text:
October 25, 2012
Guests: Terry O`Neil, Steve McMahon, Lawrence Wilkerson, Tom Ricks, Caroline Kennedy
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Return of the clown car.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m in Washington.
"Let Me Start" tonight with this. Warning, ladies and gentlemen,
especially ladies. We`ve got one Republican Senate candidate saying women
can`t be trusted to know what a rape is. Along comes another saying
something about God`s will and we have to incarcerate a woman who doesn`t
want to have a child that`s the result of a rape.
Well, yes, we`re back in the clown car with lots more guys wearing the
crazy hats and shaking their noisemakers. Thought you`d seen the last of
Rick Santorum and the rest of those characters from the primaries? Not so.
We`ve got Paul Ryan and his personhood amendment aboard, a Republican
platform giving 14th Amendment rights, including the right to property, to
the fertilized human egg. Who cares about the woman?
Well, the clown car rides on with nine days to go, and none of the
right wingmen are getting off. But the big question is how many women want
to stay aboard this clown car for the next four or eight years? And how
funny will it be when these characters are actually in charge?
Our guests are Alex Wagner, star of MSNBC`s "NOW" each day at noon
here Eastern time, and Terry O`Neill, president of NOW, the National
Organization for Women. Thank you both for joining us.
I want to go through some things here to set this up. President Obama
is keeping the pressure on, as you can see, in these last days of the
campaign, and linking Mitt Romney to Richard Mourdock. That`s the guy from
-- what`s that state, Wisconsin -- Indiana, including on Jay Leno last
Let`s listen to the president.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don`t know how these
guys come up with these ideas. Let me make a very simple proposition.
Rape is rape. It is a crime.
OBAMA: The second thing this underscores, though, is this is exactly
why you don`t want a bunch of politicians, mostly male, making decisions
about women`s health care decisions.
MATTHEWS: Well, that went over pretty well out there. And that`s a
nonpartisan crowd, generally out there, Leno`s show. Anyway, the president
went further, pointing out the next president -- the next president`s
influence over the Supreme Court is going to be enormous. We`ve got a lot
of older justices.
Let`s listen.
OBAMA: You`ve got a Supreme Court that -- you know, typically, a
president is going to have probably another couple of appointments during
the course of his term. And Roe versus Wade is probably hanging in the
MATTHEWS: Hanging in the balance. And today at a rally in Tampa,
Florida, the president alluded to Mourdock when he laid out the stakes for
women in this election. Let`s listen here.
OBAMA: By the way, while we`re at it, as we saw again this week, I
don`t think any politician in Washington, most of whom are male, should be
making health care decisions for women.
MATTHEWS: Terry O`Neill, I want to go with you first. I`m going to
pass by my colleague because we have a person...
ALEX WAGNER, MSNBC "NOW WITH ALEX WAGNER": Please.
MATTHEWS: ... who`s an expert and a passionaria...
WAGNER: Please. Please.
MATTHEWS: ... on this topic.
WAGNER: Please. Please.
MATTHEWS: Terry O`Neill, thanks for coming on from the National
Organization for Women. It is "for Women"?
TERRY O`NEILL, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN: It is "for women."
MATTHEWS: (INAUDIBLE) point it`s not just of women it`s for women.
O`NEILL: That`s right. We have men...
MATTHEWS: Men are allowed to support...
O`NEILL: ... in leadership.
MATTHEWS: ... this cause. But let`s all talk about the cause.
O`NEILL: Yes.
MATTHEWS: You get a guy like Todd Akin come along and said that
rape`s not really rape because you can`t trust a woman. She`ll -- why
would a woman claim rape anyway? Why would you ever do this anyway?
Number two, because only unless you outlaw abortion except in case of rape
would it ever come up. Only in his crazy world would this even be an
But this other guy coming along and trying to make this weird notion
about the right to life under the law! It`s not a philosophical or a
religious discussion, he wants to make it a law that women can`t have an
O`NEILL: Right.
