American State Flags

Is this why we must continue to fight and remain vigilant at home and abroad? Authorities Probe Foreign Student Seeking Commercial Truck-Driving HAZMAT License But he only wanted to learn how to drive forward -- reminiscent of those stories about the 9/11 hijackers telling flight instructors that they didn't need to learn how to take off or land, but only to fly. By Liza Porteus for FoxNews, with thanks to TJ: NEW YORK — Mohammed Yusef Mullawala wanted a license to transport hazardous materials and to learn how to drive commercial tractor trailers. There was nothing unusual about that, until he told his teacher that he only wanted to learn how to drive forward, and he wanted to learn fast. That was enough to raise a red flag with Darleen Crawford, president of the Nationwide Tractor Trailer Driving School in Smithfield, R.I., where Mullawala took driving classes. Federal and state authorities are investigating why Mullawala was seeking a commercial trucking license after his behavior raised flags at the Rhode Island driving school. Crawford said he was also insistent on taking the test necessary to earn a license to transport hazardous materials. Mullawala, a 28-year-old citizen of India who is of Pakistani descent, is now in federal custody in Massachusetts on immigration violation charges.... Crawford started documenting suspicious activity: Mullawala lived in New York City but traveled to Rhode Island for the driving classes; he missed his first day of classes; and he was very insistent on getting his hazardous material transport license. But the fact that he only seemed interested in driving forward was the most concerning. "We tell them from Day One, 'you will be backing up,' 'you'll be backing up every single day,'" Crawford said, adding that it normally takes two to three weeks of practice backing up before drivers get road permits and learn how to drive forward, among other things. The situation was reminiscent of when some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers told their flight-school instructor they were only interested in how to fly planes at certain altitudes, not so much how to land or take off. "He was just really pushing to get out of here," Crawford said. "I've been doing this for 30 years so you just sort of know when something doesn't feel right."... Investigators learned that when Mullawala obtained his driver's license from the Rhode Island Registry of Motor Vehicles, he gave a false statement indicating he was a Rhode Island resident. ICE then determined he was a citizen of India and in the United States on an expired temporary student visa. On Tuesday, Mullawala went to state police headquarters thinking he was responding to another matter. He was then apprehended and turned over to ICE....

Has anyone noticed the "Texas. Our Texas." billboards along the Interstates in Texas? You will probably have a better idea of what I'm talking about if you're a Texan like me, but if you have recently also driven or lived in Texas you might have seen them. I am in college and drive on our highways frequently. In the past 6 months, I've noticed that there a few billboards every so often. They don't have a number on them or the name of who put them on there. They are all deep blue in color with a quote in white letters. They also all have the Texas flag on them. The ones I've seen say: 1."First word spoken from the moon: Houston." 2."Home to 2 of the 3 largest U.S. universities: Texas A&M and the University of Texas." 3."Larger than all of New England, New York,...combined." I forget what other states where on this one. 4."The only state to enter the Union by Treaty." 5."Home to only hotel built completely over water."Somewhere along those lines. 6."King Ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island." Oh, all the billboards have the phrase "Texas. Our Texas." on them after the quotes, thus why I labeled them that way. Those are the only ones I've seen on my routes from College Station to Dallas or to Houston so there could be more. (Whoop! Our college is pretty big...)But anyway, I'm just curious why these billboards are out there. Don't get me wrong, I love them. They have rekindled my Texan pride (I really do feel inspired every time I see one and every time I see a TX flag now I feel it deserves my salute).My TX pride might even be larger now than my national pride. So please if you know who's behind them, thanks, if not, then just feel free to comment on what you think even if you haven't seen them. I wonder if it's our state government or a private company (but why and for what purpose?). They look pretty official/professional too. I think whoever put them there definitily wanted to raise our morale, but I think something is very interesting, why not raise or national morale? They aimed at values that only Texans would appreciate...but it works for me either way. Anyway, whenever I go abroad I will tell people that I'm a Texan. Well yeah the answer from my speculation is in my details, but maybe someone out there knows the official reason behind it all. Obviously, not everyone reacts the same to these signs so I just speak from what they caused for me. Last summer while on an internship I lived in Colorado and Washington. It's always cool to go abroad for a while, but after a while my friends and I really did start missing Texas. Now with these signs it's going to be harder to relocated in long term periods...by the way, Colorado has awesome landscapes and weather so you guys are welcome to be reannexed any time, lol. Spokane, WA was not so great...cool lakes and stuff (Spokane Valley was a bit better) and the new areas are nice but I had never seen so many homeless people before and the streets need some stop signs in the residential areas. The rest of Washington state was cool, but yeah Spokane needs some work just like some of our oil boom towns need some work too, they kinda look crammed and too industrial. Another interesting fact, I have googled the stuff again and again only to end up nowhere. You'd think there'd be a project webpage that says like the mission statement or something. And no blogs or anything came up either. You'd think that with the thousands of people who drive someone would have already asked the question or provided commentary. And c'mon, let's not be ignorant and claim Bush is a Texan. He is a naturalized citizen, haha. Blame Connecticut if anything, but actually it really the one to blame is the guy himself.

