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Glenn Beck has made a startling discovery. People are working together to make change!
Beck used my recent article, "Wisconsin: First Step in an American Uprising?" as a backdrop during his Wednesday show on Fox News, where he talked in dark, hushed tones about the spread of the UK Uncut movement to the United States. "A coincidence?" he asked. Is it a coincidence that citizens of both countries are holding protests in multiple locations on February 26?
Hardly! Organizers of US Uncut have made no secret of the fact that they were inspired by the British upstart group. UK Uncut started when 12 people meeting at a London pub decided they were fed up waiting for "someone to do something" about the fact that, in response to budget shortfalls caused by the financial crisis, the government was planning drastic cuts to public services while big businesses were raking in record profits. "Why don't we just start?" they wondered. "If we do it, maybe everybody will stop asking why it isn't happening and join in."
They sat down in front of a retail outlet of a major cell phone company that was $6 billion behind in its taxes. If that company paid up, they argued, all those cuts—to libraries, schools, health benefits, pensions—wouldn't be needed. The protests spread, eventually shutting down retail stores and banks across the country.
Unlike the Tea Party movement that Beck likes so well, they didn't have billionaire money behind them. The oil tycoon Koch brothers didn't bankroll a front group to train and fund them and give them talking points. No, UK Uncut is made up of ordinary people, using social media to coordinate their actions, getting their voice heard in spite of being off the message that the Murdoch media would like us to hear. When news of their success spread to the U.S.—primarily via an article in The Nation by British columnist Johann Hari (reposted here)—Americans with the same concerns were quick to take up the idea, and dozens of decentralized US Uncut groups quickly formed.
Now, MoveOn.org and Van Jones are teaming up in a call for rallies on the same day to protect the American Dream. And the United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice are collaborating (there's that word again!) on a call to defend public benefits.
These sorts of collaborations are not new, and they're not secret. If Beck had been reading YES! Magazine, for example, he would have seen hundreds of examples of groups that form from the bottom up, that work for the benefit of ordinary people, and that collaborate in lots of creative ways.
Which we think is a good thing. That collaboration is urgently needed at a time when the power balance in the United States is leaning dangerously toward large corporations and Wall Street banks. Because these institutions are formed to increase the wealth of those who already have it, any other goal we might have for our communities, our families, and our future easily gets pushed aside.
It's very clear what happens when corporate power and the fixation on short-term profits get too strong. Taxes on corporations and the wealthy get cut, and so money for infrastructure goes away, and our roads, bridges, schools, and universities decline. The pay and benefits of ordinary workers get cut, and they can no longer afford homes, education for their children, or health care. Environmental protection is put on the back burner or simply gutted, and our mountaintops are blown apart (including sites that could be ideal for wind farms that could supply energy for centuries to come). The climate crisis disrupts agriculture, causes floods and droughts, and brings extreme weather events, yet corporations prevent action. Our local economies are sapped of their strength, and regulation that could prevent some of the worst abuses goes away. That leaves us vulnerable to the sort of global economic meltdown that happened in 2008, and that continues to undermine economies everywhere. And the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling is just the latest in a cascading series of events that adds still more power to the corporate side of the scale.
This lopsided power makes the events in Wisconsin (and now Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, and many other states) all the more important. Ordinary people still have power, but only when we talk together and work together.
We Are Wisconsin
Video: Meet the people making history in Wisconsin.
Beck would like to shift the conversation to one of conspiracies and fear—frankly, I'm not not sure what he's so afraid of, but it seems to be a rotating list that includes communists, the United Nations, and Muslims. Oh, and our president.
But in Wisconsin, firefighters, teachers, nurses, sanitation workers, and students are rediscovering courage. Look at their faces, and you see fatigue, but also joy. No longer isolated and afraid, standing up for what they believe in, and, yes, collaborating, these people know they have power. And so do the rest of us.
US Uncut actions targeting Bank of America and others will happen in more than 50 American cities on February 26. Here's where you can find the one near to you, or organize a new action.
Van Jones and MoveOn.org are organizing a February 26 "Rally to Save the American Dream" at noon at state capitals and major cities around the country. Wear Wisconsin colors, red and white.
Student Labor Action Project, a collaboration of United States Student Association and Jobs with Justice, is calling for a national day of action to defend the public sector on March 2nd.
We Are Wisconsin from Finn Ryan on Vimeo.
What convinces tens of thousands of people—including those whose rights aren't directly on the line—to take to the streets and to occupy their state capitol around the clock? What's it like to be in such a gathering? In this beautiful video, filmmakers Finn Ryan and David Nevala introduce you to the people of Wisconsin.
© 2011 Finn Ryan and David Nevala
The influence of the new digital commons in democratic uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain has been chronicled at length in news reports from the Middle East, with Facebook, Twitter and other social media winning praise as dictator-busters.
But the importance of a much older form of commons in these revolts has earned scant attention—the public spaces where citizens rally to voice their discontent, show their power and ultimately articulate a new vision for their homelands. To celebrate their victory over the Mubarak regime, for example, protesters in Cairo jubilantly returned to Tahrir Square, where the revolution was born, to pick up trash.
It's the same story all over the Middle East. In Libya's capital city of Tripoli, people express their aspirations and face bloody reprisals in Tripoli's Green Square and Martyr's Square. In Bahrain, they boldly march in Pearl Square in the capital city of Manama. In Yemen, protests have taken place in public spaces near the university in Sanaa, which students renamed Tahrir Square. Kept out of the central Revolution Square in Tehran by the repressive government, Iranian dissidents gather in Valiasr Square and Vanak Sqaure.
Last week in Tunisia, the name of the main square in Tunis was changed to honor Mohammad Bouazizi, an unlicensed street vendor whose suicide in December in response to government harassment sparked the revolution that toppled the regime of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
The course of recent history was rewritten by events happening in Prague's Wenceslas Square as dissidents ousted an oppressive regime in December 1989. Those protests were inspired in part by events in Beijing's Tiananmen Square that seized the world's imagination earlier that year when democracy activists unsuccessfully challenged the power of China's dictatorship.
The state capitol in Madison, Wisconsin, where thousands of workers now protest the governor's fierce attacks on collective bargaining rights, represents another case of a public commons becoming a staging ground for political resistance. The capitol, which sits right in the heart of downtown Madison, was named by Project for Public Spaces as one of the great public spaces of the world. "This is truly the town square that early Americans imagined as the crux of democracy," the PPS website explains.
The people rallying behind public sector union workers at the Capitol are actually protected by the Wisconsin state constitution, which forbids the legislature from denying public access to the building when it is in session. (State law does permit capitol groundskeepers to clear the building in an emergency, presumably on orders of the governor—but those groundskeepers are also presumably members of the same union the governor wants to crush.)
Reclaim Your Streets: How to Create Safe and Social Pedestrian Plazas
This all shows that the exercise of democracy depends upon having a literal commons where people can gather as citizens—a square, Main Street, park, or other public space that is open to all. An alarming trend in American life is the privatization of our public realm. As corporate-run shopping malls replaced downtowns and main streets as the center of action, we lost some of our public voice. You can't organize a rally, hand out flyers, or circulate a petition in a shopping mall without the permission of the management, which will almost certainly say no because they don't want to distract shoppers' attention from the merchandise. That's why you see few benches or other gathering spots inside malls. The result is that our ability to even discuss the issues of the day (or any other subject) with our fellow citizens is limited.
Of course, public spaces enrich our lives in many ways beyond protests. Local commons become the sites of celebrations, festivals, art events, memorial services, and other expressions of community.
The moment when I first became aware of the importance of public spaces was when the Minnesota Twins won their first ever World Series in 1987. I did not have tickets to the game, but gathered hopefully with thousands of others outside the stadium in Minneapolis to share in the joy of the victory. When the Twins won the game, thousands more poured out of the ballpark into the streets and we all marched to…where? Minneapolis has no downtown square or landmark gathering place so we milled around the streets for a while—an unsatisfying way to celebrate a World Series championship. If it had been the Red Sox, everyone would have headed for the Boston Common (site of protests and public gatherings for three centuries, from a 200-person protest of food shortages in 1713 to a 100,000-strong march against the Vietnam War in 1969). We weren't so lucky.
I've often wondered if this lack of a central commons in Minneapolis and most other American communities somehow inhibits our civic expression. With no place to voice our views as citizens, do we become more passive about what happens to our country and our future? I don't know the answer, but I imagine Hosni Mubarak wishes he had built a shopping mall in Tahrir Square.
In the past 24 months, those of us who longed for positive change have gone from hope to heartbreak. But hope is returning to America—at last—thanks largely to the courageous stand of the heroes and heroines of Wisconsin.
Reinvigorated by the idealism and fighting spirit on display right now in America's heartland, the movement for "hope and change" has a rare, second chance. It can renew itself and become again a national force with which to be reckoned.
Over the next hours and days, all who love this country need to do everything possible to spread the "spirit of Madison" to all 50 states. This does not mean we need to occupy 50 state capitol buildings; things elsewhere are not yet that dire. But this weekend, the best of America should rally on the steps of every statehouse in the union.
Moveon.org and others have issued just this kind of call to action; everyone should prioritize responding and turning out in large numbers.
