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21 June 2006
about Wolfgang Brauner
Currently Mr. Brauner is completing his Ph.D. thesis, working as principal researcher and project manager for the Progressive Strategy Studies Project and teaching political science at U. Mass., Amherst.
Wolfgang Brauner is the one without the necktie. Yes, the others are prominent German politicians and civil servants.
02 May 2006
Joel Rogers Seminar - summary
Joel Rogers, presenter
co-sponsored by the Progressive Strategy Studies Project
at the Commonwealth Institute and the Boston Review
13 December 2004
Introduction by Charles Knight: Building a strategy
As progressives step back and look at the results of the 2004 election, we are starting to understand the election as not an isolated victory for the conservatives but rather as the latest step in a 35 year march to towards conservative dominance over public policy. Progressive leaders working in thousands of different organizations around the country are faced with the question of what they should do now.
Progressives in United States have been active for a long time without having a grand strategy. Although it is unlikely that all parties would ever agree on a single grand strategy, if we do not even have an outline for an overall strategy this significantly diminishes our prospects for progress.
To begin the discussion about strategy we should clarify how we define the term "strategy." Strategy is the art and science of marshalling human and material resources and planning for action to reach complex and articulated goals. Political strategies are employed in circumstances of uncertainty and opposition. Successful strategies make contingency plans for the unknown circumstances that might arise and they also plan counter moves to the actions taken by the opposition.
Any comprehensive strategy must conduct an assessment of material conditions in which progressives operate. Once the current material conditions are assessed, a statement of priorities must be drawn up to guide allocation of resources to the efforts that will be most helpful in achieving the movement's goals.
The immediate goal of the Progressive Strategy Seminar is not to make great strides in developing a common strategy but rather to make progress in identifying the areas of strategy where we need to focus our attention and to begin the process of thinking about how we might work on these strategic issues.
Joel Rogers: Defining a vision and agreeing on common values
The first area of strategy that needs attention is the creation of a broad agreement on a common vision for what a progressive America would look like. Progressives have to clarify our vision of a better America before we can collaborate on strategies for how to achieve it.
Social democracy has come under hard times over the last 30 years for a variety of reasons. Progressives are in a very different era than we were in the first half of the 20th century and our current situation is very different from previous situations of egalitarian advance under liberal democratic conditions. For example, the old progressive idea of raising taxes to support the welfare of the people, the Keynesian welfare state, has become an unpopular and a politically challenging position to maintain.
Conservatives have a clear program to repeal the most progressive programs of the 20th century. The broad conservative economic vision is to remove taxation on capital, destroy unions, get rid of social insurance, reduce business regulation, and to insure business domination of American politics.
The conservative movement has been actively selling a conservative vision of the economy and our government for 30 years. It has been largely successful in moving public opinion significantly to the right on these issues. To respond to this challenge, progressives must define a shared vision of the economy and government that supports the progressive movement and allows us to speak with one voice so that we can sell the public on a vision of a more just and equitable society.
The second strategic issue that needs attention is creating agreement on the core values of the progressive movement. We should define what progressive core values are so that we can reach out to the public with a clear and unified voice. An agreement on a broad set of values as basic as the recognition that Americans believe in freedom, fairness, opportunity and responsibility would give the progressive movement enough to drive a powerful critique of a corporate dominated American society.
Progressives have been quite successful at winning the cultural wars on issues such as civil rights and women's rights over the last 30 years and our society has made significant progress because of these victories. On the other hand, we have been losing a lot of the political and economic battles over the last 30 years largely because progressives have not focused their efforts there. It is becoming clear that it is time to get back into the economic and political battles.
The strategic challenge for progressives is to develop a clear vision of what we want to accomplish and a set of core values that will define what we stand for as a movement and will drive our critique of the conservatives.
Joel Rogers: Increasing communication and cooperation among progressive organizations
While the conservative movement focuses the majority of its funding on approximately seventy large organizations, the progressive movement disperses its resources widely among thousands of diverse organizations. The result of this fragmentation is that the sum of the parts of the progressive movement adds up to significantly less than the whole. This fact presents a strategic challenge for progressives to think about. How do we increase the level of communication and cooperation among progressive organizations to address this structural disadvantage?
There are several ways of increasing communication and cooperation within the movement. A major barrier to cooperation between organizations is that most are structured to think about projects in terms of their individual organization's priorities as opposed to the movement's priorities. Progressives could develop structures and methods which would lead to more movement-oriented thinking and behavior rather than organization-centered thinking and behavior.
Currently the leaders of the progressive movement do not gather together and systematically develop common strategies for the movement or discuss areas for collaboration. The closest thing to a strategy meeting for progressive leaders that exists is the Take Back America conference sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future, but this conference is more of a show case and networking gathering than a strategic planning meeting.
A relatively low cost way of addressing the lack of systematic communication between the leaders of the movement could be to have regular executive leadership conferences. These conferences could occur at regular intervals at the national, regional and local levels and could serve as a kind of Renaissance Weekend for progressives. There could be a communication structure so progressive leaders could communicate the results of these meetings not only with their constituents but also with the other levels of leadership of the movement.
Coordinating the organizations working on similar issues is an example of a concrete project that could be put into motion right away. Part of the cost of a lack of cooperation between groups is that, in too many cases, the movement has been modestly successful in individual campaigns but mostly with symbolic effect rather than large scale, fundamental change. For example, many groups focus on living wage campaigns with modest local success when a combined effort of these groups on a hike in the minimum wage at a state level would affect many more people.
Designing structures and methods that would promote more communication and cooperation among organizations could also lead to a reduction of redundancy of effort and increase area specific expertise in the progressive movement. For example, if the hundreds of groups in the nation working in a particular area (like staff training) were to communicate and cooperate in more depth it could greatly improve effectiveness. Right now because individual organizations don't cooperate on issues such as staff training, there are fifty, or more, separate staff trainings at the state level. This fragmentation and duplication of effort leads to higher costs for the movement and lower levels of trainer expertise. If progressives were to communicate and cooperate more effectively, organizations could agree to create common staff training efforts which would lead to less redundancy of effort and greater depth of expertise in the movement.
Joel Rogers: Building a progressive infrastructure
Over the last thirty years the conservative movement has been very successful in building an infrastructure of organizations which promote conservative views in public policy and public opinion. It is now widely recognized that the progressive movement is at a significant disadvantage in terms of such infrastructure. Clearly this is a strategic issue.
There are many areas of progressive infrastructure which need a strategic development plan but there are five that stand out:
* communication;
* youth development;
* service bureaus;
* message development;
* and messengers.
The issue of how to improve communication within the leadership of the progressive movement through regular leadership retreats has already been mentioned. The need to improve communication with the population at large which is left of center is another strategic issue that needs to be addressed. The fragmentation of communication with the left of center population of the United States is another opportunity that can be addressed through improving the progressive infrastructure. Polling data suggests that there are approximately 80 million people in the United States who identify themselves as left of center but there is no list that progressives can go to in order to send a message out to a large portion of those 80 million people. There is enormous power in internet management projects which would consolidate email lists among the left of center organizations in the progressive movement. There are obviously obstacles to creating such a list, but the benefits of overcoming those obstacles with something like a central, well-managed email database for the movement could be significant. Having a comprehensive email list for progressives would allow the progressive movement to create a progressive Internet news paper that could distribute the progressive message to millions of people.
The second strategic issue for progressive infrastructure building is youth development. Tens of thousands of young people are looking for ways to do work which fits with their left of center values. The challenge for the progressive movement is create mechanisms to help those young people to find ways to contribute to the progressive movement. Progressives could create a network of progressive youth resource centers so that young people that can go to a single place to connect with all the jobs and training opportunities available in the progressive movement.
Creating a central service bureau for the progressive movement is the third area of opportunity for progressive infrastructure building. Polling, campaign training and leadership institutes are examples of tasks which could be done more efficiently if they were conducted in a less fragmented way than they are today. The progressive movement is engaging in significant replication of each of those functions which causes them to be less professional than they would be otherwise and collectively cost significantly more. A central service bureau would allow the progressive movement to segment and define certain tasks that need to occur across many progressive organizations, as well as encourage organizations to divide up resources and farm the tasks out to the different groups that can fulfill the tasks the best.
The fourth area of progressive infrastructure development is message development. There are a few things that most Americans believe in such as giving kids a very good education and quality health care, giving workers affordable health insurance, making government less corrupt, and making the economic playing field fair for everyone. The striking thing about this list is that progressives have made little national progress on any one of these issues in the last 20 years. Therefore, there is a significant disconnect between a set of clear progressive messages that would be appealing to a majority of Americans and an inability of the progressive movement to successfully articulate those messages. The challenge for progressives is to think strategically about how to conduct well-coordinated message development work in think tanks and among progressive intellectuals and activists.
The fifth area of progressive infrastructure development is the development of messengers to carry the progressive message to the public. The strategic challenge is how to develop a large number of well-trained messengers who are appealing to the general public who can bring the progressive message to the American people. It is crucial to develop infrastructure that will enable progressives to recruit and train thousands of candidates to run for office at all levels of government. It is also very important to recruit and train people to communicate what is fundamentally the same progressive message in the various public venues.
The second area of messenger development is in the development of the media organizations themselves. We should support progressive media outlets like Air America but we should also develop alternative ways to get our message to the public. One idea is to build a mass email list of all the progressive organization and send a monthly email progressive newspaper which carries the progressive message.
The final area of progressive infrastructure building is the area of electoral politics. There are two areas that need strategic development in the political area. The first is the structure of the Democratic Party and the second is the coordination of efforts of the progressive groups involved in the political process.
If we compare the structural aspects of the Democratic Party versus the Republican Party we see a significant governance difference which has worked to the Republican's advantage. The chief constitutional difference between the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee is that the head of the Republican National Committee controls the hiring and firing of all the state Republican Chairs. By contrast, the head of the DNC has very little control over the state Democratic Chairs. So before we look for more complex reasons why the Republicans seem to be on message and better coordinated than Democrats, we should look at the structural differences between the two parties. We need to think strategically about what is the best structure for the party going forward.
The second point about political infrastructure is that there needs to be sustained, disciplined attention to building infrastructure that will allow progressives to gain power at a political level. The progressive movement needs a well-organized community of progressive organizations focused on progressive electoral politics.
There are many issues related to progressive infrastructure which could be addressed but it seems clear that a systematic assessment of the current state of the infrastructure to see where our strengths and weaknesses are, followed by the develop of a prioritized action plan to develop the areas which are found to need improvement, would be very valuable to the progressive movement.
Joel Rogers: Organization and Allocation of Financial Resources
There are two major strategic issues related to financial resources that need to be addressed:
· organization
· and allocation.
Under the current system, there is so little donor organizing infrastructure for the progressive movement that fundraising from small donors is largely conducted on an organization by organization basis. The problem with fundraising from small progressive donors is that there are so many single issue groups soliciting small donations that these groups are overwhelming the small donors. Another problem this creates is that these donors have very little confidence that their money is going to be used in the most effective way possible. Both of these problems are depressing small donor giving to the progressive movement as a whole. A possible solution to this problem would be to develop a donor organizing infrastructure for small donors which could consolidate and simplify the process of giving for small donors.
An example of an organization which dramatically simplified and consolidated the giving process for small donors interested in supporting women candidates is Emily's List. The organization was founded so that donors who want to give to women political candidates, but did not have the expertise to evaluate all of the potential candidates, could give money to a fund where well respected experts made the allocation decisions for them. One possibility that could be attempted in the larger progressive movement would be to use the Emily's List model for small donor fundraising and funding.
In other words, the progressive movement could develop a few donor organizing groups which would hire experts who the pubic trusts to allocate their capital to the most worthy campaigns and organizations. The new small donor infrastructure, of Emily's List-type groups, would be likely to increase small donor giving to progressive groups since donors would feel less overwhelmed as well as more confident that their money is going to the best use possible. It will also increase the likelihood that the money would be allocated in a strategic manner that is most beneficial to the progressive movement as a whole.
The second strategic issue is how the money being invested in the progressive movement should be allocated. Progressives could establish governance structures and methods of discussion within the movement about how the money should be allocated. We could have mechanisms where experts recommend projects worthy of funding and whether the project should not only be given project funding on a two year basis but also given operating funding as well.
The differences between Left funding and Right funding are:
· progressives fund projects and the Right funds their movement;
· The Right funds for 10 years because their project is taking over the country;
· Progressives don't tend to experiment or have performance outcomes as much as the Right;
· We give to thousands of groups while the vast majority of the Right's funding goes to 70 well-funded groups.
Progressives could shrink the number of groups being funded, go deeper on organizational competence and start measuring outcomes of our investment in organizations.
The following is a process that could be used for resource allocation. First, progressives could take a serious inventory of what strengths and weaknesses exist in the progressive movement and create a map of the progressive movement that is based upon a systematic understanding of what the areas of strength and which areas need improvement.
Second, we could bring this map to progressive donor groups and take a poll about which parts of these donors would like to give money to. Third, progressive could create a procedure to make the donor groups aware of which part of the map would be over funded, or under funded, based on the original poll of donors. Fourth, we could reserve 10-15% of the total money committed from donors for projects that are important but would not fit any individual donor's interests. Finally, we could apply performance criteria on the projects so that outcomes can be objectively measured. This way future resource allocation decisions can be made based on rational criteria. It is also important to challenge donors to be more patient with projects.
It is clear that the organization and allocation of financial resources is a strategic area where serious study of the strategic issues could lead to significant improvements in the movement.
