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Guest Host: Michael Smerconish
Guests: Rep. Steny Hoyer, Rep. Adam Smith, Peter Beinart, Al Snyder, Jeanne
Cummings, Chris Cillizza
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, GUEST HOST: Race to the finish on health care reform.
Let's play some HARDBALL.
Good evening. I'm Michael Smerconish, in tonight for Chris Matthews, whose son, Michael, is getting married this weekend. Congratulations.
Leading off tonight: Countdown to Sunday. The big health care reform vote is now expected to happen in just two days, and Democrats may—may - - be inching closer to winning passage of the bill. Five more Democrats announced today that they'll vote in favor of reform, but the vote could still go either way. We'll talk to the Democratic leader in the House and to a Democrat still sitting on the fence.
Plus: One observer says whatever happens on Sunday, the Democratic Party has been changed forever. We'll talk to Peter Beinart about why he says the party will never be the same.
Also, more on that church group that protests at the funerals of fallen soldiers. They say American war deaths are God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality. The father of one fallen Marine is suing the group. His case is going to be heard by the United States Supreme Court. He's with us tonight.
And why some on the right are saying Sunday's health care vote is an affront to God. That story where it belongs, in the "Sideshow."
Finally, I'll finish tonight with my own commentary on government efforts to wage a war on obesity.
We start with the vote on health care. Congressman Steny Hoyer of Maryland is the majority leader. Thank you for being here, Congressman.
REP. STENY HOYER (D-MD), MAJORITY LEADER: Good to be with you, Mike.
Thank you.
SMERCONISH: Let's watch together. Here's the president today at George Mason University in Virginia. We'll listen.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... one year after the worst recession since the Great Depression, having to make a bunch of tough decisions, having had a tumultuous debate, having had a lot of folks who were skeptical that we could get anything done. And right now, we're at the point where we are going to do something historic this weekend! That's what this health care vote is all about!
SMERCONISH: So Congressman, let me ask you the $64,000 question. Do you have the votes?
HOYER: I think we're going to have the votes on Sunday when the roll is called, and we're going to pass this bill, yes.
SMERCONISH: Can I ask you a question about process? By day, I'm a talk radio host, and it will not surprise you that I hear a lot of concern about "deeming," the self-executing rule, Slaughter. And to many, it sounds nefarious. Why the need to go this route?
HOYER: Well, first of all, it's not nefarious at all. The Republicans used it about 200 times when they were in charge over 12 years. But let me tell you what this really is, and every American understands this. Let's say you're going to buy a house and the roof is leaking and needs to be fixed. And so you sign the contract to buy the house, but you say, It's contingent upon you're fixing the roof, and I won't settle until you fix the roof.
That's essentially the process that has been suggested, not finally decided on but suggested that, in effect, you vote to buy the house. That is the Senate bill. You vote for the Senate bill. But that's contingent upon the roof being fixed. That is the reconciliation bill being passed.
So that it's not—there's nothing nefarious about it at all. I'm surprised that so many people have perceived it as nefarious. There's going to be a vote on a Senate bill as amended, in effect, which would have happened if we'd had a conference. Unfortunately, the Republicans in the Senate wouldn't vote to go to conference. As a result, the normal process, which would be putting the Senate and House bills together—that is to say, reconcile the differences between the two, adopt amendments and bring that out, and you'd have one vote on that. Now we're essentially going to have two votes under the proposal, which is still under discussion. But there's nothing nefarious about it.
It's straightforward. Americans are going to know how their member voted on health care reform. We believe that Americans are going to be for and are for reform. There have been some differences, obviously, clear differences on specifics. But the American public, when polled on the specifics that are in this bill, overwhelmingly endorse them. And recent polling shows that the majority of them—in recent polls, in "The Wall Street Journal" poll and "The Economist" poll—think this bill ought to be passed. And we think it will be.
SMERCONISH: My desire, Congressman, is that regardless of how one feels about this particular bill, that at least all Americans will clearly understand how their member of Congress voted, so that when the town hall meetings begin, when members come home and start to meet with their constituencies—my standard, sir, is that you ought to be able to say to your member of Congress, Were you for it or against it? And they should be able to answer it with a one-word reply.
HOYER: Absolutely. I agree with that, and I think they will be able to. Clearly, in order to pass what would otherwise be the conference report, but in this case, the Senate report as amended, they'll say yes or no to that question. And I think we'll have more yesses than nos, and therefore, it'll pass.
But I agree with you, the American public have a right to know how their member voted. Every member ought to understand that they're either voting for health care reform or they're not. And they ought to be able to respond cleanly on that issue, you're right.
SMERCONISH: On tomorrow morning, the president comes to Capitol Hill for one last effort to rally the troops?
HOYER: Yes, the president wanted to meet with us. We want to see him. We want to talk about where we are and what his views are. Obviously, he made this a very principal objective in his campaign. He told all Americans that this was the policy he was going to pursue if he was elected. He was handily elected president of the United States. Many of us in the Democratic Party told our constituents the same thing.
And in fact, of course, John McCain, the Republican candidate for president, in an October debate with President Obama, said he, as well, believed that we ought to have an affordable, accessible health care process for all Americans. Now, he may differ with the means, but he clearly articulated the same goal. And that's the goal we're trying to attain and we think we will.
SMERCONISH: Something else, Congressman, that I hear from folks who call my radio programs. They want to know if whatever—assuming it gets passed on Sunday in the House of Representatives, does it apply to you?
HOYER: Yes.
SMERCONISH: Yes is the short answer?
HOYER: You want a yes or no answer, the answer is yes.
SMERCONISH: So what you're saying is that members of Congress will be governed by that which is created through the exchanges in the same way that folks without insurance or those who do have insurance?
HOYER: Yes.
SMERCONISH: I want to show you one more piece of sound, if I may, from the president's speech today in his last-bid effort to rally the troops.
OBAMA: Teddy Roosevelt, Republican, was the first to advocate that everybody get health care in this country.
OBAMA: Every decade since, we've had presidents, Republicans and Democrats, from Harry Truman to Richard Nixon to JFK to Lyndon Johnson to - - every single president has said, We need to fix this system. It's a debate that's not only about the cost of health care, not just about what we're doing about folks who aren't getting a fair shake from their insurance companies, it's a debate about the character of our country.
SMERCONISH: Congressman, the president seems to have his game face on. In retrospect, was he disengaged until too late in the process?
HOYER: No, I don't think he's been disengaged. And very frankly, Mike, this has been the most open, transparent, involved process in adopting a piece of legislation that I've seen, frankly, in my 40 years in legislative office, 30 years in the Congress, more hearings, more debates, more amendments, more discussion, more notice of legislation. This bill that we're going to consider on Sunday has been on line for three months.
So that I think the president's been engaged. He's been working with us. I think he's now going to the public and saying, Look, this is what I said America needed. This is what I said I would do. And this is what you elected me to do. And so I think he's got his game face on now, but I think he's had his game face on.
As you know, very early in his term, he convened a health care forum in the White House, in the winter, to discuss this matter with all of the interest groups and stakeholders involved. And then he held an extraordinary session, as you know, just weeks ago. I don't think it's ever happened before, where a president of the United States has spent seven-and-a-half hours discussing in a very civil, thoughtful, informed way, health care reform in our country...
SMERCONISH: Hard to believe it's coming to a close. We've been at it for a long, long time. Hey, thank you, Congressman Steny Hoyer. Appreciate your time.
HOYER: You bet. Thank you.
SMERCONISH: Thank you, sir.
Let's turn now to Democratic congressman Adam Smith of Washington state, who says he's leaning yes for Sunday's vote, but he's not yet certain. I think he wants to make some news on HARDBALL. At least I hope so. Congressman, what's your position?
REP. ADAM SMITH (D), WASHINGTON: I'm definitely leaning more closely in favor. I am looking at the reconciliation language that came out. Looks pretty good. I'm leaning in that direction. I got to have a couple more conversations on some substance, a couple of minor issues.
But I agree very strongly with what Mr. Hoyer said. First of all, we're going to have a vote on this. Everyone's going to know whether or not you voted for health care reform or not. We have a health care system that's been in need of reform for years and years. And part of the reason that it hasn't been reformed is because it's a very hard, very controversial issue. It should not be surprising that it's controversial. But to a certain degree, that's all the more rebound to have the courage and the leadership to step up and try to get us a better system. And that's where I want to be, and I'm reasonably confident I will get there.
SMERCONISH: So of what significance was the president's personal lobbying in your case? I understand you had a meeting with the president within the span of the last couple of days.
SMITH: No, it was a couple of weeks ago. You may have me mixed up with someone. I went in with part of a larger group. Really, not much at all. What really got me was the substance of the issue. I've been speaking with the health care policy experts at the White House, people like Zeke Emanuel, to get an idea of the substance and to go back and forth on some of the issues that have been raised.
Look, we've got to cover more people and we've got to get costs under control. And the second one is the one that I've really emphasized from the beginning of this debate. It's why I was so reluctant to vote for the House bill. I didn't think it did enough. I think the Senate bill does more. And the CEO—the...
