text:
Guests: Joan Walsh, David Weigel, Chris Cillizza, Thomas Tancredo, Sherrod
HOST: Crist crosses.
Let's play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I'm Chris Matthews up in Philadelphia. Leading off
tonight: Independence day. We have late-breaking political news. All
signs now point to Charlie Crist giving up his bid to win the Republican
Senate nomination in Florida and running as an independent. It's a huge
story with real implications not only for Florida but for the entire
Republican Party.
Plus: Too darn hot. Some Republicans, especially those worried about
Cuban-American votes, are coming out against Arizona's immigration law—
Karl Rove, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio. This issue has the potential to pit
Republican against Republican. Tom Tancredo, the leader of immigration
control hard-liners, joins us at the top of the show.
Also, for the third straight day, Senate Democrats offered up a vote
to bring Wall Street reform to the Senate floor, and for the third straight
day, Republicans said no. But now it looks as though there might be a deal
in the works. A Democratic senator will be here to discuss his party's
Plus, Britain's prime minister, Gordon Brown, just learned an
important political lesson the hard way. If you're going to say something
candid, say something that you really think, make sure you don't have your
microphone on. Well, we'll go to the videotape on that in the "Sideshow."
And "Let Me Finish" tonight with this thought. No one should ever,
ever compare anyone to Hitler or any political policy to the Nazis—or
the Nazis.
We start tonight with the breaking news out of Florida. Chris
Cillizza is the author of "The Fix" for "The Washington Post" and the
brand-new managing editor of the brand-new Postpolitics Web page.
Congratulations, Chris. You're on your way up.
Charlie Crist is on his way out of the Republican Party. What is he
going to be, an independent who votes with the Republicans, if he's
elected, or what?
CHRIS CILLIZZA, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: You know, Chris, I think that's
the story that's going to play out over the next few days. Let's set the
scene, multiple reports in Washington and in Florida saying that people
Charlie Crist has spoken to, he has said tomorrow at 5:00 PM in St.
Petersburg, he's going to announce he's running as independent or no party
Now, the governor himself said to the AP, I haven't told anybody
anything yet. I think always with Charlie Crist, it is right to put a
caveat in. I believe today he has made a decision that he will run as an
independent. Does that mean that's what he announces tomorrow? It's very
likely yes, but remember, this is somebody who we widely expected to
endorse Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 Florida Republican presidential primary,
wound up endorsing John McCain at the last minute and throwing the state to
John McCain.
So this is someone who has a history of changing his mind at the last
minute on big issues, so I think we have to be careful. But all signs
point to Charlie Crist saying he's going to run as an independent tomorrow
at (INAUDIBLE)
MATTHEWS: Well, I would go with the hunch that he's switching because
you don't talk about leaving your party...
CILLIZZA: Right.
MATTHEWS: ... or your spouse if you don't intend to do it, first of
MATTHEWS: ... unless you're going to split. Let me ask you, though,
the big question.
CILLIZZA: Sure.
MATTHEWS: You point out something about his method of operation, his
MO. He does make up his mind in a kind of a fickle way and a surprising
way. Will voters in Florida—let's say you're a moderate Republican.
You don't want to go with Marco Rubio. Or you think the Cuban-Americans
have too much clout down there, or whatever reason, so you go with this
guy. You ask, Governor, are you a Republican? Are you going to vote with
the Republicans for Republican control of the Senate or not? How can he—
how can he...
CILLIZZA: Well, Chris, that's...
MATTHEWS: ... fake that one?
CILLIZZA: That's (INAUDIBLE) problem because, look, when you're a
governor, you don't have to say, Well, are you going to vote for Harry Reid
or whoever is in that for leader, or are you going to vote for Mitch
McConnell for leader? When you run for the Senate, you do have to say
that. This is—this is how it works. It's a more partisan office. You
can't be sort of a nonpartisan problem solver, which is kind of how Charlie
Crist has painted himself—got him into trouble (INAUDIBLE) You have to
say, Well, do you come down on the Republican side or you come down on the
Democratic side?
The other thing to think about, Chris, just from a purely logistical
perspective—where does he go for staff? Presumably, if he does switch,
if he does become an independent, all of the staff around him—
consultant, pollster, media guy, communications director—those people
are all Republicans. They're not likely to stay with him. Where does he
find people to send out press releases, to do his ads?
CILLIZZA: These are little logistical things, but they matter.
MATTHEWS: OK, let's go to something that's red hot. We all know that
in this country, there's a lot of people of Hispanic background, Latin
American people. We use that term, Hispanic, for them generally, but they
come from very different backgrounds. They come from Cuba. They come from
Mexico. I guess the most of the people today come from Mexico or Colombia,
Republicans have historically had a hold, a close alliance with Cuban-
CILLIZZA: Right.
MATTHEWS: ... because of their tough, hard line on communism, and
those people came, basically, to resist Cuban communism under Castro. How
do you tell a Cuban who may be darkly complected and have an accent—how
do you—even in the second generation—how do you tell that person, Oh,
by the way, we're going to go out there and look for you folks to see if
you got papers?
CILLIZZA: It's a huge problem, Chris, and it's why you saw Marco
Rubio, the sort of the guy who forced this decision by Charlie Crist down
in Florida, who's also running for the Senate, and the former governor, Jeb
Bush, brother of the former president of the United States, come out and
say, We need to be careful with this.
But remember, Republicans are stuck between a rock and a hard place,
or the base and a hard place. The base of the party is supportive of these
sorts of things. Tom Tancredo, J.D. Hayworth...
MATTHEWS: But not the Cuban-American base.
CILLIZZA: No. Absolutely not. But, Chris, I'm talking—let's—
aside from the Hispanic population, the Cubans that make up part of that
base, lots of the base of the Republican Party is supportive of this. The
problem is the establishment wing of the party looks at it, whether it's
Cubans, whether it's Puerto Rico...
MATTHEWS: Yes.
CILLIZZA: ... whoever it is, and they say, This is a growth area in
MATTHEWS: Sure.
CILLIZZA: We can't afford to cut them out of our potential majority
because we won't have a potential majority then.
MATTHEWS: You know, I think it is one of those areas where they're
not going to do it, but they should get together and do some kind of
commission on a fair way to let people come in this country to work. If
they want to stay, it takes little longer. If they want to come here and
work and go home, it's a little easier. Have a fair system with real
paperwork. I know that sounds pie in the sky, but I believe in it. I
think this country can operate like other countries. We're a country of
immigrants, but we can be fair about it and not have people sneaking around
and phony papers and all that stuff that goes on. Your thoughts.
CILLIZZA: I would say it's not terribly pie in the sky, Chris, but
it's—it's—it's not going to happen in an election year. And
remember, one of the big lead Republican sponsor of this way back when in
2007 is somebody named John McCain, who's in a very tough Republican
primary, where his opponent is running very hard to his right on
immigration, on any number of issues. And John McCain, who was part of the
effort to comprehensively overhaul it—it almost cost him the
presidential nomination—he's not going to be on board with this. So I
think in an election year, given the...
CILLIZZA: ... the realities that you see with McCain and others, it's
not likely to go anywhere. Not that it's a bad idea, just from a political
perspective, I don't see it happening anytime before November 2010.
MATTHEWS: OK, last word, and this is really important. I mentioned
Karl Rove as being one of those worried about this law in Arizona. Rove
tried to build unsuccessfully a big Republican Party and brought in—the
way African-Americans tend to vote Democrat over these years, since the
1960s—to bring the Hispanic voter over to the Republican Party. He
failed. Is he still hopeful that they can—is George W. still hopeful,
the former president, that they can put this alliance together, the way it
sort of works in Texas a little better than it does in California?
CILLIZZA: You know, Chris, I would—they would—I think in 2008,
they clearly failed. Barack Obama won over overwhelmingly. I think they
would—Karl Rove and others would point to 2000 and 2004, when George
Bush, at least according to exit polls, did get a larger share than
Republicans—past Republican presidential candidates had gotten—that
it can be done.
But look, I think some Republicans privately are worried that this is
Pete Wilson in California all over again, that this is something that if it
if it goes through, if it winds up sort of staying on the books, if it's
a rallying point for the Republican base, this could alienate them from
Hispanic voters for a decade or more. And that's hugely problematic as it
relates to Hispanics growing so rapidly both as a percentage of the
population and as a percentage of the electorate.
MATTHEWS: Well, there's a—thank you, Chris Cillizza. This issue
gets hotter and hotter.
CILLIZZA: It's amazing.
MATTHEWS: And joining me now is former U.S. congressman Tom Tancredo,
a Republican from Colorado. Congressman, thanks for joining us tonight.
There's been a little confusion about your position. You've raised a
concern that you said, "I do not want the police here, there in Arizona,
anyplace else, pulling people over because you know—because of what they
should look like, or whatever (ph) they should be pulled over." What do
you mean by that in the context of the Arizona law, the new one?
