This could happen to a home town near you

by Geezer Power

Carrie Blast Furnaces Number 6 and 7 – declared a National Landmark in 2006. Located in Braddock/Rankin, across and upriver (the Monongahela) from Homestead, PA. Part of the steel making complex of Andrew Carnegie, which was sold to J.P. Morgan and became US Steel.

The steel industries, which were the backbone of the city, collapsed during the Raygun admistration in the early 1980’s, and today much of the old city is abandoned.

Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the late 1800s. The area’s Pennsylvania Grade crude oil has superior qualities and is free of asphaltic constituents, contains only trace amounts of sulfur and nitrogen, and has excellent characteristics for refining into lubricants. World-famous Kendall racing oils were produced in Bradford. The refinery, bought out by American Refining Group, is the oldest continuously operating refinery in the United States. Bradford is also famous as the home for Case Knives and for Zippo lighters.

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Super Bowl: Vote For Cardinals Or Steelers

Cardinals Or Steelers: Vote In HuffPost’s Super Bowl Polls

AP |  BARRY WILNER   |   February 1, 2009 12:40 PM

***SCROLL DOWN TO VOTE IN THE POLL***

Dynasty vs. doormat. The Pittsburgh Steelers have signified success in the Super Bowl era with their stable ownership, brilliant coaching and throwback style. A victory Sunday will give them a record sixth Super Bowl title, and they are 6 1/2-point favorites to get it against the Arizona Cardinals.

Yes, those Cardinals — a franchise that has defined dysfunction since the 1950s.

If it’s easy to believe the Steelers are back in the big game three years after winning one for the thumb against Seattle, it’s just as difficult — nearly impossible, actually — to believe the Cardinals are providing the opposition. This is a classic yin and yang setup: the defensively miserly AFC champs against the offensively potent NFC winners. The team with the proud history against the club with the forgettable past.

As if any of that matters now.

VOTE HERE In Huffington Post Poll

Suzie’s Poll

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SNL: President Obama Pines For Days Of The Campaign 1-31-09 (VIDEO)

Obama SNL Opening Skit: President Pines For Days Of The Campaign (VIDEO)

Huffington Post |   February 1, 2009 09:16 AM

Last night’s Saturday Night Live open featured a President Obama who wants to tell the nation the hard truths and attempts to look forward, but just can’t stop feeling nostalgic for the good old days of the campaign trail.

Obama also warns that now that he and the nation are moving in together, there are some things we’re going to discover about each other: Obama’s grumpy in the morning, and Americans are bad with money. Biden can’t help but make an appearance as well.

See other skits featuring David Patterson, Angelina Jolie, Blago and more here.

Watch Video Here

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Chase CEO At Davos: “Some Really Stupid Things Were Done By American Banks”

Chase CEO says ‘stupid things were done by American banks,’ as bankers lose Davos clout

Raw Story- Jeremy Gantz
Published: Saturday January 31, 2009

JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon is telling a world grappling with the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression what it wants to hear:

“I take full blame for all the American banks and all the things they did,” Dimon said during a panel on leadership at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Thursday.

Dimon, whose company received $25 billion from last October’s federal “bailout” legislation, said he knows that’s what people would like to hear, Bloomberg reported. “God knows, some really stupid things were done by American banks,” Dimon said Thursday.

But the 52-year-old banker, who oversaw his company’s acquisition of failing U.S. banks Washington Mutual and Bear Sterns last year, also wondered where Washington’s policy makers were while U.S. banks were laying groundwork for the ongoing meltdown.

“Where were they? They approved all these banks,” Dimon said.

Dimon was the only head of a major U.S. financial institution to attend the annual conference this year, according to Bloomberg. That’s a break from Davos tradition: in the past, the world’s elite business leaders dispensed economic wisdom while political leaders often remained in the background.

“The number of VIP politicians is huge, and it’s a lot less bankers this year,” said Rainer Ohler, senior vice president of Airbus SA. “What you are missing really is the top shots in banking.”

Heads of state, now doing their best to hold the world economy together, have taken center stage at Davos. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Felipe Calderon are a few of the more than 40 heads of state in Davos this year, the Associated Press reported.

MORE HERE

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