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Guests: David Corn, Clarence Page, Michael Hirsh, Lynn Sweet, David
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Born in the USA.
Let's play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews up in New York. Leading off tonight: Birthright. The birther movement—it's a phony controversy designed by people who want only one thing, to delegitimize Barack Obama's presidency. Neil Abercrombie, the new governor of Hawaii, wants to make it possible to release more evidence to put to rest this nonsense that the president wasn't born in the country. It won't matter to some, of course. As someone once said, don't waste your time arguing with someone whose job depends on not being convinced. But will it member to some?
Plus, remember the moment—this moment from the 2010 election year?
PHIL DAVISON (R-OH), CANDIDATE FOR STARK CTY. TREASURER: My name is Phil Davison, and I am seeking our party's nomination for the position of Stark County treasurer!
MATTHEWS: I remember it now. That piece by Phil Davison, who was running for office in Ohio, was just one of many campaign moments that went viral this year. We'll count them down all through the top five for 2010.
Also, the mere threat of a filibuster has now made it possible to get
not to get anything done in the Senate without 60 votes. Isn't it time to make the minority party actually show up on the Senate floor and talk about the bill they're opposing, like Jimmy Stewart did in the movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"? That's what some Democrats want done next year, and I think it's a great idea, so expect resistance.
And we'll look back at my favorite movies this year and their political angles with the film critic from "New York" magazine. You're going to like this one.
Finally, what was it that made Pennsylvania governor Eddie Rendell so angry yesterday? Check out the "Sideshow."
We start with the so-called birther movement. The new governor of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, wants to put to rest the manufactured controversy, while allowing more information to be released from the records office in Honolulu. David Corn is Washington bureau chief for "Mother Jones" and Clarence Page is, of course, with "The Chicago Tribune."
Gentlemen—of course you are. Let's go to this, a new poll out this year, just to make sure everybody knows why this is still an issue. A "New York Times" poll that came out this past April, asked, "Do you think Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or was he born in some other country? Well, never forget this number -- 58 percent say he was born in the U.S., just 58 percent. A majority, but less than three out of five are willing to say he was born here. Twenty percent said that he was definitely born somewhere else and 23 percent said they don't know, which leaves the president in a somewhat odd position since he is our chief executive in a job that requires being born in this country. Again, only 58 percent agree that he was born here.
Now the governor of—Abercrombie, the newly elected Democratic governor, who grew up and lived with Obama's parents and knew him when he was growing up as a kid, believes it's time to end this nonsense.
So let me ask you gentlemen, why don't—and I am not a birther. I am an enemy of the birthers. This is an actual birth certificate, a long form certificate of live birth in the state of Hawaii. This, on the other hand, is what they release generally to the public, a thinner form. I'm not sure if it has less information, but it's digital, of course, doesn't have signatures on it, and to the birthers is evidence he really ain't one of us.
Clarence, is this going to help, if we get more documentation? And second question, why has the president himself not demanded that they put out the initial documents?
CLARENCE PAGE, "CHICAGO TRIBUNE": The president's got more important things to do, thank goodness that he's more focused on that. Governor Abercrombie himself says that and points out that it is he, the governor, who's bringing this issue up because he was a classmate of Obama's parents. He saw Obama as a baby. And he is tired of people literally lambasting Obama's parents for no good reason. And so he wants to try to put this to rest.
Of course, it won't work because the birthers aren't interested in evidence that Obama was born a U.S. citizen. They only want to hear evidence that he was not, and that's not going to happen.
MATTHEWS: Well, what about going to that 20 percent or 23 percent we showed in the "New York Times" poll that doesn't know, they just want evidence? Is that a group that has a right to get more documentation? And would Abercrombie's position here be the right one, David?
DAVID CORN, "MOTHER JONES": Well, listen, there's enough evidence out there already. There's the certificate that you're holding up. But perhaps even more importantly, there are two birth announcements in Honolulu newspapers. Imagine the conspiratorial mind that would have to have, at the time of his birth—was in 1961 -- plant those things so that one day, he could become president of the United States.
So there's already plenty of information out there that the 20 percent who don't know are willfully ignorant. They just don't want to know. And for the 23 percent, I think of that great movie line, "You can't handle the truth." I think Neil Abercrombie, who is a great progressive Democrat—I loved him when he was in Congress here in Washington—is basically in a mug's game. There's nothing he's going to do that's going to change any mind of anybody out there who already believes this. I mean...
MATTHEWS: But what do you make—are you saying that 43 percent of the country is incorrigibly stupid or resistant to truth? Because we've got the poll that shows that only 58 percent are confident of his birth in this country. So what do you do about those other 43 percent? I'm just asking you. Why isn't Abercrombie on the right trail here to at least go to the 20 or 30 percent—you can't—obviously, the nutcases on the far right who hate this guy aren't going to ever admit that you're right, but why not get to the people who are confused?
CORN: You've lost the 23 percent already. I would just write them off...
MATTHEWS: What do you mean? Forty-three percent of the country is off...
CORN: No, the 23 percent who say that they know...
MATTHEWS: That's—OK, it's 20...
CORN: ... that he wasn't born here.
MATTHEWS: ... actually.
CORN: I would just write them off, send them a holiday card...
MATTHEWS: OK, what about the 23? Are they worth going for?
CORN: I think the 20 percent just don't know because they haven't paid enough attention. If they'd paid enough attention already, the facts that you're holding in your hand would be enough to convince them. They just don't—maybe just don't care enough to know, or they think—this is where the right wing does a good job. They've created enough of a controversy, even a fake controversy, over this that people listening with maybe half an ear, say, Well, I guess I can't—I don't really know because I understand there's some controversy going on here. So that's what's probably brewing with those people.
PAGE: There's also another answer which the questionnaire apparently did not include, and that's the "Don't care" crowd. A lot of those people who don't know don't care enough to look deeper into it because it's just not relevant to their lives, compared to other things they want from the president right now, like helping to turn the economy around.
MATTHEWS: Well, let me tell you what I think is new here. And you're both reporters and you can tell me if I'm right. I think the mere fact that a newly governor of Hawaii, his home state—and it is his home state, I completely agree with you—has begun this effort. Now everybody on the right knows he's begun the effort. Every news person knows it. You guys know it. I know it. So we're going to be paying out—maybe out of the corner of our eye for the next couple weeks, How's Abercrombie doing on his expedition to find the original document with signatures all over it, like our birth certificates, like this one here of somebody who was born at the same—one day before, has all kinds of signatures on it. It's an actual photostat.
Don't we want to know if he can find it? And I don't understand why the governor doesn't just say, Snap it up, who's ever over there in the department of records, send me a copy right now? And why doesn't the president just say, Send me a copy right now? Why doesn't Gibbs and Axelrod say, Let's just get this crappy story...
PAGE: The president doesn't care.
MATTHEWS: ... dead? Why not do it?
PAGE: The president doesn't care. The president's already showed...
MATTHEWS: He doesn't care that 43 percent of the country isn't sure he's an American?
PAGE: Look—look, Chris, that copy that you've got there, the copy that the president has provided on the Web, is all you need, if you're a Hawaiian, to get a passport. Everybody accepts that birth certificate as proof of his citizenship, except the birthers. I don't blame him for just ignoring the crowd.
MATTHEWS: So this is the same document which would be adequate if, say, you wanted to join the CIA.
PAGE: Absolutely.
PAGE: That is proof of his birth in Hawaii.
CORN: And one question here is that the governor has asked for more information. He hasn't said it has to be the long form that you're holding there for somebody else. So if he comes up with other information that is not exactly a long form, will that satisfy or change anybody else's—anybody's view on this?
MATTHEWS: But the department out there just said the other day that there is such a thing. It exists. The original document of his birth is available in storage. They have it in storage, they say.
CORN: Well, I would...
MATTHEWS: If it exists, why not put it out?
CORN: I would—I would...
MATTHEWS: I'm just asking the obvious question. Why not—will there be any harm done by releasing the original document?
PAGE: No.
CORN: I will take the brave position of saying that if they can find it, they should put it out there, and then we can make even more fun of the birthers.
PAGE: I'll take the brave position of saying, yes, put it out there, and the birthers are still not going to believe it. They're going to say, Well, that governor is part of the conspiracy, too, because he's a Democrat.
MATTHEWS: ... you guys are—you know what? You're all dead right. So let's agree three to nothing. It's the new year beginning. Why don't we all say three cheers for Neil Abercrombie, knowing that the next "New York Times" poll taken a week after that will show 20 percent believe everything's bogus, including the fact that anybody who says anything on television is a liar. So let's move on.
Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. It's great to have you on.
PAGE: Thank you, Chris.
CORN: Thank you, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Clarence, I'm sure we've gotten to the bottom of this as much as mortal men can. But have a nice new year.
Coming up: It didn't get her elected senator in California, but Carly Fiorina's "demon sheep" ad was one of the most bizarre in politics ever. We're going to count down the top five best-ever YouTube moments when we come back. We're talking 2010.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Well, now that Rahm Emanuel has his residency question all cleared up out there for his run for Chicago mayor, he's ready to bring in the campaigner-in-chief. No, not fellow Chicago voter Barack Obama, it's Bill Clinton. A campaign spokesman told the Associated Press that Clinton, the former president, will campaign in January for Emanuel. He used to work for him in the White House. Chicago's mayoral primary is coming up quick, February 22nd.
We'll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. Our friends at Politico have rounded up the top YouTube political highlights and lowlights this year. Here to share in the fun and preview—or review, rather, a few from Politico are Politico's own Ken Vogel and the PoliticsDaily.Com's Alex Wagner.
Let's start with the Republican Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck, who took some heat from his primary opponent, Jane Norton's, ad that Buck might not be man enough. Well, here he is answering the question—I want Alex to respond after you've seen this. Here he is answering a question at a campaign event. Let's listen.
