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Guests: Joe Klein, Brian Katulis, Michael Hirsch, Joe Williams, Mark Penn, Matt Cooper
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Oshkosh b`gosh.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews up in Philadelphia. "Let Me Start"
with last night`s big loss by labor in Wisconsin. I`ve got some questions.
Why did 2 out of 5 union families vote against the recall? If labor is
united, why didn`t they vote united? Was it because 60 percent of voters,
3 in 5, think recalls should be reserved for official misconduct?
Finally, was the victory by the Republican governor a preview of the
presidential election? If so, why did President Obama outpoll Mitt Romney
in the exit polls out there in Wisconsin by 7 points, 51 percent to 44
Let`s get the answers from the HuffingtonPost`s Howard Fineman and
Politico`s Joe Williams.
Howard, what do you think about this? Let me get through some numbers
here. What did go wrong for Democrats last night, if you look at it party-
wise. Look at what the voters told pollsters about the use of recall
elections. And overwhelming 60 percent, as I said, responded that they are
only appropriate, recall elections, in cases of actually official
misconduct, abuse of office.
And look at another interesting number from the exit poll. Unions
were not as monolithic as some thought -- 37 percent of the members of
union households voted for Scott Walker.
What do you make of those two numbers?
Well, first of all, Chris, I think we do have to be careful in
overinterpreting Wisconsin. I was just talking to Steve Law (ph), who runs
American Crossroads for Karl Rove, that`s that big independent spending
group that is really the master of all it surveys on the Republican side.
He cautioned me not to overdraw the lessons of Wisconsin, and I think
what you focused on, which is the recall, is a very big part of it. That
one reason.
Another reason is that Scott Walker was a better candidate than Tom
Barrett. Let`s just be frank about it. He was a better candidate. And
the Democrats put up the same guy that got beat by Walker last time.
And of course, there`s the role of money from the outside, which was
hugely important and hugely to the advantage of the Republicans, and it
played in specific ways in Wisconsin that may not be repeated elsewhere.
That`s the good news for the Democrats.
The bad news for the Democrats is that the Republicans, I think, feel
they`ve found a wedge issue here, Chris, that they can divide the labor
movement, or what`s left of the labor movement, between public employee
unions and non-public employee unions.
And if they focus on benefits that public employee unions get, as
opposed to focusing on collective bargaining rights, which a majority of
Americans still believe in, that they can force the Democrats, as Law said
to me, to defend the indefensible, which are some of the pensions and
benefits that public employees have amassed over recent years.
Mitt Romney talked about this today in analyzing Wisconsin. I predict
you can expect Republicans from Mitt Romney on down to focus on public
employees. Even though there are risks, they`re going to do it.
MATTHEWS: Let`s go to Joe Williams. Same question. Howard`s
focusing on the number that I`m fascinated by, 37 percent of families that
have a union member, a member of an organized labor union in their family,
voted with Walker, the Republican, on this issue which was supposed to be a
whole campaign about the rights of labor.
JOE WILLIAMS, POLITICO.COM: That`s right. Well, and I also think
that another factor here is if the election had been held in early months
of 2011, when this issue really started to take fire, when people were
occupying the statehouse, when there were people in the streets, it`s
almost certain that the outcome probably would have been different.
But you had a cooling-off period between then and between when the
Democrats selected a candidate. All that time, Walker had to make his case
to the public, gather independent money, gather outside money, and then
mount a very aggressive campaign against Barrett.
Conversely, Barrett only had a couple of weeks -- or a couple a
months, rather, to not only secure the nomination but also raise money.
Not a lot of time to do that. The Democrats are feeling that the money
advantage was just too big to overcome, that they feel very good about the
organized labor movement, but it does show some signs of fraying, as Howard
MATTHEWS: Joe, you`re dodging my question.
MATTHEWS: Why did union households, almost 2 in 5, vote against what
was supposed to be a union vote?
WILLIAMS: Well, I think also because of public sector unions and
private sector unions. It`s kind of a battle. I mean, we`re looking at
private sector unions, where barely 10 percent of the working public are
members of unions today. And even those unions have different interests
than public sector unions, especially when framed politically on the issue
of spending and spending of tax money.
People don`t like to hear the fact that public employees are arguing
for higher salaries when their taxes are going up or when they have to
sacrifice libraries only open every other Sunday or public school
classrooms being filled to the brim. And you see public sector employees
arguing for more money, that`s distasteful to a lot of people.
MATTHEWS: Fascinating. Let`s go right -- despite the victory, of
course, last night for the Republicans in the recall itself, President
Obama still showed a lot of strength in the exit polling. Voters said they
supported him 51 to 44 for Mitt Romney. So he`s got a 7-point lead in the
exit poll.
Howard, that`s pretty good news, if you believe these exit polls. The
problem is, I`m not sure how good they are. But you know, I`m skeptical in
this environment.
FINEMAN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: I am very skeptical about polling this year.
FINEMAN: Well...
MATTHEWS: I just sense that this is going to be a very tough year to
poll in terms of turnout and everything. It`s just too hard to figure
who`s going to vote, how`re going to they vote, even.
FINEMAN: No, I agree. And since you brought up the topic of the exit
polls, I think there are lots of concern about them. And why? We want to
know why.
One reason is, I think, in Wisconsin -- I was astonished, if you
believe the exit polls, in how firmly and strongly people are divided.
This poll -- this information says that most people, like, almost 90
percent of voters in Wisconsin decided which side they were on on this
before May, before last month.
So maybe when attitudes are as hard as concrete, it`s harder to poll
them and it`s harder to predict who will actually turn out.
If I were President Obama, I`d be relieved about that 51-44 number you
mentioned, Chris, but I would be concerned in a way about another number in
there, or at least interested in it, in which 18 percent of the people who
voted for Scott Walker said that they would support President Obama for
So the question is, how does the president reassure those people and
make sure he keeps that 18 percent of Walker`s supporters so that he can
win Wisconsin?
And this is exactly what the Republicans are going to try to do.
They`re going to try to force Barack Obama to defend public employee
pensions and benefits, defend public employee unions, which has another
benefit for the Republicans, it takes attention away from the fact that it
was the Republican Congress and the Republican president that`s primarily
responsible for the huge increases of the federal debt and deficit before
Barack Obama ever came into office.
This is a wedge issue of their dreams, and they`re going to push it.
WILLIAMS: Well, I think the logic on this...
MATTHEWS: Especially since we`ve seen so many rifts...
MATTHEWS: Go ahead.
WILLIAMS: I think the logic on forcing him to defend pensions and
benefits -- I think the way you defend that is by saying that these
pensions and these benefits are contributors to the economy. If people
have money in their pockets, money that they`ve earned, by the way, or that
they -- that the public sectors have agreed to under legitimate bargaining,
under legitimate contracts, that puts money in people`s pockets. That
money creates demand when people go out and spend it, and it stimulates the
The problem is that does not fit on a bumper sticker. That`s logic
that takes a little too much explaining to do. So I think Howard is right
in that if the Republicans force the president has to defend on that issue,
it`s going to be very, very difficult.
But conversely, if you have him talking about why this is important,
why people need to have higher wages because wages have been stagnant for
so long, and public sector employees deliver very good services -- cops,
firefighters, the top (ph) line (ph) suggestions that they always talk
about -- this could be something that people could more easily relate to.
MATTHEWS: OK, a lot of things -- the other thing to remember is that
a lot of these rifts, reductions in state and local employees over the last
couple of years, which is the real reason why we have an unemployment
problem -- as private sector employment`s going up, it`s that public sector
that`s been going down -- is because of the terrible economy this president
WILLIAMS: Well, not only...
MATTHEWS: Anyway, Governor Walker had some advice. He won this
thing. Here`s his advice for Mitt Romney today when he was interviewed by
Chuck Todd of NBC. Let`s watch.
GOV. SCOTT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: They`re hungry for people to say,
you know, I don`t care about the next election, I care about the next
generation, and here`s what I`m going to do to fix it. And the keys for
Governor Romney to be competitive enough to win is I think he`s got to lay
out a clear platform, something similar to what our friend Paul Ryan has
MATTHEWS: But Howard, here it is, the same old song. People care
about the future, not who`s responsible for the past, both Romney -- and
here he is, Romney`s booster, Walker, who won yesterday -- saying you got
to talk the future, not complain about the past.
