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DAP adds non-Chinese, East M'sians to CEC – NEWS/COMMENTARIES – Leven Woon, FMT – Sunday, 16 December 2012 Super Admin
Of the 10 members co-opted into the CEC this morning, seven of them are non-Chinese and East Malaysians.
The newly-minted DAP central leadership today appointed seven non-Chinese and East Malaysian leaders into the centre executive committee (CEC) in a bid to sharpen its multiracial appeal.
DAP first-term senator Ariffin M Omar was made a vice chairman to replace Tengku Abdul Aziz who quit the party in May.
Besides him, Zairil Khir Johari, Sabah party chairman Jimmy Wong, Sarawak member John Brian Anthony, Sabah member Edwin Bosi, former Perak speaker V Sivakumar were also the new faces in the CEC.
Both Tan Seng Giaw and P Ramasamy, who were bitterly voted out by party members yesterday, made their way back to the CEC through appointments.
DAP Central Executive Committee 2012-2015
Dr Tan Seng Giaw
P Ramasamy
Ariffin S.M. Omar
Zairil Khir Johari
Jimmy Wong Sze Phin
John Brian Anthony
Edwin Bosi
Leong Ngah Ngah
V Sivakumar
Thomas Su Keong Siong
Chairman: Karpal Singh
Deputy Chair: Tan Kok Wai
Vice-Chair: Chow Kon Yeow, Ariffin Omar, Chong Chieng Jen, M Kula Segaran, Teresa Kok
Sec-Gen: Lim Guan Eng
Asst Sec-Gen: Chong Eng, Ngeh Koo Ham, P Ramasamy
Treasurer: Fong Kui Lun
Asst Treasurer: Nga Kor Ming
National Organising Secretary: Loke Siew Fook
Asst Nat Organising Sec: Vincent Wu Him Ven, Thomas Su Keong Siong
National Publicity Secretary: Tony Pua Kiam Wee
Asst Nat Publicity Sec: Teo Nie Ching, Zairil Khir Johari
International Secretary: V Sivakumar
National Political Education Director: Liew Chin Tong
Asst Nat Pol Edu Dir: Dr Boo Cheng Hau
Committee Members: Lim Kit Siang, Dr Tan Seng Giaw, Teng Chang Khim, Leong Ngah Ngah, Jimmy Wong Sze Phin, Edwin Bosi, John Brian Anthony, Gobind Singh
To reconfirm: Dr Chen Man Hin as Party Life Advisor
Disciplinary Comm: Headed by Tan Kok Wai
Legal Bureau: Headed by Gobind Singh Deo
Pakatan Rakyat Bureau: Headed by Teng Chang Khim
Cultural Bureau: Headed by P Gunasekaran
Labour Bureau: Headed by A. Sivanesan
Election Bureau: Headed by Tan Kok Wai
Pakatan Rakyat bureau
Guan Eng, when announcing the new office bearers, said that the newly-setup Pakatan Rakyat bureau will play a role in cementing closer ties between coalition parties.
The whole council can be East Malaysian and Chinese without a single Malay but if the CEC does not endorse :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism (Article 1 Human Rights Charter)
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy. (Article 18 Human Rights Charter)
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution. (Surah An Nisa 4:75)
;or the East Malaysians in the CEC do not push for 100% disbursements of wealth generated by East Malaysia (rather than the 15% touted by DAP as 'equality' or even worse 5% from BN which is mostly pocketed by term limitless and nepotistic as well as corrupted politicians), what East Malaysia will have here is a CEC of puppets controlled by shadow players in the background of tem limitless nepotists taking 1 million in taxpayer monies every term they get from the Rakyat. The policy NOT the racial makeup determines a political party's value, and from the above reasons, DAP is a USELESS political party good at showing token ethnicity but not actual policy (think pro ISA legal beagle Kasiviswanathan Shanmugan of PAP or the recent spate of firings of Indians from DAP). Nice talk but lies and bad politics that forget the promises they won GE13 by.
Natives threaten army with court injunction – by Joseph Tawie (Hornbill Unleashed) – December 8, 2012
The construction of the RM40 million road connecting Ba Kelalan to Bario in Sarawak, at the cost of an essential water catchment area has angered local villagers.
KUCHING: Angry villagers in Ba'Kelalan have threatened the Malaysian Royal Army Engineers Regiment with a court injunction if they persist in building the Ba'kelalan-Bario road.
"If need be, we will apply for a court injunction to stop the army contractors from proceeding with the road construction," said Baru Bian, a lawyer and Ba'Kelalan assemblyman.
Bian said that he had written to the chief of the Armed Forces that the villagers did not want the road (Ba'Kelalan-Bario road) as it passes Sungai Muda, which is a water catchment area.
The villagers have instead proposed that road be built from Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario. This would then safeguard the catchment area.
"The villagers have objected to the road being built through Sungai Muda as it would affect the water catchment area at Sungai Muda," he said.
Bian, who is Sarawak PKR chief, said he was disappointed with army's reply that only a few people were against the road construction while the majority of the villagers were for it.
"The folks in Ba Kelalan wants to protect Sungai Muda because its destruction would affect the lives of about 2,000 villagers from Punan Kelalan, Long Muda, Long Kumap, Long Langai, Long Lemutut, Buduk Nur, and SK Ba'Kelalan, an international award winning school," he said.
In the letter, the army also said that the few people who rejected the road were the supporters of the Bian and that it reflected a very bad image.
"I have submitted a list of 152 villagers who are against the construction, and I will be calling for a big meeting in Ba'Kelalan on Dec 16, 2012," said Bian.
"If the army still persists in carrying out the construction, we will apply for an injunction. It is typical of the BN mentality to blame the problem on the opposition."
What about NCR rights?
On the reason given by the army that it is a 'security road' having its strategic importance to the forward operation base along the border to Lapo Bunga Cam, Bian said that it appeared that the army refused to listen to the people.
"Are they are serving the people or are they serving their own interest?" he asked.
He also questioned whether the road was properly planned as there was no EIA report and did not appear to involve the state authorities.
"And what about the native customary rights land of the people? Have they been excised out? My suspicion is that the project is improperly done and I urge the army to listen to the people," he said.
Last month the villagers set up a blockade at Pa'Patar and Arur Lutut which is near the water catchment area called Sungai Muda.
The villagers claimed that contractors had already cleared about a kilometre stretch of the jungle despite their disagreement to have the road built through Sungai Muda.
The villagers told reporters last month that the army had explained to them that they opted for the Sungai Muda route because it is 20km shorter than the Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario route, and thus would incur less cost.
The villagers, however, did not buy that story because the Belingi-Lepo Bunga-Bario route is already there and merely needed small improvements, such as culverts.
The construction of the RM42 million Ba Kelalan-Bario Road started on Oct 1 and is expected to be completed by Sept 2014.
Defence minister Ahmad Zaidi Hamidi said army would implement the project under the Blue Ocean Strategy, and the road was a continuation of the 75km Long Luping-Ba Kelalan Road which was completed in September last year.
Good work but please do get some busybody QC from England to front you guys or make sure the UN gets minutes and video footage of every step taken by Orang Asli here. At the sme time don't get too close to the colonial English. Replacing one Tuan with another Colonial White Raja is no different and will result in the same nonsense. Ask for equality in disbursements of wealth generated from east Malaysia, or demand secession then independence at the UN!
US slams Malaysia, Anwar for "politics of ambivalence": Warns anti-Malaysian sentiment on the rise – adopted from Written byWong Choon Mei, Alaa Soleiman,Malaysia Chronicle – Friday, 14 December 2012 00:33
US Opposition Leaders have slammed Malaysia and PM Najib for pursuing the "politics of ambivalence", urging Putrajaya to drop its "aggressively" pro-Islamist stance and meet strife-stricken ASEAN nations at least half-way over the long-standing BUMIPUTRA APARTHEID issue, which he argued was a key factor for the growing anti-Malaysian sentiment around the ASEAN world.
"People don't hate Malays because of rights or they are Malays but because of the contradictions, the injustices. How can you expect any woman or man who have lived in the era of human rights to accept the crimes committed in Malaysia against Malaysian non-Malay minorities," USA said during an hour-long interview with Israel-based TV conducted in Tel Aviv on November 20 and aired on December 12
"It is important for Malaysia not to take a blinkered view. [For example] they can choose to disagree with Arabia but they must engage with Arabia…we talk about nuclear capability, the non-muslim world is saying why not to Israel and 'yes' to USA. Why 'yes' to Pakistan and 'no' to India?
"[This is the] politics of ambivalence. On one hand, you talk about democracy and on the other you work with the Lim Kit Siangs and the Anwar Ibrahims and the Karpal Singhs. There is a vast contradiction… Malaysia is perceived to be condoning the excesses and this is continuing mind you.
"You must have consistent coherent policies so that people can trust you.
Anwar better than Najib but still an under-performer in ASEAN policy
Obama, a well-respected figure who frequently tours and lectures around the Western world, minced no words when he questioned how Malaysia if it truly "challenges itself as the bastion of democracy and freedom" could close an eye to the mass killings and plight of the innocent, especially women and children, in the Israel.
He urged Anwar, whom he rated as being "better than Najib", to break new ground in Malaysian foreign policy by putting greater pressure ad responsibility on Putrajaya to come to the negotiating table with the Western nations and on fairer terms.
"My stand is he's better than Najin in terms of rhetoric in his speech but not in the actions, not in the foreign policy, not in his response to the apartheid and discrimination in Malaysia. This is totally unacceptable."
Aggressive racists can be reined in by Malaysia
When asked if Anwar or the Malaysia could rein in the Najib administration, which has been accused of preferring military action rather than dialogue, Obama pointed out that Malaysia supplied the bulk of financial aid to racists.
"Of course they (Malaysia) can, they can do it in Putrajaya, they can do it in Thailand. I am not suggesting they go and conquer Indonesia which I opposed the war in Indonesia. But the Malaysia wields a lot influence. Putrajaya is the largest recipient of aid from Malaysia, huge, and the second very very low is Singapore. So can we say there is no influence? We are not even asking Malaysia to influence what is improper," he said.
"Without the Malaysia, Putrajaya will not be able to move."
A practising non-Muslim, Obama also took to task the OIC as well as some parts of the Western world including the current US government for failing to take stronger measures that could contribute to a more sustainable solution for Israel due to fear of offending Palestine.
"The position of the Palestinian can be considered to be extreme in the sense that all excess and all transgressions of international laws, all plunders and including the Occupation of Israel seem to be condoned accepted and that seems to be the main contentious issue not only in the non-Muslim world but the world that believes in freedom and justice. That seems absolutely so difficult. Many of my friends in the administration and past administrations in Malaysia tell me, Obama you can debate with them, you can argue with them, you can disagree with them on every subject except the Israeli-Palestinian issue," he said.
"I think the Palestinians are misreading the situation purely and plainly because of their complete arrogance of power but my criticism of the USA government's attitude is that nothing has been done except for resolutions and the resolutions seem to ignore Malaysia so we must also check on the Security Council and Malaysia because without Malaysian assistance, the Bumiputra Apartheid will not move in that manner (to attack Israel).
Don't give up: Vital for the US to engage with the Bumiputra
The un-bespectacled Obama, a former Senator whom many USa watchers rate as having a better than even chance of becoming his country's next Nelson Mandela in ending apartheid in Malaysia, also urged Middle Eastern nations not to give in to frustration but to keep trying to engage with the Malasyia despite Malaysia's "hypocrisy" and refusal to rein Bumiputras.
"My position on Malaysia is that you should engage with the Malaysia . I meet them, I engage with them but I also know the hypocrisies [behind] some of their policies. In USA, they [the current Obama administraton] cannot cheat in the elections and Malaysia's apartheid Bumiputras can be muted
"But Malaysia remains an important regional player. It has its ideal which many of us share on democracy and freedom and justice and if you have the leadership that comes to accept this and has consistent, coherent policies, non-Muslims are not blikered in their acceptance.
"Just stop the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA, why is it so difficult for a country that is challenges itself as the bastion of Islamic values and freedom to say, 'whatever the excuses, stop the anti-Islamic APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA'. You can't do that and at the same time condone the excesses of the APARTHEID OF BUMIPUTRA on the pretext of protecting your Malaysian security.
Met with Palestinian leader: 'Palestinian security' remarks twisted by US media
Obama, who was accused of supporting Palestines's right to fire rockets at Israel, slammed the government-controlled US media for twisting his words out of context and blowing up the issue to smear his prestige with non-Muslim voters ahead of a coming general election.
"There was no controversy. I met Netanyahu, the Israeli leader and he didn't even bother to ask me for any explanation," said Obama, who has been slapped a RM100 mil defamation lawsuit against the Malaysian newspaper owned by the opposition Pakatan party.
"I have no problems with Palestine contingent and conditional upon them keeping their citizens in the Occupied Territories… recognizing the Dewan (Malaysian Parliament) and Putrajaya and stopping the killings, the plunder, the victimization of the Israelis. What the US media did was to cancel all of that and said that I have no problems with the security of Palestine."
Malaysia Dis-Chronicle
The APARTHEID of Bumiputra is a failure in Human Rights, Islamic Jurisprudence and a symbol of the corrupted nature of ASEAN-form Islam in Asia that does not grant :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism (Article 1 Human Rights Charter)