KEN BUCK ®, COLORADO SENATE CANDIDATE: Yes?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why should we vote for you?
BUCK: Why should you vote for me? Because I do not wear high heels.
BUCK: He has questioned my manhood. I think it's fair to respond. I have cowboy boots. They have real (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
MATTHEWS: Alex, did that work? Did that work with the peeps?
ALEX WAGNER, POLITICSDAILY.COM: Well, I think, you know, it was definitely controversial when it was said, but ultimately, Ken Buck ended up winning, you know, the primary, and I think largely because he put it in the context of man baiting. He went back and showed how Jane Norton had sort of questioned his own manhood, and this was part of a larger onslaught against and for feminism. I mean, you had Nikki Haley in South Carolina, you had the "mama grizzly" movement with Sarah Palin, you had Sharron Angle questioning Harry Reid's manhood. And I think Buck put it in that context, and as such, managed to escape sort of the death knell—potential death knell of his candidacy.
MATTHEWS: Yes, I think that's interesting. By the way, that tactic has been reviewed in a book called "Politics"—or rather, "Life's Campaign," by Chris Matthews years ago. It's called attacking from a defensive position. People always root for you when you seem to be defending yourself but going on the attack. Just a thought. The book's available still. Anyway—just kidding!
Let's go to Ken with this one. Ken, I want you to respond to this. This is an ad by Senate candidate Carly Fiorina against her opponent, Tom Campbell, the much respected Tom Campbell, but this, I guess, leveled him. Let's watch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tom Campbell—is he what he tells us or is he what he's become over the years, a FCINO, fiscal conservative in name only, a wolf in sheep's clothing, a man who literally helped to put the state of California on the path to bankruptcy and higher taxes?
MATTHEWS: Ken?
KEN VOGEL, POLITICO.COM: Good ad, effective ad. She won, so you can't overlook that, an ad by Fred Davis, interestingly, a guy who's kind of known for making quirky, out-of-the-box ads on the Republican side. He made that ad in 2008 comparing president, then candidate Obama to Britney Spears. He's actually, interestingly, Senator James Inhoff's nephew—so a little bit of trivia for you there—And a guy who knows how to make a real ad, as opposed to a straight to the Web ad that has the potential to go viral.
We see a lot of these candidates and committees try put out these ads without paying to air them and hope that they go viral, hope that we cover it. Here's a guy who does the opposite. He puts them up on TV, and they usually have such a sort of interesting take that we're compelled a little bit to cover these things.
MATTHEWS: Well, Alex, I want you to look at the next one because I've never seen a year when there's so much political reference to manhood, to macho. It's in the lingo. Here counting down, number three, Dale Peterson, who was vying to be Alabama's agriculture commissioner. Let's listen to his story.
DALE PETERSON, ALABAMA AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER CANDIDATE: So listen up. Alabama ag commissioner is one of the most powerful positions in Alabama, responsible for $5 billion. Bet you didn't know that. You know why? Thugs and criminals. If they can keep you in the dark, they can do whatever they want with all that money, and they don't give a rip about Alabama. I'm Dale Peterson. I'll name names and take no prisoners!
MATTHEWS: What happened to him?
WAGNER: He turned into J.R. Ewing. I'm not quite sure. In the course of that ad, he also mentioned that he'd been a cop, a farmer, a businessman, a Marine, everything short of a butcher, a baker and a candlestick maker. But I think, ultimately, you know, what Dale Peterson is trying to do is tap into the sort of populist anger that was very much a theme of the mid-term elections and say, you know, Doggone it, I've had enough. And on so doing, I think, you know, he sharpened his spurs. I'm not quite sure that ended up being the most effective tack, but certainly was representative of a feeling that was, you know, current inside the United States throughout the year.
MATTHEWS: What version of English is this, by the way, I don't give a rip. I mean, is this "I don't give a" damn cleaned up for television? I mean, what—why—who writes this stuff? It's not our lingo.
WAGNER: Oh, I think that...
MATTHEWS: And yet it seems like it's supposed to be.
WAGNER: Those are Alabama bona fides, I think, Chris. I'm not—I think maybe...
MATTHEWS: "Don't give a rip" is really local, huh?
WAGNER: Exactly.
MATTHEWS: Well...
VOGEL: I love the "Dallas" analogy...
VOGEL: ... the analogy to the mini-series "Dallas" there. I think that's a good one. This commercial's kind of like "Dallas" meets Tom Tancredo.
MATTHEWS: Oh! OK, let's take a look at number two—I want you to do this, Ken—number two, Phil Davison, a Republican candidate for Ohio Stark County treasurer. Let's listen. I think I've seen this character before.
PHIL DAVISON (R-OH), STARK COUNTY TREASURER CANDIDATE: My name is Phil Davison, and I'm seeking our party's nomination for the position of Stark County treasurer! I have been a Republican in times good, and I have been a Republican in times bad! This is the opportunity we've been waiting for! If nominated tonight, I will win this election! And I'm going to say that again so there's no miscommunication tonight! (INAUDIBLE) tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell Randy Gonzalez, I'm coming!
MATTHEWS: I don't know what to say! Ken, this man doesn't seem together.
VOGEL: It may surprise your viewers to learn this, Chris, but he did not win, unfortunately.
MATTHEWS: I knew that.
VOGEL: I'm sure it was a very competitive race. But yes, I mean, he kind of strikes me a little bit as an unhinged gym teacher, sort of. Doesn't really seem ready for primetime there. But in the YouTube age, that's kind of the beauty of it. Anyone can...
MATTHEWS: Did you notice that...
VOGEL: ... get out there...
MATTHEWS: He seems unhinged, as you put it, and then he goes back and checks his unhinged notes every couple seconds. Like, he has to get a new cue to be unhinged again. He's goes down, he looks down at the lectern, and then he goes back to angry again!
VOGEL: He actually—he tries to quote...
MATTHEWS: I mean, what's he reading on that paper?
VOGEL: ... Albert Einstein there—he had a quote from Albert Einstein. He misquoted it, went back and requoted it, so at least he's a stickler for accuracy. And look, he's got a legacy out there forever.
MATTHEWS: OK, here's one we all remember, Alex. Then we'll get back and review them all, if we have a moment. Here's number five—of course, number one on our list. It's the best of them all, gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino running for the Republican—actually, he won the nomination for governor against Andrew Cuomo (SIC). He had an exchange here with our buddy, Fred Dicker, of "The New York Post." Let's watch.
CARL PALADINO (R-NY) CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR: You send another goon to my daughter's house, and I'll take you out, buddy!
FRED DICKER, "NEW YORK POST": You're going to take me out?
PALADINO: Yes!
DICKER: How're you going to do that?
PALADINO: Watch!
MATTHEWS: Well, we did watch. I mean, "take you out" has sort of a mob aspect to it.
I'm told, by the way, by a friend of his and a friend of mine that he's not that bad a guy, but, boy, what a picture he gave us.
WAGNER: Well, I don't know, Chris. This was kind of the hat trick for Carl Paladino.
WAGNER: It began with the racially denigrating e-mails and the pornographic e-mails that he was sending around featuring the president and the first lady.
Then you had his remarks about gay Americans, which were—many considered anti-gay, homophobic remarks, and then this. I think there's a reason he's not the governor of New York.
MATTHEWS: Well, what is it this year, guys, all two of you, if you have a moment here, about this particular year, 2010? It was a Tea Party year, fair enough, but it seemed to have brought out an edginess, a rawness in the lingo, the language used. It was about macho, manlihood, put on your man pants. I went through that a moment ago.
But also the decorum level seems to have dropped dramatically, Ken.
VOGEL: Well, and, you know what we see? I agree with you 100 percent on all those points.
We also see this strategy of confrontation, confrontation documented by video, that's increasingly becoming part of the discourse. And you've going to be ready for it. Carl Paladino has to know that there are going to be situations where he's going to have a camera in his face and he's going to be faced with an uncomfortable situation. Got to deal better with it, because, if you don't, this footage is going to wind up more of than not in your opponent's ads.
MATTHEWS: Well, Alex, it seems to me journalists and those interviewing people that want an exciting interview will be seeking to taunt these people into action, that if they're that ready to go—I remember my wonderful experience with Zell Miller years ago, who I respect his service to the country, but he went kind of haywire on me in New York.
I'm up here now. I remember that when I go out. Every time I go by Herald Square, I remember the time he wanted to challenge me to a duel.
MATTHEWS: That was a magic moment. Do these guys prepare this stuff or what? Or do you they just think it up on the spot?
WAGNER: Listen, between Sharron Angle running away from the cameras, Joe Miller strong-arming reporters, and Carl Paladino, I think journalists who were covering the 2012 presidential race may want to bring bulletproof vests or straitjackets if they want the interview.
MATTHEWS: We're getting—I'm thinking of professionals like Bill Clinton, and Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama. They do have that tendency, guys, to sort of pause before they respond. Have you noticed that, that—I have learned that from the best politicians I have met over my lifetime.
They look at you when you ask them a provocative question, and they give you that look, like, hmm, let me register on what you're up to here. And it's almost like the old Jefferson thing. When you're mad, count to 10. When you're really mad, count to 100. They don't respond like these characters.
Your last word here, Alex.
WAGNER: I think that they're trying to tap into this anger and this furor over the economy, over joblessness, over just a feeling that Washington is no longer listening to their concerns.
But, at the same time, it's not an elevated discourse and it's not thoughtful discourse. And to your point, Chris, I think that's a reason why most of these people didn't win. And until we get candidates that are thoughtful about this stuff, this kind of advertising and this kind of messaging isn't going to work.
VOGEL: To be fair, Bill Clinton didn't have that video camera in his face all the time. And we saw during the 2008 presidential campaign, when he was a surrogate, an unfortunate one in many cases, for his wife, that he didn't always deal with it very well.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
VOGEL: So, I think it's a combination of a coarsening of the discourse, as well as increase in this type of journalism and kind of guerrilla tactics, using video to make people look bad.
