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This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan in Washington. Congress clamors back up the cliff but not before the speaker flips off the majority leader, and it's déjà vu all over again as we hit the debt ceiling. It's Wednesday and time for a....
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Groundhog Day...
CONAN: Edition of the Political Junkie.
PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN: There you go again.
VICE PRESIDENT WALTER MONDALE: When I hear your new ideas, I'm reminded of that ad: Where's the beef?
SEN. BARRY GOLDWATER: Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.
SEN. LLOYD BENTSEN: Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.
PRESIDENT RICHARD NIXON: You don't have Nixon to kick around anymore.
SARAH PALIN: Lipstick.
GOV. RICK PERRY: Oops
PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: But I'm the decider.
CONAN: Every Wednesday, political junkie Ken Rudin joins us to recap the week in politics. And this past week can be described as excruciating, exasperating, extended, but not quite endless.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: On this vote, the yays are 257. The nays are 167. The motion is adopted. Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
CONAN: Congress finally finds a way to escape the fiscal cliff and promptly sits beneath the Sword of Damocles dangling from the debt ceiling. Secretary Clinton goes to the hospital for treatment of a blood clot. Bay State Democrats coalesce around a candidate to replace her successor. And Hawaii's new senator is sworn in.
Later in the program, three new members of the House, and we'll look at the winners and losers from this week's drama. You can email us now, firstname.lastname@example.com. But first political junkie Ken Rudin joins us here in Studio 3A. And we begin, as usual, with a trivia question. Happy New Year, Ken.
KEN RUDIN, BYLINE: Happy New Year to you, too, Neal. And Happy averting fiscal cliff for now.
CONAN: For now.
RUDIN: OK, well anyway, the trivia question, this is going to be another spenate - spenate secial - special Senate election in Massachusetts this year to replace John Kerry, once he's confirmed as secretary of state. The state's previous senator, Scott Brown, was also elected in a special election following the death of Ted Kennedy. So the question is: Of all the senators first elected in a special election who will be serving in the 113th Congress, which one is the most senior?
CONAN: If you think you know the answer to this week's trivia question, if you can figure out this week's trivia question, give us a call, 800-989-8255. Email firstname.lastname@example.com. Of the 100 senators who will serve in the 113th Congress, which has been serving the longest, having been first elected in a special election?
RUDIN: It makes complete sense to me.
CONAN: It does - to you. In the meantime, Ken, what a drama. Yesterday at this time, we thought the deal was dead.
RUDIN: Well, we did, and we didn't. I mean, we also said that you know that some deal is going to have to be attained right before the deadline, and even though we had 17 months - we were prepared for this for 17 months - yet suddenly at the last second - it's like studying for a test the last second, you do that - so we're known for that thing.
But I mean it was just, the emotions are still raw, the emotions are certainly far from healed. And yet you could argue who got the better of the deal. The left is still very unhappy that Obama gave away the store. The right is still unhappy that Boehner was too willing to compromise with the old...
CONAN: Agreed to raise taxes but got no spending cuts.
RUDIN: No spending cuts. So, you know, I mean so - but ultimately the economy has not fallen apart. It is not Henny Penny. The sky is not falling, at least as of January 2nd, 2013. We'll see what happens after that.
CONAN: The stock market likes it. It's up currently 220 points. This may not last, but in the meantime, it's back up over 13,000. Anyway, as we look at this process, we're going to be talking about winners and loser later in this process, but what, 10 days ago, it was Plan B that crashed and burned in the House. Speaker Boehner then punted over to the Senate, which finally got around to passing a bill with strong-arming from the vice president of the United States on New Year's Eve, or actually, after midnight on New Year's Eve.
RUDIN: Well, it seemed like - I mean, if you want to make this argument that the adults took charge, Boehner was ineffective in his meetings. Not only was he ineffective with his meetings with President Obama, but he obviously didn't have the support or the backing of his House Republicans. I mean, when he came up with this Plan B, that is to tax folks - to remove the Bush tax cuts from those making over a million dollars, many Republicans balked and said look, we're not supporting any tax hikes for anybody, even if you're making a million dollars a year.
So as it turned out, what they signed for were those making under - over $400,000 a year.
CONAN: $450,000 for combined income.
RUDIN: Right, for couple. So, so I mean, you know, ultimately perhaps Plan B was something that the Republicans should have taken, or at least a lot of the anti-tax Republicans should have taken, when Boehner was trying to get it. But he didn't have their support then, either.
CONAN: Well, we go back to that grand bargain that Speaker Boehner and President Obama tried to negotiate, what, a year and a half ago at the debt ceiling, when they triggered this fiscal cliff in the first place, when they couldn't make a deal. And that grand bargain all of a sudden looks a little bit better, too.
RUDIN: Certainly for the Republicans, because back then, President Obama was talking about $600 billion in spending cuts, and as far as I know from this thing that we just signed, perhaps maybe - we...
CONAN: We, you and me, yeah.
RUDIN: There's maybe $12 billion in spending cuts. But of course there will be more anguish and more debate to be held. Of course the Republicans think they're going to bring this debate all over again, up all over again once the debt ceiling argument is renewed at the end of February. But President Obama says absolutely not, there's no negotiation on that.
CONAN: Well, there's going to be much more about that in the weeks to come. But how does the president not negotiate over the debt ceiling? The Republicans can say in exchange for raising this debt limit, we will demand X, Y and Z.
RUDIN: Right, and the president says these are bills that we've already agreed to, we've already spent this, and we - obviously we have to pay our bills. And that's what we intend to do.
CONAN: Well, we'll have to see how this negotiation works out. In the meantime, the sequestration is punted down that far, as well. So that's another hostage being held to an agreement at the end of February. And, well, all kinds of other stuff passed in this bill last night. There was the dairy, the Farm Bill, which prevents the prices of milk from zooming up. But no bill passed to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
RUDIN: Well no bill passed, no bill was brought up for a vote. And then the Republicans and Democrats from New York, New Jersey are furious. Michael Grimm from Staten Island, Peter King from Long Island - they're even talking about perhaps starting a little revolt against Speaker Boehner when he's up for re-election.
I mean, officially he's up for re-election tomorrow, and there are some rumors that maybe Eric Cantor will take him on. I doubt that's going to happen. But there's a lot of - there is certainly unhappiness in New York and New - look, here's what happened. They promised - the Senate passed a bill that would give billions of dollars to the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
The House clearly wanted to do something, but they didn't want to do it right after the fiscal cliff - they weren't going to have another spending bill after fiscal cliff negotiations ended. So basically Boehner said uh-uh, I'm pulling this from the floor in the 112th Congress. He still says that he expects that bill to pass this month in the new 113th, but I think yesterday was not the time to do it. But a lot of folks in New York and New Jersey are livid.
CONAN: As we speak, Chris Christie is holding a news conference - the governor of New Jersey - to lambast the Republican leadership in the Congress, which refused to bring the bill up. It had passed in the Senate. In the meantime, we have some people on the line who think they know the answer to this week's trivia question.
RUDIN: What was it again?
CONAN: And that is of the 100 senators who will be in the 113th Congress, which has served the longest after having been first elected in a special election? OK, all right.
RUDIN: Makes sense to me.
CONAN: We'll start with - this is Justin(ph), and Justin's on the line with us from Des Moines.
JUSTIN: Is it Barbara Boxer?
RUDIN: Barbara Boxer was not elected in a special election. She succeeded Alan Cranston in 1992.
CONAN: Thanks very much, Justin.
JUSTIN: No worries.
CONAN: All right, let's see if we can go next to - this is Ted(ph), Ted with us from Wilmington.
TED: Yes, I say Chris Coons in 2010.
RUDIN: Chris Coons was - was he elected in a special - yes, he was elected in a special election, but he's only been in the Senate for two year. He is not the most senior senator to be elected in a special election.
TED: Because he was elected after Senator Biden, for Joe Biden's seat.
RUDIN: That's correct. But there are people much more senior than he is.
TED: Thank you.
CONAN: Thanks very much. Let's see if we can go next to - this is Robert(ph) and Robert with us from Roscoe, Illinois.
ROBERT: Hi, is it Senator Kirk from Illinois, appointed - elected to the infamous Senate seat for sale?
RUDIN: No actually Senator Kirk - President Obama of course gave up the seat early. They appointed Roland Burris, Blagojevich tried to sell it to everybody else.
ROBERT: Oh yeah.
RUDIN: But Kirk actually was elected in 2010 when the original Obama seat was up. so it wasn't a special election.
ROBERT: Thank you.
CONAN: Thanks for the call, Robert, and let's go to Larry(ph), Larry from Alton in Virginia.
LARRY: Yes, Ashton in Virginia.
CONAN: Forgive me, I need new glasses.
LARRY: I'm going with Michael Bennet.
CONAN: Michael Bennet, the son of the president from Colorado.
RUDIN: Also elected in a special election, but again he was elected in 2010, special election, but not the most senior senator to have been...
CONAN: And when I said - former president, a former president of National Public Radio.
RUDIN: That's right.
CONAN: Anyway, thanks Larry. Let's see if we can go next to - this is Peter(ph), and Peter's on the line from Roseville in California.
PETER: Yes, it's the other woman senator from California, Dianne Feinstein.
RUDIN: That is the correct answer.
CONAN: Ding, ding, ding.
RUDIN: Because in 1988, Governor Pete Wilson gave up a Senate seat to be elected governor. He appointed, as you well remember, the very famous John Seymour to the Senate. And in that 1992 special election, Dianne Feinstein was elected in '92, and then she ran again in '94. So the answer is Dianne Feinstein.