Joel Rogers is professor of law, political science, and sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also directs the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), a policy center and field laboratory for applied experiments in "high road" (high wage, low waste, democratically accountable) regional economic development.
Rogers has written widely on democratic theory, American politics, and comparative public policy (co-authoring such books as On Democracy, Right Turn, Metro Futures, The Forgotten Majority, and Working Capital), and is a contributing editor of The Nation and Boston Review. He's also a longtime activist, with a special interest in state politics and progressive strategy. He co-founded EARN, which now includes 45 policy groups in 35 states working on high road state program. Most recently he's been a founder of the Apollo Alliance for sustainable American energy independence, with overall direction of its efforts in states and cities, and is co-author of a broad proposal - Winning in the States - for building progressive political infrastructure in the states (covering candidate recruitment and training, legislative campaign support, policy framing and training, and ongoing networking and support for state and local elected officials.)
01 May 2006
Wade Rathke Seminar - summary
Wade Rathke, presenter
Progressive Strategy Studies Project
Commonwealth Institute, Cambridge, MA USA
12 October 2005
For the Second Progressive Strategy Seminar organized by the Progressive Strategy Studies Project Wade Rathke shared his views on the challenges facing the development and implementation of a progressive strategy. Wade Rathke is the founder and Chief Organizer of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) and SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Local 100, AFL-CIO.
Rathke addressed several major issues, including ACORN's direction, the critical challenges facing the progressive community (especially questions concerning method and resources), majority unionism and how it relates to ACORN's attempt to organize Wal-Mart, and the impact of Katrina on all of these aspects.
The core of Rathke's presentation and the discussion focused on the relationship between resources, organization and power. In the first part of his presentation, he contrasted the explosive growth of ACORN with the decline of most unions and the general crisis of the labor movement. Most unions continue to lose members at the same time as members' demands far outstrip organizational resources. From the very beginning, he emphasized what he sees as the core problem of the progressive community: A relative lack of power due to declining resources and hence organizational capacities.
In explaining the growth of ACORN, Rathke revealed himself as a pragmatic organizer. Speaking from his 35 years as an organizer, he emphasized that organizers essentially try out different methods and eventually go with the one(s) that works best. In his case, he focuses on increasing the number of dues-paying members and maintaining them in the organization as long as possible. All the different techniques for recruiting and maintaining members are geared towards achieving this overriding goal. The power of an organization in this sense is a function of the number of members and the amount of resources they contribute by paying their dues. The advantage of this quantitative approach is that it is measurable, and Rathke insisted how important it is to 'count heads', and at all times meticulously keep track of the quantitative development of the organization. He repeatedly emphasized the need to develop effective and scalable strategies based on 'majority unionism' that can be replicated in different organizations and contexts.
The success of an organization in this model thus depends on the number of its members, which determines its ability to achieve its objectives, which in turn motivates new members to join and old members to stay. Nothing succeeds like success.
[Comment: One of the major challenges facing many progressive organizations is declining membership and there is a critical question of how to recruit new members and maintain old members. As the discussion confirmed, this is one challenge to which progressives urgently need to learn to respond more effectively.]
In the second part of his presentation, he briefly described the great difficulties ACORN faces in organizing Wal-Mart, but also its tremendous and exciting potential - if successful - given the size and importance of Wal-Mart. Confronted with the business model on which Wal-Mart is based, traditional methods of union organizing are likely to be ineffective, and the challenge consists in beginning to organize Wal-Mart employees around issues outside of a traditional union context. ACORN is still exploring ways of exerting pressure outside of a collective bargaining regime. The particularly hostile environment at Wal-Mart requires thinking about new ways of responding to workers' interests and needs, such as lowering dues and developing new and more flexible forms of organizational membership. The minimum goal of the attempt to organize Wal-Mart should be to force the company to establish a fairer business model. At best, it will send a powerful message to the tens of millions of unorganized employees in other service sectors and create new momentum in attempts to organize them.
At the end of his presentation, while showing a number of slides illustrating the devastating impact of Katrina on ACORN's office and operations in New Orleans, he underlined the obligation and opportunity Katrina presents to move questions of race and class to the center stage of all progressive efforts, and emphasized its potential for developing a more effective national progressive strategy.
Beyond describing the immediate efforts of ACORN to become involved in the reconstruction of New Orleans, he had relatively little to say as to how this strategy might be pursued. Nevertheless, he concluded that there can be no effective progressive strategy without a vibrant labor movement.
In general, drawing upon his extensive operational experience, Rathke focused more on tactics and operations than strategy. It may be the case that for long-term organizers effective tactics tend to determine strategic priorities. This highlights the need to learn more about the relationship between tactics and strategy in general, and about how successful tactics sometimes drive and limit strategies.]
To conclude, what emerged from the presentation and discussion as the core challenge facing progressive strategy is the relative lack of power of the progressive community due to scarce and in many cases decreasing resources that significantly limit the capacities of existing organizations and the formation of new and stronger organizations. While this is hardly a new insight, its importance can hardly be overestimated, especially when it is identified by a successful long-time organizer and leader of one of the fastest growing progressive organizations in the country.
Marshall Ganz Seminar - summary
Marshall Ganz, presenter
Third Progressive Strategy Seminar
Progressive Strategy Studies Project
Commonwealth Institute, Cambridge, MA
March 16, 2006
Noting the constraining context of the US political system and present social and political realities, Marshall Ganz addressed the challenge of how progressive organizations can build strategic capacity. He revealed several major influences on his perspective, including the Holocaust and how it affected his family, the Jewish tradition, the Civil Rights Movement (which he described as the 'self-conscious re-enactment of the exodus' from slavery to freedom,) and the Farm Workers Movement.
These formative experiences taught him a number of important lessons concerning the potential of communities to combine their resources in order to transform them into power. "We always have to ask ourselves who is benefiting and who is losing." In the Civil Rights Movement the underlying and fundamental social problem was that of power, how it was distributed and used to systematically discriminate against African Americans, politically, economically and culturally.
While many communities lack power, few of them are utterly without resources. The challenge the organizer faces is how to work with the community so as to transform its resources into power. To illustrate this approach, Ganz gave the example of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It started by recognizing that bus fare was not only an individual resource, but could be combined and thereby transformed into a powerful collective resource and tool for action.
He noted that communities can rarely effect social change by themselves; they have to align with other communities, form broader coalitions, and ultimately a global alliance. "You build community at the level you need it in order to get the power you need to solve the problem." Elites always try to localize conflict so that they can prevail in local domains. Insurgents always face the challenge to redefine the turf to create a more level playing field.
One essential component in bringing resources together to transform them into power is leadership. In the case of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was trained in the organizational infrastructure of the Black Church, a veritable 'school of leadership'. According to Ganz, you organize effectively by identifying and training leaders, building communities around them, and using community resources to build power. He drew the same conclusions from his experience working with Cesar Chavez.
Ganz discussed the specific characteristics of collective political action in the context of the US political system, and its electoral system in particular. Citing de Tocqueville, he remarked that in democracies, knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all forms of political knowledge. In other words, democracy is not only about protecting individual liberties, but about facilitating collective action. You make voices equal through collective action.
Due to its institutional design the US political system is very resistant to change. Change rarely comes directly through elections, but rather through social movements making demands on the electoral system. Social movements have repeatedly emerged as moral and ultimately political forces for change. Ganz referenced the 'Great Awakening' in the 18th century as one of the major sources of abolitionism, suffrage, populism, the women's movement, and even the early labor movement.
After the debacle of the 1964 Goldwater presidential bid, the conservative movement was built largely in the south and southwest and became "the most successful social movement in the past thirty years." The sequence is the same: First social movements are built and organized, then they start making claims on the electoral system which eventually responds more or less depending on the strength of the movement.
This is what conservatives have done and continue to do: They couch their claims in moral terms, which are deeply rooted in a worldview and which is a powerful motivator, energizing movement members, creating commitment and inspiring a long-term view. This lays the foundation for effective strategy.
"These [successful] movements are organized," rooted in local communities and constituencies but not limited to them. They find ways to couple local action with the national purpose, integrating local rootedness with national strategy.
The typical form of organization is three-tiered (on the local, state and national level) with vital connections between them. This serves an integrative function, facilitating peer learning, learning the tools of collective action, with national leaders becoming anchored in and responsive to local constituencies. In Ganz's view the power comes from combining the levels. Unfortunately progressives have become increasingly organizationally illiterate.
In the late 20th C. progressives failed to institutionalize their movement because struggle and divisions over race, gender and between generations shattered many of the progressive organizations. Very few of the younger generation actually joined established organizations, further accentuating generational polarization. One of the major consequences, which the progressive community is suffering from to this day, was that it became illegitimate to talk about values and identity, because they had become divisive rather than unifying issues. Hence one of the major challenges facing progressives today: How to combine a pluralistic framework with a shared moral vision and commitment? One of the greatest strengths of the Right is its relative homogeneity, which was forged to a great extent by its defensive reaction to the progressive movements in the 1960s and 1970s.
An additional factor weakening progressive organizations is the tension between representative and participatory democracy. Representative democracy was the traditional model for organizations, which implies a degree of hierarchy. Hierarchical structures increasingly came in conflict with values surrounding multiple identities and egalitarianism. Of course, not all organizations were shattered, the NEA being a notable exception.
Today, according to Ganz, "advocacy groups tend to substitute issues for values." But issues should be at the tactical level of organizing. If they instead come to define the aim and purpose of organizations, they can become sources of division rather than unity. Ganz noted that this is a very controversial claim.
While many progressives are engaged in issue organizing, those Ganz refers to as 'political pragmatics' are interested in strategy in the superficial sense of "what's the message" and "who's electable" rather than "what do we stand for" and "who shares our vision."
Another problem Ganz identified is the that progressive organizations today are oftentimes nothing more than professional advocacy firms who market their issues using innovative technology, and whose 'members' are not active and don't play a role in governance, but simply donate. Moreover, many of these organizations are c-3 nonprofits and can't really engage in partisan politics.
But partisan politics is how social movements leverage their influence. The most notable recent example being the Christian Right and how it took over large parts of the Republican Party. Ganz noted that labor unions are an important exception on the left.
In his conclusion, Ganz emphasized what he sees as a "huge vacuum" in the progressive community, morally, organizationally and in terms of leadership. In trying to fill this gap, progressives would do well to recognize that much community organizing today is done by faith-based initiatives -- the work of Jim Wallis seems to point in the right direction.
Offering a synthesis of his presentation, Ganz told the story of David and Goliath. The key lesson of this story is where strategy needs to be situated in order to be effective. It starts by courageously accepting the challenge, is followed by a strong moral commitment, and in the process, and sometimes precisely because of the relative lack of resources organizations can take an imaginative and creative leap. "It's easy to go around strategizing for other people, and come up with lousy strategies. There's a whole industry of consultants that do this." Instead, "we need to learn how to be David."
The discussion following the presentation mainly revolved around the role of technology, emotions, and creativity for effective organizing. The overarching theme was an understanding of politics as the building and cultivation of long-term relationships rather than as short-term transaction.
Technology can facilitate bringing people together, but cannot substitute for it. The web can be used very effectively to disseminate information, coordinate meetings and activities, and to raise money. The Dean campaign of 2004 was effective in all three of these ways, but did not translate it into sustained organizing -- with the possible exception of Democracy for America (DFA) with a number of local chapters around the country which meet regularly.
According to Ganz, building enduring relationships in communities where they previously did not exist by engaging and investing in people is one of the most effective ways to build capacity and power. "Forging connections is at the core of what makes social movements strong." One of the oldest and most effective ways of building political relationships between people are house meetings.
It makes a big difference whether we think of people as citizens or as clients. Referring to the economist Albert Hirschman, Ganz pointed out that while economic resources deplete with use, moral resources grow with use. Since progressives are not able to compete with the Right financially, they need to compete in terms of moral resources.
This consideration led to the crucial question of what motivates us. "I think we really underrate emotions," Ganz said, which is counterproductive since we experience our values through our emotions -- they tell us what is good and what is bad. Since most people are deeply motivated by values, it is very important to create venues in which we can engage in conversations that allow us to uncover and recover our values in order to better understand their sources and be better able to organize people on their basis. In this context, Ganz emphasized that traditionally organizations regularly celebrated their values, which can be a "a transformational experience" as people begin to relate to one another in new and deeper ways. Pointing out that only last year did the Sierra Club have its first national convention which brought its local chapters together, he referred to the environmental movement as, in some sense, a "religious movement." Especially when faced with the "secular fundamentalism" of some progressives, it is important to remember that religion and spirituality remain very important sources of moral meaning and commitment. Taking religion, spirituality, and morality seriously, and the meaning and commitment they generate, is one of the most important lessons the Left can learn from the Right.
Two of the most salient issues around which progressives could and should build strategic capacity are economic justice and health care. However, economic populism, as recommended by authors like Thomas Frank, and as embraced by politicians such as John Edwards and Barack Obama, is systematically compromised by the dependency of the Democratic Party on corporate donors. Since third parties are bound to fail in the US political system, the only viable alternative is to build a new social movement that is able to transform the Democratic Party.
Finally, due to the great degree of uncertainty surrounding progressive organizing, the most valuable insights can be gained not from game theory but from the social psychology of creativity, since the ability to imagine and to innovate is key in optimizing one's resourcefulness. As in the story of David and Goliath referred to above, this oftentimes means recognizing resources and seeing opportunities where others would not. Building strategic capacity requires the effective combination of strong values and broad strategic vision with the detailed work of organizing. First one has to build strategic capacity by developing relationships and organizations; and only then one has a basis on which to strategize.
Marshall Ganz entered Harvard College in the fall of 1960. In 1964, a year before graduating, he left to volunteer as a civil rights organizer in Mississippi. In 1965, he joined Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers; over the next 16 years he gained experience in union, community, issue, and political organizing and became Director of Organizing. During the 1980s, he worked with grassroots groups to develop effective organizing programs, designing innovative voter mobilization strategies for local, state, and national electoral campaigns. In 1991, in order to deepen his intellectual understanding of his work, he returned to Harvard College and, after a 28- year leave of absence, completed his undergraduate degree in history and government. He was awarded an MPA by the Kennedy School in 1993 and completed his PhD in sociology in 2000. He teaches, researches, and writes on leadership, organization, and strategy in social movements, civic associations, and politics.