MATTHEWS: Yes. I think you're right. Defining deviancy downward, Daniel Patrick Moynihan called it.
Well, it's going to be worse this year.
Anyway, thank you, Ken Vogel, and thank you, Alex Wagner, for joining us.
VOGEL: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Happy new year.
WAGNER: Thanks, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Up next: My good friend Eddie Rendell is upset with the snowstorm, of course, which is all around us, delaying an NFL game. That never happens. Remember the Ice Bowl, Vince Lombardi? Delaying an NFL game? They're supposed to be in bad weather.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. Time for the "Sideshow."
Well, the Northeast blizzard made the NFL postpone Sunday night's Eagles game against the Vikings until Tuesday. That's tomorrow. Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell's a big Eagles fan, and here's his reaction to the decision last night with the local FOX station.
Let's listen.
GOV. ED RENDELL (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Well, I think it's a joke. I mean, we canceled a game, and there's less than three inches of snow in Montgomery County, where a lot of our fans come from. There's less than two inches in Wilmington, where a lot of our fans come from.
In Philadelphia, we have got a great subway system. Broad Street is fine. The parkway is fine -- 95 and the expressway are clear. I think the fans can make their own judgments about their own safety.
This is football. Good lord. Good lord. Vince Lombardi would be spinning in his grave.
MATTHEWS: Well, he may be.
Next: It looks like it's finally over in Alaska. Or is it? Republican Tea Party candidate—Senate candidate Joe Miller announced today that he won't oppose the state's certification of the—November's vote, where he lost to write-in Republican incumbent Lisa Murkowski, but Miller still wants to move forward with his federal lawsuit looking into an alleged Alaska election law violation and irregularity possibilities.
So, here's a question. What does it take for a guy who can't stand the federal government to dabble in state affairs to go out and get the federal government to intervene in a state-run election? Apparently, the answer is simple: You're losing.
And now the "Big Number."
As Rahm Emanuel campaigns furiously to be Chicago's next mayor, the
man he hopes to replace marked a significant milestone on Sunday. Just
yesterday, Richard M. Daley passed his father in the number of days he
served as mayor. According to the Associated Press, Sunday marked the 900
or, rather, 9,000 -- I'm sorry -- 7,917th day in office.
And that's tonight HARDBALL "Big Number." And between them, the Daleys ran up Chicago—they ran Chicago for 42 of the last 55 years. Wow.
Up next: If someone wants to filibuster a bill, shouldn't he or she
be made to stand and talk and actually do it, like Jimmy Stewart did in
"Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"? The coming fight—I hope it's a real one
over filibusters. Are they going to go away or actually come back the way they should come, with one guy or one woman standing up there all alone, taking on the country?
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
TYLER MATHISEN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I'm Tyler Mathisen with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks ending the day sort of flat after a surprise rate hike from China over the weekend. The Dow industrials, well, they fell about 18.5 points, but the S&P 500 was up about three-quarters of a point, Nasdaq climbing a big 1.5.
China stepping up its fight against inflation, hiking key interest rates for the second time in two months. Analysts say this could cut into global demand and hurt equity prices worldwide. With no big economic news today, investors are watching airline stocks. A bump in post-holiday demand could fail to appear because of all the snow in the U.S. and in Europe.
Same deal for retailers. They ended mixed as investors wait to see what impact all this snow in the East is going to have on post-holiday sales.
Insurer AIG surging more than 9 percent today after announcing it had secured $3 billion worth of credit facilities, another step on its road to recovery.
And Charles Schwab shares jumping after 73-year-old chairman and found Charles Schwab has successful heart valve surgery the day before Christmas.
That's it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
JIMMY STEWART, ACTOR: I'm not late. And I'm going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause, even if this thing gets filled with lies like these and the tailors and all their armies come marching into this place. Somebody will listen to me.
MATTHEWS: It's still a great movie. I just saw it the other night.
Welcome back to HARDBALL.
That, of course, is a scene from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."
So, now, that is the way to do a filibuster, but that's a far cry from what happens today. Now senators don't even need to be on the floor when they call for a filibuster. Democrats would like to revise the rules, at least some of them would.
Here's Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: No more senators hiding in the shadows. Senators who want to filibuster should stay on the floor, like Jimmy Stewart, and keep debating.
MATTHEWS: I couldn't agree more.
Joining me is Lynn Sweet of "The Chicago Sun-Times" and Michael Hirsh of "The National Journal."
Lynn, I don't know why this guy can't win this argument. You should have to filibuster to filibuster, no more delaying tactics.
Your thoughts.
TIMES": Well, he may do that.
The Democrats are getting together. And Senate Leader Harry Reid seems open to changing the rules, not to end the filibuster, but to mend it, and just make the process faster before you get to the point where you actually might filibuster something. I think you will see some change in the rule.
MATTHEWS: well, what I'm hearing, Michael, is that the proposal is that they're actually going to get to the vote on the measure, so you can actually debate the bill, decide whether it's a good bill or not, and then somebody can keep talking if they want to, but you can't debate—you filibuster-prevent a debate. You can't prevent consideration of a measure just because you want to.
MICHAEL HIRSH, "THE NATIONAL JOURNAL": Right. And there may be time limits.
I mean, one of the proposals by Merkley is that you have to have a certain number of senators with each block of time that passes. You know, with each 24 hours, you have to have an additional 10 senators. Another proposal requires that you have actually 40 in support of a filibuster. And a lot of this is going to come to a head in the first day of Congress, actually, on January 5.
MATTHEWS: I don't think that's going to happen.
Lynn, I think what's going to happen is the possibility that you're going to actually have to filibuster. Because isn't it true, gentlemen—
I mean, both to Michael and to Lynn, that senators don't want to give up on their divine right, it's almost divine, that each senator, if he really or she really wants to, can filibuster.
SWEET: Well...
MATTHEWS: In other words, one senator, just like Jimmy Stewart, if they really think it's the most important thing in the world to them, that they're willing to get out there and stand up there and make a fool of themselves, if necessary, they should be able to do it. They aren't going to give that up, are they?
SWEET: No, no, they're not going to give that up.
You know, the use of filibusters or the threat of filibusters jumped in this last session of Congress that just ended. And it's been creeping up from the '90s, Chris. But the so-called reform proposal is not to end it, but to force people on the floor, not just to phone it in, like they do now, to tell a clerk, start the clock, I'm going to file a filibuster threat, and then go on and waste 30 hours of debate over whether or not we should have this vote to break the filibuster.
What the Democrats want to do is in a sense call the bluff. And it could work against them another time when they're a minority. But every senator is going to have the right to do it, but it will make "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" more possible than it is now.
The Senate just says, OK, you threatened something, now we will have the vote. That's why everything needs 60 votes to pass almost automatically, because you have had so many of these threats jumped up in the last session.
MATTHEWS: Back in 1957, when Nixon was reelected as vice president, he was a civil rights guy back then—he changed obviously later—but he certainly was more murky later on.
But, back then, he tried to get the Senate to simply agree on establishing new rules every two years and throwing away the old rules they thought were out of date. And the liberals joined the Dixiecrats and defeated him. That's what we're up to now. I think, when they come back in on January 5, they have got to decide what the new rules are.
Here's Senator Lamar Alexander, a smart fellow, saying: "You don't want to create a freight train running through the Senate, like it does in the House, because, in two years, it might be the Tea Party Express."
So, there's a guy cautioning against change.
But I guess the question comes down to this. Take an issue like health care, Obamacare, it's called. Lynn, it seems to me that there are times that are so important, that a member of the Senate may want to stand up there, man or woman, Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, and say, you know, this is too important to rush through. I'm going to filibuster this on a couple of issues I think need to be understood, and then I will sit down.
That seems to me the reason for a filibuster. You're not paying attention to this one provision. Let me accent it, underline it. I may spend 20 hours up here, if I can keep talking, so at least, at the end of it, the newspapers and TV stations will report, this is hot. We should have looked at it more. That's a filibuster.
SWEET: Even without the filibuster, Bernie Sanders got a lot of attention when he just started the first steps. It was an informal filibuster. And he got a lot of attention.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
SWEET: But the other technique, the other arrow in the quiver that a senator has is that any senator can just put a hold on the bill. One of the other proposals out there is to not do it anonymously, which the senators are able to do it now, but they actually have to put your name on there, which I think is something that is way long overdue.
If you're going stop a bill, be man or woman enough to put your name on it and come forward. Right now, these senators just sneak around and hide behind these secret holds. And they could it. That—it speaks to your point. If something's important to you, yes, stop the Senate, but, man or woman up and put your name on it.
MATTHEWS: You know, I have a sneaking suspicion, Michael, that the Senate doesn't want to change, that there are people behind the scenes, including Harry and Mitch, that, when they get in that club room, in the back room, together, they say, you know what, one of us is going to be on the out one of these days. The other is going to be on the out the next day. We're going to rotate in power for the rest of our careers here. Don't we want to protect the minority?
And that means the right to demand 60 votes.
HIRSH: Which was precisely Chris Dodd's warning in his farewell speech, you know, don't change the rules. But he does seem to be in the minority.
And there is this building aggravation particularly among the Democrats, the look, the filibuster and the use of it has just become too cost-free. It's just simply too easy. You don't even have to lose your voice as Jimmy Stewart did, you know, in that movie and get hoarse on the floor.
And I think that while the 60-vote cloture rule is going to be sacrosanct, no one's going to tamper with that, there is a possibility of, you know, negotiated agreement to change some of the other rules.
LYNN SWEET, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: And remember, Chris, these rules can be changed again.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
SWEET: So, nothing, this is not like the 11th Commandment here.
