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Parsing Obama on Health Care
While I'm sure the specials last night on the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson vastly outdrew the ABC's Obama healthcare special the other night (no I didn't watch it – I was being disappointed by the Yankees/Braves game), there were some very telling moments apparently. And, being the curious type, I found the transcript and read the whole thing.
Let's say Mr. Eloquent was less than convincing. But he did shed some light on what he'd like to see the final product look like.
Naturally there were some moments that were instantly reported by the media and other bloggers. For instance when he essentially said that if that he'd use his wealth if necessary to go outside any system that denied his family the healthcare he thought they needed. The obvious point is he concedes that his system will do so – i.e. ration care through denial. Of course that's one of the big complaints he's had about private healthcare – rationing through denial.
But there were some other things said which only a careful reading of the transcript reveal. Let's start with this question:
DR. JOHN CORBOY, NEUROLOGIST & MEDICAL PROFESSOR: Well, I think you still have to provide the appropriate care. And I think we all know that there is a significant amount of care that actually is inappropriate and unnecessary.
And the question then is — for you, Mr. President, is, what can you convince — what can you do to convince the American public that there actually are limits to what we can pay for with our American health care system?
And if there are going to be limits, who is going to design the system and who is going to enforce the rules for a system like that?
This question is loaded with key words and phrases. The first is "appropriate", as in "appropriate care". Who gets to decide? If you listen to a glib Obama, he constantly says medical decisions should be left to doctors. But this question isn't being addressed to that point, is it? If there is an "appropriate care" standard, someone is going to have to define it.
And that is precisely what Corboy asks – "who is going to design the system and who is going to enforce the rules?" In fact, who gets to decide what the rules are?
I think you know the answer, but let's look at the President's answer:
OBAMA: Well, you're asking the right question. And let me say, first of all, this is not an easy problem. If it was easy, it would have been solved a long time ago, because we've talking about this for decades, since Harry Truman.
We've been talking about how do we provide care that is high-quality, gives people choices, and how can we come up with a uniquely American plan? Because one of the ideological debates that I think has prevented us from making progress is some people say this is socialized medicine, others say we need a completely free market system.
We need to come up with something that is uniquely American. Now what I've said is that if we are smart, we should be able to design a system in which people still have choices of doctors and choices of plans that makes sure that the necessary treatment is provided but we don't have a huge amount of waste in the system. That we are providing adequate coverage for all people, and that we are driving down costs over the long term.
OK, let's stop for the moment right there. We begin with Obama in stump-speech mode. That's a time buyer. He's fumbling for an answer and is filling time. By the third paragraph he's beginning to formulate an answer. Of course, I had to laugh because a uniquely American solution would be to have government back off and let the market take the ball and run with it. But obviously that's not his plan. I think what he's saying here is he hopes for a Euro-socialist plan with an American twist.
Anyway, in the third paragraph we're again into some key words – this time "necessary" and "adequate". Again, who will decide what is "necessary" and what form of coverage is "adequate"? Well, trust me, it won't be you or your doctor, because his priority is what? That's right – "driving down costs over the long term". So "necessary" treatment will be considered in the context of "driving down costs". I'm sure you figure out what that means.
Then there's the "we should be able to design a system". He's not talking about you or the market here. He's talking about government. He's a part of the 'we' – you're not.
Last, of course, is the overriding priority – drive costs down. He claims health care is the reason for the current deficit. So the obvious first priority for this so-called reform is to cut costs.
But let's add 47 million new insured while driving costs down. Make sense to you? And if it does, then you have to admit that lesser cost, if possible, will have to come from some part of the current health care system. He has his ideas, and we'll cover that in a different post.
Moving on with the answer:
If we don't drive down costs, then we're not going to be able to achieve all of those other things. And I think that on the issue that has already been raised by the two doctors, the issue of evidence-based care, I have great confidence that doctors are going to always want to do the right thing for their patients, if they've got good information, and if their payment incentives are not such that it actually costs them money to provide the appropriate care.
Here we find a very critical clue to the plan for your health care – the term "evidence-based care". This is the new way of saying "we'll decide for you". Evidence based medicine claims to use the scientific method to determine optimum treatment decisions. The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine says it is "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients."
Said another way, a group somewhere doing research decides that certain diseases or conditions should be treated in certain ways. Those treatments are then applied to individual cases without any caveat for unique situations. The cost savings comes with uniform procedures and uniform care – no deviations. In other words, for the most part, decisions on how to treat individual cases will most likely have to conform to EBM guidelines or be considered outside the system. So what Obama said with that simple term is "we'll decide how you will be treated, not your doctor".
Of course critics of EBM are many and claim that it has some utility in outlining suggested treatment for populations as a whole, but has limited utility when taken down to the individual situation since each is unique.
And then there's the inference that medicine to this point hasn't been based on science. As Abraham Verghese said:
"Evidence Based Medicine" is a term which makes about as much sense as "Sex-based intercourse"–Were we practicing based on zodiac signs before EBM came along?
That brings us to the bit about "doctors always want to do the right thing for their patients". Yes, of course. But what he says next hints that "the right thing" may be what the technocrats think is right, not necessarily what the doctors might think is right. He says doctors will do that "if they've got good information, and if their payment incentives are not such that it actually costs them money to provide the appropriate care."
Anyone know right now instances when "appropriate care" costs a doctor "money to provide"? Yup, Medicare and Medicaid. It's the reason so many opt out of treating Medi patients.
How then does he plan on changing their payment incentives so it doesn't cost them money? Well to do that you either change the reimbursement rate or you change what is "appropriate", don't you? EBM promises the latter.
That brings us to the final part of his answer:
And right now, what we have is a situation, because doctors are paid fee-for-service, and there are all sorts of rules governing how they operate, as a consequence often times it is harder for them, more expensive for them, to do what is appropriate.
And we should change those incentive structures.
Now this is simply a load of road apples.
Litigation is part of the problem. Obama refuses to address that as a basic health care cost problem. It drives up costs and it also induces doctors to use unnecessary tests in a CYA gambit. Want to "change incentives?" Here's a great place to start.
The second problem is chronic underpayment by the government through Medicare and Medicaid – something Obama and Congress want to again reduce by up to 20%. That causes cost shifting to the private side of things. But insurance companies have gotten smart and now refuse, in many cases, to pay more than the Medis. That is an artificial distortion of the market introduced by government arbitrarily deciding what a medical procedure is worth.
And the rules under which doctors operate are no less stringent under the Medis than under any private insurance plan.
That's one question from the staged ABC "town hall meeting". There was an amazing amount of info in that one question and answer. Enough information that you should be absolutely shaking in your boots, because what he said is he plans on doing precisely what he has been telling you he wouldn't do – design a system which will decide how your doctor will treat you. It is all there, and no one has even bothered to take the close look it deserves.
I'll parse a few more questions from the interview as I have the time, but suffice it to say, if you look hard enough you can figure out exactly where this guy wants to take us.
Will Waxman-Markey Inspire A Trade War?
Apparently it will according to some who have actually beaten their way through the entire bill and read the contents:
The Ways and Means Committee's proposed bill language (pdf) would virtually require that the president impose an import tariff on any country that fails to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions.
Of course in this full bore onslaught of major life changing legislation which the Democrats seem determined to push through the Congress as quickly as they can (citing the imminent crisis it will foment if they don't), this issue seems to be lost in the shuffle:
"This is a sleeper issue that lawmakers have not been paying enough attention to," said Jake Colvin, vice president for global trade issues at the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents multinational corporations like Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp. advocating for an open international trading system.
"The danger is, you focus so much on leveling the playing field for U.S. firms, that you neglect the potentially serious consequences that this could have on the international trading system," Colvin said.
Ya think?
Nancy Peolosi is aiming for a vote in the House this Friday, before the July 4th recess. That obviously will mean very, very limited debate, if any. As NRO notes:
Not content to tempt political fate by imposing huge carbon taxes on the American middle class, Democrats have added a provision which imposes stiff tariffs on our trading partners if they don't adopt aggressive carbon restrictions of their own.
You heard correctly: progressives have authored a bill that earns the mortal enmity of domestic energy consumers and our most crucial trading partners at the same time. Economy-killing climate policies and a trade war — together at last!
The devil is in the details:
Leaks from Hill offices indicate that the president would now be forced to impose the carbon tariffs — and could only opt out of doing so with permission from both chambers of Congress. Carbon-intensive imports would be subject to penalties at the border unless the country of origin requires emission reduction measures at least 80 percent as costly as ours. (The original Waxman-Markey bill had a threshold of 60 percent.)
Brilliant. Of course, some are going to argue that such measures surely will not be in the Senate version and not survive the reconciliation process when the two versions are merged. With this Congress I wouldn't bet the farm on that.
There's some talk that the blue dogs are going to oppose this bill. Obviously you would expect the GOP to oppose it as well. Are there enough other Dems to oppose so as to defeat it? Pelosi may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to many things, but over the years she has learned to count votes I'm sure.
Bottom line: this bill is an economy killer, plain and simple. But it is also a progressive wet-dream shared by Pelosi. She is going to do everything in her power to push it through the House.
Government Health Care – VA's "Shoddy Standards … Put Veterans At Risk"
We had a little dust-up this week when I mentioned Ezra Klein's propensity for government run health care and that he held the VA up as a shining example of what that can be.
Apparently it is a no-no among the crowd that follows Klein to include the government run military hospital system with the government run VA hospital system in a general critique of government run health care. And as is typical of drive-by commenters, they ignored the gist of the post to concentrate on pretending that two government run health care systems were not at all alike (because both have major problems).
So today, we'll just talk about VA and the latest findings that support precisely what I said in the last post – VA has major systemic problems which are dangerous and, as Rep. Harry Mitchell,(D-AZ) who chairs the House Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said:
"[T]here is no question that shoddy standards — systemic across the VA — put veterans at risk and dealt a blow to their trust in the VA,"
And then there's the growing controversy over procedures that exposed 10,000 veterans to the AIDS and hepatitis viruses.
What have those interested in veteran care found when they looked at the system?
An official with the American Legion who visits and inspects VA health centers said complacency, poor funding and little oversight led to the violations that failed the cancer patients in Philadelphia and possibly infected 53 veterans with hepatitis and HIV from unsterilized equipment at three VA health centers in Florida, Tennessee and Georgia.
"Lack of inspections, lack of transparency" were likely to blame, said Joe Wilson, deputy director of the Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission for the American Legion, who testified before Congress this month on transparency problems in a budgeting arm of the VA.
What's he talking about? Well apparently the VA is discovering standards and procedures that have been commonplace in the civilian health care system for decades. Remember the problem with endoscopic procedures in multiple locations which led to contamination?
But investigations conducted by the VA last month show that systemic problems remain. Under half of VA centers given surprise inspections had proper training and guidelines in place for common endoscopic procedures.
Many believe the state of the VA is due to chronic underfunding:
Richard Dodd, a litigator who has represented veterans in lawsuits against the government, said that poor funding has lowered the quality of care and interest from some physicians.
"They're generally under-funded … and I think the interest of the doctors suffers to some degree," he told FOXNews.com. "Generally speaking, the physicians that work at the VA work there because they have no interest in private health care, and in some situations are unable to find jobs in private industry."
Of course "underfunded" is always the claimed "root cause" of any problems with government run entities, isn't it? Take education, for instance. But underfunding has little to do with procedural failures. That's just flat bureaucratic incompetence. It is also a persistent problem for top down, bureaucratic systems like – government run health care.
VA Secretary Gen. Eric Shinseki and senior leadership "are conducting a top to bottom review of the Department," a VA representative told FOXNews.com. "They are implementing aggressive actions to make sure the right policies and procedures are in place to protect our veterans and provide them with the quality health care they have earned."