How about those Eskimo's? Shivering Alaskans to Hugo Chavez: Keep your oil POSTED: 9:09 p.m. EDT, October 9, 2006 Adjust font size: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- In Alaska's native villages, the punishing winter cold is already penetrating the walls of the lightly insulated plywood homes, many of the villagers are desperately poor, and heating-oil prices are among the highest in the nation. And yet a few of the small communities want to refuse free heating oil from Venezuela, on the patriotic principle that no foreigner has the right to call their president "the devil." The heating oil is being offered by the petroleum company controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, President Bush's nemesis. While scores of Alaska's Eskimo and Indian villages say they have no choice but to accept, others would rather suffer. "As a citizen of this country, you can have your own opinion of our president and our country. But I don't want a foreigner coming in here and bashing us," said Justine Gunderson, administrator for the tribal council in the Aleut village of Nelson Lagoon. "Even though we're in economically dire straits, it was the right choice to make." Nelson Lagoon residents pay more than $5 a gallon for oil -- or at least $300 a month per household -- to heat their homes along the wind-swept coast of the Bering Sea, where temperatures can dip to minus-15. About one-quarter of the 70 villagers are looking for work, in part because Alaska's salmon fishing industry has been hit hard by competition from fish farms. The donation to Alaska's native villages has focused attention on the rampant poverty and high fuel prices in a state that is otherwise awash in oil -- and oil profits. In 2005, 86 percent of the Alaska's general fund, or $2.8 billion, came from oil from the North Slope. The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association, a native nonprofit organization that would have handled the heating oil donation on behalf of 291 households in Nelson Lagoon, Atka, St. Paul and St. George, rejected the offer because of the insults Chavez has hurled at Bush. Chavez called Bush "the devil" in a speech to the United Nations last month. He has also called the president a terrorist and denounced the war in Iraq.(Watch former President Bush call Chavez "an ass" -- 2:10) Dimitri Philemonof, president and chief executive of the association, said accepting the aid would be "compromising ourselves." "I think we have some duty to our country, and I think it's loyalty," he said. Over the past two years, Citgo, the Venezuelan government's Texas-based oil subsidiary, has given millions of gallons of discounted heating oil to the poor in several states and cities -- including New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine -- in what is widely seen as an effort by Chavez to embarrass and irritate the U.S. government and make himself look good. Maine Gov. John Baldacci, who approved an agreement last winter to buy discounted oil, said he had no plans this year to seek a similar arrangement. In Boston, Massachusetts, a City Council member wants a landmark Citgo sign near Fenway Park taken down and replaced with an American flag. In Florida, a lawmaker asked the state to cancel Citgo's exclusive contract to sell fuel at turnpike service stations. About 150 native villages in Alaska have accepted money for heating oil from Citgo. The oil company does not operate in Alaska, so instead of sending oil, it is donating about $5.3 million to native nonprofit organizations to buy 100 gallons this winter for each of more than 12,000 households. "When you have a dire need and it is a matter of survival for your people, it doesn't matter where, what country, the gift or donation comes from," said Virginia Commack, an elder in the arctic village of Ambler, an impoverished Eskimo community of 280 where residents are paying $7.25 a gallon for fuel. For years, Alaska natives have accused the state and federal governments of sending too little money to their tiny, far-flung communities, where fuel and grocery prices are bloated by the high costs of delivery by plane and barge. An editorial last month in the Anchorage Daily News bashed the Legislature's rejection in March of an $8.8 million state supplement to a federal program that helps poor Alaskans with home heating costs. "It's embarrassing that residents in a state with so much oil wealth should be looking to a foreign nation for help," the newspaper said. "It's hard to blame villagers for accepting the gift." A spokesman for Gov. Frank Murkowski, John Manly, said the governor believes Chavez's donation is a ploy to undermine Americans' faith in their government. But he said it is up to each village to make its own decision. "It seems like a very strange irony that we produce the oil and yet every year there seems to be a chronic problem in getting the fuel to people that need it," Manly said. Joan Eddy, principal and teacher at Nelson Lagoon's school, said most buildings in town were erected 30 to 40 years ago, which makes them pretty old, considering how they get battered by the constant 20-25 mph wind coming off the ocean. Their heating systems are aging, too. She noted the fuel barge is late arriving this year, and said residents are turning on their furnaces for only a few hours in the morning and at night. "We're conserving as much as we can because we are concerned. It looks like it's going to be a snowy winter and cold," she said. Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. O.K., Some think that the article is too long, or that there is no question contained within the article & one thinks that I am ignorant of the usage of the name "eskimos" , I have lived amongst the various Native peoples of the entire Aleutian chain and the mainland of Alaska. Heres the "Question" , Would you go without heating oil in this situation in order to show your patriotism? Hows that? Happy? GAWSHK!