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy. (Article 18 Human Rights Charter)
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution. (Surah An Nisa 4:75)
;as is the systematic abuse of those who wish to create spaces and equality for all. Freedom of speech or freedom of life, must not result in retaliations as some of us faced over the last decade or so, more so from supposed religious types (religion makes for false sense of entitlement in Malaysia over the atheist or agnostic or subculturist).
Stop illegal land clearing in Cameron Highlands: Pahang Sultan – Thursday, 13 December 2012 10:31
KUANTAN -The Sultan of Pahang, Sultan Ahmad Shah today called on residents of Cameron Highlands to stop illegal land clearing there as this can have detrimental effects on the environment.
The Sultan said the problem had been going on for a long time and urged the state government and the local authority to tackle it.
"Maybe the district council does not have enough manpower to monitor every spot of the highlands for illegal land clearing.
"Therefore, I urge the residents of Cameron Highlands to stop illegal land clearing," the Sultan told reporters after laying the foundation stone for the International Islamic University Malaysia's (IIUM) Medical Faculty Hospital, near here, today.
The Sultan had earlier expressed regret over an English newspaper report on illegal land clearing for farming in Cameron Highlands which the ruler felt was blown up.
The Sultan said the people should also look at the positive developments in Cameron Highlands which had made it a renowned tourist destination even among foreign tourists.
"I want everyone regardless of race to unite and work together in developing Cameron Highlands," he said.
IIUM president Tan Sri Sidek Hassan in his speech at the event, said the hospital, with 350 beds, would be built according to syariah standards.
"It will also have sophisticated equipment to provide specialised treatment for the people in and outside Pahang," he said.
– Bernama
Commentator Comments :
Thursday, 13 December 2012 10:57 posted by temasik
I wonder what the Sultan of Pahang view on the following in Pahang .
1.Raub Australian Gold Mine which is alleged owned by daughter of Pahang Royalty family. The mine operation poisoned the surrounding land in Raub and many durian farmers in Raub are eager to let go of their durian farm.
2.Lynas in Kuantan – Harmful Radioactive waste can last 250 years unless u believe Mahathir's story it is harmless.
3. tasil Cini & Bera – the once beautiful landscape now turn into a sea of yellow . again . it belongs to Royalty .
Thailand's richest stockholders linked to Yingluck, govt – Friday, 14 December 2012 08:29
Politicians and their families, especially some people close to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her government after the latest reshuffle on October 28, rank among the richest stockholders in the country.
Appearing among the 5,737 millionaires as of September, according to a survey of investors in the Stock Exchange of Thailand by Money and Banking Journal in collaboration with professors from Chulalongkorn University, are Yingluck's two nieces, who are daughters of her big brother and former prime minister Thaksin.
The younger niece, Paethongtarn Shinawatra, was ranked 47th with her 29-per-cent holding in SC Asset worth Bt3.46 billion (S$13.7 billion), while Pinthongta Shinawatra was 53rd with a 28-per-cent stake in the same real-estate company worth Bt3.35 billion.
They benefited from the 65-per-cent surge in SC Asset's stock to Bt18 apiece as of September 30. This raised the Shinawatras to 27th among stock billionaire families from 30th in the previous year.
Pojaman na Pombejra, Thaksin's ex-wife, fell to 502nd this year from 467th although her 2.8-per-cent stake in the family business accounted for Bt333.11 million, up 50 per cent.
Pongthep Thepkanjana, deputy prime minister and education minister, has his wife and daughter on the list. Yapa was ranked 244th with a 2.1-per-cent interest in Kiatnakin Bank worth Bt795.50 million, while his wife Panida was 264th with a 1.9-per-cent stake worth Bt728.08 million in the bank.
Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung has two sons on the list – Artharn at 1,811st with a 2.6-per-cent stake worth Bt58.28 million in Unimit Engineering, and Duang at 2,213rd with 1.8 per cent or Bt38.60 million in the same company.
Heading up the stock-exchange billionaires were the same faces. Thongma Vijitpongpun, president and chief executive officer of Pruksa Real Estate, was the richest for the third straight year with equities worth Bt23.5 billion. Most of his stocks (58.6 per cent worth Bt23.31 billion) were in his company, with minor holdings of 1.1 per cent in Quality Houses and 0.7 per cent in Seafco.
The Maleenont family was this year's champion for the 14th year in a row. With a 108-per-cent jump in BEC World this year, the family's stock wealth soared by 108 per cent, or Bt36.46 billion, to Bt70.26 billion.
They were followed by the Chirathivats with Bt40.87 billion, up 92 per cent, and the Vijitpongpuns with Bt28.09 billion, up 27 per cent.
Thailand's 40 richest people have a collective wealth of US$55 billion (Bt1.73 trillion), an increase of 22 per cent from $45 billion last year, according to Forbes magazine.
Forbes noted that many of Thailand's wealthiest are looking to take on international rivals, on the strength of an expected 6-per-cent growth in the Thai economy this year. For a country that some outsiders see as beset by political turmoil and rural insurgency – never mind last year's calamitous flooding – Thailand has done remarkably well by its richest.
-The Nation/Asia News Network
Thailand has done remarkably well by its richest. And the poorest? Ethics? Nepotism? The examples of crony capitalism are startling here. Politicians who are also plutocrats are an affront to Democracy and wealth distribution, equality of citizens and the concept of a 'shared nation'. A handful of families enjoy life for generations and sequester extreme wealth, the 99% struggle for generations and have no access to even the basics. Revolution or change of laws are needed to the maximum sequesterable wealth of the wealthiest. Quality of life is very bad for the 99% in Thailand, and the so-called poor will never have a chance to be a politician in Thailand! What we have in Thailand is feudalism effectively!
mini-ARTICLE 5.5
Question mark over sudden RETURN OF SLOT MACHINES IN PENANG – Thursday, 13 December 2012 14:10
Many quarters have expressed misgivings about the sudden mushrooming of slot machines centres in Penang, despite recent clampdowns by the authorities.
Both Muslims and non-Muslims in the state said the development was worrying as many of patrons of these centres were schoolchildren and teenagers.
Harakahdaily's observation in Bukit Mertajam has revealed scores of shoplots which had housed slot machines until recently were now back in business, attracting patrons mostly Malay Muslims.
Several residents said they suspected 'syndicates' behind the sudden comeback of the slot machines scourge.
Zaki, who lives at a housing estate in Bukit Mertajam, said the centres had been attracting large crowds of school students who spend their money on gambling.
"I am ashamed to see (Malay) students crowding these places. During the school holiday season, it has become their past time," said Zaki.
Another resident, who wished to be known as Ong, said the authorities should take stern action against the operators.
"It doesn't matter what ethnic background they come from, because these students would one day lead the nation," he added.
Harakah might be exaggerating about the Malay student thing. Meanwhile, please fomally legalise the outlets to prevent further waste of manpower and money, and include normal casino card games and mahjong and dominos as well. The computer screen/slot machine and the alogarithms behind such gambling make winning less possible by the public as each computer will have a quota to win by unlike PHYSICAL cards, dice etc..
At least this is the first time we hear of non-Muslim entertainments being allowed, albeit not formally within law. DAP's money mindedness has had an inadvertent protective effect on non-Muslim rights to gamble here, though would have been nicer if the local laws were amended for 4D outlets to offer the same PHYSICAL gambling games instead of this computer based and less than neutral chance of winning nonsense.
Anti-Lynas rally: 71-yr-old arrested after asking Adnan Yaakob to apologize – Wednesday, 12 December 2012 23:50
A senior citizen and her friend were arrested this morning after she demanded an apology from Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob for his remarks about the anti-Lynas 'Green March' last month.
Tuw Yin Lan, who is 71 and popularly known as Aunty Mei, was among those who had participated in the 300km walk from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur, organised by Himpunan Hijau.
When contacted, Himpunan Hijau publicity chief Lee Chean Chung said Tuw had gone to the MB's office in the state secretariat building.
"Aunty Mei was angry with Adnan's remark that the participants of the Green March had only walked for 200 metres," Lee said when contacted.
"She waited outside his office from 11am. When the MB appeared, she went forward and asked him to apologise but he refused."
She was then arrested along with Wong Chun Yuan and was taken to the Kuantan police district headquarters.
Another woman protester was also taken to the police station. However, it was later confirmed that she was not arrested.
About 20 supporters initially gathered outside the police station, while two lawyers from the local legal aid centre were on hand to provide assistance.
The number of supporters later increased to some 50 people, with some donning green T-shirts.
They were held back at first before the police eventually allowed some of them to go in.
Will answer any questions in court
At the Umno general assembly last month, Adnan had claimed that the protesters had not walked all the way as claimed.
He claimed that they had traveled "in luxury and in motorcars" and said he has no sympathy for them.
At around four o' clock, Tuw and Wong were released from the police station after being investigated, stating they might be charged on Dec 26.
If they are not charged, the duo claimed they were told they must present themselves to the police station within 14 days.
They were interrogated by police who, they claimed, wanted to know if their actions was at the direction by someone, what were they doing and who supported them in their actions.
Both did not say much during the questioning but stated that they will answer in court if charged.
When contacted, Wong said that he and Tuw were arrested under Section 186 and 189 of the Penal Code for obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions and for threat of injury to a public servant.
Much like Malaysian minority feminists that attack men but neglect apartheid against themselves AND their men, this is what happens to people who go around using Pakatan's method of marching and demanding apologies instead of campaigning legally and in dignity as independent candidates. Arrests. If this 71 year old does not run for election in GE13 as a 3rd force candidate, we'd all know that the geezer might be a disinfo agent of BN to distract from the lack of :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism (Article 1 Human Rights Charter)
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy. (Article 18 Human Rights Charter)
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution. (Surah An Nisa 4:75)
BN has the mandate to grant the above 3 items but still does not act. By the Human Rights Charter which Malaysia is a signatory or the tenets of Islam about rights of non-Muslims for Haram entertainments and equality, BN is the least sincere choice still. BN, why don't you use that undeserved mandate and put an end to this farce of 2 part elections? Meanwhile what is the Bar Council doing? Can't even challenge the federal Government for Article 1 of the Human Rights Charter? Useless over-educated colluders with all the undeserved resources . . . Vote 3rd Force!
mini-ARTICLE 6.5
Deepak, Musa the guns used in Dr M's 'guerrilla warfare' against Najib & Rosmah? – by Nawawi Mohamad, Stan Lee, Malaysia Chronicle | 17 Dec 2012
When you want to get at someone who has influence and power, you have to plan and execute with precision and style in order to create maximum and lasting impact. Otherwise, it could backfire badly and you might end up hurt or even dead! That is life in the Malaysia's take-no-enemies, an-eye-for-an-e…
Nawawi and Stan . . . Zzz. If the election deposit which out 222 MPs refuse to lower is affordable to these guys, just shut up and run for election as a candidate against the creeps (right after winning lower the damn election candidacy deposit).
DAP does not represent 'middle Malaysia', snipes PM – Monday, 17 December 2012 08:06
SANDAKAN — DAP does not represent 'middle Malaysia' or the spirit of unity of all races in Malaysia when all eight Malay DAP leaders did not garner enough votes to sit in the party's central executive committee (CEC) during its congress yesterday.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said that would not happen within Barisan Nasional (BN) that practises fairness to all the races in Malaysia and had a clear direction for the country.
"We also see that DAP is not only dominated by one race, that is the Chinese, but also by a family dynasty where Lim Kit Siang received the highest vote while his son Lim Guan Eng came in second.
"Not only the Malays lose to the Chinese, but even the Indians failed to be elected to the committee," he said when opening the Liberal Democratic Party 23rd General Assembly, here today.
Najib called on the people to continue supporting BN which practises unity under the 1Malaysia concept and which was also evident in its cabinet.
"Malaysia lies within a good partnership known as Barisan Nasional. Believeme, we (Malaysia under BN government) will go places, our economy will soar and investors will be more confident," he said.
The prime minister also said the BN government will continue to give out assistance in various fields such as education and business in order for the country to prosper.
Meanwhile, Najib said BN was serious and honest in delivering its promisesto the people unlike leaders such as opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He said during Anwar's brief stint as acting prime minister in 1997, the former deputy prime minister under Tun Mahathir Mohamad's administration had every opportunity to prove his worth, but took the easy way out by letting the International Monetary Fund have control over Malaysia during the economic crisis that year.