CONAN: Congratulations, Peter, you'll start the new year with a free Political Junkie T-shirt and, of course, the fabulous no-prize Political Junkie winner button. So congratulations. Stay on the line, we'll collect your particulars.
PETER: Thank you.
CONAN: And let's go back...
RUDIN: He didn't sound that excited, did he?
CONAN: Well, it's early in California.
RUDIN: He's still celebrating, yeah.
CONAN: In any case, let's go back to the special election, the one coming up in Massachusetts, where we expect John Kerry will be confirmed to be the next secretary of state, to sail through, and there's already a lot of maneuvering on the Democratic side to line up behind one candidate in particular.
RUDIN: That's pretty remarkable given the fact that, you know, when you think of Ted Kennedy, as long as he served in the Senate, and John Kerry has been in the Senate since 1985. This is a seat that there are so many ambitious Democrats who really, really want it. Ed Markey, who was first elected to Congress, the House, in 1976, he said after many years of hemming and hawing about running for higher office, Ed Markey said I think I want to be a senator.
And suddenly every Democrat, well not every Democrat but...
CONAN: Well, one big exception.
RUDIN: Vicki Kennedy, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, they all seem to be uniting around Ed Markey, and a lot of people are saying other Democrats stay away. Now Stephen Lynch is one of those Democrats who were talking about running for it. But clearly the early backing of Ed Markey - and this is remarkable. Nobody has been in the House that long and went on to win a Senate seat.
So 36 years in the House, he's pretty remarkable. But the Democrats seem to be coalescing behind Ed Markey. Scott Brown looks like the likely Republican nominee.
CONAN: But Michael Capuano may run, also.
RUDIN: He's also looking at it, as well.
CONAN: In the meantime, we have a new senator from Hawaii appointed by the governor there, Neil Abercrombie, who got in time to vote on that, on the fiscal cliff deal.
RUDIN: Well, this was a shocker because everybody knows that Daniel Inouye, one of his final words or certainly final wishes, was that he wanted Abercrombie to name Colleen Hanabusa, a member of the House, to that Senate - to his Senate seat. And Abercrombie said no, I'm picking Peter - Brian Schatz, who is his lieutenant governor. He's 40 years old. He's Jewish. He's not Asian, as most senators from Hawaii have been - but a big surprise, Abercrombie wanted his person, not Inouye's person.
CONAN: In the meantime, new members, the other new members of the 113th Congress will be sworn in tomorrow, and we're going to talk with three of them when we come back from a short break. Stay with us. Ken Rudin is with us, as he is every Wednesday, in our political junkie segment. I'm Neal Conan. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
CONAN: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan. It's Wednesday, which means political junkie Ken Rudin is here with us in Studio 3A. Any ScuttleButton winners this week, Ken?
RUDIN: Not this week. It was some holiday. So - but next week the new political junkie column and the ScuttleButton puzzle returns on Monday.
CONAN: And you can find those at npr.org/junkie. Starting tomorrow, we'll have a brand new batch of lawmakers to discuss as the 113th Congress takes over the difficult task of addressing ongoing concerns about taxes, spending, sequestration and the debt ceiling.
Among the new congresspeople who will take their official vows on Capitol Hill tomorrow, three freshman members who join us here today on the program. Michelle Lujan Grisham is a Democratic representative-elect from New Mexico's First District. She's with us here in Studio 3A. Welcome.
REP.-ELECT MICHELLE LUJAN GRISHAM: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Also with us here in the studio, Democratic Representative-elect Kyrsten Sinema, who represents Arizona's Ninth District. Nice to have you with us.
REP.-ELECT KYRSTEN SINEMA: Great to be here.
CONAN: And Republican Representative-elect Doug LaMalfa joins us by phone from his office in Washington, D.C., and he represents California's First District. Good to have you with us today.
REP.-ELECT DOUG LAMALFA: Thanks for having me on.
CONAN: And your office, is that your new office up on Capitol Hill?
LAMALFA: That's the only one I've got, yes, sir. It's right here in Cannon. So we just got our key a little while ago.
CONAN: Congratulations.
LAMALFA: Thank you.
CONAN: Who got the best office?
SINEMA: Oh definitely not me. I was very low in the pool.
GRISHAM: Seven in the lottery, got our first pick, Cannon 214, where we're glad to be there.
SINEMA: My office has a door, which is awesome.
CONAN: That's very good. After watching the shenanigans over the past couple of days, any of you have any second thoughts, going back home soon?
GRISHAM: It's a clear and resounding recognition that it's time to get to work, and the sooner the better.
SINEMA: You know, I come from a state, well, as you know, Arizona, where I've served in the minority my entire career. So what I saw this week, of course, is disheartening but unfortunately not surprising. What I am excited about is that this new freshman class, on both sides, are full of a bunch of problem-solvers. So I think maybe we've got an opportunity to go in and get something actually done.
CONAN: You all have experience in politics. As you mentioned, you were in the minority where you came from. Doug LaMalfa, you're moving from the minority in California, to the majority in Congress.
LAMALFA: It's all new ground for me here. We've never even had a whiff of a majority in California, for many, many years on the Republican side. So it will be an interesting thing here in the House of Representatives to have at least a majority there, although the way everything looks, it doesn't feel like very much of a majority with, you know, the Senate, the White House and the media all doing their number on the Republican side.
CONAN: Ken?
RUDIN: I'm still giggling at the media part. But anyway...
SINEMA: I think it's your fault, Ken.
CONAN: He is the media.
RUDIN: I am the media, right. You know, the three of you obviously know what polls tell you about public approval of Congress - 13 percent was the last number I saw - public approval of Congress. What were you thinking, as Neal kind of said, what were you thinking, what made you want to run for Congress and join this beloved 13 percent?
GRISHAM: Well, I think Kyrsten hit it right out of the park. We all are problem-solvers. We've got constituents and families in our own communities who want us to make a difference. We all come from, I think, a pretty diverse public service background with very difficult circumstances that we've all had to address. And now more than ever we need to do that.
And I'm a caregiver. I know that my mom - when we're talking about Medicare and Social Security - these are not issues that we can wait one more second to begin to address in a meaningful way.
CONAN: That was Michelle Lujan Grisham. Kyrsten Sinema?
SINEMA: Well, you know, Arizona, as we all know, is home to the greatest foreclosure crisis in the country. We actually eclipsed Nevada and are number one. And that's an issue that's very personal for me. When I was a kid, my dad lost his job. We lost our home to foreclosure, and I ended up homeless for a couple years.
And so I get up each morning, and I think what can I do to help the residents of District 9, make sure that they have the ability to keep their jobs, pay their mortgages and prepare for the future. And so despite the fact that Congress has a very, very, very low reputation, if I can do the best for my constituents and make sure they're getting what they need to take care of their families and prepare for the future, it's worth every second.
CONAN: Doug LaMalfa?
SINEMA: Well for me, first I had a chance to meet Kyrsten in the hallway here on one of our previous trips. So I'm looking forward to working with her. And I see Michelle also has been named to the Ag Committee. So we'll be able to accomplish some things together on that committee.
LAMALFA: The American public expects us to accomplish ultimately the goals of what it is that government should be doing and doing it efficiently. Now, so that means we have to figure out how to get along, but also we do have our philosophical issues that our constituents, when we asked for their vote in our district, we tell them we're going to stand for this and this. And if we do opposite of that, then we've broken basically a campaign promise.
So that's why we do have to battle back here sometimes because each of us comes from perhaps a different type of background or district. But when we get into the room, we have to figure it out. And so, you know, the last few days, we've seen a lot of ugliness, but also, ultimately, they did hammer something out, like it or not. Something did get done.
It's a lot like college finals. You have to get down to I guess the very deadline and cram it all in at the end. That's my experience in California legislature. It always came down to the end, too.
SINEMA: I've got to tell you, Doug, as a college professor myself, I'm not interested in hearing folks waiting until the very last minute to prepare. So I'm hoping we get a little discipline, maybe study a little earlier.
LAMALFA: It would be nice.
GRISHAM: Imperative. It's imperative.
CONAN: You've all had the orientation. You've all been shown how to vote. As the drama came down last night, were your index fingers itching to cast a vote on that bill?
SINEMA: My index finger was just rolling on Twitter. I was just watching over and over, what was happening...
CONAN: Over and over again what's happening on Twitter. Michelle Lujan Grisham? Excuse me.
GRISHAM: No problem. Absolutely. I mean, nobody wants this kicked down any further. Unfortunately although we've got some action, it still is - what do we have, just a couple of months before we have to make other decisions. I hope that we don't, as Kyrsten said, wait so long. We ought to be doing that business each and every day.
And that's the kind of reaction and urgency that I think every new member feels about taking on these important issues.
CONAN: Doug LaMalfa, was that a vote you were just as happy to sit out?
LAMALFA: Well, you know, whether - I was half-expecting that it would be in our laps starting on the third anyway, so, you know, it was 50-50. But I'm actually used to, in our California State Senate, to doing a voice vote. So I didn't have an itchy finger.
CONAN: Ken?
RUDIN: Congressman, Congressman-elect LaMalfa, you're talking about what Speaker Boehner had to do, had to battle with his own members of his own party to get it passed. Obviously he voted for it. His number two, Eric Cantor, his number three, Kevin McCarthy, voted against it. How - from far away, since you're just coming into it now, how do you assess the role that Speaker Boehner is doing in trying to keep his Republicans together?
