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#1 AC To Blame For Republicans, Sweet Tea, High School Football Frenzy.08-21-2008, 12:23 PMDoes air conditioning make people vote Republican?
I blame A/C for the decline of the labor movement and for decimating the Midwest's population. Mostly, I blame it for the election of George W. Bush.
By Edward McClelland
Aug. 21, 2008 | When I moved into my apartment, in May, the first thing I did was tear out the air conditioners. I don't need air conditioning: My front window is 50 yards from Lake Michigan, and, as any Chicago weatherperson will tell you, "It's cooler by the lake." I can't afford it, either: Three window units can add serious dollars to one's monthly electric bill. But those aren't the real reasons I got rid of the A/C.
Air conditioning offends my sense of Northern pride. They have a saying in Maine: "If you can't stand the winters, you don't deserve the summers." But the air conditioner allows Arizonans to enjoy a cool, lakelike breeze in the comfort of their living rooms, without ever having to buy snow tires. As one who has seen firsthand how the Sun Belt created a poor Yankee cousin called the Rust Belt, I blame the air conditioner for the decay of Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo, N.Y. I blame it for the decline of the American labor movement. And I blame it for the election of George W. Bush, as well as the fact that we haven't elected a Yankee president in nearly 50 years. Honestly, I don't want something like that in my house. Especially if I have to pay for it.
As we observe Air Conditioning Appreciation Week, we should thank A/C for reducing malaria and infant mortality, for allowing pollen sufferers to breathe in the summer and for cooling the labs that produce our computer chips. But we should also talk about the unintended consequences of a machine that pumps out cold air.
Let's start with the Bush dynasty.
Here's a little history. In 1924, when my grandmother was born in the small town of St. Petersburg, Fla., the state had 1 million people -- and six electoral votes. It was the least populous Southern state, a marginally habitable peninsula of humid swamps, hard-packed beaches, alligators, rum smugglers and Seminoles. As a girl, my grandmother kept cool by swimming and propping open her windows. As an 84-year-old woman, she lives in the Panhandle and keeps cool with an air conditioner.
"When I was young, I never had air conditioning, so I don't think I missed it," she says. "I went to the beach a lot. I even went on Christmas Day. Now, I couldn't live here without air conditioning. A lot of people tell me they wouldn't live here without air conditioning."
By "a lot of people," she means 15 million. That's how big the state has grown in my grandmother's lifetime. Florida now wields 27 electoral votes. Do some math. A state with six electoral votes is far less likely to screw up a presidential election.
Do a little more math, and you'll see that before air conditioning redistributed the country's population, the Florida recount wouldn't even have been necessary. In the 1940s -- the last decade before the air conditioner became a must-have home appliance -- Al Gore's states contained a decisive 291 electoral votes. As Hofstra professor James Wiley pointed out back in 2004, air conditioning "induced a major population shift within the country that eventually led to the Electoral College defeats of the Democratic presidential candidates in 2000 and 2004." In 2006, an AlterNet story tracked the migration as well.
Without air conditioning, Bush might not even have become a Texan. Right after World War II, his forward-looking father transplanted the Bush family from Connecticut to Texas, a move akin to the Corleones going to Vegas. (I'll bet he bought a window unit for the house in Midland, too.) If Poppy anticipated that air conditioning would swell his adopted state's population and move it into the Republican column, he was right. No state embraced A/C more avidly than Texas. As an official history of the invention put it, "a place like Houston could only be tolerable with air conditioning."
In 1966, Texas became the first state in which half the homes were air-conditioned. That same year, George H.W. Bush was elected to Congress -- from Houston. Coincidence? Or does air conditioning make people vote Republican? After all, the GOP's rise in the South coincides with the region's adoption of air conditioning.
In his essay "The End of the Long Hot Summer: The Air Conditioner and Southern Culture," historian Raymond Arsenault wrote that air conditioning made factory work tolerable in the South, reduced infant mortality, eliminated malaria and allowed developers to build skyscrapers and apartment blocks. Air conditioning industrialized and urbanized Dixie, lifting it out of its post-Civil War funk. No longer a poor, defeated colony, devoted to government aid and hating on Abe Lincoln, the South could fully indulge its conservative leanings.
You can also blame air conditioning for John McCain's political career. In 1982, Arizona was awarded two extra congressional seats, thanks to the arrival of A/C-blasting snowbirds. McCain bought a house in one of the new districts, and became its first congressman.
noonwitchGuest08-21-2008, 01:48 PM
I don't blame A/C for the decline of Detroit, I blame:
1. A city government that doesn't work: police that don't come when you call them, streetlights that don't work and don't get fixed, a mayor who is far more interested in chasing tail than governing a city, etc.
2. An auto industry that is failing, and no forethought for the future when the early signs of that failure became obvious (like around 1980).
3. White suburbanites who don't want to live around black people, and black people in the city who don't want white people as neighbors, either.
4. The banks in the 60s that wouldn't loan money to black people, so they could buy businesses as the white people abandoned the city.
There is so much blame to go around. Leave my a/c alone. I'm 43 and I have hot flashes.
I blame A/C for making my house and office building much more comfortable than they would be otherwise.Liberals! The real fascists.
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Once again, thanks for posting this great classic, the complete video plus the DVD extras as the bloopers, interviews and on stage scenes... This is a real treasure! lml
Full Scene Downloads
Boobs Ahoy! Part 3 Watch this scene »
Chapter 3 is the last segment of SCORE's DVD Boobs Ahoy! Boob Cruise 2000 was the fifth and final voyage. Friday, May 5th, 2000 was the last evening of this journey. The following day, everyone disembarked for home or for other ports of call.
The end of anything that is good and pleasurable and gives a boob-man wood is always painted with a coating of sadness. So it is was with the last Boob Cruise. This voyage was more of an experiment since only four seasoned Boob Cruise Girls returned from previous trips: Linsey McKenzie, Casey James, Minka and Dawn Stone. The rest of the girls were sea-virgins. They were all special in their unique, individual ways.
As for the passengers, this Boob Cruise was a reunion in many ways since so many were repeat guests from many countries including America, England, France, Germany, Japan and Belgium. There were several female passengers too, including future SCORE Girl Morgan Leigh who was inspired to emulate the women she partied with.
It was in… Read More »
The end of anything that is good and pleasurable and gives a boob-man wood is always painted with a coating of sadness. So it is was with the last Boob Cruise. This voyage was more of an experiment since only four seasoned Boob Cruise Girls returned from previous trips: Linsey McKenzie, Casey James, Minka and Dawn Stone. The rest of the girls were sea-virgins. They were all special in their unique, individual ways.
As for the passengers, this Boob Cruise was a reunion in many ways since so many were repeat guests from many countries including America, England, France, Germany, Japan and Belgium. There were several female passengers too, including future SCORE Girl Morgan Leigh who was inspired to emulate the women she partied with.