THOMAS TANCREDO (R-CO), FORMER CONGRESSMAN: Sure. I was being
interviewed about it, and I was telling them that I like the law, I believe
that it is a result of the fact that the federal government is AWOL, as it
has been under Bush and Carter and a long way back. It's not Obama's
problem necessarily. But the fact is that it's a good law. I think that
Arizona needed to do it.
And then some—and then they say, Well, what about being—having
people pulled over because of the way they look? And I said, Well, no, I
wouldn't want that to happen in Arizona or anywhere, and I would never vote
for a law like that. But that is not the law! That's not the law that was
put on the books. Well, they took out that middle part. Somebody blogged
on it, got to Huffingtonpost, and all of a sudden, it was, Tom Tancredo
thinks it has gone to far. It's certainly not true.
MATTHEWS: Maybe I'm a dreamer...
TANCREDO: I think (INAUDIBLE) good law.
MATTHEWS: Well, maybe I'm a dreamer, but I keep thinking about
somebody out there who's going to take a position that seems practical,
like a lot of these millions of people are going to be here. They're not
going to be thrown out of the country. We're not going to do a round-up.
That's not the way America works. At the same time, most Americans would
like to see our laws enforced, and they'd like to see if you come to this
country, you only—only come into this country if you have the permission
of this country to come into this country to work or to live.
TANCREDO: You are a dreamer! You are a dreamer!
MATTHEWS: Why can't we have a regular, progressive system that's
TANCREDO: Because the Democrats see legal and illegal immigration as
a source of votes. The Republicans see legal and illegal immigration as a
source of cheap labor. Those are the elites in the party. They do not
want secure borders. That is the basic—American people, absolutely.
But you know what? The people who are running the show on both sides get
benefit out of open borders. That's why, Chris—that's why you're being
a dreamer to think that...
TANCREDO: ... we can change that, unless the people of this country
do what the people of Arizona have done.
MATTHEWS: Well, I'm not a complete dreamer because people like Joe
Lieberman, who I disagree with a lot of times, and Lindsey Graham, who's a
bit more conservative than I am, to put it lightly, both have a plan out
with John Kerry to do the following: Real check on people to see they're
not lying about who they are when they come looking for a job in this
country, strengthen the border if you have to, a process for temporary
workers to come here, work and go back home with the money, and a path for
the people who are here and have been here a long time to become American.
That seems to be a reasonable, middle-of-the-road solution. Do you think
that guys...
TANCREDO: The problem with it...
MATTHEWS: ... like—do you think people like Reid are really for
it? Do you think the Democrats are really for it...
TANCREDO: No.
MATTHEWS: ... the Republicans are really for it?
TANCREDO: No, I don't. I think what they'll want is that last part
especially, the pathway to citizenship, the—essentially, the amnesty,
without any of the rest. And here's the problem with that last part, is
that there is nowhere—no way to square this circle. You cannot possibly
say to everybody who's come into this country illegally that, You're going
to get all of the privileges of all of the people who have done it the
right way. It's the craziest thing in the world!
It's the biggest slap in the face to the people who have waited, the
Hispanic people, the black people, all the folks who have waited for years
to do it the right way, paid a lot of money, gone through a lot of brain
damage (ph) to get here, and then, all of a sudden, if you snuck into the
country, don't worry, we're going to give you that same privilege by making
you what, pay a fine? Baloney! It's not fair. It's totally unfair to do
MATTHEWS: Well, it may not be fair, but life is unfair. What do you
do to a person who's been living here, raised kids here, has them in
school, they've been here 5 or 10 or 20 years? What do you do?
TANCREDO: Yes, you go—I tell you, the only thing you can say to
them is, Look, there is a way to come into this country legally...
MATTHEWS: But they're already here.
TANCREDO: ... and by the way, before we find out...
MATTHEWS: You're arguing about a world that doesn't exist...
MATTHEWS: They're already here.
TANCREDO: But before we find out that you are here illegally, go
home. Come back in the right door. That's what you say.
MATTHEWS: But that's not going to—you think that's going to
TANCREDO: Well, you know what? I'm a dreamer, too, I guess, in that
respect because...
MATTHEWS: No, I'm a dreamer...
MATTHEWS: ... I'm hoping we'll reach a compromise on this, which
basically recognizes reality.
TANCREDO: Yes.
MATTHEWS: You got to stop illegal...
TANCREDO: I'm a dreamers...
MATTHEWS: ... the only country in the world that doesn't have a real
border. You have to have some system of bringing workers in the country,
which we need, let them come in and go back home if they want to, and if
people want to come in here legally, they got to go through a process,
which can be liberal, but they have to obey the law. That's what I believe
in. I don't think we agree on what to do with people here already. I just
want to make sure that in the future, we have a country that makes some
kind of sense, that's all. And it's fair...
TANCREDO: Then you cannot possibly...
MATTHEWS: ... and it's honest. Go ahead.
TANCREDO: Then, Chris, I'll tell you, I do not think you can possibly
opt for the open book—the amnesty option because once you do that, you
ruin the rest of your hope. Your hope is that we will have a system then
that everybody will abide by, that we'll have—the minute you...
TANCREDO: ... give 20 million people amnesty, you're going to
encourage 20 million more to come across those borders.
MATTHEWS: I know. I hear your argument. Thank you very much for
coming on tonight, Tom Tancredo of Colorado. Thank you.
Coming up: Did the Republicans just cry uncle on Wall Street reform?
Looks like a deal may be in the works.
But first, during the commercial break coming up, Senator Arlen
Specter is using star power to help him get ahead in the primaries. We're
going to tell you about it in just one minute right here, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Senator Arlen Specter is using star power to help him in
the upcoming primary election. Here is Michael J. Fox in an ad for
MICHAEL J. FOX, ACTOR: In the fight against disease, we can look back
or move forward. Arlen Specter is moving forward. He's won the battles to
double funding for biomedical research, to find cures and to save lives.
MATTHEWS: By the way, a previous ad by Michael J. Fox may have played
a key role in the election of Missouri senator Claire McCaskill back in
We'll be right back.
SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL (D), MISSOURI: I think we've made the decision
that this is important enough that we're going to stay up through the night
and ask continually the Republicans to allow us to debate this bill out in
open, in front of the public. We need transparency on Wall Street, we
ought to start right here in Washington.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. That was Democratic senator
Claire McCaskill of Missouri earlier today issuing a threat. Senate
Republicans met late this afternoon after moving—about moving forward on
the debate over Wall Street reform. Can Congress get something done soon?
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio is a member of the Banking
Committee. Senator Brown, it's great to have you on. You represent
working people in a state that I think's probably going to decide the next
election for president. Ohio always matters. Are people in your state
ready to take sides now with the working class and the Democrats against
Wall Street? And will Voinovich, your companion senator, the Republican
who's retiring—is he going to join the bandwagon here?
SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D-OH), BANKING COMMITTEE: I think—boy, I don't
know. I don't speak for anybody, of course, other than me. But George
Voinovich seems to be the first one that at least media reports have said
may flip and decide to do the right thing.
And I—you know, I mean, I've watched Mitch McConnell over the last
couple days, and he's doing this double back flip to try to wiggle out of
the situation he's got his Republican Party in. And you know, in the end,
what Claire McCaskill said is right. We're going to stay in all night.
We're going to go day after day after day. And you know, the public
increasingly understands who's on their side, that...
MATTHEWS: Yes.
BROWN: ... we're fighting for Main Street, Bell Fountain (ph) and
Main Street, Zanesville (ph), and they're fighting for Wall Street,
Manhattan. And it's pretty clear whose side...
BROWN: ... the public's on, and they're losing.
MATTHEWS: Well, you know, I can usually figure out politics. I can
see the both sides of the fight over health care. I can see both sides
over the immigration issue. What is the other side on Wall Street? I
don't know why anybody would want to defend these characters we saw on
television so vividly, that arrogant bunch.
BROWN: Well, I mean, Mitch McConnell was in Manhattan two or three
weeks ago with John Cornyn, the head of the Senate Republican campaign
committee, you know, to meet with hedge fund and other Wall Street
executives. And that's where they—you know, that's by and large their
benefactor. Wall Street's been their benefactor.
And you know, McConnell's obstructionism has worked for 16 months
politically in terms of the polls and all that. It ain't working on this
one, and he thought it would. And he just did a colossal misjudgment.
That's why this very weird kind of bizarro-world he's now living in to try
to get out of this situation, to say, Well, I wanted these negotiations all
I wanted these floor votes all along. And I—you know, it would have
been better if three days ago, Mitch McConnell had said, OK, we're going to
spend the next week debating amendments and let's let the chips fall where
they may. Instead, they delayed three days and look bad doing it.
Put that behind us. I want to move forward. I've got a bill to make
this—to strengthen this bill. I don't think it's quite what we want
yet. I think it's good. Could be better. The Republicans have some
amendments probably to weaken it. Let them try.
MATTHEWS: Let's talk reality here.
