text:
Dia dhaoibh a chairde,
A very Happy Easter to one and all and may I begin by extending special fraternal greetings from Co Tyrone in British Occupied Ireland to our American Hibernian Brethren.
I consider it a great honour to be asked to send a message of solidarity to this years Nassau County Easter Rising celebrations. This area of New York has been synonymous with the Irish independence struggle for many generations and reflects the importance of the Irish Diaspora, especially Irish America, in the long struggle for freedom in Ireland.
At various stages in Irish history when the weight of English misrule crushed down hard upon Ireland, the cause of Irish freedom often depended almost exclusively upon the exiled Irish and their descendants overseas. This was the case throughout the 17th and 18th centuries when the Gaelic chiefs, friars and soldiers on the European Continent plotted, supported, instigated and often took part in insurgency against the English in Ireland.
In later centuries, that role fell to the huge Irish population in the United States. Its not necessary for me to remind you of the legacy of the Fenians, Clan na Gael and great figures like John Devoy and ODonovan Rossa, suffice it to say that they represent the vibrant Irish-American energy and input that was crucially important to the struggle in the Irish homeland. Its also worth mentioning that it was to the United States that countless Irish patriots came for support, sustenance and advice when planning Irish freedom.
Many of the signatories of the 1916 Proclamation had either spent time in America or were familiar with the political intricacies and workings of Irish America. Pearse had travelled along the eastern seaboard and often engaged in long discussions with influential Irish Republican stalwarts, such as my fellow Tyrone man Joseph McGarrity, in the run-up to the Rising.
Tom Clarke who hailed originally from Dungannon, close to where I live, knew the United States extremely well and its a source of tremendous pride for me to know that this old Fenian was one of the two key figures behind the Uprising of Easter Week 1916. The other, Seán MacDiarmada, was originally a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and it is said that his remarkable capacity for plotting, secrecy and intrigue was perfected through his experience with and exposure to the Byzantine inner politics of the A.O.H.
Nor can we overlook the strong Irish American influence that lay behind the Hibernian Rifles, one of the most courageous elements to fight for Irish freedom during that fateful week in central Dublin almost a century ago. Theirs is a story and legacy deserving of much greater attention by historians and Patriots.
Now, in the twenty-first century, our need for a focused, pro-Irish freedom American Diaspora is greater than ever. A United Ireland remains little more than a pipe-dream and never have I seen the fires of nationalist fervour in Ireland as low as they are today. In the twenty-six counties Patriotism in its proper sense is practically a dirty word. In the six-counties young people, even the children of former militant republicans, know virtually nothing about our rich Irish history and tradition of resistance to foreign misrule. It is, sadly, not uncommon to hear young (and not-so-young) people from nationalist/republican backgrounds refer to here in the United Kingdom when speaking about the North of Ireland. Incredibly, others openly talk about a place they call Londonderry, the ultimate blasphemy for any decent Irish man or woman.
Yet Irish patriots do remain on Irish soil and despite the threats, silence and censorship that have been imposed upon them they are becoming increasingly vocal and critical of the circumstances that allow for the continued, illegal British presence in our country.
Sooner or later these people will find a political voice and it will be to Irish America that they will look for solidarity, guidance and sympathy, just as generations of true Irish Patriots have done for centuries. Once again, mo chairde, it is your duty to close ranks and stand watch in order to insure that the home fires of the ancient Irish Nation are kept burning for future generations. May God Bless you all.
Éirinn go Brách.
Gerry McGeough.
March 2015 - I noticed the House of Commons report regarding the On the Runs is due tomorrow 3/24/15 It will be interesting to see what conclusion it reaches; bearing in mind the Hallett Report was a total whitewash.
According to journalist Liam Clarke, Sinn Feins Gerry Kelly and company told Hallett they repeatedly warned and advised Gerry McGeough not to travel to the north. This is a complete and utter fabrication. A total lie. This is underscored by the fact that Hallett refused to meet with Gerry McGeough or his legal team.
The fact that the Hallett Report was released in the middle of July 2014, when most people would be away on holiday and few would notice it, is a testimony to its cover up tendencies.
The reality is that Sinn Fein sacrificed Gerry McGeough for purely vindictive political reasons and allowed him to go to prison when they could easily have collapsed his case and had him freed as they did with John Downey last year.
Eight years ago on March 7th, 2007 Gerry McGeough stood as an Independent Republican candidate in the Six-County Assembly elections of that year. Among other things Gerry argued that the Sinn Féin position of urging republicans to recognise, join and give information to the local British police constabulary, the ex-RUC now PSNI, was not only a massive betrayal of Irish Republican principle, but was also a half-baked naïve tactic that was poorly thought through.
Gerry's point was brutally underscored the following day when he was arrested outside the Omagh election count centre by the Sinn Féin endorsed PSNI and railroaded into Jail via the corrupt British Diplock Court system.
Back then Sinn Féin famously boasted that their leadership would "put manners on" the PSNI. This week, leading members of SF are complaining to the media that the PSNI is still an overwhelmingly unionist force that is 70% protestant and 70% male in make-up.
Bearing that in mind and with no United Ireland in sight, what exactly has Sinn Féin achieved despite all its hype, hot air and expensive razz-matazz?
Una McGeough presents a cheque on behalf of the American AOH
to Patricia Conroy of St. Joseph's Pro-Life Group Dungannon.
American Hibernians Aid Tyrone Pro-Life Group
The Ancient Order of Hibernians in the United States has pledged to help a Dungannon-based pro-life group in its struggle to keep English abortion clinics out of Tyrone.
The influential Irish-American organisation has cited the St. Josephs Pro-life Group as a prime example of Irish Catholics standing up for their faith and defending Catholic teaching. The A.O.H has praised the Tyrone group for showing great leadership and courage not only in the fight against abortion but also for exposing an on-going programme by a non-Catholic organisation to introduce anti-Catholic indoctrination to our school children.
Welcoming the Hibernian support a spokesperson for St. Josephs Pro-Life Group said that they would continue to highlight the atrocity of abortion and oppose all attempts to have it legalised in Ireland. The spokesperson went on to say that as the once virulent anti-Catholicism of the Orange State slowly recedes into history, a new threat to our faith is being posed by mostly lapsed Catholics who have enthusiastically embraced militant secularism. We are not going to lie down and let these people tramp over us and kill our unborn children. We are going pro-actively stand-up to them and take them on and we are asking all Catholics to rally around the faith on these issues.
Derrylatinee - A Long Tradition of Learning in The Brantry
In the course of a relatively recent discussion with an academic from Trinity College Dublin on the cultural aspects of local history, an interesting observation emerged that set me thinking about the origins of formal education in the Brantry.
Amid the twists and turns of our conversation around the topic I happened to mention that in my home area of south-east Tyrone, the tradition of Kayley-ing (from the Irish ar do chéile - visiting/togetherness) was quite common well into my late teenage years and, indeed, beyond, albeit in dwindling form. Neighbours would gather in particular houses for banter, general conversation and plain old gossip. Inevitably, snippets of local history, the background to peoples blood ties and familial relationships to one another would arise for discussion and clarification for the next generation.
My learn-ed friend was familiar with this social activity once common across rural Ireland. His interest piqued, however, when I mentioned that from time to time older people at these events would burst into poetry, rhyming off stanza after stanza of obscure poems with remarkable clarity and memory. What struck me most about these poems was the frequent references to the classics in the form of great Parthenon and the like, which was particularly impressive given that those doing the reciting were people who had never received any formal education beyond the age of fourteen, if even that. Moreover, few of them were widely travelled, and most had spent the bulk of their lives close to the land and far from the hallowed halls of erudition that they also quoted in the course of their poetic deliveries.
The academic was genuinely impressed by this piece of information and at once informed me of its significance. He assured me that this was reflective of a very ancient tradition of learning in that particular part of the country. I was both surprised and immeasurably proud to know this, but at a loss as to how this could be the case.
Dwelling on the matter afterwards, I recognised that the scant information we have on schools in the Brantry area was hardly going to provide many clues. Beyond the old Derrylatinee School, located a few hundred yards up from the current site and in operation during the late 1800s, there was very little to go on.
Ironically, though, this old school may provide something of a link to the source of the tradition that the academic alluded to in his observations. This was the school that my grandfather, John McGeough, attended in the 1890s. His was a remarkable generation, and among those in attendance with him was an individual by the name of Joseph McVeigh, a first cousin of Johns future wife and my grandmother, Margaret Carberry.
The Joe McVeigh in question died a wealthy self-made businessman in New Jersey in the United States in 1975, having left the Brantry never to return, in the early 1920s. A great Patriot and Republican, he always maintained that England would only be driven from Ireland at the point of a bayonet!
His story has yet to be told, but his name has appeared from time to time in the history books and makes for fascinating reading. Heavily involved in the War of Independence and Civil War, his activities took him through an adventurous web of intrigue and danger, from the Brantry to the U.S. to Germany and back. His is a tale for another day, but suffice it to say, his personal courage and uncompromising individualism reflected traits and hallmarks not uncommon among people in the Brantry.
Among those traits was a deep love for his home area and a real pride in its history. This was all the stronger for the fact that he was reared in a house in Gort that stood on the site of the legendary Franciscan Friary of Gort Tamhlacht na Muc, overlooking Friary Lough.
