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Barack Obama Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Bill Clinton George W. Bush Jesse Jackson Sarah Palin
The ascendency of George W. Bush to the presidency exposes stark dissatisfaction in the United States.
George W. Bush's and Dick Cheney's 'hearts' are in the right place.
When George W.
To a degree that's hard to appreciate outside Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson's impending move to Washington to become Secretary of Health and Human Services will transform this state's politics. Now entering his fifteenth year as governor, Thompson has for so long and so completely dominated our political life that we are used to mapping its history in Steinbergian epochs. There is Old Wisconsin, a receding green landscape where one can still glimpse the tiny figures of Fighting Bob La Follette, Father Groppi, Gaylord Nelson and the circling ghost of Joe McCarthy. And then there is Today's Wisconsin, an eternal, life-sized present, physically more akin to northern New Jersey and better known as "Tommy's Place." That yet another political world will soon come into view has us more than confused. We are dazed with hope. We even seem to be breathing differently.
But enough about us. What can we tell you about our "man from Elroy," the tiny farming town, deep in our coldest sticks, that is Thompson's lifelong home and the place he long represented in the State Assembly?
First, don't underestimate him. Before becoming governor, Thompson's twenty-year career in the State Assembly was distinguished only by painstaking party hacking and strident but ineffective advocacy of then still unfashionable right-wing views. Among liberals, his election as governor was greeted as a brief hiccup in state politics largely attributable to a Rustbelt recession that still resisted sleep here. Thompson was thought to be nasty but a rube, sufficiently at odds with the state's centrist political culture to be transient in his power.
Boy, were they wrong. Upon taking office, Thompson moved immediately to tighten his control of the state apparatus, overrunning Wisconsin's traditionally independent civil service with a small army of intensely loyal and openly political appointees. He patronized continuously and at scale, afterward tapping a river of corporate cash to float easily from one landslide re-election to the next. And he simply rolled legislative Democrats, stabbing them to death with his magic veto pen. Wisconsin grants its governors the unusual power to strike not just line items but individual words and numbers, and to reduce any proposed expenditure. Used infrequently before Thompson, the power in theory makes legislative budgets the equivalent of phone books, ready for gubernatorial cut and paste. Thompson made theory practice, boldly invoking the power some 2,000 times to shape law in his own image, and not once was he overridden. Make no mistake about it--the rube ruled.
Second, don't box him ideologically. Thompson signed one of the nation's most punitive late-term abortion bans (later overturned, with many others, by the US Supreme Court) and is on record as believing that abortion should be criminalized except where necessary to save a woman's life, or in cases of rape or incest. But he's also strongly defended stem-cell researchers (who use extracted embryo cells) at the state university and worked with Madison's liberal US Representative Tammy Baldwin, who happens to be an open lesbian, on women's healthcare concerns.
He has crusaded ceaselessly against welfare recipients, eventually gaining national renown by time-limiting their eligibility for support. (This Wisconsin "miracle" is hardly that. It achieved massive reductions in welfare caseloads by simply losing track of former recipients or dissolving them in a sea of working poor.) But he's also been quicker than other welfare "reformers" to help those once on welfare rolls with expanded childcare assistance and health insurance, and extended those benefits to many others. He killed light rail in Milwaukee and is a god for the state's highway lobby. His most enduring legacy, indeed, won't be welfare reform but sprawl. However, as chairman of Amtrak, he's also recently promoted high-speed rail in the Midwest. As anti-union as the next Republican, he's supported joint labor-management efforts at worker training and job retention. And so on. Always happy to throw big bloody chunks of red meat to the right, Thompson makes deals with others, too. His only limit: "if business does not object."
Third, watch out. Thompson's intelligence and near-feral sense of power, along with his longstanding ties to the Bush family, samurai devotion to the Republican Party and close attention to political detail (not to mention his polished self-caricature as a happy Babbitt from the heartland, brimming with confidence and good cheer interrupted only by occasional tearful confessions of how much he loves public service, or the lightning decapitation of a political opponent) make him a formidable political force. Add in several hundred billion dollars in HHS programs and tens of thousands of lines of amendable administrative program code, and you have something worth worrying seriously about.
Worth emphasizing here is that Thompson is not another half-cocked James Watt. By nature--and despite his Zeus-like reign in Wisconsin--he is a team player who treasures political discipline. But as a political pro, he seldom shows his hand before he plays it, and it is seldom possible to predict just what that play will be. You can only rest uneasy that whatever it is it will come at you full-bore. Prudence recommends both a readiness to respond in kind and more than the usual openness to the possibility of tactical alliance.
Good luck, America.
Far more federal investigators. Many more prosecutions of illegal immigrants. The continuing dominant role of the war on drugs. A decreasing emphasis on white-collar crime. More and more time required for the completion of criminal prosecutions. The unchanging reluctance of federal prosecutors to deal with brutal police officers. Fewer audits for corporate America.
Those are some of the important ingredients of the Clinton legacy. While President Clinton's influence was felt throughout the federal government, it is in the area of law enforcement that some of his Administration's most striking aspects can be documented. Considered together, they point to an Administration that, while talking about liberal values, was extremely successful in capturing the political support of a law-and-order constituency that for many years had mostly backed the GOP.
Often, the role of the White House was relatively minor. But since President Clinton has casually claimed credit for many good things that happened, whatever the size of his contribution, it seems only fair to judge his performance by that same standard. And based on such a review, it is clear that George W. Bush should have little trouble carrying on much of the Clinton tradition.
Headcount and Spending
Perhaps the most startling development of the Clinton years was the change in the basic makeup of the federal government. During the recent election campaign, one of Bush's favorite lines concerned Vice President Al Gore's alleged lust for big government. But as Gore noted in very general terms, the federal government shrank during the Clinton years. With the end of the cold war, the number of uniformed personnel in the military went down. Significantly, however, the 1999 federal payroll listed almost 25 percent fewer civilian employees--in relation to population--than it did in 1992. Meanwhile, the number of criminal investigators was increasing. In 1992 there was one criminal investigator for every thirty federal employees. In 1999 there was one criminal investigator for every twenty employees. With no room for discussion, Clinton is leaving us with a government that has become more concerned with enforcing the law and investigating the people, and less able to provide the public with a range of other services.
Given the overall decline in government employees, it is not surprising that direct federal expenditures did not increase during these years. In constant dollars, payments amounted to $5,694 for each American in 1992, $5,647 in 1999.
An agency-by-agency breakdown of the changes in federal spending, however, provides additional insight about the government's increasing enforcement and investigative roles. We have already mentioned the decline in military personnel. Measured in constant dollars this drop was substantial: from $1,034 per person in 1993 to $871 in 1999. But, accelerated in part by Vice President Gore's "reinventing government" effort, spending by many agencies not under the Defense Department umbrella, including the departments of Agriculture, Treasury and Housing and Urban Development, also declined. The EPA was down 15 percent, other regulatory agencies dropped by 29 percent, the Energy Department was off by 28 percent and NASA dropped by 21 percent.
But hold on. A few agencies bucked the downward trend. Leading this much smaller pack was the Justice Department, where constant per capita spending jumped by 72 percent.
Why is this? Well, with Clinton and the Republicans competing to outspend each other in funding the always popular "war on crime," the startling success of Justice in the budget battles was predictable. Although the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Bureau of Prisons were among the biggest winners within the department, it is also worth noting that the Clinton Administration's FBI is larger today--both in raw numbers and in relation to population--than at any time in history, including World War II, the cold war and the period of civil disturbances related to the Vietnam War and after the assassination of Martin Luther King. Individuals listed with the occupational specialty of "intelligence officer" nearly quintupled, jumping from 224 to 1,025.
Criminal Enforcement
More federal enforcers and more enforcement dollars might be assumed to translate automatically into more federal prosecutions. But over the years, while the number of prosecutions has edged higher and higher, the annual number of such actions has varied: It was relatively high in 1993, slumped significantly in 1994 and then began going up again. According to Justice Department data, upon which most of this analysis rests, the prosecution count jumped sharply in 1998, to 82,071. (Because the department has withheld 1999 data from us, enforcement information about the last full year of the Clinton Administration is not now available. But court data suggest that in 1999 federal prosecutions reached an all-time high.)
§ Immigration. Immigration matters made up a major part of the recent spurt in indictments. In fact, such actions more than doubled during the Clinton years, jumping from 7,335 in 1993 to 14,616 in 1998. (Once again, court data indicate that immigration prosecutions continued their dramatic rise in 1999.) The recent jump in immigration prosecutions is the major reason that the overall number of federal court cases has increased at a faster rate than at any time since the Nixon Administration launched the war on drugs and ordered federal prosecutors to go after Vietnam War draft dodgers. The surge in immigration prosecutions followed an agreement by the Administration and Congress to step up border control efforts through the simple expedient of hiring many more INS agents.
§ Drugs. For many years the effort to combat the sale and use of illegal drugs has dominated the federal enforcement agenda. From 1993 to 1998, for example, drug cases consistently made up more than one-third of all federal prosecutions. By comparison, fewer than one out of ten prosecutions during the same period were classified by the Justice Department as involving official corruption, environmental and regulatory matters. The sharpest increases in the annual number of federal drug prosecutions came during the Reagan and Bush years. By contrast, in the early Clinton years drug prosecutions actually declined slightly and then began inching higher, reaching 30,014 in 1998. This total is more than three times the 8,938 such actions in 1981. (The overwhelming impact of the drug war on the federal system is hard to exaggerate. In recent years, for example, drugs have been the criminal offense involved for 42-45 percent of all people sentenced to prison.)
