Japanese space agency officials, already forced to temporarily shut down one satellite, said Thursday they had lost contact with a second satellite that may have been affected by an electromagnetic storm caused by the largest solar flare observed in decades.

“We have completely lost touch with the Midori 2, and don’t know what’s going on with it,” said Junichi Moriuma, a spokesman for the agency, known as JAXA. He said the agency is trying to restore communications.

It’s always comforting to know there are two melon flavored satellites orbitting the Earth, just in case.

The economy grew at a scorching 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter in the strongest pace in nearly two decades. Consumers spent with abandon and businesses ramped up investment, compelling new evidence of an economic resurgence.

The increase in gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the economy’s performance, in the July-September quarter was more than double the 3.3 percent rate registered in the second quarter, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

How long will it take for someone to explain this away?

SENATOR ZELL MILLER OF GEORGIA, the nation’s most prominent conservative Democrat, said today he will endorse President Bush for re-election in 2004 and campaign for him if Bush wishes him to. Miller said Bush is “the right man at the right time” to govern the country.

The next five years “will determine the kind of world my children and grandchildren will live in,” Miller said in an interview. And he wouldn’t “trust” any of the nine Democratic presidential candidates with governing during “that crucial period,” he said. “This Democrat will vote for President Bush in 2004.”

Finally, someone from the Democratic party is speaking sensibly…

Of course, these photographs are fake, right?

Take a look.

Nancy Pelosi (U.S. House Minority Leader)

Why would I bestow her with such an honor? Why would I grant this <cough>champion of the people</cough> an award which is only for those who are totally deserving of it?

Because, in fact, no matter what you think of her, she is totally deserving of it.

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said on Friday police raids on dozens of U.S. Wal-Mart stores in the search for illegal immigrants this week amounted to “terrorizing” workers.

“It instills a great deal of fear in people who are only trying to earn a living and put food on the table for their family,” Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on a Congressional visit to Mexico.

Let us review. She actually thinks that searching for, and rounding up illegal immigrants is “terrorizing’? I doubt many people agree with her on this issue.

The second statement is much, much more important to us, as a country.

“It instills a great deal of fear in people who are only trying to earn a living and put food on the table for their family,”

Excuse me, but what about the AMERICAN citizens and legal residents of this country who, because of the illegal workers, were NOT able to earn a living, and had NO food to put on the table for their families? That’s what I call terrorizing.

Congratulations, Rep. Pelosi, you have reaffirmed my statement (from the first award), which stated:

“…the Democratic party really should step back, re-group, and start standing for something. ANYTHING!. If they would stand on their principles and hold members of their own party accountable for their actions, they might return honesty, integrity, and respect to their party. You can only stand upright so long without a backbone.“

The fact is, Rep. Pelosi told the crowd in Mexico exactly what they wanted to hear, at the expense of honest, hardworking, American families, and for THAT she is a moron.

I have spent some time in California, and I must say, those Santa Ana winds are hell… literally…

A wildfire roaring through the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains burned as many as 20 homes and forced thousands to flee Saturday as it hopscotched through dense housing tracts.

The fire, which erupted around 9 a.m. about 30 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, was fed by fierce Santa Ana winds and in a matter of hours had devoured 6,000 acres of chaparral. The cause of the blaze was unknown.

It was probably some idiot tossing something out the car window. People are really dumb sometimes.

The fire threatened more than 1,000 homes, and thousands of people in San Bernardino and the community of Crestline were ordered evacuated to the local airport. The fire also burned onto the campus of California State University, San Bernardino, where a parking lot was reported to be on fire.

Winds caused the fire to hopscotch.

Damn those winds.

In a statement unprecedented for its strength of feeling, 21-year-old William, who was also speaking on behalf of his younger brother, said Princess Diana would have been “mortified” at Burrell’s actions if she were alive today.

Of course, if she was alive, there wouldn’t be much for him to talk about.

It’s always easier for people to talk about people after they are dead, rather than alive, because there is less accountability.

Oh, wake up and smell the burning earwax!

Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning while playing Jesus in Mel Gibson’s controversial film The Passion Of Christ.

Describing the second lightning strike, McEveety told VLife, a supplement of the trade paper Variety: “I’m about a hundred feet away from them when I glance over and see smoke coming out of Caviezel’s ears.”

Personally, if I got hit with lightning, twice, I would seriously reconsider participating in this. Talk about being hit over the head. Sheesh.

In the kind of event that fascinates space forecasters but worries some industries, a strong geomagnetic storm was expected to hit Earth on Friday, potentially disrupting everything from cell phones to power.

Space forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a potentially powerful ejection of magnetic material from the Sun could wreak havoc on satellites, pagers, electric grids and possibly airline schedules.

Run, Chicken Little, Run.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that it will aid Michael Schiavo in his fight against Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Legislature, which earlier this week took the remarkable step of passing a law to prevent the Pinellas County man from disconnecting his brain-injured wife from a feeding tube.

The intervention of the governor, however, altered the landscape, said Howard Simon, the organization’s Florida director. Several other significant advocacy groups on the sidelines, such as the AARP, say they, too, are now looking at the issue.

Of course, they overlook the fact that most, if not everything, that has been reported on this case is absolutely false (ie: that she is in a vegetative state). Watch the videos for yourself and see if this looks like a “vegetative state”.

By substituting his judgment for the judgment of the courts, the governor “set aside the role of the whole judicial system,” Simon said, warning that a precedent has been set for Bush and legislators to write laws gutting any court decision they don’t like.

He may have set aside “the role of the whole judicial system”, but he put “the role of humanity” in the spotlight, by preventing this woman from suffering the pain of starving to death. After reading more about this case, and seeing that Terri’s husband is “engaged” to another woman and has had a child with that woman, makes me wonder exactly what his motives are.

Terri Schiavo’s doctor, Victor Gambone, faxed a letter to Morton Plant Hospital this week, shortly after the passage of what has become known as Terri’s Law, saying he was resigning as her primary care physician, Bushnell said.

“I can understand how doctors would pull back and say: `This is not what we’re here for.’”

God forbid a doctor might be there to give medical care to the patient.