FINEMAN: Yes. Well, you got to talk about how people are going to
get jobs. And of course, one of the ironies here is that the president
tried to get another jobs bill through. The Congress refused to do it.
And that resulted in a lot of cutbacks in state and local spending that is
resulting in the pressure on the public employees.
So the Republicans are coming at the president from all directions
once here on this, and they`re going to try to make it difficult for him.
By the way, on Scott Walker -- Scott Walker I think said in the last
days of the campaign that he would rule out seeking or wanting to be on the
ticket with Mitt Romney. But the Scott Walker that I saw in his victory
statement last night and again this morning seemed like a guy who had an
awful lot of advice to give to Mitt Romney and would probably like to give
it at close range.
WILLIAMS: Well, and also might be booking a hotel...
MATTHEWS: You think he might be euchring (ph) an invitation to be put
on the short list, Howard?
FINEMAN: Well, he`s a hero. He`s a big hero for -- you know, as is
Paul Ryan, also from Wisconsin. The two of them are big heroes with
conservatives now. Scott Walker has the luster of battle on him. He just
-- he just won this big victory, and conservatives are -- are saying that
he`s the guy who showed the way forward. He showed both the mechanics and
the message and was a very good candidate. I`m just reflecting what I hear
from conservatives today.
WILLIAMS: Right, but that`s...
MATTHEWS: Also, he comes from the state of Reince Priebus. That
matter -- that ought to matter a lot.
MATTHEWS: And maybe -- nobody else...
FINEMAN: I don`t know about that!
MATTHEWS: Of all the possible VPs, nobody`s lit up the pinball
machine yet. Nobody. Anyway, thank you, Howard, and thank you, Joe, for
coming on the show tonight to go over what happened last night.
Coming up now, the most overlooked or underlooked group of voters of
all, men. Why are they deserting President Obama? Wait until you hear the
numbers from last night.
Most days, he`s -- and by the way, some other stories tonight. Most
days, he`s your best ally, Mr. President. But sometimes, he, Bill Clinton,
gives ammo to the other side. The ride (ph) with bill Clinton as your
money (ph) mate (ph).
And another top al Qaeda leader gets droned, if you will. When is
President Obama going to get some credit for nailing the terrorist network
as he`s been doing?
Finally, who says Democrats can`t find common ground with Republicans?
Two former Pennsylvania politicians, one an R, one a D, have wound up
living together in jail. They`re bunkmates in the state pen, believe it or
not. We`ll get to that story.
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: New poll numbers from two key presidential battleground
states. Let`s check the HARDBALL "Scoreboard" starting right here in
Pennsylvania, where a new Franklin and Marshall poll has President Obama
with a 12-point lead here in the Keystone state, 48 to 36. Wow.
Now to Florida, where a new Democratic PPP poll has President Obama up
by 4 over Mitt Romney in a much tougher state, 50 to 46.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. President Obama beat -- actually
beat Mitt Romney by 7 points in the Wisconsin exit polls yesterday, but
he`s got a problem with one significant demographic, men. According to the
same exit polls, Obama`s support among Wisconsin men has taken an 8-point
dive since 2008 -- 8 points. Nationally, Obama`s disapproval number among
men has risen now to 50 percent, and it`s going up. That`s up from two
years ago.
We talk a lot about the significance on this program of women`s vote -
- fair enough -- coming up in November. But what about the men? And what
can Obama do to win more of them?
Matt Cooper`s White House managing editor for "The National Journal"
and Mark Penn is a Democratic pollster who was chief strategist for Hillary
Clinton in 2008.
It`s great to have you both on. And I`m looking at these numbers, and
they`re pretty depressing in this sense. A drop of 8 points in the exit
polling yesterday, whatever you take it for, whether you value it a lot or
not, that`s a significant drop among men, whereas the women vote held about
where it was before.
Mark Penn, you understand this as well as anybody. What`s going on?
MARK PENN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think you`re seeing a real
problem with men, especially white men. Remember, only 1 in 4 men really
think the economy is improving. If you look at this, I think particularly
southern white older men, they`re probably out of reach.
You know, my suggestion really is to go after the soccer dads, to go
after the suburban, better-educated men who can appreciate a president like
President Obama who`s been hunting down Barack Obama (SIC) and yet has
sensible and economic and social policies.
MATTHEWS: So you go after the more sensitive males, the less macho
males, is that what you`re saying?
PENN: Well, look, the Republicans have taken a Joe the plumber
stance. Joe the plumber is pretty tough (INAUDIBLE)
MATTHEWS: Yes, the rougher guy, the rougher-hewed (ph) guy seems to
be the image of the Republican vote these days. Is that what we`re talking
about here? Is it about manner, style, income, what?
PENN: Education. I think the more educated men are, the more likely
they are to go in Obama`s camp. If he gives them a good economic plan and
he appeals to them, I think -- I think both on economics, his social
policies I think fit with the better educated. And frankly, he`s a more
sophisticated candidate than we`ve seen come out of Republican Party, who
appeals to better educated men who live in the suburbs, who have kids.
MATTHEWS: Yes. Let me go to Matt Cooper on that. And that is an
interesting question. I assume women, just because of all the numbers we
see and just in our lives, are more for same-sex marriage. They`re more
for gay rights generally. They`re more empathetic, if you will, to the gay
Number two, they are clearly more concerned by abortion rights and
contraception, if that comes up as an issue again. Men are more
conservative than them, obviously, because that`s where the numbers break
But that does mean you have to go after men who basically agree with
women on social issues?
MATT COOPER, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": Well, to some degree. I think
Mark`s right. I mean, you`re trying to go after affluent -- more affluent,
better educated men, rather than white working-class men, who are starting
to look like a lost cause for Obama.
You know, in our own "Congressional Connection" poll that we do in
"National Journal," I mean, it just drops off the map on almost any
question that you would think might be someplace where they could find
common ground.
For instance, we had a question this week about food stamps, why
working-class men overwhelmingly thought that, you know, there should be no
extra money for food stamps. They like the cuts that the Republicans are
talking about. You would think these guys...
MATTHEWS: Yes.
COOPER: ... kind of on the precipice of unemployment might be more
sympathetic to that. They`re not.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Mark -- I always imagine driving along an
old highway, like route 40 or something, not 95 or 70 or 80, but a regular
old highway interstate. And there`s these stops -- you see a little bar
along the way where men go after a hard day`s work, and or they may be
there late on a Friday night, talking at the bar. What are they saying
about Obama? Working guys.
PENN: Oh, you know...
MATTHEWS: What do you think those conversations are like?
PENN: I think those conversations are pretty rough. I think I
probably couldn`t repeat a lot of it on the air. I think they`re really
upset about the health care mandate. They`re upset about the state the
country`s in in terms of the economy.
I think those are really tough conversations. I think you ought to go
to the water cooler, right, in the offices of America, in the office parks
and so forth, where you`re going to find the kind of men who are going to
have a reasonable conversation, who aren`t going to think Romney and the
Republicans are the solution to the answer.
MATTHEWS: Yes. What do you think, Matt, of that anecdotal factor of
style of the people who work in offices, rather than work on road gangs or
work in factories, you got a better shot?
COOPER: Yes, I think that`s right. Although, you know, there are
parts of his record that are macho, as you mentioned, you know, killing bin
laden, you know, prosecuting these wars.
MATTHEWS: Saving Ford and GM. How about saving the auto industry?
COOPER: Yes. I mean, that -- yes, I mean, I -- those are things
which (INAUDIBLE) can play up. I`m not sure it`s going to work, but there
are certainly things they can turn to.
MATTHEWS: Well, what is it about -- I want to give you a shot at
this, Matt. What is it about Obama that turns off, we`ll say it, white,
working-class guys who didn`t go to college? Let`s be demographic about
it. I hate this stuff, but go ahead. What is it that turns those guys off
to Obama?
COOPER: You know, I...
MATTHEWS: Is it race in some cases? Is it ethnicity? Is it
background? Is it -- what is it mostly?
COOPER: You know, I don`t think we entirely know.
I don`t think -- you know, I -- it is not far-fetched to think race is
part of it. But part of it is also what is happening to the economy,
working-class men feeling more dispensable and vulnerable, feeling like the
world is not theirs anymore.
MATTHEWS: I agree.
COOPER: And part of it is the style of this president, much commented
upon, that he can seem a little academic, a little aloof at times. And
that probably doesn`t help either.