§ Guns. By contrast, there was one specialized area that went through an extraordinarily steep decline during the same period: the enforcement of the nation's gun laws by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Referrals by ATF for federal prosecution declined by 44 percent from 1992 to 1998. (In fairness, the court data suggest that an increase in weapons enforcement actions that began in 1998 continued in 1999.)
A key factor behind the surprising drop in ATF referrals during most of the Clinton years was a 14 percent cut in ATF criminal investigators, mandated by Congress but accepted by the Administration's strategists. Many experienced enforcement officials believe that a second important explanation for the collapse of the ATF was its 1993 raid on the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Their argument: The widespread public criticism of this flawed action profoundly undermined the agency's morale and its will to enforce the law. But no one should forget that the ATF raid itself and the FBI's subsequent horrific effort to end the hostage situation were also dismal parts of the Clinton legacy.
The sharp decline in ATF referrals in the 1992-98 period became a significant political issue in the presidential campaign when the Republicans and the National Rifle Association teamed up to attack the Administration's enforcement priorities. With some legitimacy they joined in asking why Clinton used a series of shooting incidents during the period to make high-publicity requests that Congress pass new gun-control laws when his Administration was not fully enforcing the ones already on the books. Because Congress was ultimately responsible for cutting the ATF budget, the Republican criticism also contained a good dash of hypocrisy.
§ Police Brutality. Sometimes the priorities that go unchanged, the dogs that don't bark, are as revealing as those that do. One example: When local jurisdictions fail to punish brutal police officers and prison guards, the federal government has the option of bringing criminal charges against the offenders, usually under one of two laws. But for many years federal prosecutors have been reluctant to pursue this approach. During the past twelve years, federal prosecutors appointed by both former President Bush and President Clinton have obtained indictments in only 3 percent of all such matters referred to them by the FBI. (By comparison, federal prosecutors have consistently prosecuted a much larger proportion of the matters presented to them concerning another kind of government abuse--official corruption.) In 1998, for example, 48 percent of these other matters resulted in an indictment. Thus the Clinton legacy in this sensitive area simply continued the federal practice of the past quarter-century under both Democratic and Republican Presidents.
The Wheels of Justice
In addition to the specifics of what laws were or were not enforced, the data we have obtained and analyzed also highlight broader problems in the federal justice system. One concerns the startling long-term increase in the time required to complete a case in federal court. At the beginning of the Reagan Administration the median time was ninety-nine days. At the end it was 130. At the beginning of the Bush years the median was 141 days; by the end it was 160. The pattern continued during the Clinton Administration: 168 days in 1993, 205 in 1998. Although the legislature writing the laws and the judges administering the courts bear some responsibility for this explosive change, the vast discretionary powers of the prosecutors appointed by Reagan, Bush and Clinton make them the first among equals.
The doubling of federal prosecution time raises troubling management and budget questions for the Justice Department and the courts. But for those who believe in the American ideas of fairness, and for the hundreds of thousands of defendants being processed through the federal assembly line, there is a second obvious question: Can anyone doubt that justice delayed is justice denied?
Administrative Enforcement
The initiation of criminal charges is not the only way the government works to persuade the American people to do the right thing. A second option is for the government to impose administrative sanctions outside the courts. One of the most conspicuous users of this second kind of federal authority is the Internal Revenue Service. Fully acknowledging that IRS policies are heavily influenced by the decisions of Congress, the tax enforcement patterns of the past few years remain a major part of the Clinton legacy, especially given the vast reach of this agency.
One striking reality here is the sharp decline in all kinds of tax enforcement. During the Clinton years, the overall audit rate for individuals has dropped by half, from 0.66 percent to 0.31 percent. During the same period, corporate audits went through a similar decline--2.9 percent in 1992, 1.51 percent in 1999. The decline in the audit rate for the largest corporations--those with assets of more than $250 million--is also noteworthy. In 1992 more than half of these giants were audited. In 1999 the rate had dropped to only one in three.
As just noted, the Clinton Administration is not solely responsible for the broad degradation of the IRS's enforcement presence. During the past few years conservative forces in Congress have mounted an intense rhetorical attack on the agency, which resulted in budget cuts requiring a reduction in the number of expert revenue agents who have the skills to audit upper-income and corporate tax returns. The tax man has in fact been taking it on the chin for a long time. After a substantial buildup of the IRS during the Reagan years, full-time staff is now 31 percent smaller than it was in 1988, when the cutbacks began.
This decline, and other factors that hit the agency in the early 1980s, have resulted in a dramatic shift in how the American people experience the IRS. In fact, the proportion of taxpayers now required to go through the traditional "face to face" IRS audit is five times lower than it was in 1981.
Perhaps the most surprising Clinton-era development occurred last year when--reversing past practice--low-income taxpayers suddenly stood a greater chance of being audited than high-income taxpayers. Because wealthy taxpayers obviously have more to hide from the government and better opportunities for hiding it, the IRS has historically focused its audits on the rich. In 1999, however, the audit rate for those making $100,000 or more was only 1.15 percent. At the other end of the scale, the rate on simple returns reporting $25,000 or less was 1.36 percent.
The data suggest that the federal government President Clinton leaves behind has become less able to serve the traditional needs of the American people but better equipped to investigate and prosecute them. Clinton gave moving speeches about his concern for African-Americans. But when it came to dealing with brutal police officers--a matter of special concern to black Americans--his government followed the minimalist approach of the Reagan and Bush administrations. After almost every major shooting incident of the past few years, Bill Clinton called for new gun-control programs. But when it came to enforcement, his government seemed to lose its way.
Assuming President-elect Bush succeeds in getting John Ashcroft as his Attorney General, the question is just how much of the current policy this outspoken conservative will actually want to change.
But hold! Isn't it the demand of enlightened people that all within these borders have a right to work without being hassled by the INS or kindred state agency? You can argue whether Linda Chavez treated Marta Mercado, her sometime Guatemalan employee, well or badly, and that poor treatment might disqualify her as Labor Secretary. But the spectacle of Democrats like Senator Tom Daschle solemnly denouncing Chavez for giving work to an undocumented Latina was nauseating.
Here's Chavez, who has appalling views on almost every issue relevant to the job for which she was briefly nominated, and the Democrats finally home in on her for the one decent deed on her record, if you believe the testimony of Marta, to whom Chavez appears to have behaved well.
Chavez has been cruelly taken from them, but what an immense favor Bush/Cheney did the Democrats by putting up Ashcroft and Norton! It's hard to stir up liberal passions over Powell at the State Department or Rice as National Security Adviser, or even O'Neill at Treasury. How could you be worse than Madeleine Albright or Samuel Berger? And who cares about O'Neill, when the effective ruler of the economy is over at the Fed?
But with Ashcroft scheduled for the Justice Department there are rich political and fundraising opportunities for the Democrats, berating the Naderites, We told you so, and painting lurid scenarios of the Klan Grand Wizard taking up residence in the DOJ. Here comes the Beast: Ashcroft, the foe of choice; Ashcroft, the militia-symp; Aschcroft, the racist hero of the old Confederacy. What can you say for the guy, except that he's probably marginally to the left of Eminem, great white hope of the rap crowd and currently in line for four more Grammies.
But will Ashcroft be effectively worse than Attorney General Janet Reno? This time eight years ago she was four months away from incinerating the Branch Davidians at Waco and on the edge of a tenure that has seen her fervent support for the "war on drugs," a k a war on the poor, most especially blacks; her contributions to the crime bill of 1994 and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996; the targeting of minority youth; her complaisance toward expansions in the power of the prosecutorial state against citizens; and onslaughts on the Bill of Rights? It's a tough act to follow.
The environmentalists see similar rich opportunity with Gale Norton, graduate of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, an anti-environmental think tank based in Denver, Colorado, headed by James Watt, greatest fundraiser for environmental causes in our history. No doubt about it, Norton is scarcely nature's friend. Her dreams are of Exxon's Grand Canyon and Disney's Yosemite. But once again, we should retain our perspective.
Consider, for example, Bill Clinton's exit order, banning roads and logging across 58.5 million acres of public land. Then look at the exceptions: Clinton's ban excludes timber sales now in the pipeline, which can be grandfathered in over the next six years. Other huge loopholes include an OK for logging for "ecological reasons," like firebreaks and deer habitat. There's also an OK for roads for mining and grazing allotments, and for fire control. In all, the order envisages a less than 3 percent reduction of total timber sales in national forests, which isn't much.
If she's smart, Norton will reverse the order simply by choosing one of the other options offered in the environmental impact statement that formed the basis of Clinton's order.
There's likely to be a big fight over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where outgoing Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has just done Norton and the oil industry a big favor by advising Clinton that to designate ANWR a national monument would be "a meaningless gesture" that would invite the Republicans to reverse all such designations made in Clinton time. You can read this as a startlingly forthright admission that national-monument status doesn't mean much, which is true; also that Babbitt is as gutless as ever. To have made ANWR a national monument would have drawn a line in the sand, or in this case, the snow, a bit deeper, and made the forthcoming onslaught on ANWR a little tougher for the Bush/Cheney crowd.
What else can Norton do that Babbitt hasn't already set in motion? Not much. Last year Babbitt's Fish and Wildlife Service put a moratorium on the listing of endangered species, and he's smiled on the privatization of public assets through land trades, whereby timber corporations get old growth and we get the cut-over terrain. Salmon protection? The Clinton Administration has let the Republicans off the hook on that one, decreeing that the dams on the Snake River won't be breached. Oil leasing off the continental shelf? For Bush/Cheney it would be political suicide. Reagan tried and had to back off. Norton will go after the National Environmental Protection Act, but here again Babbitt and Gore paved the way, with their habitat conservation plans, which have ushered so many corporate foxes into the coop.