It is this Friary, I contend, that has left an indelible impression and a tradition of learning upon this area. For generations people have spoken about the Friary and passed on the legends and lore associated with it.
In addition to this we have the facts. In my youth, older people always spoke reverently about Friar OMallons Journal, without knowing much about its content.
Today, we know it as Cín Lae Uí Mhéallain, and are more familiar with its recordings. It was written by Fr. Tarlach Ó Méallain, during the turbulent years of the 1640s, following the 1641 Rising. It is unique not only for its historical value, but also for the fact that it is penned in the now extinct East Ulster dialect of Irish. There are many references in it to the Brantry, and the original script is kept in University, College Cork.
Whats of note here is the fact that there was literacy in the Brantry at a time when few people across Europe could read or write. Moreover, the Brantry Friars were in direct contact with the great Irish Colleges on the European Continent, and letters were constantly being exchanged between them. They were also up to their necks in fomenting the rebellion, and were at the epicentre of intrigues involving the Irish soldiery in overseas exile. These latter, whose regiments figured prominently in the armies of Spain, France and Austria, were constantly planning an invasion of Ireland, to free it from English dominance and restore the old Gaelic Catholic order.
The Friars were also famous for their work among the people, and it doesnt take a great leap of the imagination to picture local children being taught literacy skills. There were practical reasons for this, given that Tyrone Friars on the Continent had taken it upon themselves to produce Catholic religious tracts in Irish, in order to counter the effects of the Protestant Reformation among the populace at home. What good would these be if people couldnt read them?
The tradition of learning in a remote area would have persisted over the centuries despite the Penal Era suppressions and persecutions. It would have manifested itself in oral tradition and given rise to the epic poetry recitals referred to earlier.
Whether by coincidence or design, therefore, it is wholly appropriate that Derrylatinee Primary School should be dedicated to St Francis, the Brantry Friars original Founder.
Gerry McGeough
Sean Bresnahan looks at the OTR issue. Sean Bresnahan is a Tyrone republican who frequently contributes to online discourse.
Much ado the past few days about Blair, 'On The Runs' and the peace process, but let's keep in mind that without the Troubles there would have been no OTRs to begin with. And also that some should have profited from this scheme but instead were thrown to the wolves by their own, likely deemed unworthy of inclusion by an arbitrary decision-making process that excluded potential adversaries at the behest of the Sinn Fein leadership.
Gerry McGeough
Many in the Unionist community take issue that a 'deal' on OTRs was reached at all, when the truth is the scheme did not go anywhere near far enough. My issue with OTRs is not that it let anyone off the hook but that it didn't go far enough and (like everything else the leadership negotiated) we got the short end of the stick.
Like everything else it was done on Britain's terms with a carrot thrown in to keep us happy or more accurately to keep THEM happy and to secure their position, with no threat of two years in gaol for some. The greatest leadership in history my arse. Spin that yarn to Gerry McGeough, who spent two years in Maghaberry thanks to their ineptitude. Or was it ineptitude? Perhaps something more was afoot.
The dogs in the street know McGeough was shafted to put him out of the picture politically, while Michelle Gildernew, the Adamsite darling, could only be the better-positioned for it. God forbid an independent-minded voice within the republican movement. A calculated political move which raises its own set of questions regarding the relationship of the leadership to the state and a disgrace from start to finish from the original selection convention in June 2000 to the carting away in the back of a police car at the count in Omagh nearly seven years later. Id venture the two are connected at some point, if only in terms of the agenda being served.
That aside, the reasoning in McGeough being gaoled is it sets his actions as an IRA Volunteer inside the paradigm of an acceptable British law. In this narrative McGeough is breaking the law and being suitably punished whereas state agents, like his direct opponent, are elevated to a higher moral plateau as are the mechanisms used to ensure a conviction. That OTRs pose a threat to this narrative is the source of the recent hullabaloo.
The key aim of the British is to frame the conflict as a criminal undertaking and the arrest, political show-trial and unsafe 'conviction' of those like Gerry McGeough is part of its strategy. Many, out of blind loyalty to the leadership and its pathetic negotiating abilities, are sadly content to go along with that, regardless of how it impacts on the legitimacy of men like Pete Ryan, Jim Lynagh, Martin McCaughey and their actions.
This approach would see such men happily subjected to British Diplock Courts today, if they'd somehow managed to escape the death-trap set for them, went on the run and returned home years later thinking it was safe to do so absent of course that all important letter, which some were deemed worthy of and others not. Would Jim and Pete have been deemed worthy? Would Martin? Who knows but who would trust it.
Some would have it they should just be grateful no matter, sure whats two years away from your family and loved ones anyway. That's the pitiful notion those like Sinn Fein Councillor Michael McIvor promote when publicly claiming McGeough done alright and should be thankful for his lot whether they see it or not.
Constitutional issues aside, the 1998 Agreement was poorly negotiated around such issues as prisoner-releases and conflict-related 'offences'. It created a situation whereby it was acceptable practice for a British Diplock Court to try and convict this man, and others such as Scotchy Kearney, using all the various legal manipulations and lowering of the standards of 'law' long employed against and objected to by republicans.
That some now accept the legitimacy of these legal processes is a victory for Britain and a shafting of the IRA Volunteers who stood up against and called such reactionary 'laws' for what they were and are repression. That letters of comfort are set to be withdrawn while the republican leadership continues to sit in Stormont is just the broom-handle being rammed up their backsides all the harder.
Under the British-imposed narrative, in which republicans now acquiesce, the state had a right to prosecute its violence whereas republicans had none not even to defend themselves and their community. The evidence around Bloody Sunday, collusion in the murder of Pat Finucane and the refusal to grant inquests into a plethora of state killings speaks for itself, the British justice system is designed to protect its own and set them apart from 'terrorists' like Gerry McGeough, who are to be gaoled while the state and its agents walk free.
Those who consider the underhand mechanisms employed to stick McGeough and his like behind bars as acceptable fare, and anything other than the product of inept negotiating at best, the deliberate removal of a political foe at worst, are either fooling themselves or are that far removed from the republican struggle they no longer care about the broader picture.
What amounts to the effective collapse of the OTR scheme, at the behest of political Unionism, serves the same end for Britain as the gaoling of McGeough and Kearney, to show republicans their place within the British law, which can be altered and employed against them at will, if and when required. The only difference on this occasion is that ordinary Volunteers were not alone in being shafted, this time the leadership was shown its place in the order of things too.
A chairde,
Here's wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! The past year, 2014, was of course the one during which the British were supposed to have left Ireland. At least that was the on record promise made some time ago by a leading Sinn Féin figure. Oh well, ho-hum!
Now we must bide our time until 2016 when an even more prominent Sinn Féin figure has publicly promised a British withdrawal from the Six Counties. While one is prepared to give the benefit of the doubt in all instances, it's probably true to say that very few people seriously believe that the British State will begin to vacate its forces from Ireland in about twelve months from now.
The real wonder is that supposedly astute politicians would tie themselves to such definite dates in the first place. Sooner or later all those who have placed their faith in these individuals will be disappointed by them.
Sinn Féin leaders come and go of course, albeit at a glacial pace, and the fate of the Irish Nation is far more important than the ambitions of individual egotists.
It is to be hoped that 2015 will mark the beginning of a serious debate that will end the cult of leadership and the curse of factionalism within the wider Irish Republican family.
The cause of Irish freedom remains a noble one and Irish Republicans are a formidable people, forged in the fiery tradition of true Patriotism. Unity is strength. Let's work towards it in 2015.
Éirinn go Brach!
Christmas Greetings from Gerry McGeough and Family
Nollaig Shona Daoibh! We wish the very warmest of Christmas greetings to all our friends throughout Ireland, the United States and beyond.
At this time of year we thank God for the gift of true friendship and acknowledge that we have been blessed to have known so many good and decent people who have stood by us through thick and thin. May God bestow bountiful blessings upon you all.
During this season I have been reflecting on the historical fact that Ireland and the Irish are never stronger than when they totally embrace Christianity, which lies at the very root of our ancient culture and national identity. This Faith we must never abandon.
A very Happy and Joyous Christmas to everyone.
Vivat Christus Rex!
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text:
Gang Expert Tony Rafael Discusses Mexican Mafia Known as 'La Eme'
A respected writer spent five years studying the Mexican Mafia. What he discovered will shock even the most seasoned cop.
interview by Brentin Mock
IR: And why do those orders include terrorizing and killing blacks?
RAFAEL: They don't want blacks in their neighborhoods. They say it makes their neighborhood look bad.
It started with the Mexican Mafia ordering street gangs to cleanse themselves of black members, before they moved on to cleansing neighborhoods. For example, the 18th Street gang, this was a [MacArthur Park neighborhood] gang that had blacks and Hispanics in it for a long time, up until about 10 years ago, when the Mexican Mafia leaders told the 18th Street, "If you don't want to get green-lighted, get all the blacks out of your gang." They had to go. Before that, the 18th Street gang was an equal opportunity employer. But the Mexican Mafia said, "We can't have it, can't have blacks in our gangs."
The way I hear these knuckleheads tell it, they don't want their neighborhoods infested with blacks, as if it's an infestation. It's just pure racial animosity that manifests itself in a policy of a major criminal organization.
IR: Does the Mexican Mafia have the same policy toward whites or Asians?
