text:
To avoid any confusion, right at the outset I must say that this book was given another title by UK publishers: "The Other Hand". There are no other differences and the book is exactly the same. Often books in UK have different covers, in this case it is also the title, which is not a problem as long as you know about it. The main character is called Little Bee.
I actually just read Chris Cleave's "Gold", and now I have read another book of his. He is that good. Cleave is master at the unfolding of a story. Just when you think everything is rolling along nicely and something is going to be resolved, he throws in a twist and the tension builds again. He has a third book 'Incendiary' which has also been made into a movie, which I hope to read soon.
The issues Cleave deals with in 'Little Bee' are important. He doesn't shy away from hard topics and deals with them beautifully, building empathy for people in difficult circumstances and celebrating the human spirit. And all of this is wrapped up in a novel which is well written, compelling, easy to read, and not without moments of laughter and joy. In telling the story Cleave transforms what could be a sad and depressing topic, into something hopeful and compassionate.
When you are reading 'Little Bee' you have a book in your hands. It is likely that at the same time you have a small book somewhere in your house which is called a passport. When you are finished with 'Little Bee', I reckon you will never think about that small book in the same way, ever again.
With Little Bee it is best that you know almost nothing about the book before you read it. All I will give you is a small clue on the back of the book. "This is the story of two women. Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice. Two years later, they meet again – the story starts there…"


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subset: commoncrawl


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Elegant out door wall light with a beautiful arched neck and over sized shade. Finished in the new colour way known as Carbon. This off black colour has a semi matt appearance and hints of navy blue. Looks great above a entrance way or to the side of the front door.
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text: exclusive Dalton Riley, Quin Quire, Justin Mattnews Couples Fix (Bareback) https://flashbit.cc/ybnxhjecbbvs Video Details Added yesterday Added by Dalton Riley, Quin Quire, Justin Mattnews Studio NDB Length 00:35:44 min Average Rating 0 1 2 3 4 5 Categories Gays Porn Video Description Similar Videos Pain Slut MILF London River Brutalized with Rough Sex and Rope Bondage with Derrick Pierce, London River 720p 2.24 Gb - August 1, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video Petite Sex Slave Isabella Nice Gagged and Fucked in Tight Rope Bondage with Eddie Jaye, Isabella Nice 720p 1.99 Gb - July 4, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video Squirting Submission: Lily Lane Squirt Fucked In Inescapable Bondage with Lily Lane, Stirling Cooper 720p 2.09 Gb - September 12, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video Anal Attack: All Natural Blonde Lisey Sweet Ass Fucked in Rope Bondage with Derrick Pierce, Lisey Sweet 720p 2.09 Gb - September 26, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video Skinny Blonde Slut Alexa Grace in Sadistic Rope Bondage Pussy Fucking! with Ramon Nomar, Alexa Grace 720p 1.92 Gb - October 10, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video New Slut Kendra Spade Bound in Rope, Anally Fucked With Enormous Cock! with Eddie Jaye, Kendra Spade 720p 1.97 Gb - August 15, 2018 Wishlist Watch Video Big Titted Goddess Ryan Keely Fucked, Disciplined in Rope Bondage with Stirling Cooper, Ryan Keely 720p 1.97 Gb - April 1, 2019 Wishlist Watch Video Damien Fucks Tanner Bareback with Tanner Valentino, Damien Nichols 720p 380 MB Wishlist Watch Video


text:
Rapper T-Pain introduced this new tattoo he got in Hawaii with a tweet: "I think this ones pretty sweet, unless facebook shuts down soon 0_o". That's what the guy who tattooed MySpace's Tom on his back said in 2002.
It kind of makes sense, this "like" button tattoo, if you consider the phenomenon of bad-tattoo-as-meme (and meme-as-bad-tattoo): Maybe T-Pain is trying to embody the viral success of his music. But it's also sort of dumb, because of the fact that he ruined his body and will be forced to spend his 70s and 80s explaining to young people what his tattoo means, after Facebook is replaced with cranial implants.
T-Pain and Gucci Mane should start their own viral phenomenon while there's still time: Rapperswithbadtattoos.com.
[via TechCrunch]


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Ali ibn Abu Talib says:
"A man can be judged by his words."
And that is what this site is all about… It judges Mir Babar Ali Anees the man who awarded the title of Khuda-e-Sukhan, the Creator of words.
Indeed, some readers will reckon that Mir Anees can be judged as the best poet in the Urdu language only, however that is a shortsighted view of this great man's phenomenal and unparalleled feat with words.
Poetry is not only about language, its about the perfect balance between each and every line that is composed. Thorough poetry is the beauty that originates in the flow of the words when they are read out… the rhythmic sounds that enter the heart through the ears.
A passionate fan of Mir Anees said about his poetry, "It seems as though my heart has tasted honey, a heavenly drink, through my ears." Sometimes people do not understand the rare words used by Mir Anees in his poem, but satisfy the thirst of eloquence and elocution by just listening to the rhythm of his flowing words. read more..
A comprehensive study on Mir Anees in the English language. My passion and dedication to the poetry of Mir Babar Ali Anees began with my fascination and devotion to the love and adoration to Imam Hussain(a.s.), the highest common personality between Mir Anees and me. I am also a great fan of the legendry poet Shaheed Mohsin Naqvi, whom I read for years before I started reading Mir Anees. He was titled 'Mir-e-Saani' or Mir Anees of his time. He was famous for his ghazals too but he got real stature and recognition as a poet of Imam Hussain(as). When I initially took interest in the poetry of Mir Anees, I couldn't even read urdu… my mother would read it out to me till the late hours of the night and listening to the wonderful epics, I would often fall asleep while my mother would continue reading. Then one fine day, she handed all my Mir Anees books to me and told me that if I wanted to read Mir Anees I should learn to read urdu myself. Which I did. Along the way I also found out that it is not at all that difficult to learn this amazing language. One just needs a little dedication and a little time. As far as I am concerned, I'm dedicating my entire life to this noble cause although as of now I am still a slightly slow reader and a really slow writer. So even the credit for teaching me the A,B,C of Urdu goes to Mir Anees and my mother of course. The contributions of Mir Anees to the Urdu language is incomparable.
I owe all my gratitude, thankfulness and appreciation to Imam Mehdi (a.s.), my Master, my Protector, my Mentor, my Patron, my Guide, my Supporter, my Teacher, without whose divine inspiration and stimulation this work on Imam Hussain (a.s.) would not have been possible. He guided me just like the sun guides the travelers from behind the clouds… Thanks and much more thanks to him. … Ready for his service always, Next, I would like to acknowledge my mother Shama Mehdi Rizvi who inscribed in me the love of Imam Hussain (a.s.), when I was a child, as an inscription written on stone. Thanks to her for introducing me to Imam Hussain (a.s.) and the best of bounties (like Mir Anees) followed. This work belongs to her! Thanks to Pa, Mohammad Mehdi Rizvi, my greatest support, advocate and sponsor. Can never thank him enough! Thanks to my inspiration Mir Anees, what would I do without him? Thanks to my younger sister, Eram Rizvi, a critic I cannot thrive without. The translations are her handywork and lots of editions too! Thanks to my youngest sister, Alaviya Rizvi, she helped me when I needed her most! Thanks to my pal, Qasid Rizvi, being my web designer and worked for nights on end to bring this work into the shape that it is seen now. - Abu Talib Rizvi
My facebook ac: http://www.facebook.com/people/Talib-Rizvi/686513932
My flickr photo stream : http://www.flickr.com/photos/talibrizvi/
My youtube channel : http://www.youtube.com/user/badboyno100