MATTHEWS: If they're willing to do it. I tell you, back in '57, they wouldn't do it because they stuck—you know, the Democrats were not a great party back then.
SWEET: I think they're going to try it.
MATTHEWS: Maybe since there's no more Dixiecrats of the Democrat Party, that we won't do that anymore. But they used to protect, you know, the people who didn't like civil rights with that stuff. And we all know that dirty history of the Democrats, they defended the evils of Jim Crow and they kept that filibuster for that reason.
Anyway, thank you, Lynn Sweet. Let's hope there's some change and some reform coming.
And thank you, Michael Hirsh.
Up next, we all love the movies, of course. When we come back, the five movies of 2010 I think tell us much about our politics and our times right now. Let's take a look at the political angle on the movies when we come back with HARDBALL on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Well, Gallup is out with the 2010 most admired men and women. Well, to t the top three men, it's a presidential pact. President Obama is way up front with 22 percent. President George W. Bush at 5 percent. President Clinton at 4 percent.
The top three women: Hillary Clinton all the way, 17 points. Sarah Palin at 12. Oprah Winfrey at 11.
So, it's—as I like to say, the Obama-Clinton coalition topping the charts as the most admired leaders in the USA.
HARDBALL will be right back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just wanted to tell you, face myself, a little management, (INAUDIBLE) training, it's all good. Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) Sanchez.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On HBO.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you come of that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your plan? How are you going to fight Sanchez?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not going to talk about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your plan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not here to talk about that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your plan?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You watch the fight and you'll see the plan.
MATTHEWS: Ha! We're back.
We thought we'd get a little head start on award seasons tonight with my favorite movies of the year. The clip you just saw was, of course, one of the great ones this year, "The Fighter," starting Mark Wahlberg. And that wasn't the only Boston-based or Boston-based movie this year. Ben Affleck directed and started another great movie, "The Town," about an armed robber who falls for the bank manager that he just robbed.
Here's a scene between Ben's character and that woman. She has no idea that he was one of the men who held up the bank and took her hostage and he attempts to prevent her from given info to the FBI. What a tricky situation. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tell the FBI. If a guy's got a record, I'm sure he does. You'll have his tattoos on file. They'll ring him up the next day. Rob him weapons, he'll get 30 years. Of course, they're worried someone's going to come looking for a witness.
FBI probably want to push with (INAUDIBLE) witness security and they probably put you somewhere like, you know, in Cleveland or Arizona, you know, somewhere safe. Or you could wait.
MATTHEWS: Wow. Just remember how great that movie was, "The Town."
I'm joined right now by "New York Magazine" film critic, David Edelstein, for CBS "Sunday Morning," a great show.
You know, David, it's great to have you. I met you before, but we are now going to have a culture clash because I'm a regular moviegoer, who just likes really good movies and you're an intellectual, right?
DAVID EDELSTEIN, NEW YORK MAGAZINE: Hardly. I like really good movies, too.
MATTHEWS: OK. What do you think of those two? And why so much talk about Boston these days?
EDELSTEIN: I mean, I went to school in the Boston area? You went to Worchester.
MATTHEWS: Worchester.
EDELSTEIN: Right. So, it was—I didn't bring it back the way they were hitting those R's so hard all the time.
MATTHEWS: Well, it's Boston and it's regular guys, you go to Fenway, these are the kids there, the young people of all ages. They're poor white people in many cases, if you will, working class people. You get in the subway in Boston, they're like these guys, the regular people.
EDELSTEIN: See, that's the beauty of these two movies. They didn't
focus so much on these individuals as this whole kind of ecosystem, this
community with its roots
MATTHEWS: But it's not Harvard, it's not MIT, it's not even B.C., it's a regular crowd of people who live and die for the Sox.
EDELSTEIN: Or they live and die for their fighters, for their welterweight fighters.
MATTHEWS: But why are they so attracted to moviemakers?
EDELSTEIN: Well, I think it's—first of all, they're very mouthy. So, "The Fighter" could have been called the fighters because everybody in it is like fighting, it's like, yes, you skunk, you dirt bag, you skunk. I mean, really, the least pugilistic person in the whole movie is Mark Wahlberg, who's the fighter. I think they love it because these people really say what they think and they're very tribal, something about the way they act out.
MATTHEWS: Well, "Mystic River" was like that, too, the Clint Eastwood movie. I mean, I grew up close enough and had roommates from that area, for the part of Cambridge that wasn't the ritzy part, you know, the Holy Cross and north Cambridge. And I worked for Tip O'Neill, so I know all about that, the class thing. (INAUDIBLE) used to cut the lawn at Harvard. He wasn't a student there. He finally got a Ph.D. from there.
But let me ask you about the class thing. It seems to me that these are rough times, big though, 10 percent unemployment over and over again. These people, these people—America feels like they're not going catch up, that there is a big divide. They're not going to get over it.
EDELSTEIN: Right. And the great kind of subtext of "The Fighter," even though it's set in the '90s, is this upcoming HBO special on Dicky Eklund played by Christian Beal and how he is going to be portrayed. He thinks he's going to be portrayed as this blue collar guy who's making his comeback. It turns out it's being portrayed as a crack head.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
EDELSTEIN: And this changes—this transforms the entire community into something that was going to get really proud and really into it. Suddenly, the shame, the pervasive shame—
MATTHEWS: It's so great. Because, you know, cracks have been identified with the black community. Here you have the white community, equally infected with it this setting, working class people with no sort of dysfunctional mother, with all the sisters hanging around, all they do is hang around and make fun of the brother who's trying to make it.
Here's a scene from "The Ghost Writer." It's a different altogether. I love it. It's pure politics. It's about Prime Minister Tony Blair really in about his hot wife is very interesting in this movie to say the least and "The Ghost Writer" played by Ewan McGregor, I talked to I brought to the correspondence to this year.
Let's listen. I love this movie.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You stole my idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You wrote (INAUDIBLE), didn't you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh you read those.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We stayed at his house in Mystique (ph) last winter. That was beside the bet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I'm embarrassed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, why? It was brilliant enough in a horrible social way how you turned his ramblings into something vaguely coherent. I said to Adam, here's the guy to write your book.
MATTHEWS: The way she bites those words, David, she is sexy, she's dangerous, she's frightening, she's a conspirator. Ah, and she's the wife of the prime minister.
EDELSTEIN: Look, what's great about in movie in its darkened and twisted and psychological way, it's about taking control of the narrative of history, it's about a prime minister based on Tony Blair.
MATTHEWS: Sure.
EDELSTEIN: Very thinly. Who is trying to rewrite history to come off a little bit better in terms of the Iraq war.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
EDELSTEIN: And this poor sap, who is the ghost writer who has to kind of make it all kind of plausible, who gets pulled into this—
MATTHEWS: Pierce Brosnan is spectacular in this movie.
EDELSTEIN: Oh, absolutely. Well, he's a man who's ashamed of himself, really, for what he did, and he's desperately—I guess one could compare it to George W. Bush in his current memoirs, trying to take control of the narrative of history.
MATTHEWS: How many movies are we going to see where they show Tony Blair being taken in by George W. Bush? "Love Actually," it's all through that movie.
Let's take a look at "Fair Game," a movie I know something about. Valerie Plame's story, Valerie Wilson's story, about how they sold the war in Iraq. Let's take a look, in how they give away her identity. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: You're welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Valerie, turn on MSNBC.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Mom—
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, hold on one second.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've launched an investigation. Ashcroft just announced it. They say he's going to convene a grand jury.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold a second.
TOM BROKAW, MSNBC: The FBI is now conducting a criminal investigation into who leaked the name of the CIA undercover—
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They want me to comment on the investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Joe, just hold on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to fight this.
MATTHEWS: I tell you, mark, Penn, Sean Penn is spectacular as Joe.
I thought he was Joe Wilson for a while, because I know Wilson, like him.
Naomi Watts is wonderful in this movie. Your thoughts.
EDELSTEIN: OK, you were—
MATTHEWS: Forget the politics now.
EDELSTEIN: OK, you were right in the middle of this.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
EDELSTEIN: OK. So, when you watch this, doesn't it make you angry, doesn't it make you think, God why aren't more people in jail over it? I mean, to me, it was like this horrible flashback of the '90s.
MATTHEWS: Well, they've got Scooter. They got Scoot on four counts.
EDELSTEIN: They did. But I think that the movie sort of portrays him as kind of a scapegoat. And to me, you know, the movie sets out to do two things, the agenda is two things. It's first to show that in Niger, yellowcake uranium was basically trump up.
The second thing is to show that they did endanger national security and a lot of individual's lives by exposing Valerie Plame.
MATTHEWS: The crowd over at the White House, yes.
EDELSTEIN: Yes. So, I guess—I mean, to me, I watched in a—I mean, it's a very cool movie but I watched in a state of rage.
MATTHEWS: I was gripped by it and I knew a lot of it and I think that they took license with some of the peripheral stuff but main stuff harder truth.
EDELSTEIN: Let me ask you this, did Plame—did Wilson write that op-ed without consulting his wife?
MATTHEWS: I don't know. But I think that I know that more than you know.
Anyway, let's go to Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg knocking the winkle glass—
EDELSTEIN: Come on, tell me, tell me.
MATTHEWS: -- rich kid in "The Social Network." Here's a movie by the other side of the individual divide. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You must really hate the winkle boss.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't hate anybody. The winkle buy (ph) aren't suing me for intellectual property theft. They are suing because for the first time in their lives, things didn't work out the way that they're supposed to for them.
MATTHEWS: Must of the time in this movie, you want to punch this guy in the mouth. He has no personality. He's a genius. He dumps on the one person in the whole movie, you're like the woman who goes to B.U., and says, why do you have to study you go to Boston U., what's your problem.
EDELSTEIN: And yet—and yet, he is the youngest billionaire.
MATTHEWS: Yes, that's one of the reasons.