RAFAEL: No. In fact, in the California prison system the Aryan Brotherhood and the Mexican Mafia have made an alliance to gang up against the Black Guerilla Family. It's common knowledge in the prison system that if there's a fight between a Mexican Mafia member and a black inmate, and there aren't enough Mexican Mafia guys to jump on his side, the Aryans are supposed to jump in on his side. This is an alliance that goes back 20 years. The Mexican Mafia and the Aryan Brotherhood have a mutual racial hatred for blacks.
IR: The Avenues killings and the Avenues gang have been getting all the media attention recently, but there are a lot of other street gangs loyal to the Mexican Mafia. How many of them also target blacks?
RAFAEL: All of them. What happened in the Avenues is happening all over southern California. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's happening throughout all of Los Angeles, or that there's policy to drive blacks out of the entire metropolitan area, but it's certainly happening in all the areas where the Mexican Mafia and their allied gangs feel they have control.
For example, they don't control Beverly Hills or the west side of Los Angeles. But places like [the Los Angeles neighborhood of] Highland Park, very strong presence. Pomona, very strong. West and north San Fernando Valley, extremely strong. And these are places where you don't see many blacks living in the first place, so wherever the Mexican Mafia has a very strong or extremely strong presence, the blacks who live there are going to have problems. The federal government is aware of this, and the decision to prosecute the Avenues using federal hate crime laws came from the highest levels of the U.S. Attorney's office. They were basically using the Avenues case to send a message to the Mexican Mafia leaders, to say, "This is not going to happen."
IR: And are those gang leaders getting the message?
RAFAEL: They got it, but they don't care. It's not like their reaction has been, "Message heard, okay, we're gonna back off." One week before the [Avenues federal hate crimes trial] ended, another black kid was killed by the Avenues 43.
IR: What level of truth is there to the rumor that Bloods and Crips are going to start carrying out similar racial attacks on Latinos as a form of revenge?
RAFAEL: It's already happening. There was one case in the Avenues already where three [Latino] family members were shot and killed by two black guys with AK-47s. The victims were civilians, not gang members. The killers rolled up on them in central Avenues, opened up on them with the AKs, then, after the [Latino] guys were down, the [black gang members] walked up and shot them in the back. It was coup de grâce, assassination, pure-out assassination. So, yes, unfortunately, it's started.
IR: Some people who live in Highland Park point out that many of these killings [of blacks] happened years ago, and that it was a relatively small problem caused by a relatively small group. But you're saying this is still a big problem today, in more areas than just Highland Park?
RAFAEL: Absolutely. It's not like if you're black they're definitely going to shoot you on sight if they only see you once in Highland Park. However, if you move there, like [2000 murder victim] Anthony Prudhomme, and they see you going in and out of your house all the time, or you start hanging out there regularly, like [2001 murder victim] Christopher Bowser, sitting in front of a bus bench with your boom box, yeah, you'll have problems.
IR: You think that was a cultural thing with Bowser, them not liking a black man imposing on their public space with noise from his boom box?
RAFAEL: I think the boom box just made him stick out more. They just didn't want Bowser hanging out there, period, because he was black. He had been beaten up and robbed before and called the usual epithets. The [1999 murder victim] Kenneth Wilson case, though, was weirder. Wilson didn't even live in Highland Park. He was just visiting a friend of his, and he went out to move his car because it was parked illegally, blocking somebody's driveway, and he had the random misfortune of coming across one of the four most vicious guys there are, [Avenues gang member Gilbert "Lucky"] Saldana.
Saldana is an outright racist. He's the one who uttered the infamous words, "Wanna kill a nigger?" before Wilson was shot. And Wilson was targeted at random. He was just parking his car when these guys went out looking to kill a black guy. He was totally innocent.
IR: Let's say a member of a street gang under the Mexican Mafia's authority obeys all the other rules and pays his taxes, but when it comes to terrorizing blacks, he says, "Look, I have no problem with black people just for being black, so I don't want to do this," does he have that kind of wiggle room?
RAFAEL: No.
IR: So then, if he carries out an assault or a killing because he's under racist orders, even though he's not a racist himself, is that still truly a hate crime, or is it more accurately described as a gang hit?
RAFAEL: The guys prosecuted in the [federal] Avenues case, there was nobody holding a gun to their head. They went out looking for blacks to kill to earn stripes, and to curry favor and to bring up their status with the Mexican Mafia. They may have hated blacks and been down with killing blacks to begin with, or they may have just said, "To show you I'm with the program, I'll go out and do what I gotta do." But the end result is the same, and it's really at a basic level driven by the same sort of racial purity theories as nut groups like the KKK.
IR: Are there really any theories or ideology to the Mexican Mafia's racism, or is it just disorganized, visceral hatred?
RAFAEL: The Mexican Mafia derives inspiration and ethnic pride from the concept of La Raza (Spanish, in this context, for "The Race"), as well as from the Aztec, Aztlan movement. And this goes way back. There was a Mexican Mafia shot caller back in the 1970s named Rudolph Cheyenne Cardena, and before he was killed by rival Mexican gang members in 1978 or 1977, Cardena saw the Mexican Mafia the way George Jackson [a prominent member of the original Black Panther Party who founded the Black Guerilla Family] saw the black prison movement. He wanted to change the Mexican Mafia into a political, socially active movement, and what he used for inspiration was the Aztec culture. He taught himself Nahuatl [the ancient language of the Aztecs], started teaching it to all the other homies. In fact, to this day they still use Nahuatl to send coded messages to one another -- these kinds of three level-coded messages. You have to know the code, and then Nahuatl and so on. And one of the symbols of the Mexican Mafia is the Aztec worship [symbol].
They've brought in the Aztec heritage as part of their philosophical inspiration, and there are no black people in the Aztec culture. La Raza comes first to these guys. They see themselves as a race unto themselves, and there's really not too much room for anybody else.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
A group of Orange County residents, based in Tustin, is uniting in opposition to Southern California Edison's switch to digital meters on homes and businesses.
The company is replacing mechanical meters with its $1.6 billion Edison SmartConnect metering system. On its website, Edison says 5 million residents and businesses will receive the new meters by 2012.
Members of the group Stop OC Smart Meters are citing health and privacy concerns and ask for more research to be done before the meters are installed. Members of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group with chapters across the country, are opposing the new meters as well.
"We want to encourage people to research this," said Stop OC Smart Meters organizer Cindy Hoffman of Tustin.
Some Tustin residents have already received the Edison SmartConnect metering system. Installation began in 2009 and as of September, more than 3 million meters had been installed in Orange County.
The California Public Utilities Commission approved the plan in 2008, said Ken Devore, director of Edison SmartConnect.
The smart meters were a response to the energy crisis of 2001, Devore said. Public hearings and public information sessions were held from 2003 to 2004, Devore said.
The digital meters use wireless technology to transmit encrypted information on electricity use to Southern California Edison. Users can manage their electric use using online tools which track peak hours and can enroll in new price plans to save energy and money, Devore said.
Privacy is an issue for Stop OC Smart Meters members.
"It's a network. It's hackable. What can people find out about you?" Hoffman asked. "You can tell a lot about people's behaviors in their home by their electrical use."
Corix Utilities, the contracted installer, does not need permission to change out the meter, but workers do knock on doors to let residents know, Devore said. When the meter is replaced there is a brief power outage for about five minutes, he said.
"I'm concerned someone can just walk on my property and exchange a meter without any permission," said Patricia Linsky of Costa Mesa.
Cindy Hoffman is worried about how the new meters could interfere with medical devices. Her husband, Gage, uses an insulin pump 24 hours a day, she said.
"I don't want to take a chance," Hoffman said.
The company has not studied health effects, Devore said, but the communications system runs within Federal Communications Commission standards. In 3.1 million meters, he said, SoCal Edison has not come across any interference with medical devices.


text:
Today Show Ann Curry leaving: Curry announces she's leaving the Today Show Thursday morning
Ann Curry announced this morning that she will be leaving the 'Today' Show, terminating her co-hosting duties with Matt Lauer.
Prior to her announcement, Curry told USA Today exclusively over the phone that It's "going to be a bit of a tough day. I'm going to have to tell our viewers. That's what makes me more emotional than anything. I don't want to leave them. I love them. And I will really miss them."
USA Today reports Curry's new contract with NBC has her "leading a seven-person unit with a ticket to cover the world's biggest stories, from the civil uprising in Syria to the plight of the poor in America."
She will also produce specials for NBC Nightly News, Dateline, Rock Center and Today, according to the USA Today report.
Curry, who has been with "Today" since 1997, replaced Meredith Vieira last June as Lauer's partner. Lauer agreed to a long-term contract this spring to stay with the show.
The New York Times first reported the discussions about the possible change in co-host at Today.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy


text: http://www.linuxbsdos.com – GraphBuilder is an application that makes it easy to discover (hidden) structures in Big Data. It is an Intel-sponsored project released under the Apache 2 license. The official description says that it is "a Java library for constructing graphs out of large datasets for data analytics and structured machine learning applications that exploit relationships in data." From the release announcement: GraphBuilder not only constructs large-scale graphs fast but also offloads many of the complexities of graph construction, including graph formation, cleaning, compression, partitioning, (General)


text:
I have just finished this row: Parr to last 12 sts, patt3tog,patt9. This sets the neck shaping.