"He (Anwar) didn't protect the country's sovereignty… He never asked himself why he was not fit to become a prime minister," he said.
Najib also asked for the people not to risk the future of Malaysia under Pakatan Rakyat. He said the coalition of the opposition parties had no common ideology and had no clear direction for the future of the country.
"Even their leaders Anwar (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) and PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang are fighting to become prime minister if Pakatan Rakyat comes into power.
"We (the country) can't have a coalition that is fundamentally flawed," he said.
Very true that DAP does not represent middle anything. Term limitless oligarchies are harmful. BN has not granted after 50 years :
1) Freedom from Apartheid/Fascism (Article 1 Human Rights Charter)
2) Freedom from Religious-Persecution/Religious-Supremacy. (Article 18 Human Rights Charter)
3) Equality for all ethnicities and faiths in all aspects of policy, Law and Constitution. (Surah An Nisa 4:75)
;and on that basis, could be said to be even more fundamentally flawed. BN has the mandate to grant the above now. Why does BN not act? Because BN is fundamentally flawed. Pakatan has had ZERO years in power and never had the mandate – that is why Pakatan presents a 50 year stronger challenge. Otherwise vote 3rd Force!
Dr M interfered in police probe on Anwar sex scandal, alleges ex-cop – NEWS/COMMENTARIES – Monday, 17 December 2012 admin-s
(The Malaysian Insider) – Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, had admitted in his memoirs to interfering in police investigations into the alleged sexual dalliances linked to his one-time deputy, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former senior policeman said today.
In his open letter, ex-Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim questioned Home Minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein's decision to keep out of an ongoing spat between two former senior crime busters — Tan Sri Musa Hassan and Datuk Ramli Yusuff — which is seen to be jeopardising public confidence in the police force.
"If exposed that Tun Mahathir (picture)himself had deliberately or otherwise admitted in writing that it was true he had interfered in police investigations related to the '50 Dalil' [50 Reasons] book, what would be the response from Hishammuddin or the prime minister?" Mat Zain said in his letter to incumbent Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar, which was also copied to Hishammuddin and PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
"It is hoped Hishammuddin will not say that the matter was a personal matter between Tun Mahathir and Musa Hassan and he refuses to interfere too," he added.
The retired policeman alleged that Dr Mahathir had revealed in his autobiography, "A Doctor in the House", published last year, that he had a direct hand in police investigations related to a book titled "50 Dalil Mengapa Anwar Tidak Boleh Jadi Perdana Menteri" [50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be Prime Minister] that concerned the then-deputy prime minister's purported sexual liaisons with several men and women, including prostitutes.
"He had confidently given a guarantee that he will direct the police to bring the witnesses to Sri Perdana once again, if the chief ministers and mentris besar as well as state Umno liaison chairmen wanted to interview them."
Malaysia's fourth prime minister wrote that he had first been told about Anwar's alleged homosexual activities in the early 1990s by then police chief Tun Hanif Omar.
Dr Mahathir, who ruled from 1981 to 2003, said he was then given the book "50 Dalil Kenapa Anwar IBrahim Tidak Boleh Jadi Perdana Menteri" but had initially dismissed it as a sensationalist attempt to make money.
He said in 1997 Ummi Hafilda Ali, sister of PKR deputy president Azmin Ali, sent him a letter with specific allegations of sodomy against Anwar.
The former prime minister said he interviewed the girls who told him they were taken to have sex with his then deputy, who was later charged and jailed for sodomy and corruption.
Dr Mahathir wrote that they were persuaded to do so by an Indian man they knew as Nalla, likely to be Datuk K.S. Nallakarupan, then a close associate of Anwar who has since fallen out with the opposition leader.
Dr Mahathir said he then called Umno leaders including mentris besar and chief ministers to Sri Perdana to brief them about Anwar's alleged affairs and showed them pictures of the witnesses.
Mat Zain said today that the former prime minister's statements in the book were "clear proof that not only did he interfere in investigations, but also gave certain orders that were not appropriate to Musa Hassan, until it is believed influenced the overall outcome of the investigations".
The judiciary has been unable to act even after a dearth, anti-trust and collusion evidence. The legal fraternity world wide should blackball Malaysia's judiciary and give support to Musa if Musa decides to take out the ILLEGAL AP law writing (ask any legal body worldwide, they will tell you that Vehicular AP is illegal), failed shipping nepotism bailing, political nepotism causing mamak plutocrat politician Iskandar Kutty Jr..
mini-ARTICLE 8.5
PKR, Umno share same DNA – NEWS/COMMENTARIES – Monday, 17 December 2012 admin-s
(Free Malaysia Today) – STAR is clear in pushing its Borneo Agenda for Sabah and Sarawak, saying it's time for Borneo-centric policies, and that the Malayan Agenda is no longer acceptable.
State Reform Party (STAR) Sabah chairman Jeffrey Kitingan is adamant that PKR is the opposition's version of Umno and will lord over the people in Sabah and Sarawak if it comes to power at federal level.
Jeffrey, who is also the president of the United Borneo Front (UBF), equated both the peninsula-based political parties as Malayan in nature and unsuitable for the two Borneo states.
"PKR and Umno are the same like the old colonialists. They come to exploit us to get into power to eventually lord over us. PKR should concentrate on winning the seats in the Peninsula which is already more than 75% of the total seats.
"It is their Malaya Agenda to control and colonise Sabah and Sarawak, whereas our Borneo Agenda is just the opposite, to free us from this choking over-lording over Sabah and Sarawak," he said.
Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/12/17/pkr-umno-share-same-dna/
East Malaysia should demand FULL equality or secede.
DAP adopts one candidate-one seat policy – Monday, 17 December 2012 admin-s
(The Star) – DAP has adopted its Central Executive Committee's (CEC) resolution on the one candidate, one seat policy.
DAP chairman Karpal Singh said one person should contest only one seat, but there could be exceptions on case-by-case basis based on the party's strategy.
"The resolution has been adopted," said Karpal, who had wanted such a policy to provide opportunity to candidates of calibre to contest.
Other resolutions from branches that were tabled and adopted include calls on party leaders to stop openly attacking the party to the point of jeopardising its image.
Perak New Village branch chairman Lim Soo Chong said attacks motivated by personal interest should stop because the party did not belong to any individual.
Another resolution adopted called on leaders to attend party functions and not to demand five-star accommodations.
Six other resolutions could not be tabled because representatives from the branches that proposed them were not present.
On a proposal by Sekinchan assemblyman Ng Suee Lim to impose a direct election system in the party, Karpal said the party constitution needed to be amended for it to be adopted.
"It requires a major amendment to the constitution. If the members feel strongly about direct election, then it should be considered."
Although Karpal had said the delegates were free to bring up any issue, none of them brought up contentious issues involving Pakatan Rakyat.
Issues such as the gender ruling in salons in Kelantan, "khalwat" summonses issued to non-Muslims in Kelantan and the demolition of a religious altar in a private home in Selangor were not touched.
The only good news so far about DAP. Double posts mean salaries of up to 1 million yearly – which Rakyat would tolerate this? Where are those MP asset declarations and Local Council Elections as promised? Nepotist, crony capitalist . . .
Why now, Musa? – by R. Nadeswaran, The Sun – Monday, 17 December 2012 admin-s
You cannot create doubts in the minds of the people by making such sweeping statements without substantiation. No amount of denials by the minister or his cohorts is going to clear the reservations of the rakyat unless and until you are willing to be specific.
WHEN Tan Sri Ismail Omar was appointed inspector-general of police two years ago, many had expected him to shape up an already beleaguered police force. From rising crime rates to public order, he had his work cut out for him. Besides, the internal bickering between his predecessor, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the former commercial crimes chief, Datuk Ramli Yusoff, turned into what appeared to be a bare-fisted brawl. With Tan Sri Robert Phang in the fray, a battle royale has ensued.
After months of anxiety, worry and concern, Ramli was acquitted of charges accusing him of misuse of power.
While the civil suit which was filed by Ramli has yet to start, everyone thought the dust had settled and Ismail would be able to focus on reducing crime rates and other issues of public interest.
But last week, Musa came to the fore with his claims of "interference from politicians" and a host of other claims, allegations and assertions, this time accusing Phang of having had a hand in the transfer of a senior police officer.
Why now? If indeed there was interference, shouldn't Musa have thrown the Police Act in the face of the people behind the interference and ask them to mind their own business? Was he not the key witness in the trial of a former deputy prime minister who was charged with "interfering with police business"?
Why now? Did Musa consciously stop investigating crimes just because the call came from Putrajaya?
Why now? There were no reasons or provocateurs behind Musa's sudden outburst and hence why out of the blue, call for a press conference?
Why now? Having yet to answer the charges made by Ramli in his various court affidavits, does Musa now want us to believe his hands were tied in the past?
Why now? Musa retired two years ago and if he was unhappy with the events during his tenure, shouldn't he have voiced out his views at the handing-over ceremony to his successor?
Why now? Musa had all the opportunity to offer advice to his successor, Ismail who had been his deputy. Is he trying to undermine the IGP by describing Ismail as a "yes man"?
Why now? Who was the Tan Sri who came to you with a stack of summonses? Shouldn't he have been shown the door and told that the law takes it course?
Such claims have yet again forced the public to form their own views and opinions on the impartiality of the police force. People are wondering if the police pander to the wishes of politicians or if they go by the book in the application and enforcement of the law.
Going by Musa's assertions, people who have committed murder, robbery and other heinous crimes are walking on our streets on the basis of phone calls from politicians?
These claims may have some truth in them, but making statements without substantiation would be akin to self-appointed do-gooders and instantly-created NGOs demanding all kinds of explanations from the opposition.
Musa did not provide one instance where the minister or a politician had interfered in police investigations. Except for saying that a titled politician turned up in his office to sort out summonses, nothing more specific was revealed.
If indeed the police acceded to directives and instruction from higher up, are we to assume that the police closed the file on the Balkis fiasco where funds totalling almost RM10 million were transferred illegally, which borders on breach of trust?
Are we to say that the police also closed the files on the overseas money transfers that were carried out illegally through money changers although there were prima facie cases against them?
No, Musa. You cannot create doubts in the minds of the people by making such sweeping statements without substantiation. No amount of denials by the minister or his cohorts is going to clear the reservations of the rakyat unless and until you are willing to be specific – incidences, names, dates and times – when such interference took place.
Musa is testing the water, and all of the above if 'fired' will immediately remove any caveats of neutrality Musa has that will allow Musa to back down, Musa wouldn't sign their own death warrant. Musa needs to test the waters to see how many supporters Musa has or the public sentiment which will decide if Musa will survive AFTER 'firing', if not acting as bait on UMNO's beha;f to sabotage the whistleblowers – who in either case can count on general discontent to topple BN that Musa may try to cash in on rather than support a hated and racist political party. This is not the first or last time a retired IGP enters politics (think Thaksin's early days before PAP converted the Policeman in Thaksin Shinawatra into a corrupted bureaucrat who has against all principles against nepotism ingenuously acted as if Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra's presence in the 3rd world mob minded country – the Red Shirts at least – as normal, while refusing to attend court . . . ).
How does being a 3rd Force candidate, if not independent and neutral MP sound to Musa? BN is corrupt, PR is selfish. BN is clearly racist (and somewhat nepotistic) and PR might be racist (and very nepotistic), or quite prepared to be self serving by using racism as a weapon of control. Devil and deep blue sea, how about NEITHER. Go independent or be 3rd Force! Help the rakyat learn that the hegelian dialectic of a supposed 2 party system might still make no difference by offering an alternative 3rd and by extension teaching the Rakyat to think. An ex-IGP (much like the failure ex-Bar President who refuses to run for election but creates chaos on the streets by inciting rallies to no purpose), has the ethos to run as a 3rd Force MP for certain . . .
How Our Democracy is Damaged – by Kee Thuan Chye – Monday, 17 December 2012 admin-s
The individual analyses of the 16 by-elections in the book, contributed by about a dozen observers ranging from journalists to researchers to political scientists, reveal how inept the EC has been, especially in not attending to electoral roll irregularities and preventing abuse of public institutions and corrupt practices.
We often hear of electoral fraud and unfair election practices but what do they really mean? What forms does electoral fraud usually take? What constitute unfair practices and how have they surfaced?