EDELSTEIN: So, it doesn't matter if he's a jerk, you want to be that guy.
MATTHEWS: Does Aaron Sorkin get you to be sympathetic to this guy?
EDELSTEIN: Well, yes, he—I mean, it's very reductive in a way because he says this whole vast social network, this great—sorry?
MATTHEWS: Great year at the movies.
EDELSTEIN: Yes.
MATTHEWS: David, I'll have you back and great year in the movies.
We'll have you back for the Oscars.
MATTHEWS: The Oscars.
EDELSTEIN: I'll put in on the Facebook.
MATTHEWS: We'll be right back in a moment. You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: "Let Me Finish" tonight with some good nights at the movies.
I was surprised at how many good movies there were this year. I have a simple way of deciding, it comes down to whether I expect to want to see the movie again. Figuring there was something there I want to relive, the struggle of some flawed hero I was rooting for, some place in the imagination of the moviemaker, I want to go back to—Rick's cafe and wartime Casablanca, the Arabian desert in Lawrence's time, the rubble of Vienna in "Third Man" just after World War II.
Yes, usually it's the place they yearn for like the British soldier yearning for his days of adventure in Mandalay. So, this year I love the murky fog in northern Europe disguised as Martha's Vineyard in "The Ghost Writer," a fog as murky as the case they made for the Iraq war.
This isn't about Roman Polanski, it's about his movies and this one like "The Pianist" was a gripper. I love the palaces and the rest and the king speech about George VI and finding the words to lead his country against Hitler. Fact, I go for anything that speaks of British eloquence, duty and wartime grit and although could have found a better guy to play my hero, Churchill in this movie.
Anyway, I love "Secretariat" from the simple reason they rooted from the start for the Diane Lane character who believes she should carry on her father's legacy. And then again I'm one of those moviegoers who roots for Diane Lane and has been ever since I spotted her as a kid in "A Little Romance."
Finally, no surprise here, I love "The Fighter." I know a little about the background, the working people from Rust Belt towns like Lower Mass. I know a little bit about how people who feel who've been passed by economically, socially, humanly. And John Pedora's (ph) review I love who put in "The Weekly Standard," if you don't like fight pictures, you don't like movies. This might be, by the way, one the best of them all up with "The Boxer," the first and third "Rocky" were great. Somebody up there like me, it was great with Newman and Clint Eastwood's dynamite, "Million Dollar Baby."
There are great movies this year. "The Social Network," Aaron Sorkin's dark success in bringing cinematic sympathy to one extremely odd duck and "The Town," Ben Affleck's wildly entertaining success in making bank robbery appearing to be a positive social statement.
That's HARDBAL for now. Thanks for being with us. Right now, it's time for "THE ED SHOW" with Ed Schultz.
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text:
I'm really loving the flaky polish at the very moment. I saw a lot of nail designs using flaky polish, that made me want to create designs that differs from others..
Here is the design
Category Archives: steampunk
Inspired by flowers
an update on nail art and life.
today is the 2 year anniversary of the passing of the man who got me going on making nail videos and marks the 12th day since my mother passed.
i get excited to post another nail art video that i had planned and then i dont feel like doing anything, so i go back and forth. sometimes, i think….oh sure this is simple and then its not even simple to move or go to work…..so, who knows what this week will bring. i do know that a lot of my family and friends read this and message me here so i want to tell you guys that everything is okay. my mom has come to me as a hummingbird and a white butterfly since her passing. some might think this strange but to my family, they know what i mean.
so, i might post nail art, or i might just take the week off…no matter what i will update my fanpage and view the art being shared there.
and hopefully this will all begin to ease soon and i can slowly saunter back into the grind and be 'business as usual' —i will say this. i got some absolutely jaw dropping and fantastic news on the 23rd and i know my moms spirit is behind it. when it comes to fruition, you guys will be amazed…it is so cool…i wish i could say everything i want, but until you have a 'contract' you can never say anything. part of life, i guess.
signed in triplicate with love and thanks for reading, caring and sharing your art with me,
robin Moses
(the nail art wizard PHD)
baby shower nails, polka dots and stripe nails, shower nails, wedding nails, bridesmaid nails, spring nails, nail trends 2012, baby shower trends 2012, wedding trends 2012, wedding nails, orange nails, tangerine nails, pastel polka dot nails, indie nails, retro nails,
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short red nails with black lace: robin mos…
Chrome Silver Nails with NEON pink matte…
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No Backward Newspaper nails
Have you ever thought of doing the newspaper nails that are not backward? I have. So I decided to try out different methods of how not to get it backward.
You will need:
A clear nail polish not the top coat because it won't work ( I already tried it)
Wax paper
Alcohol ( I use the 70% one)
Nail foil glue. You can find it online
And some newspaper that is cut into small pieces (make sure it's big enough to cover the nails)
Light color polish to use as a base for the newspaper (white and cream work best)
1. First find a font/style of type on a newspaper you like. Cut small strips out of the news paper that are big enough to cover your nails. Shape and file your nails till they are just the way you like! Paint them with a base and 2 coats of the color. Let them dry completely.
2. Apply the clear nailpolish to wax paper and let it dry completely.
3. Pour the alcohol into the small cup and dip the small piece of the newspaper (one side only) into the alcohol. I tried dipping two sides and it was very hard to work on.
4. Quickly apply a piece of newspaper and firmly press it on your the polished area of the wax paper and gently pull the news paper off. The text from the paper should now stick to your clear polish. It might take a few tries to get this down, but once try you'll get the hang of it.
5. Apply the nail glue to the nails that are already painted, let it dry. When the glue dry it shoulapplyd be clear and tacky. Take the wax paper over the nail and press it down, gently rolling the finger a bit so you can get to all the corners. Slowly peel off the wax paper from your nail, you might need to clean up the edges a bit.
Top it off with the top coat and voila! You're done.
newspaper nails, newspaper nails with flowers, pink and blue nails, newspaper nails with red, multi media nails, newspaper nails with antique flowers, newspaper nails for small nails, small nail design, short nail design, acrylic eye, portrait on a nail, picture frame nail, eye in a frame, night gallery, crying eyes nail, eyes on a nail, pink eye, pink eyes on a nail, polka dots and stripes nail, polka dot nail, striped nail, vintage nails, nail trends 2012,
NIGHT GALLERY crying eye wall painting : r…
Antique Newspaper Nails with red Flowers:…
pink and blue nails with blue square stones. rihanna inspired. no video

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Maria Kolesnikova
Thursday, 25 October 2012 12:57 PM
Gold may outperform other commodities as the bull run in raw materials pauses amid slowing economies, while grains and oilseeds may jump on weather disruptions, according to participants at the World Commodities Week conference.
Commodities will likely lack direction for the next 12 months, meaning investors will focus more on relative-value trades, according to Tiberius Asset Management AG. Deutsche Bank AG favors precious metals and is neutral on oil and industrial metals, Michael Lewis, head of commodities research at the bank, said today at the conference in London. Bullion isn't in a "bubble" at current prices, he said.
"The markets will go sideways in a volatile environment" in the short term, said Christoph Eibl, a founding partner of Zug, Switzerland-based Tiberius.
Editor's Note: Get David Skarica's Gold Stock Adviser — Click Here Now!
Commodities erased their gains for the year on Oct. 23 on concern demand for energy, industrial metals and some agricultural products will slump as economic growth decelerates. Raw materials, as measured by the Standard & Poor's GSCI Index of 24 commodities, made annual advances in 11 of the last 13 years. The gauge's last annual drop was in 2008.
The International Monetary Fund cut its 2012 global growth forecast to 3.3 percent on Oct. 9, compared with a July prediction of 3.5 percent, and expects the euro area to contract 0.4 percent. Growth in China, the biggest user of everything from copper to cotton, has slowed for seven consecutive quarters.
The S&P GSCI gauge is down 1.2 percent this year and the MSCI All-Country World Index of equities gained 10 percent. The U.S. Dollar Index, a measure against six major trading partners, fell 0.3 percent.
Fiscal Cliff
Gold won't become a bubble unless prices rise to a record above $2,200 an ounce, while oil and industrial metals are vulnerable to risks associated with the so-called fiscal cliff in the U.S., said Lewis of Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank. He was referring to $607 billion in federal spending cuts and tax increases scheduled to take effect in January unless the U.S. Congress intervenes.
Gold is up 9.7 percent this year and traded at $1,715.53 an ounce by 4:10 p.m. in London. Central banks have been expanding gold reserves after the metal climbed the past 11 years and investors boosted holdings in bullion-backed exchange-traded products to a record. Nations bought 254.2 tons in the first half of 2012 and may add close to 500 tons for the year as a whole, the London-based World Gold Council said in August.
Quantitative Easing
The U.S. Federal Reserve said Sept. 13 it will buy $40 billion of mortgage debt a month in the third round of so-called quantitative easing and probably hold the federal funds rate near zero until at least the middle of 2015. Gold prices almost doubled from December 2008 to June 2011 as the central bank bought $2.3 trillion of debt in two rounds of QE.
"Precarious" inventory levels in some agricultural products, such as soybeans and corn, mean there is little room in the market to absorb any supply shocks, Lewis said. Rising inflation related to food prices may prevent emerging markets countries from introducing more easing measures that could have boosted demand for other raw materials, he said.
"The hardest area to play in commodities is agriculture," said Chris Armitage, the U.K. managing director at FourWinds Capital Management, which oversees about $1 billion in natural- resource funds.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in June that the U.S. would harvest a record 14.79 billion bushels of corn, before slashing its forecast to 10.7 billion bushels, following the worst drought in half a century. Wheat has rallied 36 percent in Chicago this year, while soybeans are up 30 percent and corn has gained 17 percent.