LAMALFA: Well, the speaker will tell you that when you have a majority, you're also expected to govern. You're also expected to accomplish and get something done. And so you had several different phases of how you were going to look at a package before the election, you know, speculation was that maybe President Obama doesn't win again, and you have completely different look to things.
There was speculation Republicans might take over the Senate. So you had hesitation to take a deal that had any tax increases in it, by Republicans, before that. Well, then we had the reality of the election that came in. The country went into a different direction, and I think the speaker recognized that the leverage that they were looking for was going to look a heck of a lot different after those election results with a Democrat-controlled Senate and White House and a Republican U.S. House.
So we have a whole different type of leverage, or less of it, I guess, as Republicans. So now it was going to be what kind of deal are you going to cut. And so I think the speaker looked at it as the reality is that some of these things are going to happen. So I don't criticize him, completely, for realizing that and putting that out there.
CONAN: Kyrsten Sinema?
SINEMA: You know, as I was watching what happened in the last few days, I think, like most Americans, I was somewhat disgusted that it took this long to solve the problem, and they didn't really do it all the way. It's going to be back in front of us in less than two months. And - but one thing that I did notice and I felt somewhat better about is that like most important legislation that's gone before previous Congresses, that the bargains that are made that are bipartisan, that have strong support from both parties, tend to be more long-lasting and tend to be enduring within our country.
And what I'm looking for, what I'm hoping for in this next Congress, is that Republicans and Democrats will be more interested in finding those grand solutions and less interested in just party fealty, just doing the party line - that where our country really needs are people from both sides to come together and pass legislation like we've seen in the past: Medicaid, Social Security, all the grand pieces of legislation were done in a bipartisan way.
CONAN: Except for the most recent health care reform.
SINEMA: That's exactly right. That was one-party rule. And my personal opinion is, is that whenever you find a piece of legislation that has broad numbers from both sides of the aisle, it's - no one's going to be delighted with it, but it's probably a good piece of legislation.
GRISHAM: Except in this case with the Affordable Care Act, we had a whole different environment that we haven't seen before in the House, where we have a group of members who have pledged not to engage or support any kind of legislation brought by this administration and creates an environment where you can't a have effective bipartisan solution-making. There isn't anyone who doesn't realize that we have a problem in this country with health care and what it costs in this country. It's not affordable. It's not accessible. It's going to get that way. We're on the right path, but this is a whole different climate, and we hope this freshman class returns to that climate again.
CONAN: Ken?
RUDIN: Unlike Ms. Lujan Grisham and unlike Mr. LaMalfa, who came from relatively safe Democratic and Republican districts, Kyrsten Sinema came from - as a matter of fact, you didn't win your election or we didn't know who won the election until days later...
SINEMA: That's right.
RUDIN: ...do you have to watch your back when you run, or you're just - you just plow to 113th Congress unafraid?
SINEMA: Well, you know, I've been running my whole life. I'm not that fast, but I'm pretty steady. So, you know, I just - I don't think the word afraid should be part of anyone's lexicon in Congress. The fact is that that whether you come from a district that is solidly Republican or Democrat, or like mine, a district that is split evenly down the middle, swing district, that your daily responsibility has to be, first, to the constituents of your community and, second, of course, to the larger issues facing our country.
And the truth is, Ken, most people who get up in my district - and I think this is true of most districts in the country - don't wake up and think, oh, I've got to do my Republican laundry, or, oh, I got to get that Democrat gas in my car. They just want to get to work, keep their job, pay their bills, prepare for their kids to go to college. So the issues that save the most people, are not person issues.
What I'm trying to do in my career and what I hope I will continue to do when I'm in Congress, is just keep thinking like that. What matters to these families.
CONAN: Have you made your first fundraising call for re-election yet?
SINEMA: Yes, I have. Shortly after my election, as Ken so kindly mentioned - two days for my election to be determined - there was a - you know, we see - we were wondering, we have to go to court. You know, it turned out that I won by over 10,000 votes, but it just took awhile to get there. So I was calling folks right after the election, saying, hey, we're not sure what's going to happen. I might need some more help. Of course, I got to call all of them back later and say, thanks, we did. We won so.
CONAN: Doug LaMalfa, I wanted to ask you, you mentioned the Ag Committee. You come from generations of rice farmers up there in the northern part of California. How does that going to inform what you do in the 113th Congress?
LAMALFA: Well, it's a very agricultural, very rural district. Resources are or were a key part the economy in that northeast corner of the state, a very large district. And so what I've worked with in my years in the state legislature are - just as the farmer, people I know, the economy - even from the - the way it affects the economy in town, as I put it, you know? The people would sell you the pickups and the tractors and everybody - a refrigerator and the people down at the bank. It's all interrelated. And so I think it will be very informative and very good set of experiences in order to help make decisions on that Ag Committee, as well as the other committee I was placed on, the Natural Resources Committee, because we have a lot to do.
As, you know - as we see the issues that got done here in the last couple of days, we're going to have the egg problem here because of the so-called dairy cliff. Don't you like how now - things are no longer gate anymore? They're now cliffs.
LAMALFA: So I - is that good or bad, I don't know. But - so the dairy issue is very real, because the farm bill reverts back to the 1949 law that I don't think anybody can live with it the way it is. So we have that, immediately, to work on, and so I think that kind of experience and background will be helpful. But, you know, we all have to learn new things in this role here and make the best possible decisions and listen to the people that actually deal with them in the district or nationally. They can inform us. We don't know what all this because we got elected or something, you know?
CONAN: Doug LaMalfa, he's a representative-elect in California's first district, as he mentioned. Also with us representatives-elect Kyrsten Sinema, who's from Arizona's ninth district, and Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat who represents New Mexico's first district. Of course, Political Junkie Ken Rudin is with us, as he is every Wednesday. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And I wanted to ask you, Michelle Lujan Grisham, you come from - is your family going to have a monopoly on all the political offices there in New Mexico?
GRISHAM: Well, wouldn't that would be nice for problem solving in New Mexico?
CONAN: We've been to, you know, Thanksgiving dinner might suggest otherwise but go ahead.
GRISHAM: There you go. We - and here's the hard part that is in all these New Mexico families - my family has been there for 400 years and got those origins. We're all related in some way. Interestingly enough, my colleague, Ben Ray Lujan, we are cousins, if you go back, you know, 10 times removed.
CONAN: The same way the queen of England and me are cousins.
GRISHAM: Exactly.
GRISHAM: The reality is I am a much closer cousin to the former Republican member, Manual Lujan, who was actually in the district, in the seat that I now hold. And I...
RUDIN: And in the Bush cabinet.
GRISHAM: And in the Bush cabinet. So poor Ben Ray. I think he'd like to stop that rumor that we're cousins. But it's nice that...
SINEMA: He's a lot taller though.
GRISHAM: True. He's got two inches on me, so he's hugely taller.
CONAN: And you are also a member of the Agriculture Committee as we heard. What else are you going to be doing?
GRISHAM: Well, the other thing about the Agricultural Committee - I mean, New Mexico has got large dairy farming. We've got large agricultural interests. We have problems with water. We do specialty farming. But this is also rural economic development, and I represent a district that - well, the heart of the district is the urban area, Albuquerque, urban center of New Mexico. There are lots of rural communities surrounding my district, and it's where we deal with school nutrition and food security. And New Mexico is one of the states, unfortunately, that's leads the nation in hunger for families. And I think that I can absolutely make an impact to make sure that we're dealing with those issues as well.
CONAN: Kyrsten Sinema, is there one issue you're going to be focusing on?
SINEMA: Well, the number issue, I think, that Arizonians are facing, as I mentioned earlier, is the issue on mortgages and foreclosures. And Arizonians are struggling to find jobs, keep jobs. And they're very concerned that if they're not able to keep their job or a find job, that they'll lose their homes. And as you know, we are losing homes at a very high rate, still, in the Arizona. So I think the top issue is, really, a combination of both job creation and, of course, protecting hardworking middle-class families who want to keep their homes, who've stay in them for a long time, and helping them have the ability to do so.
And I'm really happy that I was assigned to the Financial Services committee. That committee, of course, is the committee that makes the determinations around mortgages lending and the finance industry. So I'm hoping to really make sure we put in some strong, consumer protections and help families like my own, that struggled many years ago.
CONAN: Ken?
RUDIN: I'm watching the two of you and, of course, I don't have the advantage of seeing Mr. LaMalfa here.
LAMALFA: (Unintelligible)
RUDIN: But I assume the three of you are all smiling and optimistic. How long does that optimism last? I mean, when do you say, oh, my goodness. What did I get myself into? Right now, you seemed to be smiling. Will you go guys come back again and share your experiences and say how you've done in...
SINEMA: Well, Ken, I served seven years in the Arizona State Legislature. I smiled through all that, I'm sure we'll be fine in Congress.
RUDIN: You probably had a good sense of Yuma.
SINEMA: I do.
CONAN: He's used that joke before - badly.
SINEMA: Got me trouble sometimes.
RUDIN: Yuma is a city in...
CONAN: Yeah. Yeah. She knows that.
CONAN: Yeah, yeah.
SINEMA: Yes, it is. I didn't represent Yuma though.
RUDIN: Yeah, I know. But - so the joke doesn't work.
SINEMA: Well...
GRISHAM: Well, I did 17 years in state governments, served in the executive of both Republican and Democratic governors, and joined a very effective bipartisan environment and got a lot of great work done. And I think the - sure, you have the days that were much tougher than others. And we had an anemic, really difficult economy in the '90s. I'm - I have always remained optimistic. So I'd love to come back and share that enthusiasm with you.
