On December 8, the Supreme Court turned aside a New Jersey voter’s plea for the Court to determine if President-elect Barack Obama was qualified to run for the White House—that is whether he was a “natural born citizen.” The stay application came in the case of Donofrio v. Wells, Secretary of State of New Jersey (08A407). This marked the second time in recent weeks for the Court to turn aside such a challenge; the first came on November 3, in Berg v. Obama (08A391). http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/
Donofrio contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-obama-birth-certificate1dec08,0,7258812.story

"State Responses to Immigration: A Database of All State Legislation is a free, searchable data tool designed to generate information about all immigration-related bills and resolutions introduced in state legislatures. Classified by state, region, subject area, legislative type, and bill status, this is the only database that allows users to find out, for example, the status of enforcement initiatives introduced in their state, compare the number of bills regulating employment, or evaluate the passage rate of health-related bills across the nation. State Responses to Immigration is a joint project of the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and a research team at the New York University School of Law (NYU).”

Constitution of the U.S. 2008 Supplement: Cases Decided to June 26, 2008. Senate Document No. 110-17. NOTE: Certain documents from the 2002 Edition have been supplemented in the 2008 Supplement. Constitution of the United States: Main Page

Use forums, resources or blog at this American Library Association Web site
http://www.librarycopyright.net/ (provided by a new reader)

Greenwash noun or verb
A false or misleading picture of environmental friendliness used to conceal or obscure damaging activities
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:greenwash&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
bloxicon noun
lexicon or glossary of words or phrases used in a blog
http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2003/10/bloxicon.php
http://onthecamino.squarespace.com/bloxicon/

Eli Whitney hadn't intended on the widespread sale of his cotton gin (he and his partner had planned on making money by cleaning cotton for a share of the profits), but the drum's simplicity and utility helped breed infringement issues, legal wrangling, and near bankruptcy for its inventor and manufacturer. Eli Whitney's cotton gin took its name from the gin that is short for engine; since 1796 (two years after Whitney's patent was granted), cotton gin has been used to name the machine that separates the seeds, hull, and foreign material from cotton. That's not the only gin noun in our lexicon. The other gin, however, has a different derivation. The colorless alcoholic gin is a shortening and alteration of geneva, the term for a highly aromatic bitter gin originally made in the Netherlands. Geneva is itself a modification of the Dutch version of juniper, the berry which flavors gin. M-W Word for the Wise

To your health A Spanish study of over 1,000 older adults comparing low fat versus two types of Mediterranean diet found that a Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts could be helpful in managing metabolic syndrome, a collection of risk factors for heart disease such as belly fat, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar.

The study was the work of Dr Jordi Salas-Salvadó, of the University of Rovira i Virgili in Spain, and colleagues from many other research centres throughout Spain, and is published in the December 8/22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/132207.php

December 9 is the birthday of cartoonist, humorist, and poet Ashleigh Brilliant, (books by this author) born in London (1933). He's best known for his "Pot-Shots," sayings and one-liners that are never more than 17 words. He illustrates them with pen-and-ink drawings. One of his Pot-Shots is: "All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power." Pot-Shots have appeared on mugs, tote bags, and T-shirts, and in several book collections. The Writer’s Almanac