On Saturday, the powers-that-be (in both parties) should see a rainbow force coming together: organized workers, business leaders, veterans, students and youth, faith leaders, civil rights fighters, women's rights champions, immigrant rights defenders, LGBTQ stalwarts, environmentalists, academics, artists, celebrities, community activists, elected officials and more—all standing up for what's right.
And we should announce that our renewed movement is more than just a mobilization to back unions or oppose illegitimate power grabs (as important as those agenda items are). Something more vital is at stake: our country needs a national movement to defend the American Dream itself. And the fight in Wisconsin creates the opportunity to build one.
After all, it is the American Dream that the GOP's "slash and burn" agenda is killing off. We need a movement dedicated to renewing the idea that hard work pays in our country; that you can make it if you try; that America remains a land committed to dignity, justice and opportunity for all. Right now, this very idea is on the GOP chopping block. And we must rescue it now—or risk losing it forever.
America will not make it through this crisis healthy and whole if—at the first sign of trouble—we are willing to throw away millions of our everyday heroes. Our teachers, police officers, firefighters, nurses and others make our communities and country strong. Their daily work is essential to the smooth functioning and long-term success of our nation. An attack on them is an attack on the backbone of America.
Nobody objects to politicians cutting budgetary fat. But the GOP program everywhere is so reckless that it would actually cut muscle, bone, and marrow, too. This approach is both shortsighted and immoral. We should rise up against it—in our millions.
Both parties should be taking steps to solve the country's problems in a balanced, fair and rational way. If deficits are truly the issue, then raising taxes and cutting spending both should be on the table, as tools. But Wisconsin's governor recently handed out massive corporate tax breaks, reducing the state's revenues. That move greatly added to the problem he now wants to fix by attacking essential services with a meat axe. A slew of GOP governors in places like Ohio are gearing up to take similar approaches.
If a foreign power conspired to inflict this much damage on America's first responders and essential infrastructure, we would see it as an act of war.
And if a foreign dictator unilaterally announced that his nation's workers no longer had a seat at the bargaining table in their own country, the U.S. establishment would rightfully go bananas.
If Republicans would oppose that kind of thuggery abroad, how can they champion it here at home?
How can they accept for the American people what they would denounce for the people of any other nation on Earth?
GOP governors in multiple states are advancing schemes to erase the long-standing rights of American employees to choose a union and bargain collectively. We need to call these outrageous plots what they are: un-American and unacceptable. They are not just assaults on workers; they are assaults on the American Way itself.
It is time to draw a line in the sand—nationally. Someone has to stand up for common sense and fairness. It is time to use all nonviolent means to defend the American people and our American principles from these abuses.
Wisconsin: The First Stop in an American Uprising?
If we take a bold and courageous stand, over time, we can win. Make no mistake about it: this is our "Tea Party" moment—in a positive sense.
In fact, we can learn many important lessons from the recent achievements of the libertarian, populist right. Don't forget: even after the Republican's epic electoral defeat in 2008, a right-wing uprising was still able to smash public support for "new New Deal" economics. Along the way, it revived the political fortunes of the GOP.
A popular outcry from the left could just as easily shatter the prevailing bipartisan consensus that America is suddenly a poor country that cannot possibly help its people meet our basic needs.
The truth is that we don't live Bangladesh or Malawi. America is not a poor country. The public has just been hypnotized into believing that the richest and most creative nation on Earth has only two choices in this crisis: massive austerity (as championed by the Tea Party/Republicans) or semi-massive austerity (as meekly offered by too many DC Democrats). It is ridiculous.
Fortunately, the people in Wisconsin know that. So they are fighting courageously. Their efforts could blossom into a compelling, national force for the good—offering a powerful alternative to those false choices.
And while our re-born movement needs to be as clear and bold as the Tea Parties, we must base our efforts on a deeper set of American values.
The Tea Party attached itself to only a single American principle. And it identifies itself with only one moment in our distant past: the Boston Tea Party, symbolizing "no taxation without representation."
That is an important moment and concept. But the notion of "negative liberty" ("don't tread on me!") is only one principle among many that make our country great. Other equally vital American values and ideals (like justice, opportunity, fairness, and democracy) have gone largely undefended and unheralded, in this recent crisis. That ends—now. Our rising movement should stand for the full suite of American values and principles.
And the American ideal most in need of defense is our most essential one: the American Dream.
The steps needed to renew and redeem the American Dream are straightforward and simple:
These are not radical notions. They are the common sense ideas that form the core of who we are as a nation. We can rally Americans, once again, to stand up for these values. We can make America, once again, a land where it is safe for everyday people to dream
We will prevail because—in truth—we are not in a right-wing period of American history, nor are we in a left-wing period. We are simply in a volatile period.
Signs of the Times
Some of the best signs and slogans from the Wisconsin protests.
And during times like these, we can take comfort in knowing that a great nation will ultimately pull its answers—not from its ideological extremes—but from its deep, moral center.
By standing up for dignity, equal opportunity and fair play, the Wisconsin workers have found their way to America's great moral center. They have shown us all, at last, the way back home. By standing with them, we reclaim what is best in our country.
April 15, 2009, marked the beginning of the national movement to remember the Tea Party and pull America to the ideological right.
Let Saturday, February 26, 2011, mark the beginning of the national movement to renew the American Dream and return us to the moral center—where everybody counts, and everybody matters.
University of Wisconsin student Matt Wisniewski created this video from two days of footage taken in the Wisconsin state capitol building, where teachers, fire fighters, and others have been rallying in defense of union rights for the last week.
The protests have drawn tens of thousands of public workers and their supporters in opposition to a proposed bill that would cut their wages, benefits, and right to bargain collectively. Solidarity protests have been reported in a number of other states.
Click here to view the photo essay.
In Madison, Wisconsin, public workers—and their supporters—have been protesting by the tens of thousands, night and day, at the state's capitol building. They're hoping to block a proposed bill that would curb workers' wages, benefits, and bargaining rights.
For days, teachers, students, firefighters, and many others offered uninterrupted testimony in the capitol, explaining why they want to protect the rights and livelihoods of Wisconsin's middle class.
But they may be equally eloquent in the homemade signs they're carrying:
"My teachers, my mom, and my granny r NOT public enemies," reads one girl's poster. "Union workers: When we get screwed, we multiply," says another.
Click here for a slideshow of signs and slogans from the Madison protests.
The uprising that swept Tunisia, Egypt, and parts of Europe is showing signs of blossoming across the United States.
In Wisconsin, public employees and their supporters are drawing the line at Governor Scott Walker's plan to eliminate collective bargaining and unilaterally cut benefits. School teachers, university students, firefighters, and others descended on the capital in the tens of thousands, and even the Superbowl champion Green Bay Packers have weighed in against the bill. Protests against similar anti-union measures are ramping up in Ohio.
Meanwhile, another protest movement aimed at protecting the poor and middle class is in the works. Cities around the country are preparing for a February 26 Day of Action, "targeting corporate tax dodgers."
The strategy picks up on the UK Uncut campaign, begun when a group at a London pub—a firefighter, a nurse, a student, and others—came up with an idea that is part flash mob, part sit-in. In an article published in the Nation, reporter Johann Hari tells the story of the group's frustration about government cutbacks. If Vodafone, one corporation with a huge back-tax bill, paid up, the cutbacks wouldn't be needed. The group spread the word over social media, and held loud, impolite demonstrations. The idea quickly went viral, and flash mobs/sit-ins materialized at retail outlets across Britain, shutting many of them down.
Now, a US Uncut group has formed and announced a February 26 Day of Action here to coincide with UK Uncut's planned protests on the same day. Already, a dozen local events are planned [UPDATE: As of Feb 21, there are 30 local events listed on the US Uncut website]. Some groups are keeping quiet about their targets, but several are targeting Bank of America. The goal, according to a statement on the US Uncut website, is "to draw attention to the fact that Bank of America received $45 billion in government bailout funds while funneling its tax dollars into 115 offshore tax havens [...] And to highlight the fact that the poor and middle class are now paying for this largess through drastic government cuts."
Across the country, the poor and middle class have suffered from the economic collapse: jobs disappeared, mortgages sank underneath debt, and opportunities for a college education evaporated. Much of the bailout that was supposed to fix the economy went to the very institutions that caused the collapse. Many of these institutions are now using tax loopholes and offshore tax shelters to avoid paying taxes.
It took some time for a political response to coalesce. The Tea Party movement was able to direct discontent away from the Wall Street titans who brought the economy to its knees. Funding from the Koch brothers' petro-fortune along with fawning attention from Fox News helped get the libertarian movement off the ground. But progressives remained fragmented and few built active, organized bases. Many waited for President Obama to act.
The tide may now be turning. Inspired by people-power movements around the world, people in the United States are beginning push back. The poor and middle class, those who didn't cause the collapse but have felt the most pain from the poor economy, are now being asked to sacrifice again.
Politicians are scurrying to cut spending, but fewer than one in five Americans say the federal budget deficit is their chief worry about the economy, according to a new poll by the Pew Research Center; 44 percent say they're most worried about jobs. Polls show that Americans also want spending for education, investment in infrastructure, and environmental protection. Yet spending in all these areas is up for drastic cuts in state and federal budgets.