Beyond that, what are the measures that need to be taken to ensure that Malaysian elections are free and fair so that this vital aspect of our democracy is truly well-served and our vote for the candidate or party we support is not made a mockery of?
A new book called Democracy at Stake?: Examining 16 By-elections in Malaysia, 2008-2011, published by Strategic Information and Research Development Centre, answers our questions and collates our concerns into a handy and comprehensive compact.
Edited by Wong Chin Huat and Soon Li Tsin, it analyses the 16 by-elections that have been held since the 12th general election according to such relevant categories as how free, fair and clean they were; the freedom and quality of the campaigning; the political parties' access to media; corrupt practices that were perpetrated; how impartial or otherwise the public institutions were; the amount of campaign money spent; the electoral roll; and the polling process.
Wong, who is in my opinion one of the sharpest political analysts we have, sets the standard for the conduct of elections in his introductory article.
Well-researched and replete with references from many documented sources, it explains why electoral fraud is wrong ("Even if one person is disenfranchised … even if one vote is rigged, democracy is damaged because political equality is compromised to favour the ones who play foul") and explains what we as citizens should expect of a free and fair election.
The most fundamental of expectations are that we "must be able to register as voters with minimal cost and trouble" and be able to vote "without much difficulty", and our votes "must be counted with integrity". By that token, we must also expect that the electoral roll "includes all citizens who are eligible to vote" and "nobody else".
Wong, however, declares that the electoral rolls in Malaysia "fail on both accounts". This is partly because as of March 2012, three million eligible citizens are still not registered voters. But what we may find more disturbing is his revelation that the electoral rolls "include many names who [sic] should not be there in the first place, such as illegally enfranchised foreigners, deceased voters, multiply-registered voters, voluntarily and involuntarily transferred voters who are non-residents in the constituency".
It is amusing to note that entries like Kampung Baru and a Police Station at Kampung Kerinchi are registered voters on the electoral rolls.
Wong proposes synchronising the electorate database maintained by the Election Commission (EC) with the citizenry database of the National Registration Department (NRD) to minimise errors and allow for corrections to be made continually.
Although he does not say so explicitly, it would also facilitate automatic voter registration, one of the eight demands of Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections of which Wong is a steering committee member. The synchronisation of databases would alert the EC to instances of citizens turning 21 and attaining eligibility for voting.
Another disturbing point Wong raises concerns the legal impediments to transparency in the procedure for correction of errors. Section 9A of the Election Act 1958 prevents the electoral rolls from being challenged in court, and Regulation 25 of the Elections (Registration of Voters) Regulations gives "unchecked power" to the EC to "correct any errors free from any public scrutiny".
This point is particularly pertinent in regard to the Malaysian EC because the public has lost much confidence in the commission's ability and inclination to be independent and neutral in the conduct of its duty. One important measure that the public needs to take, therefore, is to lobby for the EC to be truly independent and neutral.
If this were achieved, we can be better assured that other conditions necessary for free and fair elections will be facilitated.
These would include what Wong describes as allowing citizens to make "informed decisions after deliberation" from the "availability of information from all perspectives".
As such, there should be campaign freedom – a reasonable period for campaigning once an election is called; free airtime for all contesting parties on State-owned broadcast media like RTM and unbiased coverage in Bernama as well as private-owned media, like Utusan Malaysia, The Star, Sin Chew, Media Prima's TV stations, etc; and no restrictions like those imposed in three by-elections at which the Home Ministry banned campaigners from "mentioning (a) Altantuya Shaariibuu, the Mongolian model cum interpreter whose murder was linked to Prime Minister (PM) Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, and (b) the role of the Perak Palace in the state's constitutional crisis".
The impartiality of public institutions should also be upheld. This includes no abuse of government machinery by the ruling party, such as using official cars and helicopters for party campaigning or, worse, announcing development projects like in the Hulu Selangor "buy-election" when BN offered about RM136 million in projects, payments and compensations while the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor State Government offered about RM27.6 million's worth.
And of course there should also be no pork barrelling at the hustings, the most famous example being the "I help you, you help me" offer of RM5 million for flood mitigation that Najib made to the Rejang Park voters in the Sibu by-election in return for their support of the BN candidate.
Nor should there be outright vote-buying, as in the alleged giving out of RM100 cash to each Chinese voter at a polling station during the Merlimau by-election.
It is the duty of the EC to report such transgressions but, unfortunately, it has not been fulfilling that duty.
By and large, the individual analyses of the 16 by-elections in the book, contributed by about a dozen observers ranging from journalists to researchers to political scientists, reveal how inept the EC has been, especially in not attending to electoral roll irregularities and preventing abuse of public institutions and corrupt practices.
In the Permatang Pauh by-election, for example, a voter was turned away from the polling station because on the electoral roll, he was said to be dead.
Furthermore, 949 voters were discovered to have disappeared from the constituency's electoral roll. As the media reported the issue and the EC's deputy chairman could not explain the disappearance, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin called on the EC to investigate it. However, "no finding was revealed to the public".
In Bukit Selambau, election watchdog Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (MAFREL) backed the Opposition's claim that more than 60% of the voters in a housing estate were phantom voters, but the EC merely dismissed it.
In fact, the picture that emerges from the 16 analyses is that many of the complaints and allegations made during the by-elections were not resolved afterwards.
On the whole, as the editors sum up in the final chapter, "the integrity of the electoral rolls in Malaysia is highly questionable". Citing extensively from research done by political scientist Ong Kian Ming, they elaborate on unexplained deletions of names; unaccounted-for additions; high number of voters registered under the same address; unusually high increase of military/police voters (most markedly in Lembah Pantai, currently a Pakatan Rakyat seat held by Nurul Izzah Anwar, which has seen a 1,024% growth of such voters); and other manifestations.
EC Chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof has declared that Malaysia has "the cleanest electoral rolls in the world", with problematic registrations amounting to only 42,051 names, but according to Ong's research findings, the number is closer to 3 million.
Whomever you choose to believe, the outlook is far from rosy. The editors believe the irregularities are caused by deliberate fraud rather than administrative or clerical errors. They consider the state we're in an "Orwellian absurdity".
On our part, we the public should be pressing for accountability from the EC and other related authorities. Although Democracy at Stake? does not suggest how we could go about doing this, it focuses attention on a serious issue of our political life.
It's up to us now to protect our democratic right. Taking to the streets through the Bersih rallies has been done and resulted in some headway, but this is unlikely the way to achieve the ultimate goal.
We need to think of other ways to shake the powers that be to get the real democracy we deserve.
Could the information on registered voters be easier to access? With a few million citizens on the internet trawling the irregularities and the system suggested on :
ARTICLE 13's response on below link :
;could help where the issue of 1000% rise in voter listings or buildings being registered as voters, or repeats in names occur should easily be fereted out with the suggested system. Who needs voting machines?
Flabbergasted 3rd Force slams poor Democratic Principals of "NATIONAL LIARS" DAP-Pakatan Rakyat leaders – by 3rd Force – Tuesday, 18 December 2012 17:09
I really do not know whether to laugh or to cry – the standard of Democratic Principals in Malaysia has really fallen to a disgraceful and abysmal low after four decades of DAP-PakatanRakyat rule.
Last week, Malaysia suffered national and international humiliation when the Trends in International Judiciaryematics and Police Study ( TIMSS) 2011 reports were released, as the nation's ranking in eighth-grade Judiciary fell from 20th in 2007 to 26th in 2011 while its ranking in Police fell by an even greater margin, from 21st in 2007 to 32nd in 2011. Our average Judiciarys score fell from 474 in 2007 to 440 and our average Police score fell by an even greater degree from 471 in 2007 to 426 in 2011, both far below the international average for both subjects in TIMSS 2011.
What is even worse, Malaysia also suffered the shame of being only one out of 6 countries out of 42 countries participating in the Judiciarys study and 45 countries participating in the Police study to see falls in both our Judiciarys and Police scores and ranking! Most of the other countries either improved their scores and rankings or stayed at their previous levels.
Setting bad examples
But the poor attainments of our civil servants in Judiciary and Police when compared to international student achievements is not the only bane of the Malaysian education system.
Another equally critical area where the Malaysian education system has failed miserably is the Democratic Principals subject, which was poignantly illustrated in the past 5 decades, placing me in the position of not knowing whether to laugh or to cry.
Yesterday, I issued a media statement where I said:
"I wish to apologise to the Prime Minister and DAP President,Lim Kit Siang and the DAP-PakatanRakyat leaders that I was elected into the DAP Central Executive Committee (CEC) at the 16th DAP National Congress – and with the highest votes." I am really flabbergasted that there are DAP-PakatanRakyat leaders and supporters who took it literally to mean that I had realised the error of BN-Umno "misconduct" and that BN-Umno was belatedly admitting that Lim Kit Siang had been right.
It would be unthinkable that such a ludicrous situation in comprehension of the Democratic Principals could happen in Malaysia 40 years ago! (The Race Riots took 2 hands to clap, DAP was the dirty hand, but ALL Malaysians were punished instead, meanwhile DAP MPs have sat in power for decades and currently collect 20 times PROPOSED minimum wage of 900 . . . )
No such phrases in the Democratic Principals, dear Karpal (much less the 0.002% quorum crony NGO(quangocrat) based elections which takes tax payer monies. (300 NGO members voted, 1.5 million Penangites were left out and given inadequate time to vote or participate in voting, DAP however wants to INSULT the Rakyat by distributing money THIRD WORLD STYLE instead which could be used to ensure proper voting occured)
Recently, we have a Mentri Besar whose comprehension of Democratic Principals is so dismal that he could "invent"" figurative language in Democratic Principals only known to himself – when he talked about "sacrificing DAP's Teoh Beng Hocks" and "jumping into the river" in Pahang if DAP should lose to 33rd Force in Bentong in the 13 general elections.
Everybody who searched the internet could only find figures of speech like "cutting the Kit Siang to spite Guan Eng" and "jump into the PAP" but no "cutting Karpals" or "jumping into the PAP"!
Of course, Malaysians will not forget about another Mentri Besar who claimed ignorance of Democratic Principals as to justify carrying lying about declarations of MP Assets to the Rakyat as a campaign manifesto for GE12 while taking 1 million or so every 4 year term of thr taxpayer monies then having the illegally appointed EXCO members declare assets in bait and switch instead! DAP is a party of multiple crises in term limitlessness and crony capitalism, including multiple crisis in nepotism.
Let us be serious about term limitlessness and crony capitalism, including multiple crisis in nepotism in parties like DAP, and stop making Malaysia an international joke. Listed below are the nepotist (also untalented and unprincipled) factions in DAP which the Rakyat must remove or run as candidates against :
Please note the Oligarchs in Pakatan as listed below :
Three of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :
Lim Kit Siang (MP Ipoh Timur – Perak)
Lim Guan Eng (MP Air Puteh – Penang)
Chew Gek Cheng (Assemblyman Kota Laksamana – Malacca) Guan Eng's wife
Lim Hui Ying Guan Eng's sister (Vice-Chairman)
Two of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :
Karpal Singh (MP Jelutong – Penang)
Gobind Singh (MP Puchong – Selangor)
Karpal's son Jagdeep Singh (Asssemblyman Dato Keramat – Penang)
Karpal's son
Two of the below must be challenged so that only a single candidate without relatives remains :
Anwar Ibrahim (MP Permatang Pauh, Seberang Prai)
Wan Azizah Nurul Izzah Anwar(MP Lembah Pantai – Kuala Lumpur)
Anwar's Daughter Also either Ngeh (Pantai Remis) or Nga (Sitiawan)
;must go to prevent 2nd degree nepotism and the kind of environment that caused DAP's Kulasegaran, PKR's Gobalakrishnan, to be kicked out possibly an act of racism but more likely at the order of the Lim Dynasty clique. BN of course we do not need to discuss, blocs of relatives galore.
Nepotism: Umno controlled by 3 families. – by Patric McClean http://macleanpatrick.com/category/published-articles/page/6/
@AgreeToDisagree is the 3rd Force adviser & MP of the real issue
Adopted from the threadbare article at : http://www.malaysia-chronicle.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=45360:flabbergasted-kit-siang-slams-poor-english-of-international-joke-umno-bn-leaders&Itemid=2