I don't understand the next part.
Working shaping as set, dec 1 st at neck edge in 6 foll 4th rows, then on every follow 6th row until 27 sts.
I really don'tunderstand any of this. Help please.
Thank you.
The decrease is worked when you get to the last 12 sts. Pattern 3 together means knit 3 together if these are knit sts or purl 3 together if these are purl sts, then knit or purl (or continue whatever pattern) as you have in previous rows.
OK, if you call the row with the dec, row 1, then you would work the following decreases on rows 5,9,13,17,21 and 25 (that's every 4th row 6 times) and then dec on rows 31,37,43,49....(that's every 6th row, continuing until there are 27sts left on your needle).
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text:
Ever !!
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Ever !!
Russ, I'm sorry. I got a little out of hand but you offered me some terrible trades I'm sorry. It won't happen again. If I'm lucky enough to stay in the league.
I never offered you any trades !! you sent me multiple trade requests every single day .!! I'm putting you back on ignore and do NOT PM me on TOM !!
Gage, I'll trade you Gadsen, Thorn and Blanton for Perry, Grajales and Soto
Gage, I'll give you Blanton and Kraisser for Perry and Soto.
Gage, I'll trade you Kraisser and Gadsen for Von Ohlen and Soto
Gage and RPayton will the two of you ever learn?


text:
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Individuals should come into this workshop with working knowledge of social media and its role in marketing and outreach.
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PlayStation 3
This is a split board - You can return to the Split List for other boards.
First Fairy Fencer F Screenshots
Gust & Moe:
Easy to draw = quick turn out for weekly Manga/Anime. Realistic designs are hard.
Appeases to kids, teen boys, girls, women, middle aged pervs. Wide demographic. Japanese female gamers are a loyal and rather large group; possibly larger than Western female gamer group...
Easy to animate for low budget game developers. Low polyogon count character models, mostly dungeon crawling so easy to animate simplistic 3D dungeons and motion portrait semi static 2D animation for cut scenes..
Tie in for Anime which pulls in the Anime crowd that also likes to game
Pulls in the Goth female crowd that like the lolita goth fashion.
Familiarity of Neptunia via artist and game engine guarantees spill over from that fanbase to this. Ease of recycle for low budget developer.
Shineboxer, lemon and wstfld support these full heartedly.
By this boards logic any game with an anime artstyle="loli RPG" now?
I think this board is going to make sure loli loses it's meaning and it becomes a null word.
I hope this gets a western release. I would like to try it out.
The Only Sane Gamer.
PSN Name: Gamenamebully
As someone who grew up on anime and manga and fell out of the loop due to the influx of moe garbage, it hurts me down to the core to see that people are actually able to just say "it's just anime, guys!" in defense of this kind of art. Generic, bug eyed, spindly limb having woman-children with shrill voices should never be the defining design of a medium.
RPG maniac87 posted...
HolyMcmoly posted...I'm so sick of that art style, you unoriginal tool bags. The rest of the game is probably just as generic as it.
[This message was deleted at the request of the original poster]
TehAssasin posted...
RetroFanGirl posted...TehAssasin posted...Great. More lolli RPG. Exactly what we needed.
You have horrible tastes. Why anyone would want a burly, muscly tough guy over a lithe, elegant, graceful woman is an alien concept to me.
Emerald_Melios posted...
TehAssasin posted...RetroFanGirl posted...TehAssasin posted...Great. More lolli RPG. Exactly what we needed.
Because it conflicts with the male power fantasy and because it clashes with their insecurity and makes them think naughty thoughts even though they might be harboring hidden naughty thoughts staring at a bodybuilder's ass throughout the game
From: BaseChouGoku | #047
Emerald_Melios posted...TehAssasin posted...RetroFanGirl posted...TehAssasin posted...Great. More lolli RPG. Exactly what we needed.
This is an actual post. Someone really thought this then put it down in text form and released it to the internet, blatant douchiness and ignorance of sarcasm included. I ain't even mad, this is why I still come to this site.
^ That's how I put up with most of your posts specter. Although this last one was surprisingly well-written for you.
spectermaster14 posted...
You're angry because it rings truth through your very soul. You are now questioning your sexual preference and identity from the enlightenment I have bestowed upon you.
Now get out of the closet, slap on that latex and leather and get to bar hoppin girlfriend. you have some hairy bears to capture and wrassle...


text: Culture Desk March 2, 2014 The New Yorker Watches the Oscars By The New Yorker We are posting tweets, images, and updates from our writers and editors, beginning at 8:30 P.M. Follow along below. Update: We ran into some technical difficulties, so switched over to Storify. [View the story "The New Yorker Watches the Oscars" on Storify] Illustration by Bob Eckstein. The New Yorker offers a signature blend of news, culture, and the arts. It has been published since February 21, 1925. Bio All work &


text:
Twelve Girls of Bikini Basketball: Miami Spice's Andrea Gomez
Courtesy of Miami Spice
If you love bikinis, basketball, or women who get into both, Christmas has come early for you this year. The Miami Spice Bikini Basketball team has chosen its roster, and we're serving up photos and interviews of 12 of its newly named members. Consider it our Christmas gift to you.
Andrea Gomez isn't your average teacher. (We don't know about you, but our P.E. instructors most definitely weren't lingerie models or members of fledgling bikini basketball leagues.)
But like all the girls on the Miami Spice team, Andrea is more than a pretty face. The girl can play.
See also:
- Bikini Basketball Exists and It's Coming to Miami
- Bikini Basketball Tryouts Brought Out Fame Seekers, True Ballers, and a Whole Lot of Cleavage (Video)
Gomez started on the courts in junior high, moved on to high school and later, walked onto the Miami Dade College team and earned a basketball (and academic) scholarship. Since then, she's coached high school basketball at her alma mater, played a couple pre-season games with the semi-pro Miami Rain, and now teaches and coaches.
As far as the Miami Spice team, she says people will be impressed when they see the girls in action.
"Before you see us play, you're gonna judge us, but once you see us play you'll judge us based on our talent. We have a lot of skill; this is a competitive professional league. These girls can actually hoop, they can play. The fact that it's a combination of sex appeal and athleticism, people should see that as a plus."
Unique Photography
For Christmas, Gomez and her family do an early Nochebuena in honor of her dad's birthday on the 22nd. "We're from Columbia, so we get together and eat traditional foods like empanadas and natillas and we sing Christmas carols. It happens every year."
Andrea also loves fettucine alfredo with shrimp, shopping, watching movies and collecting limited edition sneakers.
Catch Gomez and the rest of her team when Bikini Basketball games start in 2013. Follow the team on Twitter @SpiceMiami
The 12 Girls of Bikini Basketball, so far:
Follow Cultist on Facebook and Twitter @CultistMiami.
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text:
this wiki
Mounts were introduced with the Winter Update 2010. Due to their popularity, new mounts are implemented every major update. Currently there are 75 different ones. Mounted characters receive a new look and a bonus of 10 speed levels.
34 mounts are obtainable by using Taming Items lootable from creatures on them or by earning them through a quest. Taming items can succeed, fail and even break; each with its own break rates.
Furthermore, another 40 mounts can only be obtained by buying them with Real Life money. 7 of these were limited offers. There's also 1 mount which is the only non-permanent one.
To toggle between mounted and unmounted you may use the hotkey Ctrl+R. You will automatically dismount if you enter a Protection Zone, but since June 3 2014 you will automatically remount when you leave the protection zone, if you were mounted before entering it.
Free Account players can tame creatures and earn the achievement Natural Born Cowboy, but they will only be able to ride Rented Horses and not any of the "permanent" mounts unless they activate some Premium Time. However, mounts purchased through the Payment System can be used in-game whenever you want, no matter if you are a free account or a premium account.
For more in-depth information relating to the mounts available to you, see Guide:Mounts.


text:
Our Members Say
- papito1981
- Reviews: 27
Lighthouse inn: Rooms with a great view of the sea
We've been in this family run B&B in August 2011 and I found a realy pleasant place. Most of the rooms - quite small but nice and clean - have a view of the sea.
Typical irish breakfast in the morning and a restaurant/pub open also till late, at least in summer, with good seafood.
A cool place where to stay one or two days to enjoy real Ireland!
Great views of the bay from many rooms and ideal starting point for spectacular cliff walks which lead to Loophead Lighthouse.
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The Alfa Laval Potentiometric level transmitter is designed specifically for small tanks containing highly viscous and pasty products, such as ketchup, honey and toothpaste.
All wetted parts are made of AISI 316L stainless steel and PEEK, and designed to withstand process temperatures between -20 and +140°C. Because these 3-A certifed transmitters can withstand high temperatures, they are well suited for use in Cleaning-in-Place (CIP) and Sterilization-in-Place (SIP) processes.
The Alfa Laval Potentiometric level transmitters are easily mounted in top, bottom or angled position. Regardless of position, advanced integrated electronics enable automatic recognition of the transmitter output signal thus ensuring reading accuracy.
For more information, please refer to Documentation.
Alfa Laval offers a broad range of tank instrumentation for use in dairy, food and beverage, personal care, biopharm industries.
For more instrumentation:
Pressure instruments:
Electronical presure gauge
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Pressure transmitter
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Flow meter
Flow transmitter
Find the complete "Close at hand" catalogue here
See the Spare part catalogue here
Product animation site
Visit our tank equipment portal
Visit our BioPharm portal


text:
Forget password?