But, of course, Gen. Shinseki, for all his military competence, wouldn't know a proper endoscopic procedure from a walnut tree. And, apparently, neither to those in the system who've overseen the present ones. Or said another way, confidence isn't real high that an apparently inept bureaucracy can suddenly discover competence.
For example, something as simple as drug inventory:
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an audit to determine how accurately the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) could account for inventories of non-controlled drugs at increased risk for waste and diversion in its health care facilities (facilities). VHA needs to improve its ability to account for non-controlled drugs to reduce the risk of waste and diversion. VHA cannot accurately account for its non-controlled drug inventories because it has neither implemented nor enforced sufficient controls to ensure pharmacy inventory practices are standardized and pharmacy data is accurate.
How can you tell me how "cost-effective" your pharmacy program has been when you don't even know what your non-controlled drug inventories are and have never bothered to implement or enforce control over them?
Systemic problem. But this is the shining example of government run health care according the Klein and others. Underfunded, shoddy, overburdened, old facilities and equipment, a lack of transparancy and controls, insufficient training and poor procedures all driven by a top down bureaucracy.
Yeah, sign me up.
[HT: Looker]
No Hot Dogs For Iran
It took almost two weeks of brutalizing their own people, but the invitation for Iranian diplomats to attend Fourth of July parties at U.S. Embassies around the world has finally been rescinded. Of course this was done about a day after President Obama gave this mealy-mouthed answer to a question on the subject:
Q: Are Iranian diplomats still welcome at the embassy on the Fourth of July, sir?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think as you're aware, Major, we don't have formal diplomatic relations with — we don't have formal diplomatic relations with Iran. I think that we have said that if Iran chooses a path that abides by international norms and principles, then we are interested in healing some of the wounds of 30 years, in terms of U.S.-Iranian relations. But that is a choice that the Iranians are going to have to make.
For those of you who need a translator, the answer was "yes". Today the answer is "no".
I'm glad they've awakened up there to the reality of what is happening in Iran and finally made some sort of move, no matter how trivial or symbolic, to show their disapproval. But it has taken unrelenting pressure to get them to move off of their "engagement at any cost" policy. In the case of 4th of July celebrations, it would have been a travesty to have representatives of the present brutal regime present. Ed Morrissey asks what they'd have been present for anyway:
Besides, what Independence Day values would the Iranian regime want to celebrate with us? Freedom of speech? Freedom of religion? The freedom to peaceably assemble or petition government for a redress of grievances?
Obama rather arrogantly reminded us that "only I am President of the United States". But as former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger reminded Obama, that means he represents the people of the United States when he speaks and in the case of the Iranian violence, he hasn't represented them very well at all.
Some Mullahs Join Iranian Protests
Don't forget that the 1979 Iranian revolution took about a year to gestate after the initial protests. And it picked up support from other elements of society as it grew.
In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran's supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.
This is an indicator that what happened in '79 may be beginning to happen in '09 as well.
In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mullahs rule supreme. They are the country's conservative clerics; the guardians of the Islamic revolution and its ideologies. They're loyal only to God and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Obviously that particular equation is under assault with these clerics physically making the point that their loyalty is elsewhere. Check out the article for the picture of these clerics among the protesters.
Was A Question Staged at Yesterday's Presser?
If so, in terms of presidential press conferences, that's a real "freedom of the press" no-no. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is pretty sure that a question from the Huffington Post was, in fact, staged:
After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced.
Milbank reports that he knew Pitney was there because Pitney had been contacted by the White House and was escorted by White House staffers to the reporters area and told he'd probably be called on. Milbank takes it from there:
Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.
The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world — Iran included — that the American press isn't as free as advertised.
I bring this up because while it may seem trivial to some, it points to the lengths this White House will go to stage manage even such events as press conferences. Manipulation of the press is usually much more circumspect than this and doing it as they did with a grinning Rahm Emanuel standing on the sidelines points to a certain arrogance and cavalier attitude toward the tradition of freedom of the press.
But yesterday's daytime drama belonged primarily to Pitney, of the Huffington Post Web site. During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner — from the Huffington Post.
Pitney said the White House, though not aware of the question's wording, asked him to come up with a question about Iran proposed by an Iranian. And, as it turned out, he was not the only prearranged questioner at yesterday's show. Later, Obama passed over the usual suspects to call on Macarena Vidal of the Spanish-language EFE news agency. The White House called Vidal in advance to see whether she was coming and arranged for her to sit in a seat usually assigned to a financial trade publication. She asked about Chile and Colombia.
Milbank says what wasn't discussed was Afghanistan, Iraq, or many other critical topics with the time, instead, given to those with the prearranged questions. Not good. Not healthy. But, as Milbank points out, pretty ironic.
Part 2 happens tonight with the ABC informercial for the President's health care plan.
From watchdogs to lapdogs, the media, with the exception of those like Milbank, simply play along.
Cap and Trade – The Plan to Raise Gasoline Prices
And apparently force you into those electric cars the government is dumping all that money into.
According to API president Jack Gerard, in a letter he sent to members of Congress, the plan included in Waxman-Markey is pretty darn clear:
The legislation will drive up individual and commercial consumer's fuel prices because it inequitably distributes free emissions "allowances" to various sectors. Electricity suppliers are responsible for about 40% of the emissions covered by the bill and receive approximately 44% of the allowances – specifically to protect power consumers from price increases. However the bill holds refiners responsible for their own emissions plus the emissions from the use of petroleum products. In total refiners are responsible for 44% of all covered emissions, yet the legislation grants them only 2% of the free allowances.
Upon reading that I assume anyone with the IQ of warm toast can see where that is headed. It is a targeted tax on oil and gas which will be passed on to the consumer in just about every conceivable way possible. Both at the pump and in the cost increases rolled into products we buy due to increased transportation costs, etc.
Electricity, however, whose coal plants are supposedly one of the primary producers of CO2 and very much responsible for the emissions problems we supposedly have get a pass. Does that even begin to hint that this legislation isn't just about controlling CO2 emissions?
In fact, it shouts it out fairly clearly doesn't it. Keep the proles happy by ensuring their power to the house is subsidized and stick it to them at the pump where government (who now has a stake in the game) wants consumers buying "green" cars. Don't you just love it when a plan begins to come together?
Moving on, Gerard's letter lays out some sobering numbers:
This places a disproportionate burden on all consumers of gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil, jet fuel, propane and other petroleum products. An analysis of the Congressional Budget Office Report indicates that it could add as much as 77 cents to a gallon of gasoline over the next decade. And, according to the Heritage Foundation this legislation could cause gas prices to jump 74% by 2035. That means, at today's prices, gasoline would be well over $4 a gallon.
Of course by 2035 we'll all be riding around in vehicles powered by uincorn methane. And everyone knows that unicorn methane is nontoxic, environmentally friendly, smells good and is eco friendly.
That said, there is the cap and trade plan as it pertains to one vital segment of our economy in all its simple glory. It will force you to pay outrageous prices to use petroleum products in order to move you to the desired, but not yet available, means of conveyance. In the meantime, and until it is available, you'll just have to suffer with the cost increases. Also remember that government estimates of cost are notoriously conservative and the real cost of such legislation is likely to be much higher than anticipated.
And don't laugh too hard when they try to sell that to you by saying they're attempting to save the planet. They're exempting coal fired power plants for heaven sake. Trust me, this isn't about emissions. If it were, they wouldn't treat natural gas the way they do in the legislation as the letter points out.
After all, they're the government and they're there to help.
The Irony of Obama
In the wake of President Obama's presser yesterday, Walter Shapiro makes an observation:
Now I am not going to claim that the First Amendment requires presidents always to wear smiley faces when taking questions from reporters. Nor am I going to deny that occasionally – very occasionally – the short-term mindset of the press pack can be irritating for presidents with a more transcendent view of global events.
Instead, I am bringing this up because I want to tentatively advance a larger theory about the president's public moods. Obama tends to drop his cool veneer and sound exasperated when he knows that he is in the wrong.
When it comes to Iran, Obama has at times spoken in particularly mealy mouthed fashion because he is fearful (as he has repeatedly explained) that his words could be hijacked by the Iranian theocrats. Even during Tuesday's press conference, Obama ducked condemning the Iranian election as totally fraudulent by carefully saying, "We didn't have international observers on the ground. We can't say definitely what happened at polling places throughout the country." Obama – who more than most leaders understands the power of inspirational rhetoric – has been forced to keep his most potent weapon (his moral outrage) sheathed through most of the Iranian crisis.
It's kind of ironic isn't it? The man whose primary political resource is his rhetorical abilities is rendered essentially speechless when it is only speech which is required to stand strongly by Iranians fighting for their freedom and rights and condemn their oppressors.
But let a CEO get a bonus he doesn't like and he can muster both anger and eloquence.
Truly a strange world we live in.
The Man. The Myth. The Legend.
In The New Ledger, Christopher Badeaux has penned one of the most withering takedowns of a public figure since H.L. Mencken's obituary of William Jenning's Brian. Badeaux's target: Andrew Sullivan. A few samples are in order.
On Sullivan's campaign against circumcision:
To say that Sullivan has focused his laser-like mind on human reproductive organs is to engage in an understatement worthy of the master himself. We could simply look at Sullivan's relentless, years-long focus on circumcision (a relentlessness not well-captured by the internet tubes, as Sullivan's archives traditionally become difficult to search when he moves from site to site), an unusual genre for a man who will never have children and who is not Jewish or Muslim, though perhaps not so unusual given his general interest in the member in question. One could focus on his decision to start calling a 4,000 year old religious tradition "male genital mutilation," thus cleverly calling untold generations of Jews child abusers and torturers, a decision that marks the sort of intellectual territory into which only a man bravely unwilling to live in Israel can tread.
On Sullivan's participation in the Sarah-Bristol-Trig Palin controversy:
Andrew Sullivan immediately leaped into the fray. Unlike the rest of these non-experts, many of whom began to back off of the story when word emerged that Mrs. Palin's daughter was pregnant and had been close to the time of Trig's birth, Sullivan, who apparently received a secret medical degree while attending Harvard, began obsessively following this story, turning the Atlantic from a fairly uninteresting opinion website into a leading journal of gynecology and obstetrics. Rarely in human history has a gay man been that obsessed with a married woman's vagina.
On Sullivan's views about the Catholic Church:
Sullivan sees deep plans within plans, and lives by undercurrents the likes of which we mere mortals cannot fathom; is it any wonder that his break with any apparent connection with Catholic teaching or thought, Scripture, and reality came when he perceived a great teaching moment on Benedict XVI's ascension? Certainly not, because if there is anything about which we can be certain, it is that Sullivan is as constant as the polar ice.
Sullivan's problem with pre-35th Century Catholicism, he has repeatedly assured his readers, is in its offenses against human dignity, human dignity only usually being a code word for sodomy.
On Sullivan's thoughts about The Jews:
One sign of a writer's mental disfigurement, laziness, undiagnosed psychoses, or, obviously in the case of Sullivan, inhuman insight, is the gradual realization that the term "neoconservative" is a useful stand-in for "Jews whose loyalty belongs first to Israel, and then to the United States, if at all." Sullivan has clearly reached this point, as one can note from some of his most recent thoughts...
Surely Sullivan, keen observer of men, sees what we cannot: That the Jews (or rather, a subset of American Jews) are in close collaboration with Israel, are working to undermine our brave President's policy of allowing Iranians to die in their streets, never understanding that President Obama's indifference is actually a brilliant ploy to force the theocrats of Iran to spontaneously step down and allow a thousand fabulous flowers to bloom. You see, he's clearly not taking issue with the "neocons" for wanting to toss out the clerics; he discerns that because of their love of blood-of-Gentile pastries and determination to overtly strike out at theocrats, dictators, and Palestinian children, they're being counterproductive.
The whole thing is brutal. And brutally funny.
The "Bullet Fee"
Shades of the Chicoms and Saddam Hussein.
A protester is shot dead in Iran. His father learns of his death:
Upon learning of his son's death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a "bullet fee"—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
But we don't want to be the "foil" so we'll withold saying anything that might be misinterpreted. Well, except this:
But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic's Islamic authority in its 30-year history.
Ed Morrisey calls this "despicable". I say he's being very understated in his criticism.
Pass the hot dogs.