It was in… Read More »
Featuring: Adina, Alyssa Alps, Ariana, Brittany Love, Casey James, Dawn Stone, Donita Dunes, Jessica Justice, Jessica Turner, Linsey Dawn McKenzie, Lorna Morgan, Maxi Mounds, Melody Foxxe, Minka, Tanya Danielle, and Windy Leigh
Date: June 2nd, 2014
Duration: 01:23:48
Member Comments
4 years ago
More Big Tit Videos
Sep 10
09:05 Mins.
Minka Returns
It's been a long time since Minka visited SCORELAND. Not a week goes by without an email or a letter asking when Minka will appear again. Many of the writers are longtime SCORE guys like R.N. Minka's one of his go-to girls. The wait is finally over. "The thing that makes Minka different from most big-tit models is that most of them really excite me the first few times I see them," R.N. wrote. "But after several layouts, they become kind of ordinary and the excitement diminishes. Minka is just the opposite. She gets more and more arousing for me with every layout." An inspiration to such big-boob stars as Dolly Fox and Sandra Star, Minka keeps busy with her daily tennis practice and matches, taking care of her many dogs, her vegetable gardening, traveling to tennis tournaments and working on her website. In this video, she checks herself out in a sectional mirror.
Mar 17
18:15 Mins.
The Adventures of Super-Minka
"You like the big nipples, baby?" Minka asks Jim, who's preoccupied by Minka's famous protruding nips. Her nickname is "Nipple #1." She has nipples that can cut glass. Minka points out that there's some fruit on the table but he's not especially interested. He's absorbed by her equally famous mega-boobs. "I'm gonna feed you," Jim says as she rubs his junk through his pants. He runs a bunch of grapes over Minka's gigantic hooters, then holds it to her mouth so she can bite off a grape, then transfer it to him mouth-to-mouth. A strawberry is next. Jim holds up an orange to Minka's tits. Then some melons. Forget it. He'll need to find a giant watermelon to compare a piece of fruit to Minka's fruits. The fruits of their labors lead to Minka sucking Jim's cock and Jim eating Minka's neatly trimmed peach. He shoehorns his pussy-stretcher into Minka's very tight slit and starts pumping the pink. As she's banged hard in doggie, Minka's face says it all. As she put it, "Little dicks are better. A guy with a big dick can eat my pussy. That is good!" After fucking Minka under him and on top of him, Jim is close to losing his nut, and her verbal cum-encouragement and squeezing pussy make him blow his load all over her boobs. Nipple #1 wins again.
Dec 17
08:53 Mins.
Pop Your Cork With Minka
It's cork popping time with Minka, still the #1 Asian big-bust star on the planet. Minka opens a bottle of champagne and that cork shoots out like a rocket followed by a geyser of foamy liquid, kinda like the guys in her XXX scenes. SCORELAND: So, Minka, how was shooting again after being away for so long? MINKA: Fun, but I am pretty tired! Also, fucking so much makes me hungry. When I'm done, I go back to the hotel and eat Chinese food in the hotel, then I go out to Burger King and have a double Whopper and chicken nuggets. Tenpiece. Then I shower and go to bed. SCORELAND: Why are you so hungry? MINKA: I don't know. I'm hungry all the time. Fucking makes me horny and hungry and tired. If you've seen Minka demolish a buffet at a Las Vegas resort, you know how much she can eat yet she burns it all off with intense tennis playing. The managers try to close the doors when they see her coming for brunch and always fail. At this point, they've given up.
Sep 18
Lorna Morgan
11:36 Mins.
Bahama Beauty
"I'm a beach girl," busty legend Lorna Morgan said. "I like the beach. I like the sand. I like to be warm anyway, even if I'm at home, I like to be warm. I like to be dressed up really warm if it's cold or in front of the fire, so I just like the heat. I really don't burn badly because I'm very careful." This scene was shot in Eleuthera, The Bahamas. For Lorna, traveling to exotic places was the best part of being a model. "I had a female agent so I worked for a while. And it was funny because she was the one who kept telling me I should do pictures, glamour pictures. She meant topless and nude. So she said, 'Oh you should really show your boobs. They're huge! Come on, take them out for the boys.'" Lorna took her advice and became an important member of the British big-boob takeover. More guys seemed to fall in love with Lorna than with any other girl, judging by the kind of emails and letters that Lorna got, and continues to get. "Lorna Morgan is the quintessential V-Girl. Slim, stacked and absolutely gorgeous. She does not do the nasty and that makes her all the more desirable. Us V-Men need her virtuous, sensual, seductive, sexy tease. We don't want some other guy hanging around. We like to dream that she is ours and ours alone. She is every guy's voluptuous dream date. She is absolutely perfect. So don't lose sight of the single, virtuous, sexy lady for all us horny dreamers." -J.B.
Jan 20
19:23 Mins.
Good Neighbor Minka
There is only one Minka. She is an icon. There are few places where Minka isn't known. Tajikistan may be one of those countries. Peter steps outside his house when he spots a woman with super-mega-giant knockers taking boxes out of a car and bringing them into the house next door. He recognizes Minka immediately. The odds of Minka moving in next door are equal to being hit by a lightning bolt. He runs over, losing his mind but seizing the moment. Minka is about to get more boxes when she hears Peter knocking on the door. Tripping out, he stammers that he's a huge fan and does she need any help moving in. Kidding him, Minka asks him if he means the boxes or with "these," putting her hands on her tits. She tells him to move the boxes to another room and also tells him to keep his eyes on the boxes, not her chest. Of course, he looks at her tits while he's carrying the boxes and trips. "Concentrate," Minka admonishes. "Look at the boxes, not this," she says, pointing at her tight tank-top. With a wicked smile, Minka has fun teasing and taunting him. "Do you want some water? Get some here," Minka says, lifting her top and patting her nipple. She totally controls him like one of her puppies. She exposes both super-breasts and lets him feel them and bury his face in them. Then she tells him to take his clothes off. "Your brain is not here," says Minka, pointing at his head. "Your brain is down here," patting his junk. Peter takes off his clothes like they're on fire. Minka sits down and puts some lube on his cock. She's going to suck him, tit-sex him and fuck him and drain his balls. Being a good neighbor can pay off.
Jul 4
Linsey Dawn McKenzie
17:56 Mins.
Boob Cruise Girls 1
Some of the footage in this Caribbean-shot video will be unfamiliar to even the most diehard SCORE Man who's seen DVDs, tapes and SCORELAND postings of all five of the Boob Cruises. Filmed in 1998, Boob Cruise Girls 1 is a newly edited and remastered-for-web video of SaRenna Lee and Linsey Dawn McKenzie in two separate episodes. Boob Cruise '98 marked SaRenna's third Cruise, and like in her first two, she was one of the biggest attractions. Lots of guys signed on just to meet SaRenna and she didn't disappoint them. Linsey Dawn McKenzie was famous on the Cruise for taking any opportunity to walk around completely naked, much to everyone's delight. Nineteen when she sailed on this, her second voyage, Linsey is also a three-time Cruiser ('97, '98 and 2000). The Boob Cruises had plenty of repeat passengers. The newer guys were always surprised that the photographers scheduled photo shoots so early in the morning. That's because the first light of day is considered the "magic hour" for photography. Boob Cruise '98 was the biggest of the five. On board were three makeup artists, seven photographers, three videographers, ten Miami SCORE staff members and 24 models plus 75 passengers and the ship's staff. It took a year to organize. The last one in 2000 scaled back because it had just gotten too big! What do ya expect from guys who love girls with big tits?