CONAN: Doug LaMalfa, the last 30 seconds is for you.
LAMALFA: You know, I still believe in the American system here, that if people or one of the citizen legislators do what is right and what the founders had in mind, then this process can work. And so, that's where my faith lies in this and that's what I intend to do here. We've got huge issues coming up right away, both the national level and district level, that if you just play common sense to it and remember the people's rights of their own self-determinations, instead of government control over everything, I think we can get back and do things just as well as we did many years ago.
SINEMA: Getting there.
CONAN: And if it doesn't work, we're going to blame you three.
SINEMA: Great.
CONAN: We'll be back in a minute with winners and loser from the fiscal cliff. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
RUDIN: With the late-night passage of a deal by the House, the political battle over the fiscal cliff takes a break, at least for the moment. And from the nearly interminable negotiations, winners and losers emerged. On the heels of the deal, President Obama offered his gratitude to several key players.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In particular, I want to thank the work that was done by my extraordinary Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Leader Harry Reid, Speaker Boehner and Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell. Everybody worked very hard on this, and I appreciate it. And, Joe, once again, I want to thank you for your great work.
CONAN: So we want to hear from you. Who do you think came out as a winner in the fiscal cliff negotiations? Who didn't do so well? Give us a call. 800-989-8255. Email us: firstname.lastname@example.com. You can also find us on Twitter @totn.
And, Ken, it sounds like Vice President Joe Biden came out with some plaudits from all sides.
RUDIN: Absolutely. It seems like if you look at Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid, the two leaders, the Republican and Democratic leaders, respectively, in the Senate, McConnell didn't trust Reid. A lot of Republicans didn't like Reid. There was his famous quote that we can't repeat over the air when Speaker Boehner ran into Harry Reid at...
CONAN: Just outside the Oval Office.
RUDIN: Words you don't often hear at the Oval Office. But anyway, McConnell basically suggested, well, look, I've known Joe Biden for many years. We've served in the Senate together for decades. It seemed like it wouldn't have happened without the two of them. Certainly, both sides do credit Joe Biden.
CONAN: And Mitch McConnell comes out as somebody who's able to make a deal and then deliver.
RUDIN: That's true. And, of course, we could talk about the political ramifications of it later. Remember, his fellow Kentucky Republican, Rand Paul, was one of the five Republicans who voted against it in the Senate. And who knows if there's going to be a primary challenge to Mitch McConnell. And you never know whether there's going to be a challenge to John Boehner tomorrow. But at least right now...
CONAN: And the election of the - for...
RUDIN: Speaker of the House, exactly. But you - for at least for right now, Mitch McConnell made it happened.
CONAN: And then you go to the House side, and the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, well, Plan B crashed and burned. He punted to the Senate, and then it seems like a lot of the objections yesterday in the House of Representatives, from his fellow Republicans, where, hey, we didn't have a voice in this negotiation.
RUDIN: No. And they say they didn't have a voice. But even if they knew that they had a concede, give in on taxes because after all, President Obama did win re-election and one of his promises was to raise tax rates on the wealthy, but they didn't get the promised spending cuts. And they're furious that their speaker who was willing to exceed - to a deal that it didn't include those spending cuts.
CONAN: And the speaker had also made a promise that, well, he would agree to an up or down vote. The Republicans eventually decided they did not have the votes to parry - to amend the Senate bill, which would effectively kill it. And he then brought it up for an up or down vote in the House, knowing he would not get the majority of his own party to support it.
RUDIN: He hated the fact that it would pass with Democratic votes. And we've said this about Speaker Boehner from the beginning, that his problem was never so much the Democratic opposition, it was trying to rein in or at least somehow work with these Tea Party folks who were elected in 2010. And for the most part, they were not on his side. Certainly, Neal, the two to one majority Republicans voted against the bill yesterday, in opposition to the speaker.
CONAN: But the Tea Party caucus, that's only, what, 50, 60 people. A lot more Republicans voted against than that.
RUDIN: Well, I mean, you could say how many members of the Tea Party caucus there are. But the point is, there are a lot of Republicans who just said they're just not happy with the way things are going. And if you're talking about the number of votes, 85 Republicans, including Speaker Boehner, voted for it. 151 Republicans voted against it. That's - I think there's far more Tea Party Republicans just the 50 or 60 in the official caucus.
CONAN: You mentioned earlier that two other members of the Republican leadership were among those voting no. That was the majority leader Eric Cantor and the number three position, Mr. McCarthy from California. Interesting, the chairman of the budget committee voted with the speaker and those voting yes.
RUDIN: Yes, Neal. Of course, we're talking about Mr. Paul Ryan who may have some higher office designs in mind. And on the Senate side, it was interesting too. You talk about all the conservative, the big - the conservatives in the Senate. But Pat Toomey voted for it. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma voted for it. Jim DeMint, the very conservative senator from South Carolina, didn't even vote one way or the other. So for all the opposition we thought would be from conservatives, you didn't see that opposition in the Senate.
CONAN: A couple of other names. Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader, the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, well, the minority in the House of Representatives (unintelligible) play a big part.
RUDIN: No, this is not a criticism about Nancy Pelosi. It is just the way the House is done, this absolute rule when you have the majority in the House. And so Nancy Pelosi, being the leader of the minority, didn't have really much of a say, whereas in the Senate, both - I mean, nobody controls the Senate unless you have 60 votes. And therefore, McConnell had a much outsized role, even though he leads the minority.
CONAN: And one other name, that is President Barack Obama.
RUDIN: Well, he campaigned on it. You know, he could've gloated. There are a lot of folks on the left who said that he gave in too much to the Republicans, that he could've insisted on a much higher tax rate for the Republicans. After all, now the Bush tax cuts are permanent for those making under $400,000. But that's something that Republicans were pushing for years, and President Obama said, uh-uh, not on my watch. And yet this bill basically solidified, cemented the Bush tax cuts. So for all, yes, President Obama did get what he wanted. He would rather have a deal than have - go over the cliff. But at the same time, Republicans got more than they - I think they got more than they are admitting that they got.
CONAN: Well, they - the Democrats did also get a one-year extension of the unemployment benefits. That was important to the Democrats as well. And there were some other credits in there for, well, what are perceived as Democratic causes like subsidies for alternative energy, that sort of thing.
RUDIN: But as we said earlier in the show, I mean, yes, we think that we could all breathe a sigh of relief now and all the drama and all the trauma is over but may not be over because we may go through this exact same thing when the debt ceiling limit comes up in the end of February and throughout the year. I mean, again, I think of our three previous guests, the optimistic freshmen and the members in the incoming Congress. I just want to see how optimistic they can stay for how long.
CONAN: Well, we want to hear from you. Who won? Who lost in these negotiations? 800-989-8255. Email us: firstname.lastname@example.com. We'll start with Patrick, and Patrick's with us from Avondale in Arizona.
PATRICK: Hi there. You're talking about winners and losers, but I don't think there are any gold medals being handed out over this issue. At best, I think that both the Republicans and Democrats and especially the American people are getting a thanks-for-trying ribbon because the fact that it took the, you know, tumbling - practically tumbling over the edge of this fiscal cliff to actually get some kind of resolution show - it wasn't even, you know, nobody's cheering. Nobody's saying, yay, we did it. No, you know, or no, they took away from us. It seems everybody is kind of grumbling about what has been achieved. And the fact that it took us going to the very edge to even get a hesitant and almost unwelcomed resolution shows, I think, how entrenched both sides are in, well, we need to have this and we - and not even we need to have these things, but we can't let the other side have this or that.
CONAN: Patrick's point is they were fighting over, well, what seemed like, at the end, small beer. The big issues on spending cuts, Ken, those all remain to be resolved.
RUDIN: That's true. But Patrick is also making another point that we knew this date was coming for 17 months. It was Congress itself that put in this self-imposed deadline of the fiscal cliff. So we knew it was coming, and to wait for the final hours, the final minutes to get something done, you wonder why - who are those 13 percent who have a high regard of Congress?
CONAN: Patrick, thanks very much for the call.
PATRICK: Thank you too. I hope to hear you guys on the air for a lot longer.
CONAN: We do too. Let's go next to - this is Larry. Larry with us from Tucson.
LARRY: Hi there. I think the winner really is the American people because we didn't wind up losing a lot of things. It would've been absolutely unbearable if a million plus people lost their jobs because a bunch of idiots in Washington can't take and agree on anything. And the loser in this was Congress because bottom line is we're going to keep beating them over the head and voicing our outrage until they learn that they need to have common sense. And I encourage everybody listening - you now what, if you don't pick up the phone and send emails, these idiots aren't going to get the message. We need to be loud and vocal because we're going to repeat the same thing in a couple of months.
CONAN: You're right.
LARRY: Everybody is sick of it.
CONAN: You're right. We're going to be on another cliff. Well, hopefully we'll come up with a better metaphor than that. But we're going to be at another precipice, let's put it that way, in a couple of months. But the American people - he's also right because sequestration has been extended for a couple of months before it would set in. The people who would be - have lost their jobs, maybe 800,000 people, they're still working. And those people who are on unemployment extensions, they will get a check next week.
RUDIN: And then you go back to the re-election rates of this bunch of idiots who run for Congress every two years, they get overwhelmingly re-elected. And when there is an opportunity for a third party or an alternative party to come fruition in 2012, nobody stepped forward, nobody wanted to come up with the money or the candidates to do it. So for all the opposition, for all the head wringing of what's going on and handwringing of what's going on, there seems to be no alternative to the system that we have now and to these players.