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Internet Software and Services
Company Overview of MeetUp, Inc.
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Phil Noble Jr.
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Mr. Phil Noble Jr. served as a Legislative Assistant in the US Senate. In 1996, Mr. Noble founded PoliticsOnline. In 1979, Mr. Noble started Phil Noble and Associates. He was a Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina in 1994. He serves as a Member of Politics and Governance Advisory Council at MeetUp, Inc. He is President of the SC Democratic Leadership Council. He serves on numerous national and international boards including the World Summit ...
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text:
Evaluation Software Downloads
I decided for my first screencast that I would leverage the Windows Vista Help and How-to website. After reviewing the content available there, I thought it would be useful to do a quick run through of Performance Information and Tools in the control panel.
I wish Silverlight supported Firefox 3. :-(
It actually does with Silverlight 2, checkout this article: http://blogs.msdn.com/nigel/archive/2008/06/17/why-is-silverlight-1-broken-with-firefox-3-and-how-do-i-fix-it.aspx
Although IE 8 is something I would highly recommed to try as well.
I think that's the other way around. You mean you wish Firefox 3 supported Silverlight.


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A Clinician and Payer Perspective on Changing Dynamics in the Diabetes Market: Is There Room for New GLP-1 Analogues or DPP-IV Inhibitors? is based on a U.S. survey of 77 primary care physicians, 72 endocrinologists and 20 MCO pharmacy directors. Their responses were compared to assess similarities and differences of opinion regarding clinical, economic and scientific factors.
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Decision Resources (www.decisionresources.com) is a world leader in market research publications, advisory services, and consulting designed to help clients shape strategy, allocate resources, and master their chosen markets. Decision Resources is a Decision Resources, Inc. company.
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Decision Resources, Inc. is a cohesive portfolio of companies that offers best-in-class, high-value information and insights on important sectors of the healthcare industry. Clients rely on this analysis and data to make informed decisions. Please visit Decision Resources, Inc. at www.DecisionResourcesInc.com.
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Plum Tarts with Honey and Black Pepper
Consider this a two-ingredient tart. Besides the plums and pastry, we bet you have everything else on hand.
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We love making weekend projects out of elaborate cake, pastry, and pie recipes. But when we get hit by a sudden, unstoppable sugar craving, we turn to these no-fuss desserts. From the easiest ice cream sundaes to the raspberry-ricotta cake we can't get enough of, here are 16 quick-fix desserts you can pull together on the fly.


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TAMPA, Florida — In the 2008 movie "Iron Man," the main character becomes a superhero after building a suit of armor with an exoskeleton that gives him incredible strength.
Today, elite U.S. special operations forces may be a few short years away from donning a similar suit, one that can monitor the user's vital signs, give him real-time battlefield information and be bulletproof from head to toe. The suit might eventually have other features unheard of only a few years ago, including an exoskeleton made of liquid armor, smart fabrics that could help stop hemorrhaging, enhanced sensory capabilities and Google Glass-like visuals.
The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) project is coordinated through the Special Operations Command headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Prototypes are expected to be shown to military commanders in June, with hopes that the suit will be given to high-risk units in 2018.
While the project sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, its mission is simple, said James Geurts, the Deputy for Acquisition of the U.S. Special Operations Command at MacDill.