Over at EPA, Christine Todd Whitman may be bad, but she's no James Watt; and at USDA could anyone be worse than Dan Glickman, friend of factory farms and saboteur of organic standards?
So, all in all, the Bush/Cheney directorate has done a fine job of rallying the Democrats, just as the Democrats, with their weak-kneed surrender to the Florida putsch and talk of bipartisanship, have given ammunition to the radicals denouncing the two-party consensus. For the activists, there's plenty of opportunity. Militant green groups, including the reinvigorated Greenpeace, are fired up, and right here on the doorstep is the prospect of a national fight for microradio, whose future has been sabotaged by the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB, with the complicity of that darling of the Democrats, NPR, shepherded through a legislative rider late last year that outlaws new low-power stations in most urban areas.
So we're back where we were in the dawn of Clinton time, with courageous people asserting their rights and defying corporations and the state. What else is new? Welcome to Bush/Cheney time. The basic map hasn't changed.
Why the hell isn't Al Gore--instead of me--doing this?
It's 11:30 in the morning, the third day of the new year, and that's what I am thinking as I sit in a bland conference room on the eighteenth floor of the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami. I am examining the infamous Miami-Dade ballots, the "undervote" punch cards that did not register a presidential preference when processed by tabulation machines on November 7. There were about 10,500 of these ballots (1.6 percent of the votes recorded in Miami-Dade) and up to 60,000 undervotes throughout the state. I've been at it--staring at one ballot at a time--for about two hours. The thrill is gone. The eyestrain has begun.
Only a few people are engaged in this history-making though drudgery-ridden exercise. Six organizations are paying the county $10 an hour for the privilege of reviewing the ballots. Those bothering are an accountant-reporter team from the Miami Herald (which is examining Florida undervotes in all but four small counties), a reporter from the Palm Beach Post, officials from the state Republican Party, a reporter from Inside Edition, several accountants retained by Larry Klayman's Judicial Watch (a conservative outfit that has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Clinton Administration) and yours truly. No Democratic Party officials are participating, and none of the media biggies have shown. A week later, the Wall Street Journal, the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post and others--rather than mount their own reviews--would form a cost-sharing consortium to examine the state's undervotes and overvotes. (The latter are ballots that were recorded bearing more than one vote in the presidential race; the state Supreme Court recount order did not extend to these ballots.)
There is a whimper-not-a-bang feel to the occasion. We sit at individual tables, and temps hold up the ballots. We are not allowed to touch the cards. We gaze at them, searching for dimples, bumps, bulges, punctures, jagged holes, pen marks, pinpricks, rips and hanging, swinging or dislodged chads. And we can judge the ballots entirely as we choose. As Miami-Dade officials repeatedly note, this is not a "recount"; it is an "inspection."
During three days of review, I will examine and consider the meanings of 3,409 ballots from precincts--including African-American neighborhoods that backed Gore and Cuban-American areas that went for Bush--that split the Gore/Bush vote 55 percent to 45 percent in Gore's favor. (The full countywide tally divided 53.2 to 46.8 percent Gore's way.) And the numbers? How many votes did Gore pick up? Would he have won Florida--and taken the nation--had the Miami-Dade recount not been thwarted by, first, the county elections canvassing board and, then, five Republican-appointed members of the US Supreme Court? Well, not so fast. I'll get to the totals. But here's a teaser: The results of this painstaking manual review contradicted the melodramatic spin of both the Bush camp and the Gore gang. The fundamental assertions pushed by each side--for the Bushies, it was that manual recounts are arbitrary acts of folly; for the Gore crowd, it was that if you count them, he will win--were undermined by these castaway ballots.
I and the other journalists arrived at the government center hoping to gather hard-and-fast answers to the murky questions floating in the wake of the messy presidential election. The Republican officials are present to keep an eye on the reporters. They are collecting ammunition, in case anyone in the media declares that Gore nets the 538 votes he needed to win the state. And Klayman is grabbing television face-time. As the review begins, he raises a fuss for the TV news cameras. He has asked that his accountants be allowed to sit at tables and review punch cards alongside the other participants. He claims he wants to speed up the process. It seems he is more interested in monitoring the inspections of others. David Leahy, the county elections supervisor, rejected the request, and Klayman huffs that the county "must have something to hide." His accusations are curious. Leahy, who holds a nonpartisan position, is a member of the three-person canvassing board that shut down the Miami-Dade recount the day before Thanksgiving, after khaki-clad Republican aides flown in from Capitol Hill mounted a thuggish protest on the nineteenth floor. The board's move enraged Democrats. And during the postelection period, Leahy consistently opposed conducting a manual review. (He says he did not believe a Miami-Dade recount would produce enough votes to alter the statewide results.) So why is Klayman giving him a difficult time? Moments later, Klayman informs me the county is worried because "there are irregularities here." He maintains that I will find such suspicious-looking ballots as punch cards with "chads scotch-taped back in."
As I proceed with the inspection, I do not encounter fraudulent-looking ballots, but I do see cards difficult to explain. This is what I am looking at: a seven-and-three-eighths by three-and-a-quarter inch card of heavy paper stock with twelve vertical rows of numbered boxes running from 1 to 312. Voters were instructed to insert this card into the plastic sleeve of the Votomatic machine. Then they turned through a ballot book that was attached to the device and that listed the various contests and candidates. Every time a page was flipped a different portion of the card was aligned beneath holes in the sleeve. To make their selections, voters stuck a sharp stylus into a specific hole--designated by arrows in the ballot book--to punch out the square-shaped chad of the appropriate box on the card. The first row on the card corresponded to the presidential race, and the candidates were assigned even-number slots. If a citizen voted for Bush, he or she broke the chad in box number 4. For Gore, it was box number 6. For libertarian Harry Browne, it was box number 8. And so on. Then the ballots were tallied by machines that counted the holes in the cards.
At my table Ruth Smith, a 76-year-old retired school aide from Queens, lifts each card. She tells me her son-in-law-the-attorney represents Mark Penn, Bill Clinton's pollster, and her grandson also works for Penn. (If Klayman or the Republicans find out that a woman this close to Clinton's most important adviser is handling the ballots--oh my!) The first eight ballots contain no marks on the presidential row. Then I spot several cards with the chad in the 7 box punched out. "What could this mean?" I ask Ivy Korman, the elections department official supervising the public inspection. "Don't ask us," she says. "We have no idea." Immediately I spot other clearly punched 7s and, soon after, a bunch of 5s. These boxes do not correspond to any selection in the ballot book. (More on this mystery later.) And there are many ballots that have no vote on the first row but are filled with well-defined holes elsewhere. Are these from voters who decided not to stab for a presidential candidate but who participated in down-ballot races? Many ballots contain not a scratch, hole, dent or bump. Did people take the trouble to go to the polling place and then not vote in any contest? The lines at voting sites were long, and some citizens left before reaching the Votomatics. Under the rules, their pristine cards were collected and placed with ballots that had been punched. Other ballots are more baffling: those with pinpricks across the portion of the card that does not match any contest in the ballot book. Some with a clear punch-out at 9, 11 or 13--or all three. Cards with punch-outs forming patterns--such as a straight line across the ballot--that are not in sync with actual races. Not everyone followed instructions. Are these willful political statements? Artistic expressions? Acts of ignorance? Or system-caused errors?
Within minutes I come across the ballots that drew me to this conference room. Here's a 6 that is plainly broken. The chad remains in place, but there is a hole along one side of it. How could this not have been a vote for Gore? Chads are sturdy beasts. They do not break on their own accord. Spend a moment with a ballot card and you will see that the Republicans prevaricated during the recount-a-rama when they claimed that ballots are fragile and handling corrupts them. As Leahy--no friend to the Democrats--says, "You can run a ballot through a reader 100 times and you'll never get any chads inadvertently punched out. The ballot won't disintegrate on the basis of normal handling." The hole on this ballot had to have been placed there. Intent is clear. And Florida law--and the statutes in many other states--says intent is what counts. I judge it an unrecorded Gore vote.
But a few ballots later, I am peering at a card with a slight indentation at box 6. No hole. No penetration. The perforation has held fast. What to do? It doesn't look like a manufacturing error. Did the voter--as some GOP spinners speculated--only consider voting for Gore and then, struck by remorse, withdraw the stylus before executing the final thrust? Unlikely, but possible. Then I spot a ballot with a sharp puncture mark in the chad for box 4, but the chad did not detach and no light shines through. Standards, I need standards.
It is not until I examine a couple of hundred ballots that I can construct guidelines. Regarding the 4s and 6s, I divide them into three categories. The first is for when the chad is absent. Why hadn't these cards been counted as votes? Perhaps the reading machines made a mistake or a hanging chad dropped after the card was tabulated. Also in this category, I place easy-to-recognize holes--puncture marks above the chad, openings that are partially blocked by swinging chads. The second category is reserved for marks that definitely seem a product of an effort to punch the card--deep indentations, punctures that allow a pinhole of light to pass, pushed-back chads that are perforated at spots. A fair-minded person looking at these cards would have to admit deliberate action was responsible for the disturbances. I also toss into this category my favorite anomaly: revolving-door chads. These are cards in which the chad completely turned around but remained tightly in place. The dot is now on the back side of the ballot, which likely means that a push of the stylus point spun the chad, as if it were on an axle. As for category three, it is for ballots with a small but discernible blunt or sharp bulge on the chad--a slightly pregnant chad. These marks are debatable. I record these votes, but I would not include them in a count.