But, look, you know, I mean, politics is about forging alliances and
constituencies. And he is going to have to forge one that is not as
dependent on white men.
MATTHEWS: Yes. I think there`s been comment in the last couple days,
guys, about him spending too much time with the glitzy people in Hollywood,
maybe doing too many gay events.
I don`t know whether that offends the white working guy. I know one
thing. They feel threatened, they feel humiliated by no jobs out there.
They see their kids aren`t getting jobs. It is a humiliation to be out of
work and to face unemployment. And they don`t like it and I don`t blame
them one bit. I can understand. A lot of this is clearly irrational.
Anyway, thank you, Matt Cooper. Please come back.
And thank you, as always, Mark Penn.
Up next: Why did a supporters slap Tom Barrett in the race last night
during his concession rally, slapped at a guy at his night of loss? That
is ahead in the "Sideshow."
And this is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I met a guy yesterday, seven
feet tall.
ROMNEY: Yes, handsome, great big guy, seven feet tall. Name is Rick
Miller, Portland, Oregon. And he started a business.
Of course, you know, it was in basketball. But it wasn`t in
ROMNEY: I mean, I figured he had to be in sport, but he wasn`t in
sport. His business is caring for seniors.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL.
The fact that Romney used that word, as he often does, sport, rather
than sports, overshadows the fact that he saw a guy who was seven feet
tall. But it`s not just those awkward moments from the candidate that can
cause problems. How about his team`s issues with spell check? First, it
was the iPhone app that misspelled America. That is a serious misspelling
when you get the name of the country wrong.
The trend continued with some Facebook gaffes, one offering a "sneak
peak" of a new ad, peak, P-E-A-K, peak as in mountaintop, instead of look,
and a reminder to buy your 2012 official gear, or something close to
Well, late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel has got some ideas about what
would happen if that problem expanded into actual campaign ads.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: America faces enormous "challengs"
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: "Unepoylment, out-of-control "spednig," political
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Economic "stanagtoin."
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: We need a "real loader, Mint Wrongy, Repelican
for Perspiresident."
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: "Paid for by Amexicans Butter Tomato."
MATTHEWS: They need to get someone on that, don`t you think? It
makes them look amateur.
And isn`t he, Romney, supposed to be the tough, smart business
Anyway, next, losing is a slap in the face. But get this. After his
concession speech last night, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett went down into
the audience to thank supporters. Apparently, one of them, one of his
supporters was peeved that Barrett had conceded before all the votes were
tallied and offered to slap him. Barrett said later that he had suggested
a hug instead. But when he leaned in for an embrace, she stunned him with
a slap.
Look, everybody listening right now, when you lose and it is clear you
have lost, you say it. That is how it`s done.
Finally, these days, it can be tough to imagine some Republicans in
the same room as their Democratic rivals. Well, how about bunkmates, like
in prison? Well, that`s exactly what has happened in my former state with
two former speakers of the Pennsylvania Statehouse of Representatives.
Republican John Perzel and Democrat Bill Deweese landed in prison
after being convicted in separate corruption schemes. According to a piece
in "Capitol File," Deweese was uncomfortable with his first roommate. That
was his former chief of staff who had testified against him. I can
understand not wanting to room with him.
Perzel, the Republican ex-speaker, then proposed a switch that led to
the line of the day from Deweese -- quote -- "John, I don`t think we get to
pick who we room with here."
But according to the article, the two did end up becoming roommates.
Red and blue don`t matter when you`re both wearing orange.
What a story.
Up next, Bill Clinton is President Obama`s top surrogate. So why is
saying such nice things about Republicans, and not just Romney, but Donald
Trump? What is he up to? Let`s find out.
And what does it mean to the Obama campaign?
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: Hey there. I`m Veronica De
La Cruz with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks logged their the biggest gains of the year. The Dow soars 286.
The S&P jumps 29, the Nasdaq rises 66. Stocks rallied in part on hopes of
further monetary easing from the Fed. Earlier today, two Fed presidents
raised the prospect of taking action if conditions deteriorate.
In the meantime, the Central Bank`s so-called Beige Book showed the
economy grew at a moderate pace in April and May and it also showed hiring
was steady.
I`m Veronica De La Cruz -- and now back to HARDBALL.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
Bill Clinton made three fund-raiser appearances for the Obama campaign
this week as a forceful defender of the president and his policies. In at
least one instance, he made the best case we have heard yet against Mitt
But he has also given fodder to Republicans, intentionally or not,
honestly or not, on their part to use. We wondered just what is the cost-
benefit analysis of having Bill as such a major surrogate out there.
Joe Klein is a columnist for "TIME" magazine and Salon`s Joan Walsh is
an MSNBC political analyst.
Let`s look at the earlier stuff just coming in today. Let`s take a
look at the CNBC interview the president had the other day, the former
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don`t have any
problem with extending all of it now, including the current spending level,
but the real issue is not whether they should be extended for another few
months. The real issue is whether the price the Republican House will put
on that extension is the permanent extension of the tax cuts, which I think
is an error.
MATTHEWS: Well, realizing or expecting how Bill Clinton`s tax remarks
there were going to be misinterpreted, a Clinton spokesman just a few hours
after the president spoke put out the following statement.
"As President Clinton has said many times before, he supported
extending all of the cuts in 2010 as part of the budget agreement, but does
not believe the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans should be extended
again. In the interview, he simply said that he doubted that a long-term
agreement on spending cuts and revenues would be reached until after the
Fair enough. I thought he was clear as a bell there.
Joan Walsh, the Republicans have completely distorted what Clinton
said last night. But there is always the question, did he give them enough
wiggle room to do so?
JOAN WALSH, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: I don`t know, Chris. I heard it
the way he meant it. And so did you.
So, you know, I really do think that they were being unfair there.
The remarks last week about Mitt Romney having a sterling business record
and taking Bain Capital off the table, I happen to disagree with him. But
I think we would both agree that the president -- President Clinton is a
net gain for President Obama, for one thing because very dishonest
Republicans, brazen Republicans are now trying to act like they loved Bill
Clinton in the `90s, he was a good Democrat, when in fact at the time they
savaged him, they impeached him.
MATTHEWS: Oh, yes.
WALSH: So, I think it is really important at this point that
President Clinton is out there saying, you can`t use me that way. And, you
know, he is a star. There is a downside. We will talk about the downside.
But I think the Republicans are being disingenuous at every turn.
MATTHEWS: You know, Joe Klein, he is not Clarence Thomas imitating
Scalia. He doesn`t have to be a synchronized swimmer with the president.
MATTHEWS: So every time he says something a little different than the
president, the people on the other side jump on it and say, oh, he`s not
with the president .
But I heard him last night. Boy, was he clear. They may disagree on
Donald Trump. They may disagree on the record at Bain by Romney, but they
are damned in agreement on the fact that we should not have a continual,
permanent extension of these Bush tax cuts for the rich.
JOE KLEIN, COLUMNIST, "TIME": Yes, that is absolutely clear.
And, you know, the stuff that you are getting from Republicans now
just kind of smacks of desperation to me, when -- you know, I saw that kind
of stuff coming out of the Gore campaign in 2000. It is not unique to the
Republican Party.
But, you know, Clinton says weird things sometimes. I can`t imagine
anybody saying anything nice about Donald Trump, unless they wanted to get
some Trump money for their Global Initiative perhaps.
But, you know, you were just talking about the white male blue-collar
MATTHEWS: Yes.
KLEIN: And, you know, if I`m Barack Obama, I want to have Bill
Clinton out there talking to those folks, because they loved him. He was
living the dream. He was dating lounge singers and going to McDonald`s.
Those guys -- he was the last Democratic president that those guys kind of
MATTHEWS: I agree with you completely. I think you and Joan are
right. You want Bill Clinton at your side. He is the most popular
Democrat, maybe the -- well, he`s certainly the most popular politician in
the world. What am I talking about right now?
Well, here we have some Republicans up on Capitol Hill jumping at the
chance it read their little talking points written for them by their
dutiful little staff, written for them for the staff by the RNC and the
Obama -- or the Romney campaign.
Here is a few of them sporting total, utter dishonesty, starting with
John McCain.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I want to thank you for having
President Clinton on. He is the gift that keeps on giving. I hope you
will have him on more often to talk about Bain Capital and the necessity to
extend the Bush tax cuts.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: And with regard to the tax
increases, I would make the same argument. It`s the same argument actually
that former President Bill Clinton has been making, and that is that we
need to extend these tax rates.