text:
BARCELONA, Spain — Freak waves that smashed into a Mediterranean cruise ship flooded people's cabins, broke windows in a restaurant and sent terrified travelers screaming for doctors, passengers said Thursday.
RAW VIDEO: Chaos engulfs the cruise liner
Claude Cremex, 73, of Marseille, France said he was in his cabin resting because of rough seas when the walls of water hit the Cypriot-owned Louis Majesty, which was carrying 1,350 passengers and 580 crew members off the coast of northeastern Spain.
The ship's owner and operator, Louis Cruise Lines, said the vessel was struck Wednesday by three "abnormally high" waves more than 33 feet (10 meters) high that broke glass windshields in the forward section. Two people died and 14 were slightly hurt, the company said.
Large waves are common in the Mediterranean but ones that size occur only once or twice a year, said Marta de Alfonso, an oceanographer with the Spanish government.
Cremex said he did not see the waves himself but later viewed the damage. "It was spectacular," he told The Associated Press as the ship sat docked at Barcelona's port with passengers sunning themselves on deck the day after the accident.
"A lot of water came in. Many cabins were flooded," said Cremex, who was traveling with his wife. "Many people were very frightened."
"Suddenly we saw a wave that went up above our level, and I said to my husband, 'tonight we will not have to wash the windows,'" said Claudine Armand of France, who was in her cabin at that point. "Right then we heard we heard a loud noise, and it was the wave that hit us."
"When we came out of the room we saw the wave had flooded everything," she told Associated Press Television News.
Pierre Languillon, also of France, said damage was extensive and he saw many people with superficial injuries.
"They called for doctors, as many doctors as there were. Luckily nothing happened to us, but I think we averted a catastrophe."
Louis Cruise Lines spokesman Michael Maratheftis said 14 passengers who suffered only minor injuries were taken to hospital as a precaution.
Arrangements have been made to fly all 1,350 passengers back home Thursday and the ship will carry on with its normal cruise schedule later this month after repairs are completed, he told the AP from Cyprus.
Maratheftis said the two dead passengers suffered fatal injuries from the glass shards and ripped-out window frames and furniture.
"It was three waves, one after the other. The damage was done by the second and the third waves. We are talking about waves that exceeded 10 meters in height. This was unforeseen and unpredicted because the weather was not really that bad," Maratheftis said.
De Alfonso said there was a big storm in the area at the time and the waves might have been stirred up by fierce winds. Waves often come in threes, she said.
A Louis Cruise Lines statement said the waves smashed windows in a public area on deck 5 on the forward part of the vessel. It said the passengers killed were German and Italian.
The ship was on a 12-day cruise from the ports of Genoa and Marseilles in the western Mediterranean, calling at Tangiers, Casablanca, Tenerife, Lanzarote, Cadiz, Cartagena, Barcelona and had been due to return to Genoa on Thursday.
"Louis Cruises extends its sincere condolences to the families of the two victims and its full support to the injured passengers while expressing its deep sorrow for the incident," the statement said.
Maratheftis said many passengers have already left the ship to return home.
Louis Cruise Lines' Web site says the ship is 680 feet (207 meters) long, and features 10 passenger decks and 732 staterooms along with various bars, pools, restaurants and shops.