As I continue, I find that my standards are not in accord with the rules adopted by the canvassing board during its aborted manual recount, which scrutinized the undervotes from 140 of the county's 614 precincts. (That review resulted in a net gain of 157 votes for Gore, but the precincts examined were heavily Democratic.) The evaluations of that recount were written on the back of the punch cards, and I see many ballots counted as votes for Bush or Gore that would not pass muster under my standards. On a few of these ballots, the barest bulge--do I see it or am I imagining it?--caused the board to award it to a candidate. (Of course, the lawyers of the other candidate challenged the determination.) These close calls are not irregularities; they are judgments. But the point is obvious: A hand recount should proceed under tight rather than loose standards. Especially in Miami--which has a recent history of vote fraud. During a break, a local reporter regales the out-of-towners with basic facts of Miami-Dade: "We account for 90 percent of the immigration fraud in this country. Twenty percent of our economy is underground. Twenty percent of our water is stolen, through meter bypasses. This is the way we do things here." Several feet from the entrance to the conference room is a sign, copies of which are posted by the Commission on Ethics and Public Trust throughout the government center, that reads, We Care About You! If You Have Information About Fraud, Waste, Corruption in Our Community, We Want to Know. Call Us.
By the end of Day Three, with my eyes screaming, I realize that clear answers will not be forthcoming. Republicans were correct to the extent that an attempt to evaluate certain punch cards does place a reviewer in the position of mind reader. But they were wrong in dismissing the value and legitimacy of hand recounts. It would not be difficult to create strict guidelines for a manual review. Slap each ballot on a light table, see if a beam passes through whatever mark is there. Count any ballot with a partially dislodged chad. Skip the subtle bumps and the maybe-it's-something impressions. And a manual recount of the undervotes need not have taken forever. The Klayman accountants, working at two tables, finished their review of the Miami-Dade ballots in less than three days (and Klayman did not immediately announce any findings). A hand review in Miami-Dade and other counties throughout the state--not only the four counties where the Gore team requested recounts--could have led to a more accurate tally without trampling on anyone's right to due process and equal protection.
Would such a recount have rewritten the outcome? Maybe not. After sifting through a third of the Miami-Dade undervote--a large-enough sample on which to reach conclusions while avoiding eye damage--I discover that 59 percent of the ballots contain no marks for President. Adding up the ballots in categories one and two, I unearth 119 votes for Gore and 114 for Bush. A measly gain for Gore. If category-three votes are included--and I wouldn't advise that--Gore's pickup increases by twelve. (After reviewing 4,000 of the Miami-Dade undervotes, the reporter from the Palm Beach Post discerned a modest boost for Bush.) Extrapolate these figures to the rest of the county, and Gore falls short of erasing Bush's statewide lead.
These numbers say nothing about other counties--where various news organizations have been and will be studying undervote and overvote ballots. And there's another nettlesome matter to consider: those 5s and 7s. In my sampling, 7s beat 5s 389 to 214. It seems reasonable to assume that most 5s were meant to be votes for Bush and most 7s for Gore, for there appear to be only two possible explanations for all these missing-but-unassigned chads. Either voters mistakenly placed the punch cards on top of the sleeve in the Votomatic (doing so lined up chad 5 with the Bush arrow in the ballot book and chad 7 with the Gore arrow) and then punched away, or there was a mechanical problem with the voting machines that caused hundreds of cards to misalign within the devices. Analyzing data from the county, Anthony Salvanto, a faculty fellow at the University of California, Irvine, found 1,012 7s among the Miami-Dade undervotes and 696 5s. Leahy denies that machine error--as opposed to voter error--could have produced these results, but Salvanto identified hundreds of undervote ballots where a citizen consistently punched unassigned holes one spot below those of Democratic candidates--as if the voter had attempted to vote a straight party line and had been undone by the machine. Add the 5s and 7s into the picture, and Gore bags enough votes to put the statewide numbers into question. But what judge would have ordered the inclusion of these votes?
My own review does not produce an unambiguous shift in the Bush/Gore count. Othere media recounts may well do so. But it indicates that accurate hand reviews could have been conducted--and that they had the potential to address, if not resolve, some of the doubt that shrouded the election. When the US Supreme Court halted the Florida recounts, a combative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to [Bush], and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." That is, the American public had to be protected from information. The undervote ballots--though uncounted in the official tally--do speak, and they tell a story: of an election probably decided in part by voting-technology problems, and of election results that cannot be considered to represent definitively the will of the people who voted. These punch cards, which Scalia, Bush and even some time-to-move-on Democrats do not want to dwell upon, ought to cast a long and dark cloud.
Many of George Bush's supporters say that his recent nominations of Colin Powell as Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice as National Security Adviser and Rod Paige as Secretary of Education prove that he is serious about racial diversity. Moreover, his nomination of a Latino and two white women to his Cabinet suggests that compassionate conservatism boasts enough room for all sorts of minorities. But before we count the votes for Bush's celebrated--or is it calculated?--display of racial leadership, let's at least acknowledge that we may have run into some dimpled chads.
Powell's nomination is a no-brainer, which, as it turns out, may perfectly suit Bush's presidential profile. To take credit for nominating a national hero to extend his stellar record of public service is only a little better than taking credit for inventing the Internet. Powell's halo effect may redound to Bush, but his choice of Powell owes nothing to Bush's fundamental bearing as a racial statesman. Powell and Bush are at significant odds on crucial issues. Powell's vigorous support of affirmative action, his belief in a woman's right to choose and his advocacy for besieged urban children put him to the left of the Bush dogma. To be sure, Powell is no radical. His moderate racial principles are largely acceptable to many blacks because they're not bad for a guy who buys the Republican line, some of its hooks and not many of its sinkers. Unlike Congressman J.C. Watts, the black Republican from Oklahoma who'd just as soon fish all day with his conservative colleagues than cut the race bait. Indeed, Powell's beliefs run the same blush of racial centrism that coursed through the Clinton Administration over the past eight years. The difference is that such moderates, and a sprinkling of liberals, had plenty of company in the Clinton Administration. In a Bush Administration, Powell is, well, a hanging chad.
Of course, Powell's beliefs will have little substantive impact on his future boss's domestic policies, because he has been dispatched to foreign fields where Bush surely needs the help. So what looks like a plum for black folk may be a pit. True, no black person has ever served as Secretary of State. But once we get past the obligatory gratitude black folk are called on to display when conservative whites finally do something halfway decent, the fact is that Powell will have little influence on the public policies that may hamper black progress under a Bush Administration. Powell has not been nominated as Secretary of Health and Human Services, so his input on welfare, for instance, is lost. Instead, if confirmed, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson will practice his widely praised variety of welfare reform, a policy that on both the local and national level has had a horrendous effect on millions of poor blacks. Neither is Powell slated to be the Attorney General, where he may choose the civil rights czar, who carves the policy groove on race in the Justice Department. Instead, that honor may fall to John Ashcroft, an ultraconservative whose opposition to black interests is destructive. An omen of things to come was glimpsed starkly in Ashcroft's contemptuous scuttling of the nomination of black Missouri Supreme Court Justice Ronnie White for the federal bench. Not only is Powell's value to Bush on race largely symbolic, that symbolism will more than likely be used to cover policies that harm the overwhelming majority of black Americans who were never persuaded by Powell to join the party of Lincoln (Continentals).
Rice and Paige may be lesser-known political quantities, but they are nonetheless instructive of Bush's racial politics. Rice, the former Stanford provost and assistant national security adviser for President George H.W. Bush, is not as vocal a supporter of affirmative action, preferring a lukewarm version of the policy that may comport well with Bush's nebulous "affirmative access." At Stanford, Rice was not nearly as aggressive as she might reasonably have been in recruiting black faculty, failing to match the efforts of equally conservative universities like Duke. And her record of advising the senior Bush on national security matters indicates that she was a blue-blood conservative in black face.
As for Paige, his my-way-or-the-highway methods have yielded mixed results for the predominantly black and Latino students in Houston, where he has served six years as superintendent of schools. A proponent of annual standardized tests, a measure heartily supported by Bush, Paige has overseen rising test scores while all but abandoning students who couldn't pass muster. Moreover, Paige supports the use of tax money to fund private education, a policy favored by Bush and many blacks but that could have deleterious effects on poor families. The lure of vouchers is seductive, but it fails to address the fact that there is hardly enough money available to make a real difference to those students whose parents are financially beleaguered.
With Rice's nomination, the point may be that a black can be just as staunch in spouting conservative foreign policy as the next wonk. With Paige, the point is that a black can promote the sort of educational policies that help some black folk while potentially harming a larger segment of the community. It is clear that such a state of affairs does not constitute racial progress. The irony is that Powell, Paige and Rice were chosen in part to prove an inclusiveness that is meaningless if their very presence comes at the expense of representing the interests of the majority of black folk, especially those poor and working-class folk who are vulnerable and largely invisible. The lesson the Republicans would have us learn is that not all blacks think alike, that we are no ideological monolith in liberal captivity. The real lesson may be that a black face does not translate into a progressive political presence that aids the bulk of black folk. Especially when that face must put a smile on repressive policies that hurt not just most blacks but those Americans committed to radical democracy. If that counts as racial progress, we need an immediate recount.
The emerging fight over the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, which Senator John McCain has promised to bring up right after George W. Bush's installation as President, has little, if anything, to do with real reform. Rather, this is primarily an intraparty scrap over who will define the early days of Bush's term--Bush and Senate Republican leaders or the maverick McCain with Democrats in tow--and who will determine the new parameters of "bipartisanship." McCain needs sixty votes to stop the traditional filibuster by Republican leaders Trent Lott and Mitch McConnell, and with the turnover in the Senate, the Democratic gain of four seats and the conversion of Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran to the cause, McCain may now have them. But the Republicans may well try, with the witting or unwitting help of a few Democrats, to pass a toad and call it a prince.