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Even Bill Clinton
came out for it, before he was against it.
REP. JEB HENSARLING (R), TEXAS: Obviously, President Bill Clinton
gets it. He knows in this economy you should not be raising taxes on
SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: President Clinton not wanting to further
undermine our economy recommended a short-term extension of all the tax
MATTHEWS: There he is. It took Orrin Hatch to say what he said.
Bill Clinton said a short-term extension to get us through the election so
they could actually make a deal based on who won the election and we get
the policies straight.
Joan, the absolute dishonesty there, pants-on-fire dishonesty of
McCain and Thune and Boehner and this character Hensarling -- who writes
this crap for them? Who writes down what is totally a dishonest statement
from last night? Anybody who wants a newspaper, go out and look online on
the Web, go out and check it right now, see what Bill Clinton said last
night the first time he said it.
We will get through this campaign and then we will deal with the long-
term extension and not give it to the rich. He is so clear. And yet they
completely are dishonest here. I don`t -- sometimes politics amazes me.
It really does, the absolute dishonesty.
I can only forgive them if I realize some dinky staff member wrote
this for them based on some dinky staff member working for Romney.
MATTHEWS: Who writes this nonsense?
WALSH: They didn`t. They didn`t.
MATTHEWS: Nobody believes...
MATTHEWS: You couldn`t pass a lie-detector with this.
WALSH: They have well-paid think tankers. They have FOX News. They
have bloggers. They talk to themselves all day long.
And they have decided that this is a line. I want to go back to
something that Joe said because I think it`s deeper and I think it`s
important. President Clinton really is a boon to trying to get some, just
some of those white working-class men.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WALSH: But they didn`t just like him because he got to hang around
with starlets and eat McDonald`s. He also talked about the underlying
economic rot in this country and he did things for them. He expanded the
earned income tax credit. So there was an economic core at the heart of
their liking for him, as well as a cultural affinity.
But on the flip side -- and this get us to Donald Trump and Bain
Capital -- President Clinton did something that I really don`t admire at
this point. At the same time that he was telling the white working-class,
I`m one of you, I`m for you, he made a decision that the Democratic Party
was also going to become the party of Wall Street and the party of the
financial sector.
And, quite honestly, maybe there were good reasons for that at the
time, but now we see what the financialization of our economy has done to
the country, most importantly to the country, but also to the Democratic
So, that white working-class guy without a job who feels like he is at
the bottom, he doesn`t have anybody who is really looking out for him,
because the Democrats have become as bad -- almost as bad as the
Republicans on Wall Street issues.
MATTHEWS: You know what, Joe and Joan? I got to take a minute here,
buy some time on -- would somebody please tell the people who didn`t get to
go to good colleges or go to colleges, who have to go out there and work
hard, often with their hands, that, let`s face it.
We had two Republicans in a row, W. and this guy Romney, born on third
base claiming they hit a triple. That`s a fact.
WALSH: Right.
MATTHEWS: The other two guys -- Bill Clinton was born with a drunk
father he had to beat up to protect his mother from. He came up from
nothing basically down in Hot Springs. It wasn`t exactly -- his mother was
a practical nurse trying to make it, keep him alive.
WALSH: Right.
MATTHEWS: You got the other guy more into a mixed family. His father
skips town after about two or three years.
These guys had to work their way up through their brains and hard
WALSH: Right.
MATTHEWS: Joe, I want you to jump on this. Would somebody please
tell the working stiff out there these guys weren`t -- weren`t born with a
silver spoon?
The Democratic guys, although they made it, did it through work and
brains. The other guys made it because they were born to it. Just a
JOE KLEIN, TIME: All of what Joan said about Clinton and
deregulation is absolutely correct. But he had this ability to explain
complicated things and ways that average folks can understand.
I`m traveling around the country now on a bus tour and I swear to
God, I can`t find a single person who knows what`s in Obamacare. And
that`s something that the president should be out explaining and telling
people everyday.
But the most important thing here is that I think the folks, the
think the American public realizes, that this is a serious, serious
situation for our country and you know, talking -- talking points lined up,
you know, the way the Republicans do it, is an insult to their intelligence
and insult to our country at this point. We need to have a serious
conversation right now.
MATTHEWS: Well, Joan, if this guy Romney, with limited ability, was
able to convince the country he`s a regular guy, which he isn`t, looking
out for regular people, which he`s never done, boy, that`s going to be one
of the great jokes in history.
JOAN WALSH, SALON.COM: Well, I think and that is partly what
bothered me about President Clinton, you know, defending -- taking Bain
Capital off the table, because it`s not that he is a bad man but he does --
you know, President Obama put it much better. He said that his economic
experience is what gives him the background to be a good president and grow
the economy -- absolutely not. That did not happen under Mitt Romney.
Bain Capital had nothing to do with that.
And then, you know, embracing Donald Trump was inexplicable. You
can`t embrace the birther in chief. You can`t embrace this man who is
basically asking our president to show his papers.
He really -- if he is a friend, he should usher him off the public
stage and take him golfing. That bothered me a lot.
KLEIN: But still, an awful lot of this, an awful lot of this lands
on Obama`s doorstep. He`s got to be a lot better. If he is going to make
the case against Bain Capital, it has to be more than just layoffs because
that is kind of a phony issue. It has to be the fact that private equity
was all about paying executives a lot more money, paying stockholders a lot
more money and it was all about short term profits rather than long-term
planning and long-term growth.
WALSH: Right.
KLEIN: They stripped out the research and development departments of
all these places. You have to be specific if you are running for
Barack Obama is still campaigning like way over everybody`s head,
including mine sometimes.
MATTHEWS: Ha! Thank you, Joe Klein. I hope he`s listening or
somebody`s listening over there at the White House or in Chicago.
Thank you, Joan, as always. I think we got this one right tonight.
WALSH: Thanks.
MATTHEWS: The president and former president are together. They may
have slight differences about who they`re going to go after personally.
But I got to tell you, they agree completely on policy.
Anyway, thank you so much for joining us right now.
Up next, President Obama won another huge victory against terrorism
with the death of al Qaeda`s number two leader. Can Obama turn success on
the battlefield, killing one of these top bad guys after another to a win
in the ballot box?
This is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Where are the presidential campaigns and super PACs
spending the most TV ad money per electoral vote? Well, Charlie Cook and
Kantar Media crunched the numbers.
At number three, Ohio. It`s worth 18 electoral votes and a ton of
money being spent there already. Just short after half million dollars per
electoral vote.
Number two is Iowa. The campaigns have spent $3 million there in on
its six electoral votes. That`s also about a half million per electoral
But the number one state, Nevada, with nearly $700,000 per each of
its six electoral votes. That`s where the moneys go in.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: We`re back.
President Obama`s quiet campaign to kill al Qaeda`s leadership had a
major victory Monday. That`s this Monday, when a U.S. drone strike killed
the terror organization`s number two in charge, Abu Yahya al-Libi in
Pakistan again.
Why isn`t the president getting credit for his campaign against al
Qaeda which is hitting the top people?
Brian Katulis is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.
Michael Hirsch is a chief correspondent for "The National Journal".
Well, let me ask you -- why don`t we start here? But first of all,
here is Jay Carney trying to explain the importance of this killing of al-
Libi. He called it a major blow to al Qaeda. Let`s watch.
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There is now no clear
successor to take on the breath of his responsibilities. Al-Libi`s death
is a major blow to core al Qaeda. Removing the number two leader for the
second time in less than a year, and further damaging the group`s morale
and cohesion, and bringing it closer to its ultimate demise than ever
MATTHEWS: You know, let me go to Brian on this. It would seem to me
that W. would be doing hot dogging on the front steps of the White House in
his cowboy boots if this was going on under his watch. And here you have
Obama doing it in a quiet sort of way.
The public is not paying attention to the killing at the top, are
BRIAN KATULIS, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Well, it`s clear that
economy is the number one issue. But President Obama`s record on national
security has been so strong -- it`s almost as if many people have not
noticed. I mean, we`ve got bin Laden. We`ve decimated the core of al
Qaeda. And we`ve dealt with a lot of the problems that say, four or five
years ago everybody was worried about. We`re out of Iraq and we`re winding
down the war in Afghanistan.