Signs of the Times
The best signs and slogans from the Wisconsin protests.
Likewise, on the tax side, 59 percent of Americans opposed extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest, according to a Bloomberg poll. Congress cut the taxes anyway, and the package will cost $800 billion over just two years.
Until now, polls have been one of the few places where anger at government policies that favor the rich while cutting service to the middle-class has been visible. But the crowds in Madison and the momentum of US Uncut tell us that may be about to change.
As a statement on the US Uncut website puts it: "We demand that before the hard-working, tax-paying families of this country are once again forced to sacrifice, the corporations who have so richly profited from our labor, our patronage, and our bailouts be compelled to pay their taxes and contribute their fair share to the continued prosperity of our nation. We will organize, we will mobilize, and we will NOT be quiet!"
Here's a "how-to" from UK Uncut:
Less than two weeks ago, the Green Bay Packers—the only fan-owned, non-profit franchise in major American sports—won the Super Bowl, bringing the Lombardi trophy back to Wisconsin. But now, past and present members of the "People's Team" are girding up for one more fight and this time, it's against their own governor, Scott Walker.
Walker, after the Super Bowl victory, bathed himself sensuously in the team's triumph, declaring at a public ceremony that February was now Packers Month. He oozed praise for the franchise named in honor of the state's packing workers. But just days later, the governor offered cutbacks, contempt, and even the threat of violence for actual state workers.
Walker has unveiled plans to strip all public workers of collective bargaining rights and dramatically slash the wages and health benefits of every nurse, teacher, and state employee. Then, Walker proclaimed that resistance to these moves would be met with a response from the Wisconsin National Guard. Seriously.
Yes, in advance of any debate over his proposal, Governor Walker put the National Guard on alert by saying that the guard is "prepared" for "whatever the governor, their commander-in-chief, might call for." Considering that the state of Wisconsin hasn't called in the National Guard since 1886, these bizarre threats did more than raise eyebrows. They provoked rage.
Robin Eckstein, a former Wisconsin National Guard member, told the Huffington Post, "Maybe the new governor doesn't understand yet—but the National Guard is not his own personal intimidation force to be mobilized to quash political dissent. The Guard is to be used in case of true emergencies and disasters, to help the people of Wisconsin, not to bully political opponents."
Already this week, as many as 100,000 people have marched at various protests around the state with signs that reflect the current moment like "If Egypt Can Have Democracy, Why Can't Wisconsin?" "We Want Governors Not Dictators," and the pithy "Hosni Walker."
But also intriguing is the intervention from past and present members of the Super Bowl Champs. Current players Brady Poppinga and Jason Spitz and former Packers Curtis Fuller, Chris Jacke, Charles Jordan, Bob Long and Steve Okoniewski issued the following statement:
We know that it is teamwork on and off the field that makes the Packers and Wisconsin great. As a publicly owned team we wouldn't have been able to win the Super Bowl without the support of our fans. It is the same dedication of our public workers every day that makes Wisconsin run. They are the teachers, nurses and child care workers who take care of us and our families. But now in an unprecedented political attack Governor Walker is trying to take away their right to have a voice and bargain at work. The right to negotiate wages and benefits is a fundamental underpinning of our middle class. When workers join together it serves as a check on corporate power and helps ALL workers by raising community standards. Wisconsin's longstanding tradition of allowing public sector workers to have a voice on the job has worked for the state since the 1930s. It has created greater consistency in the relationship between labor and management and a shared approach to public work. These public workers are Wisconsin's champions every single day and we urge the Governor and the State Legislature to not take away their rights.
The players who signed on don't have quite as high a profile as Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers, but give it time. Rodgers is the Packers union representative in negotiations with the NFL, and on Tuesday the players' union issued their own statement in support of state workers, writing:
"The NFL Players Association will always support efforts protecting a worker's right to join a union and collectively bargain. Today, the NFLPA stands in solidarity with its organized labor brothers and sisters in Wisconsin."
The support of the Packers players hasn't been lost on those marching in the streets. Aisha Robertson, a public school teacher from Madison, told me, "It's great to see Packers join the fight against Walker. Their statement of support shows they stand with us. It gives us inspiration and courage to go and fight peacefully for our most basic rights."
Walker no doubt envisioned conflict when he rolled out his plan to roll over the workers of Wisconsin. But I don't think he foresaw having to go toe-to-toe with the Green Bay Packers. As we learned in Egypt, envisioning unforeseen consequences is never an autocrat's strong suit. As we're learning in Wisconsin, fighting austerity is not an Egyptian issue or a Middle Eastern issue—it's a political reality of the 21st century world. And as Scott Walker is learning, messing with cheeseheads can be hazardous to your political health.
Copyright © 2011 The Nation — distributed by Agence Global
This article originally appeared in The Nation.
Imagine a parallel universe where the Great Crash of 2008 was followed by a Tea Party of a very different kind. Enraged citizens gather in every city, week after week—to demand the government finally regulate the behavior of corporations and the superrich, and force them to start paying taxes. The protesters shut down the shops and offices of the companies that have most aggressively ripped off the country. The swelling movement is made up of everyone from teenagers to pensioners. They surround branches of the banks that caused this crash and force them to close, with banners saying, You Caused This Crisis. Now YOU Pay.
As people see their fellow citizens acting in self-defense, these tax-the-rich protests spread to even the most conservative parts of the country. It becomes the most-discussed subject on Twitter. Even right-wing media outlets, sensing a startling effect on the public mood, begin to praise the uprising, and dig up damning facts on the tax dodgers.
Instead of the fake populism of the Tea Party, the movement is based on real populism. It shows that there is an alternative to making the poor and the middle class pay for a crisis caused by the rich. It shifts the national conversation. Instead of letting the government cut our services and increase our taxes, the people demand that it cut the endless and lavish aid for the rich and make them pay the massive sums they dodge in taxes.
This may sound like a fantasy—but it has all happened. The name of this parallel universe is Britain. As recently as this past fall, people here were asking the same questions liberal Americans have been glumly contemplating: Why is everyone being so passive? Why are we letting ourselves be ripped off? Why are people staying in their homes watching their flat-screens while our politicians strip away services so they can fatten the superrich even more?
And then twelve ordinary citizens—a nurse, a firefighter, a student, a TV researcher and others—met in a pub in London one night and realized they were asking the wrong questions. "We had spent all this energy asking why it wasn't happening," says Tom Philips, a 23-year-old nurse who was there that night, "and then we suddenly said, 'That's what everybody else is saying too. Why don't we just do it? Why don't we just start? If we do it, maybe everybody will stop asking why it isn't happening and join in.' It's a bit like that Kevin Costner film Field of Dreams. We thought, If you build it, they will come."
The new Conservative-led government in Britain is imposing the most extreme cuts to public spending the country has seen since the 1920s. The fees for going to university are set to triple. Children's hospitals like Great Ormond Street are facing 20 percent cuts in their budgets. In London alone, more than 200,000 people are being forced out of their homes and out of the city as the government takes away their housing subsidies.
Amid all these figures, this group of friends made some startling observations. Here's one. All the cuts in housing subsidies, driving all those people out of their homes, are part of a package of cuts to the poor, adding up to £7 billion. Yet the magazine Private Eye reported that one company alone—Vodafone, one of Britain's leading cellphone firms—owed an outstanding bill of £6 billion to the British taxpayers. According to Private Eye, Vodaphone had been refusing to pay for years, claiming that a crucial part of its business ran through a post office box in ultra-low-tax Luxembourg. The last Labour government, for all its many flaws, had insisted it pay up.
But when the Conservatives came to power, David Hartnett, head of the British equivalent of the Internal Revenue Service, apologized to rich people for being "too black and white about the law." Soon after, Vodafone's bill was reported to be largely canceled, with just over £1 billion paid in the end. Days later George Osborne, the finance minister, was urging people to invest in Vodafone by taking representatives of the company with him on a taxpayer-funded trip to India—a country where that company is also being pursued for unpaid taxes. Vodafone and Hartnett deny this account, claiming it was simply a longstanding "dispute" over fees that ended with the company paying the correct amount. The government has been forced under pressure to order the independent National Audit Office to investigate the affair and to pore over every detail of the corporation's tax deal.
"It was clear to us that if this one company had been made to pay its taxes, almost all these people could have been kept from being forced out of their homes," says Sam Greene, another of the protesters. "We keep being told there's no alternative to cutting services. This just showed it was rubbish. So we decided we had to do something."
They resolved to set up an initial protest that would prick people's attention. They called themselves UK Uncut and asked several liberal-left journalists, on Twitter (full disclosure: I was one of them), to announce a time and place where people could meet "to take direct action protest against the cuts and show there's an alternative." People were urged to gather at 9:30 a.m. on a Wednesday morning outside the Ritz hotel in central London and look for an orange umbrella. More than sixty people arrived, and they went to one of the busiest Vodafone stores—on Oxford Street, the city's biggest shopping area—and sat down in front of it so nobody could get in.
Main Street Businesses Take on Corporate Tax Havens
Small businesses have decided they're done picking up the slack when Wall Street dodges taxes.
