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Scott Walker will never be accused of displaying a high regard for the First Amendment.
The Wisconsin governor who tried to close the state Capitol to mass protests against his anti-labor policies, and who then engineered a rewrite of rules so that veterans, grandmothers, teachers and firefighters were arrested for singing, has offered ample evidence of his disregard for the rights to speak freely, to assemble, to petition for the redress of grievances
So it came as a surprise when Walker suddenly announced that First Amendment concerns had led him to sign a new Wisconsin law that makes it significantly harder to get schools to drop Indian logos, mascots and team names that Native Americans, educators and community members have identified as objectionable. Indeed, Walker has adopted a position that reinterprets the US Constitution's free speech protection in a far more adventurous way than the folks who are currently arguing about the controversial statements of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson.
Walker readily admits that many Wisconsinites view the school nicknames as "seriously offensive." And he says he personally supports "moving away" from the use of them.
In a letter to Wisconsin's tribal leaders, the governor wrote: "I share many of your concerns about some of the mascots and nicknames used in Wisconsin and across America. If it were up to me personally, I would seek viable alternatives that were not offensive to Native Americans."
So why didn't Walker veto the measure—which Wisconsin Indian Education Association spokeswoman Barbara Munson decried as "institutionalized racism"—and just let existing law stand?
Walker says it has something to do with the First Amendment.
"If the state bans speech that is offensive to some, where does it stop?" asked Walker. "A person or persons' right to speak does not end just because what they say or how they say it is offensive."
But a school district is not a person, like Duck Dynasty's Robertson, who was suspended from the A&E program after making statements that drew loud objections from civil rights groups. Robertson's supporters have countered criticisms from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Human Rights Campaign, among others, by arguing that, as an individual citizen, Robertson has every right to say what he thinks.
Nor is a school district a private enterprise, like A&E, which has faced threats of boycotts from Americans who are uncomfortable with Robertson's statements.
A school district is a public entity, which is supposed to serve all the people in a community.
"School districts are creatures of the state, bound to abide by state standards," Milwaukee attorney Brian Pierson. who had helped defend the existing state law in court, explained to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel."A school district doesn't have a First Amendment right to adopt an Indian mascot any more than it has a First Amendment right to adopt the swastika as school symbol or 'white supremacy' as school slogan
The issue never was—and is not now— "a person or persons' right to speak."
In fact, when Walker signaled he would make a First Amendment argument for his decision to sign the legislation, the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin objected.
"This is a bogus appropriation of the First Amendment," explained executive director Chris Ahmuty. "The governor apparently does not understand that the First Amendment protects citizens from government censorship. Government programs are not allowed to offend, harm or otherwise discriminate against citizens on the basis of the First Amendment. The First Amendment simply doesn't apply when it's the government taking action."
Noting that "school team names, mascots, logos and all that go along with them are the responsibility of the public school district," Ahmuty explained that it was entirely appropriate for a public school district or the state Department of Public Instruction to take steps to address offensive names.
"Why would a public school district want to harm some of its students?" asked Ahmuty, who added, "Free speech is no justification."
Voter fraud is quite uncommon. In fact, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's School of law, which has conducted an ongoing examination of voter fraud claims, refers to the supposed "problem" as a "myth."
However, if we employ the standard of those who claim that there really is a voter fraud crisis in America, then there is a case that is worthy of note. And it involves Liz Cheney's husband.
Liz Cheney is running for the US Senate in a 2014 Republican primary. But she is not running in her long-time home state, Virginia.
Rather, she is running in distant Wyoming—which her father, permanent Washington fixture Dick Cheney, used as a political redoubt for congressional service to the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
The Wyoming run has been an inconvenient one for Liz Cheney. She has been forced to uproot herself from a comfortable life in suburban Washington, and to buy an expensive new home in the one reliably Democratic county in Wyoming. She has struggled to figure out how to obtain a fishing license, after initially overstating her history in the state—and paying a fine for "[failing] to meet residency requirements as required." And she has had to declare her opposition to her sister's right to marry.
But it hasn't just been tough on Liz Cheney.
Her husband, Philip Perry, who practices law with a major Washington firm, has had to claim that he, too, is a resident of Wyoming.
In March, he obtained a driver's license. And he has gone so far as to register to vote there
Unfortunately, he is also registered to vote in McLean, Virginia, where he voted in 2012.
When Perry registered to vote in Wyoming's Teton County, he did not indicate that he was on the voter roll elsewhere. Indeed, says Teton County Clerk Sherry Daigle, "He signed an oath saying he was not currently registered anywhere else."
So we have a glaring case of double registration.
Sound the alarm!
Or not.
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Perry can fix the problem by asking Virginia to remove him from the rolls in the Old Dominion. Officials generally allow for such clarifications, recognizing that mistakes are made. Despite the headline in the local paper—"Cheney Husband in False Oath Kerfuffle"—it is unlikely that the double-registration mess will result in anything more than a slight case of embarrassment for a prominent lawyer.
So this does not appear to be a particularly big deal—just like most cases of supposed "voter fraud."
Indeed, as the Brennan Center reminds us, "Voter fraud is very rare, voter impersonation is nearly non-existent and much of the problems associated with alleged fraud in elections relates to unintentional mistakes by voters or election administrators."
Read Next: George Zornick on Senator Tom Harkin.
This week marks the 100th anniversary of Willy Brandt's birth.
Born December 18, 1913, on the cusp of World War I, Brandt lived to see the fall of the Berlin Wall before his death in 1992. He left a legacy of seeking to steer his twentieth-century world away from war and division and that still has the potential—as was his ardent hope—to define the twenty-first century as a time of response to global poverty and injustice.
In Germany, Brandt continues to be celebrated as the Social Democratic battler against Nazi totalitarianism, the courageous mayor of a divided Berlin, the chancellor who began a process of East-West reconciliation that anticipated the day when "what belongs together will grow together" and the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for dialing down the tensions of the Cold War.
But another lasting legacy of Willy Brandt that must never be forgotten—in Europe or internationally—is that of the Brandt Reports. The product of an Independent Commission on International Development initially chaired by Brandt in the late 1970s and early 1980s, those reports challenged world leaders to think anew about the underdevelopment and neglect of the Global South.
The Brandt Reports considered inequality on a global scale, and argued that it threatened the future stability of the planet. Radical in their analysis and vision, the pair of reports—North-South (1980) and Common Crisis (1983)—sought to address the long-term challenges of what Brandt described as "a world in which poverty and hunger still prevail in many huge regions; in which resources are squandered without consideration of their renewal; in which more armaments are made and sold than ever before; and where a destructive capacity has been accumulated to blow up our planet several times over."
A 2002 report from the Brandt 21 Forum noted, "The Brandt Commission made a set of bold recommendations to change all that. In a sweeping series of measures addressed to the global public, governments, and international agencies, the Brandt Reports called for a full-scale restructuring of the global economy, along with a new approach to the problems of development, including an emergency program to end poverty in developing nations."
The grand vision, celebrated and embraced by some but certainly not all countries, remains unrealized.
The grip of poverty and hunger has not been released. The chasm of inequality is still exceptionally wide. Economic and environmental injustice continue to create crises.
Yet, the understandings that Brandt and his colleagues helped to develop remain influential.
And a new generation of leaders seeks to open a serious discussion about global poverty—and the possible responses to it.
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Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, has for many years urged the United States to embrace the concept of a "Global Marshall Plan"—based on the principles of post–World War II international development programs. Earlier this month, Ellison asked Congress to resolve that
1. The elimination of poverty and hunger should remain key foreign and domestic policy goals for the United States;
2. A Global Marshall Plan holds the potential to transform development assistance in a manner that would significantly reduce poverty; and
3. The President should implement a Global Marshall Plan to increase United States assistance towards the elimination of poverty.
That's a proposal that is equal in its ambition and optimism—especially in a time of divided government that has tended towards austerity economics.
But it is right to aim high. And to recall the ambition and optimism of the Brandt Reports, and of the former German chancellor who declared,
A new century nears, and with it the prospects of a new civilization.
Could we not begin to lay the basis for that new community with reasonable relations among all people and nations, and to build a world in which sharing, justice, freedom and peace might prevail?
Read Next: Mychal Denzel Smith on Santa Claus and white racial panic.
Civil liberties advocates on the left and the right have argued for many years—but especially in the aftermath of revelations this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden—that spying by the National Security Agency disregards privacy protections outlined in the Fourth Amendment and is surely unconstitutional. Indeed, as the American Civil Liberties Union has argued, the NSA's "unconstitutional surveillance" represents "a grave danger to American democracy."
Now, a federal judge has recognized the constitutional concerns.
"I cannot imagine a more 'indiscriminate' and 'arbitrary invasion' than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval," wrote US District Judge Richard Leon.
Judge Leon's decision, which will surely be appealed, focuses attention on legal challenges to the spying program. But it also serves as a reminder that Congress can and should act to defend privacy rights.
"The ruling underscores what I have argued for years: The bulk collection of Americans' phone records conflicts with Americans' privacy rights under the U.S. Constitution and has failed to make us safer," says Senator Mark Udall, D-Colorado, a supporter of legislation to end the bulk collection program. "We can protect our national security without trampling our constitutional liberties."
Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said: "Judge Leon's ruling hits the nail on the head. It makes clear that bulk phone records collection is intrusive digital surveillance and not simply inoffensive data collection as some have said. The court noted that this metadata can be used for 'repetitive, surreptitious surveillance of a citizen's private goings on,' that creates a mosaic of personal information and is likely unconstitutional. This ruling dismisses the use of an outdated Supreme Court decision affecting rotary phones as a defense for the technologically advanced collection of millions of Americans' records. It clearly underscores the need to adopt meaningful surveillance reforms that prohibit the bulk collection of Americans' records."
The senators had reason to be enthusiastic about Judge Leon determination that legal challenges to the massive surveillance program are valid. So valid, in fact, that he issued a preliminary injunction against the program. The judge suspended the order, however, in order to allow a Justice Department appeal.
But Judge Leon was blunt regarding the strength of the challenge that was brought after Snowden revealed details of the agency's spying in The Guardian.
"I have little doubt that the author of our Constitution, James Madison... would be aghast," the judge wrote with regard to the NSA program for surveillance of cell phone records,
"The court concludes that plaintiffs have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the government's bulk collection and querying of phone record metadata, that they have demonstrated a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of their Fourth Amendment claim and that they will suffer irreparable harm absent…relief," Judge Leon wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by Larry Klayman, a former Reagan administration lawyer who now leads the conservative Freedom Watch group.
The case is one of several that have been working their way through the federal courts since Snowden disclosed details of the NSA program.
Legal challenges to NSA spying are not new, and they have failed in the past.
Challenging the FISA Amendments Act (FAA)—the law that permits the government to wiretap US citizens communicating with people overseas—Amnesty International and other human rights advocates, lawyers and journalists fought a case all the way to the US Supreme Court in 2012. In February 2013, however, the Justices ruled 5-4 that the challengers lacked standing because they could not prove they had been the victims of wiretapping and other privacy violations.
The Justice Department has continued to argue that plaintiffs in lawsuits against the spying program lack standing because they cannot prove their records were examined. But Judge Leon suggested that the old calculus that afforded police agencies great leeway when it came to monitoring communications has clearly changed.
Suggesting that the NSA has relied on "almost-Orwellian technology," wrote Judge Leon, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia bench. "The relationship between the police and the phone company (as imagined by the courts decades ago)…is nothing compared to the relationship that has apparently evolved over the last seven years between the government and telecom companies."
The judge concluded, "It's one thing to say that people expect phone companies to occasionally provide information to law enforcement; it is quite another to suggest that our citizens expect all phone companies to operate what is effectively a joint intelligence-gathering operation with the government."
This case will continue in the courts, as will others.
But it is also in Congress. A left-right coalition that extends from Congressmen Justin Amash, a libertarian-leaning Republican, to Congressman John Conyers, a progressive Democrat, has raised repeated challenges to the NSA spying regimen.
Now, Congress needs to step up to what Congressman Alan Grayson, D-Florida, refers to as "the spying-industrial complex."
A number of members are ready. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders responded to Judge Leon's ruling by saying: "In my view, the NSA is out of control and operating in an unconstitutional manner. Today's ruling is an important first step toward reining in this agency but we must go further. I will be working as hard as I can to pass the strongest legislation possible to end the abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies."
The outlines for legislative action have already been presented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups that work on privacy issues.
"Congress should not be indifferent to the government's accumulation of vast quantities of sensitive information about American's lives," Jameel Jaffer, the ACLU's deputy legal counsel told the House Judiciary Committee in July. "This Committee in particular has a crucial role to play in ensuring that the government's efforts to protect the country do not compromise the freedoms that make the country worth protecting."
Jaffer told the committee,
Because the problem Congress confronts today has many roots, there is no single solution to it. But there are a number of things that Congress should do right away:
• It should amend Sections 215 and 702 to expressly prohibit suspicionless or "dragnet" monitoring or tracking of Americans' communications.
• It should require the executive to release basic information about the government's use of foreign-intelligence-surveillance authorities, including those relating to pen registers and national security letters. The executive should be required to disclose, for each year: how many times each of these provisions was used, how many individuals' privacy was implicated by the government's use of each provision, and, with respect to any dragnet, generalized, or bulk surveillance program, the types of information that were collected.
• Congress should also require the publication of FISA court opinions that evaluate the meaning, scope, or constitutionality of the foreign-intelligence laws. The ACLU recently filed a motion before the FISA court arguing that the publication of these opinions is required by the First Amendment, but Congress need not wait for the FISA court to act. Congress has the authority and the obligation to ensure that Americans are not governed by a system of secret law.
• Finally, Congress—and this Committee in particular—should hold additional hearings to consider further amendments to FISA, including amendments to make FISC proceedings more transparent.
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Members of Congress, conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, have moved on a number of these fronts. Now it is time for concerted action.
The Congress does not have to wait for the legal wrangling to be resolved. It can, and should, act in defense of civil liberties.
Read Next: Greg Mitchell on 60 Minutes's NSA whitewashing.
Most members of Congress were pleased with themselves Thursday.
They agreed to agree—crossing lines of partisanship and ideology—on an austerity budget that, as Oregon Congressman Peter DeFazio has noted, "won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit."
That's not the worst of it.
"At the end of the day, the bill abandons 1.3 million Americans who desperately need unemployment insurance, and does nothing to promote economic growth or job creation," Congressman Mark Pocan, D-Wisconsin, explained Thursday. "Furthermore, the legislation is paid for on the backs of the middle class and military families, while not touching the wealthiest amongst us and allowing corporations to continue to benefit from tax loopholes."
Pocan and DeFazio could not bring themselves to back the deal.
But they were outliers, two of the thirty-two Democrats who voted no, along with sixty-two Republicans.
The vast majority of House members—from both parties—backed the deal, which prevailed on a 332-94 vote.
So where does that leave America?
Let's turn to National Nurses United, a union that parts company with both major parties on questions of public welfare, for a diagnosis.
"There is no reason to cheer an agreement that requires unwarranted pension cuts for federal workers, including VA nurses who earned that pension, underfunds nutrition programs and fails to extend assistance for the long-term unemployed," says union co-president Jean Ross, RN.
NNU refused to get on board for the bipartisan deal that takes the worst ideas of Wall Street–aligned Republicans and puts a Democratic stamp of approval on them.
Why? Because they understand the agreement—which was developed by a conference committee on which House Budget Committee chair Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, played a defining role—as an expression of the austerity agenda that has stalled economic recovery and job growth in the United States and abroad.
"Austerity budgeting, reflected in this latest deal, continues the disturbing focus by politicians in both parties in Washington, who should be fighting for jobs at living wages, restoration of the disgraceful cuts in food stamps, healthcare for all, housing assistance, and other human needs, not simply how to please Wall Street and the banks," says NNU's Ross. "For our patients and our communities, it is past time to replace cuts for workers with revenues from Wall Street to revive Main Street."
There was a time when austerity budgeting was accepted as valid—or, at least, necessary—to addressing the circumstance of countries where deindustrialization and economic setbacks have caused revenue shortfalls. But, in recent years, The Economist, the Financial Timesand the International Monetary Fund have recognized that austerity agendas based on in budget cuts and a failure to invest in infrastructure and development tend to lock in patterns of high unemployment and slow growth.
Countries fall into dysfunctional patterns, making cuts that lead to more cuts, and this stalls job creation, reduces labor-force participation and makes recovery more difficult. It is, as economist Paul Krugman suggests, an "awesomely destructive" pattern.
Congress should get this by now. Unfortunately, as an analysis from the budget analysts at the Campaign for America's Future notes, "Somehow Washington has failed to get the message. This deal doesn't end the cutting; it only reduces its severity. It doesn't generate jobs; it only cuts fewer of them. It doesn't help the economy; it only reduces the harm to it. Surely we can do better than that."
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The nurses have an idea for how to do better. The union wants a Robin Hood Tax on high-stakes Wall Street trading—particularly speculation in stocks, bonds, derivatives and currencies. This tax is outlined in legislation developed by Congressman Keith Ellison, D-Minnesota, who proposes "a small tax on Wall Street transactions to meet the needs of our nation."
Ellison voted against the budget deal Thursday, saying: "The budget deal passed today is a compromise—it compromises the financial security of federal employees, the long-term unemployed and working families…. This is a case where 'compromise' in Washington means asking Americans to sacrifice more."
The nurses agree.
"The sham of the present debate in Washington, DC, is that real fiscal solutions to slow growth and high unemployment, hunger, disease and poverty exist, but have been taken off the table by lobbyists for Wall Street," says Ross. "It's time Congress proves to the American people that Wall Street doesn't run our government."
Read Next: John Nichols lays out what makes this a "cruel, irresponsible" budget deal.
The trouble with making "functional" government the great aspiration of the American experiment – as so many pundits and politicians now do – is that a smoothly operating Congress is not necessarily moral, humane or even economically smart.