MATTHEWS: Can`t have one! Change the law if there`s a rape case.
O`NEILL: Absolutely. He wants no abortions, no exceptions -- no
exceptions in cases of incest, no exceptions in cases of rape or to protect
a woman`s health, wildly out of step with the vast majority of people in
this country.
Over 80 percent of people, when polled, say that -- first of all, a
majority believe that abortion should not be a crime at all. But those who
think there should be restrictions, over 80 percent say, no, the
restrictions should not be there in cases of incest or rape or to preserve
a woman`s health, let alone to preserve her life.
MATTHEWS: Can you imagine under this -- Alex, general question here -
- a world without Sharia law, where you take a woman who`s been raped, the
victim of what almost -- has been in the past a capital crime, certainly a
huge felony, 20 to 30 years in prison perhaps -- and then she`s told, Oh,
by the way, if you have an abortion, you choose to end the pregnancy maybe
the first couple days, you will go to jail, basically. Is this -- you put
it all together with the 14th Amendment stuff and the personhood stuff,
that`s the implication.
WAGNER: Well, it`s part of a broader trend. We`ve talked about the
shame and intimidation that is being directed towards women who are making
choices about their own bodies.
The thing that is most disturbing to me about this rape talk is that,
somehow, it`s sort of undermines the severity and the criminality of rape.
O`NEILL: Exactly.
WAGNER: And that is inexcusable.
MATTHEWS: How so?
WAGNER: I just think that it`s sort of being tossed around as, like,
a weird litmus test, and we`re not understanding that women who are raped
are victims, you know? And the idea that this is all being conflated into
a choice issue is missing...
MATTHEWS: Like the rape is like somebody jumped ahead of you in the
cab line.
WAGNER: Yes. Exactly. Like...
WAGNER: I think the president is right to be calling attention to
this. But I don`t think it`s right for him to say, And that`s why we
shouldn`t have men legislating on women`s issues. No, men shouldn`t be
saying this stuff, either. No one should be saying this. This shouldn`t
be acceptable to anybody on either side of the aisle.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
O`NEILL: Yes, I think the important thing -- sexual assault victims
need wrap-around services. They need lots of wrap-around services. And
what they don`t need is the shaming and blaming and the undermining, the
attitude -- Paul Ryan clearly has this attitude. When he tries to change -
- introduce "forcible rape" as somehow different from rape, what he`s
really saying is that women will routinely lie about being sexually
assaulted just so they can go out and have that abortion.
MATTHEWS: Where is this world where that`s happened? There has never
been a situation where that`s the only exception.
O`NEILL: That`s right.
MATTHEWS: That`s what`s so weird about it. So in other words,
they`re talking about a more common case, where someone would just for
whatever reason blame (ph) rape, because they have some weird attitudes
(INAUDIBLE) because to blame rape, you`re charging -- in a police report...
O`NEILL: Yes.
MATTHEWS: You`ve got to go in, you`ve got get a physical, you have to
go through all the -- the rape kits, you`ve got to charge somebody with a
felony in a lineup, perhaps, you`ve got to take him to court, you got to
follow the whole prosecution for maybe a couple of years. Why would
anybody ever do that?
O`NEILL: Right. Not willingly, and in fact, the vast majority of
MATTHEWS: That didn`t happen!
O`NEILL: ... to this day are not...
MATTHEWS: You`d only do it as a civic duty for justice.
O`NEILL: Exactly. And the vast majority of rapes are not prosecuted.
Thirty-two thousand...
MATTHEWS: Because women choose not to do all that, probably, in many
O`NEILL: Because the system re-traumatizes women...
WAGNER: Exactly!
O`NEILL: ... in far too many cases. Exactly. And 32,000 pregnancies
per year result from rape. Those are the pregnancies where the woman most
needs to have absolute control over what happens to that pregnancy.
O`NEILL: There are women who voluntarily continue their...