subset: commoncrawl


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LHC seeks federal govt reply in petitions against PM
The petitioner claimed that prime minister and his family were involved in money laundering.
The plea requested the court to disqualify the prime minister and others involved in stashing wealth abroad including former interior minister Rehman Malik.
The petitioner also requested the court to order investigation into Panama Papers through National Accountability Bureau.


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Happy New Year
Recent Posts
Happy New Year
Baseball was invented by Alexander Cartwright, modeling it upon the stick and ball game that he played then. The first known club match with rules written by him was played in June 19, 1846.
Each baseball game has 12,386,344 possible plays.
The odds of a fan being hit by a baseball are 300,000 to 1.
The shortest major league player was Eddie Gaedel, who was three feet, seven inches tall. His sole appearance in an MLB game was a publicity stunt.
The tallest player in Major League history is Minnesota Twins' pitcher Jon Rauch, who is six feet, eleven inches tall.
Baseball legend states that the silhouette on the MLB logo is Harmon Killebrew, who played for the Washington Senators, the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals. He was second to Babe Ruth in total homeruns.
A strange rule of this game is that before every game, umpires remove the shine from the balls by rubbing them. The number of balls that they rub before every game is around six dozen. The mud with which the balls are rubbed is also location specific. Ideally, it should only come from a particular area in Burlington County, New Jersey.
Fidel Castro was once a star baseball player for the University of Havana.
In 1965, the minimum annual salary for a baseball player was $6,000, just a thousand dollars more than it had been in 1947.
A regulation baseball has 108 stitches.
The very first baseball game was played on June 19,1845, across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New York.
In baseball, a "can of corn" refers to a fly ball that is easy to catch.
Robert Redford attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship.
In an effort to sell more licensed apparel, minor-league baseball teams were changing their names so often that the sport's governing body now limits franchises to team name changes every three years.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, houses the largest collection of baseball cards: 200,000.
The first perfect nine innings baseball game was achieved by John Lee Richmond on 12 June 1880.
Giants baseball catcher Roger Bresnahan introduced shin guards in 1907.
In 1897, the Washington Senators became the first baseball team ever to introduce "Ladies' Day."
The longest baseball game was between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox and lasted for eight hours and six minutes. Due to MLB rules forbidding an inning to start after 1 o'clock AM, fans had to come back the next day to finish the game.
The average baseball only lasts about a week. Each baseball can only be used one time in a MLB game.
Pitcher Nolan Ryan struck out more players in his career of 27 seasons than any other pitcher.
Manager Alvin Dark of the San Francisco Giants told reporters that NASA would "put a man on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run." When Perry finally hit a home run, it was 20 minutes after Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.
Having been open for nearly 100 years, Fenway Park in Boston is the oldest baseball stadium still in use.
The Louisville Slugger Museum, Kentucky holds the largest baseball bat in the world. This bat weighs 68,000 pounds and measures 120 feet.
The only person credited with umpiring two major sports, football and baseball, is Cal Hubbard.
In 1978, during a match between Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles, a fan suffered a heart attack. He was saved by a baseball player, George "Doc" Medich, who was a medical student during off season.
From April 30, 1982 to September 19, 1990, Cal Ripkin, Jr. played 2632 straight games, which means he didn't miss a game in sixteen years!
Mike Schmidt earned the first $500,000 salary in baseball in 1977.
The 1926 New York Giants hold the record for the longest consecutive winning streak with 26 games in which they beat every National League team.
Source: http://bitsandpieces.us/2012/05/02/strange-baseball-facts/
Facts About Real Estate
Experience in real estate is key.
Do everything you can to obtain investing and property management background, whether it be by taking an unpaid internship, managing some properties or making a few small investments of your own.
REITs are hot.
The last decade has seen a large rise in real estate financings to the public through Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). These trusts work like mutual funds and hold property. The REIT boom is unlikely to continue over the next decade but this sector hould continue to offer good job opportunities for real estate analysts.
Negotiation Skills are Crucial.
A key skill in real estate is the ability to negotiate win-win contracts. Develop negotiating skills now and you will definitely see a payoff later.
Technology is becoming much more important in real estate.
Those who know how to develop products which use digitized photographs and video will have an advantage in the future because they can take properties to the customer as opposed to having to take the customer to the properties.
Baseball Facts
Sources : http://rumored.com/2011/05/24/20-facts-about-baseball-you-didnt-know/
Engaging in real estate is fun and exciting.
Some statistical facts of 2010 according to the annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers report of the National Association of Realtors yearly survey of home buyers and home sellers are the following:
Buying or looking for real estate is a tough but fun task to do.
Let us talk about the tough part—-
It is not easy to look for a good buy; good catch whatever way you may call it when you talk about real estate. Any one for this matter will have different criteria as to what is your standard and how tight is your budget. It goes to say, that what works for John may not work for Anna. It will take time to find that perfect fit for you!
The fun part is……
Finding one that fits for you is fun especially when you are on the process of looking one for yourself. Hearing stories for each of properties that you will have to see is fun, you will have the chance of going to a place you never been to or you failed to noticed to. Or else you will have the chance of bonding moments with your family, friends or love ones when you get to be with them as you scout for homes.
A real estate expert
Welcome to WordPress.com! This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.
Happy blogging!