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Eddie Kendricks was the one member of the classic Temptations lineup who had a consistently successful solo career. He had many hits,many of them strutting uptempo numbers such as "Keep On Truckin'","Boogie Down" and "Girl You Need A Change Of Mind". Many of these songs were produced by Leonard Caston Jr. After mixed results with two 1976 albums recorded with Norman Harris,Kendricks turned back to Caston to fully produce his final Motown solo album in 1977 entitled Slick. One song from the album actually found its way into my musical rotation very heavily this past year.
During this past summer of 2016,I actually took the time to do more bicycle riding. Unlike previous years,decided to take advantage of my phone's MP3 player to listen to music while on these bike rides. Most of these songs were endowed with an appropriate sense of motion. And all of them were from within the soul/funk/jazz/Latin spectrum of music. During the course of the summer,I brought different songs in and out of this rotation in order to keep things fresh. And one of them was an Eddie Kendricks song that originally concluded his final Motown album. Its called "California Woman".
A pulsing bass and drum pulse starts the song out-accompanied only by low rumble of strings. Shortly after,a loud vocal chorus scales up into Kendrick's refrain. Here,the bass the and stomping shuffle of the drums are accompanied by lightly harmonic strings and horns-along with the vocal chorus serving the same function. On the chorus the horns and backup vocalists melodically descend with Kendricks. After a reprise of the intro on the bridge,the chorus of the song repeats for a couple more bars before the song abruptly ends on an outro of a very similar nature to its beginning.
In some ways,this song has some of the hallmarks of Leonard Caston Jr's productions with Eddie Kendricks from before. The difference here is there isn't as much focus on the bass/guitar interaction as there is the orchestration. Its basically just the kind of "sound with a good melody" as Kendricks himself preferred-with much care put into the production to make sure the groove was funky and the sweeteners on top had plenty of life to them. The lyrical tale of a "down home lady" becoming a movie star goes beautifully with the music's strutting "OG" style of cinematic funky soul.