SMERCONISH: The CBO numbers?
SMITH: ... CBO numbers that came out sort of show that. Now, I will say and some people have said, yes, but you know, future Congresses have to keep the cost curve going down, as well. I completely agree. But if we don't start, it'll never happen. We have to do it. Future Congresses have to do it. There's a lot of tough decisions going forward to make health care work. But we've got to start. If this goes away, we're nowhere.
And I think one of the most telling facts, the only bill the Republicans have ever put out on health care reform was last year. And one of the facts of it was it actually increased the number of uninsured. Getting more people covered is tough. This bill takes a stab at it, and I think we need to get headed down that road.
SMERCONISH: What extent are you hearing from constituents, the way in which I, as a talk radio host, am hearing from people who have process concerns, that the look and feel of the way in which the vote will go down Sunday is troublesome?
SMITH: You know, I'm hearing almost exclusively about substance, frankly. People are concerned about a lot of different pieces of it. We are hearing a little bit about process. I don't think that has any place in this debate. I think the Republicans and those who oppose this bill are trying to basically raise a red herring.
We're going to vote on this bill. Good luck to any member of Congress after this vote on Sunday who tries to go back and say, OH, I didn't really vote on the bill. The bill became law. You voted on it. And I think Majority Leader Hoyer described it perfectly. We're going to vote on the Senate bill and say we want these changes to it. We're going to vote on the Senate bill, no doubt about it, and we're going to have to, you know, stand or fall on our support or opposition to that bill.
SMERCONISH: What do you think becomes of the Stupak concerns that exist relative to health care?
SMITH: I don't know. And that's always been a weird issue for me. I agree we should not be changing the Hyde rule in this legislation. I've seen Congressman Stupak's language in the House bill. I've seen the language in the Senate bill. And frankly, it's kind of a Rorschach test for me to figure out the difference. They both seem to state very clearly the Hyde amendment will not be changed by this legislation. There will be no federal funding of abortion services.
But you know, Bart Stupak has been more involved in that than I am, and they will try to work out the language. But both bills seem to get you to the same place.
SMERCONISH: And Congressman Adam Smith, thank you very much for being on the program. We appreciate it.
SMITH: Thanks for the chance.
SMERCONISH: And coming up: Assuming health care passes, which wing of the Democratic Party wins? And what does it say about President Obama?
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL. With less than 48 hours to go before the House votes, President Obama, to borrow a phrase he likes to use himself, is fired up and ready to go. Let's watch.
OBAMA: I don't know how passing health care will play politically, but I know it's right.
OBAMA: Teddy Roosevelt knew it was right! Harry S. Truman knew it was right! Ted Kennedy knew it was right! And if you believe that it's right, then you've got to help us finish this fight! You've got to stand with me, just like you did three years ago, and make some phone calls and knock on some doors, talk to your parents, talk to your friends. Do not quit! Do not give up! We keep on going! We are going to get this done! We are going to make history!
SMERCONISH: At Thedailybeast.com, Peter Beinart has a piece about what we've learned about the president and his party through this health care fight. Here's part of it. Quote, "Why exactly Obama decided to double down on health care remains unclear. It doesn't really matter that the health care reform bill he's fighting for isn't particularly left-wing. For the netroots, a politician's ideological purity has always been less important than his willingness to resist pressure from the other side, which is exactly what Obama has just done. Whether health care reform passes or not, Obama has embraced polarization over triangulation."
So presuming health care passes, which wing wins? Peter Beinart joins us now. He's a senior political writer for Thedailybeast and a professor at City University in New York. Peter, what's the answer to the question? Which wing within the Democratic Party will be victorious?
PETER BEINART, DAILYBEAST.COM: You know, for almost 10 years now, there's been a debate between people who thought the Democratic Party's problem was that Americans thought it was too liberal and people who thought the Democratic Party's problem was that Americans thought it was spineless. And the people who said the Democratic Party's problem was that people thought it was spineless, which would be particularly the people in the netroots, said that you can't always follow the polls. You have to do something that may be momentarily unpopular because if you do them, it'll show that you actually have principles and people will respect you for that in the long run. That has ultimately what Barack Obama has decided to do here on health care.
SMERCONISH: But it's a bill sans public option. I mean, as compared to what some of the alternatives were, how liberal a piece of legislation is it? Because what I think I hear you saying is that this is victory for the left within the Democratic Party, as compared to a more moderate or centrist DLC.
BEINART: Well, that's right.
But, you know, in a way, the left in the Democratic Party, despite what the Tea Partiers say, is not really that far to the left, in fact. These were not people who supported Dennis Kucinich in the primary. These are people who supported Barack Obama or maybe John Edwards in the primary.
Yes, this is not a radical bill, by any—by any stretch of the imagination. But I think what impresses people, particularly in the netroots and the liberal grassroots, is that Obama was really willing to fight for something, take a big risk, a big gamble.
They know it's not everything they would like, but they believe—and I happen to think they're probably right—that it's a really important step in terms of covering a lot of people who just don't have health care today.
SMERCONISH: So, name some names for me of those who epitomize the different factions within the Democratic Party, so that I can understand and appreciate, as an outsider looking in, who wins, who loses in all of this.
BEINART: Well, the people who I think you were associated with the idea that it's basically a petty conservative country and Democrats always need to make sure not to be seen to be too liberal are people who would have been associated with the Democratic Leadership Council back during the Clinton days and some of Clinton's more—some of Clintons advisers.
So, for instance, you saw Doug Schoen, who was one of Clinton's early advisers, coming out in a "Washington Post" op-ed a couple weeks ago, and saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, the country is going to hate this. It's going to have a—we're going to have a disastrous effect—whereas the people who really have been pushing for this are the netroots people at places called Daily Kos, or HuffingtonPost.com.
They—as you said, they didn't agree with everything in this bill, but what's important to them is that Obama did not back down from a fight, even when the polling wasn't that great. And I think, for them, who said, you know what, even if you stick up and take some unpopular positions, people will respect you for not backing down, that's what Obama has done.
SMERCONISH: Peter, speaking of criticism, here's President Obama today talking about the critics throughout history. Let's listen together. Then you can react.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, the naysayers said that Social Security would lead to socialism.
OBAMA: But the men and women of Congress stood fast and created that program that lifted millions out of poverty.
OBAMA: There were cynics that warned that Medicare would lead to a government takeover of our entire health care system, and that it didn't have much support in the polls. But Democrats and Republicans refused to back down, and they made sure that our seniors had the health care that they needed and could have some basic peace of mind.
SMERCONISH: If you listened to Congressman Steny Hoyer at the outset of the program, I mean, he didn't proclaim victory, but I asked if he has the votes, and what he said was that he expects that they will have the votes.
If that's the case, and looking at the president, as you just did, what will folks look back on and say that was the turning point, that was the critical road that had to be passed in order for this to be successful for the D's?
BEINART: I mean, the amazing thing, when historians go back and look back on this, will be those days right after Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, you know, when most people sitting in seats like—just like me, pundits, were basically saying, it's over, it's dead, he's got to do something very incremental, or he's got give up on health care altogether.
We don't know—I certainly don't know—what the internal discussions were. But the fascinating, I think, moment will be what role Obama—what Obama said right after Massachusetts, when it looked like the whole house was falling down, when he said, you know what, we're still going to do this.
And it has been a remarkable kind of resurrection story, if you think about it, given where people thought health care was after the Scott Brown victory.
SMERCONISH: Well, what is interesting to me is that your analysis has focused on something about which I'm not too conversant. And that is the different strains within the Democratic Party and how this plays and who wins and who loses.
Something I do know well is that those from the right, those within the GOP, they're both appalled and aghast at the idea that this passes.
BEINART: Yes.
SMERCONISH: But I think that, privately, politically, they're enthused, because they think, politically speaking, this is the death knell for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections.
BEINART: Yes, they do.
But I think the case that Obama was able to make was, look, we're going to take our lumps, no matter what, because you guys in Congress already voted for this, right? We didn't pass Clinton-care in 1994. It's not as if the Republicans took it easy on the Democrats because the Democrat gave up on the effort.
At least this way you get the Democratic base mobilized. And I think in a way that's how Obama—why Obama has basically embraced this very polarized politics we live in. Yes, he's not going to make Republicans love him anymore.
There was a point in 2008 where they thought he might be this post-partisan president. He's probably not going to be that. But, therefore, it's all the more important that at least he get Democrats to be on board with him.
SMERCONISH: Hey, Peter Beinart, thanks very much for being here. We appreciate it.
BEINART: My pleasure.
SMERCONISH: Up next: The opponents of health care reform are going all out. We have got the video of a Georgia congressman who compared reform to the American Civil War, which he called the great war of Yankee aggression.
That's ahead in the "Sideshow."
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL. Time for the "Sideshow."
Conservatives going out guns blazing in its final push against health care reform. Their latest gripe? The Democrats scheduled the big vote on a Sunday.