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TONY EASTLEY: The New South Wales ombudsman has found despite millions of dollars being spent every year on Aboriginal government services, many programs are failing the people they're designed to protect.
Several years ago the New South Wales Government funded a plan designed to dramatically reduce Aboriginal child sexual abuse cases.
The New South Wales ombudsman has found many of the investments haven't worked and Aboriginal children are still significantly over-represented in sexual abuse figures.
Will Ockenden reports.
WILL OCKENDEN: It's a brutal assessment by the New South Wales ombudsman Bruce Barbour of a plan which promised so much.
BRUCE BARBOUR: We've seen poorly integrated services. There's been a failure to deal with longstanding chronic staffing shortage, particularly in high need areas, a lack of accountability and strong governance frameworks.
And really what that's meant is that agencies trying to deliver what are essential services to the most vulnerable Aboriginal children in New South Wales are not able to deliver those services effectively.
WILL OCKENDEN: It's the fourth and final report into the so-called Interagency Plan to Tackle Child Sexual Assault in Aboriginal Communities.
The plan's goal was to reduce child sexual abuse and disadvantage in New South Wales but despite millions of dollars being thrown at the problem much of the plan hasn't worked.
BRUCE BARBOUR: The statistics are very disturbing.
WILL OCKENDEN: Bruce Barbour says too many Aboriginal children are being sexually abused.
BRUCE BARBOUR: Aboriginal kids represent about 4 per cent of our population yet they account for 10 per cent of all child sexual abuse victims amongst children. Unfortunately that's the reported statistics. What our evidence demonstrates very clearly is that there's significant under-reporting of these issues as well.
WILL OCKENDEN: Many problems identified in previous reports haven't been fixed.
Bruce Barbour says many Aboriginal children are known to government departments before the sexual abuse takes place.
BRUCE BARBOUR: There were 248 children who were the victims of child sexual abuse between 2007 and 2011 in the 12 communities that we targeted. Two-thirds of those were the subject of 10 or more risk of harm reports to community services, prior to the sexual abuse occurring. And 39 per cent of them or approximately 97 of those young children had been reported more than 20 times.
WILL OCKENDEN: There's also a bleak assessment on counselling services for sexual abuse victims. Mr Barbour says the services are unable to meet the demand.
BRUCE BARBOUR: There just is not enough funding to support councillors for all people that need them.
WILL OCKENDEN: The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda wants more cooperation between government departments.
He says the broader problems like heath, education, employment and justice need to be tackled to fix the problems.
MICK GOODA: I think we need to have the voices of the most vulnerable heard here. If we keep on hearing from the children, we keep on hearing from women who look after the children, stepping up and saying this is unacceptable I think we will set the groundwork for governments and communities to work together to address this problem.
WILL OCKENDEN: The New South Wales Government says it will release a response to the report sometime in the next few months.
TONY EASTLEY: Will Ockenden reporting.
The full story...
Indigenous children suffering high sexual abuse levels
Will Ockenden reported this story on Friday, February 1, 2013 08:04:00
TONY EASTLEY: The New South Wales ombudsman has found despite millions of dollars being spent every year on Aboriginal government services, many programs are failing the people they're designed to protect.
Related Links
ABC takes no responsibility for the sites these links take you to.


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Who is at risk?
Despite continuing research, the exact cause of keratoconus remains unknown. There are several risk factors including excessive eye rubbing, allergy, connective tissue problems, and contact lens wear. Some cases also seem to have a genetic origin, with studies showing that up to 50% of subjects with keratoconus have at least one close relative affected by the disease.
What are the symptoms?
In the early stages, keratoconus does not normally produce any symptoms. The first symptoms of keratoconus are usually a blurring and distortion of vision, that may be corrected with glasses. Frequent changes to the glasses prescription may be required as the cornea becomes progressively thinner.
How is keratoconus treated?
As the disease progresses, glasses will no longer be strong enough to correct the patient's vision and rigid contact lenses are required. Soft contact lenses are usually not an option, because they cannot correct for the irregular astigmatism associated with the keratoconus.
In a small number of patients, the central cornea becomes so severely thin and irregular that corneal transplantation surgery is required to restore vision. Glasses or contact lenses are often still necessary after the surgery. As in any eye surgery, complications such as transplant rejection, infection and loss of vision can occur, so results cannot be guaranteed.
Recently a new minor surgical treatment to slow or stop the progression of the disease in younger people has become available called corneal collagen crosslinking. First, riboflavin (vitamin B2) drops are applied to the patient's eye. Once the riboflavin has penetrated through the cornea, Ultraviolet A light therapy is applied to induce collagen crosslinking. This is a process where collagen fibres form strong chemical bonds with neighbouring fibres and act like a scaffold to support the cornea and stop it from losing its shape. Collagen crosslinking is still being investigated but several studies have shown it is able to stabilise keratoconus and results are promising.
Keratoconus research
The Ocular Genetics Unit at the Centre for Eye Research Australia is working to better understand the causes of keratoconus through assessment of clinical features using latest imaging technologies, hereditary components through genetic studies and impact of keratoconus on an individual's quality of life. These studies will lead to a better understanding of keratoconus including ways of either preventing or slowing its progression.
How can I help?
You can support keratoconus research at CERA by making a donation.


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My research project is winding down. Now it's on to writing the paper and trying to get it published. I don't know how hard that will be since our results weren't too significant.
A couple weeks ago I got to scrub in on my first surgery. It was an awesome experience! The hardest part was gowning and gloving, but it was good practice. It was a skin graft to cover a wound. During the surgery, all I really did was cut suture, but it was still fun to be right there and see everything. I was also doing anesthesia for some other surgeries. None of my dogs behaved according to the normals. One dog had low blood pressure throughout the surgery and another was breathing too fast. I still don't know what the ideal dog is supposed to be like under anesthesia. I've also been gaining a lot of experience bandaging wounds. I'm really excited about all of this because it gives me a chance to learn some of these things before I get to clinics.
The last few weeks were quite busy, but things are starting to slow down as projects come to a close. Sadly, this also means that the summer is ending and school will be starting up. I can't believe it's been about 2.5 months since finals. I had said I was going to review material from last semester and look at stuff for next semester but now of that has happened. I guess that's how it goes.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
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In 1932, Erik Ljungberg established a record label, AB Sonora, produced entirely in Sweden. Sonoras were sold originally at 2 krone but the price was reduced to 1.65 krone during 1933. Ljungberg sold the label to Philips in 1958. The company also produced a portable gramophone.
Although all that's interesting, what really grabs my attention about this record sleeve is the fabulous design. There are two fonts in classic black and red. I particularly love the uppercase E & S and lower case f & r of the script font. The contrasting blocky font has just a few subtle serifs and is mainly used in uppercase. One text block reads "Giv arbete åt svenska arbetare" which translates as "Give work to Swedish workers".
And just look at that great little logo at the foot of the sleeve. Feet like musical notes and a disc-shaped body – but what's with the little flag apparently flying from the bridge of his nose? Who cares when it's designed with such flair?