Mar 30
Lorna Morgan
34:54 Mins.
Jackumentary Lorna Morgan
For admirers of the naturally voluptuous woman, Lorna Morgan's well-endowed figure represents perfection. Lorna believes in "classic" nude modeling, so the Lorna of 1999 posed the same way years later. Said Lorna, "I think I would just be really bad at hardcore because I would just laugh all the way through. It would be no good. It would not be sexy. I'm telling you, you don't want to see me doing anything like that!" Lorna was one of the leaders in the British invasion of the big-boob world in the late 1990's. The "Fab Four" (Lorna, Linsey Dawn McKenzie, Kerry Marie and Jessica Turner) took over the newsstands and the rapidly growing early internet, heralding the re-emergence of the super-naturals. Over the years, Lorna filmed in England, Portugal, the Florida Keys and Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas, and island-hopped on Boob Cruise 2000. She also posed pregnant twice. Lorna is a role-model for many girls, including one of her most ardent fans, Australia's Angela White, her roommate during the filming of Big Boob Paradise. Countless letters and emails have poured into the offices since Lorna first appeared in TSG magazines. Her girl-next-door looks and happy personality endear her to readers, DVD collectors and web-users.
Oct 7
15:28 Mins.
Mega-Boobs Office
Minka should have taken the executive job offered her at SCORE. Instead, she opted for a job at an office closer to home. The only problem is the manager has the personality of a high school vice principal and doesn't understand why Minka is making photocopies of her mega-boobs and working at her desk with her 44KK bra exposed, revealing yards of cleavage. In her own special, funny, horny way, she straightens him out and teaches him about her style of office politics. This office now belongs to Minka. SCORELAND: Hi, Minka. It's great to have you back. The fans never stop asking for you. The last time you were in our studio was when? Minka: Almost five years ago. 2011. My fans wanted to see me, so I am happy to be back. SCORELAND: Five long years, Minka. We know they're happy to see you back. What do your fans tell you they want to see? Minka: They want to see fucking. That's what they want to see most. They want to see me fucking big dicks! That is all they ask for! SCORELAND: What do you want? Minka: Find a small dick. Then I can cum large! I have a very small pussy, so I like small dicks. SCORELAND: Minka, you're one in 50 million. And with that, we'll say, welcome back!


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WHAT: The University of Rochester's Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences (CEIS) will host its 14th Annual University Technology Showcase on the afternoon of April 10. The half-day event will consist of a panel discussion with leaders in industry, government, and academia, focusing on how universities and companies can work together to rebuild manufacturing, followed by a poster session of industry-relevant university research from the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and SUNY Buffalo.
TIME, DATE AND PLACE: 1-5:30 p.m., April 10 at the Theater on the Ridge, Eastman Business Park, 200 Ridge Road West, Rochester.
ADMISSION: Free and open to the public. Please register at the door.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Melissa Higgins (firstname.lastname@example.com, (585) 275-2104), or visit www.ceis.rochester.edu.
PANEL DISCUSSION: The topic for the discussion will be "Industry-University Collaborations and Economic Development: How can universities and companies work together to rebuild manufacturing in the US?" Panelists include Stephen Fantone, Ph.D., president and CEO of Optiks; Julie Gerstenberger, co-founder & CEO of Moondog Labs; Matt Watson, director of Empire State Development; Bill Bond, director of the intellectual property management office at RIT; Scott Catlin, associate vice president of technology at UR Ventures; and Charles Philip, manager of government and university relations at Corning Incorporated. The panel will be moderated by Robert Clark, senior vice president for research and dean of the Hajim School of Engineering.
POSTER SESSION: The poster presentations will cover four broad fields: optics, photonics, and imaging; biomedical technology; mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, and materials science; and electrical engineering and computer science. Examples of topics covered include freeform optics manufacturing a new, growing area of research represented in Rochester by the recent Center for Freeform Optics that integrates mathematics, optics, materials science, precision optical manufacturing and testing and projects on terahertz technology, which can be applied in diverse ways from the study of cultural heritage objects to explosives.
BACKGROUND: CEIS brings together universities, companies, government agencies, and economic development organizations to promote technology-driven economic development in the Finger Lakes region. CEIS' primary technology focus is on optics, photonics, and imaging in support of the regional cluster of companies in those industries. They also support projects in the biomedical, energy, and electronics areas in response to the ongoing diversification of the Finger Lakes regional area economy.
Headquartered at the University of Rochester, CEIS is funded by the New York State Foundation for Science, Technology and Innovation (NYSTAR) through its Center for Advanced Technology program, as well as grants from the US Economic Development Agency and Department of Labor. It draws participation from a number of additional universities, including the Rochester Institute of Technology, Cornell University, the University of Buffalo, and Columbia University, some of which will also participate in the showcase.


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Matte black Dura-Touch finish, matte stainless, detachable rotary magazine, short throw bolt, adjustable trigger, bolt-action
The X-Bolt Stainless stalker is anything but high maintenance. With Dura-Touch Armor Coating and a matte Stainless steel barrel and action, it will endure punishing weather and terrain and still give you the throuroghbred performance you can expect from a Browning rifle.
Stainless is the big difference. This attractive and weather-resistant bolt action rifle is similar to the X-Bolt Composite model, except for a Stainless steel receiver, barrel and bolt. It has a comfortable palm swell for right-hand shooters, textured gripping surfaces for keeping your hands where they should be on the stock, even in wet and cold conditions. This model also features a deluxe Inflex Technology recoil pad and sling swivels. If you are looking for a hard core bolt action rifle that you can rely on, in the rugged areas and inclement weather conditions hunting deer, elk, varmints and the like, the X-Bolt Stainless Stalker is your rifle.
Please Note: This description and product image may represent a general group of products. Please read the item's title and specifications for more specific information about this particular item.
Guns can only be shipped to a location within the USA that holds an FFL (Federal Firearms License) - this can be your local gun shop, pawn shop, sporting goods store, etc. Your local gun dealer will then handle the transfer of the firearm to you.
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To purchase Mama's Night Out tickets, select from the theater show dates above to find the performance that interests you, before continuing on to view the venue's seating chart. Vivid Seats offers an extensive collection of Mama's Night Out tickets for premium seats at affordable prices. If you do not initially see any dates that meet your needs, check back often as our ticket inventory updates daily. Once you do find your theater tickets, enter your payment information into our protected server, as your utmost privacy is guaranteed along with accurate and valid Mama's Night Out tickets. If you have questions, concerns, or comments regarding your order, feel free to call us at 1-866-848-8499 or via Live Chat. We are always happy to help and ready to address any issues you may have.