So, I think the president, when you look at poll ratings, he performs
very, very well on national security, stronger than other areas. And it is
an asset. It`s neutralized this national deficit disorder that some people
thought Democrats suffered from after the Vietnam War. And it is a pretty
strong suit. But I think, you know, the big issues are the jobs and
economy, are going to be where the election is fought out.
MATTHEWS: You know, Michael, it sounds like the old days when you
dealt with inflation and there wasn`t any inflation, you didn`t get any
credit for it because there wasn`t anything to complain about, therefore
there was anything to deal with, everybody ignored it.
In this time, if you`re dealing with a foreign threat that really
scared the heck out of us in 2001, and did frighten us and hurt us badly as
a national wound, and here we are feeling pretty secure I think and nobody
gives any credit for it.
MICHAEL HIRSCH, NATIONAL JOURNAL: No question a certain amount of
complacency set in. And you`ve had, apart from the bin Laden targeting
which, you know, did make big news and give Obama something of a bump for
at least a little while, what you have here is sort of a drip, drip, drip
of, you know, one al Qaeda leader after another.
Most Americans have never heard their names before. In total, I
think he has been enormously effective against al Qaeda to the point where
traditionally, al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan is no longer the main
threat. It`s the new offshoot of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
But people don`t pay that much of attention to that. And as Brian
said, the economy has become so much the all embracing issue that this, at
best, is going to be, you know, a slight edge for Obama.
MATTHEWS: Let`s take a look at the president back when he was
debating in 2008, candidate Obama was hammered by his opponents, including
Hillary Clinton, for saying he would take out terrorist even on Pakistani
soil, with or without that country`s permission. Let`s watch.
BARACK OBAMA, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we have actionable
intelligence about high value terrorist targets, and President Musharraf
will not act, we will.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: We will risk the confused leadership
of an inexperienced candidate who once suggested bombing our ally,
HILLARY CLINTON, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, as Senator
Obama said, yes, last summer, he basically threatened to bomb Pakistan,
which I don`t think was a particularly wise position to take.
MATTHEWS: Brian, so he stuck his neck out. He basically determined
it would not be a drone strike to get Osama bin Laden. It would be a
direct action by the SEALs, with all the dangers there, but the certainty
of having got our man.
Let me ask you, when you look at the world right now, who has the
capability to hurt America here in America? Who can hit us -- not
existentially, nobody is going to do that, or strategically -- but who can
do real harm to this country right now, anybody?
KATULIS: Right now, when you look at the al Qaeda affiliates in
places like Yemen and Somalia, those are caused for concern, as we`ve seen
from some recent news with some of the recent plots. And that`s why
getting this guy, al-Libi was essential. Al-Libi was the number two, who
served as a key link to the al Qaeda affiliates in those places and taking
him out was I think essential.
And I got to add, we took him out in a place, part of Pakistan where
under the Bush administration and in those clipped in 2008 that you just
showed, we essentially had a situation that those areas were seated in
tribal deals by President Musharraf at the time. We had a very passive
approach and what we have had under Obama has been a very aggressive
approach to go after the al Qaeda core and these key links.
So, I would say it`s the terrorist groups in Yemen and Somali.
Another threat quite clearly is the cyber threats that come from many
different parts of the world -- Russia, China and other things -- which I
think are very real and new threats. And I think this administration`s
move into address that, and then quite obviously, Iran and the role that it
plays in the Middle East and in the Gulf region and its attempts to support
terrorist networks. They`re a grave threat. But on all those --
MATTHEWS: I have to go to Michael on this.
Michael, can Iran hurt us? Can Iran hurt us? How does it hurt us --
through Hezbollah? Who do you see is the threat to United States now here
in America?
HIRSCH: Well, I mean, I agree with what Brian just said. I think
the asymmetric threats of various kinds. I mean, what we have been most
concerned about, when our troops were still in Iraq and now in Afghanistan
is the IEDs, the night attacks, to target out soldiers there. As far as
the homeland, cyber threats from China, and, you know, possibly an
asymmetric threat from Iran through Hezbollah contacts in this hemisphere,
we have not seen any very credible with that.
I will say that the Obama administration has been trying to get this
message out here, that they`re countering this.
MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you, gentlemen. It`s great to have experts.
We have to go, I`m sorry. Mike -- Brian Katulis and Michael Hirsch,
I think that Hezbollah concern unleashed by Iran is always there and
Let me finish with what President Obama should do I think to fix the
problem with male voters, with men, with guys.
You`re watching HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this. Men, males, guys,
whatever -- what are you guys problem with President Obama? I think it
would be interesting to know the answer.
Well, 60 percent of women in Wisconsin said they`d vote for Obama in
November, compared to just 45 percent of men. We can imagine why women are
pro-Obama. He`s put the focus on health care. He`s been supportive of
women`s rights, of equal pay, and other concerns, where the Republican
Party has become suspect on these issues, or forthrightly hostile.
Now, about the men. If you look at Obama`s foreign policy record,
he`s been surprisingly tough out there. He`s carried out a smooth
withdrawal from Iraq, begin a similar pull out from Afghanistan, he`s
gotten bin Laden. And just this week, he got the new number two man in al
So, again, why the Obama problem with men.
Well, the latest NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll has his disapproval
number is 50 percent and rising among men nationally, and it`s not good.
And it requires an explanation.
And Obama is losing men to Romney right now 49 percent to 40 percent,
a nine-point spread. Well, the reason is something Bill Clinton`s campaign
hammered home, I think, in winning the White House back in `92 -- it`s the
economy, stupid. Men are particularly sensitive to humiliation, as we all
know -- being out of work is a humiliation. It carries an insult, as well
as an injury. They can argue that this shouldn`t be any worse than this
for women, a woman out of work especially. But there`s a lot of history at
work here and it is.
I think the president would be better of if he were standing right
now at the foot of Capitol Hill demanding a big jobs bill, big in promise,
big employment, big in pride, to rebuild this country the way President
Eisenhower did in the 1950s. The trick is to do it now -- a huge job bill
that everyone understands that rebuilds roads and fixes bridges and gets
the trains moving fast like in today`s Europe and Asia, would get this
country moving again, literally. It would also put a lot of men to work.
Mr. President, please, a huge jobs bill. The Republicans would have
to say yes or no to it, that`s the ticket. If they say yes, you put 5
million people to work right now. If they you say no, you put them, the
Republicans out of work.
That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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text:
Cristian Dumitrescu is a Software Engineer with the Intel Architecture Group.
Packet-processing systems reside within a network node and handle traffic transitioning through that node. In this two-part article, I examine some of the typical problems engineers face when debugging packet-processing systems. The techniques I describe here represent a collection of built-in mechanisms to be provisioned from as early as the design phase to assist the system debugging at runtime, with the purpose of detecting any system errors from the first stages of development and testing. In Part 1 of this article, we focused on issues related to debugging functional problems. In Part 2, we turn to debugging of stability and performance problems.
Stability Problems
Stability problems are the most difficult to debug, as they represent problems that cannot be triggered with basic low-rate functional tests. They need stress tests close to the real traffic conditions the device has to handle during real-life scenarios.
These problems usually require high traffic input rates and a long time before they activate (minutes, hours, or even days), so by that time many millions of packets have already transited through the system with no errors, thus making it impossible to analyze the system operation on a packet-by-packet basis. Sometimes it is not even possible to reproduce them with the equipment in the lab, having to attempt debugging the system while it is live in the field. These problems usually hide a flaw that is not fatal, meaning that the system is able to run correctly for some time before their impact cripples down the system.
The traditional debugging techniques do not work well for these problems. Running one of the cores under debugger control may be defeated by the fact that, while one of the cores is stopped as result of hitting a breakpoint, the rest of the system continues to process packets that keep coming in and modify the state of the system as the system continues to process the packets. This renders the state of the system no longer relevant for inspection because the system cannot keep up the pace with the input stream, which leads the packet queues to overflow and ultimately to a corrupted system state.
As these problems are difficult to reproduce on low data rates, debugging under heavy traffic loads becomes a necessity.
Possible Root Causes
Change in the typical sequence of events. Corner cases that are not triggered for low rates may now be triggered. The sequence of events and actions that take place while processing the packets is different than the typical sequence. Race conditions you were not aware of are now awakened.
Flawed state machines. The implementation of the state machines that are so commonly used for packet processing may be flawed. There are cases that are not robustly handled by the state machines, which now reach different states than expected. In the worst case scenario, the state machines may have to be massively cleaned up or even completely redesigned to remove the complexity that is not required.