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Guest Host: Michael Smerconish
Guests: Andrea Mitchell, Sue Herera, David Corn, Joan Walsh, Chrystia Freeland, Jonathan Dienst, Diena Thompson, Daniella Gibbs Leger, Glenn Thrush
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, GUEST HOST: Rebirth of a notion. Birtherism is
Let`s play some HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Michael Smerconish in Philadelphia and sitting in
for Chris Matthews.
Leading off tonight, the story that won`t go away, birtherism. Mitt
Romney is hitching his wagon to America`s top birther, Donald Trump, and
Trump is at it again, claiming falsely that President Obama admitted to a
book publisher that he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia.
Why is Mitt Romney willing to risk jumping into the gutter with Trump
on that issue?
Also, gas prices. When they were going up, Republicans were blaming
President Obama, saying that he was engineering the price increases to
coerce the nation into fuel efficiency. So what do Republicans say now
that prices have come way down?
Plus, the president reminds voters that businessman Mitt Romney
insists that corporations are people. Well, here`s a question. If Mitt`s
experience in business makes him such a good job creator, why was
Massachusetts 47th in job creation when he was the governor?
And Etan Patz, the improbable story of how the missing child story
that started it all was solved.
Finally, shooting the messenger. Chris Christie explodes when told
that New Jersey`s revenues are heading way short of estimates.
We begin with the return of the birthers.
With me now are two MSNBC political analysts, Salon editor-at-large
Joan Walsh and "Mother Jones" magazine`s David Corn, the author of
David, is there a constituency for Donald Trump? Are there a group of
Americans out there who are waiting for a Trump endorsement so that they
know what to do, or Trump involvement so that they know to whom to write
DAVID CORN, "MOTHER JONES," MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Gosh, I really
hope that`s not the case, Michael, because then we`re in deep doo-doo.
CORN: You know, but I do think he`s playing to part of the Republican
base which just won`t give up the ghost on making -- on portraying Barack
Obama as some foreign other-ish entity. I mean, it just won`t go away.
And whether it`s that he doesn`t get America or doesn`t understand
America, as Mitt Romney always says, or whether it`s that he`s not really
born here or that he doesn`t understand the economy or that he`s a secret
socialist Muslim, all these things -- you know, it`s so ingrained in their
view of the president even after three years-plus of his presidency that,
you know...
SMERCONISH: But anybody -- but David...
CORN: ... we can`t eradicate it.
SMERCONISH: ... anybody who`d be motivated on that issue is already
in the Romney camp.
CORN: Right.
SMERCONISH: That`s the part I don`t understand.
CORN: This is -- this is...
SMERCONISH: Let me show you so that everybody at home knows what
we`re talking about. In an interview with The DailyBeast`s Lloyd Grove,
Donald Trump would not back down from his questions about the president,
pointing now to a photo and biography written by a literary agency in 1991,
recently uncovered by Andrew Breitbart`s Web site. Trump said to Grove,
Look, it`s very simple. A book publisher came out three days ago and said
that in his written synopsis of his book. He said that he was born in
Kenya, raised in Indonesia. His mother never spent a day in the hospital.
Actually, the literary agency assistant who wrote the description calls it
a mistake, a fact-checking error on her part.
But Trump doesn`t believe it, and he told Grove, quote, "That`s what
he told the literary agent. That`s the way life works. He didn`t know he
was running for president, so he told the truth. The literary agent wrote
down what he said. He said he was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia,
and now they`re saying it was just a mistake, just like his Kenyan
grandmother said he was born in Kenya and she pointed down the road to the
hospital, and after people started screaming at her, he said, Oh, I mean
Hawaii. Give me a break," said the Trumpster.
And here, by the way, you can see that the 1991 literary agency photo
and description of President Obama unearthed by the folks, as I say, at
You know, Joan Walsh, I have to make this observation. The folks at
Breitbart say, We don`t buy the birther argument. We`re putting this
forward because we think it`s evidence of the shoddy job done by the media
four years ago to vet the now president.
What do you make of that?
JOAN WALSH, SALON.COM: They`re bottom feeders. I mean, my God, I
didn`t think it was possible to get lower than Andrew Breitbart, but his
spawn have gotten lower than Andrew Breitbart.
You put that out there, you know that you`re aiding and abetting
birtherism. And Michael, you know, the three of us have better things to
do on a holiday weekend than talk about the farce that is Donald Trump, but
we`re here doing it because Mitt Romney lacks the spine to stand up and
say, I`m sorry, I`m not going to have a fund-raiser with you. And it`s
really -- it`s really an important moment.
I mean, I think that the Romney campaign slogan is, Leave no Obama
hater behind. He uses surrogates like Trump to feed the base. They don`t
-- you know, we`ve got to also say -- David`s probably right, people who
love Trump will vote for Romney, or maybe they`ll stay home. There`s no
great love for Mitt Romney in the crazy crackpot Republican base, that part
of the base -- they`re not all crazy crackpots.
So you know, maybe his campaign thinks that there`s some percentage in
him standing by the orange-haired bully and talking to him and having his
hug and having his endorsement.
SMERCONISH: ... what`s the proper response? Joan, what`s the proper
response? I know we`re probably thinking of recent incidents on the
campaign trail, the Hilary Rosen incident where there was a repudiation of
what she said, as I recall, from both sides of the aisle.
WALSH: Immediately!
SMERCONISH: If it`s...
WALSH: Immediately!
SMERCONISH: If it`s taken place -- if it`s taken place in the birther
business, I`m unaware of it, and I`d love to be corrected. I don`t think
anybody came out...
WALSH: No!
SMERCONISH: ... and condemned Trump within the GOP and said, like,
What the hell`s he talking about?
WALSH: No. I`m -- no. No. The campaign jumped out -- I mean, I
like Kevin Madden, but there he was. You know, It doesn`t mean that we
endorse his views, he endorses our. No, there has not -- and you know,
we`ve seen this from the beginning, where John Boehner says, It`s really
not my job to tell people what to think.
They aid and abet the birthers because they`re afraid of them.
They`re afraid of that energy within their own party. This is a moment
where someone, Mitt Romney preferably, could say, You know, I like Donald
Trump, but this is the kind of politics that I don`t want to truck in.
You know, Michael...
CORN: It goes back to...
WALSH: ... honestly, one of the saddest -- just one thing, David.
One of the saddest days in the last four years was when Barack Obama, our
first black president, had to stand up and show his papers to that wealthy
white bully. That was a low moment, and Mitt Romney should want to
distance himself from that humiliation. It`s time for him to do that...
SMERCONISH: And David, I`m going to let you jump into this for sure,
but the one observation I would put forth is that this election is all
about those very few who are legitimately undecided, and I just cannot
believe, as a political proposition, that it benefits the Romney campaign
to have this issue relitigated. David, your thought?
CORN: Well, I think you`re right. I don`t think this plays to the
suburbanite independent voters, and I don`t think Donald Trump is doing
this with any strategy in mind, certainly not one that come from the Boston
campaign headquarters of Mitt Romney.
But the question is, once this does happen, what does Mitt Romney do
about it? It reminds me what happened a couple of weeks ago, when he was
confronted by a supporter who said that the president should be tried for
treason, unlike what Mitt -- unlike what John McCain did the last time
around, when he said to a woman who called Barack Obama an Arab, he said --
you know, he didn`t do anything. He just kind of laughs it off. And
SMERCONISH: Allow me to show you both this in advance of next
Tuesday`s -- in advance of next Tuesday`s fund-raiser with Mitt Romney and
Donald Trump in Vegas, of course. Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden
told Andrea Mitchell that Trump`s support of the campaign doesn`t mean that
Mitt Romney subscribes to what Trump believes.
KEVIN MADDEN, MITT ROMNEY ADVISER: I think that what`s most important
to remember is when you support somebody for running for office that you
are essentially signing on to their views. And Governor Romney has made
very clear that he disagrees with comments like that. He`s made it clear
every single time it`s become a topic of conversation, whether it`s in the
media or whether it`s in the blogosphere. He`s made it very clear that he
disagrees with that, and that`s...
ANDREA MITCHELL, HOST, "ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS": And he`ll stand up
next to Donald Trump and disavow that?
MADDEN: And he`ll talk about the -- he`ll stand up next to Donald
Trump and he`ll talk about why he wants to be president, why he believes
that the economy needs to be turned around.
SMERCONISH: See, I think that -- I think the argument would hold more
water if Trump weren`t still out there as recently as today on "The View,"
joking about this subject. If -- you know, if he didn`t continue to drive
it home, then I`d be more inclined to say, You can`t hold a presidential
candidate responsible for his supporters...
CORN: But he...
SMERCONISH: ... even those who are the biggest benefactors.
CORN: Yes...
SMERCONISH: Joan, go ahead.
CORN: No, I was going to...
WALSH: You go, David.
CORN: OK, thanks, Joan. But the point here is that he`s using Trump
to raise money for his own campaign.
WALSH: Right.
CORN: You don`t have to get out there and renounce everybody who
says, I support you, and I also believe this crazy thing. That -- you
know, that`s not a game, I don`t -- I don`t expect candidates to do that.
But when you`re using that person and he`s making a prominent argument
against the president, your opponent, that`s crackpot, and then you stand
next to him and you are legitimizing him -- and don`t forget, it was only a
couple of weeks ago that Donald Trump was feting Ann Romney at her
birthday, as a -- you know, and helping the campaign that way, too.
WALSH: Right.
CORN: So this is not just, Well, we don`t have to talk about crazy
supporters. This is someone who they are using to raise money for Mitt
Romney when they don`t have to. It`s their decision. It`s their choice.
And they`re making the wrong one.
SMERCONISH: Joan...
SMERCONISH: Allow me to show you what took place this morning when
Joy Behar tried to have a little fun with Trump and he continued his calls
for the president`s birth certificate.
JOY BEHAR, "THE VIEW": I have something for you, my birth
DONALD TRUMP, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I`d like to see Obama`s.
SMERCONISH: Joan, it`s an issue that`s just not going to go away so
long as Trump is still on the stage in a presidential context.
WALSH: Obviously. And what I was going to say, Michael, is that, you
know, Trump is using Romney, too. If Trump wanted to be -- you know,
somehow be morph into an elder statesman of the party, he would shut his
trap about this and he would enjoy the limelight and enjoy the fact that
they`re raffling off a dinner with him and he`s a big celebrity, like
George Clooney or President Obama. I mean, talk about a stature gap
between the two parties. That`s what Obama raffled off to his supporters.
But anyway, if he were trying to rehabilitate himself and play a
positive role, he would shut up about this. But he`s actually humiliating
Mitt Romney. You know, in my opinion, he`s really asking for Mitt Romney -
- he knows that he`s making trouble and he doesn`t care. He wants to float
this issue, and he`s going to use a presidential campaign to do it. He`s
going to humiliate Romney because he knows he doesn`t have the backbone to
stand up to him.
SMERCONISH: Last night was a pretty extraordinary night here on
HARDBALL. Chris asked Newt Gingrich, in the midst of that great interview,
why some Republicans can`t let go of the birther talk.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: You know, I don`t think you believe a word of
this, but why do some people in your party, including the very wealthy
Donald Trump, who I have mixed feelings about, of course, like everybody
does, perhaps not you -- and I like him in some ways, but he`s not stupid
enough to believe this birther certificate, and yet he keeps playing it.
Barack Obama has a birth certificate, the same as ours, right? He
comes from a father who`s from out of the country, but he`s clearly locally
born in Hawaii. Why do some people in your party keep pushing he`s not an
NEWT GINGRICH (R), FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, FMR. PRES. CANDIDATE: Beats
MATTHEWS: Thank you.
SMERCONISH: Oh (INAUDIBLE) David Corn, it beats the speaker, the
former speaker.
CORN: But wait a second. Let`s not let the speaker off easy here.
WALSH: Right.
CORN: Because what did he say last year? He said that Barack Obama -
- the only way to understand this guy is if you realize he has an anti-
colonialist Kenyan perspective, the guy who took out Osama bin Laden. I
mean, this is -- you know, he`s had his own crackpot way of dealing with
this overarching issue that...
WALSH: Right.
CORN: ... the president is different, that he`s a foreigner, that he
doesn`t have an American mentality, that he doesn`t understand America. He
did it in maybe a more sophisticated, esoteric way, but it`s the same type
of baloney that the birthers are passing. And -- you know, and that`s just
now Newt did it. So when he says, Oh -- distances himself from birtherism,
it`s really a disingenuous activity.
SMERCONISH: David Corn...
SMERCONISH: ... thank you for being here. Joan Walsh, have a great
Memorial Day weekend. We appreciate you both, as always.
WALSH: Thanks.
CORN: Sure thing.
SMERCONISH: Coming up: When gas prices were going up, Republicans
blamed President Obama. Now that they`re way down, do you think they`re
giving him the credit?
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
SMERCONISH: Tonight, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker faces off
against Democratic challenger Tom Barrett in their first debate. But
Walker`s in good shape heading into the election less than two weeks from
now. Let`s check the HARDBALL "Scoreboard."
According to a new Wisconsin Public Radio St. Norbert College poll,
Walker leads his Democratic challenger, Tom Barrett, by 5, 50 to 45. And a
similar story in the New Reason poll. It`s Walker by 8, 50 to 42.
We`ll be right back.
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL. About 31 million people will
hit the road this Memorial Day weekend, according to AAA. Today, the
national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline, $3.67. That`s
down 17 cents from last month.
For months, Republicans couldn`t talk about anything but gas prices.
They accused the president of causing the spike in prices this spring, and
they said that he had always wanted the prices to go up to satisfy his own
environmental interests.
Both accusations absurd -- gas prices are set on the world market, and
as to the latter point, it doesn`t take a political genius to debunk that.
Why would a president in the middle of a reelection want Americans to feel
pain at the pump?
Under the logic of the Republicans, does the president deserve credit
now for lower gas prices? Chrystia Freeland is editor of Thompson Reuters
Digital. Daniella Gibbs Leger is a Democratic strategist with the Center
for American Progress.
Chrystia, let me start with you. As you know, for months, Republicans
have been accusing the president of having an environmental agenda to make
gas prices go up. Here was Haley Barbour last summer.
HALEY BARBOUR (R), FMR. MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR: This administration`s
policies clearly have been to drive up the cost of energy so Americans
would use less of it. That`s environmental policy, that`s not energy
policy, but that`s their policy. They think it`ll give you less pollution,
make these alternative energy sources more competitive.
SMERCONISH: And Newt Gingrich earlier this year tied gas prices
directly to the president.
CHARLIE ROSE, CBS NEWS: You believe that he wants to see more
expensive gas, you have said?
GINGRICH: Of course he does. Come on, Charlie. You know that. I
mean, he has said it himself. His policy has been outrageously anti-
American energy. The high price of gasoline is a direct result of Obama.
SMERCONISH: Mitt Romney misquoted the president to make it seem like
he wanted higher gas prices. Here`s that tape.
ROMNEY: Well, there -- there`s no question but that when he ran for
office, he said he wanted to see gasoline prices go up. He said that
energy prices would skyrocket, under his views (ph), and he selected three
people to help him implement that -- that program, the secretary of energy,
the secretary of the interior and the EPA administrator. And this gas hike
trio has been doing the job over the last three-and-a-half years, and gas
prices are up.
SMERCONISH: The president never said that he wanted to see higher gas
prices. As a candidate, he once said that curbing greenhouse gas emissions
would cause electricity prices, not gasoline prices, to necessarily
skyrocket. "The Washington Post" reports that domestic oil production has
actually risen each year of Obama`s presidency.
OK, Chrystia, what do you make of this? Is it fair for me to call it
all a conspiracy that had been woven about the president that is now being
CHRYSTIA FREELAND, THOMPSON REUTERS DIGITAL: I wouldn`t call it a
conspiracy, but I would call it cynical politics as usual. Look, everybody
knows that the U.S. president cannot in the short term affect the price of
gas at the pump.
Now, as it happens, the high prices in the spring were about politics,
but not U.S. politics, they were mostly driven by Iranian politics. And
markets were factoring in what looked like very high risk of a war with
Iran because of its nuclear program, and that`s really what set the prices
high. And analysts at that point were predicting that the price would go
above $4, maybe as high as $5 this summer.
Republicans saw an opportunity. This is, I think, going to be an
election chiefly about the economy. And you can talk about GDP and other
esoteric statistics all you like, but if the price at the pump is high,
that is an economic number that people really feel. So they went for it.
SMERCONISH: Daniella -- Daniella, does the president have some
vulnerability, if not on gas prices, on the whole Keystone pipeline issue?
DANIELLA GIBBS LEGER, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Well, no, I don`t
really think so.
I think most people understand, as you said, that the president can`t
do anything short term to lower gas prices in the immediate. And I do
think, though, that when people look at President Obama`s energy policy,
that he really has put forth at "all of the above" strategy.
Domestic production under this president I believe is higher than it
has been in decades. So no one can actually say that he is not pursuing
all avenues to create -- to increase our energy production, and I think
it`s really cynical for the Republicans to have jumped on its back then.
And I`m waiting to hear all the credit now that gas prices have gone
down, and it`s Memorial Day. Typically, now is when prices are at their
peak and it`s really been lower than it`s been in months. So where are the
Republicans now?
FREELAND: Can I jump in there?
SMERCONISH: Chrystia, take -- Chrystia, take a look at this chart, if
you would, which strongly debunks the notion -- and we have all talked
about this -- that policies of any president can have a major impact on gas
If you look at the prices in Europe vs. the prices in the United
States, which are reflected on the bottom, they go almost in lockstep. And
the only difference is that American prices are lower because taxes on
gasoline are lower.
Pretty clear, is it not, that it`s one of those subjects, and I think
there are a handful of them, where, if it goes well, the president gets
credit sometimes that he doesn`t deserve, and when it goes poorly, he gets
blame that he equally doesn`t deserve.
FREELAND: Yes, I think that`s absolutely right.
Look, we all know that the price of oil is set on the world market,
and that is not a market that the U.S. president controls. I do, though,
disagree with Daniella about the Keystone pipeline.
If I were a Republican strategist, I would be hammering that issue.
And I think we have already seen them doing that. We saw Mitt Romney push
it this week. It doesn`t have an impact on the price of gas at the pumps
today, but if the Republicans are looking for an issue where they can say
concretely this president is not in favor of, is not supporting getting
more oil directly into the United States, the Keystone pipeline is an issue
where they can do that.
And they can also throw in -- they can say, look, that was going to be
also American jobs. So I think actually that was a misstep for the
Democrats and I think they`re going to pay for it.
SMERCONISH: Daniella, last month, political ads that are based on gas
prices, they dominated the airwaves.
According to Kantar Media, in April, listen to this, there were nearly
17,000 ads negative ads that were aired in the country; 81 percent of them
groups focused on energy.
In fact, here`s one of those ads from Karl Rove`s group, Crossroads
GPS, that tied gas prices to President Obama`s record. Watch this.
NARRATOR: Then and now, the difference, President Obama`s
administration restricted oil production in the Gulf, limited development
of American oil shale, and Obama personally lobbied to kill a pipeline
bringing oil from Canada.
SMERCONISH: So, Daniella, is this now an issue that is being removed
from the table of those A-list issues that we are going to be hearing and
talking about from now until November? If gas prices stay where they are
or continue to decline, has it pulled out of the GOP arsenal?
GIBBS LEGER: I think it has been.
And just to go back to the Keystone pipeline, I think when you look at
independent studies, it showed that like, Chrystia said, it wouldn`t reduce
the price of gasoline and the amount of jobs that it would create were
actually in question. So I don`t think that was her strongest argument and
maybe that`s not why they were not going for it.
So I do think that it was tricky for them to put all of their eggs
into the gasoline basket, because, again, right now, gas prices are low.
And even if they do go back up, we will just hit back with the argument
that the president cannot control day-to-day gas prices.
What you have to look at is what are the long-term policies that each
candidate is putting forth to help create energy dependence and reduce our
prices? And when looking at Mitt Romney vs. President Obama, I think the
American people will realize that the path that President Obama wants to go
on is the one that will actually create energy independence for us.
SMERCONISH: Thank you. Thank you both.
Thank you, Chrystia Freeland.
Thank you, Daniella Gibbs Leger.
We appreciate your being here.
GIBBS LEGER: Thank you, Michael.
SMERCONISH: Up next, we have seen some weird campaign ads this year,
but we found one for a congressional candidate in South Dakota that might
just beat them all. That`s next in the "Sideshow." This is HARDBALL, the
place for politics.
SMERCONISH: Hey, back to HARDBALL. Now for the "Sideshow."
First off, there`s been a lot of buzz lately about how much the 1968
presidential campaign of George Romney, Mitt`s father, is influencing
Mitt`s current strategy. George`s political career toppled with one simple
word, brainwashing, which he used to describe his initial support for the
Vietnam War.
Well, Mitt got candid in an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" -
- quote -- "I don`t think my father`s comment figures into my thinking this
at all." It`s his own mistakes, he said, "that makes me want to kick
myself in the seat of my pants. I have had a couple of those during the
campaign which have haunted me a little bit, but I`m sure before this is
over will haunt me a lot."
So which gaffe did Romney cite as an example?
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I like being able to fire
people who provide services for me.
SMERCONISH: I can see why that would be a lowlight.
Next up, how did a rubber chicken, a chess set, and talk of perfect
teeth all wind up in one campaign ad? Well, just ask Jeff Barth, a
congressional candidate in South Dakota`s Democratic primary. We have all
seen our share of out-there campaign ads. This one might just take the
JEFF BARTH (D), SOUTH DAKOTA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Give me a
second and I will tell you why I`m just the right fellow for the job.
Born in Minnesota, my dad was a coach and a history teacher. He got a
job with the CIA and then became a diplomat for the U.S. government. We
lived around the world.
Along the way, I learned chess in Iceland. I have ridden an ostrich.
I have done a lot of stuff. My wife and I raised our two daughters, who
both have straight teeth, college degrees, husbands. For six years, I
served on the U.S. military with one of these.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congress is broken. Who is going to fix it, D.C.
insiders? They have got their horses in the race, but they`re heading
north and all we see is their south end.
SMERCONISH: In Barth`s own words, he was -- quote -- "winging it,"
but come on. He`s ridden an ostrich. How are you not convinced?
Finally, when the numbers don`t add up. David Rosen, New Jersey`s
chief budget officer for the Officer of Legislative Services, recently
projected that the state`s revenue might fall short of Governor Chris
Christie`s estimates by over a billion dollars come June of 2013.
True to form, Christie struck back at Rosen and the state`s Democratic
lawmakers. Let the name calling begin.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: These people across the street
are going through withdrawal. They are on the floor sweating, shaking,
they don`t know what to do because they need to raise taxes. They have to,
because they have to spend more.
The only thing that makes them shake more is the possibility that we
might actually cut taxes. So they needed to call in the Dr. Kevorkian of
the numbers.
CHRISTIE: David Rosen, the Kevorkian from the partisan Office of
Legislative Services.
Why would anybody with a functioning brain believe this guy? How
often do you have to be wrong to finally be dismissed?
SMERCONISH: Well, you have heard it, Dr. Kevorkian. Now, Rosen
himself concedes that these kind of estimates are anything but foolproof.
Somehow, I doubt that team Romney watching that outburst might think, hey,
there`s our veep.
Up next, Mitt Romney says he knows how to create jobs. His record as
governor of Massachusetts says something very different. That`s ahead.
And if you want to follow me on Twitter, all you need do is figure out
how to spell Smerconish.
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
SUE HERERA, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Sue Herera with your CNBC "Market
The Dow shed 75 points, the S&P lost three, the Nasdaq down almost two
points. An upbeat report on consumer sentiment was mostly overlooked. It
rose in May to its best level since October of 2007. Facebook shares ended
the day off more than 3 percent. They have actually lost about 17 percent
this week alone.
But, on your Memorial Day barbecue, well, it`s going to cost you a
little bit more this year. According to the USDA, steak, pork and chicken
prices are all up compared with year-ago levels.
That`s it from CNBC. We are first in business worldwide -- and now
back to HARDBALL.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Governor Romney came to
Des Moines last week, warned about a prairie fire of debt. That`s what he
said, prairie fire. But he left out some facts. His speech was more like
a cow pie of distortion.
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
In speeches this week, President Obama made clear he is taking the
lead in attacking Mitt Romney.
Here are some of the highlights.
OBAMA: when you`re president, as opposed to the head of a private
equity firm, then your job is not simply to maximize profits.
Those of us who have spent time in the real world know that the
problem isn`t that the American people aren`t productive enough.
Why is he peddling the same bad ideas that brought our economy to the
brink of collapse? That was tried, remember? The last guy did all this.
He famously declared that corporations are people.
SMERCONISH: Some are questioning whether being his own surrogate is a
smart move for the president.
But what no one doubts is that the president intends to hit Romney
early, often and hard.
NBC`s Andrea Mitchell is the host of "ANDREA MITCHELL REPORTS" on
MSNBC, and Glenn Thrush is senior White House reporter for Politico.
Andrea, are you surprised that he is his own Dick Cheney?
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC CHIEF FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Not
entirely, because let`s take a look at just the track record of some of his
own surrogates over the last couple weeks, notably on "Meet the Press" Joe
Biden and then Cory Booker.
If you can`t rely on your surrogates to be your attack dogs, then you
have to be your own attack dog. But more seriously, I think that they know
that Crossroads and the other super PACs on behalf of Mitt Romney are
coming after them double-barreled. They`re going to be caricatured. He`s
going to be caricatured. And he has to fight back first because the pro-
Obama super PACs don`t have the reach and have not shown the facility to go
negative and go hard as much as some of the Republicans have.
SMERCONISH: Glenn, historically speaking, and if one goes back just
the last couple of cycles, don`t we typically find that, by this point,
Memorial Day weekend, you don`t have the president invoking, if he`s an
incumbent, the name of his opponent, that it is a bit unusual that we get
to where we are so quickly?
GLENN THRUSH, POLITICO: It is, but, you know, as Andrea said, we are
in the post-Citizens United era here.
And I think with surrogates like Cory Booker and Ed Rendell, Obama
needs to do some of this work himself. And the other point here is, with
the acceleration of the news cycle, who is going to remember that Obama was
saying this stuff this early on?
I think to a certain extent, it`s a lot better to be making these
direct attacks in May and June than it will be in October and November. So
I think the calculation is, do it now, so that you don`t have to do it
SMERCONISH: Right, but I guess what I would respond to that, Andrea,
by saying is that the best thing, politically speaking, that the president
has going for him is his likability.
You know, even some folks who won`t vote for him think he`s a pretty
decent guy. Doesn`t he run the risk of driving down that popularity number
if he`s the attack dog?
MITCHELL: Yes. No, he does, and he does need to worry about the
independent voters and losing the independent voters.
And some of the Bain attacks, frankly, have cost him support, not only
on Wall Street, with larger sectors in the business community. That said,
if you look at the enthusiasm gap that we now see, where there is so much
less enthusiasm on the part of the Democratic base for President Obama
compared to the enthusiasm on the part of the Republican base for Mitt
Romney, then you have to really figure you`re going to fire up that base
and you have got to do it with this kind of aggressive campaigning.
So, I think that`s the calculation, that they are in the mode of
getting their supporters out because it`s going to be this closely fought,
and they now have a lot of people who are pretty much sitting on their
SMERCONISH: Glenn, let`s talk jobs.
Romney, of course, has argued that his years as a successful
businessman qualify him to fix the nation`s economy, but it`s not as though
Romney has never held a government position. He was, after all, the
governor of Massachusetts for four years, something that he rarely
THRUSH: Are you sure about that? Did you check Wikipedia?
SMERCONISH: In Des Moines, President Obama pointed that out.
OBAMA: He doesn`t really talk about what he did in Massachusetts, but
he does talk about being a business -- business guy.
SMERCONISH: In a piece about how Romney`s governorship is playing in
this campaign, you have written "No candidate in modern history has so
aggressively undersold what has been seen as the most desirable
qualification for the presidency since the 1970s, running a state."
And here`s one reason why Romney might be mute on his years as
governor. For the entirety of his term, Massachusetts ranked 47th in job
growth, and job growth was just 1.4 percent.
Expand on your remarks.
THRUSH: Well, I mean, how can you -- how can a candidate --
particularly when you have had, what, five of the last six presidents, or
five of the last seven presidents emerge from governor`s mansions, can you
imagine having a candidate who has that as a central part of his resume,
and doesn`t discuss it? The majority leader of the Massachusetts House
told me the other day that recruiters always tell you to look for the gaps
in the resume and that he thought there was a four-year gap in Governor
Romney`s resume.
But I think, you know, to a certain extent, Governor Romney is going
to have to talk about this. The record is out there. The Obama folks are
going to hammer them. I think after this round of Bain attacks, we`re
going to see some Massachusetts attacks. He might as well get out there
and own it, and you know, it is not an entirely terrible record, even when
you throw in health care reform. You know, he --
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, GUEST HOST: Andrea, I know that some people
would say that -- I know that some people would say that it`s because of
health care reform that he doesn`t talk about his Massachusetts record,
because to talk about what he did as governor would immediately conjure up,
among other things, the record on health care.
I have a different theory. If he had been the governor of one of the
49 other states, would he be more apt to talk about his record? In other
words, is there this thought process in the minds of Americans that they
associate Massachusetts with liberalism and consequently Governor Romney
doesn`t want to talk about the record because he doesn`t want to talk about
being a Massachusetts governor?
ANDREA MITCHELL, NBC NEWS: I think it`s a combination. I think it`s
health care, the mandates, you know, the whole Rick Santorum mantra about
that. And it`s also Massachusetts. And maybe primarily Massachusetts.
Michael Dukakis, the way --
SMERCONISH: Right.
MITCHELL: -- that it`s been caricatured by Republicans. It`s the
Tea Party and it`s the way the Tea Party approaches being governor of
Massachusetts. That surely was a theme of the campaign. It was a theme of
all of his challenges in the campaign.
SMERCONISH: Hey, thank you both. We had the A-team. Andrea
Mitchell and Glenn Thrush, we appreciate you being here.
MITCHELL: Thank you. Great to be with you, guys.
SMERCONISH: Up next, how police in New York crack one of the highest
profile cold cases of the country 33 years later.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
SMERCONISH: We`ve heard a lot about how this presidential campaign
is going to be the most negative in history. But so far, the facts don`t
bear that out. In fact, according to our friends over at Kantar Media,
which tracks political advertising, 51 percent of the broadcast ads on TV
have actually been positive versus 49 percent that have been negative.
We`ll be right back.
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Pedro Hernandez, the man arrested for the killing of six-year-old
Etan Patz in 1979, is being arraigned today from his bed at New York`s
Bellevue Hospital Center where he remains under suicide watch. It may be
the end of a story that`s haunted New York City and parents everywhere for
decades. Etan was abducted on his first ever solo trip to the bus stop
near his Manhattan apartment 33 years ago today.
Jonathan Dienst is reporter for WNBC and he`s been covering the
developments in this case. Diena Thompson is the mother of Somer Thompson,
a second grader who was abducted and killed on her own way from school in
Jonathan, am I right that this is a fellow who was never interviewed,
he was on the radar screen peripherally but was never interviewed by
investigators in the first go-round three decades ago?
JONATHAN DIENST, WNBC-TV: That is correct. Police Commissioner
Kelly detailed that at a news conference yesterday. What led them to this
suspect 33 years later was a tip. Apparently, this suspect had been
talking to relatives about how he had harmed a child in New York years ago.
He does suffer from mental illness, according to his relatives, so
perhaps they didn`t take those claims seriously until just recently when
the FBI and NYPD began a new search digging for a body down in that
neighborhood, and one of the relatives apparently real realized, oh, my
goodness, perhaps what he was talking about -- about harming a child, that
this could be a connection.
So they alerted police --
SMERCONISH: Apart from his confession, apart from his presumed
confession, is there any evidence that we`re aware of that ties him to the
DIENST: The only evidence that we know of is this confession. You`ve
got hours of written and audio ands videotape confessions, and the claims
that he made to three other witnesses, if you will, over the years.
As of now, we know of no physical evidence. They don`t have a body.
There`s no videotape that shows them. There`s no witness who says I saw
him with that kid way back when in 1979.
So, police --
SMERCONISH: I guess what I`m driving at -- I guess what I`m driving
at is I`m thinking of cases like the Lindbergh baby case where there were
multiple people who came out and said, Bruno Hauptmann didn`t do this, I
did it. Have the police ruled out the crackpot factor here?
DIENST: Look, that`s certainly what perhaps the defense is going to
be going out. The analogy some New Yorkers are talking about is a
Dominique Strauss-Kahn case, if you remember that one, where there was
probable cause to make an arrest, but then the case fell apart because the
credibility of the accuser, you know, didn`t hold up. In this case, what`s
the credibility of the person who`s making this confession? He`s on
medication, he has a history of mental illness, but the confession is
apparently detailed.
The police actually took him back to the scene and had him do a walk-
through where they say he detailed --
SMERCONISH: Wow.
DIENST: -- what happened, where he said he lured this little boy
with the offer of a soda can down into the basement of his bodega, and it
was there where he strangled this child and put him in a garbage bag and
left him on the sidewalk to be picked up by the coming garbage trucks with
the rest of the trash that terrible day back in 1979.
SMERCONISH: Diena, my condolences to you on the passing of your
daughter. And I`ve been watching and I appreciate the strength that you`ve
You are sadly, uniquely qualified, to tell us what kind of closure
the family of Etan Patz might be able to draw from this.
DIENA THOMPSON, SOMER THOMPSON`S MOTHER: You know, being able to
find out who did this to your child is always a breath of fresh air, if you
will. You just want to know who it is so you`re not under anybody else`s
suspicion that you were involved, because we know the statistics and that
most of the time you know, or they know. And so, I`m sure they`re
breathing a sigh of relief that, you know, even if someone did think
they`re guilty, you know, that they won`t be, plus, they know now possibly
that they got the right person.
SMERCONISH: What has been the significance of the Etan Patz case to
the movement to make sure we`re protecting the interests of children over
the last several decades?
THOMPSON: I don`t know that. I feel bad. But, you know, I`m
basically the same age that he would be. So obviously when he disappeared,
I was just a child and didn`t expect that something like this could happen
to know me.
But I know that he`s the first child to be on a milk carton, and, you
know, it just exploded from there on what we`ve been able to do.
SMERCONISH: Is one of the ramifications of the -- all of this
attention, dumpsters were not something that would have historically been
searched when you had a missing child, and now the whole drill and the
whole response from law enforcement has been altered?
THOMPSON: Yes, it has. I mean, I don`t know about -- before Somer,
I don`t think it was part of their procedures to look in the trash. I
mean, we got lucky by the grace of God to find Somer in the trash, and it`s
a shame how many children are actually in our landfills. But, yes, that has
all come a long way since then.
SMERCONISH: You`ve received closure in your case in so far that the
man is behind bars, life in prison, that was a decision with which you were
comfortable, am I right? Originally, you thought of death panel, but then
determined that life in prison was probably the best outcome you could hope
THOMPSON: Well, I wanted to make sure that he paid for what he did,
and I didn`t want to allow him to be in my children and family`s life for
the rest of our life, such as dragging us to the appellate court. So, I
just wanted to take care of him and put him where he belonged.
SMERCONISH: Jonathan, with regard to the gentleman now suspected for
the Etan Patz case, what kind of a life has he led for the last three
DIENST: He`s had a pretty normal life. After working in a bodega in
New York City, in his teenage years, he got off, married in New Jersey, has
children, a normal life, no criminal history to speak of, so that`s what is
baffling about this. Yes, he has a history of mental illness and has been
on medication, but the police are now scrambling to try to interview
everyone he`s come in contact with both in New York and New Jersey to try
to see if they can come up with anything that will link him to this case
and also to try to see if he is connected to any other case.
Right now, they have their work cut out for them. This weekend,
they`re going to have a very busy weekend pouring over this 33 year case
history and find witnesses and evidence that could link him or help
corroborate the confession that he`s given.
SMERCONISH: Jonathan, I just have barely a minute left. The why the
question. OK, so he lured him with soda allegedly, why? What was the
motivation? What transpired? Do we know?
DIENST: We were told police asked him in the hours of questions time
and time again, and he was never able to offer an answer, he never did give
an answer as to why he went after that beautiful child that day.
SMERCONISH: So darn sad, but at least, we hope that the family gets
closure to the extent that this is the guy and there`s a conviction and so
that their lives can go on and be more fulfilling.
Thank you so much, Jonathan Dienst.
And, Diena Thompson, appreciate you`re having been here as well under
difficult circumstances.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
SMERCONISH: When we return, allow me to finish with a big fight over
free speech. Should people be able to post comments anonymously online?
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
SCHMERCONISH: Let me finish tonight with this:
The blogosphere can be a vicious place. Go on any news Web site that
allows the postings of anonymous comments below its stories, and you can
see exactly what I`m talking.
Now, Matt Peckham at Time.com is reporting that the state of New York
is seeking to ban anonymous comments from Web sites. The proposal would
amend the civil rights laws in order to protect a person`s right to know
who is behind an anonymous Internet posting. And the definition of Web
sites includes social media. The intention apparently is to combat cyber
The Supreme Court has upheld anonymous free speech rights. Back in
1995, the court said protections for anonymous speech are vital to
democratic discourse, allowing dissenters to shield their identities, frees
them to express critical minority views. The court wrote, anonymity is a
shield from the tyranny of the majority.
And back in 1960, Justice Black reminded that if anonymous speech had
been unlawful at the time of the "Federalist Papers," well then authors
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay would have been forced to
disclose their real names or the papers would perhaps simply remain
Still, I was curious what comments would be appended to the Time.com
story and to see how many people would sign their name. Well, some did and
they framed the issue nicely.
Julian Rojo said, "This is no different from something that President
Hu Jintao supported in order to crack down on dissidents in China.
Protection of feelings over freedoms can never justified.
But mobileweather.org said, "It is not freedom of speech to tear into
people mercilessly under the guise of a fake user name. If you are going
to have to do it, then have the blanks to use your real name. I`m with New
York. Stop the cowardly hate.`
Steve Cray said, "Protection from bullying can be covered under
libelous speech, hate speech, and in some instances even the Violence
Against Women Act. If I call you a blank and a blank because I don`t like
what you posted, that`s my right. And besides, many experienced bloggers
can recognize a troll and report him or her to the moderator.
Patriot Engineer Analyst USA said, "The Internet is not a forum for
free speech. It is not a free-for-all. There are rules. If you`re unable
to man-up and identify yourself when you comment, then take your free
speech and your soap box and go elsewhere."
And finally, Dan Schaefer responded, "Freedom is not free."
Well, he is right. My heart likes the New York initiative to ban
anonymous postings, my head says otherwise. It`s doubtful that the
contemplated law could withstand constitutional scrutiny. And just as
well, as we go into Memorial Day weekend, it`s important to remember that
many died to preserve the right for free speech, even the offensive.
That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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Jim Palmer (not his real name) worked at New Group Bank (not their real name). He worked in the Real Estate department and was an expert appraiser and compliance officer. He was a regular Joe who came to work and did his job faithfully and honestly.
Then in 2006, he noticed something was wrong. There seemed to be an "old boy" network of mortgage brokers, realtors and bankers who were playing fast and loose with loan applications and Real Estate appraisals. So being the faithful employee, he attempted to raise the alarm that maybe, just maybe some of the loans being booked really weren't underwritten well and that if there was a downturn in the economy, the bank may sustain losses.
But his counsel was rejected.
So Jim had a dilemma. Keep quiet and his own job might be in jeopardy because once the loans started to go bad, the bank would 1) look for scapegoats in the RE department and/or 2) implode and potentially go out of business. Both alternatives seemed to Jim to be bad choices. His decision was not an easy one.
After significant soul searching, he determined he only had one alternative; he had to blow the whistle to the regulators; the FDIC and the SEC. But like all government entities, they react slowly or sometimes not at all (i.e. Bernie Madoff).
As a result of the report to the regulators, Jim was identified and was subsequently fired for blowing the whistle. There are even internal memos calling him a whistle blower and discussing how they could fire him without giving him the protection of whistle blower laws.
You have all heard that there is protection for Whistle Blowers. But as with all things pertaining to the government and the legal system, the response is extremely slow. Whistle Blowers can go bankrupt or die before their cases are heard, if at all. In fact, a majority of Whistle Blowers never gain any type of protection.
The laws are vague at best as to what a Whistle Blower really is. Just by making a report doesn't make you a Whistle Blower. To be deemed a Whistle Blower, you have to have suffered some retaliation. To determine whether a firing was retaliation, you have to go through certain legal steps, which again takes time, too much time in the opinion of those who have been involved.
But Jim has been vindicated to a certain extent. When the RE bubble burst, the loans that he had warned them about went bad. The Bank holding company is in bankruptcy and senior management has been fired or "retired". The SEC and FDIC now see the truth in what Jim told. There is a class action lawsuit going on and the regulators are probably going to file criminal complaints against senior management in the near future.
But at what cost? It would have been simpler and easier if management had really listened, but they had bet heavily on RE loans and their futures were at stake. And certain related companies (through management) were profiting when a loan went bad.
Here are some things that must be considered for Whistle Blowers:
1) If at all possible, employees need the ability to report anonymously.
2) The regulators need to really listen when a Whistle Blower comes forward and offer REAL protection so their livelihood is protected. They need the ability to force companies to keep Whistle Blowers on the payroll until all proceedings are complete. Right now there are not incentives for companies to resolve issues quickly.
3) Whistle Blowers should be able to receive their salary during the period the case is being reviewed. Currently the company has no incentive to bring the action to a conclusion, so they stall and delay hoping the Whistle Blower either gives up, runs out of money or dies.
4) Whistle Blowers need to also be compensated for the data they provide the regulators. In many cases, the information provided by the Whistle Blower would have taken the regulators hundreds of hours to put together. The Whistle Blower should be rewarded.
5) The regulators need a Whistle Blower advocate within the government that has real power to move issues along and force settlements.
Companies have to do the following:
1) Provide a confidential reporting mechanism like www.MyWhistle.com which reports issues directly to the Board of Directors.
2) Truly independent board members must be heavily involved in the complaint process.
3) The internal audit department must be independent from management and report directly to the Board.
4) External auditors should be given a copy of all reports from MyWhistle.com.
5) All Board members must be truly able to be active members, family and friends are typically not experienced enough or able to act independently.
What say you?
Want to complain to the government about the treatment of Whistle Blowers, go to http://fcic.gov/