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If you are a professional who is interested in solving heat transfer problems using COMSOL Multiphysics, this is the course for you. The Heat Transfer course will give you the opportunity to work on several hands-on exercises using COMSOL Multiphysics and the add-on Heat Transfer Module. During the 1-day course, we will cover problems such as heat transfer in solids and fluids that involve conduction, convection, radiation, and phase change. We will also touch on special topics such as heat transfer in biological tissue, porous media, and high-aspect-ratio structures such as pipes. Additionally, you will learn about multiphysics problems involving heat transfer, such as electromagnetic heating and thermal expansion.
To teach this course, we complement hands-on problem solving with discussion on relevant theory and best practices. By the end of the session, you will know how to successfully and efficiently set up heat transfer simulations using COMSOL software.
Topics Include
- Heat conduction in stationary and moving solids
- Heat conduction involving multiphysics
- Bioheat transfer
- Heat transfer in fluids: Free and forced convection
- Heat transfer in porous media
- Surface-to-ambient and surface-to-surface radiation
- Radiation with wavelength-dependent emissivity
- Radiation in participating media
- Phase change processes
Suggested Background
This course assumes some familiarity with the basic concepts of transport phenomena, especially heat transfer and fluid dynamics. We strongly recommend that those new to COMSOL Multiphysics take the COMSOL Multiphysics Intensive course prior to attending this class.
Pricing & Payment Methods
The price for this 1-day course is $695.00 per person.
- We offer an academic discount to those who qualify. The academic rate for this course is $495.
We accept payment by credit card, company purchase order, check, wire, or direct deposit. For security purposes, please do not send credit card information via email. COMSOL will contact you by phone to confirm the payment information.
Mail payments or purchase orders to:
COMSOL, Inc.
100 District Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803
Fax purchase orders to:
COMSOL, Inc.
ATTN: Training
Please review our course cancellation/return policies. For additional information, please email email@example.com.
Register for Heat Transfer Modeling (1 Day)
This event has ended. Visit the event calendar to view upcoming events.


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Zula E. Hunt
Funeral services for Zula E. Hunt, 91, of Sweetwater, will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013, at McCoy Chapel of Memories with Rev. Donald Hunt and Rev. Danny Cook officiating. Interment will follow at Garden of Memories Cemetery under the direction of McCoy Funeral Home of Sweetwater.Family will receive friends from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2013 at McCoy Funeral Home.Hunt died Friday, Sept. 27, 2013, at Nolan Nursing and Rehab in Sweetwater.She was born Feb. 2, 1922 in Sommerset, Kentucky. She married Oscar E. Hunt on Nov. 10, 1945 in Sommerset, KY. She was a member of the Church of God of Prophecy. She worked and retired from Sweetwater ISD High School Cafeteria. She had worked in Ohio for the U. S. Defense Plant and air plane factory during the WWII. She has lived in Sweetwater for 65 years.Survivors include one son, Donald Hunt and wife Carol of Sweetwater; daughter, Catherine Rebecca Cook and husband Danny of Kilgore, TX; two brothers, Hobert Tomlinson of Abilene and Hubert Tomlinson and wife Barb of Akron, Ohio; five grandchildren, Kimberly McKinney and husband Donnie of Sweetwater, Kevin Cook and wife Kelly of Alexandria, LA, Kendall Cook and wife Allison of Kodiak, Alaska, Ron Hunt of Sulphur Springs and Ricky Hunt of Sulphur Springs; and seven great-grandchildrenShe was preceded in death by her husband, Oscar Hunt on Feb. 20, 1975; and by one of her twin sons, Ronald Gene Hunt on June 24, 2006.Pallbearers will be Kimberly McKinney, Donnie McKinney, Michallah McKinney, Kevin Cook, Ashleigh McKinney, Jack Pinkerton and Tommy Langsford.Online condolences may be expressed at www.mccoyfh.com.


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The process of buying a new Chrysler car or truck can seem overwhelming if you don't know where to begin. Edmunds.com can get you started on the right track with a convenient directory of Chrysler car dealerships in and around Houston, Pennsylvania. Compare online price quotes on the new or used car, truck, SUV, minivan, or wagon of your choice to locate the best deals. Edmunds.com makes it easy to find trusted Chrysler car dealers in Houston, saving car buyers time and money on what will be an important purchase.
Non Display Review Name "I recently had my 2016 Jeep Patriot in for an unexpected repair with Three Rivers west Liberty. I've always been skeptical of the bumper to bumper war"... Read more Review by: LeeMancuso
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IT Management Slideshow: 11 Elements of Power
"Being powerful is like being a lady," former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said. "If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." Here's the point: You can't just stand up and announce to a room of colleagues and employees that you're powerful. Nor does this quality automatically come with your job title. Power, it seems, must be earned. And -- like a marathon runner training day-in, day-out -- cultivating power is a constant exercise. This is the contention of the book The Elements of Power: Lessons on Leadership and Influence(Amacom/Available now). Author Terry R. Bacon distinguishes 11 clearly defined elements of power and conveys how CIOs and other executives can effectively adapt behaviors and best practices to exude this characteristic. The critical components of power aren't really about money, job status or social standing. Bacon reveals that personal qualities are far more influential within an organization. Bacon is a leadership/management expert, coach and consultant and founder of the Lore International Institute, an executive development firm recently acquired by the Korn/Ferry Institute, where he now serves as a scholar in residence.


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Reviewed By Michael H (Bothell, WA) Reviewed for a 2008 Jeep Wrangler —8/7/2017 9:26 PM
Does a lot of cool things, Was a little disappointed that it has no control of the Rubicon sway bar disconnect, as some reviews state. It will turn off the warning light it the user has bypassed it in some other manner. In addition, locker control seems to be there in 2wd and 4 hi also, but in mine, I have to be stopped to engage the lockers with the td2. The switch allows locking while moving, but only in 4low. I have had the td2 lock up a few times and require a power cycle to reset.


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What is WordPress? WordPress is an online, open source website creation tool written in PHP. But in non-geek speak, it's probably the easiest and most powerful blogging and website content management system (or CMS) in existence today.
Just Getting Started with WordPress?
Our handbook for beginners offers an introduction to WordPress, the amazing open-source website platform. You'll learn the benefits of using WordPress, as well as step-by-step instructions for getting familiar with the WordPress Dashboard. You'll also learn about WordPress themes and plugins, how to create your first post or page, and optimize your site for search engines—all with helpful links to video tutorials.
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WordPress is free. Yep, that's right – it's 100% free.
WordPress can be downloaded for self-hosted installations from WordPress.org or it can also be used as a hosted service via WordPress.com.
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Education is the state's first priority. So it's good news that the schools are going to get a needed boost from this year's budget.
The Florida Legislature is flush with new money, and some in Tallahassee want to spend the extra cash on overdue pay raises for teachers.