It is important to remember this disconnect as we consider the budget deal announced late Tuesday by House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and Senate Budget Committee chairman Patty Murray, D-Washington.
"This agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration's cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way," said Murray. "It's a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work."
Ryan was equally self-congratulatory, declaring that – after a fall the saw a government shutdown, nasty wrangling over the historically uncontroversial task of raising the debt ceiling and general congressional dysfunction – he and Murray had achieved "a clear improvement on the status quo."
"This agreement makes sure that we don't have a government shutdown scenario in January," he added. "It makes sure we don't have another government shutdown scenario in October. It makes sure that we don't lurch from crisis to crisis."
Murray and Ryan are excited that they had stopped fighting for long enough to agree to $63 billion in "sequester relief" – as opposed to an actual end to sequestration – and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. They're also glad that they have set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, while setting the level at $1.014 trillion for fiscal year 2015. That apparently qualifies – in the eyes of the budget negotiators – as a sufficient alternative to lurching from crisis to crisis.
But the agreement does not address the crises that matter. "This plan won't create jobs, get the economy back on track, or meaningfully cut the deficit," explains Congressman Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon.
And that's not the worst of it.
What of the 1.3 million jobless Americans who – with a fully Dickensian twist – now stand to lose Federal unemployment benefits three days after Christmas?
The budget agreement does not look like a "step in the right direction" for them. And unless Democrats succeed in renewing benefits in a distinct piece of legislation that apparently must pass this week – as Congress is moving rapidly toward recess – many of the most economically vulnerable Americans will be "lurching from crisis to crisis" very soon.
Their crisis is our crisis. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, extending benefits for the long-term unemployed would boost a still slow economy by two-tenths of a percent in the coming year – creating 200,000 needed jobs. As the CBO explains: "Recipients of the additional benefits would increase their spending on consumer goods and services. That increase in aggregate demand would encourage businesses to boost production and hire more workers than they otherwise would, particularly given the expected slack in the capital and labor markets."
Without providing for the extension, something that easily and appropriately could have been done in the budget agreement, Ryan and Murray failed in their most basic humanitarian and economic duties.
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And what of the federal workers and members of the military who will be required to take what is effectively a pay cut in order to pay more for their retirement benefits?
"Federal workers have sacrificed over $113 billion for deficit reduction since 2011, including a three-year pay freeze and increased pension contributions for newly hired employees. This figure does not include the up to eight furlough days caused by sequestration this summer and a 16-day shutdown in October which resulted in financial hardship and profound anxiety for half the government's workforce and their families," noted unions that represent federal employees. "Given these contributions, we are dismayed to learn that increasing the pension contributions and/or changing the retirement formula for current federal employees is on the table. This is simply unacceptable."
This is, also, absurd.
Despite Murray's prodding, the House and Senate budget chairs did not close a single tax loophole. But they did come up with a scheme to take money away from public employees and people serving in the military – effectively reducing what millions of Americans will have to spend on Main Street.
Members of House and Senate who are paid $174,000 annually, collect generous benefits and – thanks to redistricting and an incumbent-rewarding campaign finance system – enjoy no small measure of job security, can pat themselves on the back for breaking through "the recent dysfunction." But forcing others to lurch from crisis to crisis so that you can tell yourself you have taken "a step in the right direction" is socially and economically dysfunctional. Not to mention cruel, and irresponsible.
Read Next: Jessica Weisberg explains how inequality has been woven into the fabric of American society.
The South African Constitution minces no words regarding access to medical care.
"Everyone has the right to have access to health care services, including reproductive health care," the document declares, adding that: "The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realization of each of these rights."
At a time when the United States is engaged in an archaic debate over whether to even try and provide universal access to health care, most other countries well understand the absurdity of conditioning access to basic human needs—including access to healthcare, housing and education—on the ability to pay.
That understanding was championed by Nelson Mandela, whose life and legacy is being honored this week by President Obama, members of Congress and leaders from around the world. Fittingly, the memorials for Mandela will coincide with this week's sixty-fifth anniversary of the adoption (on December 10, 1948) by the United Nations General Assembly of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—a document that the former South African president revered as a touchstone for nation building and governing.
Mandela, a lawyer by training and a student of constitutions, steered South Africa toward a broad understanding of human rights. When his country adopted its Constitution in 1996, he announced that "the new constitution obliges us to strive to improve the quality of life of the people. In this sense, our national consensus recognizes that there is nothing else that can justify the existence of government but to redress the centuries of unspeakable privations, by striving to eliminate poverty, illiteracy, homelessness and disease. It obliges us, too, to promote the development of independent civil society structures."
There are many reasons to honor Mandela. And there is much to be borrowed from his legacy.
But it is absolutely vital, as we focus on this man, to recall his wise words with regard to human rights—and the role that government had in assuring access to those rights.
Mandela embraced the great vision of the twentieth-century idealists who, at the end of World War II, recognized a responsibility to address the inequality that fostered fear, hatred and totalitarianism. It was an American, Eleanor Roosevelt, who reminded Americans seventy years ago that "at all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom from fear, and freedom from want—for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war."
President Franklin Roosevelt, with his 1941 "Four Freedoms" speech, had begun to scope out the broader definition of human rights, speaking not just of First Amendment liberties but also of a "freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world."
After her husband's death in 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt carried the vision forward in her dynamic role as the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. She oversaw the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document that affirmed: "Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality."
The declaration also held out this promise: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."
When the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated in 1998, Mandela addressed the UN General Assembly.
"Born in the aftermath of the defeat of the Nazi and fascist crime against humanity, this Declaration held high the hope that all our societies would, in future, be built on the foundations of the glorious vision spelt out in each of its clauses," said Mandela, who had in the preceding decade made the transition from prisoner to president of South Africa. "For those who had to fight for their emancipation, such as ourselves who, with your help, had to free ourselves from the criminal apartheid system, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights served as the vindication of the justice of our cause. At the same time, it constituted a challenge to us that our freedom, once achieved, should be dedicated to the implementation of the perspectives contained in the Declaration."
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Mandela accepted that challenge, and explained that it remained unmet in much of the world.
"The very right to be human is denied everyday to hundreds of millions of people as a result of poverty, the unavailability of basic necessities such as food, jobs, water and shelter, education, health care and a healthy environment," he said. "The failure to achieve the vision contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights finds dramatic expression in the contrast between wealth and poverty which characterizes the divide between the countries of the North and the countries of the South and within individual countries in all hemispheres."
The president of South Africa was explicit in his criticism of leaders who failed—by "acts of commission and omission"—to address civil and economic injustice.
"What I am trying to say is that all these social ills which constitute an offence against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are not a pre-ordained result of the forces of nature or the product of a curse of the deities. They are the consequence of decisions which men and women take or refuse to take, all of whom will not hesitate to pledge their devoted support for the vision conveyed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he explained.
Looking to the future, Mandela concluded, "The challenge posed by the next 50 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by the next century whose character it must help to fashion, consists in whether humanity, and especially those who will occupy positions of leadership, will have the courage to ensure that, at last, we build a human world consistent with the provisions of that historic Declaration and other human rights instruments that have been adopted since 1948."
Douglas Foster on the meaning of Mandela.
Nelson Mandela was a union man.
Long aligned with the Congress of South African Trade Unionists, Mandela framed his presidency with a declaration that: "The kind of democracy that we all seek to build demands that we deepen and broaden the rights of all citizens. This includes a culture of workers' rights."
In South Africa, as a young campaigner for racial justice, Mandela was profoundly influenced by the 1946 African Mine Workers Union strike. He learned organizing skills from AMWU activists and would become a champion of the miners, telling workers, "It is your sweat and blood that has created the vast wealth that white South Africa enjoys."
Mandela, the African National Congress leader, Nobel Prize winner and first president of the new South Africa, who died Thursday at age 95, recognized the organization of workers as a part of the freedom struggle and of the formation of a just society.
Unlike so many leaders who rise of power with the support of organized labor but then distance themselves from the movement, Mandela never broke the bond. He proudly served to the end of his days as the honorary president of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers. He declared himself to be "fully committed to the protection of the integrity of the collective bargaining system." And he spoke movingly about how the "international solidarity of workers of the world enables us to learn from each other, to support each other and strengthen our ties in the face of multinational strategies for profit maximization and exploitation."
For generations to come, there will wide-ranging and appropriate discussion of Mandela's remarkable contributions to our understanding of freedom, democracy, tolerance and basic human relations.
Yet, it is that understanding of international solidarity that comes to mind when people ask me about the years when I covered Mandela in South Africa and on his global travels. I saw it most powerfully during his remarkable twelve-day visit to the United States in 1990, which came just four months after his release from the Victor Verster Prison. Mandela addressed the Congress and the United Nations and visited with the president of the New York Stock Exchange. And he went to Detroit, where he was determined to thank members of United Auto Workers Local 600 for their early and militant opposition to apartheid.
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The machines stopped at the Ford Motor Company's River Rouge plant in Dearborn in June 1990. Workers held aloft unfurled "Local 600" banners to welcome the South African leader on what was dubbed his "Freedom Tour." When Mandela finally appeared, he was greeted by United Auto Workers president Owen Bieber and vice president Ernie Lofton. Mandela recalled the struggle to organize the plant in the 1930s and told the assembled workers: "It is you who have made the United States of America a superpower, a leader of the world."