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Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison, Jeremy Hammond Uses Allocution to Give Consequential Statement Highlighting Global Criminal Exploits by FBI Handlers
From the Sparrow Project
[NEW YORK, NY] Jeremy Hammond, a 28-year-old political activist, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to participating in the Anonymous hack into the computers of the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor). The Ceremonial Courtroom at the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York was filled today with an outpouring of support by journalists, activists and other whistleblowers who see Jeremy Hammond's actions as a form of civil disobedience, motivated by a desire to protest and expose the secret activities of private intelligence corporations.
The hearing opened with arguments as to what sections of the court record will remain redacted after sentencing. While Jeremy's attorneys initially erred on the side of caution in previous memorandums and kept large pieces of the record redacted, both the defense and prosecution agreed this morning that many of the sections should now be made available for public view. The prosecution, however took stiff exception to portions of the court record being made public that indicate victims, specifically foreign governments, that Jeremy allegedly hacked under the direction of Hector "Sabu" Monsegur, the FBI informant at the helm of Jeremy's alleged actions. Judge Preska ordered that the names of these foreign governments remain sealed.
Jeremy's lead counsel, Sarah Kunstler, who is 9 months pregnant and due to give birth today, delivered a passionate testimonial as to the person that Jeremy is, and the need for people like Jeremy during our changing socio-political landscape. She was followed by co-counsel, Susan Keller, who wept as she recalled her experiences reading the hundreds of letters from supporters to the court detailing the Jeremy Hammond's selflessness and enthusiastic volunteerism. She pointed out that it was this same selflessness that motivated Jeremy's actions in this case. She closed her testimony by underscoring that, "The centerpiece of our argument is a young man with high hopes and unbelievably laudable expectations in this world."
Susan was followed by Jeremy Hammond himself, who gave a detailed, touching and consequential allocution to the court. The following is Jeremy's statement to the court. We have redacted a portion [marked in red] upon the orders of Judge Preska. While we believe the public has a right to know the redacted information therein, we refuse to publish information that could adversely effect Jeremy or his counsel.
JEREMY' HAMMOND SENTENCING STATEMENT | 11/15/2013 (more…)