Why does Palin think that New York and other states like...? Massachusetts,New York,Connecticut,Rhode Island,New Jersey,Delaware, and California are anti-American? States like NY,MA,RI,NJ,and CT were part of the original thirteen colonies,and now they're anti-American? She comes from a state that has a Secessionist Party If I'm not mistaken,none of these states had anything like that In fact,the Southern States, which claim to be very pro-American are the ones who seceded from the Union,and some people down there still want to fly the Confederate flag, which isn't the American flag @ miss_ursie_la,yes I did see that SNL skit,but when Palin made those "pro-American" comments,it's clear what states the Republicans think are elitist In fact,Tina Fey took the words right out of my mouth Republicans think that the Northeast and California are "elitists"

Who remembers the 50 Nifty United States song from elementary school? 50 NIFTY UNITED STATES FROM 13 ORIGINAL COLONIES.50 NIFTY STARS IN THE FLAG THAT BILLOWS SO BEAUTIFLY IN THE BREEZE. EACH INDIVIDUAL STATE CONTRIBUTES A QUALITY THAT IS GREAT.EACH INDIVIDAUL STATE DESERVES A BOW,WE SALUTE THEM NOW. 50 NIFTY UNITED STATES FROM 13 ORIGINAL COLONIES,SHOUT 'EM,SCOUT 'EM,TELL ALL ABOUT 'EM. 1 BY 1,TIL WE'VE GIVEN A DAY TO EVERY STATE IN THE USA. ALABAMA,ALASKA,ARIZONA,ARKANSAS, CALIFORNIA,COLORADO,CONNETICUT, DELAWARE,FLORIDA,GEORGIA,HAWAII,IDAHO ILLINOIS,INDIANA,IOWA,KANSAS,KUNTUCKY, LOUISIANA,MAINE,MARYLAND,MASSACHUSETTS,MICHIGAN,MINNESOTA,MISSISSIPPI,MISSOURI, MONTANA,NEBRASKA,NEVADA,NEW HEMSHIRE, NEW JERSEY,NEW MEXICO,NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA,NORTH DAKOTA,OHIO, OKLAHOMA,OREGON,PENNSYLVANIA, RHODE ISLAND,SOUTH CAROLINA, SOUTH DAKOTA,TENNESSEE,TEXAS,UTAH, VERMONT,VIRGINIA,WASHINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA,WISCONSIN,WYOMING. NORTH,SOUTH,EAST,WEST IN A CALM OBJECTIVE OPINION, IS THE BEST OF THE 50 NIFTY UNITED STATES FROM 13 ORIGINAL COLONIES,SHOUT 'EM,SCOUT 'EM,TELL ALL ABOUT 'EM.1 BY 1,TILL WE'VE GIVEN A DAY TO EVERY STATE IN THE GOOD OLD,U.......S.......A. BY:RAY CHARLES hahaha I loved that song, sometimes it gets annoying. =\