Some caution is advised as the Legislature decides what to do with a projected $3.5 billion surplus. The economy still isn't hitting on all cylinders, and the state also needs to increase funding for other priorities, including health care, courts and law enforcement.
Still, there is little reason not to tackle Gov. Rick Scott's No. 1 priority for part of that surplus — a pay raise for Florida's public-school teachers. The question has been how much, and whether to tie this new raise to performance. Those questions are causing some tension between the governor and the Legislature.
Leaders in the Senate and the House of Representatives support tying the raise into some form of merit assessment. Scott's plan is to give teachers an across-the-board $2,500 pay raise.
The raise would cost about $480 million, almost 14 percent of the surplus. That figure does not appear to be the main sticking point. State Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, the Education Appropriations Subcommittee chairman, wants to tie the raise to student performance.
House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, has also indicated he supports merit pay. A detailed House spending plan has yet to be released.
Scott has a good argument for making the raise across the board.
Florida's 168,000 teachers have endured some lean budget years. Other states are increasing teacher pay. The Florida average for teacher pay is about $10,000 behind the national average.
Scott believes Florida teachers as a group have done well and earned the raise. The National Council on Teacher Quality has ranked Florida No. 1 in teacher effectiveness.
The state is preparing to implement a merit-pay system in 2014, although there have been some problems in coming up with sound assessments of teacher performance. But merit pay is an idea whose time has come in education, and Scott has supported the concept.
This year, however, it makes sense to raise the state's overall level of teacher compensation. House and Senate leaders should listen to the governor on this issue.
It's clear the raise for teachers is a first step in dealing with employee-compensation issues the state will face as the economy improves and state revenue rises to new levels. Other state workers, such as prison guards, have gone about six years without an across-the-board raise.
Also, lawmakers cannot ignore the need for funding other priorities such as health care, mental health care, prisons, and courts. In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, the Legislature should also take a close look at providing more funding for school security.
Education is the state's first priority. So it's good news that the schools are going to get a needed boost from this year's budget. Now Scott and the Legislature need to work through the details and ensure that teachers are adequately rewarded for their crucial work.


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Provider of ALL driving instruction needs from basic lessons to ADI training.
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Thu, 30 November 2017
Bulgaria's leading cosmetics company has signed a deal to launch in the UK despite Brexit, it has been revealed.
Rosa Impex, based in Plovdiv, specialises in natural products, like rose oil, a substance for which Bulgaria has been the market leaders for two centuries.
The "Regal" brand of face creams and cosmetics contain ONLY natural products and are paraben-free, making them amongst the purest cosmetics available.
"We are proud to be leaders in our field" explained the UK distributor, Dobri Petkov. "Most manufacturers incorporate preservatives in their products, despite these 'parabens' being harmful to the very skin they are purporting to protect."
"Our range of Regal skincare products are guaranteed paraben-free and are 100% natural; something no other cosmetics company can claim."
"We work WITH nature, rather than trying to artificially develop chemical-based cosmetics, so our products are environmentally sustainable and they are proven to be more effecttive in the control of wrinkles".
The Goji berry extract which forms the basis of the Regal Face cream range, is rich in amino acids, polysaccharides, antioxidants and microelements.
The cream is very useful for removing the existing wrinkles and eliminates the appearance of new ones. SPF 20 prevents premature aging, appearance of pigmentation caused by UV-A and UV-B rays.
For more details Click Here
The Regal range is expected to arrive in the UK by Spring 2018.


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Kenny Miles rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown and No. 2 South Carolina pulled out a closer-than-expected 24-7 win over FCS opponent Wofford 24-7 on Saturday.
The victory gave Steve Spurrier his 64th win in eight seasons with the Gamecocks (9-2), tying him with Rex Enright for most ever in program history. But it wasn't until a 17-point fourth quarter that Spurrier and South Carolina could rest easy in this one.
Adam Yates' 23-yard field goal broke a 7-all tie with 11:57 to go. After the Terriers (8-3) failed on a 4th-and-1 at their 34, Connor Shaw threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Ace Sanders to widen the lead.
Moments later, Wofford's Eric Breitenstein fumbled and Akeem Auguste returned it 31 yards for a touchdown, making it 24-7.
It was the Gamecocks 11th straight win at Williams-Brice Stadium and completed their first perfect run at home (7-0) since 1987.
The Gamecocks played this one without star defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who didn't practice all week because of a sprained foot. He's expected back next week when South Carolina closes the season against rival Clemson at Death Valley.
South Carolina's won 16 straight over Wofford, who won a share of the Southern Conference this season and will likely get a bid to the FCS playoffs on Sunday.
Still, the Terriers' quirky, throwback triple-option attack has always given Spurrier's teams fits, nearly knocking off the Gamecocks when the teams met in 2006 (27-20) and in 2010 (23-13).
This game appeared to be different as South Carolina's defense, even without injured Clowney, held Wofford to 15 total yards in the opening quarter.
The Gamecocks also were moving easily on offense, crossing into Wofford territory on their first three series. But mistakes cost South Carolina and Wofford eventually took advantage.
Shaw threw a bad interception on Wofford's 33 to linebacker Alvin Scioneaux to end one drive. Freshman tailback Mike Davis was stripped of the ball on the Terriers' 6 while heading to the end zone on another. In between, Miles had a 2-yard TD run to put the Gamecocks up 7-0.
Wofford and Breitenstein finally got going right before halftime with a 12-play, 85-yard drive. Breitenstein, the SoCon's leading rusher with 1,528 yards coming in, carried the final seven times for 46 yards including a 2-yard touchdown with 32 seconds left in the half that tied things 7-7.
Breitenstein finished with 125 yards and a touchdown.
Shaw was 16 of 20 for 122 yards, but also threw an interception and was sacked four times.
There were some boos at halftime from the 79,982 on hand, and more in the third quarter as the Gamecocks continued to struggle.
When it was over, though, the crowd celebrated the undefeated home season and Spurrier lingered on the field and waved to the fans as he walked off. Spurrier held the coaching wins record at his alma mater and now joins Bear Bryant as coaches holding such marks at more than one Southeastern Conference school.
Spurrier remains the winningest coach in Florida history with 122 victories. Bryant holds the records for most wins at Alabama (232) and at Kentucky (60).


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Watson Realty Corp, a trusted name since 1965, was a dream of Bill Watson`s even while he was a student at Stetson University in the late 1950s. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business with a major in Real Estate and Insurance he completed his military obligation and returned to Jacksonville, immediately going to work in the industry of his choice. Watson Realty Corp. began on December 16, 1965 as a single office real estate company in a shared storefront with Bill Watson and one part-time sales agent. From the beginning, Watson Realty has focused on Legendary Quality Service, with long-range rather than short-term goals - building upon a foundation of strong leadership and salesmanship. Watson Realty`s first branch office opened on March 1, 1970 and we have continued to expand ever since - now with 39 residential sales offices and more than 1,200 sales associates throughout Northeast Florida, the Beaches, Gainesville and South Georgia.