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Neighborhood Resources
Our online Neighborhood Resources is a collection of our favorite how-to guides, grant opportunities, workshops, city services and more. New York City is home to a wealth of resources—gather the tools to better your community here!
Know of other resources that are worth sharing?
Di Cui at
or 212-822-9563
Explore the Citizens Committee Resource Library
Soil Testing
Brooklyn College provides soil testing at a low cost as part of their commitment to the community. Test your garden's soil to see if it is safe to grow food in.
Type: General Resources
Water Testing
Cornell University provides information about testing water and soil for contaminants, as well as links to find the public records of water tests.
Type: General Resources
ioby: Guide to Green Infrastructure
ioby has compiled a guide to five projects that any community group can do to conserve and resuse water as well as reduce pollutants in waterways.
Type: General Resources
Intro to Worker Cooperatives for Farmers
The Democracy at Work Institute put together a presentation and discussion about starting and running worker cooperatives for farms and small businesses. This is a great resource for small farming groups looking to expand their work to a cooperative model.
Type: Trainings
Million Trees TreeLC Handbook
The Million Trees NYC TreeLC handbook offers advice and information on caring for your street trees.
Type: General Resources
Grants for Environmental Engagement
Outdoor Nation and Merrell have teamed up to offer grants to projects that increase participation in outdoor activities and create meaningful connections to the natural world. Applications are accepted from individuals and 501(c)3 organizations.
Type: Grants & Funding
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ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — The first group of Caterpillar workers is moving in to office space at the company's new Georgia plant.
The Athens Banner-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/10yonUB) that the 850,000-square-foot facility is now home to 50 workers. They moved in to the new space less than a year after the official groundbreaking for the plant in Bogart, just west of Athens.
Workers will build tractors and excavators at the plant.
Officials have said they plan to ramp up to full production over a five-year period, company officials have said. The manufacturing facility is expected to directly employ 1,400 workers once it's fully operational.