Here's Republican Congressman Steve King of Iowa on Glenn Beck's radio show just yesterday.
REP. STEVE KING ®, IOWA: They intend to vote on the Sabbath during Lent to take away the liberty that we have right from God.
GLENN BECK, HOST, "GLENN BECK": Oh, Steve, and I—you're a religious man?
KING: Yes.
BECK: Thank you for pointing that out. Here's a group of people that have so perverted our faith and our hope and our charity, that it is—this an affront to God.
SMERCONISH: The timing of the vote an affront to God. Wow. Talk about throwing everything but the kitchen sink.
Speaking of last night, Republican Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia compared the fight over health care to the Civil War. You have got to hear this to believe it.
REP. PAUL BROUN ®, GEORGIA: If Obamacare passes, that free insurance card that's in people's pockets, it is going to be as worthless as a Confederate dollar after the war between the states, the great war of Yankee aggression.
SMERCONISH: The great war of Yankee aggression. Really? I guess some battles die hard.
On a lighter note, settling score—President Obama made good on a bet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper today by delivering, via Ambassador David Jacobson, a case of Molson Canadian beer. He even tossed in an extra case of his brew of choice. That would be Yuengling. The wager was over the Olympic gold medal hockey game between Canada and the U.S.
The beer will be displayed at the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame.
Time for the "Big Number."
We know Sarah Palin shopping around a reality television show about her home state of Alaska. According to "Hollywood Reporter," how much is she supposedly asking per episode? -- $1 million to $1.5 million, a pretty big payout. Sarah Palin's looking for up to $1.5 million per episode of her Alaskan reality show—tonight's very "Big Number."
Up next: that vulgar anti-gay church group that protests at the funerals of fallen American servicepeople. The Supreme Court of the United States will decide whether hateful speech like this should be protected. We have got the father of a fallen Marine whose lawsuit is at the center of this storm. And he's next.
You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MARY THOMPSON, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: I'm Mary Thompson with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
Stocks retreating today, as Palm plummets and the dollar climbs—the Dow Jones industrial average breaking an eight-day winning streak with a 37-point decline, the S&P 500 sliding six points, and the Nasdaq falling nearly 17 -- despite all the declines, though, all three of the major indices ending slightly higher for the week.
The dollar rallying against the Euro on lingering concerns about Greece's economic health.
And Palm shares tumbling nearly 30 percent on a flurry of ratings downgrades based on disappointing quarterly results—the company's fourth-quarter revenue outlook revised down to about half of what Wall Street was expecting.
Google's shares falling more than 1 percent, ahead of an expected announcement on Monday about plans for their Chinese search engine.
And health insurer Aetna at the top of the S&P after forecasting better-than-expected first-quarter results.
Lastly, Coca-Cola adding 1.5 percent, after announcing its series of
management changes
That's it from CNBC, first in business worldwide—now back to
SMERCONISH: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
The Supreme Court will take up a case that will test the limits of First Amendment rights. Should an anti-gay group be allowed to protest at the funerals of fallen soldiers.
Al Snyder's son, Matthew, was killed while serving in Iraq in 2006.
At the burial ceremony at his church, protesters held signs like these. The group claims that the death of U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan is God's punishment for America's tolerance of homosexuality.
Now, just to give you an idea of who we're talking about here, I interviewed the lead protester, Fred Phelps, back in 2006. Take a look at this.
FRED PHELPS, PROTESTING AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY: God's wrath is upon this nation. And he's been—he's pouring out that wrath by killing these soldiers and maiming these soldiers in Iraq, and sending them back in body bags.
SMERCONISH: ... today a result of the same policy?
PHELPS: It is a very serious crime against God almighty for this nation to say that it's OK to be gay. And that's the straits that we're fallen upon, as it was in the days of Lot.
SMERCONISH: I'm having a Rod Serling moment here, sir.
PHELPS: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they...
SMERCONISH: Joining me—all right, enough of you.
PHELPS: ... but the same day Lot went out of Sodom...
SMERCONISH: Hey, zip it.
PHELPS: ... it rained fire and brimstone from ...
SMERCONISH: Cut his microphone. I've heard enough of this guy with the fiery eyes. Enough of him.
SMERCONISH: Joining me now is Al Snyder, who took the protesters to court. Now, he won. And then a federal appellate court dismissed the case on First Amendment grounds. Now the United States Supreme Court will hear the case.
Please, accept our condolences on the passing of your son, who is an American hero.
AL SNYDER, FATHER OF KILLED U.S. SOLDIER: Thank you, Michael.
SMERCONISH: Set the stage for us. It's 2006. You're preparing to bury your boy. And, all of a sudden, you learn that these folks, these clowns from this church are going to show up.
How far in advance of the funeral did you know that they were coming?
SNYDER: I found out the day before the funeral that they were coming. They sent out notices to media and to emergency, like the police and fire and sheriff's department.
SMERCONISH: And we should make it—we should make it clear, Mr. Snyder, that your—your son had absolutely nothing to do with this group, their cause. They just singled him out because of their cockamamie theory as to what drives war deaths.
SNYDER: That is correct.
SMERCONISH: On the day of the funeral itself, how far were they protesting from the public access or entrance to the church grounds?
SNYDER: They positioned themselves probably between 25 and 30 feet away from one of the main vehicle entrances of the church, Chris (sic).
SMERCONISH: In the funeral procession, did you take pains, did you take care to try and stage your placement in the car, so that Matthew's mother and sisters wouldn't have to see what you saw?
SNYDER: Yes.
Basically, when we got into the limousine, I put myself facing the back of the limousine, with my two daughters up against the window on the sides, so that their back would be against them.
SMERCONISH: What did you see as you looked out those windows?
SNYDER: Well, basically, Chris, I saw a glimpse of the signs as we—as we neared the church. I didn't see what the signs said at that point. They were a little bit too far away.
SMERCONISH: You later learned the content of some of those signs.
What did you learn were on those signs at your son's funeral?
SNYDER: Well, they were holding one sign probably about 30 feet away from the main entrance that depicted two men having anal intercourse. They held signs that: "The pope's in hell. Thank God for dead soldiers. Semper fi fags."
It was pretty rough.
SMERCONISH: Mr. Snyder, part of their warped thinking, sir, also extends to what they perceive to be the cause to be September 11. Would you tell the HARDBALL audience how they view that event?
SNYDER: Well, during the trial, they submitted some DVDs. And, for the life of us, we can't figure out why they did it. But one of the DVDs starts out as a cartoon with bin Laden flying the airplanes into the World Trade towers.
And then it goes to actual footage of people jumping to their deaths, while they're sitting there saying that they all deserved to die, even the mother with the—pregnant, deserved to die. And, at the very end, there's a woman on there with a big smile on her face saying, thank God for 9/11.
SMERCONISH: So, in other words...
SNYDER: And they did this...
SMERCONISH: In other words, by—by this thought process, if it could be called that, September 11 was caused by an angry God who led al Qaeda to fly airplanes into the buildings, the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, Shanksville, PA, to seek retribution against the U.S. because of our leniency toward homosexuals, and that's the same causal connection for the passing of your son on a battlefield in Iraq?
SNYDER: Yes, sir. That's correct.
SMERCONISH: What would you say—allow me to play devil's advocate. What would you say, sir, to those who find this repugnant—because I think we all find it absolutely despicable—but would make the case that your son gave his life so that this form of protest, as vile as it might be, could continue?
SNYDER: I don't buy that. My son didn't die for that. You know, hundreds of thousands of people have died in the history of this country. And what an insult to those people that have died, to protect such a precious freedom.
SMERCONISH: And I would add to that, Mr. Snyder, there are plenty of instances where speech gets regulated: defamation, obscenity, shouting "fire" in a theater, so-called fighting words. There are any number of instances where there have been restrictions recognized on speech. And my argument—and I know your lawyer will capably say this to the Supreme Court—is that you had a right for a private gathering. Your right to peaceably assemble and worship at the time of the funeral service, the mass of Christian burial for your boy.
SNYDER: That's correct. The thing that really matters here, too, Michael, is this—we're private citizens. I mean, you know, we're not public figures. Even if you are a public figure, I don't agree with what they're doing. But the Fourth Circuit did not even take into consideration that, you know, we were private citizens. We had rights, too. That—you know, what about my rights to bury Matt at my church? What about my religious freedoms?
SMERCONISH: I want to show you—allow me to show you sir, if I may, an email that I received this week from one of Pastor Phelps' daughters, after I wrote about the Supreme Court accepting your case. Here's what she wanted to say to me. It says, in part, "it's evident you've been convicted in your heart since that day, given that you're still stomping your twinkle-toed girlish foot in objection."
Then it goes on, quote, "meanwhile, all your ranting and raving, and mic-cutting, and trying to screamingly control the dialogue like the freak you are, changes nothing. You still have a duty to obey god, little girl," she said to me. And in one more part, it reads, "ninnies like you have filled up the airwaves with undisciplined lies about the lord your God, and taken captivity a lot of silly women of both genders in this nation."