"What really struck me is that when we explained our reasons, ordinary people walking down Oxford Street were incredibly supportive," says Alex Miller, a 31-year-old nurse. "People would stop and tell us how they were terrified of losing their homes and their jobs—and when they heard that virtually none of it had to happen if only these massive companies paid their taxes, they were furious. Several people stopped what they were doing, sat down and joined us. I guess it's at that point that I realized this was going to really take off."
That first protest grabbed a little media attention—and then the next day, in a different city, three other Vodafone stores were shut down in the northern city of Leeds, by unconnected protests. UK Uncut realized this could be replicated across the country. So the group set up a Twitter account and a website, where members announced there would be a national day of protest the following Saturday. They urged anybody who wanted to organize a protest to e-mail them so it could be added to a Google map. Britain's most prominent tweeters, such as actor Stephen Fry, joined in.
That Saturday Vodafone's stores were shut down across the country by peaceful sit-ins. The crowds sang songs and announced they had come as volunteer tax collectors. Prime Minister David Cameron wants axed government services to be replaced by a "Big Society," in which volunteers do the jobs instead. So UK Uncut announced it was the Big Society Tax Collection Agency.
The mix of people who turned out was remarkable. There were 16-year-olds from the housing projects who had just had their £30-a-week subsidy for school taken away. There were 78-year-olds facing the closure of senior centers where they can meet their friends and socialize. A chuckling 64-year-old woman named Mary James said, "The scare stories will say this protest is being hijacked by anarchists. If anything, it's being hijacked by pensioners!" They stopped passersby to explain why they were protesting by asking, "Sir, do you pay your taxes? So do I. Did you know that Vodafone doesn't?"
The police looked on, bemused. There wasn't much they could do: in a few places, they surrounded the Vodafone stores before the protesters arrived, stopping anyone from going in or out—in effect doing the protesters' job for them. One police officer asked me how this tax dodge had been allowed to happen, and when I explained, he said, "So you mean I'm likely to lose my job because these people won't pay up?"
UK Uncut organized entirely on Twitter, asking what it should do next and taking votes. There was an embarrassment of potential targets: the National Audit Office found in 2007 that a third of the country's top 700 corporations paid no tax at all. UK Uncut decided to expose and protest one of the most egregious alleged tax dodgers: Sir Philip Green. He is the ninth-richest man in the country, running some of the leading High Street chain stores, including Topshop, Miss Selfridge and British Home Stores. Although he lives and works in Britain, and his companies all operate on British streets, he avoids British taxes by claiming his income is "really" earned by his wife, who lives in the tax haven of Monaco. In 2005 the BBC calculated that he earned £1.2 billion and paid nothing in taxes—dodging more than £300 million in taxes.
Far from objecting, Cameron's government appointed Green as an official adviser, with special responsibility for "cutting waste." So UK Uncut drew a direct line from Green's tax exemption to the cuts in services for ordinary people. For example, Cameron had just announced the closure of the school sports partnership, which makes it possible for millions of schoolchildren to engage in healthy, competitive exercise. The protesters pointed out that if Green was made to pay taxes, the entire program could be saved, with more than £120 million left as small change. So they declared a day of action.
At the London protests against Green, everybody was asked to turn up at the largest branch of Topshop—again on Oxford Street—and mill around like ordinary shoppers. Once a whistle was blown, they were to start chanting, put on sports clothing to dramatize what was being taken away from schoolchildren and sit down by the counters to stop sales. It was the Saturday before Christmas. There was a strange frisson as everyone turned up and looked around. It was impossible to tell who was a shopper and who was a protester: they looked the same. The whistle blew—and they shut down one of the largest retail stores in Europe.
Across Britain, the same thing was happening. Even in Tunbridge Wells—a town synonymous with ultraconservatism—the Vodafone store was blockaded. Again, many people spontaneously joined in. The protests were all over that evening's TV news. It was the most-read story on the websites of the BBC and the country's most-read newspaper, the Daily Mail. The prime-time Channel 4 News reported, "A more eloquent and informed group of demonstrators would be hard to come across and one is struck by the wide appeal across ages and incomes, of what they had to say." The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have shown how social media can be used to conduct the unfocused rage of a scattered population and harden it into a weapon. UK Uncut shows the same tactics can be used in a democracy—and there is the same need. Unemployment in the United States is at the same level as in Egypt before the uprising: 9 percent.
The UK Uncut message was simple: if you want to sell in our country, you pay our taxes. They are the membership fee for a civilized society. Most of the protesters I spoke with had never attended a demonstration before, but were driven to act by the rising unemployment, insecurity, and austerity that are being outpaced only by rising rewards for the superrich. Ellie Mae O'Hagan, a 25-year-old office worker in Liverpool, one of the most economically depressed places in the country, said she was "absolutely outraged to discover that I was paying more than Philip Green in taxes." She added, "I could see what all the cuts were doing. My brother had been made redundant, loads of my friends were unemployed and I could see it all getting worse, while these bankers get even bigger bonuses. And I thought, 'Right, you've got to do something.' So I e-mailed UK Uncut to ask if there was a protest happening in Liverpool. They said, Not yet, so you organize one. So I spent forty-eight hours arranging one. And a hundred people turned up—an amazing mixture of people, who I had never met, and who didn't know each other—and we shut down both Vodafone stores. Suddenly, it felt like we weren't passive anymore. We were standing up for ourselves."
At every protest, a clear and direct line was drawn from tax avoidance to real people's lives. If they pay their bill, you won't be forced out of your home. If they pay their bill, your grandmother won't lose her government support. If they pay their bill, our children's hospitals won't be slashed.
The protests began to influence the political debate. Public opinion had already been firmly for pursuing tax dodgers, with 77 percent telling YouGov pollsters there should be a crackdown. But by dramatizing and demonstrating this mood, the protesters forced it onto the agenda—and stripped away Cameron's claims that there was no alternative to his cuts.
Polly Toynbee is one of Britain's most influential columnists: imagine Maureen Dowd with principles instead of snark. Toynbee attended the London protests and was manhandled out of Topshop by security guards. She reported later that the protests were being watched very nervously on Downing Street. "It is no coincidence that the government immediately hurried out a 'clampdown' on tax avoidance, collecting £2 billion," she tells me, "or that [its coalition partners] the Liberal Democrats suddenly remembered this was one of their big commitments. Of course, that sum is only a drop in the ocean. But this really was a jolt to the political system. It was hugely important."
But perhaps the most striking response was from the right. One of Britain's most famous businessmen, Duncan Bannatyne, came out in support of the protests, declaring, "We need to rebel against tax dodgers…as Government won't." The Financial Times conceded that "the protesters have a point" but then grumbled about them. Surprisingly, the Daily Mail, Britain's most right-wing newspaper, became one of the movement's most sympathetic allies. The editors could see that their Middle England readers were outraged to be paying more taxes than the superrich. So they ran their own exposé on Philip Green's tax affairs, along with straightforward and detailed reporting of the protests.
The only part of the media that attacked UK Uncut outright was, predictably, Rupert Murdoch's empire. This isn't surprising given that his company, News International, is one of the world's most egregious tax dodgers, contributing almost nothing to the U.S. or UK treasuries. His tabloid the Sun accused UK Uncut of being a "group of up to 30,000 anarchists" scheming "to bring misery to millions of Christmas shoppers," with plans to "set off stink bombs, leave mouldy cheese in clothes and rack up huge sales at tills and then refuse to pay." After one of the people named in the article reported the Sun to the Press Complaints Commission, the newspaper was forced to retract the article by removing it from its website.
But these smear jobs were the best the right could muster. Conservatives ran into hiding, with almost nobody prepared to defend tax avoiders. Only a few stray voices emerged: ultraconservative blogger Tim Montgomerie, regarded as highly influential with Cameron; and Labour MP Tom Harris, our equivalent of a Blue Dog Democrat. They argued that tax avoidance is legal and therefore fine. The protesters responded that they were obviously arguing for a change in the law.
The tax-evasion defenders also tried to argue that a crackdown would "drive away" corporations, to the detriment of the nation. But the corporations are already, for all intents and purposes, "away." They pay nothing to Britain. They have relocated everything they can. They can't, however, physically relocate their British shops to Bangalore. It's impossible. That remnant can certainly be taxed. What are they going to do?
Besides, the right's claim that enforcing fair taxes drives away the rich was recently tested—and proved wrong. Toward the end of the last Labour government, officials increased the top tax rate to 50 percent. (This is still far short of the 90 percent levied on top U.S. taxpayers by President Eisenhower, during the biggest boom in American history.) Conservatives predicted disaster: London Mayor Boris Johnson said it would reduce the city to a ghost town as bankers fled to Switzerland. Yet after the taxes rose, the number of rich people applying for visas to leave Britain for Switzerland actually fell by 7 percent.
After the empirical argument collapsed, a few on the right tried to shift the argument to a moral one. They said that Green "earns all his money on his own," so why should he have to pay any of it back to the rest of us? I responded on TV and in a blog post by suggesting a small experiment. Let's take one branch of Topshop, and for twelve months we'll deny any services funded by collective taxation to that store. When the rubbish piles up, we won't send garbage men to collect it. When the rat outbreak begins, we won't send pest control. When they catch a shoplifter, we won't send the police. When there's a fire, we won't send the fire brigade. When suppliers want to get their goods to the store, there may be a problem: we won't maintain the roads. When the employees get sick, we won't treat them in the publicly funded hospitals. Then let Philip Green come back and tell us he does it all himself.