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A veteran Army commander who led large-scale offensives against Palestinian militants accepted Ariel Sharon's offer to become Israel's new defense minister. The promotion of Shaul Mofaz came as Prime Minister Sharon worked to forge a new coalition government likely with hawkish right-wing parties after the pullout Wednesday of the Labor Party. Sharon was quoted as saying he had "no intention of initiating" a new national election because of his government's collapse.
"A bit of progress" in the UN Security Council on the wording of a new resolution on disarming Iraq was being claimed by British government officials. They said "we are looking at next week now" for adoption of a compromise that would be acceptable to potential veto-wielders France, Russia, and China. But in Washington Wednesday, Secretary of State Powell said the Bush administration would not be "handcuffed" by the Security Council and would regard Iraqi refusal to comply with weapons inspections as "an immediate red line" that could provoke a US military response.
The "suspension" of contact by the Irish Republican Army with the disarmament commission that's supposed to oversee the surrender of weapons by both Catholic and Protestant paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland was seen as a negotiating ploy by senior political leaders. The IRA said its five-year-old "complete cessation of military operations remains intact." But it accused the British government of issuing "untenable ultimatums" since taking back control the province's affairs last month. The IRA has made the same move before, and British officials called it regrettable but predictable. The statement came hours before Britain's new secretary for Northern Ireland met with a delegation from Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally and a former partner in the province's self-rule government.
Signs pointed to a likely high voter turnout Sunday for Turkey's critical parliamentary election. Less certain was its likely outcome. To qualify for seats in the legislature, a party must win at least 10 percent of the ballots, and several were below that level in late opinion polls. Political observers said the year-old Justice and Development Party appeared on course to win a majority, drawing on widespread disillusionment over the economy. But it has had to deny having militant Islamist leanings, and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is banned from becoming prime minister because of his conviction and jail term for sedition.
Rescuers raced to try to free children and teachers trapped under the collapsed roof of their kindergarten after a 5.4-magnitude earthquake struck south-central Italy. Early reports said at least three children died and eight others were critically hurt.


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June 02, 2012
President Amott:
It is a distinct privilege to present Sir Andrew Davis for the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.
Sir Andrew Davis is one of today's most highly regarded and sought after international conductors. He currently serves as music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, having recently been named to its Board of Directors. Maestro Davis is also conductor laureate of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, where he held the longest tenure as chief conductor since that of the orchestra's founder, the legendary Sir Adrian Boult. He also serves as artistic advisor to the Besançon International Music Festival and is president of the jury for that festival's 52nd International Competition for Young Conductors.
Simply chart a course, if you like, to the Lyric's current season for a sampling of the remarkable breadth and variety of his performance literature. In it, Maestro Davis conducted masterpieces ranging from Mozart's genial The Magic Flute to Mussorgky's epic Boris Godunov. Next season he will conduct "the Lyric" with literature that bridges international boundaries of Germany, Italy, and France highlighted by Strauss' Elektra, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg, Puccini's La Boheme, and Verdi's Rigoletto. In addition, Sir Andrew's appearances next season will include engagements with the Melbourne Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, London's Philharmonia Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the New York Metropolitan Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, the festivals of Bergen and Edinburgh, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In fact, he has conducted all of the world's major orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw, as well as opera houses and festivals worldwide, including La Scala, and the Bayreuth Festival.
In his native Britain, Sir Andrew has been named Commander of the British Empire for his services to British Music, appointed a Knight Bachelor in the New Year Honors List and has received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Charles Heidsieck Music Award.
In a recent review of the New York Philharmonic critic Steve Smith wrote: "... if the energy Mr. Davis showed throughout the evening, right down to his robust curtain calls, could be bottled and marketed, talk of a crisis in classical music would evaporate." As a college deeply committed to the arts, we honor Sir Andrew Davis as a uniquely energized and distinguished individual who combines brilliant musicianship with extraordinary interpretive prowess. His accomplishments as a consummate performer demonstrate both an exceptional versatility and a broad and deep knowledge of music making -- and at a level which is achieved by few in the esteemed practice of orchestral conducting.
Madam President, in recognition of his artistic contributions as a conductor whose knowledge of the literature and interpretive mastery have not simply met, but established new standards of the highest order, I am deeply honored to present Sir Andrew Davis for the degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.
Presented by Professor of Music, Artistic Director/Conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony Bruce Polay


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I love Roarke. That is all.
Wait, what? That can't be my whole review? Party Poopers.
This is the first In Death book since Naked in Death, book 1, that I actually held a physical copy of the book. The previous 33 books I have listened to on audio. I wondered how this one would go because I have a highly developed set of voices that I expect to hear when reading an In Death book. I didn't know how I would feel about the book without Roarke whispering sweet nothings in my ear. One thing that would change is it only taking me three hours to read the book instead of my standard one week!
Delusion in Death started very differently than any of the other In Death books. Normally we start small however here we started with mass murder and Eve is given a case with 80+ dead bodies. As each member of our beloved team arrives they are horrified at what they see. So many dead bodies in one place and it is clear it was all done by the people in the bar. As in they used whatever weapons at their disposal to slaughter each other. Forks, cups, table legs, bottles…you name it, it was used as a murder weapon.
The team quickly finds the reason for the slaughter is a deadly, airborne chemical. The symptoms come on fast starting with a headache and ending with murderous intentions. The few survivors they find are confused and not much help when it comes to an interview after the fact. Eve and the team start with the security cameras to identify the few people who left the bar before the brutality happened.
While investigating the first incident another one occurs. Now Eve and team are left with over 120 dead and multiple injured. The two attacks took place within blocks of each other and had many overlapping companies and residences. The team is convinced the person responsible has some sort of connection to one of those companies or lives in the area.
As with most In Death books we have the main conflict but a lot things going on in the background. Because the conflict involves suspected terrorism HSO has been notified. This causes a great conflict with everyone at the NYPSD because HSO had been a part of one of their recent cases and had a vast network of corruption exposed. HSO is also not a favorite of Roarke's because it was revealed they knew what Richard Troy was doing to a young Eve so many years ago in Dallas. HSO was more worried about catching Troy so they allowed the abuse to continue on. Eve had to do some very fast talking to keep Roarke from retaliating against HSO in their previous case.
Eve is still dealing with the aftermath of Dallas too. She is having dreams/nightmares about Stella mixed in with her father and McQueen. Roarke has been pushing her to talk to Mira and she finally agrees. Mira had some very interesting insight on why Eve refers to Troy as her father but never calls Stella her mother. I thought that was a pretty pivotal moment for Eve. Mira also asks Eve to think of her next time she has one of those dreams. Sure enough Eve thinks of Mira and Mira is able to walk Eve through her dream. This sets Eve a step closer to the path of recovery. Another action that brought her a step closer was telling Peabody what happened in Dallas. I loved Peabody's reaction. Their relationship continues to be one of my favorite things about these books.
I never thought I would read a series that had 35 books in it. 35 is a very daunting number. However, I am now caught up to all 35 and can't wait for more. The blurb for the next book came out last week and it looks like it will be a fun one. If you haven't read this series don't let the number of books intimidate you. They are all worth it. I highly recommend the audio because Susan Ericksen is fantastic. Although there is something to be said for the 3 hours it took me to read this book instead of the normal week of listening. Final grade- B
Favorite Quotes:
"I love you, Eve. Every contrary inch."
She saw Roarke striding down the hall with a pair of file bags. "Roarke, with me."
"Man," Peabody breathed. "I wish I could say that. Just once."
"Once would be all before I stabbed your eyes with an ice pick."
"Ouch. Might be worth it."
"A dull ice pick," Eve added just as Roarke joined htem. "Scram."
"Good night, Peabody." He sent her a smile that made her think, Still worth it.
Rating: B
Delusion in Death by J.D. Robb
September 11th 2012 by Putnam Adult
Amazon || Barnes & Noble


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Spinning Your Internship Into a Full-time Gig 2
The perks of your summer internship can go well beyond the benefits of earning a few college credits and adding fluff to your resume. While you should be excited to finally have something that adds more professional creditability than your summer stint dishing soft serve at the Dairy Queen, you can take your internship a step further. Perform well and you may be able to convert your internship into a full-time job, and this means not having to move back in with mom and dad after graduation.
So, how do you make this happen?
We've gone to Chegg's own employees, many of whom were once summer interns when they were students, to hear firsthand what they have to say about spinning an internship into a full-time gig.
Do More Than Make Coffee
Jordan, a Marketing Analyst here at Chegg, suggests going above and beyond the expectations of your internship. While you should always complete the tasks demanded from your internship position (yes, even the menial ones) look for extra opportunities where you can stand out and shine. Don't hide within the confines of your job description. Show that you can handle the rigors of a full-time job and be an "all hands on deck" type of employee.
The ability to collaborate and work as part of a team is a must in the modern work place. Directors and managers want to be instilled with the confidence that team of individuals they have can collectively reach a goal. Lastly, don't be afraid to speak up and provide insight. You are entering the company with fresh eyes and may have ideas that are new and innovative.
It's OK to Ask for a Job
Yun, Chegg's in-house Visual Designer, actually secured a position here by communicating her interest for a full-time job during her summer internship at the company. She says it is not enough just to show enthusiasm about your job—your co-workers and managers are not mind readers and have plenty on their plate to keep their heads at work. Don't be afraid to directly ask for a job at the completion of your internship, let them know you're interested in working full-time for the company.
If a job is not immediately available, stay in touch with the co-workers and managers you networked with over the summer. Don't let them forget you as the year progresses. As long as your internship ended on a positive note, motivate them to recommend you when a position does open.
Act Like a Leader and Make Things Happen
Two of our internship supervisors, Jessica, Chegg's Brand Manager, and Angela, Chegg's Community Manager, are interested in self-motivated interns who show initiative. They won't hire an intern who needs to be hand-held through the whole summer because this intern won't become a reliable and self-sufficient full-time employee. Interns who are willing to take on a project and then push the project beyond the initial brief have the best chance to be hired.
In essence, do more than the basics.
What does this mean? Show ambition, ask for projects rather than waiting to be told what to do, set goals for yourself and follow through and don't be afraid to dive in and experiment with different ways to approach a project and complete a task.
Become a Social Butterfly and Be a Good Pen Pal
Lora, Chegg's Intern Program Manager says that while it's obvious, just do well in your internship. Your performance matters and you need to treat your internship like a real full-time job. Also make yourself visible—don't be shy and don't stick to any one person. Branch out and talk to as many people as you can, and check out other teams to see how they work. Volunteer for every opportunity. The more people you meet the better chance you'll have to land a job in your department or with another team if they have a place for you.
Another smart suggestion is staying in touch. Shockingly, only 10% of interns communicate with their intern manager or team after the completion of the internship. The company is not going to chase you down for a follow up, if they don't hear from you ever again they will think you were not interested in a position with the company. By sending an updated resume and periodically checking in, the program manager will remember you and may recommend you to team recruiting managers when they are looking for "inside" candidates to fill a position.
Have you ever turned your internship into something more? Share how you did it in the comments.