I'm not Freud, but if you read between the lines, it's all about hang-ups over sexuality.
SNYDER: Yes. I mean, I'm not sure what the problem is there with them, Chris. I—you know, I hear that they're really glad that this is going before the Supreme Court. Yet they submitted a brief to the Supreme Court asking them not to hear the case. So I don't know what their psycho-babble is about most of the time.
SMERCONISH: Mr. Snyder, one other aspect of this case that I think we should make clear; there have been some bikers who have done a service at funerals like that for your son. motorcycle enthusiasts, patriots who have come out and have created a buffer between the folks from the Westboro Baptist Church and families who unfortunately find themselves in a position such as you have found yourself, who are trying to worship and find a private moment. Will you speak to that?
SNYDER: Yeah, the Patriot Guard, I always tell people, they were like the angels that came the day of Matt's funeral. They were very good to us.
SMERCONISH: How did you keep your composure? How did you not get out of the hearse and physically—Go ahead.
SNYDER: It was—it was about Matt, you know. And I really did—at the church, it was about Matt. That's what I was concentrating on at that time.
SMERCONISH: I mean, I would say, Mr. Snyder, that one of the additional reasons that I hope you're successful in front of the United States Supreme Court is to keep the peace. Because you, sir, showed tremendous restraint. And I don't think it's a leap of faith to wonder if everyone could exhibit that level of restraint at a time when they're burying a loved one and are confronted by this insanity.
SNYDER: Well, Mike, one day they're going to run into the wrong person. And that person is going to go off. And when they do, I hope it doesn't affect an innocent person. Some of the places they've gone through -- gone to, they've had bottles and bricks thrown through their car windows. I mean, it's violent. And somebody's going to get hurt, if somebody doesn't do something about it.
SMERCONISH: Thank you, Al Snyder. Again our condolences on the passing of your son, a hero, back in 2006.
SNYDER: Thank you, Michael.
SMERCONISH: Up next, the early read on 2012. We've got brand-new poll numbers showing how President Obama would fare in match-ups against Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin. And it's not all good news for the president. This is HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
SMERCONISH: Continuing now with First Read's top ten list of potential Senate takeovers. In number five, Arkansas, where Democrat Blanche Lincoln now faces a primary fight.
Number four, Indiana, where Brad Ellsworth hopes to hang on to Evan Bayh's seat for the Dems.
Number three, Nevada; Majority Leader Harry Reid is in real trouble.
Number two, Joe Biden's old seat in Delaware, where Republican Congressman Mike Castle looks strong.
And the number one most likely Senate takeover, North Dakota. Count on this one flipping to the GOP.
Bottom line, all five of the top five are pick-up opportunities for the Republicans. HARDBALL returns after this.
SMERCONISH: We're back. Time now for the politics fix, with Chris Cillizza of the "Washington Post".com and "Politicos's" Jeanne Cummings.
Jeanne, why has Senator John Ensign been able to survive at a time when Eric Massa and others have had to exit their political careers?
JEANNE CUMMINGS, "POLITICO": It's a good question. I mean, there's no mechanism by which the Republicans can remove him—or the Senate can remove him from office at this point. He's not been charged with anything. He's not been cited with a sanction from the Ethics Committee.
So they don't have anything to hold against him, except an on-going investigation. He did have one minor leadership position within the Republican caucus. He was head of the Policy Committee. And the caucus did demand that he step down from that, which for the Republicans is, you know, trying to step up from the way that they handled Mark Foley and some of the other scandals in previous years. They did try—they took a little bit of power that they had. They did exercise it to remove him from the leadership.
SMERCONISH: Chris, what is it, a lack of a tickle fight? Is it not salacious enough by 2010 standards?
CHRIS CILLIZZA, "THE WASHINGTON POST": You know, Michael, I think part of it is just that he doesn't want to go. He refuses to go. You know, in some ways, as Jeanne pointed out, there isn't a mechanism. Usually, public opinion sort of reaches critical mass and these people make the decision, OK, I'm not going to go.
But if you choose to sort of buck that, if you choose to just stay, until there's some conclusion to this investigation, until he's either charged with something or cleared of it, he can probably stay. Again, we always have to differentiate between survival sort of generally in life, versus political survival.
From a political perspective, John Ensign's goose is pretty well cooked, whether he stays in office until 2012 or he doesn't. But it is hard to remove him, barring some sort of obvious, you know, conviction on something, which we don't have. And so he chooses to stay, even though it's probably pretty clear that many within his conference would prefer he go.
CUMMINGS: If I could just make a cynical point about why they stay.
SMERCONISH: Real quick.
CUMMINGS: One reason to stay is, if you want to keep your legal defense fund nice and full, then you need to be in office.
SMERCONISH: Right. You need the clout. I get it. Jeanne, here's my Census Form. I filled it out. It's sealed and ready to go. I don't know if you filled yours out yet. But question number nine on the Census form, I checked the box for a white guy. It's got some folks angry. It is what is the person whose responding's race? And some conservatives are encouraging checking the other box and writing in American. Jeanne Cummings, what drives this?
CUMMINGS: Well, what drives it is some ridiculous notion that if we ask people what their race is, that we're somehow—for conservatives to be concerned that we're somehow trying to identify, tag them in some nefarious way. I mean, if the governors hear about this, I suppose the governors of both conservative states and liberal states will push very hard back against that message, because there are real government programs that are still in place, that are designed to help both minorities and low income communities. And many of those—the funding for those are based on formulas based on Census data.
And so for governors of conservative states and liberal states, it is critical that people fill these forms out properly, so that they have the right count and they can get their fair share of the federal funds that are allocated to help people.
SMERCONISH: Chris Cillizza, I've got just a minute left. I want to show you some new public policy poll numbers that shows President Obama tied with Mitt Romney at 44 in a hypothetical 2012 match-up. The president just two points ahead of Mike Huckabee, 46 to 44. Doing better against Governor Palin, leading her by eight points, 49 to 41. Your reaction?
CILLIZZA: I'm not in the business of saying it's too early, because I write about this stuff every day. It would be cynical for me to say—it would be hypocritical to say it's too early.
Look, here's what I think: I think what you have seen in the past year is a peeling away of independents from the Democratic party and from President Obama. As a result, I think some of them have jumped in the Republican party. Most of them, I think, when we get down to 2012, when people are really paying attention, are going to be that undecided category. And we're going to see a focus on them.
I think what you're seeing is there's a considerable amount of people out there who aren't going to vote for President Obama. They're going to vote for whoever the alternative is.
But I still think there's going to be an independent streak of 10 percent, 11 percent of the voters that's going to decide this. This is, I would guess, going to be a little bit of a closer election in 2012 than we had in 2008. That said, predicting that far in the advance—I don't even predict about the midterm elections. So predicting about the next presidential election, it's a little bit of a fool's errand.
SMERCONISH: Jeanne Cummings, who's the strongest, as it stands right now?
CUMMINGS: As it stands right now, it's clearly Mitt Romney. Here's the danger in that poll number: even in the last campaign, it was pretty clear from polling that Mitt Romney was the strongest Republican general election candidate in that primary. Romney's problem is getting past the primary. And he hasn't gotten over the hurdles he needs to get through the primary just yet.
SMERCONISH: Never too soon to start thinking about this. Thank you, Chris Cillizza. Thank you, Jeanne Cummings.
When we return, I'll have some thoughts about how far government should go in the war on obesity in this country. You're watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
SMERCONISH: In my hometown, Chris' hometown of Philadelphia, there's a huge debate taking place how government should reign in our expanding waistlines. First came the war on trans-fat, then calorie posting on menus. This month, a New York legislator sought to remove salt from state restaurants.
And now comes Philly Mayor Michael Nutter's proposed two cents an ounce tax on sugary drinks. He's not alone. Colorado state legislature approved such a tax. California and Kansas are considering it. In New York, Bloomberg and Paterson are both on-board.
Believe me, I understand the reasoning behind it. Obesity threatens our country's physical and fiscal health. It accounts for 9.1 percent of all medical spending. That's up from 6.5 percent in 1998.
Americans 30 or more pounds overweight cost nearly 150 billion in weight-related medical bills in 2008 alone. But not all of it is fuelled by sugary drinks. It's a complex problem aggravated by any number of factors, larger portions, less exercise, lax eating habits.
And the logic behind a tax or outright ban could be extended to almost anything. Ban salt? Why not sugar too? Tax Mountain Dew? How about Milky Ways? Where does it end?
I can see it now; first, they came for my salt on my margarita glass. Then they came for my margarita.
Here's what I say: let me decide how many times I want to shake the salt shaker. Sure, tell me how many calories are in my Big Mac, but don't make healthy Americans shoulder the economic burden of the guy drinking too many Big Gulps.
Because no matter what the fad diet of the day says, the key to weight loss is the same as it's ever been: eat less, exercising more. Taxing soft drinks might get people to drink less, but it won't not get them outside or into the gym.