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Given a Second Chance
Heal 6 Wounded Defenders.
- Wounded Defender healed × 6
- Shado-Pan Bandages (Provided)
A foolish contingent attempted to mount an offensive on the Golden Stair through the eastern pass, and were bombarded by cannons. Those that made it back are in bad shape, and there are still wounded out in the field.
Here are some bandages. Use these, or any other healing skills you possess, and help get our wounded defenders back to safety.
Please hurry, there is little time.
You will receive:
|Lesser Charm of Good Fortune
You will also receive:
- 13,690 experience
- 11 40
- 100 reputation with Golden Lotus


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Originally Posted by jeffreyg
When I built my darkroom I had the sink designed to be somewhat deeper so as to prevent any splashes. Also it has three removable tops that can cover it and be at the same height as the counter ("L" shaped as your plans) to give extra counter surface when not in use as a sink. An exhaust fan system and canister water filter (if your water quality isn't the best such as well water). Plenty of well placed electrical outlets. Storage under the sink for chemicals, trays and stuff. Blackout system for the glass door. I placed "L" hooks above the door and attached blackout material to two dowel sticks one for the top and one for the bottom as a weight. I can roll it up and remove it when not needed.
Thanks Jerry. Because we have rainwater tanks, its compulsory here in Australia to have a water filter and UV treatment system. So particles are sorted. However, does the hardness of the water matter? As we are in a relatively dry coastal area.


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Phone Plugins
Quick-dial numbers and quick-send text messages from any application. Dial a number or send a text message right from your Macintosh...
Quick-dial numbers and quick-send text messages from any application. Dial a number or send a text message right from your Macintosh...
Ericsson and Samsung have ended several wireless patent disputes in a cross-licensing deal that could be worth billions.
Although NSA's elite joint special operations command brags that they've been able to track switched off mobile phones for almost a decade, no one quite knows how they did it.
Facebook, Samsung, Ericsson, MediaTek, Nokia, Opera, and Qualcomm have teamed up to bring the internet to the two thirds of the world's population without access.
Request comes in response to Ericsson's earlier request that U.S. International Trade Commission ban some of Samsung's products amid the ongoing patent dispute between both vendors.
Ericsson is turning up the heat another notch on world's biggest smartphone seller with a plea to the ITC.
[UPDATE] Swedish telecoms company takes legal action in the U.S. after Samsung allegedly refuses to sign a licensing agreement under Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) terms despite a two-year negotiation.
The security researcher who disclosed a Samsung Galaxy S III flaw that could trigger an unwanted reset has said other handsets could be susceptible to the problem, including the HTC One Series and Motorola Droids.
The Taiwanese manufacturer is the latest to say which of its devices will get upgrades to Android 4.0, following similar announcements from Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, LG and Asus
Executives from Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, and ZTE all assert that Google's pending purchase of Motorola Mobility won't hurt the Android ecosystem.
All the essential launches from Samsung, Sony, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and ViewSonic...
T-Mobile has launched what it says is the only six-month business phone contract that comes with a free handset.Announced on Tuesday, the plan comes with a choice of free phones — those opting for a £25-per-month contract will get a Nokia C3 Touch & Type, while those going for a £30-per-month version will be able to choose between the Nokia C3 Touch & Type, Nokia C5, Nokia C5-03, Samsung Monte (S5620) and Sony Ericsson Xperia X8.
At Mobile World Congress, the chips that power mobile devices are getting as much attention as the gadgets themselves. Over the past week Broadcom, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Samsung ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments have announced new chips that look more like PC processors.
Companies like HTC, Samsung, LG, Asus, Acer, Sony Ericsson, Lenovo and Dell have all announced new products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week in Las Vegas, but so far none of them have confirmed plans to launch their new products in Australia.
Sprint will phase out its Nextel network and aim for a multi-mode network that will save costs. Sprint has picked Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Samsun to deploy its network plan, dubbed Network Vision
Nokia smartphone chief Jo Harlow tells ZDNet UK what the company intends to do with Symbian now it has complete control over its development, and explains the differing strategies behind Symbian and MeeGo
The mobile manufacturer has said 31 December will be the last day for Symbian apps to gain certification for the Samsung App store, as it will be closing its Symbian support service
The Swedish-Japanese company has said it is turning to Android and Windows Phone 7 platforms, joining Samsung in a move away from developing further Symbian-based smartphones
O2 has become the first UK operator to implement an eco rating system for mobile devices from various manufacturers.The scheme has been backed by six major mobile manufacturers, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, HTC, LG, Samsung and Palm, but other big players such as Apple are absent from the list.
Three viruses hidden in mobile games could expose private data as well as propagate to create a botnet, according to a mobile security vendor
ARM, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments form new company called Linaro to help developers optimize Linux distributions for ARM's architecture.
Classic Steve Jobs disses you can put on your next resignation letter
Windows 10
Surface Book: Microsoft's first laptop, coming October 26 starting at $1,499
Windows 10
With new Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, Microsoft aims high
For privacy and security, change these iOS 9 settings immediately
Windows 10
Microsoft Surface Pro 4 announced: Specs, price and release date


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The Blood Type Diet Archives Volume 15
I reverse my prevous post of today
Posted By: Angelica (O) Young at Heart
In Response To: Spirulina info (Bob L)
I WILL NOT ingest spirulina. Thanks for your information.
Messages in This Thread
Alice (o+) -- Sunday, 1 October 2000, at 7:20 p.m.
Contact D'Adamo Personalized Nutrition customer service for support on where to begin.
A Daily Webzine Celebrating The Wonder Of Individuality & The Blood Type Diet®
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The statements made on our websites have not been evaluated by the FDA (U.S. Food & Drug Administration).
Our products and services are not intended to diagnose, cure or prevent any disease. If a condition persists, please contact your physician.
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WAYNE, N.J., April 02, 2007 /PRNewswire/ -- Berlex, Inc., a U.S. affiliate of Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany, announced today the results of a retrospective study demonstrating that the presence of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) that can develop in response to Betaseron(R) (interferon beta-1b) therapy did not predict clinical response in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS).(1) The study looked at data from over 6,600 patients across three continents. It is the largest dataset ever analyzed on the relevance of NAbs to interferon beta therapy. The results were published in the March issue of The Journal of International Medical Research.
"This study confirms that NAbs, which develop in response to Betaseron therapy, tend to disappear over time and provides important evidence that the presence of NAbs in these patient populations was not associated with a poor clinical response to treatment." said Dr. Douglas Goodin, lead author of the article and Professor of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco. "While it is unclear how these findings might apply to other beta interferon therapies, these data underscore the fact that decisions regarding Betaseron treatment should be based on the clinical circumstances of the individual patient and not solely on the basis of their NAb status."
NAbs are antibodies that may attach themselves to an injected protein drug, such as beta interferon therapy, thereby potentially inhibiting its biological activity. All immunomodulating therapies for MS may cause the development of NAbs in a varying portion of patients, but there is controversy in the medical community about the role NAbs may or may not play in a patient's response to therapy.
"This study reinforces expert recommendations that treatment
decisions should be based on a patient's overall response to
therapy and not on the actual or potential presence of neutralizing
antibiodies," said Da


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The Style Gallery is a great new way for you to view, love, and share outfit photos. It's meant to showcase
all the expressive, creative, and inspirational personalities of our community!
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As you walk along the Swiss shoreline, your navy dress by Lavand billows gracefully in the cool breezes. This brand from Madrid offers fresh, youthful garments that boast as much intriguing personality as the singular stylistas who wear them. Your 100% cotton garment is no exception - featuring a racerback silhouette, tulle-trimmed lining, elegant accordion pleating, and vibrant red bows on its front and back, it's a wonderful representation of your classic-with-a-twist aesthetic! Paired with a cuff bracelet, patent flats, and button earrings, this A-line frock completes a chic ensemble that'll have you roaming the beautiful European city in style.
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- Northern New York Newspapers
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- NNY Ads
Funeral services for William Graham, age 88, of South Water Street, Ogdensburg, are incomplete with Frary Funeral Home.
Mr. Graham passed away on Christmas Day at Claxton Hepburn Medical Center surrounded by his loving family.
Among his survivors is his wife, Barbara.
Thousands of readers like you have made Northern New York Newspapers the number one ranked website* for local news and sports coverage in the north country.
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Favorite films
Recent activityAll films
Recent reviewsMore
Carrie 2013
Julianne Moore was made to play Margaret White but from the very first teaser posters and trailers I knew I wasn't going to be able to fully accept this remake (how about we stop remaking Stephen King in general, huh?) Chloe Grace Moretz is N-O-T Carrie White and that opinion was only more and more justified throughout, and at the end of, Carrie (2013).
Here's the thing, my only real beef: CGM is too pretty to ever play Carrie White.…
Insidious: Chapter 2 2013
Insidious: Chapter 2 is the most impressively brilliant horror sequel (and may be in the top ranks of best sequel period) that I've ever watched. Insidious the First was an amazingly edgy, horrific, tantalizing thrill ride that is brought completely (I mean COMPLETELY) full circle in Chapter 2; Like I said, I can't remember the last Part II I watched that so flawlessly complemented its predecessor.
Leigh Whannell's characters and screenplays are next to godliness in originality and more than…
Popular reviewsMore
The Village 2004
The Village is one of my all time favorites and it always blows my mind to see negative reviews about it on the internet (which happens quite often). Not only is the plot line fantastically written and incredibly original, the acting is truly admirable. It's fun to go back now and watch Sigourney Weaver, Adrien Brody, and even Jesse Eisenberg from 2004. Despite having seen it numerous times, I'm always at the edge of my seat, nervous about what's coming…
The Fountain 2006
A truly remarkable, original, interesting, and mystifying work of art that astounds in every possible way. Rachel Weisz is beyond ethereal and captivating as both Queen Isabel and Izzi Creo, Hugh Jackman's performance is nothing short of heart-wrenching and genuinely magnificent, and their on-screen relationship is so full of feeling and emotion that you can't help but be swept up in the narrative. From screenplay to cinematography to costume to soundtrack--I can't for the life of me find a legitimate…


text: We are one step closer to solving the mystery of the yeti. The "abominable snowman" is probably just a type of bear. A geneticist at Oxford University has analysed the genetic structure of hairs believed to belong to the mythical creature and found they are 100% identical to the those of a 40,000-year-old polar bear found in Svalbard, Norway. So much for Bigfoot, then. But what of other ridiculous-sounding creatures? Can you figure out which of the beasts below are real and which are myths, fakes or downright lies?