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Transfer news: Everton sign Ivory Coast striker Arouna Kone from Wigan
Everton have completed the signing of striker Arouna Kone from Wigan on a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee.
Last Updated: 08/07/13 5:32pm
The Ivory Coast forward had been heavily linked with a move to Merseyside and has now followed former Latics' boss Roberto Martinez to Goodison Park.
Wigan chairman Dave Whelan said last week that he expected the 29-year-old to leave after Everton met the £5m buy-out clause in Kone's contract.
And although there was also reported interest from Newcastle, Kone has opted to be re-united with his former boss who left Wigan for Everton following David Moyes' appointment as Manchester United manager.
Martinez originally signed Kone from Spanish side Levante in 2012 and the former PSV Eindhoven man scored 11 goals last season, although he was unable to prevent Wigan being relegated from the Premier League.
Kone has been on international duty and is currently on holiday but he will join up with his new club later this month ahead of the new Premier League campaign.
Great season
"I feel delighted," said Kone. "I'm really happy about joining this team.
"For me it is the fruition of work that has been going on for a month now. I'm really pleased to be here and I hope that everything goes well and I can have a great season for the club, just like I did last year with Wigan.
"For me it's an honour to be back working with the manager once again.
"Last season he really helped me a lot. For my first season I did the absolute best I could but I think that joining up with him at this club is like another dimension for me, and I hope that I'm going to continue to improve alongside him.
"I think that with the quality of squad Everton has, we will have a good season, and I hope to score as many goals as I can next season."
The forward feels his career is moving up a level and is backing himself to deliver for the Goodison Park club.
"Every player dreams of playing for a bigger club and coming here is a big step up for me," he said.
"I hope to be able to fulfil all my dreams and get as far as I can through hard work.
"I really believe in this team and I think we will have a great campaign next season. I can't wait to make my debut for this club.
"I'm raring to go because, when you join a club, it's that desire to start working that first comes to mind.
"I'm ready and willing to get started and can't wait to meet up with my team-mates and the coaching staff."