So instead of ruining dinner, the government should be rewarding people who do take care of their bodies. Let's give a break to those who aren't dependent on 44-ounce sweetened drinks and super-sized fries, people who work out every day.
How is this for health care reform: want more coverage or lower co-pays? Get on a Stair Master.
That's HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us. Catch us on Monday night at 5:00 and 7:00 Eastern. Right now, it's time for "THE ED SHOW" with Ed Schultz.
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Product Description
Matte Paint Sealant is the first safe paint protection product on the market for matte paint finishes. It is not a wax and so will not "fill in" your matte paint. It simply leaves a molecule thick layer of protection on the paint surface so that your matte paint is never without protection.
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As an overview, the book covers significantly a wide range of topic from 3D drawing to peripheral libraries (videos, audios, OpenCV, etc.) as well as topics that are new to Processing 2.0 (Processing.js and mobile programming) that I have not seen described on other books before. I find this is very new; open source communities prefer webs to keep resources up to date. This is also the case for Processing. Since paper materials could get easily out of date in these restless fields, publishers tends to avoid such a risk. As a result lots of topics concerning Processing have not been covered on paper books yet. However, I always prefer getting information from a paper book to through webs. I would like to highly rate this book in terms of the fact that more than a half of the book's content is first introduced on a paper material.
Throughout the book, I feel this book is a collection of tutorials rather than a cookbook. Each chapter describes one large theme which is divided into small consecutive recipes that are written in the step-by-step way. This is very helpful to a novice who knows nothing about it; everything will work by just following the book. However, since every small step is monotonously described no matter how important it is, it is hard to find the core of a subject even in the second time of reading.
Each chapter describes an introduction part of its theme and no advanced part. In fact a recipe has the "There's more" section, where the author directs advanced users to resources beyond the book. It is so introductive that one easily understands on a single reading and won't need to read it again. In my opinion a cookbook must be one dealing with topics that are hard to keep in mind or must be one with whom one could work more easily and more efficiently. This is a major reason why I won't call the book cookbook. If the book were more tailored to daily usage (like a dictionary), described more deeply, or had more advanced topics, the book would be more valuable.
In the end, the book is not a collection of techniques and/or algorithms for drawing aesthetics. If you are the one who seeks for such a subject, this book is not for you. If you want to grab what could be done with Processing and to know how to do it, this book would be a good starting point.
Processing 2: Creative Programming Cookbook


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It has been an interesting week thus far culminating with me sitting here nursing a sore throat and a fever. I don't handle illness well and I tend to take a strange approach to handling it. When I woke up this morning convinced that someone had forced me to swallow a tennis ball coated with glass shards I went into my normal mode of action. I downed as many pills as I could drank several cups of coffee and headed to the shops. I bought every medication known to man, several gallons of gatorade and a slim volume of poetry by Rimbaud. My solution to such health dilemmas is to follow my Mum's advice….over medicate and read something interesting. If this entry is a bit disjointed you can either blame it on medication or Rimbaud…much the same in the long run.
Wednesday I hosted a little soiree for Peggy which turned out rather well. I decided that I was not going to stress myself with elaborate plans and thus even the cooking was approached with little or no plan. I had purchased about $1,000 worth of stuff for the party the day before and basically tossed the whole plan out the window. Peggy and Steve arrived early and we simply engaged in excellent conversation ignoring the arrival of others. At some point Peggy managed to make a Rajasthan beef dish and I cobbled together a quick tiger shrimp and mussels balti and some basmati rice. It also learned that my cousin Satu Ramcharan was also coming over in addition to Alvin, Binky and Kavir. All I know was that the evening turned out to be a lot of fun with Peggy and Satu keeping everyone entertained. I had never spent any time with Satu before but apparently the gene thing makes for great company so the three half caste cousins fitted together perfectly. Things were so animated I never actually got around to serving the Haagen Dazs. Who knew that Steve would be so interested in politics that he and Satu would almost have to step outside to have it out? I tell you he might be my friend but he is also a cameraman and they are a strange breed.
On Thursday, with my fever beginning to start I had my old friend Monique Tosello-Pace over with Peter and Naz for another smaller soiree. She is here from France and sadly my state of health and burn out from the previous night resulted in us just having roast beef and watching Hitchcock's The Birds . Still, it was good seeing Monique again if only for a brief time. At least we managed to consume the Haagen Dazs that was unused the previous night.
Back to the murders tomorrow as I have to work ( I believe we have had 10 since I last wrote) but there may be changes in my work situation coming around the corner. I know that I will have to have both Peggy and Satu over again soon and, if I am lucky, perhaps I can have Peg do a short reading from Jahajin for us. I have said many times in this blog that I am not a family kind of guy (except for my immediate family) but having known for decades that Peggy was something special I am now wondering how I could have not noticed Satu. Are there other interesting half-castes in my family ( and we all are) that I could have overlooked?
The final good but not surprising news is that when I bought the Rimbaud I asked the sales clerk how Jahajin is selling and she said "really well". Apparently certain people in this country can still have great taste.


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Distance from Nisland, SD to Sinai, SD
Driving distance between Nisland, SD and Sinai, SD is 454.02 miles (or 730.67 kilometers). If you drove an average car (using about 3.6 gallons of gas per mile), the gas would cost you around $, since you would need about gallons of fuel.
Leaving from Nisland, SD you would reach Sinai, SD in about 6 hours 34 mins if you keep an average speed of miles per hour, assuming you don't make any breaks or get stuck in traffic.


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Fulton City Court
Traffic Tickets - Infractions Only
This Court has received an accusatory instrument (ticket) alleging that you have committed a traffic infraction. You are presumed innocent until proven guilty and you have the right to retain an attorney to represent you now, or at any stage in these proceedings.
Not Guilty Plea
By pleading "Not Guilty" you exercise your right to a public trial at which the People of the State of New York, represented by the officer who issued the ticket, must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that you have committed the offense alleged in the ticket. At the trial you will have the right to hear, see and challenge the evidence submitted to prove your guilty including, confronting, by cross-examination, the Police Officer, or other witnesses who testify against you. You have the right to have witnesses testify on your behalf and you may, but are not required to , testify on your own behalf. After hearing all of the evidence submitted at the trial, the Judge will determine whether or not the People have proven guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and will render an appropriate verdict.
Guilty Plea
By Pleading "Guilty" you waive your right to a trial at which the People of the State of New York, represented by the Oswego County District Attorney's Office, must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed the offense alleged in the accusatory instrument. A Plea of Guilty will subject you to sentencing by the Judge to any legally authorized sentence.
Hire an Attorney
You may want to consult an attorney for guidance or representation before determining which course of action you will pursue. The Court may not provide you with a recommendation as to how you should proceed, or as to which of these or any other options you should choose.
Write to the District Attorney's Office concerning an Alternative Disposition
If it is your wish to have the pending charge against you reduced, you may contact the District Attorney's Office by completing the Plea Reduction Form. You will need to read and follow the instructions on the form. You will send the completed form along with a copy of the traffic ticket


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The View From 1776
§ American Traditions
§ People and Ideas
§ Decline of Western Civilization: a Snapshot
§ Books to Read
Monday, February 09, 2009
Don't Blame President Obama
The simple truth is that no president can pull an economy out of recession or guarantee continuous prosperity.
Our nation has become hypnotized by the PR hype surrounding all presidents. The proposed stimulus plan almost certainly will do little to boost employment, but it will give a huge boost to inflation. In our economic ignorance, we desperately want to believe that presidents can take steps to manage the economy back to low unemployment and prosperity. We therefore demand action, even if such action always leads to inflation that makes economic problems worse.
Chalk the misperception up to President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR). He was the first president to operate on the hubristic presumption that a president could plan and successfully manage the entire economy to prosperity by imposing the liberal-progressive ideology of social justice. Even Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., one of President Roosevelt's most sycophantic eulogizers, was compelled to tie the New Deal to what he termed the imperial presidency.
Before FDR's 1930s New Deal, presidents campaigned on broad programs for the nation's benefit. Such were support for westward expansion of our nation, the expansion of railroads, and Lincoln's opposition to extension of slavery. No president before FDR, however, ever dreamed that he had the personal power to override the Constitution's 9th and 10th amendments and to change completely both our national structure of government and the ownership and regulatory structure of the economy.
For that, we cannot blame President Obama.
But we can blame presidents who fail to address and to comprehend the lessons of history. In too many cases, presidents come to believe their supporters who praise them as if they were Roman emperors to be worshipped as gods of the state.
President Roosevelt, a quintessential egotist, believed himself to be indispensable to the nation. He was the only president to break the traditional two-term limit established by George Washington. Roosevelt was elected to four terms, even though he knew that he was at death's door in the final election. Remaining in power was so important to him that he ignored the dangerous position he was creating for the nation, still at war around the globe.
His ideology of liberal-progressive state-planning was a retread version of the socialism outlined by French theorists in the first decades of the 19th century. The New Deal was as unsuccessful as France's dozen of more constitutions, restoration of the monarchy, and reinstitution of empires between 1789 and the end of the 19th century. France, like the New Deal, put the economy in an uproar with continual changes in basic economic structures.