Bieber produced a UAW lifetime membership card and Mandela held it aloft, displaying it to the cheering crowd of autoworkers. Then, wearing a UAW jacket and hat, a beaming Mandela stepped to the microphone and declared, "Sisters and brothers, friends and comrades, the man who is speaking is not a stranger here. The man who is speaking is a member of the UAW. I am your flesh and blood."
Douglas Foster discusses the meaning of Mandela.
It is time for a great big increase in the minimum wage.
Who says?
The American people.
It is not just the thousands of fast-food restaurant workers and their allies who rallied Thursday in 130 cities across the country, although the "strike against poverty wages" puts a human face on the data charting a dramatric increase in enthusiasm for this fight.
It is vital for supporters of wage increases to recognize—as everyone from Pope Francis to President Obama is talking about income inequality—that few proposals attract such broad support as the idea of raising hourly pay so that people who work forty hours a week can support their families.
A Hart Research Associates poll conducted last summer for the National Employment Law Project Action Fund found that 80 percent of Americans surveyed favor a $10.10-an-hour wage floor. And the support cuts across lines of partisanship, ideology, race and region.
Ninety-two percent of Democrats favor the increase, as do 80 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans.
Support from Americans who earn over $100,000 a year (79 percent) is roughly the same as from Americans who earn under $40,000 a year (83 percent). Southerners are almost as supportive (81 percent) as Northeasterners (86 percent).
This enthusiasm is not just theoretical. It is immediate. Seventy-four percent of Americans say that Congress should make it a priority to significantly increase the minimum wage.
Where they can, voters are getting ahead of Congress. In New Jersey, voters just raised the state's minimum wage by a dollar and cleared the way for additional hikes by indexing increases to inflation.
In the Seattle area last month, voters backed a $15-an-hour minimum wage for the airport city of SeaTac, and elected a $15-an-hour advocate, Kshama Sawant to the city council. Even before Sawant's swearing in, newly-elected Mayor Ed Murray has announced that a city will study hiking wages. And Sawant says, "If corporate resistance results in the ordinance getting watered down or not passing in 2014, then we will need to place an initiative on the 2014 ballot…. Workers simply can't afford to wait any longer for $15 an hour."
Something real is happening across the country. And it is about time. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington for jobs and freedom fifty years ago, the federal minimum wage was $1.25 an hour. In today's dollars, that guaranteed base wage would be $9.54 an hour.
But the federal minimum wage today is just $7.25 an hour.
So low-wage workers are more than $2 behind where they were when King declared: "We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we've come to cash this check—a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."
As Congressman Keith Ellison, D-MN, said at a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, "Income inequality threatens our democracy as Jim Crow segregation did in 1963. Families are working harder than ever and are still struggling to put food on the table. A full day's work doesn't mean a full day's pay."
And that is especially true for fast-food workers.
Most Americans are aware that, especially in a weak economy, fast-food restaurant jobs are no longer "entry-level" positions. In chain restaurants across the country, most workers are adults. And substantial numbers of them are trying to support families.
But if they are paid the minimum wage, or even a bit more, they live in poverty.
"Almost one-quarter of all jobs in the United States pay wages below the poverty line for a family of four. CEO compensation, meanwhile, continues to climb. It would take a full-time, minimum-wage worker more than 930 years to earn as much as the chief executive officer of Yum! Brands, which operates Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC, made in 2012," explains Christine Owens, the executive director of the National Employment Law Project. "Fast-food workers are in the lowest paid occupational category. The median hourly wage for front-line fast-food workers is $8.94 nationally. Many don't even earn that. A shortage of hours further limits income. Fast-food workers work only 24 hours a week on average—at $8.94 an hour, this adds up to barely $11,000 a year."
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Organizing for better pay for fast-food and retail workers does not just benefit those workers and their families. "We can't build a strong economy on jobs that pay so little that families can't live on them," notes Service Employees International Union President Mary Kay Henry. "Raising the wage floor will make the economy stronger for all of us."
Indeed, argues California Congressman George Miller, the senior Democratic member of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, "Low pay…holds back our recovery from the Great Recession."
Miller is the House author of the Fair Minimum Wage Act (HR 1010), which would increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour. The rate would then be indexed to inflation, so that pay increases come when prices rise. Additionally, Miller's bill would increase the required cash wage for tipped workers.
Ultimately, increases must go even higher to achieve a living-wage standard. But what Miller proposes is a meaningful step in the right direction.
"Better pay will put more money into local businesses and spur economic growth," says the California congressman. "That's why a living wage is not about asking for a handout. Rather, it's about valuing work. And it's about growing the economy from the bottom up by increasing working families' purchasing power. Americans on today's picket lines aren't just standing up for themselves—they are standing up for a stronger America."
Allison Kilkenny on the fast food workers striking for living wages nationwide.
Detroit elected a new mayor November 5 and he will take office in less than a month. But the future of this great American city and its citizens isn't being defined by decisions made by voters on Election Day. It is being defined in federal bankruptcy court—and by an "emergency manager" who has no democratic legitimacy.
With a ruling Tuesday by US Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes, Detroit officially becomes the largest US city ever to enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Despite a determination that negotiations with creditors outside of bankruptcy court had not satisfied good-faith requirements, the judge cleared the way for the emergency manager and his law firm to advance a "plan of adjustment" that is likely to include deep cuts in pension guarantees for retired city employees and a "fire sale" of city assets that could result in public utilities and the Detroit Institute of Arts collection being bartered off to private bidders.
What Judge Rhodes has done is not the end of the bankruptcy process. It is merely the beginning. But the process has been framed in a manner that runs the risk of undermining the city's long-term recovery by taking money away from the most vulnerable residents of Detroit. As Jordan Marks, executive director of the National Public Pension Coalition notes, "In the bankruptcy, the modest pensions of Detroit's firefighters, police officers, and other city employees could be all but wiped out, even as Wall Street banks continue to extract hundreds millions of dollars from the city's economy. This is a dark day for people of Detroit who worked hard, played by the rules, and are now at risk of losing everything."
By Tuesday afternoon, according to Reuters, the emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, had "called on unions to help bridge gaps with the city on planned pension cuts." And he has commissioned the auction house Christie's to assess the value of the art institute's collection -- which traces its roots to the 1880s and includes works by Bruegel, Cézanne, van Gogh and murals by Diego Rivera -- for possible sale.
There is no question that Detroit, like many American cities, faces fiscal challenges. But instead of assuring that those challenges are met in the most humane and functional manner, the city is being steered into a wrenching process of restructuring that—by all appearances—will be based on flawed math, flawed priorities and an exceptionally flawed understanding of how democracy is supposed to work.
In a groundbreaking new study of Detroit's finances, the think tank Demos explains that claims regarding Detroit's debts have been dramatically inflated to make a case that the city must go bankrupt. According to Demos, proponents of the bankruptcy move have manipulated the numbers by combining statewide and city debts. "Detroit's emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, asserts that the city is bankrupt because it has $18 billion in long-term debt. However, that figure is irrelevant to analysis of Detroit's insolvency and bankruptcy filing, highly inflated and, in large part, simply inaccurate," argues the Demos analysis, which was prepared former investment banker Wallace C. Turbeville. "In reality, the city needs to address its cash flow shortfall, which the emergency manager pegs at only $198 million, although that number too may be inflated because it is based on extraordinarily aggressive assumptions of the contributions the city needs to make to its pension funds."
By relying on what the Demos study identifies as "extraordinarily aggressive assumptions"—and by accepting premises advanced by the same financial institutions that urged Detroit officials to make unwise financial choices—the judge has shaped a bankruptcy process that errs on the side of helping Wall Street rather than the citizens of Detroit.
At the same time, the judge has empowered an emergency manager who has a track record of acting on those "simply inaccurate" premises, rather than the officials just chosen by Detroit voters to guide their city toward fiscal and social stability.
The judge's decision gives the essential authority to guide the city's affairs to Orr, the "emergency manager" selected by Republican Governor Rick Snyder, who in 2010 lost the city of Detroit by a 20-1 margin. Though barely 5 percent of Detroit voters thought Snyder should be calling any of the shots regarding their state and city, he is now—via his emergency manager, with the approval of the bankruptcy judge he asked to intervene—calling the shots.
And what of the new mayor, Mike Duggan, a veteran county official and highly regarded manager who won 55 percent of the vote in last month's election?
"The only authority I'm going to have is the authority I can convince the governor and emergency manager to assign me," Duggan, a Democrat, told reporters in November. "I'm attempting to persuade them. We'll see."
Duggan says he's "going to do everything I can to advocate on behalf of Detroit's future in this process. We need to make sure the retirees are treated fairly on the pensions they earned." But, despite the fact that he will be the city's mayor, he does not have the final say even on questions of whether the city will keep commitments to retired firefighters and police officers.
This is not what democracy looks like.
This is not the will of the people of Detroit.