The McCain-Feingold bill would do some worthwhile things. It would end the flow of unregulated soft money into national party coffers, codify the Supreme Court's Beck decision pertaining to the use of union dues for political purposes (which organized labor accepts, since it affects only a small number of nonunion members--those who pay dues for certain services and will be allowed to opt out of paying the portion spent on politics) and would possibly include a friendly provision offered by moderate Republicans to restrict how corporations and unions can spend money on political ads aired during the final months of election campaigns. Some Republicans may favor the bill because the Democratic Party is now almost even in the soft-money race. But nothing in it would end the money chase that keeps many good people from running for office; nor would it put a real dent in the process of influence-peddling that defines day-to-day life in Washington. Even at an estimated $457 million in 2000, soft money, the subject of so many New York Times editorials, amounted to only about 16 percent of the roughly $3 billion raised for this year's national auctions--ahem--elections. That's a big jump over the $265 million in soft money raised in 1996 but not much of a change compared with the $2.2 billion raised overall that year.
Feingold is a decent man who courageously called on his own party last summer at its Los Angeles convention to stop unilaterally the outrageous fundraising that goes on at those events. He understands the limits of his bill and is on record firmly supporting full public financing of campaigns, as is now done in Clean Elections states like Maine, Arizona, Vermont and (starting this spring) Massachusetts. McCain, on the other hand, is an excitable right-winger who has ridden the finance issue to unexpected stature. He's a far from reliable ally of reform groups, who are hungry to make some headway against the growing corruption of the electoral process by big money. And there lies the danger.
In order to pass a bill that Bush might sign, McCain has signaled that he may accept, in exchange for a soft-money ban, amendments that would allow an increase, possibly even a tripling, of the limits on hard money an individual may donate. Lots of incumbents--Democrats and Republicans alike--secretly like this devil's bargain, because they think it would make it easier to raise the hard dollars they so desperately need for their campaigns. They also argue, irrelevantly, that inflation has reduced the value of a $1,000 contribution, the limit set in 1974, to $300. The Supreme Court disposed of this argument a year ago, in Nixon v. Shrink, when it upheld even lower limits as a way to prevent electoral corruption, pointedly stating that "the dictates of the First Amendment are not mere functions of the Consumer Price Index."
An increase in the hard-money limits would certainly encourage "buy-partisanship"--the process by which wealthy donors buy one party and get the other free. Fewer than 121,000 people gave $1,000 or more to a winning federal candidate in the 2000 elections, less than 0.05 percent of the population. Tripling the amount they could give would further empower this narrow slice of America, which is disproportionately wealthy, white and male. It could also increase the gap between the business and labor contributions to a whopping billion dollars. Two leading reform groups, Public Campaign and US PIRG, are against any such trade-off, but others, like the business-driven Committee for Economic Development, are for it, with Common Cause somewhere in between. Labor and civil rights groups, their attention focused on Bush's Cabinet nominees, should take heed. The passage of a straightforward soft-money ban would be a good thing--and we'd like to see Congress look seriously at the Clean Election reforms taking root in the states. But this new Congress may try to pass a bad bill, call it reform and hope no one hears the protests.

subset: commoncrawl


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Antrim native Johnny Brady is releasing his third and most impressive country music album to date 'Dance with Me' on November 20th.
Album highlights include the Hunter Hayes original I Want Crazy, Have We Reached the Bottom Yet and romantic waltz A Gift From Above, which is also written by Johnny, alongside two other songs, title track Dance with Me and Ireland's Got a Place in my Heart.
Johnny Brady stated: "I'm absolutely thrilled to be releasing my third album Dance with Me on November 20th. I've focused all my energy in to producing a top quality album and believe it is some of my best work yet. My greatest hope is that audiences love it – I certainly had a blast making it!"
Previous albums Johnny has released include Living All My Dreams and I Owe It All to You, the title track to that second album is in memory of his late grandfather James Brady, his hero. Also featuring on that album is Johnny's massive hit Chicken Fried which has received a whopping 142,000 hits on his you tube channel and extensive airplay on Irish stations.
Johnny performs regularly with the biggest Country stars in the business, including Nathan Carter, Derek Ryan, Mike Denver, Jimmy Buckley, Robert Mizzell, Philomena Begley, Big Tom and Daniel O'Donnell among many others.
An intense love and passion for music runs through Johnny's blood. He is a cousin of 'The Irish King of Country Music' Big Tom. Johnny started playing in his first band at the tender age of fifteen, a three piece with two of his uncles. He moved into rock and pop for a few years but returned to where his heart lay, with the country scene in 2012, putting his 5 piece band together.
Since then, Johnny has been performing gigs the length and breadth of Ireland, all over the UK and most recently in Spain and Portugal, alongside Nathan Carter! This Summer, Johnny played the famous Marquee in Drumlish to a capacity crowd and performed at all the big festivals and marquees throughout Ireland, to sell out houses.
Numerous awards have been bestowed on Johnny from The Sunday World, The Irish Farmers Journal, local radio stations nationwide and he also received the Best Newcomer accolade at The Leinster Entertainment Awards. RTE Radio legend Ronan Collins has commented on his rise to success "Johnny Brady is the fastest growing star on the Country Music scene."
Johnny was a mentor on TG4's hit show Glor Tir this year and brought his contestant right through to the final. He also appeared as a guest of Daniel O'Donnell and Susan McCann on Opry An Luir, which aired on TG4 and BBC. Johnny features heavily in a documentary about the Irish country music scene which will air on BBC next spring!
A huge charity supporter, Johnny recently recorded a single for Fighting Blindness Ireland, l'll Be Your Baby which will feature on an album to raise funds for this very worthy cause. Last year, he did a celebrity sky dive with Sharon Shannon to raise money for AHAR(Animal Heaven Animal Rescue) at Galway airport and for the last 3 years, Johnny made guest appearances at fundraising events for Our Ladies Hospital Crumlin.
For any press enquiries please contact:
Jennifer Magee
firstname.lastname@example.com or 0863750612
Links to videos
Gift from Above: http://youtu.be/td6uNeCFPfo
I want Crazy: http://youtu.be/611B_qSKlX4
Have We Reached The Bottom Yet: http://youtu.be/rQ9vZDUEUvE
Chicken Fried: http://youtu.be/luAJmd5xVVA


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Sounds like an Onion title when put like that, no? Here's a documentary about the bullying kids' suffer that the MPAA rated R: The MPAA defended its judgment thusly: [Read more...]
Philosophy, Ethics, Atheism, Nietzsche
Sounds like an Onion title when put like that, no? Here's a documentary about the bullying kids' suffer that the MPAA rated R: The MPAA defended its judgment thusly: [Read more...]
In honor of the most justly deserved Oscar win for "Man or Muppet" just now, I am reposting my personal meditation/film review which was inspired by the song and written (and lost in the barrage of so many posts) during my January blogathon. Enjoy! [Read more...]
Melissa Harris-Perry hated the film The Help. You can see her memorably scathing, outraged review here. This morning, ahead of the Oscar's, she had a really illuminating segment on the real history of African American women domestic workers, the economic and sexual exploitation they have suffered, their role in the Civil Rights Movement, and the disservices [Read More...]
I've heard and read volumes' worth of Star Wars criticism in my day. While this is neither the best nor the worst, these ideas are somewhat novel and interesting steps in good directions that all manage to keep in tact the basic structure of episode I. I think the reimagining could be way more ambitious [Read More...]
Act of Valor is a new film shot with real Navy SEALs which purports to give a real life sense of what they actually do. In the clip below retired former U.S. Army Delta Force commander Lieutenant General James Vaught does not mince words in warning that all such high profile attention given to the [Read More...]
Tonight I saw Chronicle. My spoiler-free review is that I liked it and would give it a B, not because it is at all a well rounded film but because the few things it did well it did well in a special way that I expect to remember for a long time. For my spoiler-filled [Read More...]
From his comedy album Werewolves and Lollipops, Patton Oswalt sums up many people's disappointments with the premise of the Star Wars prequels: It's weird that objectively I fully understand and usually agree with many of the criticisms of the prequels and yet still personally love them. Are they flawed? Absolutely. They could have been 15 [Read More...]
Life's like a movie, make your ending, keep believing, keep pretending… As Tyler Cowen was talking about in the last post, humans are inexorably drawn to stories. I even like to think of every sentence as a story. It stars a subject which verbs something. And in my childhood there were two stories that loomed [Read More...]
I am going to break with my normal habit of assiduously avoiding spoilers in my review of the film 50/50. This film is aptly named as I half liked it and half disliked it. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance is worth seeing in the film if nothing else is. He plays an introverted character closing in on [Read More...]
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With the annual rebalance of the Russell stock indexes just a day away, brokerage firms are shaving the discounts they typically offer.» Read More
The weakening dollar has been one of the catalysts driving stocks and other risk assets higher, and it is a main focus of traders this week as they sort through a deluge of corporate earnings news and watch the dollar shrink to a 14-month low.
Stocks could trade a bit choppy Wednesday, as investors react to a tidal wave of earnings news and watch fluctuations in the dollar and other risk assets.
Earnings reports from General Electric and Bank of America are the big numbers for markets Friday, and they matter nearly as much in the foreign exchange and Treasury markets as they do in the stock market.
The Dow crossed the 10,000 level and all of sudden the bears grew quieter.
The Managing Editor of CNBC TV goes to the same investor conference ... one year later ... and finds a world of difference.