Remember Me
As previously reported, Iggy and the Stooges have had to postpone their upcoming U.S. shows due to Iggy Pop suffering a broken foot during their appearance in Romania. As a result, the following Los Angeles and San Francisco concert dates (which had been originally scheduled for September 7, 12, and 13, respectively) have been changed. The Las Vegas date at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is yet to be determined.
New Dates
* Los Angeles - Hollywood Palladium - December 1, 2011
* San Francisco - The Warfield - December 4, 2011
* San Francisco - The Warfield - December 6, 2011
Iggy and the Stooges
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text:
Calling all Cervelo S2 owners
After my previous question about frames etc still v interested in Cervelo S2. With this being more aero I'm concerned comfort maybe compromised.
I know it's not a sportive geometry or set up but want to know I could stand up after doing a century. Unable to try this on the road but a spin on the turbo seemed a nice place to be but I'm sure owners are best to give me a better idea.
So opinions on what these are like to live with as your main summer/Sunday bike. Please be brutally honest.


text:
Three-time felon Murville Lampkin, 39, spent nearly half his adult life in prison. His rap sheet is a tale of crimes big and small, old and new, from auto theft and assault on a police officer to cocaine distribution and jailhouse drug trafficking.
At Rumrunner's Old Towne Bar & Grill, however, Lampkin was a member of the "security staff," and it was he who carried the handcuffs.
In an unusual criminal case lodged against the bar's owners and Lampkin, an Anchorage police spokesman says Lampkin and other members of Rumrunner's security force bound a violent 26-year-old customer, hauled him to a back room and beat him severely. The customer claims bouncers fractured his skull, hitting him until he agreed not to press charges. In March, a grand jury indicted the bouncer and business on assault charges and accused the corporation of destroying video evidence and falsifying records to hide the attack. Lampkin is out on bail, awaiting trial.
The bar strongly, categorically denies the charges.
"We've always tried to treat people fairly and make sure that they're protected. ... Make sure that nobody gets hurt," said A.J. Vangilder, head of security for Rumrunner's. Vangilder said he wasn't working at the bar at the time of the attack alleged in the criminal case, but that the notion a bouncer would restrain someone, take them to a room and attack them is "ridiculous."
Police, meanwhile, are looking into new claims that managers at the popular Fourth Avenue bar have for years ignored complaints of bone-breaking violence committed by their employees. More than 15 people have contacted police recently to share their own stories of being hurt at the bar or seeing others victimized, said Sgt. Mark Rein, who is supervising the investigation for APD.
"I was punched in the face by a bouncer at Rumrunner's, handcuffed, dragged around the outside of the building and brought into a small room and beaten while another bouncer held the door shut," Roman Gimeno, a computer programmer for the state, told the Daily News. He said his nose and a rib were broken in the assault.
The attack alleged by Gimeno occurred more than a year before the incident that prompted the current charges against Rumrunner's. The bouncer who hit him was not Lampkin, Gimeno said.
Among additional claims described by patrons in civil lawsuits and recent Daily News interviews:
• A former Fort Richardson soldier says a Rumrunner's bouncer snapped his ankle by tackling him in January 2010. The bar claimed to have security footage of the encounter but failed to produce the video when the case went to civil court, according to the man's attorney.
• An Anchorage waiter says he was choked unconscious by a member of the Rumrunner's security team and woke to find himself surrounded by bouncers, his left arm broken. He says bar management and employees refused to talk to him about the injury and more than $20,000 in medical bills.
• A former Rumrunner's bartender says a bouncer raped her at her home one night after work. Police investigated and no criminal charges were filed in the case, though an administrative law judge in February concluded the bar broke labor laws by failing to investigate the accusation and by forcing the woman to continue working alongside the bouncer. In a case now pending before the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, the administrative law judge recommended Rumrunner's pay the woman $4,531 in lost wages.
Rumrunner's owner Basilio Gallo did not respond to a Daily News request to discuss the accusations against the business. Employees referred questions to the bar's attorneys.
An attorney for AB&M Enterprises, the corporation that owns the bar, has said Rumrunner's committed no crime and that prosecutors are trying to force a settlement by igniting bad publicity about the business.
"These charges, personal in nature, represent the state's attempt to enlarge corporate liability in a bizarre and unprecedented manner," Tom Amodio, an attorney for the bar, said in a written statement April 18.
Police were called to Rumrunner's more than 600 times in 2010 and 2011, according to APD. That was more than the nearby Avenue, Anchorage Pub and Panhandle bars combined, and about 9 percent more than busy Chilkoot Charlie's in Spenard.
The high volume of calls may reflect well on the bar, said Brent Cole, an Anchorage lawyer defending Lampkin in the recent assault case. Police calls are a sign that the business wants to avoid taking the law into its own hands, he said.
This is what Kevin Marrese, a waiter at the Hott Stixx restaurant, says he remembers about the night his arm was broken:
A 25-year-old aspiring rapper, Marrese agreed to celebrate a performance one night in mid-November with a late-night stop at Rumrunner's. His buddies wanted to go, he said; he did not. "(It's) usually a place I avoid, because of its reputation," but this time he decided to go along.
One of his friends got in argument in the bar and tempers flashed. Someone was shoved. Just as Marrese turned toward the commotion, a bouncer grabbed him in a chokehold from behind, he said.
Marrese woke up minutes later in a side room, surrounded by about four of his friends and twice as many bouncers. Something was very wrong with his left arm, he said. Bones projected at sickening angles beneath his skin.
"I tried to pick myself up. And I couldn't do it. I instantly knew my arm was broken," he said.
Friends would later tell Marrese that two of the bouncers fell on him as he was dragged, unconscious, from the bar.
Vangilder, the head of Rumrunner's security, said he has never heard that claim. The night Marrese says he was hurt at the bar there was a large fight on the dance floor, Vangilder said.
"People on top of people. That was a huge mess, it was a huge brawl. He was on the bottom of it," Vangilder said.
Marrese described his encounter and injuries in an email to the Daily News at the time, five months before the recent criminal charges against the bar became public.
"The severe lack of training of their bouncers is not helping the problem at all. The violence at that place is almost on a schedule," Marrese wrote. "Their ignorant lack of a reaction to the growing violence has literally put my life on hold ... and the owners refuse to even acknowledge it happened."
Unlike states such as California and New York, Alaska does not require bouncers to undergo criminal background checks or complete mandatory training before starting work.
After a 24-year-old died in a struggle with bouncers at Chilkoot Charlie's in 2004, lawmakers and Anchorage Assembly members talked about mandating some form of bouncer training.
The new rules never materialized, though the Anchorage Cabaret, Hotel, Restaurant and Retailers Association began offering optional classes for bouncers and bar security in 2005.
As long as the liquor industry group was moving quickly to address the problem, there was no need for the Assembly to pass an ordinance to require training, late downtown Assemblyman Allan Tesche said at the time.
Rumrunner's owner, Basilio Gallo, is listed as a board member of Anchorage CHARR. The organization's website says the bouncer training is still available.
An attorney for Rumrunner's did not respond when asked if bouncers at the bar, including Lampkin, completed the training.
Vangilder, the security head, said current Rumrunner's bouncers have not completed the training, but may do so this summer. The bar has held two security meetings with a CHARR representative over the past two months, he said.
"We have a big operations manual that has been recently printed out so every bouncer has a copy of it, knows what's expected, knows how we treat different situations," Vangilder said.
The bar does not require background checks of bouncers, he said, though that too is being considered. The security manager's own criminal record includes convictions for driving under the influence in 2005 and 2010.
The state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which regulates sales of alcohol, has issued Rumrunner's at least nine "notices of violations" since 2010, according to the City Clerk's office. The Public Safety Department dismissed at least one of the accusations: that 19-year-old Bristol Palin was illegally allowed into the bar. Other accusations, including the claim that a Rumrunner's employee illegally sold alcohol on a bus ferrying customers between the Anchorage bar and a sister bar in Mat-Su, led to criminal charges against employees.
One employee, David Gallo, pleaded guilty to the illegal sale of alcohol on the shuttle, court records show. Gallo admitted he knew he was selling beverages illegally but was doing so at the direction of then-Rumrunner's manager Mike Shomer, according to the notice of violation. Another employee faces a charge of selling alcohol to an underage person on Feb. 11, according to notice of violation.
Another notice of violation, on Nov. 6, was prompted by confusion over exactly who owns Rumrunner's. Shomer was described as a part-owner on state Commerce Department records, but not on the business's liquor license, the ABC Board said. Amodio, the Rumrunner's attorney, said paperwork claiming Shomer was an owner was filed in error and has since been corrected.
Basilio Gallo, a stakeholder in multiple Anchorage and Mat-Su bars and restaurants, is now listed as the sole owner in state records. Gallo's corporation faces a civil lawsuit by 26-year-old Pepsi salesman Johnny Brown, the former Rumrunner's customer who police say was beaten by a bouncer or bouncers at the bar on Oct. 23, prompting the criminal indictment. Brown is asking for at least $100,000 in damages in the suit.
His alleged encounter with bar security and the subsequent cover-up by Rumrunner's are at the heart of the current criminal case against the bar.