We know that because the emergency manager power that Snyder has used to steer the city into bankruptcy, and that the governor and his appointee will now use to guide the city's affairs, was rejected by the city's voters in 2012.
Snyder had to develop the new emergency manager law after a previous version of the legislation—which he had used to take over smaller cities—was overturned by Michigan voters in a statewide referendum. In Detroit, 82 percent of voters said they did not want the emergency manager law. But they got it anyway. So it is that, while Mayor Duggan may be assigned some responsibilities, he will not have the clearly defined authority that an elected mayor should have to protect pensions, preserve labor agreements and set priorities when it comes to the delivery of basic services.
This is a vital distinction to recognize as media outlets report on the judge's decision and the bankruptcy process.
As retiring Detroit City Council member JoAnn Watson reminds us: The city of Detroit did not file for municipal bankruptcy.
"The emergency manager (EM) filed the bankruptcy petition, and he is an appointee of the governor of the state of Michigan based on Act 436—a law formerly known as PA 4—which was repealed by 2.3 million Michigan citizens statewide on Nov. 6, 2012," explains Watson. "The EM is only accountable to the governor, the EM only answers to the governor, and the EM can only be 'checked and balanced' by the governor."
The new mayor and the new city council will not have the essential democratic authority to "check and balance" the emergency manager—or to guide the process that Watson argues "has clearly been crafted in a right-wing playbook to seize assets, dismember electorate voting powers, dismantle unions and the families/neighborhoods supported by union jobs, disable local elected officials, smear and tarnish the image and viability of Black elected leadership, and broadly claim that the legacy costs related to retiree pensions are largely to blame for the city's debt crisis."
Watson's frustration is real. And appropriate.
Detroit's greatest challenge has not been municipal governance. It has been deindustrialization, which has shuttered hundreds of factories and left hundreds of thousands of city residents unemployed or underemployed. And that great challenge extends beyond Detroit.
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Too many American cities face financial challenges similar to those that have destabilized Detroit. Snyder's anti-democratic "answer" could well become the model for a response to those challenges that begins by blaming the victims and ultimately denies them a full and effective franchise.
"I believe Detroit and Michigan are 'test cases' for certain right-wing agents who want to do all they can to control future elections for this nation's highest office and other posts," says Watson. "Voter suppression, including the Supreme Court's role in gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965, are not incidental to the myriad of malevolence in Michigan."
There is a lot more at stake in Detroit, and in Michigan, than one city's balance sheet.
Our understanding of democracy, itself, is being subverted.
The voters of Michigan sent a clear signal last fall. They rejected emergency-manager authoritarianism.
Unfortunately, a federal bankruptcy judge has sided with a governor who could not win an election in Detroit and an approach that Detroit voters rejected.
This has nothing to do with budgeting, debt or broader fiscal matters. Those issues could, and should, be addressed by an elected mayor and city council.
This has everything to do with allowing unelectable and unelected officials—and the interests they serve—to achieve political results that could not be secured at the ballot box.
Chris Hayes ponders the constitutionality of Detroit's bankruptcy filing.


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7 U.S. Code § 1008, 1009 - Repealed.
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Section 1008, acts July 22, 1937, ch. 517, title II, § 22,50 Stat. 525; Aug. 14, 1946, ch. 964, § 4,60 Stat. 1071, related to debt adjustment.
Section 1009, acts July 22, 1937, ch. 517, title II, § 23,50 Stat. 525; Aug. 14, 1946, ch. 964, § 4,60 Stat. 1071, authorized appropriations for production and subsistence.
Effective Date of Repeal
Repeal effective one hundred and twenty days after Aug. 8, 1961, or such earlier date as the provisions of section 1921 et seq. of this title are made effective by regulations of Secretary of Agriculture, see section 341(a) ofPub. L. 87–128, set out as a note under section 1921 of this title.
Sections repealed effective Oct. 15, 1961, by former section 300.1 of Title 6, Code of Federal Regulations, see Effective Date note set out under section 1921 of this title.
The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.
The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Tuesday, August 13, 2013
An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.
|Description of Change
|Session Year
|Public Law
|Statutes at Large
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Main Content
Top off your game day look with the New Era Mesh Mode Cubs hat! The front fabric panel features a 3D embroidered team logo and the back mesh panels have a Chicago Cubs logo printed on the right side and another logo embroidered to the left of the adjustable strap. It will enhance any Cubs look. Now you can ditch the hair gel and still look great!
- 100% Polyester fabric
- 3D embroidery logo
- Adjustable snap strap
- Imported
- Mesh back panels
- Officially licensed MLB product
- Screen print graphics
- Team colors and logo
Cubs Fanatics also liked:
Special event items are produced by manufacturers only after the outcome of a game or event. These are advanced sale items and will ship immediately after they are received in our warehouse.
Manufacturer direct items are shipped directly from the manufacturer. These items are not available for international or expedited shipping.
Customized items can be personalized with options such as your name, your favorite number, and/or designs. Some options may be limited by league rules.


text:
The quest to create a
Paula Deen museum in Albany is making progress after nearly two years of
Business woman BJ Fletcher
says she's been working closely with the Deens and consultants on the project. She said Deen's childhood
home could be relocated to one of two downtown locations: one on Front street
and another at Thronateeska heritage center.
Fletcher said developers may buy Front Street
property for a little more than $34,000.
"Well, if you think
about it, when visitors come, the first thing they do is they come to the
Visitor's Bureau. And Front Street has
got a lot of businesses popping up," said BJ Fletcher, Chairwoman. "The Riverfront Bar-be-que, Ice Cream Scoops,
Flint Riverquarium, etcetera. And it's be
cool to sort of sandwich it right in the middle of all of that."
Fletcher said the museum
could draw a lot of tourists to the city and boost local businesses. She said a final location
has not yet been decided.
The museum would include a retail shop as
well as a cooking facility for some Albany Tech students and could be open
later this year.
All rights reserved.
P.O. Box 3130
Albany, GA 31706
(229) 446-1010
FCC Public File
(229) 446-4005
EEO Report
Closed Captioning


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Narrow your search
The term "peripherals" is wide-reaching on purpose to include all the accessories that will surely c
The HP X7000 Wi-Fi Touch Mouse frees up USB ports by pairing through a wireless adapter, but its hypersensitive touch dial and accident-prone design make it frustrating to use.
Samsung's 3G-free version of its 7-inch tablet, the Galaxy Tab, offers an appealing mix of price and horsepower, but it's overshadowed by the wave of inexpensive Android 3.0 devices.
Thanks to its unique, reliable Wi-Fi-based connection methodology, the HP Wi-Fi Mobile Mouse is easy to recommend to mobile Windows 7 PC users who need more available USB ports.
The Wi-Fi Alliance announces its Wi-Fi Certified ac certification program, which aims to guarantee the interoperability of 802.11ac-enabled devices regardless of their hardware vendors or type of clients.
The Tianzun smart air conditioner will bear Apple's "Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad" seal of approval.
The Wi-Fi Alliance announces that it now has started a program to certify Wi-Fi Direct products and designate them as Wi-Fi Certified Wi-Fi Direct.
Netgear announces the availability of two cable modem-Wi-Fi router combo devices for home users, the C3700 and the C3000, both support DOCSIS 3.0, 802.11n and Gigabit Ethernet.
Pioneer's three new speaker models will provide wireless networking to connect with a broad range of devices.
While the number of devices that support it will probably grow, the Roku Streaming Stick is still a niche item when compared with every other Roku device.
Group is working on ways to make it easier and quicker for people to connect to public Wi-Fi hot spots, promising a certified solution by the first half of next year.


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Moderated by Tom Sabulis
Oct. 25 marked the 30th anniversary of Atlanta Habitat for Humanity's founding. Over three decades, this organization has given new life to more than 1,250 families by building quality, affordable homes and providing support services that promote successful home purchase and ownership.
By Jim Hannan and John Somerhalder
So, it is an important moment in time to urge the greater Atlanta business community to do more to support this and other cause-related organizations that make a meaningful impact on our city.
The need for support has never been greater. In fact, we receive more requests for assistance today than ever before. Yet many in the business community remain on the sidelines. We need Atlanta companies, large and small, back in the game.
As leaders of AGL Resources and Georgia-Pacific, we are well aware that our success comes from more than financial performance. It also arises from being good corporate citizens. It is no coincidence that there is a correlation between the strength and vibrancy in the communities in which we operate, and our companies' success. Our levels of employee engagement also rise considerably when we offer opportunities to donate time and money to worthy causes.
We've been on Atlanta Habitat build sites in driving rain storms and have still seen a full contingent of our employees working with a smile. It is a visible sign of the commitment and passion they have for helping others.
So, what can leaders of Atlanta businesses do to step up to the plate?
First, realize that giving doesn't start and end with a financial donation. Both our companies approach charitable involvement as a commitment, not just a check. You can make a difference by serving on boards, donating products or assets and urging employees to participate.
Second, find causes that are a good fit for your company and employees, have good governance and are successful in their mission. Focus your collective efforts on a core group of activities that will maximize your impact on the community.