England, sticking to its historical protection of private property rights, ran rings around France, economically and politically, during that period.
Since the New Deal, three generations of students have been taught the myth that FDR ended the Depression and that the Federal government has the ability to maintain and to restore economic prosperity.
The problem every president faces is that human nature doesn't change, despite Darwinian evolutionary doctrine applied to Marxian theories of the inevitable course of history.
No president has a team of economic analysts sufficiently computer-wired to collect real-time data on continually changing interactions of 300 million people, to interpret those actions, and to make timely and effective moves to steer all of them in the direction sought by socialist state-planners.
Government planners, as yet, cannot force people to spend their savings during a recession, nor can they compel banks to lend more money to palpably poor credit risks in shaky economic conditions, and they can't force manufacturers to increase production when their inventory pipelines are full of unsold goods and their production costs remain too high to produce at a profit.
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In keeping with its long tradition, "the society's task is to engage in natural history research and to make the research results available to the public through publication, teaching and its natural history museums" (Articles §2). This is more important today than ever before, because with modern natural history answers can be found to urgent present-day questions such as environmental and climate protection.
Senckenberg supports natural history education, conveyed in a diverse museum-based and museum education programme. Whether you attend a Wednesday evening tour, join the younger members' group or are a keen reader of Senckenberg's Natur und Museum magazine, there are so many ways of benefiting from being a member.
The number of Senckenberg members is constantly growing and is currently at 6,600, not only in Germany but worldwide.
Member support
Now there's someone to answer all your questions. Silke Tomé has been looking after Senckenberg Society for Nature Research members since 2008. "Our members are the heart and soul of Senckenberg. And as that's the case, we make a special effort to satisfy their wishes."


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Encyclopedia of plant physiology, Volume 14
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« Campaign Aims to Raise $5 Million for Theater Education | Main | Minnesota Lawmakers Vote to Play Role in Approving Standards »
What Should High School Students Know About the Federal Budget?
High school students rarely, if ever, learn anything about the federal budget and how taxes are collected and spent, an oversight that doesn't serve their development as informed, engaged citizens. That's the argument that Teachers College is advancing as it announces that it has developed a curriculum to fill that gap.
The "Understanding Fiscal Responsibility" curriculum consists of 24 lesson plans that cover, among other things, information about taxation, debt, and deficit, and aims to help students explore the questions raised by their country's fiscal policies. It will be available for free to all high schools.
Tonight's announcement at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York, is to include a panel discussion featuring former Office of Management and Budget Director Peter R. Orszag and Teachers College President Susan H. Fuhrman, among others. Teachers from a Bronx high school that piloted the curriculum are slated to share videos from their classroom work. The curriculum also has been piloted in Texas.
"Despite fiercely partisan debates in Washington about the federal budget over the past four years, most Americans do not have a thorough understanding of how the federal government raises and spends money," says a release from Teachers College. "The new curriculum was created after research by Teachers College found that, although the federal budget is mentioned in the core curriculum adopted by most states, it gets little or no attention in most high schools across the country."
Teachers College has arranged for the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching to conduct an evaluation of the curriculum.
The first 10 lessons are available in hard copy and will be mailed to every high school in the country, according to the college. Digital versions of those, and an online glossary of terms used in the curriculum, are available at the project's website, www.understandingfiscalresponsibility.org. The rest of the lessons will follow in the coming weeks.
The lessons fall into five topic areas. Some examples: "What costs and trade-offs are we willing to accept to ensure the benefits of income security to Social Security recipients?"(economics); "What responsibility does the federal government have to ensure the elderly a secure and stable standard of living?" (civics); "Social Security Act of 1935: Did the creation of federally administered old-age pension program support or threaten American values and traditions?" (U.S. History); "Should developing nations accept loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF)?" (world history); and "Should we raise income taxes to reduce the budget deficit and pay down the national debt?" (mathematics).
The website also has a list of those who advised the shaping of the curriculum and the research findings that led to its creation.


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CAMBRIDGE, MA-Two school records were broken and three more members of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's outdoor track and field team earned All-New England honors on the second and final day of competition at the Open New England Championships Saturday at MIT's Henry G. Steinbrenner '27 Stadium.
Freshman Phito Gondre (New Bedford, MA/New Bedford HS) finished second at 100 meters, setting a school record with a time of 10.76 seconds and finishing two-hundredths of a second out of first place. Sophomore Matt Hinthorne (Braintree, MA/Braintree HS) finished fourth at 800 meters and also set a school record, with a time of 1:52.85. Freshman Aaron Amado (Randolph, MA/Thayer Academy) was sixth in the high jump at 6-4 ¾, and all three Corsairs earned All-New England honors.
Freshman Adam Jones (Amesbury, MA/Triton Regional HS) jumped 6-2 ¾ in the high jump, senior Robert Yarbough (Fall River, MA/Durfee HS) threw the shot put 47 feet, 2 ½ inches, freshman Katie Sheehan (Scituate, MA/Scituate HS) ran the 3000 meter steeplechase in 12:21.89, sophomore Jessica Masse (Somerville, MA/Somerville HS) threw the shot put 37 feet, 9 ½ inches, and senior Brittany Cole (Dartmouth, MA/ Dartmouth HS) threw the shot put 35-8 ¼.
"Overall, we're pleased with our performance this weekend," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Steve Gardiner. "We were facing the best competition in New England, and to lose by two hundredths of a second at 100 meters and set a school record, and to have someone else show remarkable improvement over the last year and also set a school record is very good. Aaron Amado has to juggle his training schedule, because he has a demanding academic schedule as a graphic design major, and it was good to see him be successful."
The Corsairs will compete at the Eastern College Athletic Championships next weekend.


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The following are a quick set of standards to help guide you in producing great looking collateral for West High School. This guide covers basic use of our colors, typefaces, and logos. If you find yourself in a situation where this guide isn't helpful, please consult with the district Communications Department.
About All This Branding Stuff
Usually a company or school will create a logo, pick out some colors, and print up some letterhead and business cards. They might even use their logo on some coffee mugs to pass out at a conference or have shirts embroidered with the name of the school. Pretty standard stuff.
Over time, the logo, type, and colors (wherever they are seen) will become familiar to others. People will begin to recognize us when they see our collateral. The group of these items (logo, colors, typography) is called our "visual identity" or "visual identity system." The individual parts of our identity system are not that important—but when they are used together consistently and in relation to what we do, they eventually become what people think of us as a school—what people think about or feel when they see our name is our "brand."
Since we always want people to hold us in high regard, and since we already are an organization of (shall we say) higher-quality, it's important for us to build up and maintain our "brand" such that whenever anyone sees our logo (or drinks from that nice water bottle we gave away to their kid), they think to themselves, West High School? Yeah, that's a great school run by great people.
If we use the different parts of our system in good taste and consistently, we'll speed up and solidify a positive "brand" in people's minds. Please use this guide to help you design and specify collateral items that will help the brand-building process. This guide won't cover every use case for our logos or colors, but should be a good start. Also keep in mind what a "brand" is and how you can help maintain it by using our "visual identity system" well.
PLEASE NOTE: This "visual identity system" is being introduced in March 2013 so that school programs will have adequate lead time to update their material and/or order merchandise reflecting these updated logos, colors, and typography for the following school year (Fall 2013). School departments may begin using the symbols simultaneously, replacing ALL older versions as they order new supplies of letterhead, design new publications, or have other official uses for these institutional symbols. Please use existing supplies before re-ordering with the new graphics. Now let's get started!
School Signatures (Logos)
West High School logos are grouped into three areas, Academic, Spirit, and Formal. Colors and Typography can be found here.
Academic Symbols
Academic symbols form the foundation upon which the West High School visual identity system is built and should be used with all communications produced by the school.
Spirit Symbols
Spirit symbols are used to communicate school spirit. These symbols are friendly and casual, and they should be used only when a bolder, more informal look is desired, particularly by athletics, student groups, or alumni organizations.
Formal Symbols
Formal symbols consist of the school seal and crest, which are the highest level identifiers of West High School. Both the school seal and crest are reserved for top level school use only. Reproduction of the seal and/or crest is restricted to scholarly or ceremonial purposes such as commencement programs, school diplomas, or awards. For most other forms of school communication, an academic symbol should be used.


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The Patriots are going to be short on tight ends during practices early in camp.
Rob Gronkowski and Jake Ballard have both been placed on the physically unable to perform list to start camp, which bars them from practicing with the rest of the team until they drop the designation. No one should be surprised by either move.
Gronkowski was never expected to be full speed to open camp after having back and forearm surgeries this offseason and placing him on the PUP list in camp keeps open the possibility of having him on the list for the regular season if he won't be ready to play in the first six weeks. Ballard has been rehabbing from a very serious knee injury for a year and a half and his movements during spring work didn't draw too many compliments from media watching the workouts, although Ballard's still been mentioned as a potential beneficiary of Aaron Hernandez's absence.