Optimize your state machines for simplicity and readability, not for (often questionable) performance gain.
Deadlock. Synchronization between the producers and the consumers of the same queue may be flawed, making the producers think the queue is full or the consumers think that the queue is empty. Other possible root causes may be the incorrect usage of semaphores or other synchronization primitives, or waiting for an event that never takes place.
Resource exhaustion. A critical resource is exhausted and never replenished as result of incorrect usage, leading to incorrect operation. One of the most common scenarios is the permanent exhaustion of the buffer pools as result of buffer leakage. Buffers are allocated from the pool, but not all of them are correctly released back to their pool. These buffers are practically lost, as the software simply "forgot" about them, so it does not longer make use of them.
As result, the buffer pool shrinks over time, as fewer and fewer buffers are available in the pool at any given time which leads to performance degradation over time, as more and more input packets cannot be accommodated by the system and have to be dropped. The buffer pool eventually becomes empty and, as the pool is never replenished with buffers, no more packets will ever get out of the system.
If the code branches that leak buffers are frequently hit, then the problem is triggered relatively quickly. What usually happens is that the leaky code branches are infrequently hit, as they typically handle some infrequent error cases, so it takes a significant amount of time to reach the buffer pool exhaustion.
For example, consider a system which has a leaky Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table aging process that runs once every 120 seconds leaking one buffer on every run. If the buffer pool initially contains 1K buffers, then the system has to run non-stop for about 34 hours until the buffer pool exhaustion is experienced and the output cut-off takes place.
Because people tend to wait for the later stages of the project before applying stress tests like running the system under heavy traffic non-stop for a few days in a row, this problem is usually discovered late into the project.
Start the stability testing from day 1 of the project!
A related problem is represented by an under-dimensioned buffer pool, which causes periodic packet drops as the pool reaches exhaustion. As opposed to the previous problem, the pool does get replenished correctly with previously allocated buffers and the output traffic does resume eventually, so this is a performance tweaking problem rather than a stability one.
Incorrect assumptions. The software is not considering the case when a message sent to a queue is dropped due to the queue being full, assuming that the delivery of the message is guaranteed. Consequently, if the software is relying on the consumer actions associated with the handling of that message to be performed in order to continue working correctly, then it operates based on false assumptions. Same if the software is relying on receiving back a response to this message, as the response never comes since the request message never made it to the other side.
Memory corruption. Some local variables might be left uninitialized before their value is read and used by the application. The software might not consider the fact that reading from a message queue can fail due to the queue being empty (queue underflow) or writing to a message queue might fail due to the queue being full (queue overflow). The software might incorrectly attempt to read/write more data from/to a buffer than allowed by the buffer size. As result, inconsistent data is read or incorrect memory addresses are written, leading to the data structure corruption problem that is so hard to debug.
Incomplete handling of the returned error codes. The software might not be handling all possible error codes returned by the called functions, either by assuming success or by ignoring some of the error codes.
Make sure that all the possible values for the return codes are handled.
Combat Techniques
Static Code Analysis. Make sure that all the local variables are initialized and all the return codes are handled.
Run-time Monitor/Logger. Do not let the system errors go unnoticed!
The first step is to instrument the code with statistics counters tracking the resource usage and the various error conditions that can take place and make them available through the CLI. Examples of relevant counters include:
- Number of free buffers for each buffer pool
- Queue occupancy for each queue
- Current position for all the semaphores in the system
- Number of free entries within the various tables maintained by the application (e.g., routing table, ARP table)
- Number of DMA errors and retries
- Bus occupancy (can be calculated as the number of transactions multiplied with the length of each transaction since the last monitor invocation)
The second step is to implement a run-time monitor. This represents a callback function that is periodically invoked on timer events and checks for some of the most common error conditions that can take place in the system and, if any such condition is met, trigger the corresponding alarm. Examples of relevant error conditions that may seriously impact the system operation include:
- One or more buffer pools are consistently empty or almost empty
- Some queues are consistently almost full (occupancy more than 90%)
- Specific queues have been written but not read in the last period of time (consumer deadlock)
- Specific semaphores busy during the last number of monitor invocations
- Some tables maintained by the application are full or almost full
- The buckets of some hash tables became too long (possible indication that the hashing function is not efficient)
- The number of DMA errors or retries are above their acceptable threshold
- Bus occupancy dangerously close to the upper limit
The run-time monitor can also log the full state of the system for further static analysis, as a graphical representation over time can uncover some less obvious problems. The monitor should be disabled or reduced to a bare minimum during normal regime as it eats computing cycles.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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text:
Matt Brown takes a look at the available chord voicings for Blue Bossa.
Taught by Matt Brown in Jazz Guitar with Matt seriesLength: 10:39Difficulty: 0.0 of 5
Hi Matt, If you are still around. I liked your segment on Blue Bossa, and your lessons generally. It would be very helpful to have a segment on improvising lines to BB as well. I this possible? Many thanks, Don.
Hi Don! I might film some more lessons in the future. If I do, improv lessons on Blue Bossa will definitely be included.
Hi! I'm out of town for the next couple of days. I'll get the content up soon. Sorry about the wait.
Enjoying these lessons but am I missing access to some content somewhere. Nothing in supplemental content. Thanks
In this lesson set, Matt will teach you everything you need to know to fluently play jazz guitar.
Lesson 1
Check out this lesson to learn some basic jazz theory & chord voicings.Length: 31:36 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 2
Learn some more advanced chord voicings as well as the Charleston rhythm.Length: 19:13 Difficulty: 3.0 FREE
Lesson 3
Learn a handful of Set II voicings & round out your knowledge of the basic jazz chords.Length: 27:08 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 4
Apply the chords you've learned & experiment with some solo ideas.Length: 32:47 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 5
Learn which scales work with which jazz chord voicings.Length: 43:00 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 6
Matt sheds some light on the circle of fifths.Length: 28:00 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 7
Learn how to get the most out of your time when practicing.Length: 31:00 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 8
Here's the second installment of Matt's proper practicing lesson.Length: 32:00 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Lesson 9
Learn how to avoid carpal tunnel and other hand injuries by using proper technique.Length: 46:19 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Lesson 10
Matt Brown teaches the jazz standard "All of Me."Length: 31:12 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 11
Matt Brown explains how to improvise over the changes to "All of Me."Length: 7:54 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 12
Matt Brown begins talking about solo arrangements in this lesson. He teaches Carcassi's "Estudio No. 1" as an introduction to this concept.Length: 18:10 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 13
Matt Brown returns to his Jazz series with a review lesson. He applies the standard ii V I progression to the circle of fifths.Length: 18:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 14
In lesson 14, Matt discusses the turnback progression in the jazz style.Length: 22:20 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lesson 15
Matt brown discusses and demonstrates the set three voicings used in jazz guitar.Length: 25:42 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 16
In this lesson, Matt demonstrates how to practice jazz solo arrangements by taking a look at "Here's That Rainy Day."Length: 35:10 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 17
In lesson 17, Matt reviews and expands on the jazz version of the 12 bar blues form.Length: 23:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 18
In this lesson, Matt adds to your voicing repertoire while playing the Charleston rhythm.Length: 14:22 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 19
Matt Brown talks about lead options when playing a blues in B flat major.Length: 23:35 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 20
Matt Brown provides instruction and examples of playing jazz heads in the key of F. Once again, all examples follow the 12 bar blues form.Length: 18:22 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 21
Matt Brown takes another look at blues heads in the key of B flat. In this lesson, he covers a head by Thelonious Monk.Length: 10:03 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 22
Matt Brown takes a look at a solo arrangement and provides thoughts and tools necessary to complete this type of guitar playing.Length: 23:13 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 23
Matt Brown starts breaking down the rhythmic tendencies and patterns to the Brazilian Bossa Nova style of playing.Length: 17:56 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 24
In lesson 24 of his Jazz series, Matt takes a look at the melody to Blue Bossa.Length: 9:12 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 25
Matt Brown takes a look at the available chord voicings for Blue Bossa.Length: 10:39 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
About Matt Brown
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Matt Brown began playing the guitar at the age of 11. "It was a rule in my family to learn and play an instrument for at least two years. I had been introduced to a lot of great music at the time by friends and their older siblings. I was really into bands like Nirvana, Alice In Chains, and Smashing Pumpkins, so the decision to pick up the guitar came pretty easily."