MATTHEWS: Maybe this is good, in a weird way, because it`s going to
remind everybody what the president said on Jay Leno there. There is an
election coming up. It`s not just about who performed well in the first
debate or the third debate. It`s about who`s going to fill the Supreme
Court in the next four or eight years.
Anyway, the Obama campaign has a new Web video out that extends the
Romney/Mourdock link to Paul Ryan -- that`s the running mate, of course --
and points out Ryan`s position before he joined the ticket lines up with
Mourdock`s. Look at this research.
RICHARD MOURDOCK (R-IN), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE: Even when life begins
in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended
to happen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When it comes to rape, should it be legal for a
woman to be able to get an abortion if she`s...
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So I`m very proud
of my pro-life record. And I`ve always adopted the idea, the position that
the method of conception doesn`t change the definition of life.
MATTHEWS: And the liberal group Moveon.org will not let the Mourdock
connection be forgotten at all. Lookit, they`ve got campaign rallies today
at a Paul Ryan rally -- look at that sign over there. You can`t see it
from here, but there above is a banner that -- I love these airplane signs
-- "Romney`s GOP wrong on rape and women."
Terry, this -- this whole -- I don`t know where to start except I
don`t like comparing anything to Sharia, but there`s something about this
theocratic notion that we`re going to apply all our philosophical beliefs,
our metaphysics, our religious training and turn it into law and turn it
into criminalization. And it`s not quite like stoning, but it has that
same sort of impulse, which is, We`re going to punish women.
O`NEILL: Right. I don`t think you`re wrong. I think that it`s kind
of the creeping Talibanization of American policy. It is deeply, deeply
dangerous for women. And I have to tell you the truth. I think Mitt
Romney is in the thick of this very fringe but very dangerous line of
Look, when he was in Massachusetts, a woman in his own church -- he
tried to stop her from having an abortion. Her pregnancy was threatening
her health. And then she developed blood clots that were threatening her
life. He couldn`t talk her into stopping the abortion. She had permission
from the Mormon hierarchy to terminate this life-threatening pregnancy.
He went to her parents to try to pressure the parents into pressuring
her to continue the pregnancy. And what he said to this woman -- and this
is key, cameras are not rolling -- and what Mitt Romney says to this woman,
Why should you get off easy? Why should you get off easy? Other women
don`t get off so easy.
He was talking about it was getting off easy to terminate the
pregnancy. I think that Mitt Romney absolutely does not want any
exceptions to criminalization of all abortion.
MATTHEWS: What`s this, "The Stepford Wives?" I mean, what`s going on
WAGNER: It`s the Stone Age. Yes. Chris, it`s the Stone Ages. I
mean, it`s not even -- it`s not clown car. Clown cars imply automated
vehicles. This is like the Flintstones. People are -- I mean, this is...
O`NEILL: Right.
WAGNER: I will -- I will say two things about this. One, I think
it`s high time we talk about these issues as far as what they are. The
president has been trying to sort of conflate a message of pocketbook and
economic issues and social issues.
These -- I think women vote on this. I think women vote on the notion
that you`re going to take -- you`re going to turn the clock back...
O`NEILL: Right.
WAGNER: ... not 10 years, not 20 years, 50 pierce, 100 years on
women`s rights. I think women think about the Supreme Court and the
vacancies that are coming on the bench. They will vote on that. And I`m
not just talking about independents...
MATTHEWS: No, but they don`t get to vote...
WAGNER: I think...
MATTHEWS: They have to vote this time. You don`t get to vote on the
WAGNER: No, no, no.
MATTHEWS: How can he put these crazy people on the court? How can
these state legislatures require photo voto? Well, it happens when you
lose elections. That`s what happens.
WAGNER: Yes.
O`NEILL: That`s exactly right.
WAGNER: But I -- but I think that you can run on this message. You
can air -- you can show America where Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have stood
on these issues for years, and I think you can get waitress moms on this.