Wide receiver Julian Edelman is also on the PUP list as he continues his recovery from foot surgery. As the only wide receiver with extensive prior experience in the Patriots offense, Edelman could earn a sizable role in the offense once he's able to return to the field.
Offensive lineman Nick McDonald is also on the PUP list, which defensive lineman Armond Armstead wound up on the non-football illness list. All players are eligible to come off the lists at any time this summer.


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The talent show included a wide range of talent, ranging from longtime Buckaroo alumni to entries from the Buckaroo class of 2026. A large number of friends from Blanding, including more than a few Broncos, participated in the program.
The program also featured recognition of some key alumni, including coach, teacher and principal Dale Maughan; teacher, principal and superintendent Dr. Ken Maughan; and Dr. LeRue W. Winget, the principal at MHS from 1948 to 1950.
In addition, Devin Wright and Macee Nielson, two outstanding alumni from the Class of 2011, were honored.
An MHS Alumni tribute was paid to Bill Boyle, Publisher/Editor of the San Juan Record for his long-time loyalty to the MHS Buckaroo Alumni Association and his on-going support for the events and activities by publishing news items about Buckaroo Alumni.
Early on Saturday, July 23, the Buckaroo Alumni met at Monticello Cemetery for their traditional Memorial Service honoring deceased Buckaroos from 1929 to the present. Four hundred and thirty seven balloons were released as the names of deceased Buckaroos were read. It was a moving and memorable occasion.
The focal point at the Memorial Service was a newly acquired, custom-made Buckaroo Alumni shelter. The portable shelter is being donated by the Alumni to MHS for use at all outdoor events as a rallying point for students and alumni.
The Alumni entered a float in the parade which featured banners highlighting the Alumni Roundup. The flat was mounted on an enclosed trailer pulled by a Ford tractor contributed by Jim Lyman, and driven by Carl Miller, both from the Class of '55.
Carl, who was raised in Eastland on his family farm, piloted large cargo planes for the Air Force and flew for some of the leading commercial airlines for many years. He says he has put in many more hours on a tractor than in these large planes. He was an outstanding Buckaroo leader and athlete back in the 50s.
The Alumni shelter was a rally point at Veterans Park after the parade. Many alumni stopped to visit and register as members of the Alumni Association.
On Saturday afternoon the Alumni met at the Monticello Stake Pavilion at the Blue Mountain dude ranch for a delicious catered meal by K&A Chuckwagon as they fellowshipped and listened to 1950s country and western music.
The organizers of the Roundup would like to thank the many alumni and friends who helped make it such a successful event.
These include Jim Lyman for the tractor and trailer for the parade float.
Thanks to Derryl Jack, Jim Muhlestein, Linda Lewis and Bill Boyle for organizing the Talent Night and Alumni Recognition at MHS auditorium.
Thanks go to Scott Shakespeare, Jeff Hunt, Robin Garner, Curtis Welch, Kevin Doud and Lynda Boyle from the MHS staff, who facilitated the use of the high school and the outdoor sound system used at the cemetery and dude ranch.
Also thanks to Bill Boyle and the San Juan Record staff for their excellent support in publishing news about the event.
Thanks to the Class Reps who updated their Class Rosters and communicated with classmates about the Roundup.
Also thanks to Paul Curtis and Brad Eldredge, who facilitated use of the Monticello Cemetery, to Joe Barton for transporting the chairs to the cemetery and Veterans Park and back to the Alumni storage unit and to Jeff Frost for setting up the Buckaroo shelter at both the cemetery and the park.
Finally, thanks to the Johnson's, who are caretakers at the guest ranch and to Keith and Anna Clark for an excellent catered meal.
The big question is who amongst the Buckaroo Alumni will step up to see that the MHS Buckaroo Alumni Association perpetuates. Organizers of the Roundup encourage Alumni to consider serving in one of the ten Alumni Association Board positions: President, Executive Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Vice Presidents for Buckaroos from 1929 to 1954, 1955 to 1969, 1970 to 1984, 1985 to 1999, and 2000 to 2015.
The Historian position is filled by Carolyn Young. She plans to research Buckaroo years 1929 through 1946 to develop history and gather photos for each of those years.
Anyone willing to serve should contact Clayson Lyman at P.O. Box 305, Orem, UT 84059, phone: 801-221-7789, email: email@example.com
The fourth quintennial Roundup is scheduled for the two days around July 24, 2015. All Buckaroo Alumni are encouraged to keep that date on their calendar so all can enjoy a great reunion of classmates, staff and Buckaroo supporters.


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It is currently Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:53 pm
Highlight to read:OM NOM NOM NOM.. OM NOM.
no00dylan wrote:So, yet again, the only logical thing to do is give me all of your votes.Highlight to read:OM NOM NOM NOM.. OM NOM.
source-maps wrote:hey Jest@ when is this going to end, I wanna join a map battle again...
srredfire wrote:Why are we calling this a tie? It isn't a tie....
Highlight to read:I agree with Srredfire.
srredfire wrote:WHY DO I KEEP GETTING CALLED A JACKASS.
Fine, whatever tie it is, srredfire's an idiot, blah blah. brb gonna go sit in the cornerrrrrrr.
Highlight to read:OR WAS I !?!??!
Highlight to read:I was
Highlight to read:why do i keep doing this?
Highlight to read:DO YOU KEEP READING THIS??? IT SAYS "SPOILER" FOR A DAMNED REASON!
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On September 4, 2013, we celebrated the 150th birthday of renowned Arnold Arboretum taxonomist Alfred Rehder (1863-1949). Born and educated in Germany, Rehder joined the staff in 1898, and was soon put to work on the gargantuan assignment of compiling what grew to be a five-volume, 3789-page bibliography of books and articles about woody plants published before 1900.
The seed for this project was planted by Abby A. Bradley in the form of a $20,000 gift in memory of her father, William Lambert Bradley, who lived in Hingham, Massachusetts, and died in 1894. Bradley, who made his fortune in the chemical fertilizer industry, was devoted to the study of trees and his daughter's gift was intended to promote the scientific activities of the Arboretum. Arboretum Founding Director Charles Sprague Sargent decided that the donation would be well used to create a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography of woody plants, which would in turn facilitate research activities by the staff and other scientists. In our age of unlimited connectivity, it is easy to forget that before the existence of online library catalogs and databases just how vital the creation of bibliographies and lists of holdings were to promoting scholarship. They allowed access to a library even if the scholar lived hundreds of miles away, and even today the literature review is still a valued pedagogic tool.
In 1900, Sargent selected Rehder to compile what would become known as the Bradley Bibliography. The assignment before him was monumental, and to complete it he consulted every botanical library collection in the eastern United States, as well as making two trips to Europe to visit libraries in ten countries. Rehder also employed consultants who sent additions to the Bibliography for material in languages in which he was not adept, such as Hungarian and Serbian. There is a small mark at the end of citations for which Rehder did not physically examine the piece, but that total is fewer than five percent of the more than 100,000 entries. The first volume was published in 1911 with four additional volumes issued through 1918. Rehder's work did not go unnoticed—Harvard University awarded Rehder an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1913 for his work on the Bibliography.
Today you can read the Bradley Bibliography online at the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) website. BHL "is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global biodiversity commons. The BHL consortium works with the international taxonomic community, rights holders, and other interested parties to ensure that biodiversity heritage is made available to a global audience through open access principles."
BHL is a bit like a full-text online Bradley Bibliography for the present day. Among the more than 62,000 titles, you can read the books in Charles Darwin's library, browse volumes from the Missouri Botanical Garden's rare book collection, or make a visit to the Field Museum Library. There is much to explore and discover through an ever-growing collection of vintage botanical books, available to anyone with a computer, tablet, or smartphone via the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
– Lisa Pearson, Head of Library and Archives


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An additional block of tickets for the 2013 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship has been made available for sale to the general public. The purchasing opportunity begins at 10 am CT on Tuesday, Feb. 26 (while supplies last) and is available online only. Fans may visit sprintcenter.com for the opportunity to purchase up to four (4) all-session tickets for the 2013 Championship. Each ticket includes all sessions for the four-day event. Tickets are subject to availability and all sales are final. Acceptable forms of payment include Discover, MasterCard, Visa and American Express. Tickets will be available for pick up by presenting valid photo ID and credit card used for transaction at Sprint Center Box Office on March 11 starting at 10 a.m.
The 2013 Phillips 66 Big 12 Men's Basketball Championship, scheduled for March 13-16 at Sprint Center, marks the 12th time that Kansas City has hosted Big 12 postseason competition - more than any other city in the conference. For additional information, call 816.949.7100.


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Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Breast
Dear OncoLink "Ask the Experts,"
Please send information on squamous cell carcinoma of the breast. Anything you could tell us would help.
John Han-Chih Chang, MD and Kenneth Blank, MD, Editorial Assistants for Oncolink, respond:
Dear BC,
Thank you for your interest and question.