Matt's musical training has always followed a very structured path. He began studying the guitar with Dayton, Ohio guitar great Danny Voris. I began learning scales, chords, and basic songs like any other guitarist. After breaking his left wrist after playing for only a year, Matt began to study music theory in great detail. I wanted to keep going with my lessons, but I obviously couldn't play at all. Danny basically gave me the equivalent of a freshman year music theory course in the span of two months. These months proved to have a huge impact on Brown's approach to the instrument.
Brown continued his music education at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. He completed a degree in Classical Guitar Performance in 2002. While at Capital, he also studied jazz guitar and recording techniques in great detail. "I've never had any desire to perform jazz music. Its lack of relevance to modern culture has always turned me off. However, nothing will improve your chops more than studying this music."
Matt Brown currently resides in Dayton, Ohio. He teaches lessons locally as well as at Capital University's Community Music School. Matt's recent projects include writing and recording with his new, as of yet nameless band as well as the formation of a cover band called The Dirty Cunnies.
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
Tyler Grant is back with an introduction to his new series "Classic Country Chops." In this series, Tyler goes in-depth...Free LessonSeries Details
Trace Bundy talks about the different ways you can use multiple capos to enhance your playing.Free LessonSeries Details
Greg kicks off his series telling a little about himself and introduces the C9 tuning.Free LessonSeries Details
In the classical guitar world, there seems to be a lot outdated instructional advice. And while this type of information...Free LessonSeries Details
JamPlay is proud to introduce jazz guitarist Peter Einhorn. In this lesson series, Peter will discuss and demonstrate a way...Free LessonSeries Details
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In this lesson Randall introduces the partial capo (using a short-cut capo by Kyser) and talks about how it can make the...Free LessonSeries Details
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Tosin explains some of the intricacies of the 8 string guitar such as his personal setup and approach to playing.Free LessonSeries Details
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I'm a fifty eight year old newbie who owns a guitar which has been sitting untouched in a corner for about seven years now. Last weekend I got inspired to pick it up and finally learn how to play after watching an amazing Spanish guitarist on TV. So, here I am. I'm starting at the beginning with Steve Eulberg and I couldn't be happier (except for the sore fingers :) Some day I'm going to play like Steve! I'm self employed with a hectic schedule. With Jamplay I can fit in a random session when I have time and I can go at my own pace, rewinding and replaying the videos until I get it. This is a very enjoyable diversion from my work yet I still feel like I'm accomplishing something worthwhile. Thanks a lot, Greg
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Cutler said, "For manufacturing business leaders, making big investments on behalf of their company can be daunting, yet pressures for manufacturers to catch up to their B2C counterparts with a robust digital platform are more intense than ever. With the aid of digital transformation ROI calculators, IT leaders can quantify where the ROI in their digital commerce platform is actually being lost."
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Project hosting sites move in and out of popularity in much the same way that programming languages do. They become suddenly popular, the place to host for cool new projects; then they mature into wide but less-enthused use; and finally, they begin a long decline in which they increasingly are associated with legacy projects.
Because the highest visibility hosts today, GitHub and its predecessor in the top position, SourceForge, are both offshoots of companies that sell code-hosting solutions, it's easy to forget that most hosts did not and do not have material commercial benefits to derive from hosting open source.
In fact, in the early days, such hosting was seen more as a service to a community than a profitable activity. Often, the hosts were created as the centerpieces of developer communities. The Apache Software Foundation is one such and is still very active. Another is Codehaus, a site purpose-designed by a group of hackers (Bob McWhirter, Jason van Zyl, and later Ben Walding) to host their projects and those of like-minded developers. Codehaus, in particular, provided more than just code hosting: email support, continuous integration, and other services. By offering what was then a very rare compliment of services completely free, it was able to attract top projects, including Drools, Groovy, Maven, and others. Its revenue source was ads placed here and there. My own open source project page layout and typesetting software, Platypus was hosted there for years. But ultimately, the work of maintaining Codehaus became more than one or two people could handle while doing other full-time work, and the site has become almost quiescent. Most major projects, except Groovy, have moved elsewhere. It is well into the long decline that characterizes hosts that have lost their popularity. Tigris.org, a community site founded to develop collaboration tools is in a similar position: Today, it no longer accepts new projects.
These sites lived and slowly died in the shadow of SourceForge, the major project host founded by VA Software in 1999. For several years, SourceForge was the cool place to host projects the GitHub of its day. But while it was popular, it was not truly loved due to its heavy use of ads and a confusing download mechanism that required you to watch ads and, at various times, tried to foist unwanted downloads on visitors. Its supremacy was challenged when Google Code was unveiled, but it proved remarkably resilient and remained the #1 site for hosting projects until earlier this year when GitHub's traffic finally surpassed it.
The launch of Google Code is another example of the fateful rise and long decline. When it first came out, it was a mecca for new projects, seeded by the many projects of Google employees. It had a fairly low-tech UI, but it was fast and simple to operate. In addition, it had a variety of features that appealed especially to programmers. However, Google moved slowly in improving the site to recognize changing developer preferences. And the company did not update its peculiar UI. And it was less than helpful to user requests. All were crucial missteps.
So when the modern leaders of code hosting, BitBucket and GitHub, emerged, the developer community was ready to migrate to them in the hopes of finding exactly what they got: hosts that were both engaged with their communities and committed to constantly expanding and improving their services.
Along the way, many other hosts have risen briefly before falling and slipping into a long-term decline. The largest group being language-specific hosts: RubyForge, Java.net, and so on.
BitBucket and GitHub, I expect, will continue to thrive. GitHub is today the #1 host, measured by both traffic and number of users. According to Alexa.com, there follow (in order): SourceForge (in clear decline), BitBucket, Microsoft's Codeplex (stable), and Google Code (also in steady decline).
Codeplex is the odd entry in this group. While Microsoft has not traditionally been known for open source, the Codeplex site quietly gets plenty of traffic. How long this will last is unknown, given that when Microsoft released the open source code to the .NET core, they did so on GitHub. When I asked Microsoft VP "Soma" Somasegar why, he replied that the company wanted to meet developers "where they already were." Based on reactions culled from Hacker News and Reddit, this choice proved wise. Many comments on those aggregators stated that the choice of GitHub convinced the authors that the "new Microsoft" was moving away from its closed, "come to us" approach to development. A similar desire surely prompted Google's increasing use of GitHub, rather than Google Code, for its projects.
GitHub and BitBucket offer similar sets of services, with the notable exception that BitBucket offers free private repositories. How long they can remain hosting leaders is hard to tell, but I expect that it will be quite a while. Unlike their predecessors, they both are run by organizations that have a deep understanding of developer needs and preferences, and they are centerpieces of their owners' holdings, and so receive constant care and attention. If either site should slip, however, a very long, painful decline awaits.
Andrew Binstock
Editor in Chief
[email protected]
Twitter: platypusguy


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Watch Cougar Town Season 6 Episode 9 online via TV Fanatic with over 8 options to watch the Cougar Town S6E9 full episode. Affiliates with free and paid streaming include Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube Purchase, Google Play, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, and Verizon On Demand.
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On Cougar Town Season 6 Episode 9, Jules tries to get Grayson to be her father's new best friend when she thinks he's lonely while Travis and Ellie have a heart to heart.
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Massachusetts Sues U.S. Over DOMA
The federal Defense of Marriage Act which protects the traditional definition of marriage may be facing its biggest challenge yet. Massachusetts filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the federal law.
"We're taking this action today because, first, we believe that [DOMA] directly interferes with Massachusetts' long-standing sovereign authority to define and regulate the marital status of its residents," said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Massachusetts was the first state in the country in 2003 to legalize marriage for same-sex couples. It is now also the first state to challenge DOMA, the 1996 law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize same-sex marriages from another state.
The lawsuit argues that despite same-sex marriage being legal in Massachusetts, the more than 16,000 gay and lesbian married couples in the state are still denied access to "critically important rights and benefits" because of DOMA.
The New England state is specifically challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of DOMA, which defines marriage as "a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife."
"Congress's decision (in 1996) to enact a federal definition of marriage rejected the long-standing practice of deferring to each state's definition of marriage and contravened the constitutional designation of exclusive authority to the states," states the lawsuit.
Congress overstepped its authority and undermined states' efforts to recognize marriages between same-sex couples, the state further argues.