CONAN: Larry, thanks very much. Here's an email we have from Don(ph): When you speak of winners and losers, shouldn't you at least make some mention of the numerous subsidies for corporate America which were included. And, Ken, there was a lot of pork in this bill that was passed first by the Senate, and then by the House last night.
RUDIN: Well, when we - if you think of what the original goal was, it was to either put some kind of a handle on the entitlement programs, like Social Security and Medicare, to pair down the debt to improve the economy. Did anything happen? I mean, everybody agrees that this thing that we've passed basically raises the deficit. I mean, it doesn't shrink the deficit at all. So all the things they were supposed to accomplish, what did it accomplished, except for the fact that the markets are satisfied.
CONAN: And since the Social Security payroll tax holiday is now officially over with the end of the holiday yesterday, well, everybody's taxes go up 2 percent if you're earning an income.
Here's a tweet from Eric Levinson(ph): The American people are the losers. The fiscal cliff has been averted by the most confused runaround since the Keystone Cops.
And this tweet from Grant Homark(ph): Biggest winner: Biden. The Senate and the White House won too. The House looked like children throwing a tantrum then caving.
Political Junkie Ken Rudin is with us as he is every Wednesday. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.
And let's go next to Dan, Dan with us from Womelsdorf in Pennsylvania.
DAN: Well, you did that very well.
CONAN: Thank you.
DAN: I think President Obama lost. I think he lost on two counts, actually, three: The (unintelligible) limit, the Social Security gift that we all (unintelligible) them for the 2 percent gift and also, I think they should've raised the amount of Social Security that gets taxed. I mean right now, it's what, $130,000?
CONAN: I think it's $115,000. But you could be right.
DAN: Yeah, I mean, they should raise that up a lot more. I mean, it's ridiculous. So you're asking the little people to pay a lot more and given breaks. Calling $400,000 as the middle class is ludicrous.
CONAN: Well, Dan echoes a point that other Democrats have made, Ken Rudin. The president will never have more leverage than he had, well, until he agreed to sign that bill last night.
RUDIN: Right. And he could've taken advantage of it. Of course, we talk about how elections have consequences, and for the longest time, as he was campaigning, President Obama said, my line is one we will not - we're going to get rid of the Bush tax cuts and incomes over $250,000 will be taxed. He made a major concession to move it up to 400,000 - 450,000 for couples. So for all the victories that President Obama did get, and I think he did win. I mean, if we talk about winners and losers, yes, he did win because he wanted - he ultimately got what he wanted. There's so much - many Democrats say he could've gotten much more of and didn't take advantage of it.
CONAN: Dan, thanks.
DAN: You're welcome. Bye.
CONAN: Let's go next to Mike, Mike with us from Ames, Iowa.
MIKE: Well, I think that the House Republicans were the winners. I think they were handed a victory by the House Democrats because they were saved from being blamed for a huge economic disruption.
CONAN: That's a point, Ken. The House Democrats did not have to vote for this bill. Vice President Biden was there yesterday afternoon rallying them in favor of it. But they could've put a very embarrassing defeat on Speaker Boehner.
RUDIN: Yeah, I wonder about - I've been thinking about that. I wonder about all the Republican who say I can't believe we got this or we didn't get this and we didn't get that. Ultimately, they got more than one would've have thought after election result the way we saw in 2012. So I'm just wondering if the Republicans really know that they got more than they expected. But they're not just saying it.
CONAN: Mike, do you think Democrats would've taken the blame if they voted against it?
MIKE: I think if they had - if the numbers had been fairly close, no.
MIKE: They have voted. There's a block against it. They would've shared the blame.
CONAN: Thanks very much for the call.
RUDIN: And we know that the Tea Party folks are complaining about - saying they were really the losers. But ultimately, most of the Tea Party folks voted with the Tea Party position on it saying...
CONAN: Yeah, but they got a bill that raises taxes, has no spending cuts and has lots of that corporate pork in it.
RUDIN: Yeah. Well, they didn't get the ultimate result. But they voted - but their members voted the way the Tea Party - whatever the Tea Party is - wanted them to vote.
CONAN: Yeah. A couple of the senators, any of them, Rand Paul or Jim DeMint on his way out of the Senate. They could've blocked that measure in the Senate. One vote would've held that vote and it would not have passed.
RUDIN: It's interesting the fact how close it was in the House relatively, and yet it was 89 to 8 in the Senate.
CONAN: Let's go to Katherine(ph), Katherine on the line from Berkley.
KATHERINE: Oh, hi. It's my first time ever on TALK OF THE NATION.
CONAN: Well, congratulations.
KATHERINE: Thanks. I think it was a win for the whole country. I think it was wonderful. We were able to avoid going over that cliff. But I am concerned about the effect on the poor of the payroll tax having been eliminated because I was looking in The New York Times today, and it says that those people earning an average of - no, excuse me, 11 - around $11,000, this is the people, the bottom 20 percent of the population. Their average income of around 11,000, they're going to be paying $120 more taxes. And for people who are barely making ends meet, that's going to be a big chunk, you know, maybe it means that won't be able to earn a little bit less - have a little bit less money for food or whatever. But $120 is a lot if you only earn less than thousand dollars a month.
CONAN: And those numbers are important to remember. Katherine, thanks for reminding us.
KATHERINE: Thank you.
CONAN: And, Ken, as we move ahead, the next battle is looming already. How soon are we - well, there's tomorrow a day of official celebration, inauguration coming up and then the State of the Union message. I guess, after that, we're going to settle in to the next fight over the debt ceiling.
RUDIN: Yes. And there's going to be politics as usual. Of course, the president said that if we don't pass this thing, if we didn't pass this thing, I would've used my State of the Union message. I would've used my inaugural address. I would've gone to the American people saying, this is intolerable. But the American people can't be fooled thinking that everything is now, you know, peaches and herb.
RUDIN: Which were peaches and cream in the fact that there's a lot of still things - still contentious things that they're going to be battling over. And this good feeling of today is going to be a distant memory. I'm sure of it.
CONAN: Well, in the meantime, we can celebrate the stock market up 221 points at last glance. Ken Rudin will be back with us next Wednesday. Don't forget, Wednesday, the 16th, the Political Junkie road show here in Washington, D.C. If you'd like to attend the event and buy a ticket, send us an email with Junkie road show in the subject line. The address, of course, email@example.com. I'm, Neal Conan. Ken Rudin is with us every Wednesday. It's the TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
By the end of May 2013, the Register of Deeds office will have completed the in-house project of redaction (removal of Social security and driver's license numbers) from public online records back to 1950, which is when these numbers began to appear on official records.
This project was started in February 2010 by the ROD staff. Each employee would work on redacting a real estate book as time allowed from every day duties. Over 2,300 books with an average of over 2,700 pages per book were looked at and redacted. This in house initiative saved the County taxpayers $656,678.00 (Price quoted by a vendor to redact the records for us).
Even though these records were thoroughly looked over by the ROD staff, there is always the possibility of human error. You can access your records at www.forsythdeeds.com and check to ensure all of these numbers were removed from your personal records. You will be able to access these records free. Just type your name in the name search field and all of your real estate records on file in our office will be available for you to view. If you have any trouble searching your records feel free to call our office at (336) 703-2700 from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm M-F. Our staff will be happy to walk you through a search. If you should find numbers that weren't caught during our redaction period please call our office and ask us to remove the information that you have found.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Road warriors.
Thats what the Granada Bobcats 8-man football team has been.
And, thats what the Dove Creek Bulldogs must become.
Dove Creek successfully defended its home field the last two weeks, resulting in two postseason wins.
Granada, the 16-seed in the playoffs, won its cross-divisional game at McClave 46-12 on Oct. 27. But the Bobcats shocked the state last Saturday.
Granada (6-4) traveled to Greeley and knocked off defending state champion Dayspring Christian Academy, 32-27.
We went up there with nothing to lose, ninth-year Bobcats coach Manuel Gonzales told the Lamar Ledger. We played our hearts out on both offense and defense. We scored and they scored, and they couldnt stop us and we couldnt stop them. It came down to who was going to score at the end and we did. We made a big stop against them on a fourth down play late in the game and that was huge.
DCA was ranked No. 1, undefeated and possessed a 22-game winning streak.
Thats high school playoff football anything can happen.
For their heroic efforts, the Bobcats will play at home Saturday afternoon against eight-seeded Dove Creek (7-2).
Although the Bulldogs are the higher seed, they will be treated like an underdog. Shane Baughman and his team will travel 448 miles east to Granada and play in front of what is sure to be a hostile crowd.
However, the Bulldogs can take solace in the fact that they are 3-0 in true road games, including a 22-14 win over Mountain League champion Sargent.
Changing the
The Sargent game saw bulldozing senior fullback Klancey Krafka go down with a season ending injury. Cole Baughman has moved to fullback and speedy sophomore Chance Randolph is now the starting tailback.
Cole is such a good lead blocker and we havent had that since we lost Klancey, Shane Baughman said.
With Chances older brother Dalton Randolph under center, the offense has taken its chances and flourished.
About three weeks ago, coach Baughman and his staff were evaluating how to make the Bulldogs better.
The answer was more speed, and that meant getting the fastest player on the team more touches.
Chance Randolph is the teams fastest player, and after last Saturdays dominating 39-12 victory over West Grand, getting him into the lineup has worked very well.