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"The secret about demo reels." It just evokes an air of mystery, doesn't it? But a secret is just a piece of information that you don't know yet. So I'm gonna just spill it. And then you'll know it and that will be that. OK, are you sitting down?
Here it is: The secret about demo reels is most of the time, people never watch past the first 10 seconds.
Yes, it's true. Although I can't speak for everyone, what I've observed and experienced is that the vast majority of reels that are sent to casting directors get turned off in less than 10 seconds. I know you may be already scrolling down to the bottom of this article getting ready to write your lengthy, outraged comment. But before you go there, please let me explain.
When I say the "vast majority," I'm mostly referring to unsolicited demo reels. Those are the demos that you send a casting director when they didn't actually ask for one. I don't mean the ones your agent sent to a casting director when they actually requested to see it. Those usually get about 30 seconds before they are turned off—unless they are great, of course, and then they get watched some more.
What new actors should know about demo reels...
So now you are probably asking, "What makes a demo reel good?" But the question at hand really is, "What gets a demo reel watched?"
In my humble opinion, after having watched thousands of demos over the years—both solicited and not—here are a couple of key things (besides a great performance) that make a demo reel much more likely to be watched past 10 seconds.
Put your best, most impactful clip at the top of the reel. Reels are not like meals. Don't save the best for last. Your best clip should not be the dessert, but rather the first course. Make an impact! If they like what they see, they will continue to watch. Get them hungry for more.
Keep it short. I've found that the three-minute mark is usually the sweet spot. Long enough to show some good stuff, but not so long that your watcher is getting bored. Believe it or not, five minutes can seem like a lifetime if the material isn't scintillating.
Put yourself in a casting director's shoes. Say you need to look at the reels of 50 actors for one role. Fifty demos times 5 minutes each. That's more than four hours of footage. Build in a few extra minutes for clicking on and off and maybe a bathroom break and that's nearly five hours. And that's just one role.
Understand that your reel is not being watched in a vacuum. They are not sitting down in a plush private screening room with an icy cold drink and some warm popcorn, relaxed and excited to enjoy a great piece of entertainment. In reality, they are sitting at their computer after hours of auditions and millions of phone calls, tired, harried, and stressed, eating lunch at their desk (again) with a mountain of demos to get through before the next session.
To give yourself the best chance of getting watched, pick your best stuff and cut it down to 2-3 minutes and lead with your very best, most attention-getting clip. It's actually a good thing if they wish it were longer. It's infinitely better than the reverse!
With reels, as with any great performance, the rule of thumb is, "Always leave 'em wanting more!"
Inspired by this post? Check out our audition listings!
Amy Jo Berman is former Vice President of Casting at HBO and for 14 years has overseen the casting of over 150 films, mini-series, and series. She is the founder of Audition Polish, a membership-based audition coaching program that has helped actors around the globe nail their auditions on the first take. Using her 18+ years of technical audition experience in the casting room, Amy has helped thousands of actors with her tele-classes, private coaching, workshops, and seminars. Amy loves staying in touch with actors on social media. Watch her video acting tips on YouTube, join her Tips On Acting community on Facebook and get her VIP event updates here.