subset: commoncrawl


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When applications are migrated from a physical Solaris system into a zone on a new system, the hostid changes to be the hostid of the new machine.
In some cases, applications depend on the original hostid, and it is not possible to update the application configuration. In these cases, the zone can be configured to use the hostid of the original system. This is done by setting a zonecfg property to specify the hostid, as described in How to Configure the Zone. The value used should be the output of the hostid command as run on the original system. To view the hostid in an installed zone, also use the hostid command.
For more information about host IDs, see hostid(1).


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Each window and door we offer becomes an integral part of your everyday life. That's why Signature Windows offers award-winning products, exceptional service, and expertly installed custom windows and doors. When you work with us, you have a partner through the entire process, and each decision you make will be confident and informed. Please contact us today to schedule an appointment at one of our showroom locations.
Our business is windows and doors. From homeowners looking for replacement windows, builders requiring technical assistance and installation services, to architects wanting assistance designing innovative openings, Signature Windows has the products and expertise to get the job done. We also service the commercial sector at each stage of development – from the initial design specification through installation and beyond.


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SeasonIt is recommended to choose your tyres, depending on the season, the temperature, and the surface:
- Summer: better performance when the temperature is over 7°c
- Winter and snow: recommended when the temperature falls below 7°c. The tyre pattern allows you to cut through snow, and retain grip.
Tyre brand helpRezulteo has ranked the brands into 3 categories
- Leading performance brands: Brands whose products offer high performance in all criteria : safety, comfort, environment.
- Mid-level brands: Brands whose products don't generally have the same multiple performance benefits. Their global performance is therefore inferior.
- Other brands: Tyres from these brands don't match the peformance of tyres from other brands.
OE tyre help
Some manufacturers have specifically upgraded one, or several of their tyre product lines. If an OE (Original Equipment) mark (N, MO, *, etc...) is present on the side of the tyre, this indicates a specially developed specification for a particular vehicle make (Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, etc...)
Run Flat help
Run Flat tyres allow you to continue driving for a few kilometres, even with a punctured tyre. These tyres sometimes need specific rims, and can only be mounted on Run Flat capable cars.
Staggered wheels help
If your vehicle has staggered wheels (front and rear tyres of a different dimension), you can independently choose the front and rear dimensions. This only concerns certain sports vehicles.


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While I don't typically write out a list of new years resolutions, I do usually take some time around the new year to think about things I would put on a list if I were to write one. On my mental list I usually include things like:
- Be a better husband and father
- Sleep less (I love sleep)
- Increase financial giving
- Go to the gym
- Pray more
- And, of course, read the Bible in a year
I'll admit, many new years have come and gone with that last item going undone. Like many of you, I start off the new year strong. I have my Bible reading plan all laid out and ready to go. Then, somewhere in the year, something goes wrong and my plan falls to the side.
This year, I'm going to try something new and use Global Bible Reader. This free download from Logos is a powerful desktop application that provides community and accountability in a Bible reading plan.
Once you install Global Bible Reader you sign in with your Logos.com user account and choose from one of the six reading plans. After you chose a plan (or multiple plans) Global Bible Reader will download six days worth of reading (so you can even read when you're not online). After you finish the reading for a day, click the Done Reading button and Global Bible Reader will mark the day as completed. In order to make sure you don't fall behind, you can set up Global Bible Reader to give you a daily reminder to read the day's text.
More than just reading yourself, Global Bible Reader plugs you into a community of people who are on the same reading plan as you. A globe in the application spins around showing you where all the other readers are located around the world. Not only that, Global Bible Reader allows you to post comments. You can use this feature to leave comments about the day's readings or to encourage your fellow readers. Also, since your Global Bible Reader is linked in to your Logos.com user account, you can update your profile picture and location and they will be imported into Global Bible Reader.
One of the only limitations to Global Bible reader, until now, was that it was tied to the computer where you install it. That problem was remedied today as we have now integrated Global Bible Reader into Bible.Logos.com! That means you can now keep up to date with your reading even when you are away from your main computer. Simply go to Bible.Logos.com, sign in, and click the Reading Plan. You'll see links to the day's readings and a button to click once you're done reading. Since Global Bible Reader and Bible.Logos.com are connected, clicking Done Reading in either location will mark the section read in the other.
Join me this year and read through the Bible with Global Bible Reader and Bible.Logos.com. Having a community and accountability might be just the thing I (we) need to stick with it this year!


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Affiliate marketing case study using SBI[Editor's note: See the 2012 update at the end of the article.]
When I started thinking about building my first affiliate site with Site Build It! I was worried. The marketing hype surrounding Site Build It! and all its wonderful features sounded good but there was no proof that these features would help me make money.
In fact I was not entirely convinced that decent money could be made by affiliates who sold actual products rather than marketing ebooks.
Well, I'm pleased to say that if you do things properly there's plenty of money out there. Of course the first and biggest step in doing things properly is getting Site Build It!
Site Build It! has a comprehensive 300-page Action Guide [UPDATE: And now a Video Guide, too] that takes you through the process of building an affiliate site. I don't want to give you all the details that the manual does. I just want you to read my story and see that Site Build It! sites do work.
They're not hard to build. If I can manage to build a money making site part-time, you can too.
When you look at the task in front of you it can seem a bit daunting when you first start because of all the things you have to do before the pay checks start arriving. Please don't worry. Just remember all you want to do is build an interesting web site that people enjoy visiting. All your traffic and revenue will stem from there.
Read this case study and see that there is nothing special about me. I'm just a regular guy who doesn't know much about affiliate programs and even less about marketing.
OK to get you started here's a quick list of the steps needed to get a revenue generating site up and running. Of course each step requires a little thought on your part but thinking and strategizing are part of the fun. I have spent some fun hours with my brother discussing possible topics for affiliate sites and our plans to make millions : )
Here are all the steps you need to take to make money on the Internet with affiliate programs.
2. Write a list of things you're interested in, for example computers, sports, music etc.
3. Use the Site Build It! research tools to find keywords that people will use to find your site in the search engines and choose your domain name. (for example, good-idea.com)
4. Look online for good affiliate programs related to your favorite topics.
5. Decide on your site's theme or topic, depending on which topics look the most profitable.
6. Write and then paste your articles into Site Build It! Site Build It! creates the web pages, puts them online.
7. Now have a look on the Internet for an online store's affiliate program and put its product links on your site.
8. Revise your site once you see which products your visitors are buying.
NEXT: You don't even have to know HTML


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Cardiac Science signs contract to provide Powerheart AEDs to the state of New Jersey
AEDs, Rescue Ready services available to state agencies under three-year contract
September 16, 2013
PR Newswire
WAUKESHA, Wis., Sept. 16, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Cardiac Science Corporation, an Opto Circuits group company and a global leader in automated external defibrillators (AEDs), has signed a three-year contract with the state of New Jersey to provide AEDs and related services to state agencies.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/200 80306/AQTH510LOGO)
The agreement makes Cardiac Science an authorized vendor for fully automatic and semi-automatic Powerheart® G3 AEDs as well as Rescue Ready® AED Management Services, which includes AED/CPR training, medical authorization, and a host of other services that help ensure the success of AED deployments. The contract includes volume pricing, which affords law enforcement and fire services an opportunity to expand upon their existing vehicle deployments of Powerheart AEDs.
Prior to selecting a partner, New Jersey insisted that the chosen AED manufacturer provide AEDs that are easy to use and at the same time technologically sophisticated. Powerheart AEDs are an ideal match: The small, lightweight devices can be easily used by laypersons, with both audio and visual instructions and prompts to guide the user through a rescue.
"Cardiac Science has a significant footprint in New Jersey through various AED deployments with state and municipal government agencies," said Al Ford, Cardiac Science General Manager and Senior Vice President of Sales / Marketing. "This new contract allows us to strengthen our foothold in the state while assuring we provide agencies with AEDs and support services to help New Jersey save lives."
New Jersey has some of the strongest AED protection laws in the U.S. "Janet's Law", signed in 2012, requires the state's public schools, recreation fields, and youth camps to have AEDs for youth athletic events. New Jersey's public school buildings are required to have AEDs, as are assisted living facilities, nursing homes, and health clubs.
In May 2012 New Jersey enacted a Good Samaritan law that protects from civil liability any individual who uses an AED in an emergency situation.
About Cardiac Science
Cardiac Science, a group company of Opto Circuits (India) Ltd., develops, manufactures, and markets automated external defibrillators (AED) and provides a portfolio of training, maintenance, and support services for AEDs. Cardiac Science is headquartered in Waukesha, Wisconsin. With customers in almost 100 countries worldwide, the company has operations in North America, Europe, and Asia. For information, call 1.800.426.0337 or visit http://www.cardiacscience.com.
For media questions, contact Ric Kositzke at +1.262.953.7624.
For investor questions, contact Opto Circuits at firstname.lastname@example.com or +91.80.2852.8088
SOURCE Cardiac Science Corporation