The charges against Rumrunner's made public so far offer few details about what police believe happened that night. Brown says he had been drinking with a friend and was drunk, arguing with a woman at the bar, when a bouncer approached him.
Brown said he was preparing to leave when the security guard put him in a chokehold and tossed him outside. Brown punched the bouncer, Murville Lampkin, in the jaw, he said.
The bar's security team leaped on him and cuffed his hands behind his back, he said. Rather than call 911 and report the assault, bouncers hauled Brown into a downstairs office where Lampkin and another man began to beat him, he said.
Brown suffered skull and facial fractures. "I got a broken orbital bone on my left eye. I got eight stitches. The eye tissue came down into my nasal cavity and they had to take the tissue back out of my nose and put it back behind my eye."
Brown's friend, worried about his buddy, called 911, police say.
Former prosecutor Kevin Fitzgerald is the attorney for Rumrunner's in the criminal case. He said Brown was likely "taken down hard" to the ground after landing a sucker punch to the bouncer. But what Brown didn't mention is that his party was involved in some kind of physical confrontation with security at Platinum Jaxx, another downtown bar, before coming to Rumrunner's, Fitzgerald said.
"(Rumrunner's) security was persuaded not to press charges against him, only to have Brown make claims about him being assaulted," he said.
Lampkin's attorney, Brent Cole, said Lampkin no longer works at Rumrunner's. He declined to say if Lampkin quit or was fired.
Either way, Lampkin is eager to tell people what he says really happened, Cole said.
"Both my client and I are looking forward to telling our side of this case, which clearly has not been reported in either the paper or in the charging document."
Roman Gimeno says a bouncer punched him because he taunted the man outside the bar on July 4, 2010. He ended the night in a police car, his dress shirt sopped in his own blood. Bar employees lied to police, saying he was the one who assaulted them, Gimeno said.
Police accused Gimeno of trespassing, assault and destruction of property.
The charges were dropped, court records show, though Gimeno paid Rumrunner's $395.85 for breaking a glass door while attempting to escape from the bouncers. Through his attorney, he apologized to the bouncer who he now says attacked him.
Marrese, the Hott Stixx waiter, said he'd hoped to file a civil suit against Rumrunner's to recover the cost of his medical bills, but he couldn't find a lawyer willing to take the case.
Others customers who claim they were hurt at the bar have sued and lost.
A former Fort Richardson soldier, Bradley Woody, alleged in a 2011 lawsuit that a Rumrunner's bouncer broke his ankle when he tackled Woody at the bar.
A Rumrunner's attorney claimed security footage of the incident would prove the bar faultless in the injury, Woody said, but when the case went to trial, Rumrunner's did not produce the footage.
"Two weeks before the trial they magically didn't have it," said his attorney, Steven Smith.
In testimony in early November, security manager Vangilder said Woody was never handcuffed. Bar policy required that if a customer was cuffed, police had to be called, he said.
Vangilder's remarks came less than two weeks after 26-year-old Johnny Brown was handcuffed after he punched Lampkin in the face outside the bar. Security did not call police..
In an interview by phone Friday, Vangilder said Rumrunner's bouncers may have intended to call police but had not yet done so when Brown's friend called 911.
"If I had to guess, I would say they didn't get to that point yet," said Vangilder, who had not been working at the bar for several months at the time. He returned to the job in March, he said.
Fitzgerald, Rumrunner's attorney in the criminal case, said he didn't know if the bar has a policy requiring bouncers to call police when a patron is handcuffed. Asked if the bar has a written code of conduct for bouncers, Fitzgerald says there is "a general standard," which is "to use no more force than necessary to achieve the goal."
Twitter updates: twitter.com/adn_kylehopkins. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.
By KYLE HOPKINS
Anchorage Daily News


text:
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text:
The Magazine
May 11, 1998, Vol. 3, No. 34 • By JOHN O'SULLIVAN
The editor and translator explain all this carefully enough. Still, the reader is advised to tackle the book in the following order: the introduction; chapter one ("The development of my political thinking"); the epilogue (entitled "In lieu of an epilogue"), in which Djilas is interviewed by his editor about the book's method; back to chapter two; and from there to the end in conventional style. If the reader takes this trouble, he will unroll a fascinating story of how one mind and half a world gradually freed themselves from oppressive utopian delusions.
The mind began with one initial advantage. Although from very early in his youth Djilas was a Communist revolutionary who flung himself wholeheartedly into the struggles against both the prewar Yugoslav government and the German invader, he nursed ambitions to be a poet and novelist. It was correspondingly harder for him than for most apparatchiks to see everything in terms of large historical inevitabilities. He also saw the arrogance of bureaucrats, the petty jealousies of political wives, the actual beaten-down proletarians in the workers' paradise, the personal sacrifices that led to no great social or economic gains, indeed often to squalor and futility.
For many years, however, Djilas seemed unaware that his human sympathies were at war with his ideological convictions. He remained a leading figure in a political movement and, later, regime that murdered tens of thousands of its opponents. Any mental anguish he felt emerged only in disguise. One night in the forest, when he was resting during a retreat before the German army, Djilas awoke to see the face of Christ formed by the branches of trees.
He refrains from drawing dramatic conclusions from this vision. But whether one believes that it was a true vision of Christ signifying that Djilas would be called upon to bear witness to the truth, as he has done, or repressed political doubts emerging through a subconscious shaped by religion, it is surely significant that the vision was of Christ -- and not of Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, or even the young, supposedly more humanistic Marx. Even to a Marxist, it seems, Christ represented love, mercy, atonement, human as well as divine values. And for good reason. What could any of the Marxist saints have said to help one struggling with the guilt of wartime brutalities and political crimes? Doubtless something along the lines of: "Spare the old party comrades, my son, and murder only as many Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and class enemies as revolutionary necessity dictates." Not the message to soothe a troubled soul or to compel repentance and redress.
For another ten years, Djilas lived with his doubts as one of the five most senior Yugoslav Communists in an exceptionally stormy political period. He personally negotiated with Stalin both during the war and in the run-up to the Stalin-Tito break. He wrote the main theoretical philippics justifying Tito's independent "national communism." He met the leading East European Communists in a (foredoomed) attempt to gain their support against Moscow. And, fortunately for us, he recorded all these encounters with an unsparing novelist's eye.
Even while he still hero-worshiped Stalin, for instance, he was not blind to the cowardice of Stalin's court, nor to the growing moral corruption of the Communist aristocracy. On one occasion, Stalin firmly denied that the Netherlands were part of "Benelux" (they are in fact represented by the "ne"), at which both Politburo members and foreign Communists became thoughtful, gazed intently at the tablecloth, nodded, etc. On another, Georgi Dimitrov, the Bulgarian Communist leader, who in 1933 had inspired the Left worldwide with his heroic defiance of the Nazis at the Reichstag trial, weakly endorsed Moscow's excommunication of the Yugoslav Communists after personally urging Djilas to stand firm. There is something tragic as well as comic in these episodes: Marxism had transformed men who had once been brave, idealistic revolutionaries into lost souls, brutal to those below, servile to those above. Over time, Djilas drew the conclusion that human beings cannot build Utopia.


text:
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Remote GO!
One-stop PC remote control and home entertainment
Remote GO! links PCs, tablets, smartphones, and TVs wirelessly through a LAN cable and router. It allows you to stream multimedia content from PC to your HDTV, access your computer anywhere using smart devices at home, and easily transfer files to and from your PC. Now upgraded with new Cloud GO!, which syncs your multiple cloud storage accounts and backs up content to your PC with one click.
Set up Your Home PC with Remote GO!
Fan Xpert 2
Comprehensive controls for the perfect cool and quiet balance
For more fine-tuned control, hardware-level ASUS Fan Xpert 2 features Fan Auto Tuning, providing a tailored fan speed setting for each 4-pin/3-pin CPU and chassis fan with exclusive automatic fan speed detection. This achieves the best balance of cooling performance and low noise. It even provides an RPM Fixed Mode for users who wish to reduce noise levels to near 0dB using a specific fan speed setting.
Fan Auto Tuning Mode
Scans fan parameters through exclusive automatic speed detection to provide custom settings for each fan with a single click. This achieves the best cooling for your components beyond just the mere number of fans in your case. Fan Xpert 2 delivers individual data and control for each 4-pin/3-pin CPU and chassis fan connected to your motherboard as well as built-in fan profiles to deliver cooling that is as automated or as customizable as you need it to be.
New UEFI BIOS – friendlier and more Intuitive
Exclusive EZ Mode adds useful info to become even easier
Media-renowned UEFI BIOS from ASUS provides the smoothest mouse-controlled graphical BIOS, and now features more intuitive functions to quickly take you to favorite BIOS pages and frequently-accessed settings through custom shortcuts. You can even write quick notes in-BIOS for future reference, view an activity log of setting changes and modifications, and rename SATA ports. EZ Mode has a whole new look, upgraded with extra-friendly capabilities like detailed fan controls, XMP profile settings, SATA information, and fast clock adjustment. Together, these perfect your BIOS experience.
USB 3.0 Boost (UASP Support)
170% faster transfer speeds than traditional USB 3.0
ASUS USB 3.0 Boost technology supports UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) USB 3.0 in Windows 8. With USB 3.0 Boost technology, a USB device's transmission speed is significantly increased up to 170%, adding to already fast USB 3.0 performance. ASUS software automatically accelerates data rates for compatible USB 3.0 peripherals without any user interaction.