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Home Mortgage Ontario is committed to helping Ontario residents find the best mortgage for their unique situation. We also assist Canadian Real Estate Investors with resources for buying US Investment Properties and arranging mortgages in the United States.
For Ontario Mortgages of all kinds, we recommend Hussein Saad, a Full-Time Licensed Mortgage Broker and Top-Performer for some of the largest mortgage lenders in Canada. Working out of the Windsor Mortgage Centre office, he specializes in arranging Ontario Mortgages in all cities around the province. All done online to save you time and money!
The mission of Home Mortgage Ontario is to save Ontario residents as much money as possible when they purchase real estate, renew their current mortgage or release equity by refinancing their current home.
When you Apply Online, you will typically receive your pre-approval within the same business day. You can rest assured that we try to get you the lowest interest rate with the best terms for your Ontario Mortgage.
After investing in real estate on both sides of the United States-Canada Border for years, Home Mortgage Ontario was created to share what we have learned about real estate and mortgages to pay it forward. Feel free to use our resources and tools to get yourself connected with great Ontario mortgage brokers and save as much money as you can at the same time.
When you contact us regarding an upcoming purchase, renewal or refinance, we will do our best to direct your question to the right people.


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Numerous studies have clearly shown that heavy drinking during pregnancy is the largest preventable cause of birth defects and mental retardation in the United States. Among most Western countries, the medical and official position on drinking during pregnancy has been to recommend abstention. However, research has shown that information about the potentially harmful effects of drinking alcohol during pregnancy does not necessarily lead to knowledge of the issue, nor do information and knowledge necessarily affect a pregnant woman's attitude toward drinking. A study in the October issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research examines where a group of pregnant Danish women obtained their information about drinking during pregnancy, their knowledge of the subject, and their attitudes toward it.
"Several studies have suggested that passive receipt of information may possibly – but not necessarily – influence awareness and knowledge, but not attitudes or behavior," said Ulrik Kesmodel, associate professor of epidemiology and social medicine at the University of Aarhus and lead author of the study. "Yet it seems that many politicians and people working with public health believe that just more information will help people change their lifestyle. In reality, information is just one element in changing attitudes and behavior. Knowledge, previous experiences, social influences, current health habits, and underlying possibilities of change are the key determinants of change in attitudes and motivation and, eventually, health habits. The current policy of informing each pregnant woman when she presents herself for prenatal care may affect her knowledge, at best, but none of the other elements are targeted. In this sense, health authorities do not seem to have understood how information, knowledge, and attitudes interact."
In Denmark, all pregnant women are offered and most take advantage of free prenatal care at centers run by midwives. For this 1998 study, researchers recruited and interviewed 439 pregnant, Danish-speaking women who were seeking prenatal care at 15 to 16 weeks of gestation. The women were asked about their sources and levels of information about drinking during pregnancy; their beliefs about and knowledge of drinking during pregnancy, as well as their attitudes toward drinking during pregnancy.
Only one third of the women had discussed drinking during pregnancy with their general practitioner (GP) or midwife. Most of their information was gleaned from the mass media (65%) and relatives (40%). A majority of the women (76%) considered some alcohol during pregnancy to be acceptable, mostly on a weekly level; however, 85 percent regarded binge drinking as harmful. The women's attitudes toward drinking during pregnancy appeared to exist independent of their knowledge of the subject.
"It is true that only one third said they had discussed alcohol in pregnancy with their GP or a midwife," said Kesmodel, "however, some pregnant women had probably forgotten discussing this, so the figures are likely higher. Still, this number is quite low, and seems to suggest two things: first, that GPs and midwives could probably do more to get the message across, and second, that health authorities should not rely on this method alone of getting the message across." Kesmodel suggested that health authorities also target the two most trusted sources of information that were cited: media and family.
"The mass media is a powerful medium for providing information to the general public," said Kesmodel, "including the families of pregnant women. In addition, we know that pregnant women judge the information they receive from health personnel according to information available from the media, education, friends and family. Furthermore, by targeting the media and family as sources of information, health authorities may also affect social influences on pregnant women, a key determinant of change in attitude."
"We see many studies of risk factors," said Jørn Olsen, professor and head of the Danish Epidemiology Science Centre at the University of Aarhus, "and too few studies of how we could best handle health promotion. We need to track what kinds of effects different health information strategies have."
Another finding – that a majority of the women believed drinking some alcohol during pregnancy was acceptable – existed independently of whether or not the women had been informed or were knowledgeable about the topic. Kesmodel said this finding raises fundamental questions about how and why women form their beliefs about drinking during pregnancy.
"What is the evidence," he asked, "that alcohol consumption of a few drinks per month or even per week, as opposed to daily intake, may be harmful in pregnancy? If there is no consistent data to suggest that an occasional drink is harmful, it is possible that a large proportion of pregnant women and health personnel will not be convinced by repeated statements that total abstinence is necessary during pregnancy. Many obstetricians in the U.S. do not appear to believe that a few drinks per week in pregnancy does harm to the fetus. If health professionals cannot reach a consensus on the issue, how can we expect pregnant women to follow an 'official' recommendation?"
Kesmodel said that it's important to ask some tough, albeit unpopular, questions. "The lack of information on thresholds for adverse outcomes in many countries," he said, "has been mentioned as a barrier to managing women's alcohol use in pregnancy. There are a substantial number of women who drink small amounts of alcohol [during] pregnancy, and many of them seem to be told by doctors and midwives that an occasional drink is all right. If the only official recommendation is to not drink, [then] these women are not told that there is a limit, nor approximately what the limit is. So we need to ask the question: Where is the limit? Reaching a consensus on this would allow us to standardize information for these women."
Funding for this Addiction Science Made Easy project is provided by the Addiction Technology Transfer Center National Office, under the cooperative agreement from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment of SAMHSA.
Articles were written based on the following published research:
Kesmodel, U., Schioler Kesmodel, P. (October, 2002). Drinking during pregnancy: Attitudes and knowledge among pregnant Danish women, 1998. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 26(10), 1553-1560.


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December 13th, 2017 - December 13th, 2018 - 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
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Facing new pressures on its pension system, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says it can no longer cover much of the retirement cost for the employees it has hired away from other city agencies.
About 1,600 workers have transferred to the DWP from other city departments over the last six years, finding higher pay while avoiding furloughs and layoffs elsewhere.
Those new arrivals have created a $183-million pension burden for the utility, according to DWP officials. To deal with those costs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appointees on the DWP board voted last month to suspend, at least temporarily, full pension coverage for any new employee hired by the utility from another city department.
That decision infuriated some members of the City Council, which voted unanimously Wednesday to veto it. Over the last two years, the council has demanded that the DWP, which is separate from the city budget, hire workers from agencies facing major cuts.


