the strategic voters who have backed the Liberals or Bloc in previous elections, may go with the NDP this time. If that actually happens, Jack Layton could end up forming the next government of Canada.

If you are Canadian, please vote, so we will know where you want to go and how you want to get there.

The May Day association with labor is all American, and just as controversial as everything of any consequence in history. The day is tied to a strike for the eight-hour day and the so-called “Haymarket Riot” of 1886. When it comes to “riots” and the Chicago police are involved, you are not going to find a single truth.

The dynamic duo that mucked up the Pledge of Allegiance, Dwight Eisenhower and his Republican Congress, made May 1^st both Law Day and Loyalty Day so those Commie working people wouldn’t get any ideas about having rights.