The last argument of the defenders has been to say it's impossible to do anything about tax havens, so we'll just have to accept them. But this is false. After the 9/11 attacks, the world—under U.S. pressure—passed virtually universal laws to freeze Al Qaeda-related accounts and so prevent them from stashing or accessing money from tax havens. Where there is political will, they can be brought to heel rapidly. In the early 1960s Monaco was refusing to hand over details of French tax dodgers to the French authorities. President Charles de Gaulle surrounded the country with tanks and cut off its water supply until it relented. On a more prosaic level, many countries have integrated into their law something called a General Anti-Avoidance Principle, which stipulates that any act contrary to the spirit of the nation's tax laws is illegal. It slams shut most loopholes overnight.
There has been an obsessive hunt by the media to discover who UK Uncut "really are." They assume there must be secretive leaders pulling the strings somewhere. But the more I dug into the movement, the more I realized this is a misunderstanding. The old protest movements were modeled like businesses, with a CEO and a managing board. This protest movement, however, is shaped like a hive of bees, or like Twitter itself. There is no center. There is no leadership. There is just a shared determination not to be bilked, connected by tweets. Every decision made by UK Uncut is open and driven by the will of its participants. Alongside many people who had never protested, activists from across the spectrum have poured into the movement, from the students occupying their universities to protest the massive hike in fees, to antipoverty groups like War on Want, to trade unions. Indeed, even the trade union at Britain's IRS came out in support, with ordinary tax collectors rebelling against their bosses for letting the rich wriggle out of taxes.
Think of it as an open-source protest, or wikiprotest. It uses Twitter as the basic software, but anyone can then mold the protest. The Western left has been proud of its use of social media and blogging, but all too often this hasn't amounted to much more than clicktivism. By contrast, these protesters have tried at every turn to create a picture of George Osborne, Cameron's finance minister, sitting in his office, about to sign off on another big tax break for a rich person, paid for by cuts to the rest of us. Is a big Facebook group going to stop him? No. Is an angry buzz on the blogosphere going to stop him? No. But what these protesters have done—putting all the online energy into the streets and straight into the national conversation—just might. And by creating a media buzz, it draws in people from far beyond the tech-savvy Twitterverse, with older activist groups—from trade unions to charities—clamoring to join.
"Let Our Tax Cuts Go"
Why some wealthy Americans aren't happy to see their tax cuts continued.
As one UK Uncut participant, Becky Anadeche, explains, "So many campaigns rely on the premise that the less you ask somebody to do, the more likely they are to do it. This campaign has proved the opposite. People who have never even been on a protest before have been organizing them."
British liberals and left-wingers have been holding marches and protests for years and been roundly ignored. So why did UK Uncut suddenly gain such traction? Alex Higgins, another protester, explains, "It's because we broke the frame that people expect protest to be confined to. Suddenly, protesters were somewhere they weren't supposed to be—they were not in the predictable place where they are tolerated and regarded as harmless by the authorities. If UK Uncut had just consisted of a march on Whitehall [where government departments are located], where we listened to a few speakers and went home, nobody would have heard of it. But this time we went somewhere unanticipated. We disrupted something they really value: trade." A wave of bankers' bonuses is due to be announced in February, and it would be surprising if UK Uncut did not respond with a similar program of direct action.
Can this model be transferred to the United States? Remember that a few months ago, Brits were as pessimistic about the possibility of a left-wing rival to the Tea Party as Americans are now. Of course, there are differences in political culture and tax law structure and enforcement, but there are also strong parallels. In the United States the same three crucial factors that created UK Uncut are in place. First, at the state level, Americans are facing severe budget cuts, causing the recession to worsen. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says state governors are acting like "50 Herbert Hoovers…slashing spending in a time of recession, often at the expense both of their most vulnerable constituents and of the nation's economic future."
Second, most of these cuts could be prevented simply by requiring superrich individuals and corporations to pay their taxes. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) calculated in 2008 that eighty-three of the 100 biggest US corporations hide fortunes in tax havens. And even without these shelters, the rich have been virtually exempted from taxes across America. Billionaire Warren Buffet recently conducted a straw poll in his office and found he paid a lower proportion of his income in taxes than anybody else there—and considerably less than his secretary. Indeed, tax expert Nicholas Shaxson says that in many ways "America itself is a tax haven for many rich people." WikiLeaks is poised to release the details of a whole raft of corporations and banks using tax havens in the Cayman Islands, laying out the dodging for all to see.
And third, public opinion is firmly behind going after the rich and corporations. A poll in January for 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair asked Americans which policy they would choose to reduce the deficit. By far the most popular, chosen by 61 percent of respondents, was to increase taxes on the rich. The next most popular, chosen by 20 percent, was to cut military spending. Other polls bear this out.
So Americans are facing the same cuts as the Brits. They are being ripped off by corporations and rich people just like the Brits. And they are as angry as the Brits. "All it takes," says Tom Philips, "is for a few people to do what we did in that pub that night and light the touch paper."
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to go after tax havens. He pointed out that one building in the Cayman Islands claims to house 12,000 corporations, and said: "That's either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record." He promised he would "pay for every dime" of his spending and tax cut proposals "by closing corporate loopholes and tax havens."
Yet in office he hasn't done this. In 2009 Congress passed the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act, which shuffled a few inches forward but still doesn't even require the automatic exchange of information from tax havens that EU law requires as a matter of right. So if a rich person opens a tax account in the Cayman Islands and hides his money there, the IRS isn't told and doesn't know. Yes, President Obama's deficit commission made a few passing noises about closing tax loopholes, but the bulk of its recommendations and energy focused on going after benefits for the poor and middle class, like Social Security.
What should U.S. Uncut target? "It's important to go after brand names that exist in every city in America," says Tom Purley, a UK Uncut participant. "The key to our success was that it was so easily replicated. People could do it anywhere. It took something that seems like a remote issue and connected it to a place they see every day." Most of the companies that engage in the worst tax avoidance in the United States are Big Pharma and financial companies, which don't have stores. But the GAO also named a number of major brands that are exploiting tax havens. They include Apple, Bank of America, Best Buy, ExxonMobil, FedEx (whose president, Frederick Smith, was named by Obama as the businessman he most admires), Kraft Foods, McDonald's, Safeway and Target. That's a wealth of potential targets.
American citizens should ask themselves: I work hard and pay my taxes, so why don't the richest people and the corporations? Why should I pick up the entire tab for keeping the nation running? Why should the people who can afford the most pay the least? If you're happy with that situation, you can stay at home and leave the protesting to the Tea Party. For the rest, there's an alternative. For too long, progressive Americans have been lulled into inactivity by Obama's soaring promises, which come to little. As writer Rebecca Solnit says, "Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky…. Hope is an ax you break down doors with in an emergency." UK Uncut has just shown Americans how to express real hope—and build a left-wing Tea Party.
Copyright © 2011 The Nation — distributed by Agence Global


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subset: commoncrawl


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Let me introduce you to my friend, Greg Richardson. Greg is a spiritual mentor, and executive and organizational coach, in Pasadena, California. Greg has served as a criminal prosecutor, an executive, and a university professor. Greg's website is StrategicMonk.com. You can follow Greg on Twitter at @StrategicMonk, and his Facebook page is strategicmonk.com.
Throughout this year, I want to introduce you to some of my friends. People whose voices I know, respect, and appreciate. Their words often challenge me in my thinking and faith. I hope they'll challenge you, too. Enjoy!
I am learning to recognize the Wonder of the Sacred in unexpected ways.
There have been times when I expected to find wonder in intense emotions. If it is wonder, then it must be pretty dramatic, right? Weeks or months would pass without the jolt of recognition. I would be convinced that either I had missed it, or I was living a life without wonder. If there were no emotional fireworks, no thunder and lightning, then no wonder.
There have also been times when I expected to find wonder through focused analysis. Sacred wonder may not be an experience of the heart, but of the mind. If I could work it out intellectually, searching for deep truths by weighing the evidence and measuring accurately. I found some complex, serious questions that I could not work out to my own satisfaction. Again, I came to see that I must be missing something.
Continue Reading...


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It's happened several times: I'll be chattering away with a friend in Japanese, and they'll sneeze, and without even thinking about it I'll revert back to English to say "bless you." Is there a set phrase in Japanese I can use after someone sneezes?
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- Anybody can ask a question
- Anybody can answer
- The best answers are voted up and rise to the top
Here are the results from a small poll on Facebook. Six native Japanese replied. The results can be interpreted as:
And here are the actual results (I didn't create any of the options, it was a blank poll when I asked the question):
In my understanding, Japanese normally does not interfere with other's personal stuff most of time. So, they don't use those after sneeze. But if influenza is hot during that time, they may ask "Are you ok?".
And some people think that silent and unchanged facial expresssions are elegent on sneeze here, so there is some sneeze contest 「くしゃみ対決」 by intentional putting some tissues on their nose. And they try to decide least silent and without facial expressions change as winners and some are called 「イケメン」- a slang which means some kind of pretty boy.