You can get soccer moms. You can get all kinds of moms. You can get
unmarried women.
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk about the women running for office now because I
have a lot of favorites in the group. I`m not going to name them all
because I can`t say exactly who I`m for. But it`s clear I like Claire
O`NEILL: Oh...
MATTHEWS: She`s up against that guy, Todd Akin out there.
O`NEILL: She needs to defeat Todd Akin. There`s no question about
it. Joe Donnelly needs to defeat...
MATTHEWS: Mourdock.
O`NEILL: ... Mourdock. Absolutely. And...
MATTHEWS: Notre Dame guy, by the way.
O`NEILL: Oh, Donnelly?
MATTHEWS: Means something to me.
O`NEILL: Well, there you go! Yes.
MATTHEWS: That`s all right. No, but you have some interesting -- you
got Elizabeth Warren looks she`s actually pulling ahead up in Massachusetts
O`NEILL: And good for her. We`re also -- by the way, we`ve endorsed
Chris Murphy up in Connecticut, and...
MATTHEWS: Let`s watch -- there`s the president, by the way, voting
tonight. There he is. I like the way we do this in this country. The
guys vote, the women vote at the top. And Michelle voted by absentee a
while ago. But you know what? It`s democracy. I keep telling -- we can
all do this. We all should do this, you know, vote. And he`s probably
voting -- where`s he voting today, do you think, Chicago?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Early voting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right. The early voting numbers have been very
good for the president.
MATTHEWS: Actually, I just got my application in to get the voting
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk about this issue. You think -- what`s it called
-- I -- see, I believe as a male -- and I`ve studied this -- women have a
lot of issues they care about, not just reproductive rights, but health
You people outlive men, you people.
MATTHEWS: You go to any senior retirement home, there`s one or two
guys there.
WAGNER: That`s right.
MATTHEWS: Very funny, by the way, and everybody likes them, but
there`s only one or two of them. There`s a lot of women there. Guys say,
With any luck, I won`t need Social Security. Your luck probably will run
out. Women live much longer than men. They need Medicare. They need
Social Security. And at your age and when you get older, you`ll be worried
about your parents because women tend to be more attentive to the parents`
situation when they get older (INAUDIBLE)
O`NEILL: The caretaker.
MATTHEWS: And of course, children.
O`NEILL: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Education.
MATTHEWS: So there`s education. There`s health care. There`s child
development. There`s seniors` care. All that array of issues that you
could call, if you want, women`s issues.
O`NEILL: Oh, and very much at risk with a Romney-Ryan presidency,
very much. Look, the Romney-Ryan budget -- the big picture of it is that
it transfers wealth from middle income and lower income families up to the
0.01 percent of income earners.
MATTHEWS: Right.
O`NEILL: That`s the millionaires and billionaires. And by the way,
women are not over-represented amongst billionaires, right?
O`NEILL: Women are very much over -- women wage earners are way over-
represented in the lower income and...
MATTHEWS: And minimum wage people included. You have the
chambermaids and all the jobs you bump into and don`t pay much at all.
O`NEILL: Well...
MATTHEWS: ... health care.
O`NEILL: They don`t have health care. They don`t have 401(k)s. They
don`t have pensions. And by the time a woman -- by the way, two thirds of
minimum wage workers in the United States are women. And they don`t -- so
they`re paying out of pocket as they go along for their health care and
their kids` health care. They don`t have enough money to set aside for
their retirement. They are very deeply reliant on Social Security and
certainly Medicare. They don`t have $6,000 a year extra that it will cost
if Romney and Ryan get their hands on Medicare.
And by the way, if Romney and Ryan get their hands on Medicaid -- half
of Medicaid dollars go to support nursing homes in this country.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
O`NEILL: Thousands of nursing homes...
MATTHEWS: And a lot of people impoverish themselves so they`re -- to
get their parents into these homes, by the way.
O`NEILL: Actually...