Network iControl
Real-time network bandwidth management
One click to prioritize network traffic for applications you're currently using or set up favorite profiles to run at specific times. Avoid network congestion, speed up downloading, and make sure online gaming runs optimized, all through an intuitive user interface.
AI Suite 3
One-stop access to innovative ASUS features
ASUS AI Suite 3 offers a brand new user experience through a clearer and more attractive interface with support for larger monitors. It consolidates all exclusive ASUS features into one simple-to-use package, allowing you to supervise overclocking, energy consumption, fan speeds, voltages and more. This all-in-one app offers diverse and easy to use functionality, with no need to switch back and forth between different utilities.
Enhanced memory compatibility: save time on trial and error
Memory issues can be difficult to diagnose and even harder to fix or work around. If RAM problems are preventing your system from booting, MemOK! helps by automatically loading failsafe settings to enable basic functionality with a simple push of a button on the motherboard. This troubleshooting feature saves you time and annoyance, and adds to the confidence of DIY builders.
Dedicated direct BIOS access button
Designed for those requiring frequent BIOS access, users can easily enter the BIOS when the PC is on standby power with a simple press of a button. It saves you time during boot-up as you don't have to repeatedly press the DEL key. Convenience and ease at their best!
ASUS 5X Protection
All-round protection provides the best quality, reliability, and durability
ASUS motherboards guard your PC with 5X Protection. We use quality components like DIGI+ VRM digital power design for precise CPU power on demand, ESD units tested to strict standards that eliminate electrostatic interference, and resettable fuses around DRAM slots to prevent overcurrent and short-circuit damage. We also use corrosion-resistant back I/O shields, all examples of ASUS providing the best possible reliability and durability.
4K Ultra HD ready
Discover future visual experiences
Following up on popular 1080p full HD, 4K Ultra HD is the next big thing, and you're ready for the upgrade thanks to integrated graphics that natively support up to 4096 x 2160 via HDMI or DisplayPort. That's four times the pixel count of 1080p (1920 x 1080), offering incredible visual clarity, detail, and realism.
Intel® LGA1150 4th Generation Core™ i7/Core™ i5/Core™ i3/Pentium®/Celeron® Processors Ready
This motherboard supports Intel® 4th generation Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors in the LGA1150 package, with iGPU, memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support onboard graphics output with dedicated chipsets, 2-channel (4 DIMM) DDR3 memory and 16 PCI Express 3.0/2.0 lanes. This provides great graphics performance. Intel® 4th generation Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors are among the most powerful and energy efficient CPUs in the world.
Intel® Z87 Express Chipset
The Intel® Z87 Express Chipset is a single-chipset design that supports socket LGA1150 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7/i5/i3/Pentium®/Celeron® processors. It provides improved performance by utilizing serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. Additionally, Z87 provides a maximum 6 USB 3.0 ports and 6 SATA 6Gb/s ports for faster data retrieval. Moreover, the Intel® Z87 Express Chipset also supports iGPU functions, letting users enjoy the latest Intel integrated graphics performance.
Motherboards are EU Energy-related Products (ErP) ready, which requires products meet high efficiency standards with regards to energy consumption. This is in line with the ASUS vision of creating environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient products through design and innovation that reduce the carbon footprint of products and thus mitigate ecological impact.
Filter Results
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: specs
Cons: requires bios update before you can use supported cpu's.
Other Thoughts: RMA is an absolute nightmare and failure.. one month and still a dead motherboard
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Works for me.
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: Perhaps this will help someone...
Cons: The BIOS needed an update before my i7-4790k would post, and out of three ways to update the bios, the CPU only worked after using the Windows utility method. The built-in & DOS utilities appeared to work... BIOS would flash and machine would post with an i3 CPU, but the i7-4790k only worked after using the windows utility (available for download from ASUS).
Other Thoughts: mileage may vary but I'm happy with it. Be prepared to have a spare, older, socket 1150 CPU around if you plan to install a later model CPU as you may need to flash the board. Also be prepared to install windows in order to do this.
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it works
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: The color
Cons: The integrated audio was broken since I bought it, but I was able to just use an audio card. The motherboard sometimes refuses to start, and shuts off on its own.
Manufacturer Response:
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This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: cheap price
Cons: After about 9 months started blue screening, downloaded latest bios and installed, this totally crashed the system. Sent back to Asus, they said they fixed it and sent it back quickly, I asked them what they fixed and got no response after multiple inquiries. After receiving, could not boot off existing mirrored hard drives. Gave up and started fresh install, fresh install kept failing, after multiple attempts, disconnected one of the raid drives, then install completed sucessfully. After wards, was unable to add the second mirrored drive back, finally gave up. Also, my premade asus computer I bought at the same time is crashing once a day also, I guess asus just sucks.
Other Thoughts: The last two computers I built both lasted about 8 years each.
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Inconsistent performance
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: Price
Cons: Build quality
Other Thoughts: I purchased one of these new in July 2013 for a new 4770k build. The original build was:
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Bios clock couldn't keep time
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: It was ok before clock issue.
Cons: I assembled my computer with this motherboard on Oct 2013 and after passing a year clock cannot keep time. It stops after turning the machine off and during working, time goes back suddenly. If I synchronize the clock, it works for a while and then issue comes back again, either time stops or goes back.
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Cannot RMA
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: Worked great for what I was doing. Never ran into any issues until recently (see cons)
Cons: The customer service experience with Asus has been horrible for me so far. It died on me without warning one day. And when I try to do a RMA it will not take my serial at all so I can't even try and get it replaced under warranty without the SN. I tried directly contacting Asus several times through phone and the line is either always busy or doesn't exist anymore for their components department.
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This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: Very stable, haven't had any issues with this.
Cons: None.
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Great Board!
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: I've had this board for over a year now and I've had no problems that anyone has stated. My board came in undamaged, I installed everything myself, this being my FIRST build ever. Everything went nice and smooth. Asus had a nice manual that explained a lot of things to me that I didn't understand and their support has been phenomenal. I have bugged them several times on their forums and through support and they have always replied in a timely fashion. This board performs amazingly in all fashions. I have had no problems overclocking my i7 4770k, nor have I had even a burp in getting my 2400 MHz ram to post right out of the box. XMP profiles work like a breeze. The new BIOS was very confusing at first but after a little exploring I found everything I needed. Asus Suite III has served me well once I got it all straightened out. (See Cons). Right out of the box, never overclocking a day in my life I had my i7 cruising smoothly at 4.3 GHz, which is great considering most struggle beyond 4.1 from what I've read. I gained 16% in performance from overclocking by clicking 1 button in the Suite. Can't beat that with a stick!
Cons: The only real con that I have with this board is the disk that came with it. I got this board shortly after z87 hit the shelves and I had to update everything that I installed. Normally this isn't a big deal but Asus Suite III is a nightmare unless you happen to find the right forum posts. They have an Asus Suite Cleaner that you can download to remove Asus Suite completely and cleanly, and you should before every update. Once I figured all this out, after hours of forum search on the ROG forums, Asus Suite III became a definite PRO. I wish it had bought a slightly higher end board for more fan ports and SATA ports. I filled this board a lot faster than I had planned originally.
Other Thoughts: Asus has served me well once again. I've turned a lot of my friends to Asus fanboys and not one has given me a reason to second guess that. I really appreciate the wonderful products. BTW, I love my new GTX 970 Strix Edition that my GF bought me. Keep on keepin' on! Thanks again guys!
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Great, almost
This review is from: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 Intel Z87 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
Pros: Cheap (Newer version released shortly after I bought this one)
Cons: One fan header is "dead." The fan runs full speed all of the time because the Board does not detect it on the BIOS.
Other Thoughts: Cons are minor when considering the actual logical aspects of the board. If you are looking for a cheap motherboard, this is the way to go. However, the Z97 series is out now as a newer version.
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"Hear this, O Job. Stop and consider the wondrous works of God." –Job 37:14
How often we hear and say the wrong words in times of suffering. How often we see and do the wrong things in moments of hardship. Well-intentioned attempts to bring comfort, reduce pain, or solve problems fall far short of what is true or helpful for a true sufferer. It's so easy err excessively on the side of careless truth (speaking accurately, but without compassion) or empty comfort (making false promises or assurances with no substance). And this is not a new problem–possibly the earliest manuscript known to civilization centers on the human problem of suffering and from the beginning, both those suffering and their loved ones have struggled in their response. How difficult it is for us to simply maintain silence and grieve with one another (as Job's friends initially did) and how tempting it is to respond to our cultural training to circumvent the discomfort by ignoring, belittling, excusing, explaining, or pacifying the source of pain rather than truly and deeply walking through the grieving process with them. It's easier, but it's not better.
While there is no universal algorithm for comfort in grief (as people respond in varying ways based on their nature, disposition, and stage in the process and what may feel comforting and compassionate to one person may feel abrupt or presumptuous to another and by God's grace alone might we obtain the wisdom to comfort those suffering), a universal principle rings true. It seems Elihu encapsulates this in the best human response in all the book. His words ring of truth in content and love in demeanor and I suspect may in fact be prophetically speaking the very words on the creator and destroyer of the divinely treacherous whirlwind. After listening, and listening, and listening some more, he speaks respectful rebuke to the lies and gentle truth to Job culminating in what I believe is the best most concise and beautiful exhortation Job could possibly receive. "Hear this, O Job. Stop and Consider the Wondrous Works of God."