But looks like in Okinawa, people use "クスケー" after sneeze, according to this, 2, and origin.
I've researched a bit and it seems that such expression doesn't really exist in Japanese. There is a kind of explanation for this:
In the Western societies, there used to be a belief that sneezes could release one's soul, therefore putting it in danger because it could have been "captured" by lurking evil spirits; or it was believed that the mouth opened would allow those spirits to enter the body.
This point of view had strong religious features which, as we all already may know, weren't this strong in Asian countries or, better, they were totally absent.
We could say that the most similar/close expression, which someone already mentioned in the comments, is
Finally, considering that in Japan the usual is that you don't say anything, and that it's not common if you do, it might be better to follow the local custom.
In Tokyo, currently, people comfortably ignore other people's sneezes. Of course, when your family (or a close friend) sneezes, it is common to ask 風邪ひいた? (caught cold?) or something like that. However, this is equivalent to asking such questions to your family member trembling or looking pale.
A common Japanese experience in the US: when they sneeze, someone speaks a short phrase, but it is confusing because they have no idea what is going on.
Seven hundred years ago, when someone sneezed, they or people around them said くさめ. That practice has disappeared although the noun for a sneeze is still くしゃみ.
Absolutely nothing. Seriously.
During my 5 years working in Japan, I normally just heard "are you ok?", which is "Daijyobu?"
大丈夫ですか? Simply saying that is enough to smooth the conversation or whatever. But I still believe it depends on various situations.
Depends on the number of times you've sneezed.
I've been in Japan 3 years myself and haven't heard anyone respond to my sneezes. Although I'm American, I never say "bless you" to anyone in the states or here in Japan. As long as they're not sneezing on me, I feel like nothing needs to be said.
I have to agree with other posters that it gets pretty annoying to hear bless you all the time. I worked at a place where one lady would say pardon me. I swear that woman sneeze at least 20x in an hour. I finally brought earplugs to work to drown her out!


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I have the following code:
mxd["C1"] = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(fRoot, filename))
mxd["C2"] = [arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(os.path.join(fRoot, filename))]
C1 creates a geoprocessing Map object
C2 creates a MapDocument object
What is the difference between them in terms of functionality and/or limitations?
UPDATE: Still not really sure what the difference is but found out in order to run my program I required to have geoprocessing Map objects and not MapDocument objects.
Things like mxd.save(), and assigning the dataframe only seem to work with the geoprocessing object.


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/ Climbing in the Peaks this weekend
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Week 8 of the high school football season is here and Weir High is still looking for its first win and getting that elusive win will be tough this week as 5-2 Steubenville Catholic Central comes to town for a 7 p.m. start at Jimmy Carey Stadium on Senior Night.
The Crusaders have become known for the passing game since Brenton Colabella stepped on the field three years ago as a freshman. Now a junior, Colabella has already established school passing records and is leading the Crusaders to a possible playoff spot.
Meanwhile, Weir High coach Tony Filberto continues to piece together a lineup full of freshmen and sophomores. With eight freshmen in the lineup, the Red Riders went down 51-12 to once-beaten Magnolia.
"We just don't have the upper classmen with experience, but our five seniors are very good leaders and great kids," said Filberto, who is in his first year back as Weir High head coach.
"They're a dangerous team right now because they are a hungry team," said second-year Central mentor Steve Daley. "They have a lot of younger kids playing. Those kids are excited to be getting varsity experience. They have some talent and some athletic ability.
"Weir's going to be gunning for that first win and that's what makes them dangerous and that's what we have to guard against."
Harrison Central at Indian Creek
Each week in the Buckeye 8, there's game that has major implications toward the postseason. This week's site for that one is Kettlewell Memorial Stadium.
The red-hot Indian Creek Redskins will play host to Harrison Central, which is trying to rebound after a bitter loss to Bellaire last Friday in Cadiz.
Both coaches - Andrew Connor and Justin Kropka - are stressing to their players this week that they can't get caught looking at the past.
The Huskies scored 28 points in the first half last week and were blanked in the final 24 minutes and fell on a last-second field goal by the Big Reds.
"I think kids get over things faster than the coaches do most of the time," Kropka said. "Our kids will be ready to play. The good and bad thing about high-school age kids is they lose and they're ready to go again quickly, but when you win, they sometimes forget what it was that got them to that point."
The Redskins, meanwhile, are seeking their fourth win in a row since losing to St. Clairsville in Week 3. They earned a cherished victory at Martins Ferry last Friday.
"That was definitely a big win for our program," Connor said. "We were down a couple of starters, lost two more starters during the game and the kids responded. We lost the turnover battle, had some penalties, but we found a way to get it done. That's just a credit to our kids."
The battle of U.S. Route 22 has been an entertaining series since it started a few years back.
"It's turned into a really good rivalry," Connor said. "The schools are close in proximity to each other and obviously it's a big game for the postseason."
The Redskins made a big leap in the Division III computer rankings. They're sitting in third, while the Huskies are now holding down the eighth spot.
"We're looking at this week pretty much the same way we looked at last week," Kropka said. "We feel if we can win this week, we'll probably be in the playoffs. Creek is a really good team worth a lot of points. I just want to see us play well and play up to our potential."
Edison at Martins Ferry
The scoreboard showed an Edison loss following the Wildcats' Week 7 game with undefeated St. Clairsville, but with eight starters out for various reasons those close to the team knew their effort was a winning one.
"I'm proud of our effort last week," said Edison head coach Mike McKenzie. "We fought throughout the entire game and never quit. We played maybe our best game of the year.
"They just had a little more speed on the field at times and were able to hit big plays because of it. They represented themselves well with their effort and showed a lot of heart.
"We told the kids Friday night they were winners due to their effort in the face of adversities."
Today the Wildcats (1-6) face a 5-2 Martins Ferry team coming off a 27-14 loss to Indian Creek.
The Purple Riders offense is much like they have consistently run through the years, only this season they run it slightly different according to McKenzie.
"Offensively they're similar to Harrison Central," he said. "This year they run a little more shotgun. It reminds me of '08 when (Jeremy) Murray was a senior. They still run their normal counter tre, power, iso offense, but it comes out of different sets.
"We have to stop the run, and have to be aware of their passing game. The (Cody) Schau kid is an excellent receiver.They are a typical Martins Ferry team in that they'll try to power the ball, but they do it from different looks."
Oak Glen at East Liverpool
It has become known as the "Battle of the Bridge," which means the annual gridiron meeting between Oak Glen and East Liverpool is a rivalry.
The Golden Bears (4-3), who escaped last week with a 26-20 overtime win at Tyler Consolidated, hit the road again this week traveling to East Liverpool (1-6) for its third straight away game.
"We've had two good road victories that were huge confidence builders after we lost three in a row, and we're hoping to get another this week," said first-year Golden Bears coach Ian Whittington. "We want to keep the train rolling."
Whittington admits that with three defeats, the Bears have their backs to the wall trying to make it into the playoffs. After an open date next week they play state-ranked Point Pleasant, which jumped to the AAA classification this year and Magnolia, which dropped to Class A.
"Our schedule keeps getting tougher and tougher," he said.
The teams have played one common opponent in Indian Creek. The Redskins beat East Liverpool 26-12 and the following week downed Oak Glen by 41-9.
The Potters mix up their offensive sets, according to Whittington. He said they run out of the shotgun and pistol formations and also like to pack it in tight and run a big fullback.
Buckeye Local at St. Clairsville
The St. Clairsville Red Devils have passed the first seven tests of the season with flying colors.
The Buckeye Local Panthers are the next team up to try to slow down the Red Devils, who are on a collision course with a return trip to the Division IV postseason and quite possibly the top seed in the Region 15 tournament in three weeks.
The Panthers, who are coming off a hard-earned win at Union Local, will get their chance tonight at Red Devil Stadium.
"They're a good football team and it's going to take a great effort to come out of that thing alive," said rookie Panthers' head coach Phil Pest. "Having said that, we're going to practice hard all week and work on getting better and go out there and give it our best shot."
The Red Devils went on the road to Richmond last week and scored 56 points, but Brett McLean and company came home feeling a little bit less than fully satisfied.
"There was good and bad last week," McLean said. "The expectations are higher than they've normally been, but Edison played pretty well, controlled the ball and made some plays."
McLean has been stressing to his squad that it can't take anyone lightly at anytime. He especially won't let that happen this week since St. C. needed a late touchdown to post a 26-22 victory in Yorkville.
The Red Devils' offense has been scoring points in bunches this season. St. C. averages more than 50 points a week.
"They're very talented with all of their Division I prospects," Pest said. "They're quarterback is very good. We're going to try to matchup with them the best we can. We know they're going to get some yardage, so we have to try to keep the ball and control the clock as best we can."
Big Red at Morgantown
Morgantown likes to run the football. Big Red's defense has been pretty good when it comes to slowing down the rushing attack of its opponents. Thus, something will have to give when the teams collide today at Pony Lewis Field.
The 5-1 Mohigans compiled 428 rushing yards in last week's 42-39 victory over Wheeling Park. All six of the Morgantown touchdowns came on the ground. For the season, they've run for 1,967 stripes.