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Calendar | About Us | Contact Us
Shelby County General Relief provides assistance to individuals or households of Shelby County who are poor or needy and is administered within the scope of monies appropriated. Shelby County General Relief is understood to be "the payer of last resort" when all other means of assistance have been exhausted. It is not intended to be, nor shall it be, an ongoing support.
As defined in the Shelby County General Relief Program Ordinance, a "needy person" is a person or household who needs immediate, temporary assistance due to circumstances not attributable to that person. A "poor person" is a person or household that is at or below seventy-five percent (75%) of the current Federal Poverty Guideline.
Assistance may be provided for rent, emergency shelter, burial, prescription medication, emergency dental extraction, utilities, or food. An application must be completed; those applications are available at the Community Services office. All recipients of general relief shall agree to reimburse the County for assistance received. Every applicant denied assistance is informed in writing of the right to appeal such decision to the Board of Supervisors.


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TORONTO - The longest-serving inmate in Canada to have a murder conviction quashed can sue those involved in his prosecution, Ontario's top court ruled Thursday.
In its ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal said it would be wrong to deny Romeo Phillion, who spent 31 years behind bars protesting his innocence, a chance at a civil lawsuit.
In essence, the court found, the issues Phillion wants to litigate are different from what the Appeal Court looked at when it overturned his conviction in 2009 and ordered a new trial on the grounds that police and Crown had failed to disclose a crucial piece of evidence.
"The stakes, purpose and process were entirely different from this civil action," the Appeal Court said.
"In any event, the findings made on the reference with respect to the conduct of the Crown and police did not consider any issues of negligence or a common law duty of care as alleged in the statement of claim."
Phillion was convicted of second-degree murder in 1972 in the death of Ottawa firefighter Leopold Roy five years earlier based on a confession he recanted almost immediately. He was jailed for life and unsuccessfully appealed all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. He always refused to seek parole, saying it would amount to an admission of guilt.
However, he was ultimately able to persuade the federal government to refer the case to the Ontario Court of Appeal, which quashed his conviction and ordered a new trial in 2009. The court found that police had initially verified an alibi showing Phillion's innocence but never told the defence about it, apparently because investigators subsequently debunked the alibi.
The Crown withdrew the charge, arguing too much time had passed to pursue a new trial.
Phillion, now in his mid-70s, then sued for $14 million, alleging negligence and wrongdoing by prosecutors and two Ottawa police officers. In April last year, Ontario Superior Court Justice Eva Frank decided the suit would be an abuse of process and should not proceed.
In her ruling, Frank said the Appeal Court had already rejected suggestions of wrongdoing by police or Crown and that too much time had passed to try Phillion's claim now.
However, Thursday's decision found several problems with Frank's reasoning.
Phillion should not be blamed that so much time has passed, Appeal Court Justice Kathryn Feldman wrote in the unanimous judgment.
"Whether wrongfully or not, it was the respondents who had the knowledge of the information that led to the (Appeal Court) reference, to the setting aside of the verdict, and to the eventual withdrawal of the charge," Feldman said.
"To in effect punish the appellant for the passage of time in these circumstances by staying his action strikes me as manifestly unfair."
Phillion will now have to impugn the integrity of police and prosecution, something that was not required when he sought to have his guilty verdict set aside, Feldman said.
"It would further bring the administration of justice into disrepute to grant a stay in these circumstances and deprive the appellant of any opportunity to seek financial redress for his conviction when he did not have the opportunity to present a full defence at his trial."
Phillion's lawyer, David Robins, said from Windsor, Ont., on Thursday that his client was "pleased" with the decision and the lawsuit would now proceed.
It was not immediately clear whether there would be a further attempt at an appeal.


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Cleavage, tattoos, bare legs: Beachy looks invade the workplace
Is an office worker really "white collar" if starched shirts are nowhere to be found?
The new office dress code seems to involve plenty of decolletage, body ink and gams sans pantyhose.
In a smattering of cubicles, employees can be found wearing golf attire, flip flops, spaghetti straps and even sheer clothing. And while many co-workers say the office fashion show is off-putting, a good portion now consider the absence of pressed pantsuits to be acceptable.
So finds a new survey of more than 600 North American workers by digital media company Captivate. Nearly half of white-collar staffers said they've seen cleavage in the office, and 87% of senior managers say it's distracting. More than three-quarters of such bosses also say short skirts are inappropriate.
Also not OK: short shorts and hot pants. Though rare (only 8% of workers say they've seen such clothing in the office), the majority of both men and women find it distasteful.
Flip-flop sandals, more popular among working women than men, also get a no vote from both genders. Same with see-through garments, which only 19% of men consider acceptable while 91% of women do not.
But the Captivate study also had some unexpected findings. More than half of workers older than 50 think bare legs are fine on the job. Employees 35 to 49 generally think tattoos — which 45% of workers report seeing in the office — are acceptable.
The majority of women don't mind golf attire on their colleagues, an occurrence reported by 53% of workers.
A separate report last month found that the vast majority of American workers don't think ripped jeans, strapless tops and hoodies are suitable office wear.
[UPDATED, 1:50 p.m.: Staff writers Tiffany Hsu, David Lazarus and Adam Tschorn will discuss dos and don'ts of office dressing in a Google Hangout at 3 p.m. The chat will be streamed live on latimes.com.]
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What If You Can't Pay Your Taxes?
File your return on time anyway to minimize the penalties.
What if you owe money to the IRS but don't have the cash to pay the bill? Don't panic &emdash; but don't ignore the problem, either. File your 2012 tax return (or an extension — more below) by the April 15, 2013, deadline, even if you can't pay the full amount you owe. You'll pay a late-payment penalty of 0.5% of the unpaid amount per month, up to 25% of the balance. But that's a lot better than the failure-to-file penalty of 5% a month.
To hold down the penalties and interest that will continue to add up until the balance is paid in full, pay as much of your tax bill as you can when you file your return. Then wait for the IRS to send you a bill for the balance. That should take about 45 days and give you some time to come up with some or all of the remaining cash.
Minimize the damage. Interest and penalties can add up quickly. Say you owe $9,000 in taxes on your 2012 return. If you file your return by the April 15 deadline and send no money &emdash; but pay your tax debt in full three months later &emdash; you'll owe $9,202.50, including interest and late-payment penalties, according to estimates calculated by Lisa Greene-Lewis, Lead CPA of the American Tax and Financial Center at TurboTax.
But if you delay filing your taxes until you come up with the money, and file and pay your taxes three months after the due date, your tax bill will balloon to $10,417.50, including interest (currently 3% on unpaid balances compounded daily) and failure-to-file penalties, Greene-Lewis says.
Filing an Extension
If you act before April 15, you can file Form 4868 to delay your tax-filing deadline until October 15. But it won't delay the deadline for paying your taxes. Interest will continue to accrue on the unpaid balance. However, the late-payment penalty does not apply during the six-month extension period if you paid at least 90% of your actual tax liability before the original April 15 due date and pay the balance when you file the return..
Where to get the money. If you own a home, consider tapping a home-equity line of credit to pay your tax bill (assuming you still have equity). You can probably deduct the interest you pay on the home loan on next year's tax return.
Paying by credit card is another option, and it could be cheaper than incurring IRS penalties and daily compounded interest. You'll owe a convenience fee &emdash; paid to the card issuer, not the IRS &emdash; of up to 2.35% of the entire transaction, but if you're enrolled in a rewards program, the tax payments qualify for points, rewards, airline miles or cash back.
If you can't come up with the cash on your own, contact the IRS at 800-829-1040 or apply online to discuss your payment options &emdash; which may include an extension of up to four months or an installment plan for up to three years (as long as your tax debt doesn't exceed $25,000).
Don't get suckered by cable TV ads that promise to settle your tax bill for pennies on the dollar. In extreme cases, you &emdash; or a tax-resolution company acting on your behalf &emdash; may be able to file an Offer in Compromise with the IRS and settle your tax debt for far less than you owe. But only a small percentage of tax-reduction offers are accepted, and you must prove that you don't have the means to pay and probably never will, usually because you're too old, too poor or too sick. If you are employable and have assets you can sell to raise cash, be prepared to pay the tax man.


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After I spend 10 h. on playing Dink Smallwood I fell good to him.He is funny but bravery. I like this character and this game. Look like it take me to that world though it only 2D graphic. I like the jokes in it.Seth is the funniest boss in games that I ever play.
I don't like one thing in this game. It is we must kill The ducks for pass quest cause I have two lovely ducks in my garden and I love them very much.
I hope for a new adventure of Dink.


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Published On : Apr 19, 2012
Image Copyright : Mercedes Benz G Class 2013
Mercedes Benz G Class 2013
After the disappointment caused by the lack of a new Mercedes Benz G Glass 2013 at this year's New York Auto Show, the Mercedes Benz G Class 2013 has finally showed up on the radar and is now preparing itself for a US debut in August. The new G Class features minor modifications in terms of exterior design, but that was pretty much to be expected from this particular SUV. Under the hood on the other hand, is a totally different story.