Working-class people in this country, middle-class, slightly upper-
middle-class still face layoffs. I mean, in my family, I have seen it.
It's happening in hard—in big industries, in the energy industry. It's
not growing yet.
What's it feel like and what are people's reaction when they see these
Wall Street guys, these guys with the perfect haircuts, the perfect suits,
with the arrogance all over their faces, the smirks? What—do they see
this as a battle between some people at the top and a lot of people getting
screwed in the middle? Do they look at it that way?
S. BROWN: I think exactly right. They do look at it that way.
People lose their homes in Wapakoneta. They're losing their jobs in
Toledo. They're losing their life savings in Warren. And they're thinking
they're looking around and seeing that Wall Street people continue to do
well. And, you know, they don't want necessarily revenge and retribution.
Some do, but they want more justice in this.
And they know this crowd's gotten away with this cowboy mentality and
this—to mix metaphors—this whole—apologies to Harry Reid, but this
whole Las Vegas casino going on in New York City. And it's not working for
the country. And they feel—people feel—and they have for several
years, I think—felt a betrayal.
They felt a betrayal during the giveaway to the drug companies five
years ago. They felt a betrayal on the tax cuts for the rich. They feel a
betrayal by Wall Street. And that's—people just want some justice on
Main Street, Ohio, and Main Street USA. And this bill will move a good bit
towards doing that.
That's why people don't really understand what this fight's about.
They think everybody should—should wage a battle to make Wall Street a
little bit more accountable and responsible.
MATTHEWS: What do people think out in Ohio that you represent? A lot
of labor guys and non-union people you represent, do they still believe in
capitalism, or do they think what we're seeing now is a betrayal of
capitalism or the worst case of capitalism?
I'm talking about we all grew believing the labor theory of value, to
some extent. If you work for something, you get some of the value, you get
some of the profits. If you start a business, you get some of the—you
get profits.
These guys on Wall Street don't start businesses. They don't make
things. They don't make services. I said the other day, they don't even
make movies. They don't make anything. And yet they're making tons of
money. The separation of work from money is getting really extreme now.
People are making money who aren't working really, or making anything.
Do people out there on the line out there, I mean, are they losing faith in
our system sometimes?
S. BROWN: Yes, I'm sure they are, but they also know it can come
I spoke to the Dayton Development Coalition today, a group of 150
entrepreneurs, officials, businesspeople in the Dayton area. I was at the
GE plant in Cincinnati and the Cleveland—an Alcoa plant in Cleveland,
talking to workers.
And they all understand that the history of our state and our country
is we make things and we sell to them each other and around the world. And
they want to get back to that. They believe in capitalism. They believe
in capitalism with rules, that, if you play fair, you get rewarded. If
you're more productive, you get higher wages.
And they have seen that change in the last 10 years. And they know—
genuinely, I think Americans understand of both parties, that are of no
MATTHEWS: Yes.
S. BROWN: ... understand you can get back to that in this country.
You make stuff with your brain and your hands, you get paid a decent,
middle-class living. And that's the American dream. And I see those kinds
of entrepreneurial activities and job starts, if you will, starting to
blossom again in the state. I think the state is really ready for this
recovery now.
MATTHEWS: You know, when I think about my old neighborhood—I was
talking about it the other night—of row houses in North Philly, when I
grew up as a very young kid, it used to be Irish and Polish. Now it's
And I think about the big differences. It's—there's no more entry
level jobs for industry. There used to be a lot of jobs in North Philly in
factories, building things, making things. Those jobs aren't there
anymore. That, to me—it's not so much a social difference as an
economic differences.
Your thoughts.
S. BROWN: Yes, exactly.
And, I mean, that's why manufacturing is so important. It's a higher-
tech manufacturing than it was in Scranton or Philly...
MATTHEWS: Yes. Yes.
S. BROWN: ... or Cleveland or Akron now, but it's still making
We just were able to save a plant. A whole community came together to
save a Hugo Boss plant, the only manufacturing of Hugo Boss clothes in the
whole United States. We saved 350 jobs in Cleveland.
We're seeing an oil—an oil, steel—country tubular steel and for
a gas and oil drilling plant expanding in Youngstown. We're seeing in
Defiance, Ohio, a GM plant growing 190 jobs.
I mean, we're starting to see that happen. It's not nearly affecting
everybody yet, but we're going to get back to making stuff in this
S. BROWN: ... whether it's wind turbines or biomedical equipment.
You bet.
MATTHEWS: It's good to talk to a real Democrat.
Thank you, Senator Sherrod Brown...
S. BROWN: Thanks.
MATTHEWS: ... of Ohio.
S. BROWN: Thanks, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Up next, see what happens when Britain's Prime Minister
Gordon Brown forgets that his microphone is on.
MATTHEWS: This happens. This guy got hurt by telling what he
thought. Let's watch it when we come back in the "Sideshow," only on
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. Time for the "Sideshow."
First: a teachable moment from Gordon Brown. Earlier today, on the
campaign trail, the British prime minister was speaking to Gillian Duffy, a
supporter of Brown's Labor Party ,who brought up the issue of immigration.
After that meeting, as Prime Minister Brown was driving away, his more
candid thoughts about the woman were picked up by a live microphone. Here
it is, the voter exchange, followed by Brown's hot mike comments.
GILLIAN DUFFY, VOTER: I don't say anything about the immigrants
because you're saying that you're -- you're—you—well, all these
Eastern European that are coming in, where are they flocking from?
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: A million people come from
Europe, but a million people, British people, have gone into Europe.
Good to see you all. Good to see you. Thanks very much.
That was a disaster. Well, I just—should never have put me in with
that woman. Whose idea was that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. I didn't see.
G. BROWN: It was Sue, I think. It's just ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure if they will go with that one.
G. BROWN: They will go with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did she say?
G. BROWN: Oh, everything. She was just a sort of bigoted woman. She
said she used be Labor. I mean, it's just ridiculous.
MATTHEWS: That's right. He called her a bigoted woman who used to be
Within hours, Prime Minister Brown apologized to Ms. Duffy on the BBC
Radio and followed it up with a visit to her house, saying he was mortified
over what had happened.
For her part, Ms. Duffy says that, before today, she had intended to
mail in her vote for Labor, but now she won't be voting at all. That's
what she says.
Moving back stateside, with all the buzz surrounding Arizona's tough
new immigration law, this campaign ad out in Alabama is catching a lot of
attention. It comes from Republican candidate for governor Tim James,
who's also the son of former two-term Governor , Fob James.
His big push, English-only driver's exams.
TIM JAMES ®, ALABAMA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Tim James.
Why do our politicians make us give licenses in 12 languages? This is
Alabama. We speak English. If you want to live here, learn it. We're
only giving that test in English if I'm governor.
MATTHEWS: James' campaign spokesman tells Talking Points Memo that
the ad has touched a raw nerve in the state. Also, while the ad doesn't
specifically mention illegal aliens, he says English-only exam means that
immigrants would be less likely to come to Alabama.
This is just getting hotter and hotter.
Finally, an item I think merits the headline "Only in Texas."
Governor Rick Perry just related a curious story to the Associated Press.
Back in February, while jogging with his dog near Austin, the governor saw
a wild coyote menacing his dog, as he put it. So, what did he do? He shot
That's right. Perry told the Associated Press he actually carries a
laser-sighted pistol with him on runs. Perry added that he left the coyote
where he fell, saying—and I'm quoting him here—"He became mulch."
Now for the "Big Number."
The White House press corps has ;long been unhappy with their access
to the president. One of their gripes, President Obama hasn't held enough
of those informal question-and-answer questions with the press pool.
Well, in his first year in office, President Clinton held 252 such
Q&As, President George W., 147. How many has President Obama held of these
casual interviews with reporters? According to Politico, just 46, less
than a third than his predecessor George W. President Obama holds just 46
informal Q&As with reporters—tonight's "Big Number," at least for
Up next: A new poll shows voters trust President Obama way more than
they trust Republicans in Congress, but will this translate to voters and
to votes in November?
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
JULIA BOORSTIN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I'm Julia Boorstin with your CNBC
"Market Wrap."
Stocks reversing early losses, to finish slightly higher today, the
Dow Jones industrials rising 53 points, the S&P 500 adding 7 ½ points,
and the Nasdaq tacking on a fraction-of-a-point.
The market slipped into negative territory early in the day on a debt
rating downgrade for Spain, but a statement from the Federal Reserve helped
turn things around. The Fed said economic activity is up and the labor
market is beginning to improve. But they're still talking about leaving
interest rates low for an extended period.
On the interest—on the earnings front, Visa posting after the
closing bell, topping estimates on both profit and revenue. And Dow
Chemical shares soaring nearly 6 percent after beating expectations on a
spike in overseas demand.
And some very big news breaking just after the closing bell. Hewlett-
Packard will buy smartphone-maker Palm in a deal valued at around $1.2
That's it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
The American voters in a mood to shop around, and that's bad news for
incumbents. And according to a new ABC News/"Washington Post" poll just
out, voters' dissatisfaction is about what it was at this time in the 1994
election cycle. And we now know what happened then. Democrats both—
lost both in the House and the Senate back in '94, under President Clinton.
So, what are we headed for this November?
Joining me now is Joan Walsh, editor of Salon.com, and MSNBC political
analyst Michelle Bernard.
Thank you both for joining us.
I want you to look at these numbers, which I find fascinating. I
often do find numbers fascinating.
MATTHEWS: Right now, just 32 percent of registered voters would
reelect their representative in Congress, regardless of party, about a
third -- 57 percent look forward to looking around.
At this point in 1994, I assume in April of '94, that gap was about 34
percent to reelect the person that's on the ballot from last time, against
55 percent who wanted to shop around.
So, there's a bit—it's not significant—but a bit of an uptick.
Michelle Bernard, what do you make of the fact that people really
claim—claim—they're not going to vote for the person they're used to
voting for?
MICHELLE BERNARD, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: It's—you know what?
It's still very early. It doesn't bode well for Democrats, but it's just
April. We have got a long time to go between now and November. And
anything can happen.
You know, if I were the Democrats, one of the things I would be
looking at are the poll numbers that suggest, for example, that the
American public, although they are completely disgusted with Congress, the
approval ratings for Barack Obama still look very good, so I would suspect
that you are going to see a lot of Democrats in November in certain
districts in particular sort of hanging on to the president's coattails and
getting him to come out and campaign for them and making this about
national issues...
BERNARD: vs.—rather than local issues.
MATTHEWS: Well, since you made that point, Joan, react to this.
Obama is trusted by—over Republicans in the Congress to handle the
following issues, financial regulation by 17 percent spread, health care by
a 10 percent spread, the economy an 11 percent spread.
And even the federal deficit, which has long been a Republican strong
suit, he's got a slight edge of 4 percent.
Will that edge for the president offset this total dissatisfaction
with members of Congress, Joan?
JOAN WALSH, EDITOR IN CHIEF, SALON.COM: You know, it is too early to
tell, like Michelle said, but I think it will, Chris.
I saw the headline on that story, more bad news, sour mood for
Democrats, and I got a little worried. But when you really drill down into
the numbers, there's a lot of good news for Democrats. Independents are
coming back to President Obama, for one thing.
So, you know, the incumbent numbers are a little bit worrisome, but I
think the idea that people are shopping around has to do with the terrible,
terrible gridlock in Congress. Now, as the Democrats have begun to break
the logjam with health care reform and now today it's looking like with
financial reform, those numbers might shift, because they will have a sense
that their legislators, their congresspeople, are working for them, not
merely just sitting around, not getting things done.
MATTHEWS: Well, maybe I'm the only one of the three of us who thinks
there's a possible absolute catastrophe facing the Democrats this fall,
because I think a lot of name-brand U.S. senators I think are going to get
I think the public is in a very angry incumbent mood. But maybe
you're right. Let's take a look at President Bush. He's still getting the
blame for the economy. And I think that's fair. Fifty-nine percent blame
him, only 25 percent the president.
Now, Michelle, I hear from the pre-interview you had with somebody,
you disagree. But let me make my case.
MATTHEWS: This guy's been president for one year, basically. He came
in February, basically, last year, January 20. He's—now April, that's
just about a year. You cannot turn the American economy around in a year.
It's enormous.
And the tools available to a president are fiscal policy, just about
it, and he's been able to make some changes.
You blame him, though, don't you?
BERNARD: No, actually, Chris, I don't blame him. What I was actually
getting at is that I'm surprised that the president has been given the
grace period that he's had so far --
MATTHEWS: What, a year?
BERNARD: -- with the American public. A lot of people did not
believe that the American public would have the long-term memory that they
have had. One of the reasons that I think the president has faired so
well, and that people have not wholly turned against him, is that he did
such a good job on messaging and was brilliant in explaining to the
American public, way before he was even inaugurated, what he inherited from
the Bush administration.
You'll remember before the Inauguration, President Bush had virtually
disappeared. The economy was tanking. Who did we see on television every
day acting as an adult and showing people that there's someone with brains
trying to do something. It was Barack Obama. He was still a senator at
that point in time.
I'm glad that the American public has given him this grace period. I
think he deserves it. I think he's done a masterful job at messaging.
What I am hoping, though—actually, what I should say is what I fear is
that if the economy does not turn around, or begin to turn around, sooner
or later, that grace period will diminish, and people will begin to say,
OK, you know what? You blamed it on President Bush, but he's been out of
office for two years, three years, whatever point in time we're talking
about at that period. And we'll say to him—I know it's a year now, but
I'm saying maybe one year from now or two years from now, people will say,
what have you done for us today?
MATTHEWS: Here's the president right now—earlier this afternoon,
actually, in Missouri on progress made on Wall Street reform.
OBAMA: Now, I don't think this should be a partisan issue.
Everybody, Republicans and Democrats and independents, were hurt by this
crisis, so everybody should want to fix it. So I'm very pleased that after
a few days of delay, it appears an agreement may be in hand to allow this
debate to move forward on the Senate floor on this critical issue.
I'm very pleased by that. And I want to work with anyone, Republican
or Democrat, who wants to pursue these reforms in good faith.
MATTHEWS: What do you make of that, Joan?
WALSH: You know, I think he's feeling strong, and he's worked hard
for this. He's near a victory. I think that these poll numbers are really
good news for people who believe in the fundamental intelligence of the
American people, because not only do they not blame him for this horrible
financial crisis, the other thing that really struck me, Chris, is that 58
percent thought that Obama was either just right ideologically, or maybe
even a little bit too conservative.
This is after a year and a half, or more, of Republicans calling him a
socialist and trying to paint him as out of the pale of American democracy.
So, again, the American people are seeing through the Republican strategy
on so many issues. So I think that bodes well for Democrats this November.
MATTHEWS: Michelle, a totally cosmetic thing, but politics is a lot
about cosmetics, as we all know. He's out there wearing no tie, his collar
open. I wonder, presidents used to campaign rather formally. Certainly
Reagan did, Kennedy did. What do you make of the fact—is he trying to
distinguish himself from those extremely well turned out Wall Street types
we saw yesterday, who all had perfect everything?
BERNARD: Absolutely. you can't help—you're right about bringing
up the cosmetics, Chris. You can't help but notice it. He's got the
sleeves rolled up. He's doing his best to appear as the average, every day
man. He is trying to show the American public that he's out there and he's
working hard for us. That's the message he's trying to deliver. It's a
sharp contrast to what we saw with those fellows on the Hill yesterday.
MATTHEWS: Your thoughts, Joan? I still think he's a tad too, to use
an old person's expression, well, Ray Mulland. I always get in trouble for
saying. He's the guy in the movies that never sweated, never got excited.
I got a find a more current example.
WALSH: We'll work on that. We'll work on that, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Give me a new one.
WALSH: Off the top of my head—I'll have it for you in a minute.
You know, I do agree with you. I think the three of us, actually, during
the campaign, noticed that occasionally he—at a point when the country
wanted populism—they wanted someone who felt their pain, he does have a
little bit of a cool demeanor, and he needs to work harder. Not that we
want him angry, but we want to see him really with fire.
So yes, whenever he rolls up his sleeves, that's what he's doing. I'm
going to fight for you. I'm going to work with you. I'm going to connect
with you. It's always a good sign.
MATTHEWS: Maybe it's a plus, Michelle. I think of all these other
politicians that are always—I shouldn't say it myself, because I get
overheated. They're always yelling. They're yelling on cue. I just
wonder, maybe we're tired of that. I don't know. Your thoughts, Michelle?
BERNARD: I think the public is tired of it. And, you know what, if
you want to watch people yelling at each other and making no sense
whatsoever, turn on C-Span and watch Congress. I think that Obama is
brilliant at the message he delivers, whether it's through cosmetics or
language. I've given up on him giving us the sort of soaring rhetoric that
we saw during the campaign on a daily basis. And maybe right now is not
the time to do it.
We sit back. We watch the Democrats and the Republicans fighting with
each other over anything. It is nothing but pure gridlock in Washington.
And just to see someone a little bit different makes me feel better.
MATTHEWS: I got to go.
WALSH: Daniel Craig, the newest James Bond, very cool.
MATTHEWS: The physical James Bond. Thank you very much, Joan Walsh.
He looks like he really can jump over those buildings. Thank you, Michelle
Up next, the Birthers are coming to Washington. But first, during the
commercial, coming up, guess the retiring senator who did not get the dream
job he was after. That's in one minutes here on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: A major personal disappointment for retiring Indiana
Senator Evan Bayh. While the rest of the Senate was voting on Wall Street
reform, Bayh was interviewing to become the head of the National Collegiate
Athletic Association, the NCAA. The organization is based in Indianapolis,
his home city.
Unfortunately for Bayh, the job went to the University of Washington
President Mark Emmert. The NCAA chose him because he was available to
start by the beginning of the school year, while Bayh's Senate term last
until January 2011. HARDBALL will be back right after this.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. The state of Hawaii has had it
with the Birthers. The state legislature has now passed a law that will
let state employees ignore what they're calling duplicated requests for
verification of President Obama's birth. Not to be deterred, a rally of
Birthers, who say President Obama was not born in the U.S., has been
announced for May 29th in Washington, D.C. Ralliers are requested to bring
a copy of their own birth certificate.
What's going on? Dave Weigel is a "Washington Post" political
reporter and author of "The Right Now" blog. He studies these fringe
groups. David, it's great to have you on. I was talking to you earlier
today, trying to get a sense. What is the Birther crowd up to now? What's
the state of Hawaii saying in reaction to them now?
DAVID WEIGEL, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, nothing much has changed.
Hawaii passed this law because, according to Health Department officials,
they were getting 20 requests a day, sometimes, for Obama's birth records.
They had to keep telling them what they told everyone. Obama can go and
look at his own birth record in a vault, but, other than that, you just
have to make due with this document that's been online for two years.
So Hawaii is the state, actually, where this anti-Birther bill is
getting further than some of the bills that are requesting birth
certificates in other states.
MATTHEWS: Well, Hawaii gives out what they call a birth certificate,
a certificate of live birth. That's what everybody gets who is born there.
If you want to go for any kind of job, you have to have a birth
certificate. What he shows us is what they show us. It's the standard
issue, right?
WEIGEL: Yeah.
MATTHEWS: It's the standard issue birth certificate. These people
are coming to Washington waving their birth certificates around. If Barack
Obama wanted to come to that rally, he would wave this around. He'd be
like all of them, right?
WEIGEL: Well, he would. That's what Birthers—
MATTHEWS: Then what's the issue? What's the issue then?
WEIGEL: The issue is that the Birther—they don't like being called
Birthers. but the people who ask this question claim because that because
the original 1961 certificate includes information like the hospital he was
born in—
MATTHEWS: No, you're playing your game. You're saying certificate.
No, the Record of Vital Statistics is not a birth certificate.
WEIGEL: No, this is enough. That's the point here. You know, you
talked about Arizona in the past, you know, the state where—it might
die, actually, if the legislature goes away without passing something. But
they have legislation demanding proof of citizenship. And this would be
You're right, the thing that Barack Obama has been presenting for two
years has been enough.
MATTHEWS: It is called a birth certificate. It's a birth
WEIGEL: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Now what I found out today checking with you, and then
checking out there in Hawaii and our producers checked as well—we were
all making all these phone calls today. It turns out that that information
that they take at the time of birth from the parents doesn't include—
this is information they take for confidential reasons about health factors
that really are not, perhaps, generally recognized as stuff you give away.
But included in that is not religion.
So I can't think of a thing that would be useful to Obama's critics
that would be in this information that you could get if you go into the
confidential records, as apart from the birth certificate. So what is this
game that the Birthers are playing?
WEIGEL: Well, what some of the legislators have said, if you push
them, is that they want Obama to release other information. They want this
to be an avenue for him to give out his college records, because there's a
theory that he went to Pakistan on a secret mission for the CIA. I can't
believe I'm saying that, but that's actually a thing they've said.
There is different conspiracies about Barack Obama that they say we
need more entries to show. So this is an entry-way to say look, he didn't
give us 100 percent of the information. He gave us 99 percent of this
information. He's hiding something else. We need this so that he can give
us more of it.
You're right. It's never ending. The White House, whenever they're
asked about this, says, look, he's given more information than anyone's
ever given who's been president about where they were born. There's a
certificate, enough to get a passport, enough to get a driver's license.
MATTHEWS: Is this going to end up being like one of these Geraldo
Rivera things, where we go into the vault and we finally get into the
vault, and there is nothing there? The Al Capone records are just going to
be, in this case, yeah, he was born in '61. And, yeah, his father came
from Kenya. Yes, his mother came from Kansas. Yeah, he is born in
America. And, yeah, what showed up in the newspapers at the time is
accurate. Blah, blah, blah. Who cares? Will then the Birthers quit and
go back to the holes they came out of?
WEIGEL: I don't really think so. I wouldn't wish the time I have
spent on this on you or on anyone else. But if you keep pushing on that,
they say well, look, in 1961, maybe they lied and gave the wrong
information to the registrar and we'll never know.
MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you. David, I think you figured them out pretty
well, without getting into too much opinion. I think you've got it
figured. David Weigel of the "Washington Post."
When we return, I'm going to have some thoughts about this knee jerk
comparison of everything we don't like to Nazi Germany. It standard now.
You don't like it, it'S Hitler. You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with a brief thought about a giant
problem. It's how we talk these days. There is no such thing anymore that
we just disagree with, is there? If you're on the liberal side and
somebody does something on the conservative side, it's Hitlarian. It's
Same the other way. Obama's health care proposal, you know, the
individual mandate that is modeled on the one that Mitt Romney did when he
was Massachusetts governor, the part of the bill that makes people take
personal responsibility for their health insurance, not just troop into the
ER or get taken to the ER when they need medical attention, people are so
mad about that provision of the bill they're calling it Hitlarian, a Nazi
Am I right? Am I right? Hitlarian, that's what they're calling it.
It's a Nazi health care program. You know, Nazi, Nazi, Nazi. Have they
made themselves clear?
The same thing is going on in this Arizona deal, checking on people's
I.D.'s to see if they're in the country illegally. I'm sorry, did Hitler
arrest people for trying to move into the Third Reich? Or was he catching
and killing people trying to escape?
Sorry, there is a difference. You don't like the Arizona law? OK,
let's debate it. Demonstrate if you're up against it.
But let's agree, can we, to drop the Nazi stuff? Can we stop calling
the individual mandate in the Obama health care bill Nazi? Can we? Hitler
killed millions of people, rounded them up as a matter of national policy
and then killed them all. Before that, he had all his political rivals
rounded up and had them killed. He eventually started a war, World War II,
that ended up killing 50 million people.
I know what you're thinking, he's not as concerned about all this as I
am, or he'd be using that word Hitler, too. That's what I'm talking about.
If you don't call it the unholy name of Adolf Hitler, you just don't care
these days. I say we take the "heil" out of Hitler. If something is wrong
and we want to say so, say why. It will take a little longer. But at
least we'll be getting somewhere. This Hitler stuff is teaching us
That's HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us. Right now, it's
time for "THE ED SHOW" with Ed Schultz.
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Watch Hardball each weeknight


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
US inequality at historic high, surpassing Roaring '20s
Recent survey shows inequality in the US is at its new peak. The richest 1 percent of the population received almost a fifth of the national households' income in 2012, thus breaking the previous record set in 1928.
The gap between rich and poor in the US is wider than ever,
according to research which uses preliminary 2012 US statistics
for income. It's an update to a comparative analysis tracing
income figures back to 1913 and done by economists at the
University of California, Berkeley, the Paris School of Economics
and Oxford University.
"Indeed, the top decile share in 2012 is equal to 50.4 percent, a level higher than any other year since 1917 and even surpasses 1928, the peak of stock market bubble in the 'roaring' 1920s," Berkeley's Emmanuel Saez analyzes the new data in the article, posted at the University's webpage.
The study shows measures taken by the US government to get the country out of the Great Depression efficiently contributed to curbing the growth of inequality. However, since the early 1980s the gap between the rich and the poor has been steadily increasing.
The Great Recession of 2007-2009 saw the richest being hardest hit with 36 percent of income loss, while incomes for the remaining 99 percent of the population it only diminished by 11 percent.
The wealthiest 1 percent was, however, quick to recover, capturing 95 percent of the income gains in the first two post-recession years. The 2012 data suggests the bottom 99 percent of the population has hardly seen any recovery so far.
"We need to decide as a society whether this increase in income inequality is efficient and acceptable and, if not, what mix of institutional and tax reforms should be developed to counter it," Saez writes as a conclusion to his analysis.
The 2012 figures contribute to earlier reports on inequality surge in US, like the one issued by Pew Research Center in April, analyzing the period between 2009 and 2011. The study suggested only the top 7 percent of American households experienced an increase in their net worth during that time.
The United States Federal Reserve is quite aware of the increasing wealth gap and is investigating how the issue is affecting the country's attempts at rebounding from the financial crisis of 2009.
"The large and increasing amount of inequality in income and wealth, which has been an ongoing development for decades, may have exacerbated the crisis and I think more research is required to determine whether it may also pose a significant headwind to the recovery from the crisis for years to come," Fed Board of Governors member Sarah Bloom Raskin said in May.


text:
Yet another challenge from me! I hope I get many wonderful entries like in my last challenge, ~CLAMP tribute~. You guys did an amazing job and I had trouble picking only three winners!
So for this challenge, as the title suggests, you must make a Vampire Knight themed card. It can be anything from a funny demotivational poster to a sad card with music lyrics on it. It can have a single character or multiple. You can pretty much make any type of card you want, just have fun :)
1. Please give me the link to the scan you used, if possible. And credit textures/brushes if the person you got it from asked to be credited.
2. Follow TheO rules. So nothing above PG-13 and don't use fan art, basically.
3. No yaoi/yuri. (Just say no to ZeroxKaname!)
4. If you use lyrics from a song please give me the title and artist in the description because I'd love to hear the song you used.
5. You don't have to dedicate the card to me. It would be nice of you, but I check the entries every so often so I will probably see your entry within a couple days of you submitting it.
6. Have fun. Or else...XD
First Place: 2 cards, two gifts, a sub
Second Place: a card, a gift, and a sub
Third Place: a card and a sub
Honorary mentions: a gift
I will give you a month, as per my usual. Also, entries are unlimited. I hope you enjoy this challenge~


text:
Welcome to Great Moments in Drunken Hookup Failure, where we showcase three heartwarming true stories of drunken love gone horribly awry. Off we go.
Late one Saturday night, I headed to a local tavern for a few beers before last call. "Jane," a very cute little bartender, was working the front bar. We'd known each other for several years; she had recently broken up with a long-time boyfriend and I'd been a free agent for about three months. The timing was perfect. Or was it?
We started doing shots together and I was firing down the 25 oz. mugs like they might run out of beer. The bar was fairly quiet so we had lots of time to flirt and inhale the shots. A Vicodin and alcohol buzz had already kicked in when they turned on the lights.
As I stood up to leave, Jane told me to go to the back of the room so she could pour me another beer. She said I should wait for her to close out her register and we'd walk a few blocks to her place to share "a nice bottle of wine." I was in! Finally! Then it hit me. I'd been eating Vicodin like Pez because I'd had anal fistulotomy surgery earlier in the week. What's a fistulotomy? The ass doctor makes an incision and inserts a plastic tube in the fistula (a fistula is basically an abscess). The tube forces the fistula to drain copious amounts of blood and pus out of your ass for about six weeks, then they surgically remove the tube. Yeah, it's gross. And painful.
Since no clothes were coming off that night, I sheepishly told Jane I had to take a rain check. No way I could tell her the reason why. About a month later, she started dating a douche with an Ed Grimley do and a fucking neck beard. They're engaged now. At least my fistula healed up.
I went to a college in the NC mountains known mainly for one thing: the upset of Michigan in 2007 in football. I watched the game at a bar close to campus, and the very small town was in full get-blacked-out mode. The bar may as well have been a double-wide trailer, but it was the best place to find a partner for a dirty reckless crotch-grooving. I was with my female friend she wanted me to meet a friend of hers. She took an instant liking to me, and I decided to go with it.
Fast-forward to the end of the night and she comes back to my apartment. All of my roommates were gone for the weekend, which I was later thankful for. We are on my bed sloppily making out and clothes start coming off when I suggest that she should give me an ol' bj . She turns dead silent, looks me in the eye and goes off on the most passionate feminist rant I've ever heard. I'm stunned and have no idea what to say but more importantly my boner-ship is losing blood fast. I start to drunkenly stammer out something but then she just belts out a loud cackle, falls back and off of the bed. She drags herself up and says she needs to use the restroom, so I assume that's it for the night and pass out.
I woke up sometime before the sun was up and went to get some water for my morning-after-drinking cottonmouth when I open my door and what did I see but my guest from the previous evening, naked, sitting on top of an open washing machine and passed out. Stunned, I just stared for a second, closed the door and went back to bed. Woke up much later to a washing machine with pee in it, and a dryer sheet for good measure.
Growing up in the D.C. area, my friends and I would often go downtown on July 4th for the big party in our nation's capital. As we got to high-school age, our parents trusted us to fend for ourselves, unsupervised. One year, we figured we'd toast America's birthday with a few Nalgene bottles full of liquor. Booze in hand, we were able to enjoy some furtive underage drinking while soaking up the wild, patriotic scene.
Our post-fireworks route back to the Metro station took us past an open plaza with a fountain at one end (Freedom Plaza, for any D.C.-savvy folk who care to know). The crowd was in a boisterous mood, and a number of people were playing in the fountain. So we joined them. Splish-splashing around, it was a free-for-all—no cops or squares there to spoil our party.
We met a trio of girls (hey, my buddies and I also numbered three, how convenient!), and we frolicked together in the water. They were excited to hear we had alcohol, and delighted in sharing it with us. At one point I glanced over to see one of my friends had convinced one of the girls to crouch down and lick his johnson right there in the fountain.
We told them that we were headed back to my friend's house in the Maryland suburbs (his parents were elsewhere that night). They were from northern Virginia, but game to continue the party. So we boarded Metro for the hour-long ride to our stop. I remember, through the fog of alcohol and the years that have passed since, it being a somewhat awkward, boring ride. We must have been out of booze, as we were not continuing the rager right there on the train. We had just met these three random lasses in a fountain-turned-wading-pool, and only had so much to talk about, being essentially strangers. We got to our stop and then piled into the car for the last 15 minutes of our journey.
Safely back at the house, we resumed partying activities and things were back in swing. One of my friends had let one of the girls change into a pair of his shorts, since I guess hers were a little wet from the fountain. I decided, in my drunken brilliance, that it'd be funny for me to don these skimpy, cheerleader-style shorts and do a little strutting around for the assemblage. (Growing up, these friends of mine had always had better natural game and more luck with girls; I was just a semi-goofy kid who saw here an opportunity to make people laugh.)
My recollection is that this routine went over OK, but my friends' version is that it had the girls mortified. Shortly thereafter, my friends paired off with two of the girls and went upstairs; they would both end up enjoying some dome piece from those kind Virginians. This left me downstairs with the third girl, a blonde and a good-looker at that. With it now just the two of us, I tried to lay my mack on her (a poor showing, I'm sure it was) but she feigned tiredness and just put her head down on the kitchen table, ignoring me.
As morning dawned, one of my friends had to make the hour-plus roundtrip to drive those chicks back to NoVa. Of course, we never saw nor heard from them again.
For a long time thereafter, my friends never missed a chance to remind me of that night when I put on a pair of girl's shorts and completely blew whatever chance I might have had with a random drunk girl we picked up in a D.C. fountain, while her two friends were upstairs practicing the art of fellatio on my lucky buddies.


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Show SummaryAdam and the gang welcome Josh Gardner at the top of the show. Adam talks with him about the Man Show writer's room days, and Josh jumps into his Deaf Frat Guy character. The guys also listen to the infamous Southern California Jewish Center commercial, and Adam looks through some old family photos. Josh then plays a song from his new album, and Adam takes a call from someone pitching a sci-fi novel. Greg Fitzsimmons joins the show next, and he and Adam discuss the importance of comedians writing their own jokes. Alison then starts up the news, discussing the plea of the elementary school teacher who allegedly molested his students. They also talk about the new legislation that will prevent 911 information from being released to the public. Later, the guys recall their favorite prank phone calls, and Alison talks about a new movement in the porn industry for its stars to wear condoms. Adam and Greg go on a jag about one-armed pitcher Jim Abbott, and also complain about how many handicap spots there are in certain parking lots. As the show wraps up, Adam takes your tweets for a round of What Can't Adam Complain About. Download your copy of 'Winterbush,' now available on iTunes. Also be sure to check out http://FitzDog.com, and follow him @GregFitzShow
LinksJosh Gardner 'Tet Tets' Jim Abbott
Show CreditsProducer: Mike Lynch Producer: Mike Dawson Audio/Voice Over/Post-Production: Mike Dawson Newsgirl: Alison Rosen Sound Effects: Bryan Bishop Associate Producer: Gary Smith Technical Director: Chris Laxamana Show Summary: Matt Fondiler
Image Gallery


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Laws, Regulations and Annotations
Business Taxes Law Guide – Revision 2023
Sales And Use Tax Law
Revenue and Taxation Code
Division 2. Other Taxes
Part 1. Sales and Use Taxes
Chapter 2. The Sales Tax
Article 2. Permits
Section 6073
6073. Swap meet or flea market. (a) (1) When the board determines it is necessary for the efficient administration of this part, the board may require the operator of a swap meet, flea market, or special event as a prerequisite to renting or leasing space on the premises owned or controlled by that operator to a person desiring to engage in or conduct business as a seller, to obtain written evidence that the seller is the holder of a valid seller's permit issued pursuant to Section 6067, or a written statement from the seller that he or she is not offering for sale any item that is taxable under this part or is otherwise not required to hold a valid seller's permit.
(2) In providing the board with documentation required by the board pursuant to paragraph (1), an operator of a swap meet, flea market, or special event may require each person desiring to engage in or conduct business as a seller at that swap meet, flea market, or special event to provide his or her driver's license number to the operator on a form authorized by the board or under Section 6073.1.
(b) At any time as the board may specify in a written notice, but in no case more than three times in a calendar year, the board may require an operator to submit to the board a list of vendors conducting business on their premises as a seller. Each listing shall be provided to the board within 30 days after the date of the board's notice. The list shall contain the name and seller's permit number for permitholders and the name, address, and driver's license number for vendors who do not have seller's permits. Records shall be retained to the same extent as all transactions involving sales or use tax liability as provided in Section 7053.
(c) "Swap meet, flea market, or special event," as used in this section, means an activity involving a series of sales sufficient in number, scope and character to constitute a regular course of business, or any event at which two or more persons offer tangible personal property for sale or exchange and at which a fee is charged for the privilege of displaying the property for sale or exchange or at which a fee is charged to prospective buyers for admission to the area where the property is offered or displayed for sale or exchange.
(d) Any operator of a swap meet, flea market, or special event who fails or refuses to comply with this section is subject to a penalty not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) for each offense.
History—Added by Stats. 1973, Ch. 746, effective January 1, 1974. Stats. 1983, Ch. 1092, in effect September 27, 1983, operative January 1, 1983, substituted "one thousand dollars ($1,000)" for "five hundred dollars ($500)" after "exceeding" in subdivision (c). Stats. 1988, Ch. 1029, in effect January 1, 1989, substituted "swap meet, flea market, or special event" for "swap meet or flea market" in subdivisions (a) and (c), following "operator of a," and at the beginning of subdivision (b), inserted "or she" following "seller that he" in subdivision (a), and added ", or any event … for sale or exchange" at the end of subdivision (b). Stats. 1992, Ch. 902, in effect September 25, 1992, operative January 1, 1993, deleted "of this part" after "Section 6067" in subdivision (a), added subdivision (b), and relettered former subdivisions (b) and (c) as (c) and (d); added a comma after "flea market", deleted "the provisions of" after "comply with", and substituted "subject to a penalty" for "punishable by a fine of" after "this section is" in subdivision (d). Stats. 1993, Ch. 1109, in effect January 1, 1994, added "(1)" to subdivision (a), substituted "that" for "such" preceding "operator" in the first sentence, added "written" before "evidence" in subdivision (a), added "or is otherwise …" at the end of subdivision (a), added subparagraph (2) to subdivision (a), substituted "driver's license" for "social security" preceding "number for vendors" in the last sentence of subdivision (b), and substituted "the" for "such" preceding both references of "property" in subdivision (c). Stats. 1994, Ch. 903, in effect January 1, 1995, added "to the same … liability" after "retained" in the third sentence of subdivision (b).
Note.—See Business and Professions Code, Sections 21660–21667, concerning recordkeeping and reporting duties for swap meet operators and vendors.


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About Apple security updates
For our customers' protection, Apple doesn't disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page.
Apple security documents reference vulnerabilities by CVE-ID when possible.
For more information about security, see the Apple Product Security page.
Xcode 11.5
Released May 20, 2020
Available for: macOS Catalina 10.15.2 and later
Impact: A crafted git URL that contains a newline in it may cause credential information to be provided for the wrong host
Description: This issue was addressed by forbidding a newline character in any value passed via the credential protocol.
CVE-2020-11008: Carlo Arenas


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The State of Local SEO: Industry Insights for a Successful 2019
The author's views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
A thousand thanks to the 1,411 respondents who gave of their time and knowledge in contributing to this major survey! You've created a vivid image of what real-life, everyday local search marketers and local business owners are observing on a day-to-day basis, what strategies are working for them right now, and where some frankly stunning opportunities for improvement reside. Now, we're ready to share your insights into:
- Google Updates
- Citations
- Reviews
- Company infrastructure
- Tool usage
- And a great deal more...
This survey pooled the observations of everyone from people working to market a single small business, to agency marketers with large local business clients:
Thanks to you, this free report is a window into the industry. Bring these statistics to teammates and clients to earn the buy-in you need to effectively reach local consumers in 2019.
There are so many stories here worthy of your time
Let's pick just one, to give a sense of the industry intelligence you'll access in this report. Likely you've now seen the Local Search Ranking Factors 2018 Survey, undertaken by Whitespark in conjunction with Moz. In that poll of experts, we saw Google My Business signals being cited as the most influential local ranking component. But what was #2? Link building.
You might come away from that excellent survey believing that, since link building is so important, all local businesses must be doing it. But not so. The State of the Local SEO Industry Report reveals that:
When asked what's working best for them as a method for earning links, 35% of local businesses and their marketers admitted to having no link building strategy in place at all:
And that, Moz friends, is what opportunity looks like. Get your meaningful local link building strategy in place in the new year, and prepare to leave ⅓ of your competitors behind, wondering how you surpassed them in the local and organic results.
The full report contains 30+ findings like this one. Rivet the attention of decision-makers at your agency, quote persuasive statistics to hesitant clients, and share this report with teammates who need to be brought up to industry speed. When read in tandem with the Local Search Ranking Factors survey, this report will help your business or agency understand both what experts are saying and what practitioners are experiencing.
Sometimes, local search marketing can be a lonely road to travel. You may find yourself wondering, "Does anyone understand what I do? Is anyone else struggling with this task? How do I benchmark myself?" You'll find both confirmation and affirmation today, and Moz's best hope is that you'll come away a better, bolder, more effective local marketer. Let's begin!


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Sacred Fire MagazineBringing Ancient Wisdom to Modern Culture
Sacred Fire MagazineBringing Ancient Wisdom to Modern Culture
Full of intimacy and humor, paradox and common sense, Sacred Fire Magazine provided a bridge extending back through time and pulling forward the living legacies of Ancient Wisdom for our world today. In the Spring of 2013, the Magazine was nominated for the Utne Media Award in the category of Body/Spirit publications.
Back Issues
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 1
Nothing is Ever Lost + Appletalk + Divine Right Order + Deeper Ecology + No Garbage Karma Here + Divine Nourishment: Your Hands + Living the Heart Life + Quilt + Teeth + Leon and Maria in the Altai + Pistachios + Beyond Wild + Beaver + Here is the Story + Laurel Hill + Spirit of a City Park + Getting Right with Money + Reconnecting with the Earth: Looking Out from the Mesa at San AndresDetails
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 2
Winter into Spring + Divine Nourishment: Eat When Hungry, Sleep When Tired + Smoke & Fears + Wisdom of Winter: Light of Fire + Take Off Your Shoes + Transformation by Fire + Sitting with Evening Primrose + Chiaroscuro: skepticism and praye + My Knitting Nana + A Steelhead Comes into Your Life + Rock Towers + Apples of the Earth + Getting Right with Money + Thinning Yields Life's Choicest Fruits + Reconnecting with the Earth: On CrocusesDetails
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 3
Bighorn Spirit + Manhattan Morning + Time and Patience + Message from the Mall + The Universe Knows a Smart Aleck + The Tao That Can Be Spoken Interview with Ken Cohen + Animals in Wartime + My Song Home + A Shamanic Refl ection on Water + Learning Dirt + Facing Death, Embracing Life + Canadian Summer + Expanding the Sahara + Growing Down + Sacred Doorways + You Are Not Invited + What is an Offering? + Spring Fever + Traffic + Snake Search + Green, Wild Green + The Land of Exaggerated FireRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 4
The Lost People + Naked Forest + My Song of Place + Born to the Medicine + Finding the Path of Ancestral Wisdom + Who Sang You Awake, Father Sun? + The Lightness of Letting Go + Gathering Seeds + My Tio Louis + Remembering Connection + Raspberries + Stacking Wood + Reconnecting with the EarthRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 5
The Ice is Melting + Ritual: Correcting the Damage of Modernity + Spiritual Practice in a World at War + Opening the Sacred Doorway + Aloha, the Breath of Love + Relating to the Sacred + There is No Sufi Here + The Path of Fire-Filled Devotion + Nature Spirits, Ancestral Spirits, and the SangomaDetails
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 6
Keeping Knowledge Alive: Indian Pedagogy + A Look at Traditional California Indian Teaching Techniques + Lone Dancer + The Stories I Write + Keeper of the Ears + What The Violets Said to Me + Salmon, Bear, River + The Rainmaker + Walking A Journey + Any Given Morning + All My Relations + A Prayer for Peace: An Audience with Zulu High Sanusi Credo MutwaRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 7
The Great Powers of the Universe Are Turning Against Us + A Letter to the Huichols of San Andres + Expressing the Values of the Tatewarí Group + Finding Sustainability in the 21st Century + Blood Moon + The Wheel of Sharp Weapons + An Okanagan Worldview of Society + Bonding Fires + Love Cracked My Heart: A Conversation with Ram Dass + My Last Wishes + Where is the Holy LandRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 8
A Mohawk Thanksgiving Address + Mapping Black Elk + Remembering for the Future + An Interview with Melissa Nelson + The Original Religion + Maturity Matters + An Interview with Bill Plotkin + An Inescapable Calling + An interview with Niall Campbell + Portfolio: Gravity of Stone + Fiction: Eyes of a Temple CowRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 10
9 Wisdom Keepers + Interspiritual Conference + Tatewari + Grandfather Fire + The Poetics of Place + Erick Gonzalez + Lessons for 2012 + What is Our Future + Greed + Manitonquat + Medicine Woman + The Seventh Prophecy + Robert Moss + Indigeous Struggles + Teztan Biny + Redwood Speech + Cynthia Frisch + Sharks + How to Hear the World + MORERead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 11
Seven Sacred Stories + Eliot Cowan + Kinship: A Matter of Life and Death + Interview with a Lone Leopard + Clifford Duncan + Healing 500 Years of Oppression + The Necessity of Ego + Woody Morrison's Canoe Wisdom + Dam-Nation + Laugh Your Way HomeRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 12
What Disasters Tell Us + Interview: Kent Nerburn + Taking on Monsanto + Following Shamanic Guidance + Jon Turk and the Raven God + Indigenous Innovation + Avatar's Game-Changing Activisim + Amazon Conservation Team + Eda Zavala + Ceremonial Healing + Mother Nature on the LineRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 13
Cultivating the Sacred + Larry Littlebird + Francis Weller + Ripped from the Primal Matrix + Dancing with the Wisdom Keepers + Yogi from Muskogee + Swami Beyondananda + Hard Core Zen + How to Feed a Fetish + Alaskan Microcosm + Healing Hurt People + Making the Past the Present + Unveiling the Law of Subtraction!Read Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 14
What The World Needs Now + Tom Goldtooth + Spiritual Warfare + 13 Grandmothers + Future Primitive + Bioneers + Leslie Marmon Silko + Nina Simons + 5 Pieces of Heart + Everyone's Indigenous + Grieving Thunderstorms + Swami Beyondanda + Ann Rosencranz + moreRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 15
Starhawk's Spiritual Activism + Can Melama Save the World? + Don Oscar Miro-Quesada + Mysteries of African Shamanism + Jesse Wolf Hardin + Slow Going for Fast Times + The Light of the Sabbat + Sufi Master Ustad NizamiRead Online
Sacred Fire Magazine, Issue 16
Andrew Harvey + Sacred Activism + Eliot Cowan + Sacred Plant Teachers+ Charles Eisenstein + Derrick Jensen + Bill Plotkin + Animas Valley Institute + Oren Lyons + Wisdom Fellowship Award + The Tantric Destroyer of Demon +Revolution of Heart + Ojai Foundation + Carla Woody + The Last Spirit Keeper + Kenosis + Erick Gonzalez + Mayan Prophesies + Anne Marie Sayers + Indian Canyon + moreRead Online


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CAIRO, March 28 (UPI) -- A fisherman saved the life of a young Egyptian woman after her parents threw her into the Nile River for divorcing an abusive, elderly husband, police said.
Women's rights groups in Egypt said they are working with authorities to gather more information about the attempted honor killing, Bikyamasr.com reported Wednesday.
"If this is really what happened, then it shows there is a lot of work to counter honor violence in this country, where women and girls are killed because, simply, they are women," said Nora Tarek, a women's rights researcher in Cairo.
The young woman initially refused to marry the elderly man but later bowed to family pressure, Bikyamasr.com reported.
Her parents tossed her into the river when she returned home after divorcing him.
Last year, a 22-year-old Egyptian woman was found dead on a coastal road with a noose around her neck. A family member said the woman was killed by her brother for leaving home with a stranger.


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bos02-arm64-041 builds arm64, armel, and armhf binaries and is owned by William Grant.
View full history Current status
1 Idle
Builder information
- Architectures:
- arm64 armel armhf (virtual)
- Location:
- http://bos02-arm64-041.vbuilder.bos02.scalingstack:8221
- Owner:
- William Grant
- Mode:
- This builder is in auto-mode and accepting jobs from the auto-build system.
- Version:
- 235~645~ubuntu20.04.1


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September 15, 2015 Hinckley, Minnesota
Aaniin, Boozhoo! Good Morning! It is my honor to welcome you to Grand Casino Hinckley for the Minnesota Indian Housing Conference. Welcome, to the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe!
Last Friday, a reporter from a local newspaper emailed my staff. Some of the locals had contacted her, because there was a rumor going around that the Mille Lacs Band was building 300 new homes in the tiny town of Isle, Minnesota. "Is it true?", she wrote. Our Commissioner of Community Development wrote back, "Divide that number by 100, THEN it's true!" We are building 3 new homes in Isle.
Also, a few weeks back, one of our employees was at a meeting of the local Tourism Association. A resort owner told her that the word on the street is….that we WANTED the fishing resorts on Mille Lacs Lake to fail, so we could buy all the property.
Our staff said, "No! Why would we want that? We OWN a fishing resort – and we depend on the resorts for our gaming customers….we are INVESTED in your success!" The woman said she had never heard that before, and thanked her.
The misunderstandings with our neighbors never seem to end. And they never will, because we will always have our homelands, and we will always have neighbors.
What I would like our non-Indian neighbors to know is that we don't spend a lot of time scheming as to how we are going to run them out of business and take over their property – or how we are going to take over local towns.
Instead, we spend our time like they do – worrying about the community our kids are growing up in. We worry about violence and crime and drugs. We worry about affordable housing. We worry about our kids getting a good education. We worry about the future of our community. THOSE are the real problems.
As tribal governments, we spend most of our time dealing with the aftermath of problems. Battered women's shelters…getting people into treatment….placing children in foster care….Sometimes it seems we are in a constant state of crisis management.
But we can't just deal with the aftermath of these problems. We have to get to the root of these problems. Not even 300 new homes will make those problems go away.
When Hilary Clinton began saying, "It Takes a Village to raise a child", she borrowed that from an African saying, but she didn't need to go so far from home. The Village approach to raising children is how Native communities operated for thousands of years, until that structure was nearly destroyed by colonialism, boarding schools, removal and relocation policies.
To recover, we have to look within ourselves and our traditions to see who we really are. That is where we start to find the solutions to every problem we have – including housing. In order to find real solutions – we have to remember our past.
Two hundred years ago, we had communities that lived a hunting, fishing and gathering life. Days were spent in the outdoors.
Children contributed to the survival of the group, which helped them to feel important and built their confidence. Adults looked for learning opportunities for kids whenever they could in daily life, and daily life included lessons about how to be a better person.
Elders in the community paid attention to kids, guiding them to find their true path as a useful member of the community. Elders were honored and young people had a clear vision of how to find their role in the Band.
Neither children nor elders would feel lonely and confused, because they were part of a family and community that spent time together. They cared for one another. They knew that the survival of the individual was connected to the survival of the whole Band.
A Band, a clan, or an extended family, even if they were imperfect, served as a source of love for their members. Life was hard, but they needed each other to survive – and they survived and thrived for thousands of years. Their traditions, their language, their spiritualty and their customs were passed on to us.
In summer, the Anishinaabe gathered together in bands of 400 or 500 people. The frames of their wigwams were arranged in a circle with an open space in the center of the circle.
No one owned the frames…they belonged to everyone. When a family arrived at a summer village, they would choose a frame that was available. They wrapped a covering of hide around it. Then they covered the hide with bark. That was their home for the summer.
The circle was important in the life of our people, and the idea of the circle cuts across many tribes. Black Elk talked about the way a Lakota looks at life:
"Everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the power of the world always works in circles, and everything tries to be round. In the old days when we were a strong and happy people, all our power came to us from the sacred hoop of the nation, and so long as the hoop was unbroken the people flourished."
So for several centuries, the circle symbolized who we were, how we took care of each other and what we believed in. We lived in the circle of life.
Then colonization and assimilation happened. Government policies intent on destroying our communities and culture caused catastrophic damage in just a few generations.
We were suddenly in square houses. Our communities were organized like urban city blocks – in straight rows. The strange concept of a "Housing List" was introduced. Lists became competitive. Anger erupted over who got a new house and who did not. The value of "first come, first serve" replaced the value of sharing.
There is an old saying: "You can't put a square peg in a round hole." We were a society that lived in a circle, and we were being forced into a square peg.
Today, we know that the only road back for us is to look at our old ways. We must look to our traditions, our customs, our spirituality and what we know in our hearts.
So those of you here today are the builders of houses. My challenge to you is to work with Indian tribes and Indian people to not just build housing, but rather to build family homes and build tribal neighborhoods that honor our past.
Build communities that draw on traditions – and help us to rebuild the concept of being part of an extended family, part of clan and part of a Band.
We want our children to grow up safe, and well educated and hopeful about the future. We want them back in the circle of life that once existed in our villages.
We know good housing cannot solve all of our problems. As I have said, we are attacking these many problems from many angles.
But my challenge to you is to be part of the solution. Help us to build our community by creating places that help us remember who we are, what we believe in and where we came from. Above all, help us to build a community where our kids can look to the future with hope.