Not much is published on squamous cell carcinomas of the breast due to its rarity. Some believe it is a separate histology from ductal carcinoma, but others feel that it is part of a spectrum of squamous metaplasia that can occur with ductal cancers of the breast.
Diagnostically, little distinguishes squamous cell cancers of the breast from all others. In 1996, there was some data out of Princess Margaret Hospital on 19 patients with pure squamous cell carcinomas of the breast. Only 5 were available for full evaluation of their charts, pathology and radiology records. Of those five, the mean age of the patients was 55, with the tumor size average of 5 cm. These lesions were indistinguishable from ductal carcinomas on mammogram. There was a suggestion that some of the squamous cell carcinomas demonstrated more necrosis, which may appear more cystic on ultrasound than ductal carcinomas. They concluded that there was no difference in the diagnostic aspects regarding this rare histology.
Because of the fact that it is rare, risk factors for squamous cell breast cancer are not defined any different than for ductal carcinoma. As an aside, two case reports published did reveal that there have been cases (one each) of this rare histology being found in breast cancers after treatment for Hodgkin's disease or after breast augmentation.
Some have suggested a poor prognosis with this histology, but others state that stage for stage there is no difference in outcome. The number of patients with squamous cell histology is too low to make a definitive statement on the subject. As a rule, this type of breast cancer is treated no different than ductal or lobular carcinomas of the breast with comparable outcomes.


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This past spring, at the TEDxSFED talks, David Orphal (Skyline High School) suggested that Arne Duncan should consider teaching summer school. I would recommend teaching in the school library. It would be informative to juggle the preparation (identifying sources, pulling books, and creating PathFinders) and the teaching for the numerous subjects, grade levels, and student backgrounds of those who utilize the library. Here, for example, is a summary of the classes taught this week in our summer school library:
- Consumer Product Reviews In a state required Consumer course, we worked with high school students to select a product and review a Consumer Reports summary, plus identified additional online sources of product evaluations.
- Magazines and Newspapers – these English Language Learners had a tour of the library, learned about a special collection of resources for them, met in our periodicals room on multiple days and selected stories of interest in preparation for creating their own newspaper.
- Zeitoun Background Research – these rising Juniors began researching about Hurricane Katrina and its impact, prior to reading Zeitoun. We were fortunate to be able to collaborate with librarians at other schools and colleges preparing for similar units.
- Using the list of Abraham Lincoln Book nominees from our state professional association, we devised an assignment to help rising Freshman practice using the library catalog and databases, plus gave them a tour of both the physical and virtual library spaces.
- The multi-grade level group of students participating in this summer's Chicago History Seminar researched several projects, including a Timeline of important events and information to support their Worker Roundtable
- Presidency Project - An advanced US History class (rising Juniors) came to the library on multiple days in order to locate primary sources and to create annotated bibliographies in support of a research paper, presentation and monologue about a US President.
- Debate: Interviewing and Company Research – these high school students learned about company information and interviewing techniques and questions in order to stage and critique mock interviews during class.
- Debate: Famous Speech – A library tour highlighted those aspects of our collections (plays, monologues and anthologies with speeches) for students to use in selecting a piece to memorize and present to their class.
Yes, that was just one week of summer school in the library…
Teaching summer school in the library would give an overview of curriculum across multiple disciplines, an opportunity to collaborate with classroom teachers, and, most importantly, a chance to work one-on-one with students of differing abilities and motivations. Even more so than during the school year, some are freely pursuing a passion while others are merely attending because it is required.
You may have been smiling as you imagined Secretary Duncan teaching summer school, but seriously think about what a perfect assignment it would be for him and for Department of Education's Director of Education Technology, Karen Cator. That's because while all of those classes were occurring, we also were
- Learning about how to run a trace route to help address a tech issue;
- Requesting that the filter be reset so as to unblock the Chicago History Museum site on the Great Chicago Fire (it is available now);
- Coordinating with the Technology Department as we continue a conversion in operating system;
- Reviewing set-up and directions for weebly so as to be able to anticipate and answer student questions;
- Thanking our Web Master for solving a display issue on the main library page; and
- Responding to numerous student questions about netbook operation, passwords for network access and so on…
Yes, that was five half-days (just one week) of summer school in the library…
Wait! While teaching in the school library, one would also be involved with
- Providing direction on several summer projects for the Circulation Desk Staff and;
- Assisting an alum with research and directing him to the archives;
- Updating and posting links for the high school Seniors who will be writing drafts of College application essays
- Ordering new books and materials based on student requests and reviews from professional journals;
- Mentoring a teacher undertaking a Practicum in Library Science, including supporting her professionally by attending a webinar and providing daily feedback.
Yes, that was roughly 1500 minutes (just one week) of summer school in the library…
Even if Secretary Duncan will not be teaching summer school this year, it is worth considering the assignment of a little "homework" to Department of Education (DOE) staff in support of school libraries. In addition to the ideas listed here, what would you add?
- Study the research that supports the important contributions that libraries and librarians make to avoid further cuts in funding for literacy programs;
- Go on a "field trip" to the 15th National Conference and Exhibition of the American Association of School Librarians (AASL); Listen, participate and share ideas with librarians from across the country;
- Subscribe to the RSS feed for award winning blogs, including Buffy Hamilton's The Unquiet Librarian and Carolyn Foote's Not So Distant Future;
- Read and discuss Joyce Valenza's Revised Manifesto as published in School Library Journal and interview a local school librarian for additional perspective on the librarian's evolving role;
- Visit a school and experience a day (or a week!) in the life of a school librarian.
Libraries and librarians make a difference as research has shown for years. Secretary Duncan would recognize that, too, if he had the opportunity to teach and then to read the thank-you notes such as those I just received from summer school students.
Yes, that was just one week of summer school in the library – and those notes were certainly a highlight!


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A Michigan manufacturer criticized for putting biblical citations on gunsights sold to the US military vows to end the practice. It has sent 100 "removal kits" that soldiers can use to scrape off words that critics say promote the idea of a Christian crusade in the Middle East.
The revelations, first reported by ABC News, caused embarrassment and consternation within the Pentagon after religious groups – including the Interfaith Alliance – complained that it violated an Army rule against proselytizing.
The Pentagon at first said the inscriptions did not violate Army rules, and one official compared the sight references with "In God We Trust" on US currency. On Thursday, however, Gen. David Petraeus, head of the US Central Command, called the references "disturbing" and a "serious concern."
But to some observers, it's not clear how a simple reference to the Bible on a gun part is different from a Muslim soldier carrying a Koran into battle.
Biblical phrases on sights "are innocuous and don't mean a thing, but it's how people react to them that matters," says Victor Le Vine, a Middle East expert at Washington University, in St. Louis.
Crusader image
The US is already struggling against the image of a crusade in the Middle East, and the idea of US soldiers using what some call a "Jesus gun" to shoot at Islamic jihadists ultimately jeopardizes US servicemen, critics say.
"One of the main recruiting tools for anti-American forces is the claim that America is engaged in a war on Islam, and this kind of incident feeds directly into that talking point," says Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in Washington.
In a letter to President Obama this week, the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance in New York, wrote: "Images of American soldiers as Christian crusaders come to mind when they are carrying weaponry bearing such verses. This incident simply adds to the perception that religion rather than national security is at the heart of our military's presence abroad."
Indeed, Al-Jazeera quotes its correspondent in Kabul, David Chater, saying that the references are a "rallying cry for the Taliban. It gives them a propaganda tool. They've always tried to paint the US efforts in Afghanistan as a Christian campaign."
Some Middle East analysts call that hyperbole.
"When people go to war they are confronted with very fundamental issues about who they are, and that seems to be the context in which American troops tend to be more conservative and many of them are Christian-oriented," says Robert Canfield, an expert on the Taliban, also at Washington University. "I think the references are inappropriate, but I'm not sure that the Taliban really care. They talk about religion all the time, and they assume that's what we do, too."
The references – which are etched in the same font as the part number, rendering them nearly invisible to the casual observer – are on all of the 300,000 Advanced Combat Optical Gunsights (ACOGs) delivered to the Army and Marine Corps.
Biblical citation quotes Jesus
The inscription on the standard issue ACOG is a reference to a Bible citation that reads, "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
A video review of the Trijicon "ACOG" sights shows the reviewer saying the Bible inscription "is one of the really cool things about this sight."
Michael Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and a former military lawyer who graduated from the US Air Force Academy, told ABC News that soldiers have told him that Army commanders refer to the Jesus rifles as "spiritually transformed firearm[s] of Jesus Christ."
Trijicon began putting Bible references on sights nearly 30 years ago under Trijicon's founder, South African Glyn Bindon, who died in an aircraft crash in Alabama in 2003.
"Our effort is simple and straightforward: to help our servicemen and women win the war on terror and come home safe to their families," the company said in a statement released earlier this week. "As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state-of- the-art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation."
In a release on Thursday, Mr. Bindon's son, Stephen Bindon, wrote, "Trijicon has proudly served the US military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate."
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