More and more small-time traders are flooding into the market, and they're choosing this company over even the NYSE.
The contrast between the president's speech today at the GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio, and his speech yesterday on Wall Street could not have been more glaring.
Both the Dow and the S&P 500 sold off Monday after a sharp drop in China's stock market left investors worried that asset prices had raced ahead of an economic recovery.
Stocks plunged more than 2 percent Monday as traders cashed in on some of the gains from the four-week rally. Earlier, the New York Fed reported its measure of manufacturing activity in the region moved into positive territory—signaling growth—for the first time since April 2007. Read and listen to what the experts had to say...
The Vix soared over 10 percent on Monday. What's next? Dan Deming, trader at Stutland Equities and Brett D'Arcy, CIO of CBIZ Wealth Management shared their outlooks.
This is a good opportunity to leverage towards a cyclical recovery, said Thomas Lee, Chief U.S. Equity Strategist at JPMorgan.
TD Ameritrade has agreed to buy back $456 million in auction-rate securities from investors in New York and across the US, New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo said Monday.
Stocks closed higher after a staging a late rally triggered partly by positive comments from the economist known as "Doctor Doom."
Stocks edged lower at the open as the market gave back some of its gains from this week's rally.
Wall Street was heading for a mixed open, after a steep drop in jobless claims help offset some negative news on earnings.
Although financial stocks remain well off of their 2007 highs, some have been clawing their way back. Brokerage stocks have rebounded with such force that they're among the top-performing sectors year-to-date, benefiting as investors slowly come back to the market. Trading volume has also improved in the past few months.
About two months ago, I wrote a column about how Matthew Weitzman, our family's financial planner, was under investigation for reportedly siphoning money from clients' accounts. Well, the ax finally fell on Wednesday.
The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday she is making the issue of new rules restricting short-selling a priority as the agency hears from an array of interests about ways to limit trades that bet against a stock.
In intraday trading, stocks are rebounding off yesterday's losses, and the brave bulls are out again on the banks.
Following are the day's biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Amylin and BHP Billiton popped while General Motors and Advanced Micro Devices dropped.


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Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot in a deep vein, usually in a leg.
A DVT is dangerous because the clot can break loose, travel through the bloodstream, and block blood flow to the lungs (pulmonary embolism). Without treatment, this can be deadly.
Sitting still for 4 or more hours slows down the blood flow in your legs. This makes your blood more likely to clot. And for the next few weeks, your blood clot risk stays higher than normal.
Even if you are healthy and have a low risk of blood clots, a long flight or road trip raises your risk of DVT.
If you already have a risk of blood clots, prolonged sitting raises your risk even more. Things that can already be raising your risk for DVT include a past DVT or pulmonary embolism, a recent surgery or injury, a blood clotting disorder, and cancer. Things that pose a small risk of DVT include pregnancy, taking hormones for birth control, or hormone therapy.
During a trip of 4 or more hours:
If you already have a risk of blood clots, talk to your doctor before taking a long trip. Your doctor may want you to wear compression stockings or take blood-thinning medicine.
For a few weeks after a long flight or trip, be alert for signs of a blood clot. A DVT needs treatment right away.
Call 911 or other emergency services if you:
Call your doctor right away if you have:
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Houston Dynamo
The Dynamo attack's breakout performance against Montreal Impact helped propel Giles Barnes & Rob Lovejoy into the spotlight in Week 6, as both the striker & the rookie were named to MLS Team of the Week. Not one to be left out, GK Tyler Deric also made the bench with 5 saves to walk away with his 3rd clean sheet of the season.
Find out who else made the team below: (via MLSSoccer.com)
GK: Jaime Penedo (LA Galaxy) - Made 10 saves, more than half of them top-caliber, almost single-handedly ensuring Seattle left LA with nothing despite what Brad Evans called "their best game this year."
D: Marvell Wynne (San Jose Earthquakes) – Contained Kekuta Manneh all night, not allowing the young star to create anything of value as the Quakes beat Vancouver 1-0.
D: Jamison Olave (Real Salt Lake) – Was physical and active from the onset to help Real Salt Lake's defense hold off Sporting KC's waves of pressure as RSL got a point in Kansas City.
D: Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes) – The veteran was in the right spot all night, not allowing Octavio Rivero to take a shot the whole game.
D: Brek Shea (Orlando City) - Turning into a beast at left back. Got forward well yet again and did well to contain the Timbers down his flank as Orlando City won 2-0.
M: Lloyd Sam (New York Red Bulls) – Aside from his opportunistic late leveler, RBNY's flying winger was sharp and menacing going forward all evening in D.C., as the Red Bulls came from behind to tie their Atlantic Cup rivals.
M: Dillon Powers (Colorado Rapids) – Set up the first goal with a pinpoint cross and then scored on a play brimming with individual talent as the Rapids demolished FC Dallas 4-0.
M: Perry Kitchen (D.C. United) – Two goals, both of them dispatched clinically and authoritatively, were the unexpected highlights of his performance. What wasn't surprising was his usual contribution of range and steel in deep midfield.
M: Rob Lovejoy (Houston Dynamo) – The rookie provided a spark off the bench, creating havoc down the left, which resulted in a goal and an assist in the Dynamo's 3-0 win.
F: Giles Barnes (Houston Dynamo) – The Englishman came out to play on Saturday night. He was dangerous all night, taking six shots and using a flicked header to score Houston's opener.
F: Dominique Badji (Colorado Rapids) – Badji's work up front was tremendous all game, hounding the Dallas back line. Of course, it started with a goal in the 2nd minute.
Coach: Adrian Heath (Orlando City) – After some disappointing losses, Heath's team came to Portland to play and took home three points.
Bench: Tyler Deric (Houston Dynamo), Seb Hines (Orlando City), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy),Sacha Kljestan (New York Red Bulls), Vincent Nogueira (Philadelphia Union), Matias Perez Garcia (San Jose Earthquakes), Cyle Larin (Orlando City)
Watch highlights from Saturday night's victory over Montreal Impact + hear from Brad Davis, Giles Barnes & rookie Rob Lovejoy on the team finally opening up the attack.
Listen to Dynamo postgame radio show with Glenn Davis live from Lucky's Pub after Dynamo vs. Montreal
Following tonight's game between the Dynamo and Montreal, walk over to Lucky's Pub (801 St Emmanuel St.) beside BBVA Compass stadium to listen to the Dynamo postgame call-in show with Glenn Davis. The Dynamo broadcaster will be in the back room at Lucky's Pub taking calls at 713-439-1560 and will break down the first MLS game between the Dynamo and Orlando City. The call-in show is free and open to the public, so join Davis at Lucky's after the game tonight.
The Dynamo postgame show can be heard on Yahoo Sports Radio 1560 AM and through the TuneIn app. Davis will take calls from fans live from Lucky's Pub after every home game this season.
Brad Davis, Owen Coyle & Kofi Sarkodie give the keys to the game against Montreal Impact, including the Impact's recent win to get them to the CONCACAF Champions League Final, containing the Montreal attack and bringing the home field advantage back to BBVA Compass Stadium.
Dynamo All-Access tonight: Hear from Carli Lloyd, Morgan Brian, David Horst, Randy Waldrum, Owen Coyle & Matt Jordan from 7-9 on 1560 AM
Tune in to Yahoo! Sports Radio 1560 AM tonight from 7-9 p.m. for a new episode of Dynamo All-Access, presented by Houston Community College.
Dynamo broadcaster and host Glenn Davis will speak with several Houston Dynamo and Houston Dash personalities, including: Defender David Horst, head coach Owen Coyle and general manager Randy Waldrum. In addition, Houston Dash national team stars Carli Lloyd and Morgan Brian and head coach Randy Waldrum will join the program ahead of Friday's season opener at BBVA Compass Stadium. The call-in number for the show is 713-439-1560.
Click here to listen to a live stream.
Dynamo All-Access is a weekly show on 1560 AM covering the Dynamo and Dash and usually airs on Wednesday or Thursday.
Via MLSSoccer.com
Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tyler Deric is chasing a rare Save of the Week four-peat, with the Homegrown backstop nominated yet again after taking home the honor in Weeks 2 and 3 and 4 of the MLS season.
Among those trying to end Deric's streak are Toronto FC goalkeeperJoe Bendik, who stoned back-to-back, point-blank attempts from the Fire, and D.C. United's Bill Hamid, who snuffed out a promising Orlando City counterattack with a sliding stop on Kevin Molino.
The New England Revolution's Bobby Shuttleworth was nominated for a left-handed swat that pushed over the crossbar what would have been the Rapids' first goal of 2015. And a defender is among the challengers, with Brek Shea in for a lunging, goal-line clearance on a Chris Pontiusattempt that halted a sure opener for D.C. United.
Vote HERE for your top save! The winner will be announced on Friday.
Voting runs until 11:59 pm PT on Thursday. For complete coverage of the MLS Save of the Week – including an archive of all of this season's nominees and winners – click here.
Watch highlights & get reaction from Owen Coyle and Brad Davis after Saturday night's 0-1 loss at CenturyLink Field.