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Roll that spliff phatly, pack some fresh ice into the binger, and set the Volcano to "toastify." It's time for tonight's Stoner Channel. We've collected our best high-times material for the discerning pothead so sit back, relax, and pass that shit on the left, yo.
Tonight's Grand Daddy Purple comes to us from reader Dillon B
Click here for more hits from the bong.
Rumble Seat
Sure, it isn't as zany as the Beetlejuice afterlife but this is one purgatory I wouldn't mind being stuck in. This stunning animation was directed by Mike Roberts and featured music by The Sadies. [The Awesomer]
Clearing the Smoke—The Science of Cannabis
Here's an interesting look at the history of marijuana regulation and how its Schedule 1 status hampers comprehensive research efforts.
Burning Car Explodes Right In Firefighter's Face-but He Shrugs and Keeps Working
Seriously, is there anybody that doesn't like a fireman? I mean, sure, everybody loves to hate on the cops—deserved or not—but nobody hates on firemen or gets pissed that their house is no longer burning. Also, probably because they do badass shit like this.
Dr Breakfast
What? You act like you've never had your soul escape through your eyeball and go on a ravenous rampage, leaving your lifeless husk of a body in the care of two passing deer. We call that Tuesday around these parts.
This "surreal meditation on the quirky but rejuvenating nature of friendship" comes from Stephen P. Neary.
Watching Skateboarding Fails at 1000FPS Is Actually Quite Fun
Time-lapse of London Burning During the Riots Is Almost Beautiful
Fun fact: stoners are among the least likely demographics to riot or cause civic unrest, though we will destroy an unattended pizza with reckless abandon.
Weed Is on the Menu at Chic LA Eatery
Cooking with weed is so much more than just green butter. Sweet, sweet green butter *droooooool*. Herb can actually be used in much the same way as other herbs because, duh, it is one. During a recent private tasting at Quenioux, a posh restaurant in Los Angeles, LAT Times restaurant critic and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jonathan Gold sat down to dinner. [LA Times via Boing Boing]
Are You a Green Gardener?
Care to show off your handiwork to the Internets? If so, we want pics of your best buds, your highest-tech setups, and your bushiest bushes. Send images—960x540 minimum but we prefer 1600x900—of your legal stashes (no High Times ripoffs please) to atarantola at Gizmodo.com and we'll feature the best at the top each night's Stoner Channel. Put "The Stoner Channel" in the subject line while you're at it.
And no, for the last time, we aren't interested in seeing your wicked meth lab setup Jerry. Stop it or we're calling the fuzz.
Image: Curtis Barnard / Shutterstock


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Daisy Marie
See the best from Instagram Daisy Marie 2020 on our website! Amazing girl Daisy Marie love to have sex in front of the cameras and share dirty stuff with all of the fans. It's almost impossible to resist the beauty. Daisy Marie wanna show some slutty photos here!
Half Mexican and half American hottest pornstar ever! Daisy Marie is a Latina babe, at the first look it's almost impossible to believe that she makes hardcore porn and really likes it. But when her fans see that sexual hungry gaze, asking if you get Daisy some piece of big hard cock, then it shows her real soul. Just take a look at Daisy's Instagram account, full of horny photos!
Daisy Marie has that good-girl smily girl, who just begins long sex journey, ridding on dicks. But that girl already made her choice, she has mature fucking skills and ready for the next dick in a second! Let's explore Daisy's real life, what does she do there?
That face when I'm minding my own business, painting my nails and I'm caught with ...18k


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We're a MAPPVA Dealer
Call us Today for information on our Military Specials & Competitive Pricing.
Va Beach Truck Center is proud to be one of the first Dealers to offer Certified Pre-owned Vehicles that are endorsed by the (VIADA) Virginia Independent Automobile Dealers Association. The VIADA endorsed Certified Used Car Program offers that extra peace of mind that todays smart car buyers are looking for. Certified Vehicles have undergone extensive pre-delivery inspections and come with a 3 month or 3,000 mile warranty. Extended service contracts are also available for these vehicles.
Please browse our site here to learn more about us and check out our current inventory offerings. If you have any questions at all, give us a call, 757-406-2277, we will be more than happy to help you in anyway that we can.


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On July 16, 2012, the Food and Drug Administration approved Truvada (a fixed dose combination of emtricitabine/tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) to reduce the risk of HIV infection in uninfected individuals who are at high risk of HIV infection and who may engage in sexual activity with HIV-infected partners.Truvada is to be used for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in combination with safer sex practices to prevent sexually-acquired HIV infection in adults at high risk. Truvada is the first drug approved for this indication.
Truvada for PrEP is meant to be used as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention plan that includes risk reduction counseling consistent and correct condom use, regular HIV testing, and screening for and treatment of other sexually-transmitted infections. Truvada is not a substitute for safer sex practices
FDA previously approved Truvada (August, 2004) to be used in combination with other antiretroviral agents for the treatment of HIV-infected adults and children 12 years or older.
As part of PrEP, HIV-uninfected individuals who are at high risk will need to take Truvada daily to lower their chances of becoming infected with HIV should they be exposed to the virus. Again, PrEP indication means Truvada is approved for use as part of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy that includes other prevention methods, such as safe sex practices, risk reduction counseling, and regular HIV testing.
As a part of this action, FDA is strengthening Truvada's Boxed Warning to alert health care professionals and uninfected individuals that Truvada for PrEP must only be used by individuals who are confirmed to be HIV-negative prior to prescribing the drug and at least every three months during use to reduce the risk of development of resistant HIV-1 variants. The drug is contraindicated for PrEP in individuals with unknown or positive HIV status.
Truvada for PrEP is being approved with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS). The central component of this REMS is a prescriber training and education program to assist prescribers in counseling and managing individuals who are taking or considering Truvada for PrEP. The training and education program will not restrict distribution of Truvada but will provide information about the important elements of a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy, the importance of adhering to the recommended daily dosing regimen, the serious risks of taking Truvada for PrEP if already infected with the virus or becoming infected with HIV while taking Truvada for the PrEP indication.
"The REMS for Truvada for the PrEP indication is aimed at educating health care professionals and uninfected individuals to help ensure its safe use for this indication without placing an unnecessary burden on health care professionals and patients who use Truvada for treating HIV infection.
Truvada's safety and efficacy for PrEP were demonstrated in two large, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials. The iPrEx trial evaluated Truvada in 2,499 HIV-negative men or transgender women who have sex with men and with evidence of high risk behavior for HIV infection, such as inconsistent or no condom use during sex with a partner of positive or unknown HIV status, a high number of sex partners, and exchange of sex for commodities. Results showed Truvada was effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection by 42 percent compared with placebo in this population. Efficacy was strongly correlated with drug adherence in this trial.
The Partners PrEP trial was conducted in 4,758 heterosexual couples where one partner was HIV-infected and the other was not (serodiscordant couples). The trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of Truvada and tenofovir versus placebo in preventing HIV infection in the uninfected male or female partner. Results showed Truvada reduced the risk of becoming infected by 75 percent compared with placebo.
No new side effects were identified in the clinical trials evaluating Truvada for the PrEP indication. The most common side effects reported with Truvada include diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pain, headache, and weight loss. Serious adverse events in general, as well as those specifically related to kidney or bone toxicity, were uncommon.
As a condition of approval, Truvada's manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, Inc., is required to collect viral isolates from individuals who acquire HIV while taking Truvada and evaluate these isolates for the presence of resistance. Additionally, the company is required to collect data on pregnancy outcomes for women who become pregnant while taking Truvada for PrEP and to conduct a trial to evaluate levels of drug adherence and their relationship to adverse events, risk of seroconversion, and resistance development in seroconverters. Gilead has committed to provide national drug utilization data in order to better characterize individuals who utilize Truvada for a PrEP indication and to develop an adherence questionnaire that will assist prescribers in identifying individuals at risk for low compliance.
Gilead Sciences, Inc. is based in Foster City, CA.