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WASHINGTON - By all rights, 2012 ought to be a cakewalk for the GOP. Unemployment is pandemic. Riot police are confronting protesters in public squares and on college campuses. In an epic fail of foresight, the Democratic convention will be held in one of the world's banking centers, Charlotte, North Carolina – setting the stage for violent clashes not seen since the streets of Chicago, 1968. "I hope they keep this up," gloated Grover Norquist, one of the Republican Party's most influential strategists. "Hippies elected Nixon. Occupy Wall Street will beat Obama."
But don't go writing the president's political obituary just yet: He may wind up being resurrected by the GOP itself. The Republican Party – dominated by hardliners still cocky after the electoral sweep of 2010 – has backed its entire slate of candidates into far-right corners on everything from the environment and immigration to taxation and economic austerity. Whether the GOP opts for Mitt Romney or an "anti-Mitt" is almost entirely beside the point. On the major policy issues of the day, there's barely a ray of sunshine between any of the viable Republicans, not counting those who have committed the sin of libertarianism (Ron Paul) or moderation (Jon Huntsman). No matter who winds up with the nomination, it appears, Obama will face a candidate to the right of Barry Goldwater.
Take it from one of the most divisive figures in the history of GOP presidential politics: "Those people in the Republican primary have got to lay off," the televangelist Pat Robertson warned recently. "They're forcing their leaders, the front-runners, into positions that will mean they lose the general election." Robertson knows fringe politics: In 1988, he ran for president on a platform that included abolishing the Department of Education and adopting a constitutional amendment to prohibit deficit spending. At the time, Robertson was dismissed as an unelectable candidate of the far right. Today, he would be somewhere to the left of Texas governor Rick Perry. And that way lies ruin: "You'll appeal to the narrow base, and they'll applaud the daylights out of what you're saying," Robertson cautioned. "And then you hit the general election and they say, 'No way!' They've got to stop this!"
But Republican candidates show no signs of moderating their positions. In fact, with the first primary contests rapidly approaching, all of the top contenders are tripping over themselves in a race to the far right. Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan kicked off a flat-tax bidding war: Perry is calling for an even more regressive rate of 20 percent, while Newt Gingrich advocates a flat tax of just 15 percent. Even Mitt Romney – who once blasted such proposals for enriching "fat cats" – now exclaims, "I love a flat tax!" The candidates have also lined up behind a host of other extremist positions: waging war with Iran, slashing or privatizing benefits like Social Security, extending constitutional rights to zygotes, eliminating restrictions on Big Oil and other deadly polluters, and freeing up Wall Street to return to the lawlessness that buzzsawed the global economy. Individual candidates have embellished this partywide radicalism with wingnuttery all their own: Gingrich calls child labor laws "truly stupid," Perry likens Social Security to "a bad disease," and Romney wants to privatize unemployment insurance.
To many GOP stalwarts, conditions today seem ripe for a repeat, not of the 1968 election of Richard Nixon, but of the setback the party experienced four years earlier, when embattled incumbent Lyndon Johnson won re-election in a landslide over Republican hardliner Goldwater. "I can't imagine that we expect – even with the economic situation the way it is – anything but a Goldwater-like drubbing if we persist with these guys," says Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Even Romney is in many ways unelectable. He's been a hardliner during the primary on key issues – and then he's going to do this dance where he suddenly shifts to the middle and is a centrist in the general election? He can do that – but Obama will trounce him."
Nowhere is the GOP's lock-step approach to governance more in evidence than on the question of employment. At a moment when 25 million Americans lack full-time jobs, this is obviously going to be the central issue of the 2012 election. Yet the Republican candidates all have the same jobs plan: to put the unemployed to work on behalf of big polluters.
Take the plan proposed by Rick Perry, which calls for boosting employment through "increased domestic energy production" – including renewable power. But every one of the 1.2 million jobs that Perry claims his plan would create involves the extraction of climate-polluting fossil fuels. There are 20,000 jobs from building the Keystone XL pipeline to burn more of Canada's tar sands, 100,000 from oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 240,000 from drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Carolinas, and 500,000 from "onshore oil and gas development" in the West.
With minor variations, this is the same jobs plan put forth by every GOP candidate. The only true disagreement among them is just how many dirty-energy jobs can be created by allowing Big Oil and other polluters to pillage America's landscape and shorelines. Gingrich pegs it at 1.1 million jobs. Michele Bachmann says it's 1.4 million. Romney, whose plan is predicated on the return to the kind of fast-track permitting that precipitated the BP disaster in the Gulf, promises 1.6 million jobs – including 1.2 million from offshore drilling alone. "The United States is blessed with a cornucopia of carbon-based energy resources," Romney writes in his plan. "We do not even know the extent of our blessings."
To clear the way for the orgy of drilling, mining and fracking the GOP candidates have proposed, it's first necessary to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been authorized by the Supreme Court to curb climate pollution. Many of the top Republican contenders, in fact, once sounded the alarm on climate change; today, they scoff at its very existence.
In 2008, for example, Gingrich filmed a commercial for Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the spot, Gingrich gazed into Pelosi's eyes before looking into the camera and declaring, "We do agree: Our country must take action to address climate change." Gingrich vowed to "strongly support" mandatory caps on carbon pollution. But now that the likes of Peabody Energy have pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into his lobbying coffers, Gingrich is singing the polluters' tune. In November, he said he no longer believes climate change is real: "I actually don't know whether global warming is occurring."
Romney's flip-flop was even swifter. In June, at the start of his campaign, he declared, "I believe that humans contribute" to warming through "our emissions of greenhouse gases." By October, he had fully embraced climate denial, insisting that "we don't know what's causing climate change." His jobs plan, meanwhile, casts the industries driving the climate crisis as victims of "the Obama administration's war on carbon dioxide." Like every other top Republican in the race, Romney also insists that the EPA be effectively barred from enforcing the Clean Air Act, calling the hallmark environmental legislation "outdated" and insisting that it must be "streamlined" to benefit coal plants by "removing carbon dioxide from its purview."
To date, Romney has received $300,000 in oil and gas contributions. That's a pittance in comparison to Perry, who has pocketed $740,000 from the same industries. Perry is a shameless climate denier who maintains – against all evidence – that "we have been experiencing a global cooling trend" and that climate change is "all one contrived phony mess" cooked up by Gore, that "false prophet of a secular carbon cult." The Texas governor insists that all new rules designed to curb the deadly emissions of coal plants or the toxic chemicals used in the fracking of natural gas should be put on hold.
Other GOP candidates go even further. Bachmann insists that under her presidency, the EPA will have its "doors locked and lights turned off." Gingrich blasts the agency – created by Richard Nixon – as "a tool of ideologues to push an anti-jobs agenda." Outdoing them all, Cain advocates that the EPA be overhauled by a commission staffed by "the people closest to the problem" – the "problem," in his view, being federal curbs on pollution, and the "people" being big-energy CEOs. "If you've been abused by the EPA like Shell Oil," Cain said this fall, "I'm going to ask the CEO of Shell Oil would he like to be on this commission, and give me some recommendations."