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Analysis: A question of secret courts
The headlines on the Justice and Security Bill suggest a massive government climb-down on secrecy in inquests. But the fact is that the core purpose of this very controversial legislation remains: to protect national security information at all costs.
So let's take a few steps back from lofty legal talk of open justice and look at practical examples of what this is all about.
The key aim of the bill is to allow the courts to close their doors more frequently when they are dealing with cases involving national security.
The easiest way to understand that is to think about cases where someone is alleging that MI5 or MI6 are guilty of, or complicit in, wrongdoing.
Binyam Mohamed was detained in the wake of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistani interrogators first beat him and then the US organised his rendition to Morocco. He was tortured and, at one point, they took a scalpel to his genitals.
He ended up in Guantanamo Bay. His British lawyers fought a long-battle to prove that London had some indication of his treatment before he was taken to Morocco.
They argued that information helped prove that any confession he had made was worthless, because people will say anything to stop the pain. That is why international law bans torture.
Now, Binyam Mohammed won his case and we know, in seven highly sensitive paragraphs, what Washington told London.
The question at the heart of the bill is whether that kind of national security information can ever be made public?
The government's answer is no - and it wants to use a "Closed Material Procedure" (CMP) to protect the information.
CMP was created in the late 1990s and is a key feature in terror deportation cases like that of radical Jordanian cleric Abu Qatada.
It is also fundamental to court cases where terrorism suspects challenge restrictions on their liberty, known as T-Pims (the system that used to be called Control Orders).
Special Advocates
The suspect hears part of the case against them - but not all of it. A point comes when they have to leave the court, the doors are locked and government lawyers reveal the "closed" case - the full Security Service assessment of the danger posed by that individual. For example, MI5 may have intelligence that the individual was planning to join a terrorism training camp in Pakistan.
The Security Service may not want that information in the public domain because it either gives clues to how the person is being monitored or reveals the identity of an informant. The intelligence could also be a tip-off from a foreign agency.
A security-vetted lawyer - known as a Special Advocate - acts for the suspect or deportee, but cannot talk to them once they have had read the secret case. Now, critics say that if the Special Advocate cannot ask the suspect to respond to the allegation that he was planning to attend a camp, then the lawyer cannot properly challenge the govenrment's case.
And that's why many lawyers say the system is manifestly unfair, even though the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that it isn't.
Government accused
The government wants to extend the system into other parts of civil law, such as damages claims or "judicial review" cases, where ministers or agencies are the accused. It won't be used in criminal trials - but ministers say they need CMP to defend themselves. Reading University has compiled a comprehensive list of cases that might be affected by more CMP.
At present, when someone sues the government, ministers must account for their actions in open court. If ministers want to protect a sensitive document, they can seek use a procedure that withdraws that evidence from the case so neither side can rely on it.
Under the new system, where a case involves national security, part of the defence would be under the Closed Material Procedure.
When former Guantanamo Bay detainees sued the UK, accusing security and intelligence services of being complicit in American wrongdoing, they demanded disclosure of government papers which they said would prove their case.
They never saw all the material because the government paid them millions to drop the claims. Ministers were determined at whatever cost to prevent sensitive techniques, sources and intelligence from being made public.
But ministers felt that they had not been able to defend themselves in this case because the Closed Material Procedure could not be used.
Critics say this is nonsense - and they paid out to avoid international embarrassment.
But under the new system there would be no need for a pay-out because the government could try to defend itself behind closed doors. Whoever won, the claimant and the public would see a public version of the judgement - but never know the full reasons for the outcome.
Critics say this erodes the fundamental principle that both sides are equal before the law. The practical effect, they say, is that alleged wrongdoing would go unexposed.
Sapna Malik of law firm Leigh Day and Co has been involved in some of the key cases and is preparing the forthcoming legal action over alleged Libyan renditions.
She says: "Under the current system, if it is believed that material will harm national security, it is either withheld from the proceedings entirely or procedures are put in place to protect the most sensitive parts, from redacting documents to witnesses giving their evidence anonymously."
Lawyers like Sapna Malik are not lone voices. The Supreme Court threw out an attempt by the government to use CMP in the Guantanamo Bay compensation case.
And the Special Advocates don't like the system either. They told the Ministry of Justice that it's just not true to say that the system is fair because they are often confronted with security assessments which they cannot properly check out.
The security establishment sees it differently because officials believe that the pressure to reveal material means the government cannot defend itself, even if an allegation is flimsy.
And so, if it cannot have closed courts, officials would rather ministers write cheques to claimants than give away the techniques vital to the work of MI5 and co.
Underlining this is a bigger question. If a society accepts that it needs secret agencies doing secret work on behalf of citizens, does that logically mean the secrecy can never end?
Nowhere is this principle more sensitive than when it comes to information given to the UK by foreign powers - and in particular the US. The exchange of information between London and Washington is deep and British officials fear Washington will be reluctant to share as much if there is a chance of the material being made public.
Nobody is really suggesting that the Americans would not alert the UK to a bomb on a train. But if dirty linen is washed in public, then the flow of other information that helps national security might slow down.


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In my quest to find simple, great tasting, good-for-you meals for my family, I have come across many duds. But this one, people, is a WINNER. 3 ingredient shredded chicken tacos….so good!
Here is what you will need:
- 6 skinless boneless chicken breasts
- 1 jar restaurant-style salsa
- 1 pack taco seasoning.
And your crockpot. Here's what you do: place all chicken breasts at the bottom of the crockpot. Pour the taco seasoning over the chicken. Pour the jar of salsa over both. Turn on the crockpot to low heat for 6-8 hours. The chicken will shred & absorb all of the juice. Serve on warm tortillas with onions, cilantro, cheese, tomato, & whatever toppings your family loves. This makes enough for 2 meals. My husband LOVED them. This meal only cost us $8.00!
You can't get better than great tasting home cooked meals for cheap!


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Posted in Press Releases on 30 January 2013
New track, Heartbeat Retreat, is set to become the second single to be taken from My First Tooth's forthcoming album Love Makes Monsters, and will be released on March 4th, via Alcopop! Records. The song follows on from Past Broadcasts which acts an exciting springboards from debut record, Territories, which was out in 2010 making fans from the likes of The Fly Magazine & The Word.
Front man Ross K. Witt says; 'Musically it's much more of a band effort this time around. Whereas before I was mostly coming to the band with fully formed songs and we were figuring out what worked, this time I was bringing ideas to them a lot earlier and letting them grow together as a band.
'The overriding theme of the record seems to be relationships. Or more, the wrong relationships. The relationships we convince ourselves are right because we're told being alone and being lonely are the same thing.'
The album's recording took My First Tooth from Berlin to Bridlington, via London and saw them working with producers James Kenosha (Pulled Apart By Horses/Dry The River), Peter Abbott (Athlete/Misty's Big Adventure) and Paul Pilot (Duke Special/'Territories') to create a simply wonderful record, that draws in inspiration as much from Bruce Springsteen as it does the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel, Eels and Okkervil River. Lyrically, the record veers frequently between twisted fairytales, painfully raw accounts of failing relationships and bittersweet childhood memories.
The band have made themselves a firm fixture of the UK festival circuit playing at Glastonbury, Summer Sundae, Bestival, Truck, 2000 Trees, The Great Escape, SWN, TGE and many more. NME described them as simply "unmissable".
Tour Dates
17 Feb - Watford - The White Lion (supporting Social Club)
21 Feb - London - Bull & Gate
22 Feb - Northampton - Roadmender
28 Feb - Cardiff - Undertone
2 Mar - Sheffield - The Harley (supporting Screaming Maldini)
7 Mar - Southend - The Railway Hotel
9 Mar - Hitchin - Club 85
16 Mar - Bristol - Start the Bus (supporting Frontier Ruckus)
19 Mar - Manchester - Ruby Lounge (supporting Frontier Ruckus)
21 Mar - York - Fibbers (supporting Frontier Ruckus)
22 Mar - Chester - Telford's Warehouse
23 Mar - London - Borderline (supporting Frontier Ruckus)
'Speak and Spell' was released on this day (October 5th) in 1981.
It's October 3rd! And you know what that means...
The final trailer for the new sequel is here.
After a couple of weeks of speculation, the Irish quartet are getting back together for the 20th anniversary of their 1998 formation.
Once a fire fighter, always a fire fighter.
Brody Dalle's band dropped their first new music since 2003's 'Coral Fang'.


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Screwdriver (cocktail) recipe
A Screwdriver (sometimes known as an Orange-Vod-Juice-Ka) is a popular highball drink made with fresh orange juice and vodka. On rare occasion, it is referred to as "Vodka and Orange". While the basic drink is simply the two ingredients, there are many variations, many of these with multiple names, that can be found all over the world.
The earliest written reference to the Screwdriver is from the October 24, 1949 issue of Time: "In the dimly lighted bar of the sleek Park Hotel, Turkish intelligence agents mingle with American engineers and Balkan refugees, drinking the latest Yankee concoction of vodka and orange juice, called a 'screwdriver'."
The drink reportedly got its name because American petroleum engineers in Saudi Arabia secretly added vodka to small cans of orange juice and stirred the mixture with their screwdrivers.
Create a printable shopping list for this recipe's recipeIngredient
- 1.5 oz Vodka
- 6 oz fresh orange juice
- Add the vodka to an ice filled highball glass
- Top up with orange juice
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