Assets Under Management
Commodity assets under management reached $423 billion at the end of August, from $395 billion at the start of the year, based on Barclays Plc's estimates of money tied to exchange- traded products, medium-term notes and indexes, according to an Oct. 1 report. Assets reached a record $451 billion in April 2011.
About $50 billion of investments is tracking commodity indexes other than the two biggest, the S&P GSCI and the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index, according to Dan Raab, head of commodity investor marketing and structuring at UBS Securities LLC.
"Commodities as an asset class absolutely can't be ignored," Raab said. "Consumption of raw materials and use of commodities is likely to increase in the next 20 to 30 years."
Editor's Note: Get David Skarica's Gold Stock Adviser — Click Here Now!
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text:
Integrated Delivery Systems as a Panacea
In "Curing Fragmentation with Integrated Delivery Systems," Alain Enthoven, the father of "managed competition," extols his creation as a cure for what ails America's fragmented health system. Indeed, many of Enthoven's proposals for reducing fragmentation in our health care system, such as regional health insurance exchanges, were incorporated into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("PPACA"), the health care reform bill signed into law on March 23, 2010.
Although a proliferation of integrated delivery systems competing with each other for business may be a step in the right direction, it will do little or nothing to cut down on the enourmous amount of health care resources spent on compliance with ever-expanding numbers of billing rules. Even Professor Enthoven acknowledges that a single-payer system could solve many of the same problems as his integrated delivery system proposal, but he believes that Americans do not have the political will to accept such a system. Professor Enthoven also fails to consider that even less-radical changes to our health care system, such as adopting a system of encrypted medical records that a patient carries with her, like the French "carte vitale," would greatly cut down on or eliminate poor medical outcomes that are attributable to fragmentation in the system.
A well-managed single-payer system could satisfy the American appetite for market competition, and achieve more than the integrated delivery systems proposed by Professor Enthoven. Competition could still take place at the insurer level, much like in Germany, or it could take place amongst providers, such as in Japan (whose system author T.R. Reid cleverly describes as "Bismarck on Rice" in his recent book The Healing of America (Penguin Press 2009)).
Professor Enthoven's example of the "epitome of integrated delivery system[s]" is Kaiser Permanente (for which Enthoven is also a consultant, according to his Stanford University on-line biography). His vision is for the American people to have a choice of many Kaiser Permanente-like organizations. This presumes that people want choices when it comes to picking a health plan, a presumption shared by PPACA. I believe that is incorrect. What people want is choice of providers. Nobody loves their payers; they love their doctors. They want to make sure they don't receive numerous bills for every little service they receive, but they don't really care about who pays those bills. Only the ultimate integrated delivery system, a single-payer one with a compensation system based on outcomes, not services, will achieve this.
It is true that many of the single-payer systems in use around the world are underfunded and under inflationary pressure. A single-payer system in the United States would be no exception. Despite our current economic woes, we remain the richest country in the world. As Dr. Marcia Angell, former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine stated in the 2000 PBS documentary "Healthcare Crisis: Who's at Risk?," the amount of our GDP that we spend on health care is not really important. What is important is that we get good outcomes and the customer satisfaction that we are paying for. Managed competition and "integrated delivery systems" although a step in the right direction, will not solve our problems in the long run.


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Klingon Empire
The Klingon Empire is a major political entity in the Alpha Quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy in Star Trek.
The Klingon Empire is ruled by a Chancellor with the support of the Klingon High Council. When the Chancellor dies, his replacement is chosen by an Arbiter of Succession, who chooses from eligible candidates (usually Council members themselves) based on rules established in Klingon law. A Chancellor with some foresight can decide who will be the Arbiter of Succession after his own death.
A clone of the Empire's founder, Kahless, was recently crowned Emperor, but his title is ceremonial and carries no real governmental authority.
Klingon physiology makes them considerably tougher than humans; many of their major organs have redundancies that allow them to survive injuries that would kill a human. Klingons tend to be physically stronger than humans, but this is probably more a result of widespread martial training than a genetic trait.
The Klingon Empire controls a large volume of space that shares borders with the Romulan Star Empire and the United Federation of Planets. The full extent of their territory is unknown, but it is probably not substantially greater than that of either of its neighbors.
Threat Assessment
The Klingons are one of the most formidable military powers in the Alpha Quadrant. Martial traditions are so widely revered in Klingon society that almost every Klingon has at least basic military training. Similarly, virtually every Klingon has personal weapons and body armor, and attaining any sort of political influence requires a good military service record. Klingon technology is comparable to that of the other major Alpha Quadrant powers, and they invest heavily in military assets.
In an alternate timeline, the Klingon Empire was shown to be decisively winning a war against the United Federation of Planets (TNG, "Yesterday's Enterprise").


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Mushrooms mushrooms
Added Oct 5, 2011
by Ywea
Norway, Norway
I decided to join the circle skirt sew-along hosted by "Casey":http://www.blog.caseybrowndesigns.com/ I have sewn circle skirts before, but it's always fun to see how others do it and maybe learn a thing or two. It was a fun sew-along with many fun tips and tricks.
I've had the fabric I used for this skirt for a while. I bought it with the plan to create a dress, but when I got home I wondered if I had turned my head in the store. The fabric was too intense for me .. and what shall I say …too many mushrooms in one place. I put it in the closet and forgot about it until I had to find a suitable material for the circleskirt. I decided to try it, and I think it really worked quite well. (But I'm glad I did not make a dressof it)
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Paladino effect on School Board races seen in mailers
Call it the Paladino factor.
Love him or hate him, outspoken developer and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino has done more than any other candidate to raise awareness and raise the stakes in city School Board elections that are otherwise widely ignored by voters.
He is unabashedly doing his part to derail incumbent candidates whom he considers incompetent and ineffective, while downplaying his own major role as a developer of charter schools. He's also drawing the kind of polarizing attention one would expect from a controversial power broker.
City residents who doubt that need only check their mailboxes. In virtually every contested School Board district, double-sided, glossy, full-color mailers have gone out this week claiming that Paladino promotes racism, pornography and sexual deviancy, and lacks family values.
Though Paladino is only running for the Park District seat, one of several similarly designed anti-Paladino mailers also have gone out in the North, Central and West districts. Each time a different candidate's name has been substituted at the end of the sentence: "Vote no to Carl Paladino and his crony (insert name)."
The candidate names rotated through this sentence include "cronies" James Sampson, president of the Gateway-Longview child services agency; Bryon McIntyre, a parent and vice president of the District Parent Coordinating Council; and incumbent Jason McCarthy, a restaurant manager and dog park founder.
Paladino said all this attention is helping him more than it's hurting him. "I think this energizes voters," he said of the mailings. "I think people are going to look at this and say, 'This is the kind of [stuff] that has to stop.' "
The anonymous mailers refer mainly to racist and pornographic emails that Paladino had sent to friends, which became a major issue in his gubernatorial run against Andrew M. Cuomo in 2010.
Paladino has accused the Buffalo Teachers Federation and the New York State United Teachers union of distributing what he calls "malicious and slanderous" mailers. The mailers were sent from a post office in Queens. The Buffalo News found that the postal permit used to mail the ads is held by Atlas Direct Mail of Long Island City.
BTF President Philip Rumore told The News he had heard about the mailers but did not know who sent them.
Mike Deely, regional director for NYSUT, said the statewide union had nothing to do with the mailers. "I didn't send them out. NYSUT didn't send them out," he said. "I don't know who sent them out, but I'm glad they sent them out. I'm glad someone is making the connections to Carl and the thugs he supports, that he's bad for education."
One of the so-called Paladino cronies is McIntyre, who received BTF support when he ran for an at-large seat four years ago. The union gave McIntyre $800 that year, according to disclosure reports.
This year, McIntyre is running for a seat in the Central District against School Board President Mary Ruth Kapsiak, a retired Buffalo Public Schools teacher and administrator. The BTF has consistently supported Kapsiak and has given her $500 for this year's race so far.
West District candidate Sampson called the fliers "shameful" and said he couldn't believe someone would send out expensive slam pieces for a School Board election. "I received mine yesterday, and I was like, 'You've got to be kidding me,' " he said.
North District candidate McCarthy and Central District candidate McIntyre said they are running independent campaigns and that it's obvious that the teachers unions are going after them.
"Who else would do this? You think any of my opponents could afford this?" McCarthy said. "Let's not be fools."
Though Paladino said he's not in cahoots with other candidates, he doesn't deny influencing board elections in other ways. He claimed credit Thursday for helping to get incumbent East District board member Rosalyn Taylor thrown off the ballot and aggressively engineering the downfall of veteran West District board member Ralph Hernandez, who has received $1,000 from the BTF.
"I sent people to look at [Hernandez's] petitions," Paladino said. "I retained the lawyer to bring the action to get rid of him."
Hernandez was thrown off the ballot Wednesday for not having enough valid signatures on his petitions. A State Supreme Court justice will decide Tuesday if he will appear on the ballot or be reduced to a write-in campaign.
Paladino is a unique candidate in that he alone has heavy financial stakes in both charter and public schools. That has raised questions about future conflicts of interest if he's elected.
His Ellicott Development Co. or an affiliate has renovated and leased space to Middle Early College, a district public school at 290 Main St.; Health Sciences Charter School; Tapestry Charter School; and West Buffalo Charter School, whose building at 113 Lafayette St. was renovated at a cost of $3.8 million and opened last August. The annual lease is $203,982.
"When charter schools start up, they have no building or money, and without somebody to give you that capital investment, there would be no way that one would be put up," said West Charter President Joseph Cozzo. "Mr. Paladino helped us find the building in a location we desired, and he developed the building for us with his own funds that required him to secure loans. We would not be in existence without him."
Paladino also guaranteed a $12 million loan that allowed Tapestry to move forward five years ago after the school failed to get financing from other banks, said Teo Balbach, chairman of the school's board.