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The American Traditionalist Society does not exist. Not yet. But it is in the serious planning stages.
The Society's purpose, in brief, is to help foster a more properly ordered American nation through the spiritual, intellectual, and moral renewal of Americans, both individually and collectively. This renewal will be a vast undertaking, and any organization can only help this process, not control or direct it. Nevertheless, concrete organizations large and small devoted to this purpose will be needed.
Here, by way of further introduction, are three brief statements:
Brief Description of the American Traditionalist Society
The American Traditionalist Society is dedicated to spreading proper—that is, traditionalist—conservatism. We call all people to understand and repent of liberalism, and we seek the renewal of American society.
Traditionalism Briefly Defined
Whereas liberalism denies man all that sustains his spirit, traditionalism restores the life-giving ties between a man and his people, their past, and his God. It restores wisdom and common sense by reconnecting man to the eternal order of being, a multifaceted order that is spiritual, moral, intellectual, religious, social and physical. Whereas contemporary thinking is fundamentally unwise outside of the procedures of the natural sciences and technology, traditionalism seeks to fill this void and strives for justice, truth, beauty, and the proper ordering of society.
Our traditionalism is therefore not simply a longing for the past. Since the present is radically defective, we naturally look to the past for a model of a more properly-ordered society, but we do not aim to recreate the conditions of the past. As Lawrence Auster has said,
"Traditition" is but one dimension of traditionalism. Traditionalism is, first, an orientation toward the transcendent structure of the universe–the natural, social (including historical and traditional"), and spiritual orders that make us possible. Each society orders itself uniquely according to those orders. So traditionalism is not just the past tradition, it's our active relationship and tension with the order of the world, but always grasped and expressed uniquely and newly in each time and society according to the particularities of that society.
The American Traditionalist Society: Our Raison D'être
Since roughly the 1960s, America has pursued a determined course of self-destruction in the name of liberalism. Our nation is now in a state of undeniable crisis. The federal government, close to insolvency, openly defies the Constitution and asserts its increasingly unaccountable and tyrannical power over the states and over the life of every individual. Our borders have been effectively erased, our language weakened, and our cultural foundations overturned. Our major institutions have been undermined from within. The media and popular culture have marginalized decency and virtue and made filth, transgression, and every kind of nastiness the new norm—a norm unquestioned by anyone in the mainstream culture, including conservatives. Our leaders pontificate that we must be tolerant above all else, and so many draw the natural conclusion that life is absurd. With the official-in-all-but-name denial of the God of the Bible and of any transcendent truth, many young men and women have become demoralized, leading lives that are amoral, selfish, and dissipated.
The response of institutionalized conservatism to this catastrophe has been wholly inadequate, for it has assumed that our nation is fundamentally sound and that we need only oppose the latest liberal initiatives. Failing effectively to challenge the false and evil premises of liberalism or even to acknowledge that these premises now hold effective control over all aspects of American society, the organized conservatism of our day has, at best, only slowed the rate of destruction. It is therefore time for a new, a traditionalist, conservatism which recognizes the dominance and falsehood of liberalism and the need to restore the traditional American way of life, yet updated to suit the times. It is time for men and women of good will to stand together before God, repent of their liberalism, and turn their hearts and minds toward the formation of a new social and political order, an order based on God, the wisdom of the ages, and that which is enduringly true in the American and Western tradition. We seek to foster a better order through the spiritual, moral and intellectual renewal of individuals, families, churches, and other fundamental units of society, leading naturally to an organic renewal of American society.
To this end, ever in debt to our forebears and beholden to posterity, the American Traditionalist Society is devoted.
[End of statement.]
Stay tuned for further details.
Note: Since this is an occasion for, if not exactly celebration, then at least optimism and dedication, comments that are primarily or entirely hostile will be deleted / blocked. Disagreement that is respectful and at least somewhat rational will, of course, be allowed.


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|Artist: Dawn
|Date Added: December 30, 2009
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Description: There's this anime show called "Ouran High School Host Club" that is becoming increasingly popular with a lot of anime/manga fans. I got a request to do a tutorial on "how to draw Hikaru, step by step", so that is what I will be showing you now. I don't know too much about this character because I have never even watched the series, or read the manga. The information or description I will give you, is from complete information that I got on the web. From what I've read, the manga series was created by Bisco Hatori. It's a story that is essentially based on a group of students that attend Ouran High School. The individual you will be drawing is one of the main characters who plays as a protagonist. His full name is Hikaru Hitachiin, and in the series he is sixteen years old and he has a twin brother named Kaoru. In the beginning of the series you get a good idea on how these two brothers are as far as personality wise. Basically they are mischievous, devious, and very childish for being sixteen year old young men.The difference between the two brothers is minimal. Kaoru seems to be much nicer and more polite than his childish immature brother Hikaru. I don't know about the series, but just by reading up on it I can honestly say that it is something that I would probably not be into. I like manga and anime series to involve ninja like characters, or vampires, and stuff like that. Nonetheless, I think you fans out there will enjoy learning "how to draw Hikaru, step by step". I mean lets face it, when you are a particular fan of this manga, it is always fun teaching yourself how to draw Ouran High School Host Club characters. I will be back later with some more fun stuff so try and sty tuned in for a while, or come back soon, like later on today. Peace out all you manga fans, and happy drawing!


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We're living through a pretty great age for television right now, but of all that really great TV, probably only a few series will ever be watched by future generations. Today, we want to know which ones those will be.
Shows like Star Trek: TOS and The Twilight Zone still draw in viewers about 50 years after their original airdates, and we're wondering which current shows will do the same. Tell us in the comments (with a picture or a clip, too, please) which TV shows you think people 50 years from now will still be queuing up in their holographic DVD players.


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Barings Global Flexible Allocation Fund
as of 25/09/2020
Fund Facts
|Fund Type
|Barings Investment Funds plc
|Asset Class
|Multi Asset
Share Class Info
|Share Class
|Class I CHF Hedged
|Accumulating / Distributing
|Share Class Inception Date
The objective of the Fund is to generate a total return consisting of capital and income appreciation which exceeds European cash rates over the medium to long term.
The Fund will seek to achieve its investment objective by investing directly or indirectly, in any sector, country or region and in a range of asset classes, such as, company shares, bonds (which are loans that pay a rate of interest for a set period of time), currencies, money market instruments and/or cash. The Fund may also invest indirectly in commodities (such as gold), property, private equity and hedge funds and in emerging markets such as, China and Russia which are countries whose economies are still developing. The asset allocation may change from time to time. The Fund is not required to have exposure to any specific asset class, sector, country or region.
Who Should Invest
The Fund is designed for investors seeking a strategy that targets income and capital appreciation over the medium to long term.
The value of investments can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amount originally invested. Emerging markets or less developed countries may face more political, economic or structural challenges than developed countries. Debt securities are subject to risks that the issuer will not meet its payment obligations. Changes in exchange rates between the currency of the Fund and the currencies in which the assets of the Fund are valued may also affect the value of the Fund. The Fund may also use derivatives for investment purposes. These are complex instruments that carry the risk of causing increased volatility in the value of the Fund.
The information available on this website is not an offer to sell or an invitation to apply for this product and is by way of information only, nor is the information available on this website intended as an offering of this product to US Persons. Depending on your jurisdiction, you may not have access to this product. Individual investors should contact their financial advisor before investing in this product. The Key Investor Information Document (KIID), if applicable, must be received and read before investing. All other relevant documents relating to the product such as the Report and Accounts and Prospectus should also be read. The information available on this website does not constitute investment, tax, legal or other advice or recommendation.
We use cookies on our website to provide you with the best experience. By proceeding to our site you agree to our Cookies Notice and our site Terms and Conditions.


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I went to the last night of Cadence Fest on Tuesday. Cadence, a well-respected jazz magazine, has been reborn thanks to the efforts of jazz pianist David Haney (left), who put on the festival as an extension of his magazine work. (Willamette Week did a nice write-up about him before the festival.)
I managed to catch a set by the Rich Halley Group, which was neat. Halley, a saxophonist, played with a trombonist, bassist, and drummer. I'm not usually a big fan of really free jazz, but I found it was a lot more approachable when I could see the musicians cue off of each other.
But the real reason I was there had to do with the headliner: David Haney was playing with bassist Andre St. James, and a drummer named Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. As a drummer, I've been a fan for a long time — I've been listening to tracks he's recorded for most of my life (I'll bet you have, too. Check out a list of his top 100 tracks.) But I've never seen him live.
The trio was great. Haney actually took the stage wearing a winter coat, a sport coat, and a scarf, like a commuter on the bus. But Haney plays piano unlike almost anyone I've ever seen — his right foot taps, his legs kick out, and he lurches around on the bench. If there's such a thing as a physical piano player, he is one. All that motion warmed him up, and he took off the jacket, then peeled off the sport coat during a song. One song later, the scarf joined the jacket and the coat on the floor next to the piano. It was like the dance of the seven veils.
As good as Haney and St. James are, I was mostly focused on Purdie. For the most part he was just comping, and didn't even solo. But even compared to the drummer that preceded him, Purdie was smoother, his time was perfect, and his dynamics (variation in volume) were just effortless. He was so technically adept that when he was playing a fill, his hands would just bring his idea to life.
Purdie is now 73, so I'm feeling lucky that he came out one night to help out his friend's jazz festival. I can only hope he decides to do it more often.


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Correos del Ecuador CDE E.P. asks us to inform the designated operators of UPU member countries that due to the winter season, several roads have collapsed and there are floods in certain areas in Ecuador. The bad weather has resulted in problems in our routes and there will be delays in the delivery of correspondence and parcels.
At the moment, the provinces that present major inconvenience caused by the bad weather are:
Costa: El Oro, Guayas
Sierra: Bolívar, Chimborazo, Pichincha, Azuay
Amazonia: Zamora Chinchipe, Sucumbíos.
Correos del Ecuador CDE E.P. thanks all designated operators for their understanding; it will update designated operators via EmIS once the situation has returned to normal.


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Business SituationKnown for its role in assessing and optimising the performance of numerous high-profile businesses and governments, in this case Accenture needed to review the spending and efficiency of a major department within its own organisation.
With contracts up for renewal and the prospect of expensive and time-consuming upgrades ahead, Accenture was looking to improve the efficiency of its IT services, without adding extra costs.
To date, Accenture had been using a suite of on-premises services that included Microsoft Outlook and Office Communicator, but over the years had recognised that running services on-premises was an expensive option. It involves running costs for operations staff, hosting and storage, as well as the cost of equipment depreciation. It all had to be continually kept up-to-date, maintained and monitored.
"As we locked in our business case and we knew the savings per month that we were going to generate, the desire to move quickly to achieve those benefits was important to us. At the same time, we couldn't face any disruption along the way."
SolutionOne year on, Avanade and Accenture have completed one of the biggest ever deployments of Microsoft Office 365: involving more than 290,000 users, 11,000 sites and across 54 countries. Within this first year, the solution paid for itself.
As a result of its move to cloud, Accenture was particularly looking to achieve the following objectives:
- The move should be paid for from the savings generated from the transition
- Deliver a seamless migration without any degradation in service levels to staff
- Show immediate improvements, especially in regard to mailbox maximum storage levels
ResultsDespite the host of considerations that Accenture had to bear in mind when migrating to Office 365, the move was completed on schedule and produced the anticipated project savings.
Within 12 months, Accenture had accomplished its business case as a result of the move to cloud.
On the whole, users noticed very little differences in their core email service, other than the fact they now had more space to utilise.
What's more, users are now experiencing additional functionality – only realised in a cloud environment, such as easier collaboration and file management.
Over the course of a year, Avanade and Accenture achieved the following:
- 290,000 users moved to Microsoft Exchange Online
- 13,000 Microsoft SharePoint Online sites created
- 130 TBs of data moved


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