Third, take an active role yourself. It is vital for employees to see senior management as active promoters of, and participants in, worthy causes.
We both participate in Atlanta Habitat house-builds each year, doing everything from framing to digging holes and planting trees. It gives us a chance to be members of the team, working together to achieve a common goal. It's a great experience that we heartily recommend for every business leader. This is especially true on the last day of the build, which marks the start of someone's new life. You can see the depth of their appreciation, and the responsibility they undertake, to become educated on budgets, financing and other aspects of homeownership.
It's why we both value our partnerships with Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. They do more than just put a roof over someone's head. They offer a hand up by building self-empowerment through education, training and guidance that influence other aspects of people's lives.
And that is the goal: making a positive difference in the communities we serve.
Jim Hannan is CEO and president of Georgia-Pacific. John Somerhalder is chairman, president and CEO of AGL Resources.
November 4th, 2013
2:43 pm
Would you make up your minds. First this outlet treats "business" as bad and greedy, squeezing the blood from workers to lubricate the gears of capitalism and now they need to give more and more to be good corporate citizens.
November 4th, 2013
12:35 pm
While I'm sure some companies do create mandatory "volunteering" I suspect most attempt to do the right thing. In my experience most employees enjoy participating in these projects or at least knowing that their employer is seeking ways to improve the community. Also, at the end of the day these activities are good for business and thus benefit all stakeholders.
November 2nd, 2013
9:53 am
Ahhhh… gentlemen… I hate to burst your bubble, but those employees who show up in driving rainstorms with smiles on their faces are there on their own time, instead of with their families or living their lives, out of fear that they will be fired or receive black marks on their employee records.
I know. I used to work for a large national company based in Atlanta. It was made quite clear to those of us who were "volunteered" to do something like this on an evening or weekend (our own time, away from our families) that we would show up and smile for the cameras… or else.
This sort of "corporate social responsibility" nonsense is just another way liberals have invented to take care of their pet opresses groups, by taking asway FROM others… since, after all, liberals who don't work hard and take responsibility for their lives "deserve" good things anyway, and it's not "fair" that people who do work and make good choices should enjoy time with their families off work from their JOBS.
Of course, the screwed-over employees have no say… because to management AND the liberal activist outfits, normal middle-class working people are just slaves who exist to serve others.


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Economic Trends
Housing Cycles
October's housing data, which predominately covers what happened in September, did little to change our picture of the housing market. A look at the recently released data shows that the downturn in housing continued through September. While this is not good news, some consolation can be had by comparing this downturn to others in the past. Looking at the last three housing slumps suggests this one is pretty typical. In fact, the current downturn actually compares favorably in some metrics. But then again, nothing indicates it is ending anytime soon.
To compare housing downturns across time in a meaningful way, it helps to look at various indicators of the market as indexes as opposed to raw numbers. By indexing the data of the different series to their respective peaks, we can get a clearer picture of the severity of each downturn over a given time frame.
During the four most recent downturns, single-family housing starts have fallen at fairly comparable rates. With the exception of the housing slump beginning in 1990, which is noticeably shorter in terms of its effect on starts, the current position of housing starts is very close to what it was in each of the previous cycles. While the pace and size of the decline are very similar in all of these cases, the most recent downturn sticks out in terms of how long it has lasted. In none of the previous cycles had starts fallen consistently for more than a year and a half without a noticeable uptick.
As for new-single family home sales, their current decline appears to be pretty typical as well. This shouldn't be particularly surprising, assuming that there is a link between housing starts and new home sales. The current cycle does differ slightly in the pace of the sales decline, which was somewhat slower than the previous cycles through the first year and a half. And once again, around the 18-month mark, each of the previous cycles bottomed out, which has not yet happened in the current cycle.
The real median sales price for new single-family homes has historically been fairly flat throughout downturns in sales, with only a modest downward trend starting about 12 months after the peak in sales. Thus far, the current cycle does not seem to be an exception to this trend, but prices do appear to have been somewhat more resilient through the first 18 months of the cycle than in the past. The resiliency of prices may partially explain why previous cycles saw an uptick in sales around this time and the current cycle has not as of yet. (The median sales price of new homes may not necessarily reflect the actual cost of a new home. Sellers of new homes often can adjust the actual cost of the home by offering nonprice incentives or discounts that are not reflected in the sales price.)
The market for existing single-family homes, which is considerably larger than the market for new single-family homes, also appears to be behaving typically for a period of decline, although a bit more favorably than in previous slumps. Through the first 18 months of the current cycle, existing home sales were doing considerably better than all but the cycle beginning in 1990. (And that cycle would have had a much sharper downturn if data from December 1988 to June 1989 had been included, as there was a sharp decline in existing home sales during the period. The period was excluded, however, in order to keep the time periods consistent with the downturns in starts and new home sales.) As was the case with both housing starts and new home sales, sales of existing homes, which in previous cycles began to bottom out around the year and a half mark, have not shown any signs of reaching a trough in this cycle.
Perhaps responsible for the more modest decline in sales is the decline seen in the real median sales price of new homes. The current cycle's decline tracks the price movements of the cycle beginning in 1980 fairly closely. A notable difference between these two cycles is that the real price decline in the 1980 cycle was accompanied by a much steeper decline in sales. Still, the current decline in prices may be a little disconcerting for the typical homeowner, as homes generally make up a large portion of a household's wealth. It also may be a point of concern from a macroeconomic perspective if the price declines spill over into households' consumption decisions. Thus far, we have yet to see any signs that the consumer market is being affected by weakness in home prices.
So is this the worst housing slump in the last 30 years? Although it is too soon to tell, so far it is broadly similar to the ones we have seen before. Of course, there is one important difference we haven't yet mentioned: all three of the previous housing slumps were accompanied by recessions, while this one, so far, has not.


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My favorite gifts (besides board games, I suppose) are ones that encourage me to make positive changes in my life. Items that encourage me to cook at home, lose weight, learn a new skill, or save a little money are ones that I really value, because I know that they can help me push toward a better life.
Here are twelve gifts you can give this holiday season that will encourage the receiver to save a little money in the coming year.
A razor blade sharpener (cost: $10 to $20)
A razor blade sharpener takes disposable razors (or disposable razor cartridges) and simply sharpens them with a few flicks of the wrist or a push of a button. With this, you don't have to keep buying those disposable razors or cartridges – you can just sharpen them and get a lot more use out of each one.
Thanks to iyoupapa for the image
Rechargeable battery kit If you have children, you have devices that run on AA and AAA batteries. If those devices get used very much, you're going to be continually buying more batteries. Rechargeable batteries are a much better option. When batteries run out of juice, instead of tossing them and installing new ones, you just put them in your charger, let them charge up, and then install them. If you want instant usage, keep a few batteries charged up so you can instantly swap them and then charge the used-up batteries. If you go this route, I highly recommend the eneloop brand, which I've used and my parents have used with great success.
Programmable thermostat (cost: $20 to $200)
When I worked outside the home, our programmable thermostat made a huge difference in our monthly energy costs. During the winter, the furnace would basically turn off during the day automatically, only kicking on in the evening. During the summer, the air conditioning would go away during the day automatically, only kicking on in the evening. In both seasons – especially the summer – our energy bills went down significantly. Sure, we could do it manually, but this made sure we never forgot. If you want to make an even better gift, install it for them or hire an installer.
Filtered water bottle (cost: $10 to $30)
If someone you know has a routine of grabbing a can of soda or a bottle of water out of the refrigerator a few times a day, a filtered water bottle can save them a lot of money. They just fill up the bottle, maybe add a squirt of lemon juice, and stick it in the fridge. When they have a craving, they just grab the bottle and drain it, then run it in their next dishwasher load. Total cost? A few cents. Cost of a bottled water or a soda? Significantly more. Repeat this enough times and it really adds up.
Thanks to Selena N. B. H. for the picture.
Wine saver (cost: $15)
Ever seen a friend dumping half a bottle of wine down the sink because they're not going to drink it and it's going to get stale? A wine saver is perfect for them. It allows you to easily "re-cork" a wine bottle so you can stick it in the fridge. Sure, you can try to jam a used cork back in the bottle, but many times it doesn't work because the seal isn't strong. A wine saver easily creates a strong seal.
Kitchen herbal plants (cost: $10 to $100)
A few herbs in a pot can be a perfect gift for someone who enjoys food. Chives, oregano, sage, rosemary, basil, thyme – they can all easily be grown in a small pot on a kitchen window frame or out on a small balcony or patio. They don't require much effort, and then when someone needs fresh herbs, they just go out there and snip off what they need.
Classes (cost: $40 to $400)
A new skill can be a valuable thing for anyone to learn, but it's especially valuable if it moves a person from paying someone to do something to doing it themselves. A great example of this is a beginner's cooking class, where people learn the basics of home food preparation and see how easy it actually is. Many community colleges and cooking supply stores offer cooking classes, and you can easily gift these classes to others.
Thanks to Lisa Clarke for the image
A starting knitting kit (cost: $20 to $50)
Another example of a skill that can provide value is knitting, since you can turn a ball of yarn into a beautiful scarf or hat or sweater quite easily. A beginner's kit is a perfect place to start, especially coupled with some yarn. I taught myself knitting using this very kit and although I've not completed anything in a while, I did have a ton of fun learning it and I could shake off the rust and make a scarf if I so chose.