isnt some/most/all of this ridicilious? - In Victoria Australia, only a licensed electrician is allowed to change a lightbulb. - In Victoria Australia it is forbidden to wear pink hot pants after mid-day on a Sunday. - It England, it is illegal for a cab in the City of London to carry rabid dogs or corpses. - It England, it is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament. - It England, it is an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British monarch upside down. - In France, it is forbidden to call a pig Napoleon. - Under the UK’s Tax Avoidance Schemes Regulations 2006, it is illegal not to tell the taxman anything you don’t want him to know, though you don’t have to tell him anything you don’t mind him knowing. - In Alabama, it is illegal for a driver to be blindfolded while driving a vehicle. - In Ohio, it is against state law to get a fish drunk. - Royal Navy ships that enter the Port of London must provide a barrel of rum to the Constable of the Tower of London. - In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants - even, if she so requests, in a policeman’s helmet. - In Lancashire, no person is permitted after being asked to stop by a constable on the seashore to incite a dog to bark. - In Miami, Florida, it is illegal to skateboard in a police station. - In Indonesia, the penalty for masturbation is decapitation. - In the UK, all men over the age of 14 must carry out two hours of longbow practice a day. - In London, Freemen are allowed to take a flock of sheep across London Bridge without being charged a toll; they are also allowed to drive geese down Cheapside. - In San Salvador, drunk drivers can be punished by death before a firing squad. - In the UK, a man who feels compelled to urinate in public can do so only if he aims for his rear wheel and keeps his right hand on his vehicle. - In Florida, unmarried women who parachute on Sundays can be jailed. - In Kentucky, it is illegal to carry a concealed weapon more than six-feet long. - In Chester, Welshmen are banned from entering the city before sunrise and from staying after sunset. - In the city of York, it is legal to murder a Scotsman within the ancient city walls, but only if he is carrying a bow and arrow. - In Boulder, Colorado, it is illegal to kill a bird within the city limits and also to “own” a pet - the town’s citizens, legally speaking, are merely “pet minders”. - In Vermont, women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth. - In London, it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague. - In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals but is forbidden from looking directly at them during the examination; he may only see their reflection in a mirror. - The head of any dead whale found on the British coast is legally the property of the King; the tail, on the other hand, belongs to the Queen - in case she needs the bones for her corset. - In Eureka, Nevada, USA, it is still illegal for men with moustaches to kiss women. - In Alexandria, Minnesota, USA, it is still illegal for a man who has garlic, onions or sardines on his breath to have sex with his wife. - In Logan County, Colorado, USA, it is still illegal to kiss a woman while she is asleep. - In Providence, Rhode Island, USA, it is still illegal for shop owners to sell toothpaste and toothbrushes to the same customer on a Sunday. - In Zion, Illinois, USA, it is still illegal to offer cigars to your pets. - In St. Louis, Missouri, USA, it is still illegal for firemen to rescue women who are still in their nightdresses. - In Ames, Iowa, USA, it is still illegal for men to have three sips of beer while they are in bed with their wives. - In Maryland, USA, it is still illegal for radio stations to play Randy Newman’s song ‘Short people’. - In Oklahoma, USA, it is still illegal to make faces at a dog, a crime that could result in a prison sentence. - In Texas, USA, criminals are still required to give their victims at least 24 hours oral or written notice giving details of the crime they are about to commit. - In Washington, USA, it is still an offence to pretend that you have rich parents. - In Baltimore, Maryland, USA, it is still an offence to take a lion into a cinema. - In Tremonton, Utah, USA, it is still an offence for a woman to have sexual intercourse with a man in an ambulance. She can be charged with a misdemeanour and have her name printed in the local paper. - In Oxford, Ohio, USA, it is still illegal for a woman to undress in front of a picture of a man. - In Miami, Florida, USA, it is still illegal for anyone to imitate an animal. - In Afghanistan the Taliban militia banned women from wearing white socks just in case men find them attractive. The police are also ordered windows to be painted black to stop women being seen from the outside. - In the USA impotence is grounds for divorce in 24 states.

why do obama ralley the colleges? why is it ..I have notice that he spends more time with the younger people at the colleges.could it be that they are young and just starting out in life they really dont know how being on your own really is ...if obama wins the parents of these young people want be able to help them ...they want be able to help theirself. all he wants is that vote .rather its young people are older people..he can fool the young college students .they love pep rally's and thats all obama is a big pep rally .he cant run our country ..thank you ohio and texas and rhode island.I am thankful that here in ohio people has enought sense to see threw him .and to know that hillary is the best for our country .she will bring us back to where we should be blacks and whites.obama is racial his wife is racial.he doesnt even put his hand on the bible are on his heart to our flag ..I hope people in the next states will vote for hillary.put a stop to obama once and for all..GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.