Rejecting the argument that DOMA interferes with the state's authority, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins contended that DOMA was enacted with the "primary purpose of protecting the right of states to define marriage as they see fit so that no state can force marriage redefinition on another state."
"Now, the Massachusetts Attorney General is expanding the fight against traditional marriage by demanding that federal taxpayers from all 50 states subsidize same-sex 'marriage' benefits in Massachusetts," Perkins said in a statement Wednesday.
Two other lawsuits have been filed against the federal DOMA.
Last month, the U.S. Justice Department moved to dismiss one of the lawsuits filed by a married gay couple.
Charles Miller, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said they will review the latest case. At the same time, Miller also reiterated President Obama's pledge to repeal DOMA.
Perkins of the conservative family group is calling on the Justice Department to "fulfill its constitutional duties and continue its defense of DOMA against such frivolous lawsuits."
"We also urge any federal courts that hear this case to dismiss it and preserve the right of the people to decide such important public policy decisions," he added.
According to a May 2009 Gallup Poll, most Americans (57 percent) remain opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage.


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February 03, 2011
Nichole Polin, MD is the plumber and Glenn Polin, MD is the electrician.
That's a simplified description of the physicians' respective careers as an interventional cardiologist and an electrophysiologist. Nichole's specialty handles catheter-based treatment of heart disease while Glenn—whose area of expertise is relatively new to the world of cardiology, developed during the mid-1970s—works to assess and treat abnormal heart rhythms (too slow—a pacemaker; too fast, a defibrillator or ablation). In addition to their demanding jobs at Midwest Cardiology Associates at Menorah Medical Center, part of the HCA Midwest Health System, the Polins do what every other working family in America does: the Great Balancing Act.
The family-focused Polins are doting parents to daughters who are 18 months and 3-and-a-half. When considering the move from Philadelphia to Johnson County last year, a determining factor was Midwest Cardiology Associates' philosophy as a family-friendly practice.
"Not only are the doctors smart, current and excellent at what they do, family is very important to them," says Glenn.
Days at the Polin household usually start at 6 a.m. with a flurry of breakfast and getting out the door, dropping their oldest child at preschool and seeing patients at hospitals throughout the metro. The Polins both work at Menorah Medical Center, Centerpoint Medical Center and Overland Park Regional Hospital; Nichole goes to Providence Medical Center and Glenn also visits Research Medical Center. Evenings find Nichole home by 6:30 and Glenn between 6:30 and 7:30.
The end of the day, where they enjoy playtime with their children, helps recharge the couple and is perhaps the most precious to the Polins, who celebrate their 7th wedding anniversary this year. "I spend 45 minutes each night reading books with our oldest daughter," says Glenn. "I look forward to that."
Nichole has protected time with the girls on Mondays and Tuesdays. "The practice has been gracious enough to let me arrange my schedule accordingly," she says, adding that the days off are a rare luxury in interventional cardiology.
Date night for the Polins includes an occasional dinner at the Bristol Seafood Grill or Yia Yia's, but most weekend nights—because they both juggle on-call schedules—Glenn and Nichole uncork a bottle of wine, watch a movie and snuggle in front of a fire.
"And we're in bed by 10 p.m.," adds Glenn.
Here's what makes the couple that works heart-to-heart tick in family-friendly Johnson county.
435 South: Glenn, you were a surgery resident and Nichole, you were an internal medicine resident at the prestigious Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia but your paths rarely crossed. How did you meet?
Nichole Polin: I had seen Glenn around and thought he was cute, but didn't know him. When you're a resident, your vacation time is controlled; I really wanted to get away for some relaxation. The year before a girlfriend and I had gone to a Club Med in Turks and Caicos and I decided to book a trip—by myself—to that spot again. Four weeks later I heard through a mutual friend that Glenn had scheduled the exact same trip.
Glenn Polin: We rented a car together and drove to New York to fly out of JFK. We spent the week together and have been together ever since."
435: You were both doing fellowships at Cornell University and Nichole, you stayed on as faculty where you taught Glenn in the cath lab.
NP: (Laughing) You're assigned a partner in the lab, so the day we were together was pure luck.
GP: I remember the first time we were in the lab together and looking out in the control room from the operating area. There were at least 20 of our friends and colleagues gathered to watch our dynamics. (Laughing) I like to say that Nichole has no trouble telling me what to do in the cardiac cath lab or at home.
435: Glenn, you had a master plan when you asked Nichole to marry you.
GP: We hadn't talked a lot about marriage, but one night I brought home a book called How to Buy an Engagement Ring for Dummies.
NP: And then a couple of months went by and there was no discussion of rings or trips to jewelry stores. Then he started reading How to Buy a Used Motorboat for Dummies, which was concerning. On Glenn's birthday we were getting ready to go out for dinner; he was uncharacteristically anxious as I was getting ready and he finally took me into the kitchen where there were candles and roses. He got down on one knee and popped the question.
435: Family is very important to you. Describe how Johnson County is just what the doctor ordered when it comes to raising a family.
GP: When Nichole and I decided to leave Philadelphia and see what else was out there, we doubted that there would be another perfect opportunity for an interventional cardiologist and an electrophysiologist in the same city. When we received a call from a recruiter about jobs in Overland Park, we were thrilled. Though we had never been to Kansas City and didn't know a soul here, we were impressed with Midwest Cardiology Associates, part of Midwest Physicians. We have no regrets.
NP: The hospitality from everyone—including neighbors who brought baked goods to us and reached out with toys for our daughters when our moving truck was delayed for a month—has been incredible.
GP: We stayed in a hotel for several weeks before moving into our home and one of the employees who got to know us even invited us to their home for dinner. (Laughing) You wouldn't find that kind of openness on the East coast.
435: What do you do in your leisure time?
NP: I take 30-minute piano lessons every week. It's something I've wanted to do since I was a young girl. I know "Chopsticks" but not much more at this point. We love the ice-skating at Park Place and the pool at the Jewish Community Center.
GP: I have so many interests and am curious about so many things but a lot of it has taken a backseat because of work and our family. I don't sit in front of the television and watch football for three hours—I'd rather spend that time with the girls and Nichole. I am an avid reader—I just finished Keith Richards' autobiography, Life and have come to the conclusion that if people abused their bodies as much as he did and survived there would be fewer doctors in this world. He's quite a specimen.
435: You're in a city where you can pursue both your passions in medicine and raise your daughters. It sounds like you're putting down roots.
GP: The Eastern Seaboard has many well-trained electrophysiologists who graduated from the Penn program like I did. It's wonderful to be in an area where I can blaze my own trail with a unique skill set. Nichole and I are very at home in Johnson County.
words: Kimberly Winter Stern | photo: Paul Versluis | Reprinted courtesy of 435 South
Read about Heart Care at Menorah Medical Center.


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BANGKOK: Coffee connoisseurs are rushing to pay $50 a cup as the wives of mahouts in northern Thailand eagerly wait to pick through piles of fresh elephant dung.
In a world first, coffee made from pure arabica beans are being slow cooked in the stomachs of a herd of 30 elephants, plucked 30 hours later from their dung, then washed and roasted.
No, the result is not a crap-puccino, promoted as "good to the last dropping".
Those who have tried Black Ivory Coffee say it tastes of "milk chocolate, nutty, earthy with hints of spice and red berries".
Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spas, a luxury hotel group, is selling the coffee at its hotels in northern Thailand, the Maldives and Abu Dhabi. Business is brisk despite the price tag of $US1100 ($1049) a kilogram.
Correspondents from Bangkok have made the journey to the Golden Triangle, where Thailand, Laos and Burma, meet to witness the jumbo baristas at work and to sip the product.
"When an elephant eats coffee, its stomach acid breaks down the protein found in coffee, which is a key factor in bitterness," Blake Dinkin, a Canadian who has spent $US300,000 developing the brand told Associated Press. "You end up with a cup that's very smooth without the bitterness of regular coffee."
The coffee beans, hand-picked by villagers on hillsides, stew together with bananas, sugar cane and other ingredients in the elephants' vegetarian diet.
The first batch of 70 kilograms has already sold out and Mr Dinkin hopes to produce six times that amount next year.
Black Ivory is not the first novelty coffee to hit the market in recent years. Coffee passed through civets sells for a similar price. In 2010 the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, raised eyebrows when he presented then prime minister Kevin Rudd with Kopi Luwak, or civet coffee, during a visit to Australia.
The original release of this article first appeared on the website of Hangzhou Night Net.