Hear this –Oh Job—you've been hearing lies, condemnations, and distortions of truth. You've been accused by the great deceiver, betrayed by your own wife, shunned by your nearest friends. You've been conscience stricken and guilt-ridden. The assault of the enemy has been nothing short of brutal. He's had a hay day not only with your physical body, but with your mind and emotions. You've been listening to voices whisper of your hidden sin, your worthless life, your certain destruction, your deserving suffering. You've wrestled with the notion that God is not who you thought he was—that he is ruthless, uncompassionate, merciless, and even cruel. And it all seems to line up with your emotions and your circumstances. You don't have a paradigm for an infinitely holy, just, and merciful God who would allow the torment and pain you are enduring. Oh that we might insert our name and stop listening to ourselves, our thoughts, and even our friends and learn the discipline of preaching truth to our souls, critically evaluating everything which naturally makes its way into our thought pattern and willfully ordering it where it belongs.
O Job!—Each heart knows his own suffering, and no one can share in joy…. We can empathize, we can love on, we can weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn. But no human friend can fully share in the entirety of a trial. We are uniquely and individually fitted for specific roles, domains, and services and as such we are given corresponding gifts, talents and experiences with the deliberate intention of producing the character and response to achieve that end. We are, in one sense, alone in our suffering, and yet there seems to be a one who has even greater wisdom than our wisest friends and deeper insight than our sincerest pursuit (He 2:18). We are gracefully being refined through trials, yet have a knowledge of one who has been fully perfected through them. There is one whose eyes are in every place keeping watch over the souls of all who not only knows more fully, but also has experienced more painfully every root of the wounds inflicted on mankind and he does not stand idly by, but pierces through the silence with the ferocity of a lion and a the compassion of a lamb beckoning a unique and secret name known only by him and his sheep.
Stop—To be placed in the midst of a trial is to be thrown upstream into a river of despair–to even stop from flowing further downward requires swimming. And swimming is the last thought that comes to mind in a trial. How quickly and easily we spiral out of control when life gets messy. It starts out bearable, but as we strain to analyze, to problem solve, to trouble shoot, to figure out what to do and how to resolve it, the human mind is weakened and becomes increasingly vulnerable to whatever may be spoken to it. It inevitably becomes introspective and self-centered—because that is where the turmoil is most fervently bubbling up. We begin to prioritize fixing the situation and ending pain over and above the valuable process of walking through it and learning from it. We would rather be done with it than grow from it. We'd prefer an easy out…a 'luxury' which the saints of God are never privy to. Oh that we'd learn the discipline of learning to simply stop! To be still and know, to dare to be silent in the midst of a storm and be willing to hear truth regardless of how painful it sounds and willing to risk the potential for breeding further disappointment if nothing is heard immediately.
and Consider—distinguished from learning new information or seeking mysterious revelation, both of which a true sufferer has little emotional energy to pursue, considering is a simple but active recollection of things already known. Considering is similar to meditating, remembering, pondering. It's so basic we overlook it and instead strain forward in exhaustion. Elihu simply calls him and God would often call us to stop running from the pain and begin considering truth and reality, to stop ignoring the difficulty and start seeing it in light of something far greater, to stop gazing inwardly and turn his eyes upward.
the Wondrous Works–Never are we exhorted to follow a nice idea nor do we cling to an empty hope rooted in wishful thinking. No, we have a knowledge of certain promises made by an Almighty King who has proven himself faithful in more ways than we can count and in greater degree than we will ever know. He has given us all brains with the intellectual capacity to recall events and a heart to be deeply and profoundly moved by such happenings. Some have happened to us personally, some to those we know well, and others to those weave never met. Some we recall with a beaming smile, others with great somberness. But no one with any level of sanity whatsoever can say with a clear conscious that they've not witnessed His wondrous works. In fact, pure spiritual eyes could see nothing else. Even moments and times of great distress contain firstfruits of his wonder which will one day be potential zed if we can only persevere in hope, not wishing for what we want, but banking on what we've been promised by the one whose track record speaks for itself.
of God. God—the Father of Compassion and the God of all comfort, the Alpha and the Omega the one who was in the beginning, is in the middle and will always be. The one who condescended from glory to futility, who traded Eden for a cross, the one who tore the curtain of separation, and the one who walked out of his grave victoriously. How futile, how depressing, and how fruitless to gaze inwardly at the brokenness, ugliness and insufficiency that is so terrifyingly revealed during suffering when infinite beauty is only a humble yet bold glance upward. See the sin in a moment, take note of its source with carefulness, rebuke it immediately with all authority, and gaze eternally with all gratitude at the grace which destroyed it.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. –Helen H. Lemmel, 1922


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Mumbai: Select umpires would be offered an annual retainership from the 2006-07 season. The BCCI's Umpires' Committee, which met here on Wednesday, also proposed a revision in match fee per day from Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 5,000.
Some of the other decisions taken were: to introduce a fast track system to encourage the retired first class cricketers to look at umpiring as a career option, to conduct a qualifying examination (in June-July 2006) for retired first class cricketers in the under 45 age group and to review the present panel of BCCI Umpires at the conclusion of the 2005-06 season.
"We are looking for a sponsor for the BCCI Panel of Umpires,'' said Niranjan Shah, Secretary, BCCI. Special Correspondent
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Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters about the secretly taped video from one of his campaign fundraising events in Costa Mesa, Calif., Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak) / AP
The Occupy movement could have paid Mitt Romney for putting it so bluntly. As TV images of its one-year anniversary rally against income inequality aired Monday, so did a video of the Republican presidential nominee speaking at a $50,000-a-plate fundraiser in May. In the video, Romney writes off voters on public assistance, saying, �My job is not to worry about those people. I�ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.�
�Those people� of Romney�s depiction are the 47 percent of Americans whom he claims both pay no income taxes and �believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it.�
So that�s how he thinks of Americans in poverty.
Of course it�s not just the non-working poor who pay no federal income taxes. A disproportionate number of the 46 percent of Americans who owed none in 2011 (60 percent) are workers of low and lower-middle income, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. About 44 percent are elderly (more than 16 million get targeted tax breaks for seniors), and a few thousand are very rich people. Six of the 400 highest-earning households in 2009 owed no income taxes, thanks to George W. Bush-era tax policies. Those would be among Romney�s base, and they might balk at being described as thinking of themselves as victims.
And even paying no federal income tax does not make people the slackards Romney depicts. They pay other taxes, including Social Security and Medicare, sales taxes, property taxes (directly or indirectly), and state and local taxes.
There�s also no getting around the fact that poverty is on the rise. The official poverty rate today is estimated to be 15.7 percent, according to a range of bipartisan economists and researchers surveyed by the Associated Press. That puts poverty on track to hit its highest level since 1965, the year after Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty. And it makes Romney�s attitude of contempt, blame and disregard for the poor both offensive and alarming.
A record 44.7 million people received food stamps in fiscal year 2011, compared to 28.2 million in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal, which says one in seven Americans qualifies.
Much is responsible. The recession and housing bust hit even suburban households, causing some people in $500,000 homes to depend on food stamps. Long-term changes in the economy, and a loss of jobs from globalization, have played their part.
But whatever the reasons, a steady drumbeat from hot-headed conservative talk show hosts down to Wall Street Journal editorial writers have so demonized government assistance to the needy that they do not hesitate to place the blame for poverty on the shoulders of those this economy has hit the hardest.
No one, Democrat or Republican, even seems to be talking about the poor in this campaign, except for the Occupiers, who have been so marginalized that little is left of the movement a year later. Democrats focus on the middle class, and Republicans blame entitlements � rather than, say, two wars or tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans � for America�s financial problems. Then they call for more tax cuts to fix the problem.
A recent Journal editorial, while acknowledging that the recession and feeble recovery have expanded the number of people who need food assistance, still concluded, �voters are going to have to clean out a lot more spenders in November if they want real change.�
Ironically, 48 percent of Americans � almost exactly the percentage Romney said he doesn�t care about � do not think he cares about them, according to a recent CBS/New York Times poll. They don�t think he understands the needs and problems of people like them.
He clearly doesn�t, when he tells young people who can�t afford college to borrow from their parents. In similar vein Monday, Republican Congressman Steve King complained to the Register editorial board about �this overgrown nanny state that we have.� He said people who aren�t working have lost �the culture� of work. �Don�t expect somebody to come to you with a job,� he said. �Go look. Look harder. If you still say it�s impossible, go create a job.�
Neither man can quite imagine having no family resources.
If there were any question, Romney�s candid remarks in the Boca Raton, Fla., fundraiser reveal just how much is at stake this election for people who do not share his wealth or his standing. If people just voted their own economic interests, it should be a cakewalk to re-election for President Obama.
But as we�ve seen, people often do not vote their economic self-interests. They vote on guns and gays and immigrants, on notions of who�s an insider or outsider, instead of which candidate�s policies could actually help them get ahead.
The old bumper sticker says if you�re not angry, you aren�t paying attention. By now, the other half, the 99 percent or however you want to quantify this group of Americans, ought to be extremely ticked off.