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The Moth Mainstage New York City storytelling sensation, The Moth Mainstage, makes its Cultural District debut presented by the Cultural Trust and Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. The theme is "On Point: Stories of Balancing Acts." Consistently a sell-out, each Mainstage show features five storytellers, a local musician to act as timekeeper, and a charismatic host -- in this case, comedian Dan Kennedy, author of "American Spirit," described as "an amusing guy-version of an Eat, Pray, Love odyssey." Storytellers will include David Newell, best known as "Mr. McFeely" on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.08/22/2013
Duquesne University Tamburitzans Duquesne University Tamburitzans08/23/2013
The Second City - Happily Ever Laughter America's famed comedy troupe, The Second City, brings its one-of-a-kind "Happily Ever Laughter" tour to Pittsburgh. From the company that launched the careers of Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and more, comes the next generation of the comedy world's best and brightest in an evening of hilarious sketch comedy and trademark improvisation.08/23/2013
Community Day Outdoor Concert Walter Morales conducts a concert with pops favorites, marches, and a grand fireworks finale.08/24/2013
Shadyside…The Art Festival on Walnut Street The festival presented by Florida's Howard Alan Events takes place along Walnut Street between South Aiken Avenue and South Negley Avenue featuring more than 200 artists from 30 states, live music, a juried outdoor showcase, and prices for all budgets.08/24/2013
Party on the Bridge Knit the Bridge presents a community art party with food, fun & music and family-friendly, hands-on art activities. Get up close to the fabulous fiber installation made possible by the Fiberarts Guild of Pittsburgh, Fiberarat International, Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Heinz Endowments, Sprout Fund, and many more.08/25/2013
Rickie Lee Jones Rickie Lee Jones (Folk Rock)08/25/2013
Faculty Recital - Benjamin Binder Faculty pianist Benjamin Binder performs with cellist Natasha Farny.08/28/2013
Date: Saturday, November 7, 2015
Venue: Byham Theater
Time: 7:30 PM
$75 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event.
Sydney native Alfio has one of the greatest voices in contemporary music today. This highly charismatic tenor/crooner offers a refreshingly cool and modern throwback to the legendary singers to which he is often compared.
Captivating his audience with equal parts music journey, powerful vocals and comedic banter, Alfio effortlessly brings all generations of music lovers together in one audience; and regardless of whether he sings in English, Italian or Spanish, all languages flow as one.
The Tenors Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Venue: Byham Theater
Time: 8:00 PM
$125 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 Meet & Greet ticket to the event.
$90 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event.
2013 Juno Award Winners The Tenors have shared the stage with Sarah McLachlan, Neil Young, Paul Anka, Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney, Brian McKnight, David Foster, and Natalie Cole among others, in venues from Bangkok to London, and New York to Israel. They have been hailed as musical ambassadors and Canada's national treasure.
B.E. Taylor
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2015 Venue: Heinz Hall Time: 7:30 PM
$100 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 Meet & Greet ticket to the event. $75 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event. Now in it's 19th year, the B.E. Taylor Christmas Concert continues to wow audiences throughout the Midwest. B.E. Taylor Christmas is the place where the faithful come year after year to feel the love of Christmas. Inside some of the most revered concert halls in America, B.E. Taylor transforms old favorites through bold interpretations to create new traditions that will live in the heart as long as Christmas is celebrated.
Holiday Doo Wop
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2015 Venue: Heinz Hall Time: 7:30 PM
$90 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event. The 14th Annual Pittsburgh Holiday Doo Wop Concert returns to Heinz Hall. Featuring - MARY WILSON of the Supremes "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love"
Lenny Welch "Since I Fell For You", "Ebb Tide"
The Original Tymes "So Much in Love", "Wonderful, Wonderful"
Shirley Alston Reeves original lead of The Shirelles "Soldier Boy", "Mama Said"
Tommy Mara and The Crests "Sixteen Candles", "Cara Mia"
Special guest Johnny Angel and The Halos
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2015
Venue: Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland
Time: 6:00 PM
$100 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event.
The distinctive sound of Libera has traveled the world in the last few years. The group's albums have topped both mainstream and classical charts in many countries, and their recordings hold their place in top-tens alongside major artists like Bocelli.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Date: Sunday, December 27, 2015 Venue: Consol Energy Center Time: 3:00 PM & 7:30 PM
$100 Donation to WQED includes a thank you gift of 1 ticket to the event. TSO is thrilled to announce that the 2015 Winter Tour will feature the live debut of 'The Ghosts Of Christmas Eve'! TSO will also release their newest full-length album titled 'Letters From the Labyrinth' this winter!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) is an American progressive rock band founded in 1993 by producer, composer, and lyricist Paul O'Neill. TSO has sold more than 9 million concert tickets and over 8 million albums. The band's musical style incorporates classical, orchestral, symphonic, and progressive elements into hard rock and heavy metal.
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Imagination For All > Lloyds Building London Abstract > Lloyds Building London Zip Hoodie
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What is your favorite scent?
Quoting elephantmamaof2:Quoting Jenniy:
WHY have I never thought to use apple cores! That's genius! Thanks!
Otherwise, I like to do baking to make my house smell yummy. I usually bake at least once a day.
Bath and Body Works makes a candle that they sell around fall-time is a scent called "Leaves." I -love- it, and have several of the candles. I rotate them throughout the year on candle warmers placed in certain rooms to keep the whole house smelling delicious all year round.
I love scents of baked goods but I've found they dont linger once the candle is blown out nn they never smell as good in other mediums.
Quoting Meltopia529:
Clean linen smell. I love the smell of clean laundry
We don't do much smelly stuff.
My house probably smells weird but we don't notice.
Occasionally we'll light a candle for a little bit but most of the time our house just smells real(?) lol


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During the flight, astronaut Heidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper activated growth of the bacteria in sealed hardware and fixed the cultures after a day of growth to determine changes in gene and protein expression levels.
The bacterial cultures were taken up into space and activated to grow in a separate compartment of the tubes called the growth chamber, said Nickerson. The bacteria didnt have access to the growth chamber until Heide pushed down on a plunger which introduced the bacteria into the growth media. Then they were grown for 24 hours, and at the end of 24 hours, Heide pushed down on the plunger again, which either fixed the bacteria with chemicals that preserved the gene expression message, or else introduced fresh media to keep the bacteria growing to perform the virulence studies.
As a synchronous control experiment back on Earth, Nickersons team grew an identical set of bacteria in the same type of tubes used for flight and incubated them in a special room at the NASA Kennedy Space Center called the orbital environmental simulator. This simulator is linked in real-time to the shuttle, and duplicates the exact temperature, humidity and growth conditions of the shuttle, with the exception that they are not flying in space, said Nickerson. In addition, we were also linked via real-time telecommunications with the shuttle crew when they were activating and terminating our experiments in flight, and we did the exact same things at the same time to the ground samples that the astronauts did to the flight samples thus we had perfectly matched synchronous ground controls.
After the bacteria returned to Earth, the group performed the first global analysis of Salmonella to measure the effect of space flight on gene and protein expression and virulence. By measuring the gene and protein patterns, the researchers could hone in on the key molecular players necessary for virulence from among thousands of poten
|Contact: Joe Caspermeyer
Arizona State University


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Our Embryologists / Andrologists
Four Doctoral level embryologists with over 50 years of combined experience
The Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine's IVF lab team consists of four doctoral level embryologists, with over 50 years of combined experience. Our andrology/endocrinology lab is headed by a Bachelor of Science level medical technologist with over 14 years experience.
Dr. Yang, the director of our program has been with the Florida Institute for Reproductive Medicine over the last 17 years. Dr. Yang has over 22 years experience as an embryologist/andrologist. He is board certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis as a high complex lab director (HCLD). Dr. Yang is internationally known as one of the pioneers in the areas of intracytoplasmic sperm injection as well as egg freezing. Dr. Yang is responsible for the first baby born in the world to a cancer patient who froze her eggs.
Dr. Xiang is our embryology lab supervisor. She is board certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis as a high complex lab director. Dr. Xiang has worked as a lab manager, senior embryologist and technical supervisor since 2006. Dr. Xiang's area of research includes sperm/egg interaction, sperm chemotaxis and embryo development. Dr. Xiang's research papers are published in the National Academy of Science and Journal of Developmental Biology.
Dr. Liu has a Medical Doctorate as well as a Masters in clinical medicine. Dr. Liu has worked as a reproductive endocrinologist in China. She has worked in embryology for the last eight years. She has extensive experience in all aspects of embryology. Dr. Liu is also trained in andrology as well as endocrinology.
Heather Schantz, BS, MLS. CLT. MT. has been our andrology/endocrinology lab supervisor over the last 9 years. Heather received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida. She completed her medical technology training in Jacksonville. Heather has extensive clinical laboratory experience and is licensed by the State of Florida.