To make the move work, three positions were impacted. Moving Chance Randolph and Cole Baughman meant Tyler Ebberts was moved from fullback to tight end, which was where he started the season.
Chance Randolph didnt have a carry in the Bulldogs loss to Norwood but in the last two games, he has rushed 155 and 106 yards in both contests, respectively.
Even though he wasnt in the backfield against Norwood, Randolph still showed off his speed with an 85-yard kickoff return for a touchdown.
Since Cole Baughmans move from tailback to fullback, the senior has had a lot fewer touches running the ball.
Fullback is not a glory position, Shane Baughman said. Its one of those selfless positions and Im really proud of how Cole has handled it. Hes doing the right thing for the team right now.
Bottom line, the Bulldogs are playing well and have a great opportunity to advance to the semifinals with a win Saturday. No Dove Creek football team has made it to the final four in the 8-man classification.
The Bulldogs may be on the brink of a history.
Kickoff is Saturday at 1 p.m. in Granada.
Notes: Granada finished third in the Arkansas Valley League behind Walsh and Springfield. Walsh (No. 6) will host Akron (No. 3) Saturday. Granada is 2-0 against Dove Creek in the 8-man playoffs. The Bobcats beat the Bulldogs 51-18 in 2008 and won 35-0 in 2006, a year that saw Granada win the state championship. Bobcats coach Manuel Gonzales has stated he will step down at the end of the season. Granada is a southeastern Colorado town near the Kansas border with an elevation of less than 4,000-feet.
Dale Shrull contributed to this story.


text:
Asking myself how I and most of my colleagues seem to use the word, I would have said the system is that what is described by a model (see also: Models and Theories). Then however I made the mistake of looking into the matter (e.g. in Bossel, "Systems and Models") which produced the rather abstract definition that a system is a set with elements that stand in some relation to each other, and generally has an environment that possibly provides input and absorbs output. A dictionary further explains:
- System: from Gk. systema "organized whole, body"
After I had halfways reconciled these matters, I read a book called
- The Systems View of the World
A Holistic Vision for Our Time
By Ervin Laszlo
(it's only 90 pages), which is essentially about systems and piles, and sub-systems and supersystems, life and love and reproduction, atoms and cats, self-reflective consciousness - and then manages in one full sweep to declare capitalism an outdated model, ventures for all-volunteer armies, and finishes with proclaiming a new kind of religion "celebrating [...] the sudden synthesis of the quarks and of the wide diversity of microparticles as well as of atoms and molecules throughout the expanding reaches of cosmic space". Wow. The author certainly had a vision. And if you want to get really confused, try reading this.
Either way, this didn't quite clarify what a system is either. To maybe explain why my confusion, let me ask instead: What is not a system?
Lazlo goes and piles rubbish as an example (p.25). Systems, so he argues, change qualities with the elements added. But to a pile of rubbish you can add more rubbish, and all you get is a larger pile of rubbish. It makes only a quantitave difference, he writes, it does not change the 'system' as a whole.
Now if I think in terms of mathematical definitions I can very well understand there's things that are not systems. But if I look at the real world I can't find no example for that. Everybody who is familiar with rubbish (and as a blogger I certainly am) knows that rubbish usually doesn't just orderly add up -it can develop some dynamics on its own. The pile Lazlo discusses just reminds me of the sand-pile model, a well known example for a dynamical system with self-organized criticality. So, here it goes again, we have a 'system'. The only example I can think of where one could have, in Nature, a set of somethings without any relation (interaction) between the somethings is some sort of multiverse. The analogy to Lazlo's pile of rubbish is striking.
But if everything is a 'system' then what is it good for talking about systems? Well, the usefulness of thinking in terms of systems is one of classification. One can have varios forms of systems with specific properties. Open and closed systems. Systems in equilibrium. Biological systems. Self-aware systems. Political systems. Social systems. Academic systems. Complex systems. Their elements are typically sub-systems and they are further part of super-systems, so one gets a whole hierarchy of nested systems within systems - that span all of science.
And then you go make models of these systems, find suitable variables, extract relevant parameters to try to understand the system and make predictions. Within the appropriate limits you can neglect the details of the sub-systems and talk about the system and its properties as an 'organized whole'. Might that be neglecting the quark content of molecules in a system called 'cell', or neglecting the hair color of scientists in a system called 'academia'. This procedure of neglecting finer structure and details is widely used, even within physics itself, e.g. if you think about effective theories.
I guess what confused me about this book is the author's proclamation of a paradigm shift and a change towards a "holistic vision", against reductionism, and for abandoning the "mechanistic worldview of the classical disciplines" (he seems to have a problem specifically with physics). Anyway, I think this paradigm shift just passed me by.
PS: Has clarified, thanks to Andreas.


text:
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Duo Attribute Active Directory OpenLDAP Mail attribute mail mail If your organization uses other directory attributes than the ones listed here then enter those attribute names instead. If you've already configured the attributes list for another cloud service provider, append this additional attribute to the list.
After completing the initial DAG configuration steps, click Applications on the left side of the Duo Access Gateway admin console.
Scroll down the Applications page to the Metadata section. This is the information you need to provide to HackerRank for Work when configuring SSO. Click the Download XML metadata link to obtain the DAG metadata file (the downloaded file is named "dag.xml").
Contact HackerRank for Work Support
HackerRank for Work does not enable SSO by default; please contact HackerRank for Work support to schedule a time to enable SSO on your account.
You should be on the phone with HackerRank for Work and logged into your HackerRank for Work account when SSO is enabled. Once support enables SSO you will no longer be able to log into HackerRank for Work with your password; you will need to configure SSO before logging out.
Enable HackerRank for Work SSO
Add the Duo Access Gateway as a new single sign-on provider for HackerRank for Work.
Once support has enabled SSO refresh the HackerRank for Work page, click the User icon in the upper right-hand corner. Select Settings from the drop-down. Click SSO Settings on the left-hand navigation bar.
Click Upload a metadata XML file under Idp Metadata Upload and select the dag.xml metadata file you downloaded earlier. The page will refresh and the Single Sign On Metadata URL will now be populated.
Make note of the SSO Login URL. You will need to use this later.
Learn more about HackerRank for Work SSO by contacting HackerRank Support.
Create the HackerRank for Work Application in Duo
Log on to the Duo Admin Panel and navigate to Applications.
Click Protect an Application and locate the entry for HackerRank for Work with a protection type of "2FA with SSO self-hosted (Duo Access Gateway)" in the applications list. Click Protect to the far-right to start configuring HackerRank for Work. See Protecting Applications for more information about protecting applications in Duo and additional application options.
The Company Unique ID is located in your SSO Login URL you made note of earlier. Example: If your HackerRank for Work SSO URL is https://www.hackerrank.com/x/api/v1/sso/saml/4abcd567e89/sso your Company Unique ID is 4abcd567e89.
HackerRank for Work uses the Mail attribute when authenticating. We've mapped Mail attribute to DAG supported authentication source attributes as follows:
Duo Attribute Active Directory OpenLDAP SAML IdP Google Azure Mail attribute mail mail mail email mail If you are using a non-standard email attribute for your authentication source, check the Custom attributes box and enter the name of the attribute you wish to use instead.
Click Save Configuration to generate a downloadable configuration file.
You can adjust additional settings for your new SAML application at this time — like changing the application's name from the default value, enabling self-service, or assigning a group policy — or come back and change the application's policies and settings after you finish SSO setup. If you do update any settings, click the Save Changes button when done.
Click the Download your configuration file link to obtain the HackerRank for Work application settings (as a JSON file).
Important: This file contains information that uniquely identifies this application to Duo. Secure this file as you would any other sensitive or password information. Don't share it with unauthorized individuals or email it to anyone under any circumstances!
Add the HackerRank for Work Application to Duo Access Gateway
Before you do this, verify that you updated the "Attributes" list for your Duo Access Gateway authentication source as specified here.
Return to the Applications page of the DAG admin console session.
Click the Choose File button in the "Add Application" section of the page and locate the HackerRank for Work SAML application JSON file you downloaded from the Duo Admin Panel earlier. Click the Upload button after selecting the JSON configuration file.
The HackerRank for Work SAML application is added.
Log in with SSO
If your organization enabled the Duo Access Gateway portal, log into the portal page using the link provided by your administrator. Click HackerRank from the dashboard to access the application.
You can also access HackerRank for Work by logging at the main HackerRank website and entering in your e-mail address. This redirects to the Duo Access Gateway login page. Enter your primary directory logon information, approve Duo two-factor authentication, and get redirected back to the HackerRank for Work site after authenticating.
Congratulations! Your HackerRank for Work users now authenticate using Duo Access Gateway.
If you plan to permit use of WebAuthn authentication methods (security keys, U2F tokens, or Touch ID) in the traditional Duo Prompt, Duo recommends configuring allowed hostnames for this application and any others that show the inline Duo Prompt before onboarding your end-users.
The Duo Universal Prompt has built-in protection from unauthorized domains so this setting does not apply.
Microsoft AD FS
Microsoft's Active Directory Federation Services (AD FS) is a popular choice for SSO because it easily integrates with the AD identity store many organizations already have deployed. Duo's support for cloud applications and SSO drops in to an existing AD FS installation to provide secondary authentication after a user passes primary authentication (successful Active Directory logon).
If you don't already have AD federation running the first step is to install and configure Microsoft AD FS in your organization. Deployment Guides for AD FS versions 2.1, and 3.0/4.0 are available from Microsoft.