The leading GOP candidates also want to roll back new regulations introduced by the Obama administration to prevent industrial boilers, cement plants and coal smokestacks from pumping poisons into the atmosphere that cause tens of thousands of premature deaths each year. Even Republican veterans are appalled by such a blatant rejection of the party's storied history of conservation, dating back to Teddy Roosevelt. "These rules are grounded in the best available science," noted William Reilly, who served as EPA chief under George H.W. Bush. "But for some of the most prominent leaders of the Republican Party, science has left the building."
So extreme is the agenda of the GOP candidates, in fact, that it even trashes the laissez-faire legacy of Goldwater. "While I am a great believer in the free-enterprise system," the Arizona senator said in 1970, "I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean, pollution-free environment."
The GOP candidates are not just seeking to roll back regulations on Big Carbon – they also want to gut a wide range of safeguards designed to protect consumers and workers. Perry has called for a "moratorium" on all pending regulations. Bachmann wants an end to "this red-tape rampage." Romney, in a fit of technocratic nonsense, is calling for a cap on regulatory costs, whereby the economic impact of any new regulation must be offset by repealing an established rule. Under his bizarre plan, a Romney administration might pay for new rules against contaminated meat by eliminating the current ban on lead paint in children's toys.
Above all, the GOP candidates are unanimous in their desire to kill the new post-crash rules crafted to end reckless speculation by big banks and Wall Street firms. Gingrich has gone so far as to call for the Democratic authors of the law, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank, to be jailed for "killing small banks, crippling small businesses, driving down the value of housing and creating corrupting Washington controls over the biggest banks." Repeal of Dodd-Frank would allow Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs to return to the days of secretly trading trillions in derivatives contracts and betting against their own clients. It would also kill off the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency set up by Elizabeth Warren to prevent average Americans from being suckered into subprime mortgages and credit cards with usurious interest rates.
When the GOP candidates talk about these essential curbs on the abuses of big banks, it's as though they live in an alternate universe – one where Wall Street never drove the world's economy off a cliff. Cain insists that Dodd-Frank "does little to shield Main Street from the alleged risks of Wall Street," while Perry adds that the law should be replaced by "market-oriented" measures – but only if such controls should prove "necessary." The GOP front-runners are so committed to a Wall Street free-for-all that they even want to gut Sarbanes-Oxley, the accounting reforms passed under George W. Bush to bar corporate America from the kinds of bookkeeping fraud pioneered by Tyco, WorldCom and Enron.
Such deregulatory radicalism puts the GOP candidates at direct odds with Paul Volcker, the former chair of the Federal Reserve who helped steer the nation out of a crippling recession during the Reagan administration. Volcker, too, is critical of Dodd-Frank – but he believes the law doesn't go far enough. "I think Dodd-Frank was close to as good as we could get," Volcker said this fall. "But it's nowhere near what we need."
The Republican candidates are uniformly committed to repealing the president's health care reform – what Perry, with characteristic subtlety, calls a "man-made disaster of epic proportions." Under the GOP plans, nearly 1 million young adults would once again be denied coverage, seniors would be forced to shell out billions more for prescription medicines, and insurers could return to hiking premiums while denying coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions. For these and other reasons, Romney insists, "Obamacare is bad for America's families."
Obamacare, however, is only the top entitlement program on the GOP hit list. Almost all of the Republican candidates want to privatize Medicare, replacing its guaranteed benefits to retirees with a fixed voucher insufficient to cover the soaring costs of private insurance. The GOP front-runners have also endorsed a radical plan to cap the federal contribution to Medicaid – a move that would gut insurance for the poor by as much as 3.5 percent a year and shift $150 billion in annual costs onto cash-strapped states. According to the Congressional Budget Office, states unable to pay the added costs would be forced to either "curtail eligibility" to those in need or "provide less extensive coverage."
When it comes to Social Security, the Republican candidates have all advocated that it be privatized for younger workers – creating a system of personal accounts that would place their retirement security at the mercy of the stock market. The undisputed victor of the GOP plans would be Wall Street, which would profit enormously from collecting management fees over a worker's lifetime. A study by the University of Chicago that analyzed a similar privatization scheme proposed by George W. Bush projected that such fees would hand Wall Street "the largest windfall gain in American financial history" while "reducing the ultimate value of individual accounts by 20 percent."
While threatening to slash the safety net for millions of Americans, the GOP candidates are also committed to a brutal austerity program that would tip the nation back into recession – if not a full-scale depression. The proposal in question is a constitutional amendment that would require the federal government to pass a balanced budget each year. According to Macroeconomic Advisers, a top economic forecaster, balancing the budget in 2012 alone would throw 15 million Americans out of work, double unemployment to 18 percent and contract the U.S. economy by 17 percent. Going forward, the government would be barred from borrowing money during hard times to provide unemployment benefits, food stamps and other essential aid to those in need. As a result, the analysts report, "recessions would be deeper and longer." Even in times of plenty, a balanced-budget amendment would "retard economic growth" by increasing economic uncertainty – which Republicans have repeatedly blamed as the root of the current lackluster recovery.
One portion of the budget that the GOP's austerity agenda doesn't touch is the Pentagon, where the Republican candidates call for the kind of costly investments they refuse to back for America's poor and middle class. While demanding that federal spending be capped at 20 percent of GDP, Romney would mandate that at least one in five federal dollars be spent on defense. "I will not look to the military as a place to balance the budget," he says. Neither will Gingrich, who calls on taxpayers to "recapitalize our military infrastructure," or Perry, who wants to sink billions into missile defense and "modernized fleets of ships and aircraft."
To justify such massive defense spending, the GOP candidates would ensure that America remains entangled in bloody wars in the Middle East. When Obama announced earlier this fall that he would complete the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq – on the timetable negotiated by President Bush – Romney denounced the move as an "astonishing failure." Bachmann called on "our troops to remain there to preserve the peace," and Perry insisted that "we need to finish our mission in Iraq" – which evidently involves occupying the country indefinitely, regardless of the wishes of its democratically elected government.
The GOP candidates have been even more hawkish on Iran, with Perry, Romney, Gingrich and Bachmann all promising to go to war to prevent the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Of the top-tier candidates, only Cain expressed reservations about another war in the Middle East, saying instead that he would surround the country with a mobile missile-defense network and tell Ahmadinejad to "make my day."
"This is nonsense – idiocy! – to contemplate another war in that region right now," says Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Colin Powell. Obama's remarkable successes in foreign policy, he adds – including the demise of both Osama bin Laden and Muammar Qaddafi – have panicked the GOP field into a reflexive hawkishness. "For the Republicans, that's their mantra," Wilkerson says. "The only thing they know is war, war and more war."