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i love to taste pussy and arse. Just have a shave, tuck a napkin in my collar and stop me in the morning. I love makin them cum with my tongue.
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Video Description:
Niki Hunter in fencenet pantyhose facesitting and foot fetish
All Comments (47)
i love to taste pussy and arse. Just have a shave, tuck a napkin in my collar and stop me in the morning. I love makin them cum with my tongue.
omfg she is a fucking great woman...
Whoa... THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!
Any girls want to sit on my face like that
OMG, where can I find a woman like this?
Not that this is that great, but she's sleazy as hell, that's what makes her hot....I'd do whatever she told me, and I wouldn't laugh!
wife caught me watching this and loved it soo sexy wife had too try and loved it!
This is Frigging what I'm looking for in a woman... Love it all!
girls like she are the reasons why I'm lesbian
Her pussy hair does look like some taco meat.
Gawd, what a bod she has! I would be her slave...
daaamn somebody eat me like this
I need to sit on someone's face like now.
fuck yeah, thats exactly how I do it
i love the smell of pussy in my face...
i'd like to have her sit on my face like that but only after watching her get fucked by a few of her big dicked lovers. after the last one came in her cunt she could ride my face for hours. at least that'ls the way my wife likes to do it.
lol she say my fuckn little holes lmao
beautiful girl! beauty pussy! I want her!
hey? where was hulk hogan?
i wanna suck feet who have sexy toes nice nails..any girl there
Sit on my face plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
This was so hot I had to play with myself
LOL..... "You're laughing not gasping"
Her body is fucking amazing...her legs are so thick and her ass is so juicy.. god I want a girl like that!!
this is a girl i would bring home to ma dukes she could use me and abuse me all day!!!!!!!1111
I do this to my bf all the time he loves it
liz yo te la meti asi
Niki is filthy-hot!
this is a girl who knows what face sitting is all about. she knows how to grind
This is so damn hot...being dominated like that...facesitting is so hot anyway
nice feet
Shit.. I wouldn't refuse a facesitting if someone offered me!
music g...you have a very lucky bf...cause LOVE licking and sucking a womans asshole and pussy! I would LOVE to lick and tongue fuck Nikki's asshole anytime...anywhere!!! YUMMMMM
poor production values
Fuck! I'd love to be dominated by a woman like that!
Nikki Hunter is so right for this kind of hot shit right here! I love this girl - she is always honestly turned on by the sex itself
love you
my girlfriend is 57 years old and i am 23 she likes to sit on my face so i can lick her sweaty pissy pussy and dirty arse hole for as long as she can take it we watched this and bam she is on my face and she did not even undress
girl that was simply beautiful,FUCKEN AWESOME,i mean that sincerely.i love you nikki you rock!!
I would bust a nut just eating her out
i lov licking woman pussy.its super
i love licking woman pussy.its super
i would eat her pussy n suck the juice out of it... am in desperate need of a similar pussy.....:(
wow very nice
Oh man..I would love to be dominated, face sat and abused by this beauty!!! WOW!!!!!!!


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Simcha JesselIsrael Related -
We just released perhaps the most meaningful video of the year for us! Please check it in the link below! It captures the things that matter most to us, that help fuel our passion to inspire and change the world for the better. Regardless of what faith you're, regardless of what country you're from, we are all in this together to love each other, and we hope with all our hearts that this video can express that. #Becausehelives #teamsupertramp
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- Very nice and warm, little acidity. Easy to drink. Matt: "I could have two bottles" Sarah: "doesnt taste lk moldy fruit"
- Great...love. Fresh Market $15, easy to drink; need to keep a few bottles around.
- From Madison sellers $20 bottle of wine good Cabernet drink for our 33rd anniversary
- $12 delicious bottle of wine. Would buy again. Easy drink
- Nice easy to drink Bottles


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This glossary grew out of the development of courses for USIP's new Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding, the education and training arm of the Institute.
We encourage users to submit comments in the comment boxes for the terms. To do so, users must first register, and then, on subsequent visits, login. Users may also contact us via the contact form.
Download the PDF version of Peace Terms (PDF/2.4MB)
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Featured Terms
Visibility or accessibility of information regarding decision-making and financial practices.
Traditionally, action undertaken to preserve peace where fighting has been halted and to assist in implementing agreements.


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I am looking to update the suspension on my V2 covert by replacing the 150mm Rock Shox Revelation with a 2013 Fox 34 160 and matching Float rear. My question is which Float should I get? Boost Valve or not?
I ride this bike uphill only to go down...if that helps.
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ST. LOUIS -- Twenty-one of the 25 players on their roster had never experienced this before. Neither had approximately 99 percent of their fan base back home in Washington.
Updated at 1:35 a.m.
PHILADELPHIA -- For all the agony they have suffered in this town, the lopsided losses and the taunting fans and especially the division titles clinched against them, the Nationals arrived in Phila
Every ballplayer has his own reaction when an opponent intentionally walks the batter in front of him. Some gear up even more than they normally would.
BOSTON -- They've been playing baseball in this cozy little yard for 100 years, and the names who have excelled on this field read like a guest list to some exclusive dinner party in Coopersto


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Gregory Peck is the ambassador to the United States whose wife has a stillborn child. Without her knowledge, he substitutes another baby as theirs. A few years go by, and then grisly deaths begin to happen. The child's nanny hangs herself and a priest is speared to death in a freak accident. It turns out the child is the son of Satan and can only be killed with the seven daggers of Meggado.
There was nothing cursed about either the The Omen's critical or commercial reception, with both Peck and co-star Lee Remick being singled out for particular praise. However, it was the performance of Harvey Stephens as the young Damien that invested the film with the chill of genuine credibility.
Reviewed by David Parkinson
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Mike and Joy Connell are the Senior Pastors at Bay City Outreach Centre, Hastings, New Zealand.
They moved to Hastings from Dannevirke in 1985 to pioneer their first church and have been in ministry now for over 34 years and pioneered 5 other churches.
An internationally recognized teacher of the Word, Pastor Mike moves powerfully in prophetic, deliverance and inner healing gifts. His strong love and sensitivity for God and His people have enabled him to minister and bring great healing to the hurt and broken. A man full of the Spirit and faith, Pastor Mike will open and take you to another level of spiritual encounters with God.
He is sought after all over the world to bring teaching and great moves of God. He has standing yearly appointments teaching in international Bible Schools and impacting many of the worlds leaders in conventions and business conferences.
Mike has a heart for people and is able to bring a wonderful balance of humour, compassion and truth to his teaching messages. Mike's annointed messages are ones that have affected the hearts of people worldwide.
Mike & Joy have seven children and are also very proud grandparents. They both believe in strong family values and this is obvious when you meet them.
Mike & Joy have a unique commitment to pursuing what God would have for their lives and continue to travel the globe ministering to broken hearted people and showing them God's love. Their love of laughter and positive attitudes to life make them dynamic people.
Review by:
Andy Senator
on Aug. 08, 2013 :
I am glad that someone is speaking out against these things targeting the youngsters. Not my type of sermon. More like a book review but the concept is there. I disagree with the idea that a preacher should not place people under the law. the law was not destroyed but moved inside our hearts. Tell the people what is or is not pleasing to God. Four for effort, lol. Thanks for sharing.
(review of free book)
Review by:
Chloe Harper
on May 29, 2013 :
I agree with Brendan, you wasted 18000 words to tell us what we already know. Namely that Twilight is a bunch of overhyped bullshit in anyone's language just like Harry Potter. Without the media hype no one would care. Find something worthwhile to talk about.
(review of free book)
Review by:
Brendan Levova
on May 29, 2013 :
Twilight was a bunch of shit, made everyone laugh at the whole vampire genre. Not that some of Anne Rice's books didn't turn it into a joke already. We don't need to write about it to analyze it from any perspective Christian Mormon or whatever. Edward was a violent abusive asshole and Jacob fell in love with a fucking baby, age difference between Edward and Bella or Jacob and whatever her name was? Pedophilia much anyone?
(review of free book)