"I'll put it this way, if you don't stop the run, you're in for a long night," Big Red's Reno Saccoccia said.
Chazzy Thomas, a 5-9, 179 junior, had a huge game for John Bowers' club, chewing up the Patriot defense for 303 yards and four scores. He recorded scoring jaunts of 2, 50, 4 and 22. In just six games, Thomas has 1,103 and 15 touchdowns.
Park coach Chris Daugherty called Thomas "the whole package."
"He can run tough then he can bounce out and go 70 on you," Daugherty said. "I think he's probably the best back we've seen to date."
Saccoccia noted Thomas "runs hard and finishes his runs. Their offensive line does an excellent job of leading the way for him. The line is strong when it comes to picking up blitzes and games."
Jalen Thomas (5-6, 234), Alex Weidman (5-9, 185) and Shane Commodore (6-2, 195) also get some carries for Bowers, the Brooke High graduate.
Mark Johnson (6-3, 178) directs the Morgantown offense. In six games, he has thrown just 62 passes, completing 36 for 537 yards. Shane Wolfley (6-4, 220) and Blaine Stewart (6-2, 186) are Johnson's primary targets.
Brooke at Parkersburg South
The Brooke Bruins are coming off a bye week and head to Parkersburg South today.
"It was a good chance for us to have a couple of long weekends and pretty good practices in the middle of the week where we worked on fundamentals," said first-year coach Sean Blumette. "We just cleaned up what we do. We didn't get too much into the game plan. We kept is fun and fresh as much as we could.
"I'm still adjusting to that bye week. You have to have a different approach."
The Bruins are coming off a 34-33 victory over then-No. 4 ranked Point Pleasant. It was Brooke's first victory of the season, and an impressive one, considering it was on the road.
"We have to do what we did in the second half at Point Pleasant and that is to execute and eliminate the mistakes," he said. "The bye week hit us at a great time. Both the guys we lost at the Wheeling Park game have come back to practice. We are as healthy as we can be for eight weeks into the season.
"If we match our intensity this week that we had at Point Pleasant, we definitely have a chance to go down and win a game.
"But, we still have to be fundamentally sound. I'm not a guy who is going to change schemes each week. We will go with our game plan and try to get it done.
"I think we have everything where we want it."
Parkersburg South is 4-3 and ranked No. 15 in the West Virginia Class AAA poll.
Madonna vs. Notre Dame at FSU
As the Madonna Blue Dons leap-frogged into the top 10 of the West Virginia Class A football teams with the 15-14 come from behind win over Bishop Donahue last week, they burst into the meat of their schedule impressively.
The win vaulted the Blue Dons (5-1) to No. 8 in the standings, but coach Doug Taylor finds his team facing another West Virginia parochial school on the road this week.
The game will be played on the turf at Fairmont State University, where Notre Dame (3-3) plays all of its home games.
"Yes, you could say we're into the meat of our schedule, but at the same time we can't afford to look ahead," Taylor said. "We're, like the old cliche, taking them one game at a time. We keep saying our goal is to get to the playoffs and be one of the home teams, but to do that we have to keep winning each week."
The trip to Fairmont is the middle game of a three-game road trip for the Blue Dons, who travel across the river to play Steubenville Catholic Central next week.
"We're glad to come out of Moundsville with a win last week," said Taylor. "It was a hostile environment, they had homecoming and then we gave up a big play early that put us in a hole. But we were patient, stayed with our game plan and began to move the ball in the second half. We got into Donahue territory a couple of times and couldn't score, but I just had the feeling that eventually we were going to put the ball in the end zone and we did."


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Source: ConsumerFed
quote: Why do performance models have to be wiped off the map just to fit a fleet average, they are reducing the choice for everyone and producing cars. Doesnt seem right to me.
quote: Which performance cars have been wiped off the map? There's more fast cars than ever IMO. Look at the acceleration times of the 6 speed manual V6 Honda Accord coupe.
quote: Well the NSX died. That was the epitomy of the V6 Honda for a start.
quote: Nearly every grocery getter has 250+ hp
quote: There are about 3 corner case of rear-wheel drive cars under $25k.
quote: EVs will eventually make performance upgrades have no compromises and much more common
quote: EV's geared towards performance will always require a larger battery aka more energy storage.


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TimeWise® Skin Care eCatalog
That's what eight out of 10 women said after using TimeWise® Even Complexion Dark Spot Reducer in an independent consumer study.* Here's what else they said:
*Results reflect the percentage of panelists who agreed with the statements during a six-week independent consumer study.
Dark spots and skin discoloration are often caused by sun exposure or irritation associated with acne blemishes (on bronze skin tones). These triggers activate pigment-producing cells that form melanin, which eventually travels to the surface of the skin, causing freckles, dark spots and uneven coloration to appear.
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In just one week, the look of dark spots appear less noticeable.* After three weeks, a more uniform-looking skin tone is revealed.* And with continuous use, you'll see dramatic results.** The rollerball design directly targets dark spots, freckles, age spots and marks from past breakouts on any skin tone.
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This hardworking complex contains:


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Southeast Nebraska Community Action is asking residents to keep their eyes peeled for a stolen Salvation Army kettle.
The 10-inch red, metal kettle was stolen from the counter at Casey's General Store in Nebraska City at 4 a.m. on Nov. 28. It has a Salvation Army sticker on top and contact information SENCA.
It was one of four mini-kettles available for donations in Otoe County. Kettles are also located at the American National Bank, Farmers Bank and Casey's store in Syracuse.
Mary Bennett of SENCA's Otoe County outreach said volunteers are still being signed up to be bell ringers prior to Christmas. She said there is the potential for three sites in Otoe County.
Volunteers can call Bennett at 402-873-6459.
Location, ST | website.com


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CORYELL COUNTY (February 13, 2013)--Two meetings were held Tuesday to allow residents in Coryell County to give their input on some possible polling changes.
About 25 people attended a meeting in Gatesville and almost 50 attended the meeting in Copperas cove, said Tax Assessor Collector Justin Carothers.
The meetings covered a county-wide polling place program.
Carothers said feedback from residents was split with about half in favor of the change.
The Commissioners Court is expected to vote on the program on February 25 at 9 am in Gatesville. If approved, the county will have 10 all electronic polling locations, and voters will be able to cast their ballots anywhere.


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- Hartman Arena
- Intrust Bank Arena
- Johnson County Community College - Yardley Hall
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- Kansas Speedway
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- more
- Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
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a spoilt, middle class, white boy who thinks he was born and raised in Compton, wears his clothes in a backward ass manner, bombards anyone in range with his loveless Spotify playlists and whines about anything and everything, including spliff politics.
Stop being such a Jago man!
by BadMan678 November 05, 2010
Trending Now
Top Definition
To throw something entirely unreasonable, such as a mattress, microwave, or live animal, out of the window for no good reason.
I didn't feel like calling up the geek squad and getting my computer fixed, so I just jagoed that shit.
by ppppppppppppppppp May 06, 2007
1) An acronym for the independent film production company, "JAGO Productions" LLC.. Which stands for Just Authentic Genuine and Original Productions.
2) A popular character in the video game, Killer Instinct.
2) A popular character in the video game, Killer Instinct.
JAGO Productions, LLC are the creators of great independent films.
by Solomon Tubbs-Foster November 12, 2006
To jerk off in a sock while driving on long road trips of atleast 100 miles. After cumming, throw it out the window onto the road.
On the way home I pulled a JAGO thinking about your mom.
by Elliot206 October 16, 2007
Italian slang word for a sweaty horse pussy.
You'll never be anything more than a filthy Jago!
by brave juice box May 29, 2011
A legend in their own right. However does tend to knob children.
That Jago just grabbed my willy.
by Jamesie Dick October 22, 2004
Fittest newsreader ever. It's now become an adjective.
You're a bit Jago!
by Anonymous October 18, 2003
When you are craving for both juggs and tacos. Therefore, you want jagos.
Mike: Look at those jugs! Damn i can sure go for some tacos right now!
Elroy: You have a bad case of the jagos
Elroy: You have a bad case of the jagos
by Lobe Brames May 15, 2011


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- I can buy cloud space from ubuntu one instead of dropbox, etc .... right?
- Does buying system76 computers help canonical in anyway?
What else can we do? Please add to this list.
What else can we do? Please add to this list.
Canonical provides support services that you can use. Check these links for more details:
Indirectly, you can convince organisations/companies/universities to switch to Ubuntu by citing the benefits that they will get from free and open source software (FOSS). This way, if these organisations/companies/universities opt for the Canonical Support services, Canonical will get more profits!
Other than support services, you can buy accessories and software (including Ubuntu CD/DVDs) as well from the Canonical Store in general.
You can buy merchandise on Canonical Store, there are a lot of good things. I bought some pens, the A5 notebook, and some Ubuntu CDs. Now I'm waiting for Oneiric release for buying CDs with the new beautiful Polo Shirt!
And surely, you can help Canonical spreading Ubuntu, this is the greatest contribuite, specially in business.
Where Canonical makes money is in many different areas. The simplest way most can help is to advocate purchasing support - Ubuntu Advantage - especially in the enterprise.