The leading Republican candidates all back a host of sweetheart tax cuts for major corporations, whose income is currently taxed at 35 percent. Romney would reduce the corporate rate to 25 percent, while Perry would drop it to 20 percent and Gingrich would slash it to 12.5 percent. Worse, the GOP candidates also favor a "territorial" tax system that would prohibit Uncle Sam from collecting any revenues on profits stashed overseas. The move, according to tax experts, would spur U.S. corporations to shift millions of jobs and billions in profits offshore.
All of the candidates also want to eliminate or drastically curb taxes on investment income, and allow the children of the rich to pay no taxes on their inheritances. For Romney, whose net worth is estimated at $200 million, the issue is personal: With the estate tax repealed, he could pass on an extra $90 million to his children, tax-free – including his son Tagg, currently scraping by as a managing partner at a private equity firm.
All told, the elimination of the estate tax – whose benefits would accrue solely to the top 0.3 percent of taxpayers – would spike the deficit by an estimated $1.3 trillion over the next decade. Yet the GOP candidates continue to insist that the move would somehow benefit the middle class; Gingrich claims that "eliminating the death tax will create more jobs and more revenue for the federal government." Such lunacy enrages the party's few remaining fiscal conservatives. "Republican thinking about fiscal policy is fundamentally wrong, and it has been for quite a while," says Paul O'Neill, who served as Treasury secretary under George W. Bush. "The whole notion that we can cut taxes to the vanishing point and keep raising more money is just crazy. It could even be amusing if it wasn't so dangerous."
It's no surprise that the GOP candidates oppose a woman's right to choose. Every candidate but Romney has signed a pledge vowing to permanently defund Planned Parenthood and to appoint only pro-lifers to key federal health positions. But now, rather than simply pushing to repeal Roe v. Wade, they also want to change the Constitution to award full citizenship to a woman's egg the moment it is fertilized. "Personhood begins at conception," insists Gingrich, who wants Congress to pass a law defining embryos as "persons" under the 14th Amendment – a move designed to make abortion unconstitutional. Even Romney, who was elected in Massachusetts as a staunchly pro-choice politician, said on Fox News recently that he "absolutely" would have signed a "personhood" amendment giving constitutional rights to the unborn. An identical measure on the ballot last November – which would have outlawed abortion for victims of rape and incest – was so radical that even Mississippi voters rejected it.
The candidates' positions on immigration are so extreme that they seem to have been dreamed up by the Minutemen militia. Perry vows to militarize the border with "boots on the ground" and Predator drones hunting down illegal border crossers from the skies. Offering few details, Romney says "we gotta have a fence" along the Mexican border, while Bachmann envisions a barrier that's 2,000 miles long and "double-walled." Cain has vowed to erect a "Great Wall... 20 feet high. It's going to have barbed wire on the top. It's going to be electrified. And there's going to be a sign on the other side saying, 'It will kill you – WARNING!'" Gingrich, who touts his "humane" approach to deportation, has nonetheless trashed even legal immigrants, once denouncing Spanish itself as "the language of living in a ghetto."
The GOP's determination to sabotage its appeal among Latinos – America's fastest-growing voting bloc – has many Democrats exulting. "We may just run clips of the Republican debates verbatim," Obama told a gathering of Hispanic journalists in November. "We won't even comment on them – we'll just run those in a loop on Univision and Telemundo, and people can make up their own minds."
Where does this radical new GOP orthodoxy come from? On the economic and regulatory front, at least, a recent interview with Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, offers a clue. Donohue outlined the business group's top policy prescriptions – and they are virtually identical to those promoted by the GOP candidates.
Job creation? "The idea with the greatest potential," Donohue said, "is to do a number of things in energy." Environmental protection? Stop giving "wildlife the priority over jobs." Federal regulation? Obama has "exploded the regulatory burden, particularly through health care, Dodd-Frank and the Environmental Protection Agency." Corporate tax rates? "We're the only major country in the world that double-taxes our companies," Donohue said. "That's just plain stupid."
But slavish devotion to the interests of corporate America is only part of the equation underlying the GOP's current extremism. Today, just 28 percent of Americans identify themselves as Republicans – a drop of five points from the Bush years. To be the ringleader in a small-tent party requires adopting positions that are offensive to the broader public – and even to people who once fit comfortably in the GOP coalition. "You've got to address everything from abortion to how many evangelicals can sit on the head of a pin," says Wilkerson. "It's really a problem."
So far, the GOP has gotten away with its sharp turn to the right. In the midterm elections last year, in which Republican hardliners seized control of Congress, conservatives cast 41 percent of all votes. Senior citizens made up a quarter of the electorate, as did voters making more than $100,000 a year. But the general election next fall will attract voters who are younger and less affluent. If Obama can inspire anything resembling the historic turnout he sparked in 2008, the GOP is in for a beat-down. The Hispanic vote, for example, is expected to rise by nearly a quarter next year – and a recent poll found Latino voters swinging to Obama by nearly three-to-one over both Romney and Perry.
What's more, the GOP's appeal to the most extreme elements of its coalition may prompt moderate Republicans to stay home – or even to vote for Obama. As long as the GOP insists on catering to the needs of the ultrarich, Republican veterans warn, it risks alienating the working-class conservatives who ushered in the Age of Reagan. "The Republican Party is just screwed up in its head," says David Stockman, who served as budget director under Reagan. "It's behaving politically in a very irrational way, and policywise in a nonsensical manner."
Mike Lofgren, until recently a top Republican staffer on the Senate Budget Committee, has offered an even more dire assessment of "the whole toxic stew of GOP beliefs." This fall, Lofgren announced he was abandoning his own party – unable to stomach what he called "the headlong rush of Republicans to embrace policies that are deeply damaging to this country's future." Citing the "broad and ever-widening gulf between the traditional Republicanism of an Eisenhower and the quasi-totalitarian cult of a Michele Bachmann," Lofgren summed up the GOP's capitulation to extremism: "The crackpot outliers of two decades ago," he concludes, "have become the vital center today."


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The cockerel was the symbol of Murano when it was independent from Venice ( whose symbol is the lion), and in 1923 there was an outcry when Murano was forced to become part of Venice. The Glassworks Moretti (and some others) made cockerel murrine and there were many other items featuring the cockerel made at around that time as a protest.
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Arson Investigations
State Fire Investigators play a vital role in the battle against arson throughout the State of New Mexico. They work with local and state authorities to fight this crime, which affects every New Mexican. State fire Investigators respond to all requests for assistance from local fire departments and law enforcement agencies. New Mexico State Fire Investigators are trained in origin and cause, evidence collection, interviewing, fraud investigation and other aspects of criminal investigation.
The Fire Marshal's Office is mandated to determine fire origin and cause. During FY 2002 Fire Marshal investigators responded to 53 requests for investigation. Those investigations have resulted in 13 arrests for arson or related crimes. Three investigations involved fire deaths and 15 were determined to be accidental in nature. Most of the investigations were turned over to the FBI, BIA, state law enforcement agencies or local authorities for follow-up.
State Fire Investigators are usually contacted when:
Types of Fires New Mexico State Fire Marshal's Office Investigates: