text:
Using keywords to drive free youtube views to your channel is a great strategy to gain free subscribers. If people like what they see on your channel, they will automatically subscribe, but before they watch your videos, you need to make it easy for them to find your channel. This is where the use of keywords comes in because there are millions of videos on youtube and you need to get people to your page. Your video will not go viral if you just post it without writing descriptions and using keywords in them.
How to create keywords
Make your descriptions long
If your video is new, Youtube and Google will only rely on what you wrote about your video. By using long descriptions, Youtube will find out more about your video and will be able to include it in more page ranks when people search for keywords that are found in the description. The searchable your video is, the more free youtube views you will get and eventually free youtube subscribers.
Optimize your video keywords
Before thinking of the keywords that you will use for your video, take a look at the video results that also use that keyword and check how they rank on the page indexes of Google and Youtube. The first videos that come out are using the best set of keywords that is why they are appearing first. These are the keywords that you need to consider using.
Use other online communities to get more views
LinkedIn is an online community where people engage in sensible discussions. You can use your youtube to answer certain questions in forums as long as it is related and it will help. These online communities don't like it when someone just drops a video on their page that is not related to anything. You will get youtube views when people consider your video helpful.
Encourage viewers to like and subscribe
At the end of ever video you post, encourage them to like and subscribe to your channel. The more views and subscribers, the more youtube will move it up to the page indexes. It sends out a signal that you have a good video that is worth watching. This is how most popular videos get free youtube subscribers.
Make playlists that are rich in keywords
Avoid making your videos unorganized on your channel. If your playlists are full of keywords, people will have a better understanding of your videos and what your channel is all about. The easier for people to understand your channel the easier you will gain free youtube views. You should also categorize your keywords to avoid confusing people when they visit your channel. Make everything simple.
Using keywords to help you gain more popularity in youtube is a must especially if you are trying to build your brand. Take note of the given tips mentioned above to help you become an online sensation within a short span of time.


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Christiaan Huygens
Born: 14 April 1629 in The Hague, Netherlands
Died: 8 July 1695 in The Hague, Netherlands
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|Main Index
|Biographies index
Christiaan Huygens came from an important Dutch family. His father Constantin Huygens had studied natural philosophy and was a diplomat. It was through him that Christiaan was to gain access to the top scientific circles of the times. In particular Constantin had many contacts in England and corresponded regularly with Mersenne and was a friend of Descartes.
Tutored at home by private teachers until he was 16 years old, Christiaan learned geometry, how to make mechanical models and social skills such as playing the lute. His mathematical education was clearly influenced by Descartes who was an occasional visitor at the Huygens' home and took a great interest in the mathematical progress of the young Christiaan.
Christiaan Huygens studied law and mathematics at the University of Leiden from 1645 until 1647. Van Schooten tutored him in mathematics while he was in Leiden. From 1647 until 1649 he continued to study law and mathematics but now at the College of Orange at Breda. Although John Pell was a teacher at Breda about this time, he seems to have had little contact with Huygens. Through his father's contact with Mersenne, a correspondence between Huygens and Mersenne began around this time. Mersenne challenged Huygens to solve a number of problems including the shape of the rope supported from its ends. Although he failed at this problem he did solve the related problem of how to hang weights on the rope so that it hung in a parabolic shape.
In 1649 Huygens went to Denmark as part of a diplomatic team and hoped to continue to Stockholm to visit Descartes but the weather did not allow him to make this journey. He followed the visit to Denmark with others around Europe including Rome.
Huygens's first publications in 1651 and 1654 considered mathematical problems. The 1651 publication Cyclometriae Ⓣ showed the fallacy in methods proposed by Gregory of Saint-Vincent, who had claimed to have squared the circle. Huygens' 1654 work De Circuli Magnitudine Inventa Ⓣ was a more major work on similar topics.
Huygens soon turned his attention to lens grinding and telescope construction. Around 1654 he devised a new and better way of grinding and polishing lenses. Using one of his own lenses, Huygens detected, in 1655, the first moon of Saturn. In this same year he made his first visit to Paris. He informed the mathematicians in Paris including Boulliau of his discovery and in turn Huygens learnt of the work on probability carried out in a correspondence between Pascal and Fermat. On his return to Holland Huygens wrote a small work De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae on the calculus of probabilities, the first printed work on the subject.
The following year he discovered the true shape of the rings of Saturn. However others had different theories including Roberval and Boulliau. Boulliau had failed to detect Saturn's moon Titan so Huygens realised that he was using an inferior telescope. By 1656 Huygens was able to confirm his ring theory to Boulliau and the results were reported to the Paris group. In Systema Saturnium (1659), Huygens explained the phases and changes in the shape of the ring. Some, including the Jesuit Fabri, attacked not only Huygens theories but also his observations. However by 1665 even Fabri was persuaded to accept Huygens' ring theory as improving telescopes confirmed his observations.
Work in astronomy required accurate timekeeping and this prompted Huygens to tackle this problem. In 1656 he patented the first pendulum clock, which greatly increased the accuracy of time measurement. His work on the pendulum was related to other mathematical work which he had been doing on the cycloid as a result of the challenge by Pascal. Huygens believed that a pendulum swinging in a large are would be more useful at sea and he invented the cycloidal pendulum with this in mind. He built several pendulum clocks to determine longitude at sea and they underwent sea trials in 1662 and again in 1686. In the Horologium Oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum (1673) he described the theory of pendulum motion. He also derived the law of centrifugal force for uniform circular motion. As a result of this Huygens, Hooke, Halley and Wren formulated the inverse-square law of gravitational attraction.
Huygens returned to Paris in 1660 and went to meetings of various scientific societies there. He wrote, in a letter to his brother:-
... there is a meeting every Tuesday [at Montmor's house] where twenty or thirty illustrious men are found together. I never fail to go ... I have also been occasionally to the house of M Rohault, who expounds the philosophy of M Descartes and does very fine experiments with good reasoning on them.At these societies he met many mathematicians including Roberval, Carcavi, Pascal, Pierre Petit, Desargues and Sorbière. After Pascal visited him in December 1660 Huygens wrote
... we talked of the force of water rarefied in cannons and of flying, I showed him my telescopes...In 1661 Huygens visited London, particularly to find out more about the newly forming Royal Society meeting at that time in Gresham College. He was greatly impressed with Wallis and the other English scientists whom he met and, from this time on, he was to continue his contacts with this group. He showed his telescopes to the English scientists and they proved superior to those in use in England. The Duke and Duchess of York came to observe the Moon and Saturn through Huygens' telescope. While in London Huygens saw Boyle's vacuum pump and he was impressed. After his return to the Hague he carried out a number of Boyle's experiments for himself. Huygens was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1663.
At this time Huygens patented his design of pendulum clock with the solution of the longitude problem in mind. In 1665 he learnt that the Royal Society was investigating other forms of clock, in particular Hooke was experimenting with a spring regulated clock. Huygens wrote to Hooke doubting this approach which he felt would be unduly affected by temperature changes. Despite this Huygens did begin to experiment with clocks regulated by springs, but their accuracy was poorer than his pendulum clocks.
Huygens accepted an invitation from Colbert in 1666 to become part of the Académie Royale des Sciences. He arrived in Paris that year to discover that the Society was not yet organised. After meetings were held with Roberval, Carcavi, Auzout, Frenicle de Bessy, Auzout and Buot in Colbert's library the Society moved to the Bibliothèque du Roi where Huygens took up residence. He assumed leadership of the group basing much on his knowledge of the way the Royal Society operated in England.
Huygens' work on the collision of elastic bodies showed the error Descartes' laws of impact and his memoir on the topic was sent to the Royal Society in 1668. The Royal Society had posed a question on impact and Huygens proved by experiment that the momentum in a fixed direction before the collision of two bodies is equal to the momentum in that direction after the collision. Wallis and Wren also answered this question.
Circular motion was a topic which Huygens took up at this time but he also continued to think about Descartes' theory of gravity based on vortices. He seems to have shown signs of being unhappy with Descartes' theory around this time but he still addressed the Académie on this topic in 1669 although after his address Roberval and Mariotte argued strongly, and correctly, against Descartes' theory and this may have influenced Huygens.
From his youth Huygens' health had never been robust and in 1670 he had a serious illness which resulted in him leaving Paris for Holland. Before he left Paris, believing himself to be close to death he asked that his unpublished papers on mechanics be sent to the Royal Society. The secretary to the English ambassador was called and described Huygens' reasons:-
... he fell into a discourse concerning the Royal Society in England which he said was an assembly of the choicest wits in Christendom ... he said he chose to deposit those little labours ... in their hands sooner than any else. ... he said he did foresee the dissolution of this Academy because it was mixed with tinctures of envy because it was supported upon suppositions of profit because it wholly depended upon the humour of a prince and the favour of a minister...By 1671 Huygens returned to Paris. However in 1672 Louis XIV invaded the Low Countries and Huygens found himself in the extremely difficult position of being in an important position in Paris at a time France was at war with his own country. Scientists of this era felt themselves above political wars and Huygens was able, with much support from his friends, to continue his work.
In 1672 Huygens and Leibniz met in Paris and thereafter Leibniz was a frequent visitor to the Académie. In fact Leibniz owes much to Huygens from whom he learnt much of his mathematics. In this same year Huygens learnt of Newton's work on the telescope and on light. He, quite wrongly, criticised Newton's theory of light, in particular his theory of colour. His own work, Horologium Oscillatorium sive de motu pendulorum Ⓣ appeared in 1673 and showed that Huygens had moved far from Descartes' influence.
Horologium Oscillatorium Ⓣ contains work on the pendulum. In it Huygens proves that the cycloid is tautochronous, an important theoretical result but one which had little practical application to the pendulum. He also solves the problem of the compound pendulum. However there is much more than work on pendulums. Huygens describes the descent of bodies in a vacuum, either vertically or along curves. He defines evolutes and involutes of curves and, after giving some elementary properties, finds the evolutes of the cycloid and of the parabola. Huygens attempts for the first time in this work to study the dynamics of bodies rather than particles.
Papin worked as an assistant to Huygens around this time and after he left to work with Boyle, Huygens was joined by Tschirnhaus. Another bout of illness in 1676 saw Huygens return to the Hague again. He spent two years there, in particular studying the double refraction Bartholin had discovered in Iceland spar crystal. He also worked on the velocity of light which he believed was finite and was pleased to hear of Römer's experiments which gave an approximate velocity for light determined by observing Jupiter's moons.
By 1678 Huygens had returned to Paris. In that year his Traité de la lumiere Ⓣ appeared, in it Huygens argued in favour of a wave theory of light. Huygens stated that an expanding sphere of light behaves as if each point on the wave front were a new source of radiation of the same frequency and phase. However his health became even more unreliable and he became ill in 1679 and then again in 1681 when he returned to the Hague for the last time. La Hire, who had always argued against foreigners in the Académie, sent his best wishes to Huygens but he clearly hoped that he would not return so that he might himself might acquire his position.
The longitude problem had remained a constant cause for Huygens to continue work on clocks all his life. Again after his health returned he worked on a new marine clock during 1682 and, with the Dutch East India Company showing interest, he worked hard on the clocks. Colbert died in 1683 and a return to Paris without the support of his patron seemed impossible. His father died in 1687, having reached 91 years of age, and the following year his brother left for England. Huygens missed having people around him with whom he could discuss scientific topics. In 1689 he came to England.
In England Huygens met Newton, Boyle and others in the Royal Society. It is not known what discussions went on between Huygens and Newton but we do know that Huygens had a great admiration for Newton but at the same time did not believe the theory of universal gravitation which he said
appears to me absurd.In some sense of course Huygens was right, how can one believe that two distant masses attract one another when there is nothing between them, nothing in Newton's theory explains how one mass can possible even know the other mass is there. Writing about Newton and the Principia some time later Huygens wrote:-
I esteem his understanding and subtlety highly, but I consider that they have been put to ill use in the greater part of this work, where the author studies things of little use or when he builds on the improbable principle of attraction.He departed with much sadness at the thoughts of his scientific isolation in Holland.
In the final years of his life Huygens composed one of the earliest discussions of extraterrestrial life, published after his death as the Cosmotheoros Ⓣ (1698). He continued to work on improving lenses and on a spring regulated clock and on new pendulum clocks.
Huygens described the 31-tone equal temperament in Lettre touchant le cycle harmonique Ⓣ. This has led indirectly to a tradition of 31-tone music in the Netherlands in this century.
In a letter to Tschirnhaus written in 1687, Huygens explained his own approach:-
.. great difficulties are felt at first and these cannot be overcome except by starting from experiments ... and then be conceiving certain hypotheses ... But even so, very much hard work remains to be done and one needs not only great perspicacity but often a degree of good fortune.Huygens scientific achievements are summed up in [4] as follows:-
... Huygens was the greatest mechanist of the seventeenth century. He combined Galileo's mathematical treatment of phenomena with Descartes' vision of the ultimate design of nature. Beginning as an ardent Cartesian who sought to correct the more glaring errors of the system, he ended up as one of its sharpest critics. ... the ideas of mass, weight, momentum, force, and work were finally clarified in Huygens' treatment of the phenomena of impact, centripetal force and the first dynamical system ever studied - the compound pendulum.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Click on this link to see a list of the Glossary entries for this page
List of References (71 books/articles)
A Quotation
A Poster of Christiaan Huygens
Mathematicians born in the same country
Additional Material in MacTutor
- Christiaan Huygens' article on Saturn's Ring
- Huygens' Traité de la lumière
- The theory of collisions
- The theory of the pendulum
- The title page of Horologium oscillatorium (1673)
- The first page of De ratiociniis in ludo aleae (1657)
(Click the link below for those honoured in this way)
|Fellow of the Royal Society
|Lunar features
|Mons Huygens
|Paris street names
|Rue Huyghens (14th Arrondissement)
|Planetary features
|Crater Huygens on Mars
|Popular biographies list
|Number 109
Cross-references in MacTutor
- History Topics: Longitude and the Académie Royale
- History Topics: Squaring the circle
- History Topics: Quadratic, cubic and quartic equations
- History Topics: The rise of the calculus
- History Topics: The brachistochrone problem
- History Topics: A history of time: Classical time
- History Topics: Light through the ages: Ancient Greece to Maxwell
- History Topics: Theories of gravitation
- Famous Curves: Caustic curves
- Famous Curves: Caustic of a circle
- Famous Curves: Catenary
- Famous Curves: Cissoid of Diocles
- Famous Curves: Cycloid
- Famous Curves: Epicycloid
- Famous Curves: Hypocycloid
- Famous Curves: Involute of a circle
- Famous Curves: Semi-cubical parabola
- Famous Curves: Nephroid
- Famous Curves: Serpentine
- Famous Curves: Tractrix
- Chronology: 1650 to 1675
- Paris Academy of Sciences
- London Royal Society
Other Web sites
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography
- Encyclopaedia Britannica
- University of Leiden
- University of Utrecht
- Rouse Ball
- The Galileo Project
- Science Museum Florence
- GMFW (Briefwisseling met zijn broer Lodewijk -- in Dutch)
- Mathematical Genealogy Project
- MathSciNet Author profile

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The workshop will be held on Wednesday, April 23, at J.H.S. 210 Elizabeth Blackwell, 93-11 101st Avenue.
Residents will have a chance to meet with the two transportation divisions to discuss ways to improve bus service, traffic flow and overall safety along Woodhaven and Cross Bay boulevards.
"This meeting is designed as an opportunity to introduce the concept of Select Bus Service to the community and gather feedback on bus ridership, congestion concerns and safety needs along the corridor," explained a spokesperson with DOT.
The city's bus service carries an estimated 2.7 million riders every day, according to the MTA. The city first implemented Select Bus Service in 2008 to incorporate high visibility stations, dedicated bus lanes and more efficient vehicles with intentions to create a more organized service.
Numerous elected officials have long pressed for better transportation throughout the outer boroughs, and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley said she hopes the outreach plan will create a better focus on the busy thoroughfare.
"As the second fastest growing county in the state, Queens needs public services that can keep up with rising demand," Crowley said. "Queens remains disproportionately under-served by public transportation, and I am glad to see the MTA is taking steps to invest in our borough's future."


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Phygen's Bell Receives Defense Alliance Award
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Sunday, December 1, 2013
The Defense Alliance, St. Paul, MN, comprising more than 700 corporate members in 27 states, has presented its Architect of Defense award to David C. Bell, president and CEO of Phygen Coatings and Sterilucent, Inc. Phygen provides PVD coatings, which the U.S. Army uses as a replacement solution for hard chrome and conventional plating processes. Sterilucent manufactures a hydrogen peroxide sterilizer.
See also: Phygen Coatings, Inc.
Related Enterprise Zones: Materials/Coatings


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Current Worldwide Exhibitions
BLECH India 2019
25 – 27 April 2019
Mumbai, India
BLECH India 2019 is a highly focused exhibition exclusively dedicated to Sheet Metal Working. The event provides an ideal opportunity to present your products to this booming market and establish successful business relations, both with customers for machine tools and with potential local agents or partners for joint ventures.
Metalex 2019
20 – 23 November 2019
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METALEX 2019 will pave the way to sustainable successes in the imminent 4.0 era for the region's metalworking industry. Under the theme of "New Smart Technologies," featuring Smart Wire & Tube Technologies, Smart Materials, and Smart Sensor Technologies, the show will open up new horizons in metalworking excellence and growth through over 4,800 items of new machine tools, metalworking solutions, sheet metal forming innovations, and many other metalworking technologies by 4,000 brands from 50 countries including national pavilions plus "German Pavilion"


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An interactive statistical programming language for innovative, custom analyses.
Easily translate mathematical formulas into innovative programs for data analysis, optimization, matrix computations and more. Understand relationships in complex data using exploratory data analysis. SAS/IML software includes hundreds of functions for implementing specialized analyses and algorithms, and lets you submit R code from within SAS®.
Program easily and efficiently.
Simple syntax and an extensive function library make it easy to translate mathematical formulas into statistical programming statements. You can implement custom analyses for a variety of applications and even build your own module library. Share your programs and libraries by writing packages, and download programs written by others.
Perform interactive exploratory analyses.
Graphically explore data to spot hidden patterns, uncover relationships among variables, understand outliers and identify unusual features in the data. Dynamically linked graphics enable you to select observations in one graph and see those same observations highlighted in all other views of the data.
Optimize, simulate and solve.
Find optimum values for objective functions, subject to constraints. Simulate data, solve linear systems and perform matrix computations. And there's no need to declare or allocate storage for a data matrix, because SAS/IML software does this automatically.
Call new methods in SAS.
Easily pass parameters from SAS to R. This enables you to communicate options, such as analysis variable names. You can also easily transfer data in both directions. You can do this multiple times within your program, with complete control over the sequence of transfers. And because SAS/IML doesn't use CSV files, data transfer is faster.
- Matrix computations. Supports matrix operations, solving linear systems and matrix decompositions.
- Data processing. Lets you read observations from a SAS data set into a matrix.
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Brantly embraces new role with Marlins
JUPITER, Fla. -- A year ago, Rob Brantly was the Marlins' Opening Day catcher.
Entering Spring Training this season, the 24-year-old understands he is a long shot to be on the 25-man roster.
Miami's catcher situation is pretty much set with the free-agent signing of Saltalamacchia and veteran backup Jeff Mathis.
The way Brantly is handling his situation, he isn't thinking of himself as the No. 3 choice. He sees himself taking the steps it takes to improve his overall game.
"My situation is the same as always, just take advantage of the opportunities that are given to you," Brantly said. "The rest will fall into place."
In 2013, Brantly had his struggles in the batter's box and behind the plate. He batted .211 in 67 games and after struggling early, he was optioned to Triple-A New Orleans, where he hit .186 in 20 games.
A left-handed hitter, Brantly showed promise with the Marlins late in the 2012 season, batting .290 in 31 games.
This spring, he plans to gather as much insight from Saltalamacchia and Mathis as possible.
"Like any player, you always have to be a student of the game," Brantly said. "You've always got to try to learn and better yourself, and do what you need to do to better prepare yourself for the season. I plan on learning from both of them as much as I can this spring."
Brantly, a high-energy personality, feels experience will help slow the game down for him.
"You get the adrenaline going, you get excited," Brantly said. "The anticipation builds. But the more experience you get, the better. For me, coming into this spring, I have a good idea of how it's going to go and how my spring will go to be prepared."


text:
Alpha build number:
Operating System:
Bug severity: Start up crash / Game play crash / Unexpected behaviour/ Balance issue / Other
Unexpected behavior
Complete steps to replicate bug:
Dig out space for a room, lay down the room template (happens with many types of rooms), attempt to place a doorway but it goes red or orange because of some invisible obstacle.
Other notes:
Usually nobody picks up the rubble quickly, so I place room tiles on top of rubble piles. The rubble seems to disappear, but maybe it doesn't really? If I later erase the tiles to try a different room layout, the rubble doesn't reappear. It still seems gone. But I replace the same layout, and I still can't fit a door on the wall. I end up with colonists trapped inside rooms I can't get them out of unless I demolish the room again. I can place the doorway blueprint, but nobody ever builds it since it's not "green".
doors unbuildable
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Guests: Brian Sullivan, Chris Matthews, David Corn, Michelle Bernard,
Chris Cillizza, Joe Williams, Major Garrett, Neera Tanden, Mark McKinnon, Dan
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: President Obama wants the facts.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews down in Washington. Leading off
tonight: The president weighs in. It was inevitable, perhaps, and it
happened today. President Obama was asked about the shooting death of 17-
year-old Trayvon Martin. Mr. Obama said all of us have to do some soul
searching now to figure out how something like this could happen. And then
he said this.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My main message is to
the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he`d look like
MATTHEWS: Wow. Well, the last time the president was asked about a
racially charged police incident, the moment backfired on him when he
sharply criticized the Cambridge, Massachusetts, police officer. This
time, I think he got it just right.
Plus, yet another sign that Republicans see a winnable election
slipping away from them. Peggy Noonan told Mitt Romney today in her column
that comes out tomorrow that it`s time to get off the "goofball express,"
as she puts it. "Enough with the cheesy grits, the jeans, the singing,
being compulsively pleasant and calling your opponents lightweights. Act
like a president."
Well, does he have it in him? That`s the question. Or is he, as his
aide confessed the other day, an Etch-a-Sketch himself?
Also, it was two years ago today that President Obama signed the major
historic health care law. Its unpopularity has proven to be resilient,
unfortunately, so has Mitt Romney`s hypocrisy on the issue as continued
today the charade that "Obama care" and "Romney care" aren`t essentially
the same thing.
And you know you can`t wait for it. "Mad Men`s" fifth season begins
Sunday night. We`ll introduce you to some of the real madmen who brought
Madison Avenue to presidential politics back in 1974.
We begin with President Obama weighing in on the Trayvon Martin
shooting. Joe Williams covers the White House for Politico. Michelle
Bernard`s an MSNBC political analyst.
You know, let`s listen to the president. Here`s what we know -- by
the way, let`s start with the facts as we know them. And please correct
me. We`re going to argue some of these facts, perhaps, as we know them.
The official police reports and statements regarding the shooting of
Trayvon Martin -- Sanford police observed Zimmerman with what they
described as a wet back covered in grass, a bloody nose and blood on the
back of his head when they initially respond to the scene of the shooting.
The Sanford city manager, Norton Bonaparte (ph), says Zimmerman claims
in his police statement that he was returning to his truck to meet with
police when he was attacked by -- when he was attacked by Trayvon Martin.
But a 16-year-old girl on the phone with Trayvon Martin immediately
before the shooting claims that Trayvon told her he was being followed by a
strange man, and she heard a man approach Martin to ask what he was doing
And so we have very sketchy, conflicting evidence, if you want to call
it that, Joe, of what actually happened. The president today, however,
raised this to a presidential question. He said he wants to find out what
happened. He also said if he had a son, he would look like Trayvon,
bringing it back to the ethnic fact we`re all familiar with here.
JOE WILLIAMS, POLITICO: Well, and that was why the statement was so
perfect, something for him to say and elevate the conversation, not drag it
down with politics but not deliver pathos, either. It was something that
showed a relatable moment.
He knows -- he is telegraphing that he understands what`s going on and
how the parents might feel about this. So I think it was a very important
statement for him to make. It quells a lot of critics and keeps the...
MATTHEWS: Quells a lot of critics?
WILLIAMS: Quells some of the critics. A lot of people in -- from --
MATTHEWS: People...
WILLIAMS: People who were saying...
MATTHEWS: Describe the criticism.
WILLIAMS: The criticism was that Obama needs to say something. We
have the first black president here. We have a -- what appears to be a
clear-cut case of racial bias, or at least racial overtones in this case...
MATTHEWS: Well, we`re going to hear some of them in a moment.
WILLIAMS: ... the president -- yes, absolutely. The president needs
to say something about this. Commander-in-chief, he knows the experience.
This is a moment for him to step in and advocate for the African-American
MATTHEWS: I think another thing that`s relevant here is that his
attorney general and close friend, Eric Holder, who also happens to be
African-American, is out there investigating, perhaps on the road to some
kind of hate crime prosecution.
MICHELLE BERNARD, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely, and the
attorney general -- the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights
Division is Hispanic -- one of the most important things that we see, not
just in addition to the Justice Department actually taking a look at this.
When the president spoke today, he also let us understand when he said
that, This is what my son would look like -- what we`re -- what we know is
that we`re -- it`s not -- it`s powerful for many reasons, most importantly,
this is not some kid from the hood who might have been acting out, where
people might necessarily say, Well, you know, he was engaging in criminal
This is a young man. He`s well educated. He comes from a middle
class family. Mother and father love him. He was armed with nothing but a
bag of Skittles and iced tea. And some lunatic looks at him and says,
Here`s a black man in the neighborhood and I`m going to shoot him.
Maybe, maybe not. We don`t know exactly what happened, but we know
that racial bias was involved...
MATTHEWS: We know he was shot...
BERNARD: ... and we know he was shot...
MATTHEWS: ... shot by that guy.
BERNARD: We know he was shot by that guy, and we know he`s dead. And
the president said, This could be any black man in America.
MATTHEWS: I thought it was wonderfully said. I mean, I`m white,
obviously, and I just thought it was a statement about our country that was
well done. And it was done with political deliberation, which is the way
he has to always speak. He has to almost speak like a pope. He has to get
it right the first time. Your thoughts.
WILLIAMS: Well, and that`s part of the problem. It`s a -- it`s a
blessing and a curse for the White House. The curse is that when you have
situations like these that come up, many eyes in the African-American
community turn towards the White House because we`ve never been here
before. One of these presidents is not like the other.
Therefore, looking to him to make a statement either one way or the
other puts a lot of pressure that none of his predecessors or very few of
his predecessors have, with the possible exception of Kennedy back in the
`60s when Martin Luther King ended up in jail and he called the family.
BERNARD: Well, his tone was perfect.
MATTHEWS: That`s a good impulse there. And that was an impulse.
This was really presidential behavior.
Anyway, let`s listen to the president now from today in his first
comments came today on the shooting death of Trayvon Martin.
OBAMA: My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You
know, if I had a son, he`d look like Trayvon. And you know, I think they
are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with
the seriousness it deserves and that we`re going to get to the bottom of
exactly what happened.
MATTHEWS: Well, finding out what happened is probably the first --
maybe I`m different than a lot of other commentators. I want to find out
what happened. I mean, you have to find out in court, ultimately, but
formally -- but what happened in this terrible case?
The guy is armed. He knows he has this "stand in -- stand in -- stand
your ground" law on his side. He`s acting like some kind of pseudo-
policeman. He has no authority whatever. And yet he`s on some kind of
neighborhood watch thing. It is a toxic mix, and he seems to have a point
of view that`s clear that this guy is a criminal.
WILLIAMS: Well, he was a suspect even before anything started...
MATTHEWS: Right.
WILLIAMS: ... because we have evidence, or at least there are tapes
purporting to show that Zimmerman repeatedly had called into question a
black man walking...
WILLIAMS: ... back and forth through his neighborhood.
MATTHEWS: Now let`s listen to something that I think is serious
business. Here is a tape, which we here have boosted the sound so you can
hear something that this guy, Zimmerman, says under his breath.
It sounds to me on listening to it a couple times like the "F" word,
which we don`t speak on television, and another word which is clearly
recognizable to anyone watching right now as a racial slur. Let`s listen
to the tape.
911 OPERATOR: OK, which entrance is that that he`s heading towards?
GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH: The back entrance. (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Are you following him?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: OK, we don`t need you to do that.
MATTHEWS: Well, we cut it off there. I don`t know why we cut it off
BERNARD: Yes, I have listened to the enhanced version of the tape.
For whatever reason, it was cut off here. But if you...
MATTHEWS: No, it was apparently...
WILLIAMS: It was the initial part where he`s whispering under his
breath. Obviously, it sounds like he`s moving -- "F-ing"...
ZIMMERMAN: Yes.
BERNARD: I`m going to say it. I don`t think we should hide it. The
American public needs to know. If you listen to that tape, he says "F-ing
coon" under his breath. That is the...
MATTHEWS: Yes...
BERNARD: It is unmistakable. It is undenial -- if you -- undeniable,
if you listen to the unenhanced version. That in and of itself makes it a
hate crime. That`s why the Justice Department is involved. It`s why the
FBI is going to have to investigate this case.
And if state authorities do not prosecute and properly investigate
this, we will see a prosecution, I believe, under the federal hate crime
legislation because what we have seen is that this killing appears to be...
MATTHEWS: If you`re the attorney here...
BERNARD: ... racially motivated.
MATTHEWS: If you are in court and you`re a -- and you`re a prosecutor
and/or a member of a jury or a defense attorney, you will have to contend
with this boosted sound of he said on that 911...
BERNARD: The prosecution is going to have to contend with it. But
this is how they build their case. One, this -- Mr. Zimmerman has a
history of making a lot of phone calls to the police whenever he sees black
men in his neighborhood.
Number two, you can hear it very clearly on the tape, the police ask
him, Are you following this person? And he says yes. They say, We don`t
need you to do this. He keeps doing it. Then you add in what sounds like
him saying "F-ing coon."
MATTHEWS: No, I heard it. And it`s not just...
MATTHEWS: Anybody watching this show, if they were sitting in my
office a few minutes ago, listening...
BERNARD: Would have heard it.
MATTHEWS: ... would have heard it. It`s -- let`s do it again. It`s
the "F-ing" word followed by a word we all recognize, unfortunately, as
racially evil, really. Go ahead.
BERNARD: It is evil!
MATTHEWS: Let`s listen. Let`s listen.
911 OPERATOR: OK, which entrance is that that he`s heading towards?
ZIMMERMAN: The back entrance. (INAUDIBLE)
911 OPERATOR: Are you following him?
ZIMMERMAN: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: OK, we don`t need you to do that.
MATTHEWS: You hear it. He says "F-ing coon." They said, We don`t
need you to -- we don`t need you to do that. He continues to follow him.
And you put all that together along with Trayvon speaking with his
girlfriend, and she`s saying, Run from him...
MATTHEWS: Right.
BERNARD: ... you have motive, and it`s clearly based on racial bias.
MATTHEWS: Well, this is going to be -- this is going to be one tricky
trial if this guy is prosecuted. And it could be murder one, two, three,
whatever. There`s all kinds of possibilities here. But now we`ve got two
levels here, Joe, of the reporting we have to do here. One is, as we said,
the Justice Department is moving on this case as what looks to be a case of
a hate crime. Looks to be, or sounds to be. Clearly.
And then you have the second issue. They`ve got a grand jury down
there. So locally -- the president, by the way, covered all the bases
today. He said local, state, federal, we have to all get into action and
do the right thing here.
WILLIAMS: Well, and to that last point, actions speak louder than
words in this particular case. The Justice Department was sent down a few
days ago, in addition to a community activism team, to try to get things
going and make sure that they do the right thing in Florida.
The problem, however -- going back to your initial point -- is that
we`ve got a law here, the "stand your ground" law, that is being replicated
all across the country.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WILLIAMS: As far as we know, that was one of the trigger points of
this particular shooting. You mentioned that the shooter apparently felt
like he had the law on his side. That`s a really powerful thing,
especially when you consider the extended history we`ve had of profiling,
of stopping people in wrong neighborhoods...
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WILLIAMS: ... in this country. I mean, it happened to me -- it
happened to my dad in the `50s, happened to me in the `80s and the `90s.
Now it`s happening again. And now we have the added mix of what sounds
like permissible violence in order to...
BERNARD: Can I just...
BERNARD: Can I just ask one really important question? When we talk
about this "stand your ground" law...
MATTHEWS: By the way, this law`s been used by criminals, as well.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: People who are normal criminals, who normally as a part of
their life commit crimes, have used this as a defense when they kill
WILLIAMS: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, that`s why it`s a flawed piece
of legislation.
BERNARD: Well, but also, but I think the important -- an important
point to make is, regardless of the fact that this guy felt protected by
the law, I can`t imagine any black man in the United States of America who
believes that if he were to stand his ground under this law and be the
WILLIAMS: That he wouldn`t be prosecuted.
BERNARD: ... and the victim was white, he would not be prosecuted.
He would have been arrested...
BERNARD: ... he would be in jail and he would be awaiting trial.
WILLIAMS: Yes.
BERNARD: Absolutely. That law does not cover...
MATTHEWS: Unfortunately, that`s the history.
BERNARD: ... cover blacks.
MATTHEWS: ... the history.
BERNARD: Yes.
MATTHEWS: OK, thank you. (INAUDIBLE) I can have a happy weekend, but
it`s going to be a disturbing weekend for a lot of people. Michelle
Bernard, as always.
Coming up: Mitt Romney can`t shake his aide`s Etch-a-Sketch admission.
I`m calling it an admission, not a gaffe. And now Peggy Noonan has this
advice for Romney, "Get off the goofball express." I think he`s got bigger
problems than being goofy. I don`t think he`s goofy, I think he`s going to
a problem of believing anything he says he says he does. Anyway, Romney`s
continuing problems coming up next.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Tomorrow, Republican voters go to the polls in Louisiana.
Let`s check where the race stands right now on the HARDBALL "Scoreboard."
Here it is, according to a new PPP poll. Rick Santorum has a 14-point
lead over Mitt Romney down there, 42 to 28, with Gingrich down at 18.
Polls close tomorrow at 9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central. And we`ll have
complete coverage, of course, of the results tomorrow night right here on
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. This week has been the best of times and
the worst of times for Mitt Romney. He did capture a decisive win in
Illinois and sits even closer to clinching the Republican nomination right
now, but he just can`t shake what his aide said this week about him being
an Etch-a-Sketch type.
Anyway, today comes this column from conservative Peggy Noonan in "The
Wall Street Journal." Quote, "For Mr. Romney in particular, suit (sic) up
and get serious now that everyone knows you`ll be the nominee. Get off the
goofball express. Cheesy grits, jeans, singing, being compulsively
pleasant, calling your opponents lightweights -- enough use -- enough. Use
the next few" weeks -- next months, in fact, "to get back to basics. Why
do you want to be president again? Is the answer, quote, Because I`m a
great fellow and it`s the top job? Dig down deep for a better reason."
What do you make of this? It seems every time he gets over strength
strengths, he has another problem.
Well, that`s pretty sound stuff. How does Mitt Romney wrap up this
race? Major Garrett`s the White House correspondent for "National Journal"
and Chris Cillizza is managing editor of Postpolitics.com on MSNBC -- he`s
an MSNBC analyst, as well.
Well, what do you make of this? It`s a -- every time he gets
something won, he has a problem. It`s not just goofball, by the way. It`s
MAJOR GARRETT, "NATIONAL JOURNAL": Well, look, Peggy Noonan`s
criticism is -- is odd in one respect, because it says that Newt -- that
Mitt Romney is constantly falling down by answering reporters` questions.
You talk to the traveling press corps with the Romney campaign, that would
be a shock to them.
GARRETT: ... notorious for not doing press avails, or when he does,
limiting to one or two questions. But the larger issue for Peggy Noonan an
for a lot of conservatives who now look at the race as essentially settled,
though not numerically settled and not by calendar settled, is can Romney
elevate his mission and elevate the party along with him? And I think he
took a step in that direction Tuesday night. I though that was the best
acceptance speech he`s given...
MATTHEWS: But suppose...
GARRETT: ... during the campaign.
MATTHEWS: In answer to Peggy, the real reason he wants to be
president is, I think I`m pretty good and this is the best job you can get
in this country, so I should be there.
GARRETT: If you talk to Romney advisers, what they will say is he
wants to be president because he believes he`s uniquely qualified for these
times. He ought to say that more often, that, I have a skill set and a
belief system that fits these times.
MATTHEWS: In other words, I`m not general -- generally Superman. I`m
not the greatest guy that ever lived. But in this time, where we have a
screwed-up economy, I can fix it.
GARRETT: Right.
MATTHEWS: Chris Cillizza, would that work, if he narrowed down his
claim to the fact, I`m Mr. Fix-it, I can fix it?
CHRIS CILLIZZA, POSTPOLITICS.COM, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, let
me first say, Chris, all the things you pointed out, cheesy grits, and you
know, all of his...
MATTHEWS: Peggy did that.
CILLIZZA: Peggy pointed them out. It`s because he`s trying to be --
this is the 2008 Mitt Romney, trying to be everything to everyone. He`s a
social conservative. He`s a businessman. He`s a moderate. He`s tonally -
- this campaign, to his credit, most of the time, they`ve stayed the
businessman route.
I think the further he gets afield from that, the worse he does. But
yes, I do think Major is right about this. If you look at exit polling,
Chris, one fascinating thing comes up. His -- Romney`s biggest advantage
over Santorum across all the demographic groups, experience, has the right
experience to be president. He wins it overwhelmingly.
In Illinois, Romney won a huge share of it. Newt Gingrich came in
second, Ron Paul came in third and Rick Santorum came in fourth among
voters who value experience.
So if he wants to close it out, I think that he very narrowly focuses,
This is my background, this is why I`m uniquely skilled to make this case,
and not just in the primary but in the general election, too.
MATTHEWS: It could be he`s not willing to take a chance on the one
reason he could be president, which is the economy takes a second dip at
the end of this spring, at the end of this fall, when they go in to vote
and people say, Wait a minute, we do need a Mr. Fix-it. Is he willing to
put all his bets on the fact that the voters will feel most of all not need
to continue this president but a need to try somebody who knows business?
Anyway, yesterday, on Hugh Hewitt`s radio show, Romney tried to
downplay the damage from that Etch-a-Sketch remark made the morning after
his big Illinois win. Let`s listen.
HUGH HEWITT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What about that, the campaign
stepping on its own story, Governor?
FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MA, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, this
timing was not ideal, of course, but you never can -- you never can
estimate that every word that comes out of your mouth is going to
absolutely the way you wanted to describe it.
Rick Santorum said the other day that he doesn`t care about high
unemployment. Really? Is that what he meant to say?
MATTHEWS: That`s not a good comparison because the aide was saying
exactly what he meant to say. This guy can reset and deny everything he
said in the primaries and adjust for the general, right?
GARRETT: On an issues basis. Remember, the question was not about
strategy, the question was not about financing or the overall metrics or
mechanics of a general election.
What about the issues you staked out here and now, will they hurt you
in the fall? Reset, Etch A Sketch, shake it up, start again, all of that
fits in that context.
But one thing going back to the Mr. Fix-it idea for Romney, he has
vulnerabilities on that, because Democrats will say, well, all of your vast
experience led you to say Detroit ought to go bankrupt.
If you had made that call and been in position with al your unique
skills, maybe you would have gotten that wrong. And put together health
care in Massachusetts. That was your fix then. What about now? Why do
you think that is a bad idea?
Even if Romney goes down this direction, and says I have all these
kills, my instincts are right for these times, there will be areas where he
will be vulnerable.
Rick Santorum in San Antonio yesterday said if the party were going to
nominate Romney to take on the president, you might as well keep President
Obama in office. Let`s listen to this nail.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You win by giving people
the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who
is just going to be a little different than the person in there.
If they`re going to be a little different, we might as well stay with
what we have, instead of taking a risk of what may be the Etch A Sketch
candidate for the future.
MATTHEWS: Can you imagine him saying that down in Tampa this August,
might as stay with what we got in a Republican convention?
Here is Romney, Chris, responding to Hugh Hewitt`s radio show. Let`s
ROMNEY: Desperate polls call for desperate pols. I know that there
are a lot of people across the country that are saying we need to
consolidate behind the guy who has now weathered -- I think there are 38
different contests we`ve had, if you include all the little islands as
I`m sure that the Senator`s hearing from some of those people saying,
hey, let`s get going, let`s move on and get our nominee ready to go against
President Obama. And perhaps he`s striking out with some frustration from
those kinds of questions.
MATTHEWS: Here`s a guy that just won big in Puerto Rico and he refers
to it as one of those little islands.
MATTHEWS: He`s unbelievable.
CILLIZZA: He`s won 80 percent of delegates in the islands.
One thing I would say, Chris, I actually do agree to a certain extent
with Romney, actually, in that -- with Romney actually in this response to
CILLIZZA: Because I do think some of stuff that is coming out of
Gingrich`s mouth lately is even for Gingrich kind of eyebrow-raising.
Some of the Santorum, too, I think what they`re doing is they see the
math. They see that barring some cataclysmic event, Romney is going to be
the nominee. They`re throwing stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks.
I think this is how primaries tend to end. I think back. Hillary Clinton
on June 6, remember the whole thing, we were talking about the RFK
assassination? This is how these things do tend to end.
MATTHEWS: You`re on a tangent here, so tell me this. And I didn`t
think we would go this way. Why would a guy or woman like Hillary Clinton
knowing they`re probably going to lose, in fact, they`re clearing going to
lose, start trashing the person they`re going to have to endorse in the end
of the summer? Tell me how that works.
CILLIZZA: Because you have spent lots and lots of time, months and
even years in some cases, of your life running against this person, getting
up every morning, trying to make the argument why you`re better.
Part of it is just that, that dynamic, it is hard to give up, and the
other thing is you`re tired. You`re worn down. You have spent months and
months of your life on something that will come up short, and that`s hard
to deal with.
MATTHEWS: Here`s Rick Santorum today. He tried to clean up his
remarks from yesterday. You respond.
SANTORUM: When I said the other day that we need a real choice in
this election, I`m for defeating Barack Obama. And I`m going to support
whoever wins the Republican primary to beat Barack Obama. That`s the
number one issue.
MATTHEWS: So he`s going to support the winner, come hell or high
water, even though he thinks he`s a jerk.
GARRETT: First of all, the first comment was a choice, not an echo.
That`s a very similar Barry Goldwater line from 1964.
That`s what conservative have always said. If you believe Romney is
going to win, but you`re not sure he will be effective and beat President
Obama, then your backtracking statement is he didn`t because he wasn`t
conservative enough. And I was and I may be thinking about 2016.
I do think, for the conservative critics, there is a strategic
indictment against Romney...
MATTHEWS: Ah. So you have answered the question I put to Chris.
He`s trashing him now because he thinks Romney will lose and he will
pick up the pieces in 2016. So it`s going to be Santorum against Hillary
MATTHEWS: That would be a fairly easy vote.
GARRETT: ... say as walk off the stage. Hey, I wasn`t good enough
for you.
MATTHEWS: That`s an election without undecideds.
Anyway, thank you, Major Garrett and thank you, Chris Cillizza.
And have a good weekend.
Up next, word association. What`s the one word people associate with
all four presidential candidates? With it until you hear how they react.
Stick around. One word to describe Romney, Newt, Rick, and Dr. Paul.
We will be right back on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL and now for the "Sideshow."
First up, what, no Etch A Sketch? When Mitt Romney`s adviser compared
his candidate`s shift from the primaries to the general election to an Etch
A Sketch, the 1960s toy soon became a must-have prop for Santorum and
But Ron Paul? Not so much. His campaign came out with this new ad on
the topic. It sounds like more of a bromance continuing between him and
Romney. Let`s watch.
ERIC FEHRNSTROM, SENIOR ROMNEY CAMPAIGN ADVISER: It`s almost like an
Etch A Sketch. You can kind of shake it up and we start all over again.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is an Etch A Sketch.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: An Etch A Sketch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is my Etch A Sketch app?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have an Etch A Sketch?
SANTORUM: We`re talking about big things here, folks.
MATTHEWS: See, it mainly goes after Gingrich and Santorum. Going
after Romney? Not here. The Paul campaign has released ads that go after
every other candidate, but never Mitt Romney.
Next up, money talks, but the heated debate on employer-covered birth
control sparking a heated debate in recent months. A lot of Democrats say
Republican lawmakers have waged something of a war on women.
Well, Richard Hanna was the sole Republican congressman at a rally for
the equal rights amendment here in Washington yesterday, and he had quite a
message for the women in the crowd. Wait until your hear it.
Let`s watch.
REP. RICHARD HANNA (R), NEW YORK: Contribute money to people who can
speak out on your behalf because the other side, my side, has a lot of it.
You need to send your own message. This is a dogfight, it`s a fist-
fight and you have all the cards. I can only tell you to get out there and
use them. Make it matter. Get out there, get on TV, advertise. Talk
about this. The fact that you want it is evidence that you deserve it and
that you need it.
MATTHEWS: Did you catch that? He seems to be saying donate your
money to the other side, as in the Democrats. He`s going to take heat from
his party for that one, but as Hanna is a pro-choice advocate anyway, this
may not be the first time he took heat from his own crowd.
Finally, you know the game where somebody says a word or a phrase and
you have to say the first word that comes into your mind when you hear it?
It`s called word association. Right? Well, those were the rules behind a
new "Washington Post"/Pew poll.
The prompts? Simply the names of the four GOP candidates running for
president. Let`s take a look at the top two words for each of them. Mitt
Romney, no and rich. Rick Santorum, conservative and no. Newt Gingrich,
old and no. And Ron Paul, no and old.
So there`s a pattern there, I suppose. More people had negative words
than positive for all the candidates, with Newt Gingrich taking the lead
for the highest number of negative word choices.
But next: Two years ago today, President Obama signed the health care
bill into law, and next week it will be argued before the Supreme Court.
But the only thing more predictable than Republicans` opposition to it is
Mitt Romney`s hypocrisy to it. And that`s ahead.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
BRIAN SULLIVAN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Brian Sullivan with your CNBC
"Market Wrap."
The Dow sketched out a 34-point gain to end the week. The S&P was up
four and the Nasdaq up the same. Things did not go as planned for the
trading debut of BATS Global Markets. The stock exchange operator was
forced to pull its own IPO after a slew of blunders, including a series of
trades. It valued its own stock below a penny. Meantime, new home sales
fell for a second straight month, dropping 1.6 percent in February. The
good news, though, prices did rise. They`re at an eight-month high.
And that is it from CNBC, first in businesses worldwide -- now back to
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
All eyes will be on the Supreme Court next week starting on Monday
when the justices take up one of the most politically significant cases in
decades determining whether President Obama`s 2010 health care law is
The White House is making a concerted effort to win over a public that
is still somewhat skeptical of the law. Here is a part of the new Web
video defending the president`s signature piece of legislation. Let`s
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After a century of
striving, after a year of debate, and after an historic vote, health care
reform is no longer an unmet promise. It is the law of the land. It is
the law of the land.
OBAMA: We`re going to have millions of people with health care
coverage that wouldn`t otherwise have it. It can`t be dropped when you get
sick and you need insurance most.
MATTHEWS: Well, the president is defending his law both in the
Supreme Court and, of course, in the court of public opinion.
Mitt Romney has stepped up his criticism of it, and that`s in spite of
the fact that his own Massachusetts law served as the model, the
inspiration, if you will, for the federal one and included the centerpiece,
the individual mandate.
How will he thread that needle in the general election?
Neera Tanden is president of the Center for American Progress. She
served as an adviser to the White House on the health care law. And David
Corn is bureau chief for "Mother Jones" and author of -- he`s also an MSNBC
political analyst. His brand-new book, a stunner, "Showdown: The Inside
Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party."
It`s a great weekend thing to go out and get at the bookstore right
now. David is not only a good friend of mine, but he`s also one hell of a
political reporter.
I think if you read books like this, you really get juiced up for this
campaign, won`t they?
DAVID CORN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: God, I want you to be the pitch
man for the book. That`s great. Thank you.
MATTHEWS: I`m that kind of guy.
Let me talk to you about this thing. They`re all out there.
Krauthammer is out there shooting at this thing. Everybody is out against
it right now. What effect is this going to have on Romney, who is
basically the pioneer of the individual mandate?
NEERA TANDEN, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Well, I think, you know,
the general election around this will be pretty muted if Mitt Romney is the
nominee because...
MATTHEWS: OK. Let`s make the grand assumption that he is the nominee
moving forward. I don`t why you`re still playing with this, but go ahead.
He`s the nominee. Make the case.
MATTHEWS: Make a case.
TANDEN: Look, I think the challenge for Mitt Romney is that he`s the
chief architect of the legislation, as you point out. He`s been the chief
supporter of the individual mandate.
MATTHEWS: Well, how does he skunk it now?
TANDEN: I think he thinks people will forget.
MATTHEWS: Your crowd ain`t going to let him forget, American
TANDEN: No. And I think that`s why he doesn`t really talk about
health care generally. He did it today because it`s the anniversary, he
has to throw some meat. But he does not talk about this and he won`t be
able to.
MATTHEWS: Let`s take a look at Romney here. Here`s Mitt Romney.
Today, Romney did. He penned an op-ed for "USA Today" arguing President
Obama`s program is -- quote -- "a dramatic new federal intrusion into our
He expanded on this criticism this morning in a speech. Let`s listen
to him.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would like -- instead of
having the government come in and mandate price and cost controls, I would
like to have individuals have a greater incentive to shop around and to
make this act more like a market.
ROMNEY: Obamacare, in my opinion, is simply the wrong direction.
Obamacare substitutes government intrusiveness for the dynamics of
individual responsibility, for individuals being able to pursue different
options and for the dynamics of a free market.
I believe in the marketplace. I believe in consumers pursuing their
own dreams. I believe in individuals being able to make their own choices.
MATTHEWS: How does a guy like that deal -- let`s take it from the
progressive side. You`re on the progressive side.
How does he defend the fact that we have 40 to 50 million people
without health insurance, and if we get rid of what he calls Obamacare and
the president now does, we will be back to that square one? How does he
defend the status quo in this country?
TANDEN: Well, look, the Mitt Romney of seven years ago looked at the
challenge of health care in Massachusetts, lack of coverage, and said I`m
going to have a solution. I`m going to have a mandate. I`m going to have
the president put forward, essentially.
And recognized that you needed the mandate to do that. He saw that
problem. He was a governor who actually led the nation on this. And it
wasn`t just that 12 years ago he did that or seven years ago he did that.
Just a few years ago, he was defending the mandate and actually arguing
that the mandate and the Massachusetts plan should be the model for the
That`s why I think the challenge for him is the past Mitt Romney cared
about the situation and cared about solving it, and the Romney of today
would like to use rhetoric to hide the fact that he is especially, he is
the chief architect, that we took it from him.
DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: You what this reminds me of?
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: You`re speaking on the record.
TANDEN: Yes, I am. We took it from him.
MATTHEWS: Take it from you.
CORN: This reminds me of that Al Sharpton commercial. He has pie
all over his head.
MATTHEWS: Blueberry pie.
CORN: It`s like I hate pie. I really hate pie. But no --
MATTHEWS: OK. Flip it over. You`re a progressive. You flip it
over to the right wing side. They`re down in Tampa. They`re cheering like
men when he says I can`t this Obamacare and they`re all thinking he
TANDEN: Yes.
CORN: But you know what? I have to say this. It`s the only play
he has. And if a conservative voter is going to have a choice who embraces
Obamacare, as Obama does even calling it that now, and somebody who used to
embrace it but now says he`s going to support repeal and you may have --
MATTHEWS: What is the guy, Whitaker Chambers? He said, I used to be
a communist but I`m not anymore. Look, all this (INAUDIBLE) don`t work.
But that`s fine.
Here`s Republicans that have lined up against the individual mandate,
as we know. But Romney will have a hard time debating Obama on that
topic. His plan in Massachusetts obviously included that individual
mandate. In 2008, Romney admitted the very thing. He said he liked the
mandates. Let`s watch.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Romney, those mandates in Massachusetts,
although you backed away from mandates in national basis --
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, no. I like mandates.
The mandates work.
FRED THOMPSON (R), FMR. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I beg your pardon?
I didn`t know you were going to admit that. You might mandate.
ROMNEY: Let me tell you what kind of mandates I live, Fred, which is
this --
THOMPSON: The one you come up with it.
ROMNEY: Here`s my view. If somebody can afford insurance and
decides not to buy it and then they get sick, they ought to pay their own
way as opposed to expect the government to pay their way. That`s an
American principle -- that`s a principle of personal responsibility.
MATTHEWS: He makes a better case for your program than you guys did,
the president does. He said it`s individual responsibility, we don`t want
anymore free loaders out there heading into emergency rooms, getting picked
up on highways or at heart attacks, who don`t pay a nickel towards their
health and then they walk in and get it free. And he says, no, they ought
to be responsible and self-reliant. It`s an argument.
TANDEN: You know, the mandate is a Republican idea. The Heritage
Foundation is the one that came up with it.
MATTHEWS: You don`t want to sell it like Republicans.
TANDEN: No. A dozen Republican senators have supported the mandate
in one form or another.
CORN: It was a response to the idea that they`re pushing forward on
the left, which was single payer.
MATTHEWS: I want to give -- I want to give you a real hard argument
in your favor. And I heard the president in a briefing, when he`s in an
off-the-record briefings make the same case. So, now, we get it on the
record. One reason why health care is not selling, the Obama program is
not sold to the public in big numbers -- it`s about 50-50 -- is this:
opponents, critics of the law dumped $204 million out there, thrashing it.
Look at that number, and all supporters were able to pull together was
about $60 million, something less than $60 million.
So, all the cacophony is all about the negatives. And that`s what`s
been a problem.
TANDEN: And it`s not only that. I mean, let`s remember what they
were saying. Death panels, Krauthammer today has lies about the cost. You
know, I think we have real challenges here when on one side you can
demagogue it very easily and the other, you have to call (INAUDIBLE) to
explain. That`s a great book.
MATTHEWS: Please come back on the show. You`re a great guest. You
know what you`re talking, I like when you say we took it from him. I love
that historically.
This book is available. Can somebody show this? Now, he`s my
friend. This guy is one of the best about politics. David was on my side
of every great issue of our time.
And this is the book to buy and it`s not expensive.
Anyway, up next, the fifth season of TV`s "Mad Men" -- there`s a show
we all love -- comes back Sunday night. Two hours of it Sunday night.
When we return, we`re going to meet some of the real madmen who
brought Madison Avenue to presidential politics back when this show was on
actually in the `60s when it`s describing that era. This is HARDBALL, only
on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Abraham Lincoln, move over. The 16th president has now
been surpassed in favorability according to a new polling by PPP. Drew
Brees, the quarterback of the New Orleans Saints, scored the highest
favorability number ever recorded by the polling firm, 94 percent, and
Lincoln was the previous holder by 91 percent. He`s beat him by three
One caveat here and a good one -- Lincoln`s 91 percent was in a
national poll while Brees` 94 percent was just in Louisiana.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Oh, God. Roger back. I love that show.
Welcome back to HARDBALL.
After 17 months, "Mad Men" return Sunday night with a two-hour
program with Don Draper back in action.
MATTHEWS: Wow, and there`s a political angle, too, to the "Mad
Men`s" return. The actual mad men of their day, the team of Doyle Dane
Bernbach bridged the divide between Madison Avenue and Washington to create
an ad campaign for Lyndon Johnson`s 1964 election campaign. The new ads
raised the bar for political advertising and started a new era in which it
became commonplace for candidates to be marketed like soap.
Mark McKinnon is vice chair of Hill & Knowlton Strategies and was
advertising director for Bush`s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns.
Dan Rather is anchor, never been in the ad business, managing editor
of "Dan Rather Reports" on HDNet.
So, let`s start with a critic perhaps, let`s start with Mark
The history of this, let`s take a look for this 1964 ad, the DDB team
makes the case for Lyndon Johnson by pointing out all the moderate
Republicans who had criticized Barry Goldwater, Republican nominee, at the
convention. We picked up the ad with a familiar name. Let`s listen.
NARRATOR: Governor Romney, in June, he said Goldwater`s nomination
would lead to the, quote, "suicidal destruction of the Republican Party."
So even if you are a Republican with serious doubts about Barry Goldwater,
you`re in good company.
Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd. The stakes are too high
for you to stay home.
MATTHEWS: Boy, that was gothic. That was so direct. There are
something wrong with Goldwater, Mark. It didn`t have to say too much about
it because everybody sort of knew there was something wrong with Goldwater.
MARK MCKINNON, VP OF HILL & KNOWLTON: Yes, they even had a study
where they had about 2,000 psychiatrists polled and they came out, you
know, 1,500 or 1,300 psychiatrists said that Goldwater is not fit. You
know, whenever anybody asked me about negative campaigns as some sort of
recent novelty, I said go back to 1964 and check out the Johnson campaign
and the "Daisy" ad.
MATTHEWS: So, they didn`t even examine Goldwater. They just got a
bunch of liberal psychiatrists to thrash the guy and everybody said, yes,
that`s probably true if that many thought it.
Dan Rather, your memories perhaps of the -- I know you`re reporting
nationally already by then. Your memories this -- well, rather dramatic
kind of campaign, and gothic I`m calling it, where it`s just really about
that guy is no good for the job.
DAN RATHER, ANCHOR, "DAN RATHER REPORTS": Right. Well, first of
all, Chris, not all that well-known, it was President Kennedy and his staff
looking forward to the 1964 election that in the summer of 1963 said,
listen, we need to get a marriage with Wall Street, and it was they have
came into the decision of bringing in Doyle Dane and Bernbach, the mad men,
if you will, the original marriage of Wall Street -- of Madison Avenue with
the White House.
Number two, when Johnson came in after Kennedy`s assassination, his
staff, including Bill Moyers and Jack Valenti said, yes, let`s take it on,
that President Kennedy was right.
President Kennedy was attracted to this advertising agency, it is
said, because of their very effective campaign for Volkswagen. So, the
Johnson people picked it up. What they wanted to do was they wanted to
demonize Goldwater as quickly as they could. It was the scare campaign.
That`s what the "Daisy" ad which only ran once in prime time television.
MATTHEWS: We`re going to get to that one.
RATHER: But it turned out to be a great multiplier because every
newscast in the country picked it up, local and national. It was on the
cover of "Time" magazine. And we learned a lot from that campaign, modern
campaigners have taken it.
It was in many ways, Chris, among the most negative campaigns ever,
perhaps the most negative, because what you had in this ad with the little
girl was a combination of daisy petals and a mushroom cloud.
And basically the question being asked is: whom do you want in the
White House making decisions on nuclear power? This was the Johnson them.
Do you want Lyndon Johnson, or do you want, quote, "trigger happy" Barry
The Democrats followed up with campaign`s bumper stickers and
everything else. You remember the Goldwater basic campaign slogan was "In
your heart, you know he`s right." Well, the Democrats took that and said,
you know, "In your heart, you know he might." He might, what?
MATTHEWS: Ha!
RATHER: He might pull the trigger on the nuclear device.
MATTHEWS: Let`s look at the "Daisy" ad. It`s only played once for
advertising, what has been played, as you pointed out, at the time by the
news networks news programs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine, eight, seven, sixth, five, four, three,
two, one -- zero.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are the stakes. To make a world in which
all of God`s children live, or to go into the dark. We must either love
each other, or we must die.
MATTHEWS: And that played on NBC`s Monday night at the movies. It
only had to play once. And what an impact.
We`ll be right back with Mark McKinnon and Dan Rather to talk about
the real mad men, the ones who came to politics.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: We`re back with Mark McKinnon, of course, and Dan Rather.
"Mad Men," as I said, returns this Sunday. And we`re talking about
the real mad men who brought Madison Avenue to politics back 1964, making
the point that voters need a president who will protect them in an
uncertain world. The DDB ad makers back then used the ringing hotline
phone to add urgency.
Let`s listen to the 1964 political advertising.
NARRATOR: This particular phone only rings in a serious crisis. Is
it in the hands of a man who`s proven himself responsible?
Vote for President Johnson on November 3rd.
MATTHEWS: That urgent phone call imagery first used in 1964,
reappeared as we all remember in 2008. Let`s listen.
NARRATOR: It`s 3:00 a.m. and your children are asleep, who do you
want answering the phone?
HILLARY CLINTON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m Hillary
Clinton and I approve this message.
MATTHEWS: Quickly, Mark, and then, Dan, what`s so hot about 3:00 in
the morning? Why do these ads all talk about how terror, it`s about
dreaming and everything and nightmares?\
RATHER: Well, it`s playing to emotion. Go ahead please?
MATTHEWS: Mark, first.
MCKINNON: It played to emotions -- that`s right, it played to
emotion, and character and experience and really in `64 was the first time
that advertising had actually been about more than just about products.
Before that in 1960s, they`ve been like selling soap. But the reality is,
by `64, when DDB come aboard, they understood that advertising was much
more contextual and need to go to emotions.
MCKINNON: You asked a thousand political consultants what the best
ad in America is, political ad, and a thousand will say the "Daisy" ad.
MATTHEWS: OK. Thank you. Dan, last though, 10 seconds, 15 seconds.
RATHER: Well, I think it`s important to remember that 1964 was when
politicians recognized the new machine, the new communications was
television. They got in bed with advertising and it`s never been the same
MATTHEWS: Thank you so much, Mark McKinnon, and the great Dan
Rather. Thank you, Dan, so much, my buddy.
That`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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An anonymous phone call tipped police to the body dumped in a field near the hamlet of El Bordo in central Zacatecas state. Police would say only that the victim was a peasant farmer in his 40s who had been beaten and shot, and that his body had been there for a few days. But the reporter knew the pattern: A poor person in a rural community had not paid extortion money to the ruling cartel, or had somehow crossed the gang. Much more information was waiting in the hamlet, from family members and neighbors. But the reporter wasn't going, though it was only an hour or so from the state capital where he worked. He could never write such a story. In fact, just learning what really happened would put his life in danger.
"They'll kill you, and I have children. So, I guess even if you don't think about it every time you write a story, you never forget about it, either," the reporter said. "It must be there all the time, somewhere, always. Because you automatically know the things you can write about and the things you can't say."
These are the rules for reporters in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico.
What reporters can't tell the public is that organized crime has taken over Zacatecas, from the deserts to the mountain ranges. Journalists told CPJ that gangs control each of the 58 counties either completely or almost so. In most of the state, they said, control is in the hands of the Zetas, the most vicious and feared cartel in Mexico. The municipal and state police, reporters said, are terrified or have been bought off. Some police stations are abandoned and others have officers who seldom leave the building. Beginning about a year ago, army, navy, and federal police patrols made the main highways somewhat safer, along with a very few rural areas, but the state does not belong to its citizens, journalists said.
In other states, the press has been forced into silence after the murders of journalists--sometimes, a stream of murders. But in Zacatecas, the cartels haven't had to kill a single journalist to silence every journalist. According to CPJ research, this is the pattern now in many Mexican states: Cartels gain control, the press is intimidated, and the public is uninformed. And since there are no deaths among local journalists, there is no attention drawn to the pervasive problem of self-censorship.
"We know what organized crime does to reporters who don't follow orders in other states. They kill them," a journalist known for his bravery said on the patio of a bar near the state capitol. Speaking of a reporter murdered in January 2010 in the neighboring state of Coahuila, he added: "We knew Valentín Valdéz--he came here once. He sat at this table. Here, this very table. They killed him."
There are two false but broadly held beliefs among the political and social elite in Mexico City. The first is that every reporter in the states is corrupt. The second is that murdered reporters were singled out because they worked for a cartel and had either angered their gang bosses or crossed a rival group. There is some truth in this broad caricature. CPJ research has found that corruption has tainted the press corps at times. That may happen because journalists want the extra money. But when a cartel of killers takes over your town and tells you to follow orders if you want to keep your family alive, well, corruption is not exactly the right description.
Still, this stereotype of the corrupt journalist has had the effect of absolving national leaders of their obligation to address the murderous attack on free expression across the country. Why protect the corrupt? Why investigate a journalist's murder if everyone knows the victim was working for a cartel? So even as Mexico has taken important steps like the adoption of a constitutional amendment that federalizes anti-press crimes, it's not going to make any real progress until its leaders understand that their cynical views are wrong.
They can go to Zacatecas to learn this.
There, journalists express a profound responsibility for their work and an anguish that it can no longer be done properly. Their torment comes spilling out in interviews across the state. In the city of Fresnillo, when CPJ met with a group of reporters, a veteran journalist was on the edge of tears. She stood, head down, chin nearly to her chest. Then she pulled her head up to speak to 12 other reporters, her suffering spread across her face. At first, she said, it was the personal frustration of knowing the reality and not being able to report it. Then, a deeper truth came out. "We have failed the people here who counted on us to tell them what was happening all around us. We had the responsibility to tell them, but we could not. So we failed them." Some agreed with her. Others said that telling the truth was suicidal and that self-censorship was the only way to survive.
A lone reporter, too afraid to speak in public, came instead to a CPJ representative's hotel room, where he collapsed in uncontrollable weeping, a trembling human ball in a corner chair. "These things chase me in my sleep," he said. "Sometimes it feels physical because they pull you in two directions. You have to report what is happening. You must. But you can't."
CPJ spoke with 32 reporters, photographers, and editors in Zacatecas. Some of the editors hold senior positions for statewide papers; some of the reporters work for small-town broadcast stations or weeklies. All were told their identities would be kept confidential. All agreed that organized crime operates at will in every corner of the state, and that journalists saw the wave rolling across Zacatecas and were afraid to report it.
It's strange, the things journalists can no longer report. Not only things like threats and payments to police and public officials--those wouldn't be visible. But in the city of Fresnillo, the state's largest, journalists said they all knew that one of Mexico's top Zeta leaders often lived at 301 Huicot Avenue. Of course, they said, if journalists were on to it, then the city police knew, and so did the army and the navy, which are in the state supposedly doing what the police won't do. The avenue is perhaps the city's most high-end street, four lanes and pruned pine trees down the divider. The Zeta leader's house was one of the newest.
Not a word of any of that was reported, journalists in Fresnillo said. Then, a murderous dispute exploded between the gang leader, known as Zeta 50, and a rival called Zeta 40. In the first week of September 2012, according to neighbors and reporters, construction machinery showed up at the home and partially demolished it--a humiliating public assault by Zeta 40 on Zeta 50. Afterward, debris from the Huicot Avenue home ran across the yard, onto the sidewalk, and into the street. But nothing about the event was reported. Even talking about it, reporters whispered. And those who work for statewide news organizations said they didn't tell their editors in the city of Zacatecas, the capital, because they assumed their phones were tapped by either the Zetas or the authorities. In any event, even a story as obvious as this was much too dangerous to publish. (U.S.-trained Mexican marines arrested Zeta 50, identified as Ivan Velázquez Caballero, on murder charges in late September, Mexican officials said. Although half the city of Fresnillo knew where Zeta 50 was living, the tip that led to his arrest had come from Washington, according to a U.S. law enforcement official.)
The Zeta cartel began slithering into the state virtually unnoticed because there were few gunshots. About five years ago, a small force of midlevel cartel leaders arrived with magnificent SUVs, assault rifles, and thick rolls of pesos wrapped in rubber bands, according to reporters. The weapons and money were distributed to the young sons of impoverished bean and chili farmers; the payoffs made them important people in their isolated, scrub desert and mountain communities. These young men knew the canyons and the country trails far better than the soldiers and federal police sent from the outside to control them. Though they now exploit their own, they are also the sons of Zacatecas. As that was happening, there was a coup against the police in nearly every county. "It was very smart," a reporter told CPJ. "They went to the local police chiefs and the local, small-time criminal gangs and said, 'We're here and we're in charge.' Some of the police were killed, just to make a climate of terror. It was for an example. Then the rest went over to the cartel."
Zacatecas has only about 1.5 million residents. But it's just about in the middle of the country, so major highways--the drug routes to the North--run through it. Since it is mostly empty, it is also a very good place to train, hide, and then dispatch cartel soldiers in any direction they're needed. And 1.5 million people with little police protection still represent a good opportunity for drug sales, robbery, extortion, and kidnapping.
Mexicans hardly ever see a thing about this state in their press, except its gorgeous colonial buildings and museums. Mexico is a country of 112 million, making Zacatecas barely worth counting amid the crime and death occurring nationally. And with more than 50 journalists and media workers killed or disappeared nationwide since 2007, Zacatecas would not seem to register as a press freedom concern. But that would miss two important facts. There isn't as much bloodshed in Zacatecas precisely because the Zetas have so much control. Despite a split in the cartel and firefights with other gangs nibbling at the edges of the state, the Zetas' lock is strong.
The other factor is this: While there are correspondents from national news organizations based in Zacatecas, they can't report the truth either. They are no safer than the local press, and they work under local rules. Even if correspondents were foolhardy enough to file stories that gave a true picture of what happened at the beginning of the Zetas' takeover and what is happening today, editors in Mexico City tell CPJ, they won't publish stories that will put their correspondents' lives in danger. So the Mexican public as a whole has been kept in the dark about Zacatecas. The state has been taken over by homicidal gangsters, and people who rely on the Mexican national press still don't know.
"We had to decide to take a step back from giving a full view of the national picture," said Mireya Cuéllar, national editor of the newspaper La Jornada. "I would definitely call it a step back. That's a very clear decision because no story is worth the life of one of our correspondents. Our people who cover the states live there and their families are there. They are very vulnerable." The larger issue, then, isn't just about one small state but rather how many other, seemingly quiet states are really just like Zacatecas?
Since the journalists of Zacatecas were not able to tell the public about the cartel takeover, they were not able to expose the state government's failures either. "The fact is that the criminals got in and the state government should have been watching," state legislator Saúl Monreal said. "Why it wasn't watching is what we all want to know. Because now these guys are everywhere and no one knows how to handle them. The state government is completely overwhelmed." Running his hand above his head, as if to show the government drowning, he added: "Now, were the state officials only inept? That's very inept. Were they threatened also? Did some get payoffs? We don't know."
Journalists said they can't get to the bottom of what went wrong originally for the same reason they can't find out if state officials are involved with the problem today: The cartels are too dangerous to even ask about. There is some limited coverage of the gunfights between cartels, and those between government forces and cartels. That's spot news, stories about an event, not stories that give readers a panoramic view of what is going on. But almost always, reporters said, it's either too dangerous to get close to the fighting or, more likely, government forces seal off the area.
The result is that most news stories have to be written from what the state or federal government claims happened. And that's where reporters learn not to ask questions. A reporter explained: "If I call a police official and push for too much information about a shootout, then he begins to give me subtle threats, like 'Why are you so curious?' In Zacatecas, that's a threat." Another reporter said, "Maybe I could go to the county records department to research how much a legislator's suspicious new house cost. But a clerk will report me, I'll have to leave my name, somehow it will get out. Why don't I just shoot myself instead? That will be quicker."
It is not just the cartels that keep the news from the public, according to reporters and top editors. Their own news organizations are afraid to lose vital advertising contracts from the state, and the official state policy has been that there was no problem with the cartels. Zacatecas' economy is fairly simple. It has mines and farms, some tourism, and money sent back by relatives working in the United States. It is hard for any news organization to find substantial advertisers. "Most of us survive only because of what the state pays for ads," said the publisher of a major newspaper. An editor said: "There is no doubt that makes the owner listen to what the state says. If the governor calls the owner and says such and such is the truth--well, you better take that into account." Two governors ago, when reporters said the Zetas were beginning to arrive, the governor's position was that there was no problem. The current governor says there's a problem but it's being handled.
Jerez is a little town founded in the 1500s. Its sidewalks are framed by high stone arches, and its plazas are surrounded by wrought ironwork and green ivy. Not only does nearly everyone know each other, nearly everyone's great-great-grandmother knew everyone else's. Its small stores were left open when shopkeepers went to lunch, and bicycles were left leaning unlocked against lampposts. That was until three years ago, people said, when the spread of the Zeta cartel reached the rural settlements around Jerez and then the town itself. Now, Jerez is noteworthy for its terror. There were no news stories about it, journalists here said.
A woman in her 50s said she had moved away for university and a career, and came back for her hometown's quiet ways and to care for her elderly parents. "Just don't put down my name," she said, taking a careful look around. "The nights used to be nearly as lively as the days because we lived in the plazas and walked from one friend's home over to a cousin's or things like that. There were musicians who came on a route they had from other towns." Not now. Those nights are gone. The streets are quiet before dark. Friends don't get into details with one another, people said. Everyone feels the terror alone, or maybe they share it with their closest family members. "I heard that they were extorting the taxis on the main plaza and my cousin has a taxi there," a man said. "My cousin wouldn't say yes and he wouldn't say no. That means yes. They steal our money first, then they steal the life we had together." Until recently, a family in Jerez would be proud to say they had relatives in the United States who were doing well. Now, no one wants it to get out that their relatives in the north may be better off than broke because that could mean a nasty visit from a group of Zetas demanding a monthly payment.
In their new isolation from the friends and families they have known for generations, the people of Jerez are also isolated from the truth about the rest of the state. In their own small town, they learn only guarded rumors of what might be happening. They cannot see how their lives sync up with other lives in other towns and in the vast, wild stretches in between.
The highway from Jerez to the state capital is four lanes and is sometimes patrolled by the army. It takes about an hour for the run. People on both ends said that in early 2012 the Zetas routinely set up roadblocks and stole cars or robbed people in buses. It was the Old West of the U.S. come south. Journalists said it was like that all around the state, although the military has more or less retaken the major highways. The trouble is that the state is all open space with just slivers of pavement. Even if the federal government did have control of the highways, it wouldn't have control of Zacatecas.
On the way back from Jerez to the capital, along the right side of the highway, close, maybe 250 feet away on a hard dirt road, there were two SUVs with civilians carrying assault rifles. They were on patrol, covering their zone.
Mike O'Connor is CPJ's Mexico representative. He is the co-author of CPJ's 2010 report, Silence or Death in Mexico's Press.