Once your AD FS services are up and running, the second step is to configure the SSO partnership between your AD FS service and the external cloud resource, in this case HackerRank for Work. Learn more about configuring HackerRank for Work SSO with AD FS at the HackerRank for Work support site.
After you have successfully configured and tested AD FS SSO login to HackerRank for Work using your AD domain credentials, you can then install the Duo AD FS integration. AD FS protection is included with Duo's paid plans.
With the Duo integration for AD FS installed, users pass primary authentication to the AD FS service as usual. Once primary authentication succeeds, users are forwarded to the Duo service for secondary authentication. After approving logon using one of Duo's authentication methods, the user is fully logged in to HackerRank for Work.
Other Identity Partners
Using a third-party SSO provider for cloud application access? Duo partners with leading cloud SSO providers like Okta and OneLogin to secure access with our strong and flexible authentication platform.
You can also use Duo two-factor authentication with CAS and Shibboleth on-premises IdPs.
Need some help? Try searching our Knowledge Base articles or Community discussions. For further assistance, contact Support.


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I'm ashamed to admit it, but I don't think I've ever been able to genuinely motivate the definition of a topological space in an undergraduate course. Clearly, the definition distills the essence of many examples, but it's never been obvious to me how it came about, compared, for example, to the rather intuitive definition of a metric space. In some ways, the sparseness of the definition is startling as it tries to capture, apparently successfully, the barest notion of 'space' imaginable.
I can try to make this question more precise if necessary, but I'd prefer to leave it slightly vague, and hope that someone who has discussed this successfully in a first course, perhaps using a better understanding of history, might be able to help me out.
Added 24 March:
I'm grateful to everyone for their thoughtful answers so far. I'll have to think over them a bit before I can get a sense of the 'right' answer for myself. In the meanwhile, I thought I'd emphasize again the obvious fact that the standard concise definition has been tremendously successful. For example, when you classify two-manifolds with it, you get equivalence classes that agree exactly with intuition. Then in as divergent a direction as the study of equations over finite fields, there is the etale topology*, which explains very clearly surprising and intricate patterns in the behaviour of solution sets.
*If someone objects that the etale topology goes beyond the usual definition, I would argue that the logical essence is the same. It is notable that the standard definition admits such a generalization so naturally, whereas some of the others do not. (At least not in any obvious way.)
For those who haven't encountered one before, a Grothendieck topology just replaces subsets of a set $X$ by maps $$Y\rightarrow X.$$ The collection of maps that defines the topology on $X$ is required to satisfy some obvious axioms generalizing the usual ones.
Added 25 March:
I hope people aren't too annoyed if I admit I don't quite see a satisfactory answer yet. But thank you for all your efforts. Even though Sigfpe's answer is undoubtedly interesting, invoking the notion of measurement, even a fuzzy one, just doesn't seem to be the best approach. As Qiaochu has pointed out, a topological space is genuinely supposed to be more general than a metric space. If we leave aside the pedagogical issue for a moment and speak as working mathematicians, a general concept is most naturally justified in terms of its consequences. As pointed out earlier, topologies that have no trace of a metric interpretation have been consequential indeed.
When topologies were naturally generalized by Grothendieck, a good deal of emphasis was put on the notion of an open covering, and not just the open sets themselves. I wonder if this was true for Hausdorff as well. (Thanks for the historical information, Donu!) We can see the reason as we visualize a two-manifold. Any sufficiently fine open covering captures a combinatorial skeleton of the space by way of the intersections. Note that this is not true for a closed covering. In fact, I'm not sure what a sensible condition might be on a closed covering of a reasonable space that would allow us to compute homology with it. (Other than just saying they have to be the simplices of a triangulation. Which also reminds me to point out that homology can be computed for ordinary objects without any notion of topology.)
To summarize, a topology relates to analysis with its emphasis on functions and their continuity, and to metric geometry, with its measurements and distances. However, it also interpolates between these and something like combinatorial geometry, where continuous functions and measurements play very minor roles indeed.
For myself, I'm still confused.
Another afterthought: I see what I was trying to say above is that open sets in topology provide an abstract framework for describing local properties of functions. However, an open cover is also able to encode global properties of spaces. It seems the finite intersection property is important for this, but I'm not able to say for sure. And then, when I try to return to the pedagogical question with all this, I'm totally at a loss. There are very few basic concepts that trouble me as much in the classroom.


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Condoms—men and women of all ages and from all walks of life are using them for birth control and/or protection from sexually transmitted infections.
A male condom (also known as a rubber) is a sheath worn over the penis. It is made of latex, animal tissue, or polyurethane. A condom is used to catch semen before, during, and after a man ejaculates. When used during vaginal sex, it helps protect against pregnancy. When used during vaginal, anal, and oral sex, it also helps protect against certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
Condoms and Pregnancy Prevention
During sexual intercourse, a condom prevents sperm from entering the vagina. According to Planned Parenthood, about 15 out of 100 women will become pregnant during the first year of typical condom use, meaning inconsistent and at times incorrect condom use. Condoms have a 98% efficacy. This efficacy only refers to perfect condom use that is consistent and always correct. Effectiveness refers to typical use and is 82%. Contraceptive foams, creams, jellies, films, and suppositories can also be used to provide additional protection against pregnancy, since they can kill sperm if the condom breaks. Some condoms are coated with a spermicide.
Latex Condoms and the Prevention of STDs
When used consistently and correctly, condoms have been proven as an effective barrier against the transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In addition HIV infection, latex condoms help protect against the following STDs:
- Chlamydia
- Gonorrhea
- Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)—generally caused by gonorrhea or chlamydia
- Syphilis
- Chancroid
- Vaginitis resulting from infections such as trichomoniasis
Latex condoms offer significant protection against:
- Human papillomavirus (HPV) that can cause genital warts, abnormal pap smears, and cervical cancer
- Hepatitis B virus
- Herpes simplex virus (HSV) that can cause genital herpes
Types of Condoms
Condoms come in various sizes, shapes, and materials. Here are some things to consider when buying condoms:
- Size —Condoms come in standard size (which fit most men), extra-large, and snug size.
- Shape —Some condoms have a rounded tip; others have a nipple (reservoir) at the end to hold the semen.
- Thickness —Extra-strength condoms are best for men who have anal sex or who tend to break condoms. Extra-thin condoms may allow more sensation, but they may break more easily.
- Lubrication —Many condoms are lubricated with spermicide, which helps to kill sperm and certain disease-causing germs. Lubricated condoms should not be used for oral sex.
- Color —Condoms come in many colors. However, this does not influence the effectiveness of the condom.
- Flavored —Flavored condoms have a mild, often mint flavor, and are worn when receiving oral sex.
- Texture —Some condoms have ripples or studs for extra sensation.
- Material —Most condoms are made of latex. If you or your partner has a latex allergy, options include animal tissue (usually sterilized sheep intestine) or synthetic polyurethane.
Although there are many varieties to choose from, be sure to avoid novelty condoms. Read the label carefully so you know what you are buying. Some may not protect against unwanted pregnancy or STDs.
When to Use a Condom
A man should use a condom any time he has vaginal, anal, or oral sex, if there is even the slightest risk that either person has a STD. A condom should also be used to help prevent unwanted pregnancy. The condom should be put on before any contact and removed and thrown away immediately after ejaculation.
If you are embarrassed to talk to your partner about using condoms, practice talking before you are in a sexual situation. And have your talk well before you are in the heat of passion.
How to Use a Male Condom
Both partners should know how to put on and use a condom.
- Handle condoms gently and store them in a cool, dry place so they do not become breakable.
- Do not continually keep condoms in your back pocket, wallet, or car.
- Do not use a condom that is too small or too large for you.
- Pay attention to the expiration date.
- Be careful not to tear the condom while unwrapping it.
- Put the condom on the erect penis before sexual activity begins.
- Unless the condom has a built-in nipple, leave a ½-inch space at the tip to collect semen.
- Be sure to pinch air out of the tip with one hand.
- Unroll the condom over the penis with the other hand, and roll it all the way down to the base of the penis.
- Smooth out any air bubbles.
- Lubricate the outside of the condom. Do not use lubricants that contain oil, such as Vaseline, baby oils, or vegetable oils, because they can weaken the rubber. Use a water-based lubricant, such as KY Jelly or Silk-e.
- Pull out before your penis becomes soft.
- To avoid spilling semen, hold the condom against the base of the penis while you pull out.
- Throw the condom away.
- Wash your penis with soap and water before embracing again.
- Pull out quickly and replace the condom.
- If semen leaks out, wash it away with soap and water.
- If semen leaks into the vagina, you should consider using emergency contraception (see details below).
Emergency contraception is a method of birth control that can help prevent pregnancy up to 5 days after unprotected sex. It works best if taken as soon as possible, preferably within 72 hours. There are different types of emergency contraception available, both over-the-counter and by prescription. Age restrictions on purchase vary by the type of contraception. The youngest a woman can purchase emergency contraception without a prescription is age 15 with valid identification. This does not currently apply to all brands. Direct any questions you have to your doctor or pharmacist.
Benefits and Disadvantages of Male Condoms
The male condom:
- Helps prevent pregnancy and STDs
- Is inexpensive and easy to get
- Does not require a prescription
- May help a man stay erect longer
Usually has no side effects.
- However, people who are allergic to latex should try polyurethane condoms. Condoms without spermicidal lubricant should be used for those who are sensitive to spermicides.