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To Pune resident Aboli Naravane, it was the best birthday gift ever. Naravane, who turned 25 only a week ago, has stood first in the state of Maharashtra in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exams. Soon after the results, she tweeted, "I believe in hardwork and it pays
Actor and comedian Vir Das and actress Surveen Chawla have been roped in for an upcoming thriller, Plan B. Directed by Harish Raut, the film revolves around a bank robbery
Second Hand Husband is definitely not a classic, but it manages to make you laugh out loud at some points, largely entertains and keeps you engrossed. That is a bit of an achievement for a film that comes with zero expectations
'Pitch Perfect' made lot of money on a shoestring budget so a sequel was inevitable. Normally such sequels are basically cash grabs, but 'Pitch Perfect 2' is surprisingly fun
Anyone who has a dog at home will probably love 'Max'. But for an adult who is not very fond of pets, there's nothing in the film to see apart from contrived plot points, some melodrama and less-than-great acting. You can decide on watching it depending on which camp you belong to
The Indian women's hockey team kept its chances of qualifying for the 2016 Rio Olympics alive as it finished fifth in the Hockey World League (HWL) Semi-Final following a 1-0 victory over Japan here on Saturday
Kevin Flynn loves being the underdog, taking risks and travelling through the tougher route. He tells Anu Prabhakar about growing up in London, his absolute love for motor biking, changing countries for jobs and the diverse feast called Mumbai
From tight budgets to lack of skilled manpower, set design in Indian theatre is ridden with challenges. Ahead of his talk about the role of design in Indian theatre, icon MS Sathyu takes us backstage
"He's a really cool guy, funny as hell, and with a big heart." It was rockstar activist and one half of the film industry's most successful music makers, Vishal Dadlani, telling us about his serendipitous gig with (gulp) Coldplay's Chris Martin at Delhi's Summer House, on an ordinary Wednesday night which has been since described as 'surreal,' 'ape shit,' 'holy shit' and 'para para paradise' by ecstatic fans of both men
Silkworm pupae from Assam, Gondhoraj from Kolkata and Kombu, all the way from Japan. As city-based home chefs source ingredients from diverse locations across India and the globe to add authenticity to their pop-ups, we hit the food trail
I am 28 and have fallen for a divorcee. I met him through common friends. I have been with him for over a year. He is 39, but looks younger...Read More
You may encounter several difficulties in life, but you shall easily overcome them with the kind support of your near and dear ones.Read More
You convey your emotions in the most ardent and profound manner, you shall thus succeed in making the desirable effect! But do not become highly emotional.Read More
You shall gain by discussing all your career related issues with your dear ones. You will also feel relaxed, and they shall provide the maximum possible help.Read More
Your friends may get annoyed, since they think that you have not shared some important matters with them. Clear the air to maintain cordial relations with them.Read More
You will feel very moody today. Anyway, check yourself in order to deal with the modifications that are taking place around you.Read More
Your determination, commitment and intelligence shall be acknowledged by seniors in your workplace. Work satisfaction will make you glad and it will also have a positive effect on your family.Read More
Besides achieving adequate growth in your career, particularly ones who are doing a government job, another good news is that you will get the full support of your family.Read More
You feel extremely happy in the company of your dear ones, as you know that they hold a special place in your heart. A blissful time with your beloved is also indicated.Read More
You will feel much better after the dullness of the morning vanishes in a couple of hours. Some good news is also on the cards.Read More
You will be inclined to spend a lot of money for your close ones today. But see that you expend within your limits.Read More
Your workload is very heavy and it also increasing regularly. Ensure to control it, otherwise it may become very burdensome. Hence, start working arduously.Read More


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- 100% African American
I Like To Share Profound Thoughts And QuotesPlease Wake Up From This Self Hate I'm A Loser Attitude I'm new here, so I've been looking around at different posts and reading what others have to say and keep coming upon these posts where people are experiencing self doubt, self hate and depression … [more]
I Like To Share Profound Thoughts And QuotesTrue Beauty, True Perfection I have found that the reason that people have such a negative opinion of themselves is because they are basing vision of themselves through the eyes of others. They look at themselves in the mirror … [more]
My Friend Felicia; The Answer To A Question.... First of all, before I get into my story, I just wanted to let you know one of the reasons that I wrote this story. Because I want to know if anyone else has ever had someone ask you a question that… [more]
I Want To Know Your List Of 10 Things You Look For In A LoverI Give What I Expect 1. Believes in God - For someone to truly Love, they have to have a foundation of what that means.2. Loving/ Emotionally Open - Someone who loves deep and not afraid to show it, who loves … [more]
Payment is Prostitution: Something you need to Know
I was conversing with a friend of mine on the phone the other day and she made a statement that I had heard way to often: That if a man is laying with her in her bed then he is going to be paying some bills. I know that a lot of people will be saying, "damn right," and that is the problem. When a woman puts those words into action, she devalues her self-worth to a dollar sign and to the sociological level of a prostitute. There is something that people need to understand; especially women. And what they need to understand is that when you put a price on a thing; and in this case a person, including one's self, you devalue the worth of that thing or that person, and as of late; this … [more]
Comments: 1 Views: 101 Flag


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Athlete Profile
Athlete: Ben Smith
- Region:
- Mid Atlantic
- Affiliate:
- CrossFit Krypton
- Gender:
- Male
- Age:
- 25
- Height:
- 5'11"
- Weight:
- 195 lb
|Filthy 50
|Fight Gone Bad
|Sprint 400m
|Run 5k
|Clean & Jerk
|335 lb
|300 lb
|540 lb
|Back Squat
|480 lb
|Max Pull-ups
How I Eat
I eat quality foods but don't measure the amount
I eat 1-3 full cheat meals per week
How I Train
I workout mostly at a CrossFit Affiliate
I write my own programming
I record my workouts
CrossFit Krypton!
My Athletic Background
I played youth or high school level sports
I played college sports
I regularly play recreational sports
My Experience With CrossFit
I began CrossFit by trying it alone (without a coach)
I have completed the CrossFit Level 1 certificate course
I have attended one or more specialty courses
I train other people
My Work/Rest Schedule
I do multiple workouts in a day 3+ times a week
How long have you been doing CrossFit?
4+ years
Athlete Coverage
Team USA members talk about an unexpected loss at the CrossFit Invitational on Oct. 26. After losing the CrossFit Invitational, Team USA member and three-time CrossFit...
Article, Posted Tue, 11.05.13
Team USA coach Matt Chan and Team World coach Mads Jacobsen talk about their approaches to coaching the teams. The athletes discuss the difference between team and individual competition and remind...
Video, Posted Sat, 10.26.13
Team World beats Team USA at the CrossFit Invitational. The world was not enough in the 1999 James Bond flick, but in 2013 six athletes from three continents took...
Article, Posted Sat, 10.26.13
Watch the archives of the live feed from the 2013 CrossFit Invitational, presented by Reebok. The Invitational was originally aired live from Berlin on Eurosport and the CrossFit Games site Saturday...
Video, Posted Sat, 10.26.13
Armchair coaches invited to select ideal pairings with mixed-pairs Jackie at CrossFit Invitational. The chess match begins in Berlin. With as much as a 9-point lead up for grabs after...
Article, Posted Fri, 10.25.13
Team USA has arrived in Berlin and is gearing up for the 2013 CrossFit Invitational, presented by Reebok. Team USA is comprised of Lindsey Valenzuela, Valerie Voboril, Talayna Fortunato, Rich Froning...
Video, Posted Fri, 10.25.13
On October 26, Team World will face Team USA at the 2013 CrossFit Invitational, presented by Reebok. The 75-minute event will be aired on Eurosport and streamed onto the Games site (10 a.m. PT, 7 p.m...
Article, Posted Thu, 10.24.13
The events for the 2013 CrossFit Invitational, presented by Reebok have been announced. Team USA Team World Tempelhof Airport The events for the 2013 CrossFit...
Article, Posted Thu, 10.24.13
Any fan with an Internet connection will be able to watch the 75-minute competition on October 26th. In less than a month, Team World will take on Team USA at the CrossFit...
Article, Posted Fri, 10.18.13
Tickets are for sale now. Want to watch Team World compete against Team USA? The 2013 CrossFit Invitational, presented by Reebok will be televised on Eurosport Saturday, October...
Article, Posted Wed, 09.18.13
- ‹ previous
- 4 of 10
- next ›


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96-1760 - WES51 Electronic Soldering Station
A powerful and economical continuous production soldering station, this unit has temperature lockout and automatic power-down features to keep you in control. The WES51 was designed for continuous production, rework, and repair of through hole, SMT boards, most gr...
Mfr Name: Weller
Mfr Number: WES51
See all items in Soldering Stations
21-3475 - WLC100 Soldering Station
The WLC100 has been the top choice of hobbyists, DIY-ers, and students for years. This low-cost station features the quality you expect from the leading name in soldering equipment.
Mfr Number: WLC100
96-1764 - WESD51 Digital Soldering Station
Innovative heater and sensor combination gives you quick heat-up and rapid temperature recovery
Wireless temperature lockout to prevent operators from raising the temperature to levels higher than specified for the board or component
Station automatically power...
Mfr Number: WESD51
21-9295 - Soldering Iron Pencil 45W
Wattage: 45WOverall length: 8½"Heavy-duty grounded power cord length: 6'Comfortable handle with rubber gripVariety of replacement tips available, conical tip included (21-9300)Suggested retail price: $14.99
Mfr Name: Tenma
Mfr Number: 21-9295
See all items in Corded
21-8145 - Fast Heat/Recovery Soldering Iron
20W iron features 130W "boost" for fast warmup and recovery when required Perfect when general purpose wiring and PC board solderingincludes the occasional larger connection Momentary pushbutton on the handle provides added powerCeramic heating eleme...
Mfr Number: 21-8145
58-16940 - 16" Solo Vector Polyester Notebook Backpack
Solo Vector 16" Backpack
The VTR724-4/28 is made of a polyester material and features a padded compartment that protects most notebooks with a screen size of up to 16-inches. It comes with a front ICtrl™ headphone pocket to store your headphones when you're not...