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Magnetic Fields
A Comprehensive Theoretical Treatise for Practical Use
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moreA unique resource for physicists and engineers working with magnetic fields
An understanding of magnetic phenomena is essential for anyone working on the practical application of electromagnetic theory. Magnetic Fields: A Comprehensive Theoretical Treatise for Practical Use provides physicists and engineers with a thorough treatment of the magnetic aspects of classical electromagnetic theory, focusing on key issues and problems arising in the generation and application of magnetic fields. From magnetic potentials and diffusion phenomena to magnetohydrodynamics and properties of matter-topics are carefully selected for their relevance to the theoretical framework as well as current technologies. Outstanding in its organization, clarity, and scope, Magnetic Fields:
* Examines a wide range of practical problems, from magnetomechanical devices to magnetic acceleration mechanisms
* Opens each chapter with reference to pertinent engineering examples
* Provides sufficient detail enabling readers to follow the derivation of the results
* Discusses solution methods and their application to different problems
* Includes more than 300 graphs, 40 tables, 2,000 numbered formulas, and extensive references to the professional literature
* Reviews the essential mathematics in the appendices less
Wiley; July 2008
646 pages; ISBN 9783527617425
Read online, or download in secure PDF format
Title: Magnetic Fields
Author: Heinz E. Knoepfel
646 pages; ISBN 9783527617425
Read online, or download in secure PDF format
Title: Magnetic Fields
Author: Heinz E. Knoepfel
Buy, download and read Magnetic Fields (eBook) by Heinz E. Knoepfel today!
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Game Recap: Cardinals 3 – Mets 0
The Mets (10-10) offense went silent Tuesday night as they were shutout for the second time this season during a 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals (12-9) at Citi Field. >> Read the full AP recap and box score at SNY.tv.
Need to Know: Dillon Gee gave up two earned runs on six hits, two walks and four strikeouts over six innings for his first loss of the season.
Curtis Granderson is now hitless in a career-high 22 consecutive at-bats after he went 0-for-3 with one strikeout and one walk on Tuesday.
Matt Holliday robbed Chris Young of a two-run homer during the fifth as Holliday snagged the ball just before it could go over the fence in left field.
Adam Wainwright limited New York to four hits over seven scoreless innings.
Jose Valverde gave up one run in the ninth to make it a 3-0 game.
What's Next: The Mets will once again take on the Cardinals Wednesday night when they send Jon Niese (0-2, 2.84) to the mound against Michael Wacha (2-1, 1.73) at 7:10 pm ET.


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NYCC: "The Walking Dead" Roams into Madison Square Garden
TV, Comic Books
Showing results 554-573 of 629
Karl Moline and Joss Whedon re-unite for a Season 8 arc that pairs up Buffy with Fray, the vampire-slayer from the future!
Bendis and Cheung take us on a tour of recent Avengers history to explain just how Spider-Woman got replaced by a Skrull, and what happened next in what is surely an essential chapter of Secret Invasion.
Ms. Marvel makes it back to New York to confront the invading Skrulls in an action-heavy, Carol-focussed story.
Marvel's teen heroes meet up once again for a crossover, turning this into a semi-regular event. Chris Yost writes, with Takeshi Miyazawa providing art.
There are comics that CBR Reviewers really fall in love with. Then there's this one.
Wood and Burchielli continue "Blood in the Game." It's election season in the DMZ but Parco Delgado's campaign is halted by an assassination attempt. Can Matty and his mother hold it together?
New artist Nick Runge joins Brian Lynch on the official "Season 6" comic. Angel reunites the gang and defeats the bad guys - but what's Gunn's big plan?
Wood and Kelly bring Megan's life full circle as she returns home after years away, an emotional ending to a fantastic series.
Captain Britain is dead, and the rest of MI-13 have to pick up the pieces in the midst of a Skrull invasion.
A Skrull-themed anthology title plugs continuity holes and picks up dangling threads, but does it offer anything to people who aren't "Secret Invasion" completists?
Yet another "Wolverine" one-shot fails to justify the high price point, this time with a lead by "Gutsville"'s Simon Spurrier and a backup by Rick Remender.
In this wake of last issue's success, Dave has become a hero, but Millar and Romita go to great lengths to show that the first victory isn't even remotely the end of it.
Adam Pollina returns to comics and threatens to show everyone how it's done, teaming with Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa to retell Angel's origin story.
Kyle, Yost and Crain ensure that blood flies (again) as Wolfsbane gets her claws into a few characters, and Angel finds that his connection to Apocalypse might not be as severed as he thought.
Brian Bendis is joined by artist Butch Guice to expose the wider conspiracy behind the Ultimate Universe's superhumans.
Ms. Marvel continues her search for answers in a "Secret Invasion" tie-in that places a little too much emphasis on soap rather than superheroics.
Stuart Moore steps in as writer while the Knaufs take a breather, beginning a new four part story that retains the established tone and style of the title nicely.
Captain America comes back from the dead! Well, one of them does, anyway. Brubaker and Epting continue a legendary run on the title.
While an improvement over the opening issue due to a decreased focus on the "New X-Men" cast, "Divided We Stand" still feels largely skippable except for hardcore mutant completists.
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa returns to the Fantastic Four and, at the same time, grabs hold of a decade-old dangling thread with the return of occasional "F4" supporting character, Lyja, in this Secret Invasion tie-in.