Paladino said he took the financial risk because he's a believer in charter schools. He declined to discuss details about his contracts.
"We make a fair profit," he said. "We build [that] into the operation, and we give them the option to buy any time they want. I'm not interested in the long term in being a landlord of charter schools. If they can come in and relieve me of all that anxiety, I'm happy about that."
He told The News he will avoid conflicts of interest that could arise from his involvement as a school developer.
"I will recuse myself from anything I have a self-interest in," said Paladino, who's also a lawyer. "If somebody wants to do a charter, and I'm part of the approval process, I would not get involved with it."
email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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In 2008, global cement production stood at 2.8 billion tonnes, up 3.4% from the previous year. The growth mainly stems from emerging economies which are striving to meet their rapidly growing demand for housing and infrastructure.
The cement industry plays a major role in meeting society's needs for housing and infrastructure. Cement, the glue that holds concrete together, is a key ingredient of economic development. Concrete becomes our offices, factories, homes, schools, hospitals and roads, as well as our underground water and drainage pipes, bricks and blocks, and the mortar that bonds them together. None of these things could be built without cement. There is currently no other material that can replace cement or concrete in terms of effectiveness, price and performance for most purposes.
Moreover, from 2010 onwards more people will be living in an urban as opposed to a rural environment. It is vitally important that the infrastructure that is put in place to support this is as sustainable as possible - buildings which can last a hundred years and which are highly energy-efficient. Concrete is at the present time the only building material capable of delivering on this.
However, cement production is also energy-intensive: it accounts for around 5% of global anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, and affects a wide range of sustainability issues, including climate change, emissions to air and water, natural resource depletion and worker health and safety.
Today, the challenge for the cement industry is to balance growing demand for cement with the need to forge a more sustainable cement industry.


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The City of Glenwood has closed its books for the 2014-2015 fiscal year with a financial picture that is slightly better than expected.
According to city administrator Brian Kissel, Glenwood's "unaudited" general fund deficit is currently at $19,558.67. After months of speculation of just how far the city was in the red, the current figure, which Kissel determined in a meeting with Susanne Gerlach of Public Financial Management, Inc., paints a slightly better picture for Glenwood's finances than anticipated.
A crowd of more than 40 gathered at the Tabor Community Center last Wednesday for a townhall meeting with Iowa Senator Charles Grassley.
For more than an hour, Grassley took questions on everything from renewable energy policy and income discrepancy to international trade, tax reform and the upcoming Iowa Caucuses.
Sunny skies and swimming-like temperatures prevailed Friday as city officials and other dignitaries took part in a formal ground breaking ceremony for the Glenwood Aquatic Center.
The 8,700 square-foot facility will be built on land adjacent to a new gymnasium going up at Glenwood Community High School. Glenwood city administrator Brian Kissel told the crowd gathered at Friday's ceremony that construction will take about a year.
It appears Glenwood is finally going to get its aquatic center.
Following a public hearing Monday night at City Hall, the Glenwood City Council cleared the final financial hurdle by approving up to $600,000 in additional general obligation bond funding for construction of an 8,700 square-foot swimming center that will be built on land adjacent to a new gymnasium under construction at Glenwood Community High School.
The city of Glenwood's proposed $5.1 million aquatic center suffered a major setback last week when the Charles E. Lakin Foundation announced it no longer intends to provide funding for the project.
A Mills County employee accused of falsifying public documents has resigned.
Mills County Auditor Carol Robertson said emergency management specialist Adam Wainwright submitted his resignation last week. Wainwright, 35, was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this month after being charged with two counts of falsifying a public document, a Class D felony.
A consultant from Des Moines-based Public Financial Management (PFM), Inc., said Monday her analysis projects the city of Glenwood to have a general fund deficit of $99,910 on June 30 - the end of the 2014-2015 fiscal year.
Discussion during the Glenwood City Council's Budget and Finance Committee May 12 meeting concerning the possible sale of the Glenwood Public Library Annex came to an abrupt halt after two members of the audience made strong statements in opposition of the sale and city leaders were accused of "going behind the backs" of Glenwood Library Board members in considering the matter.
Iowa's Third District U.S. Rep. David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, spent an hour in Glenwood Saturday morning sharing his views and knowledge on issues of national and local interest with about two dozen Mills County residents.
The first-year congressman addressed questions and concerns on a variety of topics, including immigration, education, Iran and President Barack Obama.
It's now official – there will be no special assessments to help fund the $1.4 million Vine Street – Railroad Ave. reconstruction projects.
Copyright © 2018
The Opinion Tribune is your source for local news, sports, events and information in the city of Glenwood and Mills County, Iowa.


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Difference between revisions of "Kangerlussuaq"
Revision as of 11:12, 17 April 2011
Kangerlussuaq [1] is a settlement on the west coast of Greenland near the end of a fjord of the same name. Its Danish name is Søndre Strømfjord, and until the early 1990's was home to a U.S. military base known as Bluie West Eight. The settlement and the airfield share a symbiotic relationship with most residents being employed by it in one way or another.
Kangerlussuaq began as an important stopover point for aircraft between North America and Europe during World War II. During the Cold War the airfield served as a U.S. early warning facility before being decommissioned in 1992.
Today, the airfield is one of the largest in Greenland and still serves as the main staging area for scientific personnel manning Greenland's many research facilities and base camps. An area to the east of town was the launch site for several sounding rockets used in upper atmospheric studies in the 1970s and 1980s. A radar facility used for ionospheric studies is operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the Danish Meteorological Institute to the west of town at Kellyville.
The town itself is roughly be divided into two halves, the original settlement itself and the former military area on the opposite side of the airfield. With the closure of the military base many of the former barracks are slowly being converted for civilian use.
Get in
Over land
As with most settlements in Greenland, ground transportation is very limited. Hiking maps of the area from Sisimiut to Kangerlussuaq are available from Scanmaps [2] and small huts are placed strategically along the route. Some experience in hiking is neccesary, as traffic is sparse, and trails disappear.
In the winter, the same route can be used for transport on dog sleds. Contact the tourist office to arrange a trip.
By plane
Air Greenland operates scheduled flights between Greenland and abroad.. Air Greenland flies to destinations in Greenland and Copenhagen from Kangerlussuaq Airport, utilising Boeing 757 and Airbus A330-planes. Air Greenland is the only company flying between Kangerlussuaq and domestic destinations. Scientific and technical personnel flying into Greenland for research purposes will typically fly into Kangerlussuaq via New York Air National Guard C-130s from Stratton ANG Base in Schenectady, New York, USA.
By boat
Arctic Umiaq Line launched a weekly coastal ferry connection between Nuuk, Kangerlussuaq and Uummannaq in Spring 2006.
Get around
Very few businesses are located in Kangerlussuaq. Supplies can be purchased at a small local supermarket across the street from the airport terminal. Souvenirs are available for purchase at a gift shop in the airport terminal and from a smaller shop in the Albatros hotel immediately southwest of the airport terminal. Musk-ox wool and Christmas items (such as stockings) may be purchased from the "Musk Ox" shop immediately opposite the airport terminal, next door to the Post Office.
There is no foreign currency exchange in Kangerlussuaq. Visitors may purchase Danish Kroner using a credit card at a small transfer facility in one of the airport buildings. Some stores will accept foreign credit cards.
There is a small grocery store (called the Anibutik) on the South side of town near the Science Housing facilities. It's in the same building as the Polar Bear Cafe.
The 'upscale' restaurant adjacent to the main airport cafeteria (located through the far doors at the end of the cafeteria) is quite pricey, but, offers Very delectible native Greenlandic meals with Reindeer, Musk Ox etc along with a nice glass of wine which is hard to come by.
Tourist Office [5], the place to go to get information and make arrangements for your trip to Kangerlussuaq.
Stay safe
Kangerlussuaq is a very small settlement and as such has virtually no crime. Care should be taken when hiking through certain areas during hunting season (try not to look like a caribou).
Though, by Greenlandic standards, Kangerlussuaq is blessed with a mild climate, the greatest local danger is probably still posed by the weather in winter. The average high in January (the best time for seeing the Aurora Borealis) is -12 C (8 F), and during cold snaps, extended periods around -28 C (-20 F) are not uncommon. Arctic parkas and boots are a must to spend more than a few minutes outside under these conditions.
The other local year-round danger is local musk oxen which frequent the area around Lake Fergusen and Black Ridge to the south of town. Keep a distance of several tens of meters from any animal, as they often charge without warning and are much faster than their shaggy, ambling appearance belies. If you see a group of musk oxen forming into the typical circle or line defensive formations, with their heads and horns facing you and any young behind the main rank, it means you have been identified as a mortal threat, and you should get away from the area as calmly and quickly as possible. Musk oxen are particularly nervous if you are located uphill from them, so never approach or pass by from above.
A few other dangers are presented by the geography. The river coming from the ice cap, which passes by town and empties into the head of the fjord, has deposited huge silt flats which can be very unstable and present large areas of quicksand indistinguishable from harder sand. For this reason, do not venture out into the river bed, and do not drink the silty water coming from the glacier as the extremely fine silt can wreak havoc on your intestines, and clogs even the best of filters (water in ponds and streams elsewhere is perfectly safe). Finally, if you go to the edge of the inland ice in summer, beware that it is an active glacier and huge calving events can happen at any time, dropping tons of ice accompanied by bursts of pent-up, near-freezing melt water. Keep a safe distance from the edge.
It should also be noted that there is no hospital in Kangerlussuaq. While lighter injuries can be treated at the local clinic, serious medical emergencies may require evacuation by air to Sisimiut or Nuuk.
Mosquitoes and black flies are a serious problem during the summer months. Bug repellent is a must.


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Greetings folks. I'd like to thank Joe DeCaro of Metsmerizedonline.com for posting for me when I was hospitalized. It was greatly appreciated.