Some drawbacks include that the condom:
- May dull sensation
- Can interfere with spontaneity
Additionally, some men are self-conscious about using condoms.
Benefits and Disadvantages of Female Condoms
The female condom is a thin, soft, loose-fitting, lubricated pouch made of polyurethane that fits inside the vagina and also covers the vulva. An inner ring at the closed end is used to insert the device inside the vagina. The outer ring remains outside the vagina and covers the vulva. It can be used with any type of lubricant. The female condom is about 75% effective in preventing pregnancy.
Before engaging in sexual activity, the woman inserts the female condom into her vagina. The closed end of the tube should cover the cervix and the other end should slightly cover the vulva. The female condom should be discarded after use.
- The woman controls use.
- The female version is more comfortable for men and causes less decrease in sensation.
- It may offer greater protection from STDs to the external genitals compared to male condoms.
- This version is more convenient and allows for greater spontaneity because it can be inserted well in advance of intercourse.
- They are easy to get and do not require a prescription.
The drawbacks to the female condom include that it is:
- Less effective in preventing pregnancy and STDs than the male condom
- Not aesthetically pleasing
- Difficult to insert or remove
- Relatively expensive
Another disadvantage is that, at times, the penis may slip between the device and the woman's body.
Condoms can be used enjoyably and effectively for preventing pregnancy and many STDs. However, no protective method is 100% effective. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the surest way to avoid transmission is to abstain from vaginal, anal, and oral sex, or to be in a long-term, mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention http://www.cdc.gov
Planned Parenthood http://www.plannedparenthood.org
Canadian Federation for Sexual Health http://www.cfsh.ca
Public Health Agency of Canada http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca
Condom. Planned Parenthood website. Available at: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-info/birth-control/condom. Accessed April 6, 2017.
Condom fact sheet in brief. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/brief.html. Updated: March 5, 2013. Accessed April 6, 2017.
Condom use, types, and sizes. Avert web site. Available at: http://www.avert.org/condom-use-types-sizes.htm. Updated February 15, 2017. Accessed April 6, 2017.
Emergency contraception. EBSCO DynaMed Plus website. Available at: http://www.dynamed.com/topics/dmp~AN~T114441/Emergency-contraception . Updated November 7, 2016. Accessed April 6, 2017.
Fact sheet for public health personnel. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Available at: http://www.cdc.gov/condomeffectiveness/latex.html. Updated March 25, 2013. Accessed April 6, 2017.
FDA approves Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive without a prescription for women 15 years of age and older. US Food and Drug Administration website. Available at: http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm350230.htm. Updated April 30, 2013. Accessed March 23, 2015.
Workowski KA, Berman S, et al. Sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines, 2010. MMWR. 2010;59(No. RR-12):1-110.


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Paint.NET is free image and photo manipulation application for the Windows platform. Every feature of Paint.NET, including the user interface, was designed to be immediately intuitive and easy to learn without assistance.
Key Features Include:
- Special effects tools include: blurring, sharpening, red-eye removal, distortion, noise and embossing.
- 3D Rotate/Zoom effects make it very easy to add perspective and tilting.
- Image manipulation tools include: brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, curves, and levels. You can also convert an image to black and white, or sepia.
In order to navigate multiple images easily, Paint.NET uses a tabbed document interface. The tabs display a live thumbnail of the image instead of a text description.
Paint.NET uses a layers system to form the basis for rich image composition. Layers are likened to a stack of transparency slides that, when viewed together at the same time, form an image.


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When your "Yay Jesus" crowds out the rest of the text, you cut a few corners on the "birthday" to cram it all in. Ok, fine. I get it.
The problem started when some wreckerator somewhere looked at that and thought, "Hey, that saves me four whole letters! I should write it that way ALL the time!"
And so...[dramatically steepling fingers]...it began.
First a dash was added, to make it seem more respectable:
Then they ditched the 'B':
Next, the "day":
It's like a code. Am I wishing you a happy birthday? Maybe, maybe not. I might be wishing you a Herniated Bowels day. Because, yeah, I do that sometimes.
And yet, shockingly, we still haven't gotten to the worst part of this whole abbreviation craze.
Think with me for a moment: are there any holidays out there that might not do well in an abbreviated form? Any at all? C'mon. Think about it.
Give up?
Oh, good. I'm positively itching to show you this last photo.


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Everyone knows someone who has undergone hip or knee replacement. These surgeries are no longer exclusively performed on older persons and are now not uncommon procedures for many patients with persistent, significant hip or knee pain. Problems that lead people to be willing to undergo joint replacement surgery include ongoing intolerable pain and loss of mobility. Good outcomes are generally associated with these procedures, but it is reasonable that most of us would far prefer to prevent the progression of a degenerative joint disorder and avoid the need for surgery.
Hip or knee joint replacement surgery is typically prescribed for osteoarthritis (degenerative joint disease). Osteoarthritis involves thinning of protective joint cartilage, loss of sufficient lubrication of the joint by its synovial membrane, and painful inflammation. Osteoarthritis may occur years or decades after a significant joint injury, or osteoarthritis may be a long-term result of disuse, limited use, or otherwise insufficient physical activity.
As with most physical ailments, prevention is generally much more effective than is treatment. Prevention takes time, but the expenditure of time may be worth it compared to the amount of time expended later on in terms of visits to specialist physicians, laboratory tests and MRI studies, possible surgical procedures, and extensive recovery and rehabilitation. Prevention of osteoarthritis is the best policy from every point of view.
Some things just happen, of course, and a minority of osteoarthritis cases will get worse regardless of the measures taken. But, overall, various forms of exercise as well as visits to the chiropractors office have been consistently shown to substantially benefit people with osteoarthritis of the knee or hip. Effective exercise programs include walking, running, and biking. Any or all of these are appropriate in most circumstances. Aquatic exercise, such as swimming or water aerobics, is also of great benefit in the treatment of knee or hip osteoarthritis.
Additionally, core exercises are an important part of any comprehensive exercise program, especially when a primary objective is to slow or prevent osteoarthritis. Core exercises help stabilize and strengthen weight-bearing structures such as your lower back and pelvis, removing significant mechanical loads from other weight-bearing joints such as the hip and knee. Redistributing mechanical stresses away from your hips and knees through exercise and regular chiropractic care helps these joints to function more optimally and retain peak levels of performance, hopefully, far into the future.
Although these preventive activities take time, the return on investment is high. The benefits extend far beyond protection of your hips and knees. Your exercise routines improve cardiovascular fitness, increase restful sleep, enhance your posture, and add an extra bounce to your step. By engaging in a consistent program of vigorous physical activity, you're helping to increase your long-term health and well-being, and by extension, that of your family as well.


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The California Form DE 4, Employee's Withholding Allowance Certificate, must be completed so that you know how much state income tax to withhold from your new employee's wages. The importance of having each employee file a state withholding certificate as well as a federal Form W-4 cannot be overstated, so make its completion a priority. (The federal form can be substituted for the state form, for state tax purposes, in certain circumstances.)
If for some reason an employee does not file one, you must withhold tax as if the employee had claimed no exemptions. If a married employee does not claim his married status on the form, the employer must withhold on the basis of the "single employee" withholding tables. Since the withholding rates for single employees are higher than those for married workers and since the amount of tax withheld from a given wage payment decreases as the number of exemptions claimed increases, it is important that you ask all employees to file the proper certificates.
The file is in Adobe Portable Document Format (.pdf), and you will need the free Acrobat Reader to view and print the file.


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OCEAN CITY – Ocean City police last weekend made 11 arrests during a bar fight that began at a downtown nightclub and later spilled outside the establishment around closing time.
Shortly after 2 a.m. last Saturday, Ocean City Police officers on routine patrol in the downtown area responded to a reported fight inside the Paddock nightclub on 17th Street. By the time the officers arrived, nightclub security staff members were escorting several of the combatants out of the establishment. After the combatants were escorted out of the club, the fight continued out onto the sidewalk and street.
As OCPD officers arrived on the scene and began making arrests for disorderly conduct and other violations, the fight escalated with friends of those involved and others joining the fray by either interfering with arrests or refusing to leave the scene as ordered by police.
All in all, 11 arrests were made with charges ranging from assault and disorderly conduct to resisting arrest and failing to obey a lawful order. Arrested were: Anthony Drummond, 20, of Easton, Pa.; Brian Costello, 24, Staten Island, N.Y.; Efrain Gonzalez, Jr., 34, Easton Pa., Errica Pagan, 24, Easton, Pa.; Isaac Csezmadia, 24, Easton, Pa., Joe Rountree, 21, Easton, Pa.; John Ryan, 25, Wilmington, Del.; Julian Jenkins-Mathews, 26, Wilmington, Del.; Kelly Fitzgerald, 23, Ocean City; Malcom Freeman, 21, Easton, Pa., and Taryn Kelly, 30, of Ocean City. All were released on their own recognizance.


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- NLDS Game 5: Diamondbacks @ Brewers, 2p
Ian Kennedy (0-1, 5.40) vs. Yovani Gallardo (1-0, 1.13). - NLDS Game 5: Cardinals @ Phillies, 5:30p
Chris Carpenter (0-0, 12.00) vs. Roy Halladay (1-0, 3.38).
Now that the Tigers have restored sanity to the baseball universe by knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs, it's time for the Cardinals to take out those punk-ass Phillies (sorry, Dusty!) and for the Brewers to put a stop to the Snakes' hot streak. Unlike yesterday, every team is trotting out a Quality Starter™. No cookies today!