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Bobby Ferguson asks to be released on bond
Mar. 23, 2013
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Bobby Ferguson asks to be released on bond
Now Bobby Ferguson wants out, too. The longtime contractor friend and codefendant of Kwame Kilpatrick asked a federal judge on Friday to release him on bond -- four days after the convicted former
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By Tyler S. Clark (Contact)
Published August 25, 2008
The goal of regionalization is to draw population back to the core. Cities, not suburbs, are best equipped to support masses of people. Look at a map; see the urban core from which satellite suburbs branching out. The very etymology of suburb from seventeenth-century London suggested detached areas of "inferior, debased, and licentious habits or life."
Of course, I'm being needlessly and satirically provocative. I grew up in Plano, Texas, which was once the country's heroin capital. It was neither less nor more virtuous than its urban core of Dallas, but as a matter of sustainability—and particularly in today's energy-starved world—it's critical to the efficiency of the area that its people have access to mass transit and other public services, along with redevelopment of the region's core.
Here in the Mahoning Valley, we have nowhere near the density of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. This means our needs for regionalization are far greater, not lesser. We must pool our resources, reduce our overhead, and level the disparities across neighboring localities to revenue generation.
The "Regional Economic Revenue Study" for Northeast Ohio, Phase I, available at http://www.revenuestudy.org, has drawn the following conclusions from its research:
This does not suggest that existing governments should be consolidated or replaced. The purpose is to "identify a revenue sharing model for Northeast Ohio":
Here are some successful models for regional revenue sharing (from revenuesharing.org):
Twin Cities Fiscal Disparity Program: Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
Allegheny Regional Asset District: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Region
Montgomery County ED/GE Program: Dayton, Ohio Region
Mayor Williams has openly stated that he's interested in any mechanism that will advance this goal. If it's not JEDD, what is it? But there must be dialog, and there must be a framework in place for the shared prosperity of area by some means.
Here are some resources to use in the pursuit and support of regionalization, as provided on a handout Monday night at the Unitarian Universalist Church's Arts and Lecture Series, where Mayor Jay Williams, Mayor Mike Lyons of the Village of Richfield, Mahoning River Redevelopment Director Dan Mamula, Governor Strickland's regional representative Arne Clebone and Youngstown's regional revenue sharing director, Sarah Lown spoke:
One word to local politicians: you are not required to talk to the media about an issue before you've had a chance to speak with other parties involved. This is how misunderstandings take root and issues become intractable. The next time Mayor Williams or Mr. Ungaro gets a call from The Vindicator or other media organization before he's had a chance to speak with each other about the Wal-Mart project, I hope he'll say, "You know, I don't have a comment for you yet, I haven't had a chance to speak with all the parties involved. Once I do, I'll be happy to get you up to speed." Playing everything out in the media before it's been worked out in person is a sure way to bruise egos and entrench stances.
Have a topic you'd like to read about? Or just want to give your feedback? E-mail me at reason -at- tylersclark.com
I have often been asked to define sustainable cities and some time ago went in search of a definition. My favorite is that put out by the institute for sustainable Communities. They say, "Sustainable communities are defined as towns and cities that have taken steps to remain healthy over the long term. Sustainable communities have a strong sense of place. They have a vision that is embraced and actively promoted by all the key sectors of society, including businesses, disadvantaged groups, environmentalists, civic associations, government agencies,and religious organizations. They are places that build on their assets and dare to be innovative. These communities value healthy ecosystems, use resources efficiently, and actively seek to retain and enhance a locally based economy. There is a pervasive volunteer spirit that is rewarded by concrete results. Partnerships between and among government, the business sector, and nonprofit organizations are common. Public debate in these communities is engaging, inclusive and constructive. Unlike traditional community development approaches, sustainability strategies emphasize: the whole community (instead of just disadvantaged neighborhoods); ecosystem protection, meaningful and broad based citizen participation, and economic self reliance." Youngstown is headed on the path toward sustainability, although we have a distance to go and obstacles to overcome, we must stay the course and not be deterred by nay-sayers.
Those are great goals, Deb, thanks. As was pointed out last night, we must first create a vision and define who we want to be as we move towards it and hold firm to seeking out compatible sustainable components and economic anchors.
"inferior, debased, and licentious habits or life" LOL.
You've summed up last night's discussion fairly comprehesively--a great tool for readers who were unable to attend.
Read this and shake in fear:
"One word to local politicians: you are not required to talk to the media about an issue before you've had a chance to speak with other parties involved. This is how misunderstandings take root and issues become intractable. The next time Mayor Williams or Mr. Ungaro gets a call from The Vindicator or other media organization before he'll had a chance to speak with each other about the Wal-Mart project, I hope he'll say, "You know, I don't have a comment for you yet, I haven't had a chance to speak with all the parties involved. Once I do, I'll be happy to get you up to speed." Playing everything out in the media before it's been worked out in person is a sure way to bruise egos and entrench stances."
you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours
make sure we have the stories we're going to foist on the public straight
don't air our dirty laundry in public.
Please, can someone tell me what would be different above if we were talking about a criminal enterprise instead of local government? Isn't the primary goal here to separate the taxpayer from his money because they believe they know how to spend it much better than we do?
Take a look at the endless feasibility studies that have been conducted with no measurable outcome. Hey, I want a grant to study the outcome of studies conducted in the Mahoning Valley, like the study for the blimp plant, Lake to River canal, indoor NASCAR race track (oh, that's right, NASCAR wasn't interested in using it), Russian commuter aircraft company, dredging the Mahoning River, removing the dams from the Mahoning River, enforcing JEDDs in the valley, ad-infinitum.
from the 2008 Ohio school report card
District Name standards met
Youngstown City 1
Campbell City 14
Sebring Local 16
Jackson-Milton 23
Struthers City 23
Austintown Local 25
Boardman Local 27
Lowellville 27
West Branch 27
Springfield 28
Western Reserve 28
Poland Local 29
South Range 29
Canfield Local 30
and YES, Youngstown has the highest level of per student funding and they are still in a deficit
District AVG Teachers salary without benefits
Sebring 43,970
Struthers 45,913
Jackson-Milton 45,968
Western Reserve 45,975
Springfield 48,345
West Branch 49,191
Austintown 49,978
Youngstown 50,729
Lowellville 50,947
South Range 51,551
Campbell 51,690
Boardman 54,065
Poland 55,537
Canfield 57,842
District--- expenditures per student
Youngstown-- 15,387.93
Campbell-- 9,791.79
South Range-- 9,478.32
Jackson-Milton-- 8,964.78
Boardman-- 8,530.30
Austintown-- 8,503.23
Sebring-- 8,305.80
Poland-- 8,127.83
Canfield-- 7,877.38
Springfield-- 7,728.24
West Branch 7,664.36
Struthers 7,526.97
Western Reserve 7,505.41
Lowellville 7,110.44
Bull_Chip, you completely misunderstood (and or twisted) my comment. I'm saying that before talking to the media, people should talk to each other.
Have you ever heard about something somebody said about you from somebody else? Did it piss you off? What if you had heard it from them... in context. The outcome might have been different.
What is happening is that the media gets wind of a new development and jumps all over their contact list before there's any dialog between the parties themselves. They get their quotes and take them to the next party on the list. "They said what?" and the hackles go up and everybody digs their heels in. I'm saying that we should break this cycle and let government work diplomatically through the appropriate channels.
Once there have been discussions and agreements or disagreements, then they can announce that to the media. But the disagreements and arguments are currently generating FROM the fact that people are talking through the media to each other rather than directly communicating with each other.
There is a reason the media is referred to as the "fifth estate". As an example, look at the work done during the Water Gate investigation. Encouraging politicians to not speak to the media unless it is cleared by all interested parties is a step towards a secretive and controlled government that only releases proscribed and sanitize information.
As I stated in my post "Please, can someone tell me what would be different above if we were talking about a criminal enterprise instead of local government?" If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, chances are it is a duck. If standard procedures from an organized criminal operations are followed, how do you then differentiate that government from the criminal enterprise.
I believe this area is intimately familiar with local government involvement with organized crime. Why promote anti-sunshine practices that will enable establishment of such relationships in the future.
I take great offense at your accusation that I twisted your comment. That is precisely why I posted the salient section in its entirety. That is why I invited anyone to differentiate those procedures from a criminal enterprise.
As far as the taxpayer's money issue, you are supporting numerous initiatives that will indeed cost taxpayers. Due to specific area problems, namely Youngstown schools abysmal failure to successfully educate the children of the city and the phenomenal murder rate and the personal and property crimes that are spreading to the surrounding areas, these initiatives will have no net positive effect for the Valley. Youngstown schools are again in the bottom 3 public schools in the state, not a big plus to encourage businesses to move in.
Those areas are where the focus needs to be. Everything else is simply diversionary or misguided to helping the Valley. If mayor Jay Williams is successful in his JEDD extortion attempt, those areas also are doomed. A JEDD is meant to spur NEW development, not extract tribute from existing profitable businesses. A business, its owners and employees are suppose to have a say in the taxes they pay, as in NEW DEVELOPMENT.
As to the effect of studies, the ones I sited had only the effect of transferring taxpayer money to others to produce series of reports that had no positive financial or social impact.
No, my statements stand as is until someone can factually challenge them.
I see Austintow schools is about halfway up there on the cost per student. Not a surpise really and I bet we are higher this year.
Once again you're putting words in my mouth. I'm not suggesting anyone clear anything with anyone, I'm talking about diplomacy.
Merely if the first that an official is hearing about a new issue or sticking point is from the media, before responding with how they're going to handle the issue, the most diplomatic approach is to show courtesy to your partners in the political process by keeping them apprised of the situation first--just as you would someone in a business relationship or a personal relationship--before you'd reveal the workings of that relationship to interested third parties.
It's preposterous how you could make something nefarious out of that. It's pure diplomacy.
How ofte do people keep their word tohugh no often. They tend to do tihngs then tell others that they did it.
Pearls before swine, Tyler. The Bible does get some things right. I'm just sayin'. ;-)
That's a completely different issue, though, metz87, isn't it?
Indeed, Chris. But, I'm going to keep putting it out there!
OldManGrump, for once I'm going to agree with you. Parental involvement in children's education is crucial. And from what we saw in Harding it was non-existent. The children were desperate for parental attention. When it comes to children, money isn't everything, but parents are.
"Merely if the first that an official is hearing about a new issue or sticking point is from the media, before responding with how they're going to handle the issue, the most diplomatic approach is to show courtesy to your partners in the political process by keeping them apprised of the situation first--just as you would someone in a business relationship or a personal relationship--before you'd reveal the workings of that relationship to interested third parties."
Tyler, while I appreciate your passion on this subject, this line of thinking is a little complex and somewhat deserving of a little more introspection. The fact is, we're not discussing a private business relationship or a personal relationship; we're discussing public business. Government is the people's business and involves, often, millions of dollars of public funds. To have various political sides hash out some sort of stance or agreement out of earshot of the public is not usually in the public's best interests. When it comes to government, the public is NOT merely an "interested third party" (although many politicians, too, believe in this concept, unfortunately). I understand your goal of better harmony, but allow me to suggest that the public interest is best served when all aspects of important government decisions are made in the sunlight, as messy as democracy and the free press can be, sometimes.
Oh come on! At what point was it suggested that government business be "hashed out...out of earshot of the public?"
It's clear that Tyler is suggesting that Ungaro should have tried to work with Williams before or at the same time that he went to the media about Walmart's problems. He didn't. Williams found out after everyone else, and like it or not, this causes some of us to ask questions.
This is not Watergate. It is not some clandestine, corrupt political maneuvering. It's about leaders from neighboring communities trying to work together as leaders to serve their communities.
Invite the media to the meeting, absolutely, but ALL parties should have been involved at the same time. The media also has a responsibility to the community, and that responsibility includes not creating/perpetuating false crises.
Mark, you, also, have misinterpreted what I'm saying or are simply talking about something else, I'm not sure which.
Tyler: I think the disconnect you are having with the questioning of the logic of "Playing everything out in the media before it's been worked out in person..." and "just as you would someone in a business relationship or a personal relationship" is that government is neither a private enterprise or a private affair. The rules are different. Decisions can't be made without a meeting getting posted and a majority of members present. Taxpayers are not merely some interested third party. When doing the people's business, government has rules to follow and while your appeal to harmony is well-intentioned, in the wrong hands, the result could be a layer of obfuscation that presents an entirely new set of problems. Where do you draw the line between "diplomacy" and "secrecy" and how do we make sure that everyone agrees with/understands/follows your definition? I don't think people are so much misinterpreting your words or putting words in your mouth as they are pointing out unintended consequences. A free press and open government can be messy (and, sometimes, feelings get bruised) but that process is ultimately superior to the alternative.
I'm simply suggesting leaders pick up the phone and call each other to discuss new developments before accepting quotes from reporters as verbatim and responding with their game plan. Shows that local governments are willing to work with each other in good faith rather than posturing through the media, as they've been doing lately. Not sure what's so nefarious about that. I hear what you're saying, but I think you're creating a slippery slope--in this scenario--out of whole cloth.