A decent coffee maker (cost: $40 to $200)
If someone has a Starbucks habit, give them a decent home coffee maker. Couple it with a coffee grinder, a bag of good beans, and a bottle of good syrup with a plunger, and they'll find they can make a really good cup of coffee at home that compares with anything they can get at Starbucks for just pennies. My wife makes wonderful drinks with this very coffee maker that are as good as anything that you can get at Starbucks.
Gourmet food ingredients (cost: $2 to $100)
Have you ever had really good honey? The kind that's pretty fresh from the beehive and has a bit of honeycomb in it? It's amazing, and whenever I have a bottle, I find myself making tea at home and finally pushing through the many teas we have in the cupboard. A similar effect is true if someone gives me, say, a bottle of high-quality olive oil – I can't wait to get into the kitchen with it, and the meals I make at home are far less expensive than eating out.
Your Money or Your Life (cost: $8 to $10)
If I were to make a default recommendation of a personal finance book to someone who I believed was thoughtful enough to read it and think about it for a while, I would immediately choose Your Money or Your Life. This book changed my life. It convinced me that I could have a better life if I exerted control over my financial choices. I wound up changing career paths and putting myself in a much, much better financial place, and this book planted the seeds and gave me the basic gameplan.


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Height: 5'9"
Weight: 125
Measurements: 34-25-33
Profession: Personal Trainer
Relationship Status: Single
Favorite Sports Team: 49ers
Favorite Movie/Actor: Dumb and Dumber
Go-to karaoke song: "Anyway You Want It" by journey
First Job: Cleaning my brother's room
Piercings/Tattoos (How many? Where?): I have eight piercings in my ear. It was a phase I don't wear them all at the same time. No tatts.
What fun fact, talent, or mutant superpower of yours should guys know about?: I make a mean apple pie from scratch.
What's the most memorable pick up line you've ever heard?: Him penguin feel through0d0ame What?0d0ahim I was just trying to break the ice
What's the craziest thing you've ever done?: I roller skated 26 miles.
What's the most unusual place you've ever hooked up? How'd it go?:
Have you ever lied to get something for free? What was it?: No, I'm a really really bad liar.
What do you feel most comfortable wearing?: My 49ers jersey.
Would you rather have boring sex all the time or an amazing romp once a year?: Why would it be boring?


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Precision machined MIL-STD 1913 Picatinny rail ties the upper receiver to the forearm for extra rigidity, plus gives you the "SPR" look in a .308 package. Lets you mount optics and same-plane tactical sights for maximum versatility and accuracy. Connects directly to the forearm. Numbered cross-slots allow easy return to zero when sights are removed then re-installed and give plenty of flexibility in ring spacing for different-length scope tubes, sights, or co-witness capability. Short has a 17" long rail with 40 cross slots. Fits ArmaLite® AR-10® and Knight's Armament SR-25 uppers with free-float forends. Includes a single slot rail to mount a same-plane front sight.
SPECS: 6061 T6 aluminum, hardcoat anodized, matte black. Includes steel mounting screws. Short fits AR-Style .308 ArmaLite/Knight's uppers. 17" (15cm) long, 2¼" (5.7cm) long single slot. 12 oz. (340g) wt.
Mfr Part: 03072SPS
Color: Black
Length: 17 in
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Hall of Fame
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The Beeftrain Incident is a sketch comedy group originally out of Muncie, Indiana. They are now currently split in to two comedy making teams. One is based out of Austin, Texas. The other, Indianapolis, Indiana. Together they are taking on the mob.


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Submit an Illuminating Quote, Have Mappleton Illustrate it!
Dearest Chart-lovers!
Submit your best quotations hiding away in those digital treasure troves into the I Love Charts Ask Box for a chance to have them speed illustrated and uploaded to the blog before the day is out! I'll pick two or three that lend themselves well to being charted (but will try extra hard to adapt any quotes I just adore) and get my speedy little pen to work – hopefully before 9pm EST.
Hit me with 'em!


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Men are the victims of 90% of all shark attacks.
Depicted: A bull shark, the type of shark responsible for the most number of attacks on humans. They have been known to travel far inland by way of rivers, and have been found as far inland in the US as Indiana and Illinois.


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Front Row at NYC Fall 2013 Fashion Week
The fashion week frenzy has officially begun and hundreds of celebrities are pouring into the front-rows. See which famous faces were spotted wearing their chicest looks in our front row runway guide.
By Maura BranniganFebruary 15, 2013 1:30 PM
Back Next
Gilbert Carrasquillo
Jessica Chastain
Calvin Klein Collection


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Since 1997 AoA has funded Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) projects to recruit and train retired professionals and other senior citizens how to recognize and report instances or patterns of health care fraud. For more information, go to http://www.aoa.gov/AoARoot/AoA_Programs/Elder_Rights/SMP/index.aspx.
Joanna T. Gibson - "Contested Her Own Bill and Won"
Joanna became a volunteer in 2006 because she was confused about the Medicare process, although she taught herself enough to contest her own bill and win. Since volunteering with SMP, she has won seven appeals.
As a volunteer, Joanna conducts one-on-one counseling at health fairs, researches issues, and trains volunteers. She has been lead volunteer at three one-on-one sites in three counties. She is an avid SMP team member, never missing a meeting or training session.
Romolo Pellacani, Guam - "The First Joint Volunteer"
"Mo" became the first joint volunteer, working on both SMP and Guam's SHIP program. His volunteerism ranges from making phone calls to beneficiaries to educating them on the importance of reviewing their Medicare Summary Notices and Explanations of Benefits. His most valuable contribution is translating the information into the Chamorro language for Guam's indigenous population.
Charles Clark, Hawaii - "Passionate about Fighting Medicare Fraud"
Charles will drive or fly anywhere in the state to give SMP presentations. Inspired by his passion for fighting Medicare fraud, Remington College asked him to give presentations to students every quarter. Many of the students come from low-income families with limited English proficiency. His contributions significantly help the SMP program reach hard-to-reach populations.
Charles also founded Radiated Veterans of America. In 2005, as a member of the Oahu Veterans Council, he helped secure barracks to house homeless veterans. He was instrumental in having money won in a government settlement used to rehabilitate the residence for both men and women.
Dick Hilton, Maine – "Provided Thousands of Counseling Sessions"
In the past five years, Dick has served 1,340 clients in over 7,945 counseling sessions, both in the office and in the home. An excellent public speaker, Dick uses public forums every chance he can to talk about the SMP program. His favorite outcome is hugs and kisses from clients when they actually understand their options and how to protect their benefits from fraudulent practices. Dick also delivers meals to homebound seniors.
Man Ping Zhou, California – "Loves a Good Challenge and Does Not Give Up"
Ms. Zhou was born in Shanghai, China, where she taught metallurgy at the Science and Technology University. She immigrated to Canada in 1990 and to the U.S. in 2000, settling in Irvine, California. Almost immediately she sought out volunteer opportunities. Trained as a SHIP/HICAP Counselor, she learned about the SMP program.
She was especially interested in helping those whose primary language was not English. Her expertise has benefited the entire state of California by making fraud sheets available in Chinese. She also gives regular presentations, works at health fairs and provides one-on-one counseling. When she finds a situation that looks suspicious, she follows it all the way to the end.
Dottie Beauregard, Maryland – "Understands the Complexities of Medicare"
As a volunteer with the Senior Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) since 1993 it was a natural fit for Dottie to expand her volunteer service to the SMP program. Dottie has donated over 1,700 hours of service to the SMP program. She goes above and beyond her "working hours" and has been known to call clients once she has left the office to resolve an issue. She has even handled complex cases while en route to her vacation!
Ruth Candeub Avins, New Jersey – "Gainfully Employed as a Volunteer"
Ruth was one of the first volunteers of the SMP of New Jersey. For seven years
she has been reaching out to seniors and for the last three years she has been assistant coordinator of the program. In that capacity, Ruth is a member of the SMP's advisory committee and assists in training new volunteers. She also makes numerous presentations to senior groups, as well as through one-on-one counseling sessions. She also spends much of her time in marketing the SMP program to senior facilities and senior groups throughout the state. As a volunteer, Ruth is rewarded by more than a feeling of satisfaction – a lifting of the spirit for a senior citizen who is doing something that really counts. MP
Terri Ivers, Pennyslvania – "A Strong Advocate for Older Adults"
Since her retirement, Terri has served in a number of positions in the community, including as the AARP coordinator for Bucks County, Pennsylvania, assisting in a hospital cancer clinic and working in an intergenerational program school program. She began her SMP volunteer service in 1999 and has since educated thousands of beneficiaries on fraud and abuse prevention. Terri consistently educates herself on emerging issues in the health care field and finds new ways to make her presentations lively and pertinent to her audiences. She is extremely personable and conveys her knowledge in a warm and conversational manner. Terri is also on the project's advisory committee.