MATTHEWS: Because there`s no long-term care under Medicare. It`s
only under Medicaid.
O`NEILL: It`s only under Medicaid.
MATTHEWS: Everybody knows this, by the way. Everybody knows it.
Thank you. Why are you smiling? Anyway -- you all right?
WAGNER: I`m just -- Mitt Romney doesn`t know where he stands on the
Lilly Ledbetter act, on fair pay.
MATTHEWS: He says, I`ll get back to you on that one.
MATTHEWS: ... back to us about November 10th. Anyway, Alex Wagner,
thank you for laughing at just the right time. And Terry O`Neill, thank
Coming up: The surge, what surge? We said it yesterday here on
HARDBALL and we`ll say it again. Yes, Romney gained after that first
debate, but the idea of a relentless Romney surge isn`t supported by the
numbers. We`ve got the numbers to prove it.
And here comes the cavalry, by the way. Bubba is riding in to save
the day. Well, he`s got -- oh, he`s already got Colin Powell today,
endorsing him this morning on CBS. Wow. He`s getting some help. He
doesn`t like the neocons, by the way. Colin Powell isn`t just doing this
out of liking Obama. He`s afraid of the guys that`ll come in with Mitt
Romney, the kind of guys that were on that Bush policy team, you know, guys
like Dick Cheney.
And then Tina Fey takes on the Richard Mourdock/Todd Akin wing of the
Republican Party. Let`s watch.
TINA FEY, ACTRESS: If I have to listen to one more gray-faced man
with a $2 haircut explain to me what rape is, I`m going to lose my mind!
MATTHEWS: More where that comes from in the "Sideshow."
Finally, "Let Me Finish" with something that happened 50 years ago and
what could happen five months from now -- trouble.
And this is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: We`ve got some new polling from some key battleground
states. Let`s check the HARDBALL "Scoreboard."
We start in Virginia, where a University of Virginia/George Mason poll
has Mitt Romney up by 1, 46-45. But a PPP poll in Virginia commissioned by
the Democratic-leaning group Health Care for America now has Obama up by 5,
51-46. That one keeps moving.
Next, Wisconsin. A new Mason-Dixon poll has President Obama holding a
2-point lead in Wisconsin, 48-46. Meanwhile, the PPP poll has the
president up 6 in Wisconsin, 51-45. That`s 6 points. In Ohio (ph), PPP
has the president up by 2, 49-47. And -- that was Iowa.
And in Nevada, a new PPP poll shows President Obama up 4 over Mitt
Romney, 51-47. And a lot has been written today about Harry Reid`s vaunted
get-out-the-vote operation out in that state of Nevada.
We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL. Don`t take that bet on Romney`s
surge to the bank just yet. It seems President Obama has stopped the
governor`s momentum in the numbers and the two candidates have settled into
a tie in national polls, with the president tied or slightly ahead in most
swing states.
Not only are most polls beginning to look a bit better for Mr. Obama,
he`s got the support of two of America`s most beloved politicians. Of
course, Bill Clinton will campaign with the president starting Monday in
three key states -- look at the states -- Virginia, Ohio and Florida.
And this morning on CBS, President -- former -- well, everybody
thought he`d be president -- Republican former secretary of state Colin
Powell announced he`s sticking with Obama.
COLIN POWELL, FMR. U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I voted for him in 2008,
and I plan to stick with him in 2012 and I`ll be voting for he and for Vice
President Joe Biden next month.
I think this is an exciting race between two very, very capable men.
And I signed on for a long patrol with President Obama, and I don`t think
this is the time to make such a sudden change. And not only am I not
comfortable with what Governor Romney is proposing for his economic plan, I
have concerns about his views on foreign policy.
MATTHEWS: So who would you rather have on your side, my friend
Michael, Bill Clinton and General Colin Powell, one of our few real heroes
in the world right now...
MICHAEL STEELE, FMR. RNC CHAIR, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
MATTHEWS: ... or Donald Trump and John Sununu?