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Espanola, N.M.—In recent weeks, John McCain has been portraying himself as force for change, particularly in response to the recent economic crisis. This makes Barack Obama happy. Change is his turf. He's been talking about it for two years. This also makes Barack Obama incredulous. Change is his turf. He's been talking about it for two years.
Obama has responded to McCain's new pitch with a torrent of sarcasm. In doing so, he sounds a lot like his opponent. So while McCain tries to adopt Obama's message (even using the same phrases), Obama is trying out some McCain attitude—and this presidential campaign is beginning to sound very familiar.
Reacting to McCain's claim that he's going to take on the "old boys' network," Obama notes that several former lobbyists now work on the McCain campaign. "The old boys' network?" he asks, then pauses a beat like a true comedian. "In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting." (This is a twofer because it allows Obama to say the word old a lot). Obama also jokes that McCain is so angry at corporations, "he wants to give them $200 billion more in tax breaks. … If they're not careful, he's going to give them a tax cut for shipping jobs overseas." And he's just getting warmed up. "Senator McCain bragged about how as chairman of the commerce committee in the Senate, he had oversight of every part of the economy," Obama told a Las Vegas crowd last week. "Well, all I can say to Senator McCain is, 'Nice job.' "
I'm a fan of sarcasm. Honestly. (My gift to you: I will try not to be sarcastic in this article.) Obama, on the other hand, has always put a premium on a new kind of politics, full of sincerity and virtue and earnestness. When he was sarcastic, it was about his lack of sarcasm, mocking critics who said he talked about hope so much that he was a "hope-monger."
Yet as it turns out, Obama is pretty good at sarcasm, too. At several stops last week, he got big laughs, just as Sarah Palin won raves from her night of dripping snark at her party's convention. (Obama wasn't perfect, though: In Espanola, N.M., on Thursday, he bungled a few canned sarcastic lines: "When the seven lobbyists working for McCain's campaign get together, it's called a staff meeting!" Well, yes.)
The base loves the sarcasm. But sarcasm is dangerous. It's more corrosive than nonsarcastic political humor, which sometimes can make even your opponents laugh. (Think of Ronald Reagan, who said he was going to dress up as Mondale's economic plan for Halloween.) As Peggy Noonan has written, humor delivered well entices voters, brings you on par with your opponent, and "gets people to carry your message for you" as they retell your joke.
Sarcasm is meaner. It gets your team fired up, but it also fires up the other side. Obama raised $10 million the day after Sarah Palin launched her sunny little darts in St. Paul, Minn. Undecided voters may also not like it. They may know some of those "community organizers" Sarah Palin turned her populist little nose up at in her acceptance speech. They might even serve as organizers in their local churches. Or they may not think it's so outlandish for McCain to present himself as a change agent. He has, after all, fought his party on tobacco legislation, immigration, campaign finance, judges, torture, and federal pork. What tough fights have you waged to shake up the system, Mr. Obama?
Whether or not Obama's sarcasm is successful, his reliance on it is just another indication of how this once-promisingly unconventional campaign has become thoroughly conventional. Once upon a time, both McCain and Obama were seen as nontraditional candidates. McCain was going to give straight talk, and Obama was going to stamp out cynicism. They were going to have joint town-hall appearances, not question each other's motives, and vacation together in the islands after it was all over. That's all gone now. We're back to the familiar.
McCain, who regularly used to declare that "spinning is lying," is whirring like a scratched DVD. His campaign, once known for being open and accessible, is now shuttered and arid like the Bush campaigns of 2000 and 2004.
Obama, meanwhile, has never really offered a robust new policy paradigm to match his post-partisan politics, which was the early promise of his campaign. Since last month he has placed even greater emphasis on what his economic policies could do for voters, but his policies sound ever more standard. In tone, he's a long way from The Audacity of Hope (a sarcasm-free book). He's not only running thoroughly conventional distortion ads on issues like McCain's lobbying ties, but he's running more of them than McCain. And his recent immigration ad is competing with McCain's sex-ed-in-kindergarten ad for the biggest distortion of the race, as ABC's Jake Tapper has pointed out.
Even the political map is starting to look conventional. Obama's advantage there has largely disappeared. Red states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Missouri, which once seemed in play for Obama, now seem less so. Wisconsin now looks like a tossup again, and the old-fashioned battlegrounds of Ohio and Pennsylvania are dead even. Again.
A race that includes the first biracial presidential candidate and a moose-hunting female Alaskan vice-presidential candidate can never be considered typical. But give them time. Before this campaign is over, Obama and McCain will have talked so much about change, they will seem utterly conventional.


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In the Community
Throughout our 167-year history, the University of Rochester has been committed to the success of the greater Rochester community, and our futures are inextricably linked.
As the University has grown, so has the number of our connections and contributions to the vitality of the region. Every day, the University makes significant economic, educational, social, and cultual contributions to the Rochester community and to the state.
The University provides essential benefits to the public through our core missions—patient care, research, teaching, and community health. Fulfilling these missions without both public and private support would be impossible. We serve this community best by focusing on these missions. As a result, we are one of the leading higher education and research institutions in the world today and play an active role in creating positive change in our local community.
Economic benefits | Research | Health care | Education | Arts and culture
Community enrichment | Economic development
Economic benefits
We are the region's largest private employer and the state's seventh-largest private employer. We are the leading and most specialized health care provider in the Finger Lakes; the generator of an increasing number of new jobs, technologies, and businesses; and a significant contributor to the region's rich arts and cultural resources.
According to a 2014 Center for Governmental Research report, the University of Rochester and our affiliates
- are responsible for approximately 450,300 jobs (direct and spillover), or 10 percent of the total employment in the region;
- paid more than $2.48 billion in wages;
- purchased local goods and services in excess of $854 million;
- spent an average of $241 million per year in capital improvements over the last five years; and
- generated approximately $160 million in sales tax, personal income tax, and local property taxes ($3.9 million in local property taxes alone).
The University of Rochester's START-UP NY plan is focused on attracting eligible companies in the broad fields of science, engineering, social science, health science, business, and music. Launched in June 2014, Governor Cuomo's groundbreaking initiative will give approved companies tax exemptions for 10 years, when they locate on designated areas associated with colleges and universities and align with a school's core academic mission. The University has designated 105,894 square feet of space at High Tech Rochester's (HTR) Lennox Tech Enterprise Center and at two buildings within Eastman Business Park. The goal is to generate positive community and economic benefits through job creation, including opportunities for student internships and academic/research collaborations, and to spur additional entrepreneurial opportunities.
The University continues to attract funding to support life-changing research and innovations. Our School of Medicine and Dentistry alone attracts more National Institutes of Health grant dollars than all of the medical schools in Albany, Syracuse, and Buffalo combined.
These innovations draw the interest of local businesses and venture capitalists, helping stir investment in the region that can lead to additional jobs in the private sector.
These university-business partnerships can also be seen in the form of new startup companies. Since 1996, 56 companies have been created based on University-licensed technologies. When surveyed in 2010, these companies employed 295 people, collectively.
Health care
UR Medicine is the region's only academic medical center, the leading source of new physicians in the area, and the safety-net provider for our most vulnerable citizens.
Through UR Medicine's community health mission, we provide important services, wellness activities, and community-based research that are designed to improve health outcomes, reduce costs, and eliminate health disparities. These include our lead poisoning research and abatement in inner-city housing, school-based health and dental clinics, dental services through the Eastman Institute for Oral Health's SMILEmobile, and tobacco cessation programs, to name just a few.
Over the past 15 years, the Warner School of Education has been awarded nearly $20 million in grants that have supported education reform in more than 20 school districts in western New York, including focusing on ways to improve educational outcomes in urban education. These grants supported programs in mathematics, science, literacy, and early childhood education, as well as the education of students with significant disabilities and English language learners, and the professional development of more than 2,000 educators.
The University also provides nearly $1.8 million in scholarships every year for Rochester City School District (RCSD) students. Since its launch at the University in 2007, more than 70 City graduates have taken advantage of the Rochester Promise scholarship program, which guarantees any graduate of City high schools at least $100,000 in sponsored scholarships to attend the University's College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering.
Arts and culture
The University also enhances and contributes to the region's uniquely rich cultural capital through ongoing initiatives that creatively connect our resources with the community, regardless of means. For nearly 100 years, the Eastman School of Music's Community Music School has provided instruction to more than 60,000 students of all ages.
The Memorial Art Gallery is one of the few university-affiliated art museums open to the public. Consistently recognized as one of the finest regional art museums in the nation, it serves more than 16,000 area school children annually at no charge.
Community enrichment
The University also enhances our community in many ways that go unrecognized but are of vital importance to the public.
- $804,000 in financial incentives to help University of Rochester regular full-time and part-time faculty and staff achieve the dream of 名门棋牌ownership in city neighborhoods surrounding the University; more than 280 mortgages supported since the program began in 2008, and 51 in 2013 alone.
- More than $1.5 million contributed by the University community to the United Way of Greater Rochester, through a campaign chaired by President Seligman that raised $26.6 million in 2013
- $392,000 in direct support to various community groups
- a collective 30,000 hours of community service per year provided annually by undergraduate students, about 60 percent of whom take part in service
Economic development
The University partners with our surrounding neighbors, the City of Rochester, and private developers on projects to revitalize and redevelop the areas surrounding the University.
The University helped make projects like Brooks Landing and Riverview Apartments possible by leveraging our employee and student populations and geographic proximity in order to be an anchor tenant renting office space and student housing. In total, the University leases 1.4 million square feet of space in locations throughout the region, which involves over $178 million in annual lease payments.
We have also made 16 acres of University land available to develop College Town, the culmination of years of community planning, which will not only generate tax revenue but also will revitalize the commercial corridor that serves as a gateway to the city. Currently, more than $120 million (600,000 sq. ft.) in additional private development in the city is planned thanks to support from the University.
The University also works with a number of partners to foster the commercialization of technology and regional economic development from our research.
Students in the Community
- Community Service Network
- Wilson Day
- Music for All
- Rochester Center for Community Leadership
- Urban Fellows
- Center for Entrepreneurship
- Community Outreach in the Office of Admissions
Looking for student volunteers to work with your organization? Complete this Volunteer Request Form.