Langhorne, Pennsylvania
Marisabel Simson, Texas – "Committed to Serving the Hispanic Population"
Marisabel has been volunteering with the SMP project for 6 years and is a dependable and dedicated volunteer. A native of Panama, Marisabel has lived in Houston for 30 years. After seeing an article about the SMP program in a local newspaper, she called to volunteer as a Spanish language translator. She understands the culture and puts people at ease with her warmth and sense of humor. Besides her commitment to the SMP program, Marisabel serves on a hospital Art Cart committee which supplies art work of the patients' choosing to decorate their hospital rooms, coordinates their annual photography show and translates for the hospital's International Patient
Betty Stambolian, Vermont – "Remarkable Tenacity and Independence"
Since 2004, Betty has committed her time and skills to Vermont where she assists with materials development, outreach projects and mailings. She was a key member of the project start-up and participated on the Volunteer Program Development Committee. She participated in the development and filming of Vermont SMP public service announcements and the Savvy Seniors DVD filmed in 2007. Betty offered nearly 200 hours in 2008 to SMP and continues to extend her services as needed today. Her background and skills as an English teacher and program developer/manager helped SMP produce powerful and effective projects.
At 88, Betty exhibits remarkable tenacity and independence. She participates in a senior dance troupe, averaging over 50 performances yearly and serves on numerous senior service boards and political campaigns, speaking out on economic and social justice issues, gender equity and human rights.
All the above received awards for volunteering at the 2009 SMP Conference
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UNDATED (WRN-WSAU) Tuesday marked a day of unseasonably warm weather across much of Wisconsin, but winter is set to return in force in many parts of the state today.
Tod Pritchard with Wisconsin Emergency Management says a winter storm is expected to drop between six to ten inches of snow along a line stretching from the southwestern to northeastern parts of the state through Wednesday night. Portage, Wood, Shawano, and Waupaca counties are under a winter storm warning through 6pm Wednesday. Marathon County and areas further north are under a winter weather advisory.
Pritchard says icy conditions and blowing snow could make driving very dangerous. Anyone who does not need to be out on the roads is advised to consider staying home. Those who do venture out are urged to take current conditions into account and to make sure they have emergency supplies in their vehicle.
Following the snow, an arctic blast will hit the state that's expected to hang around through the end of the week. Pritchard says wind chills could drop to 25 to 30 below zero. In those conditions, he says it can take as little as ten minutes to start seeing the effects of frostbite, so anyone spending time outdoors should take care to cover exposed skin.


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1. Software Licensing Group
Software Licensing Group March 2007
During March 2007 a new group was established to monitor the use of the software licensing budget, under the terms of reference below, members of the group are:
David Popplewell (Medical Sciences Division)
Carol Leonard (Social Sciences Division)
Colin Connolly (Humanities Division)
Richard Saxton (OUCS Software Licensing)
- consider current central software license agreements
- consider renewals as appropriate
- consider possible new agreements and cancelling existing ones
- monitoring the central software license budget looking at the existing SLD for the central service offered by OUCS
- outlining future developments of the service in line with divisional wishes (if funded accordingly)
An initial meeting of this group has been able to consider the various consultations regarding the renewal of license agreements that expire during 2007. The findings of the group follow:
2. Zenworks Maintenance Renewal
Zenworks charges will have to rise considerably to cover the true cost of the maintenance agreement. It was originally reported that OUCS and Admin no longer requires the software for their own use, whilst this situation has now changed, OUCS remains unable to cover the shortfall in funding based on the previous changing scheme. Individual license holders will be contacted again with the new pricing structure, which can be expected to be at least double that previously charged. Some units have also increased the number of PC's in the tree and so their costs will increase due to moving from one price band to the higher band.
The decision on renewal will be based on the acceptance or otherwise of the individual contributors of the new fees.
3. Novell Netware Maintenance Renewal
Netware use is falling away, however there remains a spread of usage throughout the University and the extension of the agreement at no additional cost to allow the use of SLES and OES has become popular. It was agreed to renew the Netware maintenance from site license funding but at the same time put in place a method of partial cost recovery such that units requiring to use the update server for OES and SLES are charged a fee and that a fee is charged to any unit that requires an upgrade version to be supplied.
4. SPSS Rental Licence Renewal
SPSS continues to be used throughout the University and we continue to use site license funding to provide this license; whilst those units using Unix servers continue to add their rental to the Windows and Mac rental we are able to gain the most competitive price for this renewal.
5. SAS Rental Licence Renewal
Since SAS is a product from a similar field to that of SPSS and less widely used within the University it was thought that it might cease to be a candidate for site license funding for its Windows PC version. Being mindful of both the funding and operational implications of either ceasing to license or requiring departments to take out individual licenses it was agreed to use site license funding to take out a site license for SAS for Windows PC's and at the same time start to recover these costs from the individual users. The aim would be to either terminate the contract after the next three year period or to make it self funding. Those units of the University that continue to licence a particular server version of SAS will incur no additional cost. Charges will be made for the issue of the Setinit file for personal copies and for use by other departments departmental. Any additional take up of department licences for additional platforms may well help us to achieve a more cost effective renewal.
6. Endnote Maintenance Renewal
The renewal of this agreement comes before any decision will have been made by the libraries regarding the continued use of RefWorks. Endnote themselves do not regard RefWorks as a competitor to Endnote basically because it is a web based product. To reinforce this view they are including Endnote Web, which they regard as a competitor to RefWorks into the Endnote agreement without additional charge. It was agreed to continue to license Endnote using site license funding from its renewal date. The use of Endnote Web will also be explored since this add-on provides free student use unlike the full Endnote product for which students pay a fee.
7. Software Licensing from OUCS
Software licensing is looked after by the Shop, Software Licensing and Media Services section of the TSS group within OUCS.
Please direct queries relating to licensing issues via email to firstname.lastname@example.com counter service sales issues to firstname.lastname@example.com and online sales issues to firstname.lastname@example.com all of which are serviced by the Request Tracker system at OUCS.
Information relating to software products and licences is sent via email to all registered IT Support Staff and to the software-announce mailing list.
The Software-announce mailing list is used to announce important changes in our software agreements. To subscribe to the software-announce mailing list, send a message to firstname.lastname@example.com
The Software-discuss mailing list can be used by you to give your views on software agreements, to say what programs you are interested in and what you would like to see available. To subscribe to the software-discuss mailing list, send a message to firstname.lastname@example.com
A full list of products and prices is available from the Online Shop
Details of our software agreements can be viewed from the Software Agreements page
The Home page for Site Licensing can be viewed at Licensing Home Page


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Luhn formulaBased on ANSI X4.13, the LUHN formula (also known as the modulus 10 -- or mod 10 -- algorithm ) is used to generate and/or validate and verify the accuracy of credit-card numbers.
Most credit cards contain a check digit, which is the digit at the end of the credit card number. The first part of the credit-card number identifies the type of credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, etc.), and the middle digits identify the bank and customer.
To generate the check digit, the LUHN formula is applied to the number. To validate the credit-card number, the check digit is figured into the formula.
Here's how the algorithm works for verifying credit cards; the math is quite simple:
1) Starting with the second to last digit and moving left, double the value of all the alternating digits.
2) Starting from the left, take all the unaffected digits and add them to the results of all the individual digits from step 1. If the results from any of the numbers from step 1 are double digits, make sure to add the two numbers first (i.e. 18 would yield 1+8). Basically, your equation will look like a regular addition problem that adds every single digit.
3) The total from step 2 must end in zero for the credit-card number to be valid.
The LUHN formula was created in the late 1960s by a group of mathematicians. Shortly thereafter, credit card companies adopted it. Because the algorithm is in the public domain, it can be used by anyone.
The LUHN formula is also used to check Canadian Social Insurance Number (SIN) validity. In fact, the LUHN formula is widely used to generate the check digits of many different primary account numbers. Almost all institutions that create and require unique account or identification numbers use the Mod 10 algorithm.
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Today, NYSCI helped our friends at Make launch Maker Camp on Google+. Thirty projects in 30 days started today with rocket-launching experiments led by Rick Schertle and our own Senior Explainer, Jessica.
Maker Camp is a virtual summer camp for teens everywhere. The projects show kids how to build, experiment and get creative. Watch for a new project each weekday morning, followed a hangout on Google+ with a guest camp counselor in the afternoon. Summer's almost over. Time to get making.
omigosh you guys, I'm famous for like 7 minutes!! XD
"As soon as I set this thing down, RUN!"
(btw, I come in around 12:48)
- seunglyn likes this
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lol yeah, forgot to mention that…. I also make another appearance with the rest of my Explainer cohorts around 25:00
- we-r-not-tour-guides reblogged this from wabbitmon and added:
"As soon as I set this thing down, RUN!" (btw, I come in around 12:48)
- wabbitmon likes this
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text: Quick View Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 5" Figure… by Spin Master Out of stock $5.00 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle are back! Each 5" figure comes with more than 12 points of articulation and is uniquely sculpted with incredible detail. Collect Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo and each of their signature weapons. Inside each pack you'll find a bonus weapons accessory… See Details $5.00 was $9.95