STEVE MCMAHON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: You want to pass on that one?
MATTHEWS: Let`s see. John Sununu wants to be ambassador to the
Vatican in the worst way. I think that`s what he`s up to.
But, you know, Trump and Sununu as your most famous surrogates...
STEELE: They`re good surrogates, and the president needs them,
because, as this campaign has already shown itself, it`s going to be
close,it`s going to be tight. And so, yes, I guess he`s...
MATTHEWS: You would take those two. You would take those two guys.
MCMAHON: That was good, wasn`t it?
MATTHEWS: You take those two guys.
STEELE: I will take those two guys. No, I will take those two.
MCMAHON: Did you see how he -- did you see how he slipped right out
of your grasp there? Of course.
MATTHEWS: I keep waiting for him to say...
MATTHEWS: I`m not going that far. But he will go that far. He goes
as far as Trump.
Your thought.
MCMAHON: It says something about the candidates and the campaigns
that the president has these two great Americans out with him and Mitt
STEELE: He needs them. He needs them because he`s losing.
MCMAHON: I`m waiting to see if Mitt Romney...
MATTHEWS: OK. Let`s go with the numbers. That was a -- you got that
shot in there.
STEELE: Yes.
MATTHEWS: I`m open to any possibility when it comes to picking
elections. I would rather pick them right -- well, I would still like my
guys to win. But I do like to pick them right.
STEELE: Yes, absolutely.
MATTHEWS: The poll takers, by the way, today have started to change
their tune.
Today, Nate Silver, the man we all look up to around here, wrote a
piece headlined: "In Polls, Romney`s Momentum Seems to Have Stopped." He`s
got the odds of President Obama`s reelection at 71 percent, by the way,
Nate Silver.
And, on The Huffington Post, their pollster page has a story called
"Presidential Polls Counter Romney`s Surge Myth."
If you look at the pollster trend, by the way, of all the lines here,
it shows the presidential race since August, by the way, you can see the
president really started gaining ground in September -- that was after the
conventions -- only to drop sharply this month after Mitt Romney surged
after that first debate.
Now they`re back at being neck and neck. Now, the question is --
let`s ask an analytical answer here. How long is the lifespan of a
successful or unsuccessful debate?
MCMAHON: A bump is usually about 10 days.
MATTHEWS: And then it fades. It goes back to where they started.
MCMAHON: This race basically is back where it started a year ago or
two years ago.
MATTHEWS: No, but I`m talking about how it -- is it back to where it
was with Obama ahead?
MCMAHON: I think it is, yes.
STEELE: I think it`s back where the two of them are more even than
one being ahead of the other.
I see an arc between that first debate and the last debate, in that
Obama really hurt himself in that first debate. And it`s still -- there`s
still residual effects from that. And I think you`re seeing that in the
I agree with you, Chris, and I agree with Nate that the tide has
slowed a little bit for Romney at this point. That energy, that momentum
has slowed, and it goes to what Chuck Todd said a few days ago, whether or
not the map and the momentum, Obama`s map, Romney`s momentum come to a
MATTHEWS: OK. Let`s take a look at the president. You can read it
on faces sometime. Let`s take a look at the president on "Leno" last
night. Apparently, it was a very good hit last night on "Leno."
MCMAHON: Yes.
MATTHEWS: Let`s take a look. Here he is. The president made a
humorous appeal to Ohio voters, pretty direct. Talk about politics and
entertainment mixing. Let`s watch.
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": I know, last year,
Michelle gave out fruit.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes.
LENO: Did the White House get egged at all?
OBAMA: No, no.
It is true, yes, Michelle takes this healthy eating seriously, but it
is an election year, so candy for everybody.
LENO: Oh.
OBAMA: And -- and if anybody comes from Ohio to the White House, they
will get a Hershey Bar about this big.
LENO: Wow.
OBAMA: It will like -- it will be huge.