Mfr Name: Distributed By MCM
Mfr Number: VTR724-428
See all items in Laptop Cases
96-2280 - Pro Series High Performance Soldering Iron
Super-fast heat-up! Heats up to working temperature in just 35 seconds!
Patented design provides performance equivalent to a 60 watt iron
Red power-on LED changes to green when iron reaches working temperature
Replacement chisel and conical replacement tips av...
Mfr Number: WPS18MP
SABU10191 - Fiberglass Pencil
A pencil which can contain fiberglass or brass brushes. As the brush is used it can be moved down by rotating the top of the pencil. Ideal for cleaning PCBs, copper tracks, etc. Refills are available separately.
Mfr Number: SABU10191
See all items in Fiberglass
22-3280 - Technician's Tool Kit
Technicians Tool Kit
Perfect for general feild sevice and repair applications, this complete tool kit includes a rugged carrying case with inside and outside file folder pockets and a shoulder strap.
Overall Dimmsions: 16" (W) x 13" (L) x 3' (H).
Mfr Name: Pro'skit
Mfr Number: 1PK-2003A
See all items in Technician Kits
21-925 - Long Conical Tip
Replacement accessories are compatible with the soldering iron on the Tenma #72-6345 Rework Station, as well as older Model #21-147 and #21-1590 soldering stations. #21-151 Grounded Replacement Iron utilizes a fivepin DIN plug and is compatible with Tenm...
Mfr Number: 21-925
See all items in Replacement Parts
21-9220 - Hand-held Hot Air Rework Tool
CPU controlled rework tool precisely controls both temperature and air flow
Digital settings and visual display for full control Space saving pencil design Built-in fan for air control eliminates need for separate air pump Can be used for QFP, SOP and PLCC SEM I...
Mfr Number: SS-601A
See all items in Rework Stations
96-2545 - RT5 Bent Chisel Soldering Tip Cartridge for WMRP Pencil
RT5 bent chisel soldering tip cartridge for the Weller® WMRP soldering pencil (MCM #96-2090).
Tip Width: NA
Tip thickness: .79
Length: 42mm
Mfr Number: 0054460599
See all items in Replacement Tips
21-926 - Screwdriver Tip
Mfr Number: 21-926
96-3455 - 25 Watt Soldering Iron Kit
Ideal soldering kit for hobbyists and beginners that includes everything to get started.
Mfr Number: SP23LHPK
21-7981 - Replacement Micro Point Tip for 21-7930, 21-7935, 21-7950,21-7958 & More
Specifically designed for use with Tenma ceramic heating element soldering irons and stations. Five styles to suit a variety of soldering needs. Sold individually.
Mfr Number: 21-7981
Excellent! Great prices, well packed, shipped fast.


text:
Select Local Merchants
The National Basketball AcademyRead MoreThe National Basketball Academy's instructors host clinics, training sessions, and tournaments for various age groups. Their coaching helps participants improve all aspects of their performance on the court, from shooting to defense, and their youth programs nurture sports skills in children as young as kindergarten. They also set up teams and leagues that allow players to compete in a supportive, friendly environment.16511 Diana LaneHouston, TX US
Gilruth Fitness CenterRead MoreLocated at the Johnson Space Center, Gilruth Fitness Center boasts indoor and outdoor facilities. Rows upon rows of cardio and weight machines greet visitors in the Strength & Cardio Center, and bikes and exercise balls dwell in the mirrored spinning studio. In the Outer Space weight room, TRX straps, ropes, and tractor tires teach exercisers how to conjure tractor parts with their brain muscles, and yoga and Pilates practitioners beeline toward the tranquil Inner Space studio. A basketball court and gymnasium and a versatile hardwood class studio are among the rest of Gilruth's indoor offerings. Outside, exercisers bound across two jogging trails, and a sports park.Space Center BlvdHouston, TX US
Life Time FitnessRead MoreYou're in your body for a lifetime so why not make the best of it? Join Lifetime Fitness so you can keep doing what you want to be doing regardless of your age. Lifetime Fitness is great for adults and kids as they offer programs for the youngest triathlon trainee and the most experienced athlete alike. Lifetime Fitness is sure to have something to get you sweating – they offer running programs, cycling, swimming, basketball, tennis, racquetball, squash, yoga, Pilates…the list literally goes on and on. In addition to making you sweat, Lifetime Fitness can also help you monitor your total health with such programs as "my Health Score", "my Health Check", Life Time Academy, and assessments and lab testing. Make the right choice – take advantage of all that Lifetime Fitness has to offer today.815 Town And Country VlgHouston, TX US
Planet HoopsRead MoreIn 1993, Calvin Murphy, former guard for the Houston Rockets, overcame all odds to became the shortest NBA player inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Today he demonstrates his renowned defensive moves and free-throw shooting skills as the owner and instructor at Planet Hoops, a training facility dedicated to youth basketball. Girls and boys of all skill levels can master the fundamentals at the center's basketball school, and the 4-week itty bitty basketball program accommodates 3-4 years olds with lowered basketball hoops and color commentary from Big Bird. Planet Hoops also hosts camps and clinics thoughout the year, and offers private lessons for individuals and small groups.402 Eldridge RoadSugarland, TX US
God Body SportsRead MoreChristopher Burroughs and Evarista Reyes both know something about setting lofty goals for themselves?Burroughs starting working on his vertical at a young age with the hopes of learning to dunk by eighth grade; Reyes started training to become a figure model after having two children. At God Body Sports, they encourage youths and adults to push themselves to equally ambitious goals. Their clients compete in everything from track to football, benefiting from Reyes and Burroughs' training regimens and nutrition advice.955 Campbell RoadHouston, TX US
Illusion InstituteRead MoreIllusion Institute takes its name from the ultimate illusionists: basketball players. They'll feign a dribble to the left, then charge to the right. They'll fake a pass, then take a shot. The trainers keep their illusionist students sharp with private or group basketball training, camps, and game recording.1322 S. Broadway St.La Porte, TX US


text:
Originally written on Tireball.com | Last updated 3/20/13
SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 12: Devin Hester #23 of the Chicago Bears in action against the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on November 12, 2009 in San Francisco, California. The 49ers won 10-6. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
The days of Devin Hester playing wide receiver are over. New Bears coach Marc Trestman said on Wednesday that the explosive Hester will only be used as a return man for the team. This news is hardly surprising as Hester has been a liability in the passing game and the Bears have also had a turnover on their coaching staff. Under Lovie Smith the Bears attempted to get Hester more touches to take advantage of his play making threat but that proved problematic as he had just 49 catches and two touchdowns over the last two seasons despite starting 13 games and playing in 31. Trestman also said that he expects second year player Alshon Jeffery to be a starter on the Bears this season. Brandon Marshall, Jeffery, Earl Bennett and Martellus Bennett will be Jay Cutler's top-four pass-catching options.
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ODT Online
ODT /directory
The Northern Motorway out of Dunedin has been closed owing to
ice and snow tonight as a wintry blast hits the South.
A 46-year-old man has been arrested after a break-in at a
Mosgiel pharmacy.
They may not have discovered the secret of eternal youth, but
researchers in a University of Otago study have found a new
way to determine the extent of people's ''biological
A Dunedin gastroenterologist is to lead the New Zealand
component of a worldwide study into the causes of Crohn's
Workers begin placing beams across the State Highway
1/Caversham Valley Rd northbound carriageway at Lookout Point
last night.
A firefighter extinguishes a car fire in a garage in Walter
St, Dunedin, yesterday.
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text:
The Beckhams haven't been photographed together for ages.
View Single Post
23-04-2013, 20:08
Inactive Member
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 15,426
Originally Posted by
Tweacle Tart II
I just wish she would lighten up a bit and stop taking herself so damn seriously.
So do I. It'd save me loads of time on here defending her!
I don't disagree with your points, I guess it's just none of that stuff bothers me. She is what she is *shrug* and she always comes across really well in any interviews I've seen. You and others see 'brand', I don't, just two people with two separate careers.
The bit you forgot to mention in all this though - and the thing that bugs me most - is the way she gets torn to bits on these threads while he gets off pretty much scot-free. No excuse whatsoever for that.
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Chandra Rugs Rowe Grey Area Rug
This product has additional required/recommended options. To configure, add to your cart.
Runner 2'6" x 7'6" Rug Size
5' x 7'6" Rug Size
2' x 3' Rug Size
Special Offer:
12 Issues of Money Magazine
Included with purchase ($20 value).
Chandra Rugs Rowe Grey Area Rug
Weights & Dimensions
Runner 2'6" x 7'6" Rug Size
5' x 7'6" Rug Size
2' x 3' Rug Size
|Product Type: Area Rug
|Construction: Handmade
|Technique: Hand woven; Tufted
|Primary Pattern: Geometric
|Primary Color: Gray
|Gender: Girl
|Lifestage: Adult
|Material: Wool
|Reversible: No
|Rug Pad Needed: Yes
|Eco-Friendly: Yes
|Outdoor Use: No
|Country of Manufacture: India
About the ManufacturerChandra area rugs have rapidly become known for tradition, heritage, and quality while revealing one of the most eclectic lineups of area rugs in the industry.
Chandra Rugs Rowe Grey Area Rug
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text:
The Global FlyFisher - The Largest and Best Place to go for Online Fly Fishing and Fly Tying
GFF Videos
Frosty the Snowman
Originator:Hans Stephenson
Submitter:Martin Joergensen
|More great articles on The Global FlyFisher
|A couple of random articles
Soft-HacklesThis is the book that soft hackled aficionados have been waiting years to see. Not only is it chock full of wonderful patterns and photos of well tied flies, but it contains summaries of all the classic soft hackle texts.
June 20th 2004