Basically, if you use Ubuntu in your business please contribute. For most businesses that means buying Ubuntu Advantage.


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Most large torrent files (8-20 gb) take quite a while to download. Is there software for Mac OS X that allows me to watch them while downloading?
The torrent client
Previously I used BitThief. It is developed by a technology institute in Zurich. It didn't have a polished GUI and took a little bit too much CPU while downloading.
There's new client I found thanks to @diimdeep. It is called qbittorrent and it is awesome.
You can see that while downloading it downloads as a normal torrent client – the parts are downloaded randomly:
But there is an option:
After that we can see that the rest of the file is being downloaded sequentially (blue – downloaded, green – requested):
The connection speed
How can we tell if the speed is good enough? By the estimated time of arrival (ETA):
If the movie is 1.5 hours and the ETA is 17 minutes, then the speed is sufficient.
The player
The player is and always has been mplayer (I don't know why the domain is Hungarian)
I use MplayerX - a nice OSX gui. Download and associate movie files with mplayer (avi, mkg):
The final step is to to play the file after the downloading started:
That's it.
Happy watching.
Yes. There are three requirements:
# 3 is trivial. Although you could cope with slower connection, if you download enough buffer for playback.
# 1 is somewhat trivial. VLC can start the playback of a file if the file's headers are downloaded (first pieces of the file). Seeking is a bit limited and I don't remember correctly if VLC stops when encountering a (too long) gaps in video. On Windows I've used GOM Player, which was more laid-back with missing frames.
# 2 is counter-intuitive. While many clients allow you to prioritise the files, prioritising pieces is less common. This is simply because torrents are designed to transfer big sets of data fast. A large reason why torrents are faster or more efficient than an ordered transfer of a file is due to the fact that torrents pick the easy fruits - whatever parts of the file are available from the least loaded / closest source are what get downloaded first. Statistically, you should expect to be missing key parts of the beginning of the video until the transfer is almost complete.
The speed is achieved by initially splitting the file(s) to pieces, sending the pieces to the clients in the network and then all the clients will share and merge the different pieces. The operation is best described with an animation found in BitTorrent's Wikipedia article.
Unfortunately I can't recommend any torrent clients that give you the option to prioritise the pieces—if there even are any—as I've never really had the need.
Also note that BitTorrent isn't exactly designed for playback while downloading (QED), but for just sharing data. You might get better luck with on–demand video rental services available in your area, which usually use software and protocols specifically designed for HD-playback over the net.
Sadly that leaves out lots of great indie content. Maybe the best way to deal with the issue is to gain patience or plan more ahead :-)
http://www.qbittorrent.org at least can download sequentially
No, because Torrent download files in chunks and not sequentially, so you cannot be sure to download the various pieces of the file in the required order to view it.
You can try a specialized Torrent client (like Miro), but I do not believe if will works.
There is a program called Vuze that is available but requires a yearly subscription of $25 for streaming while still downloading.
I found this question when searched for same things
And I found at least two free working solution not yet listed here:
currently, there are only window and Linux clients that support this feature
q torrent - windows - linux
utorrent 2.1 alpha build - you need videolan
utorrent 3.1 you need to install Videolan or mpcstar
deluge - Linux and windows, Probably Mac you need the Pieces Plug-in,and VLC
Video Tyrant - you need java installed, with vlc
bit-comet 1.32 - windows - works with vlc or mpcstar
NextSharePc European Union project, AKA known as P2p http://trial.p2p-
next.org/ - windows - Linux unsure about mac
http://www.tribler.org/trac - windows , linux , unsure about mac
last one, is of course vuze 5.1 whatever version it is. you need to pay for
the streaming feature.
thats about it.
my recommendations are, bit-comet for private torrent trackers, you can change the user agent in the options which allows you to download from them.
the best public client is Video Tyrant, as it never buffers the video. bit-comet works also really good on public trackers.
streaming 20gbs on a home broadband is impossible, i can guarantee you this your going to experience buffering every 12 seconds you need either 100mbit or 50mbit home connection.
you should download 10mbit per /sec to be able to stream HD torrents.
thats about it.
Source: Youtube tutorial


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John Christy
Director, Earth System Science Center, University of Alabama - Huntsville
Professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. In November 2000 Gov. Don Siegelman appointed him to be Alabama's State Climatologist. Awarded NASA's Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 1991. In January 2002 was inducted as a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society. Received his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science from the University of Illinois in 1987.


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Guest column/Separating fact from fiction
January 13, 2013
The Steubenville community has been put under the microscope because of the terrible allegations of sexual assault stemming from a high school party last August that involved alcohol....
Had the victim been a Steubenville resident as the one back in April of last year who was raped , this would have been swept under the proverbial rug. Because the girl is from Weirton, the corruption of Steubenville / Jefferson County has little means of fear tactics or intimidation.
There is a great article on line entitled " Why No One Trusts Steubenville ". Even media from Europe know of the sleazy reputation " Little Chicago " is known by.
There are so many public officials and the community's social elite involved it is difficult to connect a timeline of why it took so long to act.
Reno Saccoccia looks like both a Soprano goon and a total coward buffoon thanks to the media. Nobody can explain why Saccoccia even has a job and why he has autonomy over the school board, principal, & superintendent. All this REINFORCES to image of Steubenville as a small town entrench in corruption, Ole Boy politics, and even the school system as being dirty.
0 Agrees | 0 Disagrees | Report Abuse »
I cannot believe that the "city" has the audacity to post a "facts" based website....proclaim their transparancy...YET....have the website PRIVATELY registered. Until they stake claim as to who controls information on this site, it should not be trusted. #KYSTEUBY
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From what I can gather.....the Steubenville Facts site is privately registered. So much for transparancy. There is an Arizona phone number attached though. WTH?
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Domain ID:D167508705-LROR Domain Name:STEUBENVILLEFACTS**** Created On:04-Jan-2013 22:06:02 UTC Last Updated On:05-Jan-2013 01:21:33 UTC Expiration Date:04-Jan-2015 22:06:02 UTC Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy****, LLC (R91-LROR) Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED Registrant ID:CR133425092 Registrant Name:Registration Private Registrant Organization:Domains By Proxy, LLC Registrant Street1:DomainsByProxy**** Registrant Street2:14747 N Northsight Blvd Suite 111, PMB 309 Registrant Street3: Registrant City:Scottsdale Registrant State/Province:Arizona Registrant Postal Code:85260 Registrant Country:US Registrant Phone: +1.4806242599 Registrant Phone Ext.: Registrant FAX:+1.4806242598 Registrant FAX Ext.: Registrant Email:@domainsbyproxy**** Admin ID:CR133425096 Admin Name:Registration Private Admin Organization:Domains By P
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Who is the administrator of Steubenville Facts? Just curious as to who can see who is visting the site. I see that they have a BLOG feature which is yet to be enabled. Do yourself a favor......find out who in particular is running/controlling this site before posting a word on it. Again.....WHO HAS THE "keys" TO THE STEUBENVILLE FACTS WEBSITE? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Because they have no record and the judge decided justice would be better served going through the juvenile process. I think what people are forgetting is, it's not just about arresting these boys, sending them away, and throwing away the key. Honestly what would that do for any of the kids involved? The boys need to know why what they did was wrong and I'm in agreement with the Judge I think that would be better served through the juvenile system.
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Why aren't these young men being tried as adults?
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129 search results for Jack Johnson
Jack Johnson - "Jack Johnson & Friends: Best of Kokua Festival"
Type: Event | Date: Tuesday, Apr 17, 20122012 live collection from the singer/songwriter and his musical friends
Jack Johnson - "From Here To Now To You"
Type: Event | Date: Tuesday, Sep 17, 2013Featuring the first single, "I Got You"
Jack Johnson stepping in for Mumford & Sons at Bonnaroo
Type: Article | Date: Friday, Jun 14, 2013Band cancelled Saturday night headlining slot after bassist Ted Dwane fell ill
Jack Johnson, Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse to headline Boston Calling 2014
Type: Article | Date: Tuesday, Jan 28, 2014Memorial Day weekend festival takes place at Boston's City Hall Plaza
Jack Johnson tops Billboard 200 in week crowded with country artists
Type: Article | Date: Wednesday, Sep 25, 2013Jason Moore takes second spot while Keith Urban slides from top spot to No. 8
Jack Johnson and Justin Moore vie for No. 1 on next week's Billboard 200
Type: Post | Date: Saturday, Sep 21, 2013The top five features all new releases
Jack Johnson sets fall tour dates with all proceeds going to charity
Type: Post | Date: Monday, Jun 17, 2013Fresh off Bonnaroo gig, Johnson plans to hit the road again in September
Watch: Jack Johnson dedicates last-minute Bonnaroo set to Mumford & Sons
Type: Article | Date: Sunday, Jun 16, 2013Singer-songwriter filled in for the folk-rockers at Tennessee fest
Jack Johnson announces new super-righteous live album
Type: Article | Date: Thursday, Feb 23, 2012Eddie Vedder, Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews among those featured on forthcoming LP
'New Girl' creator Liz Meriwether talks about life after Nick and Jess' big moment
Type: Post | Date: Thursday, Jan 31, 2013Despite fireworks, the pair are 'definitely not ready to be a couple'