Thursday afternoon I went to my doctor's office because of shooting pains in my stomach and groin area. It turns out I had an infection and everything that happened in the May surgery had to be removed.
Well, Sunday become Monday night, and yesterday I was so doped up on pain killers I slept most of the day. This is the first time I've been up and had a chance to reach out to you guys.
Your thoughts and Joe's help are greatly appreciated.
I read Joe's post about Scott Hairston and become annoyed with the Mets. Even when they were losing 11 of 12 games, the Mets did nothing. Sandy Alderson said there was still a lot of baseball to be played.
It they're going to deal Hairston, it should have been done in July when they had a chance to get something — maybe. Now, what will they get?
Personally, with the Mets' outfield as thin as it is, and the team needing to bolster its bench for 2013, they would be looking for guys like Hairston. Why not keep him and make one less move this winter?
That it, of course, it the Mets are going to make any moves for the future. No, Kelly Shoppach doesn't cut it.
Again thanks. I am looking forward to recovering as fast as possible and talking with you guys again.


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Gary L. Sickmiller
Gary L. Sickmiller
May 12, 1951 – Feb. 27, 2013
PLYMOUTH — Gary L. Sickmiller, 61, passed away at 3:02 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 in Plymouth.
Gary L. Sickmiller was born in Plymouth on May 12, 1951 to Lowell A. and Betty J. (Games) Sickmiller. He graduated from John Glenn High School in 1969.
On Feb. 11, 1973 in Plymouth, Gary married the former Kathy Schroll. Together they had three wonderful children, of whom he was very proud.
Gary worked as a serviceman for Bauer Soft Water for nearly 30 years. Even when he wasn't able to go to work because of his illness, he fixed many softeners over the phone.
He enjoyed hunting and was an avid fisherman, Pretty Lake being his favorite spot. Gary was a fan of Notre Dame football and the Bears. He loved going to his boys' football games and wrestling matches.
Gary is survived by his loving wife, Kathy of Plymouth; his daughter, Heather (Dave) Peter of Noblesville; his two sons, Jeremy (Jenny) Sickmiller of Plymouth and Adam (Amber) Sickmiller of South Bend; his mother, Betty; a sister, Deb Reed of Plymouth; a brother, Dennis Sickmiller of Anderson; and four grandchildren: Ella and Zak Peter and Leo and Marcy Sickmiller, whom he loved and cherished.
He was preceded in death by his father, Lowell.
Calling hours will be from 4 – 7 p.m. Friday, March 1, 2013, at the Johnson-Danielson Funeral Home, 1100 N. Michigan Street, Plymouth.
Memorial contributions can be made to Center for Hospice Care, 112 S. Center St. Plymouth IN 46563 or the Marshall County Humane Society, 11165 13th Road, Plymouth, IN 46563.
Online condolences and the sharing of memories may be sent to the family at www.johnson-danielson.com


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Platinum/Gold Castaway Club Members, bookings will open via phone at 8 a.m. EDT on Thursday, April 7, 2011. All others can book beginning at 8 a.m. EDT on Friday, April 8, 2011.
New York Sailings
Beginning May 25, 2012, the Disney Magic® will sail a total of 20 cruises from New York.
- 8-night Bahamian cruises include a day at Disney's Castaway Cay and a stop at Port Canaveral, gateway to the Walt Disney World® Resort. As part of this itinerary, your Client will receive a one-day Park Hopper® Ticket and roundtrip transportation between the ship and resort.
- 5-night Canadian/New England cruises will visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick.
- 2-night cruises are perfect for Clients looking for a quick getaway at sea over a weekend.
Beginning May 28, 2012, the Disney Wonder® will sail a total of 14 cruises to Alaska from the Port of Seattle, Wash.
- 7-night Alaskan cruises will call on Tracy Arm, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan plus Victoria, British Columbia.
Beginning Sept. 22, 2012, the Disney Magic will sail 12 cruises from the Port of Galveston, Texas.
- 7-night Western Caribbean cruises will visit Costa Maya and Cozumel in Mexico, as well as Grand Cayman.
In addition to 7-night Mexican Riviera cruises, the Disney Wonder will set sail on Disney's first-ever voyage to Hawai'i on April 29, 2012.
- 15-night Hawaiian cruise departs from the Port of Los Angeles and includes stops at Hilo; Kahului, Maui; Honolulu, Oahu; Nawiliwili, Kauai and Ensenada, Mexico.
- 7-night Pacific Coast cruises will call on San Francisco, San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico.


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MONTREAL — There has been much debate in The Gazette's Opinion pages and letters-to-the-editor column recently over whether people who want to acquire pets should adopt from an animal shelter or buy from a breeder. Shelter advocates say that by adopting, you are saving animals' lives and controlling the animal population. Those who choose to buy from breeders say it allows them to be more certain of the health and temperament of the pet.
But there are no guarantees and no magic recipes for choosing a pet. There are horror stories on both sides, just as there are wonderful accounts of having acquired loving, healthy pets.
Where animal health and welfare are concerned, all facilities should be required to meet the same basic standards. All animals deserve to have adequate living conditions, food and health care. Whether the organization is benevolent or for-profit is not the issue.
It is a myth that we are controlling the animal-overpopulation problem by encouraging people to adopt animals from shelters. Adoption alone will not slow the reproduction rate. Controlling the animal population requires a multi-factor approach. We need laws that prohibit reckless reproduction of animals; we need to promote sterilization of family pets; we need to increase awareness about what responsible pet ownership entails.
It is equally a myth that you can predict your pet's temperament and disposition by getting a purebred. There are aggressive golden retrievers, just as there are very docile pit bulls. We cannot custom-order pets as we do inanimate objects. Despite some breed predispositions that we cannot ignore, we always have to keep in mind that each animal is an individual.
There seems to be awareness that breeders are not all equally diligent and scrupulous. Perhaps it is not as well known that we can say the same about rescue organizations and shelters. Everyone seems to agree that puppy mills and animal hoarders are dreadful, but what is the difference, from a health point of view, if we compare them with a poorly run, overloaded rescue organization?
Some rescues fail to meet the most basic requirements. It is not right to have hundreds of animals free-roaming in a facility when some are carriers of such diseases as feline leukemia. Facilities that struggle just to feed the animals should not be allowed to continue operating. If they can barely provide food, it's a given they provide very little or no veterinary care.
The vast majority of people who breed or care for animals claim to love them. But even with the best of intentions, many inadvertently cause animal suffering due to substandard conditions. In most cases it is due to lack of knowledge and/or money. No formal training or credentials are required to be allowed to operate an animal facility. Supervision by a certified veterinarian is not required.
We have to shy away from a black-and-white way of thinking and of putting labels on animal organizations. When choosing a pet, there will never be any guarantees. But you can be cautious about whom you choose to adopt or buy an animal from. Do not encourage any establishment that doesn't appear to be providing optimal care. We need to raise the level of professionalism in how animals are kept and handled. We need to demand high standards for all.
Christina Nosotti is a veterinarian who has worked with the Montreal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and does house calls in the West Island.


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Model-turned-actress Molly Sims is kicking off 2013 by donating her baby son's old clothing to a Los Angeles children's charity.
The Yes Man star cleared out six-month-old Brooks' closet on Wednesday (09Jan13), and revealed to her Twitter.com followers she plans to give the items to the needy via the Los Angeles organisation Baby2Baby.
Sims uploaded a photograph of herself next to a stack of garments and added, "Spring cleaning! Donating clothes Brooks has grown out of to baby2baby... AH-mazing (sic) charity helping babies in LA."


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Justices Finally Notice Naked Statues In The Supreme Court While Arguing Why Nudity Should Be Censored
from the oops dept
"Sign me up as supporting Justice Kennedy's notion that this has a symbolic value, just as we require a certain modicum of dress for the people that attend this Court and the people that attend other Federal courts. It's a symbolic matter...These are public airwaves, the government is entitled to insist upon a certain modicum of decency. I'm not sure it even has to relate to juveniles, to tell you the truth."I'm curious where in the First Amendment it says that Congress shall make no law... except wherein it involves requiring a modicum of decency. But the best part of the hearing came when, after the Justices got worked up about the idea of nudity on TV, one of the lawyers, Seth Waxman wondered about all the nudity right in the Supreme Court itself:
He said government often fails when it gets into the business of trying to understand context, as it purportedly did when it fined ABC for showing fleeting nudity on NYPD Blue.Elsewhere, Justices seemed to think that, without the threat of indecency fines, the networks would be full of swearing and nudity. Of course, that's ridiculous. The networks would respond to what people actually wanted, and plenty of cable networks (not subject to such FCC rules) do not have nudity and swearing, because they know it's not appropriate for their audience. We'll see how the court eventually rules, but the questioning certainly did not bode well.
"Right now, the commission has pending before it... complaints about the opening episode of the last Olympics, which included a statue very much like some of the statues that are here in this courtroom, that had bare breasts and buttocks," he told the Supreme Court.
Waxman then pointed around the room. "There's a bare buttock there and there's a bare buttock here."
As the crowd snickered, Scalia admitted that he hadn't noticed it before now.


text:
Former San Bernardino businessman Warner Hodgdon, who passed away March 20, will be memorialized this weekend at Auto Club Speedway on the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets. Hodgdon was a former NASCAR track and team owner.
When Childress raced in the late-1970's in his No. 3 Chevrolet, Hodgon was president of Black Gold Oil Company, which sponsored the car.
"Warner was a great friend and partner who helped change the landscape of NASCAR team ownership in the late 1970s," said Childress. "I learned a lot about business from the advice he gave me over the years. He was there to help me with sponsorship from Black Gold when I really needed it. Warner was an entrepreneur with a great vision for where stock car racing could go and we stayed in touch long after his time in racing ended. He was a great friend and will be missed."