MATTHEWS: You know, I don`t know how to read people generally. I`m
not a mind reader, but he does seem like he`s got it, in a sense, not got
it, but he`s not sitting around sweating this thing.
MCMAHON: You can see why he`s happy, because there was a new Ohio
poll today that has the president up five. There`s a poll out from
Colorado, a local television station there has the president up two in
MATTHEWS: Yes. But I saw another one that puts them even in
MCMAHON: Well, there`s going to be a Purple poll that comes out
tomorrow of the 12 purple states, including Colorado, Virginia, and Ohio,
and the president is going to be I think ahead in all of those
battlegrounds and in the 12 purple states.
That`s a shift, by the way, from where Gallup had it just a few days
ago, where they had Mitt Romney ahead by two in the purple states.
STEELE: Right.
MCMAHON: So this thing has settled and it`s coming back Obama`s ways.
MATTHEWS: OK. Here`s my belief. Let`s try something else. Whenever
I used to be good, in the old says, before -- I wasn`t doing television six
days a week and I was really thinking hard about the numbers.
Usually, you can pick an election by Thursday before.
STEELE: Right.
MCMAHON: That`s right.
MATTHEWS: All you had to do was, Thursday before, when "The
Washington Post" just asked for your picks -- you have done them.
MCMAHON: Yes.
MATTHEWS: And then you simply had to project which way it was going
that day. Is that still true? A week from now, will we know who is going
to win?
STEELE: Yes.
MCMAHON: No. I don`t think we will.
MATTHEWS: You think it`s going to go down to the last day or two?
MCMAHON: I mean, here is why. There`s so much -- there`s been so
much money invested in field this year, much more so than ever before,
because back in the day, it used to be you had $75 million and that`s all
you could do. These campaigns now have a billion dollars each to put
wherever they want. They`re not going to quit anywhere.
MATTHEWS: How many points can you shift on a ground operation?
MCMAHON: I think you can shift two.
STEELE: I agree with that, but I think, Chris, to your point, doing
it the old-school way, I really think by that week -- by that weekend, that
Thursday/Friday, you`re going to have a really good sense of how this thing
is going to play out on Tuesday, because I think the voters have largely
The early voting returns are coming in. There are all these variables
now. You are going to be able to divine from that, I think.
MATTHEWS: OK. Great.
MCMAHON: We will. We will.
MATTHEWS: We`re waiting for the black swan, the surprising event of
next week. I just think there will be one. And it won`t just be the
MATTHEWS: Something is going to happen.
STEELE: But I will say this. You know, the president`s cool on TV.
His people in Chicago, they`re still a bit nervous. They see where these
numbers could potentially still go.
MATTHEWS: This could be a late night Tuesday night next week...
STEELE: That`s right.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, thank you, Steve McMahon.
Thank, Michael Steele.
By the way, we decided the president is back even again.
Up next: President Obama brushes off Donald Trump`s latest attempt to
be relevant on this Earth, I should say.
Anyway, this is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
LENO: What`s this thing with Trump and you? I don`t -- he`s -- it`s
like me and Letterman. What does he got against you here?
LENO: I don`t get it.
OBAMA: You know, this all dates back to when we were growing up
together in Kenya.
LENO: Yes.
OBAMA: We had constant run-ins on the soccer field.
LENO: Yes. Yes.
OBAMA: And, you know, he wasn`t very good and resented it.
LENO: Yes. Yes.
MATTHEWS: Great line.
Anyway, back to HARDBALL. That was more of President Obama on "The
Tonight Show" yesterday weighing in on Donald Trump`s latest attempt at
political relevance.
Moving on, actress Tina Fey spoke at an event for reproductive rights
last night. She says her intelligence is at risk with all these Todd Akins
and the Republican Party.
TINA FEY, ACTRESS: If I have to listen to one more gray-faced man
with a $2 haircut explain to me what rape is, I`m going to lose my mind.
FEY: I watch these guys and I`m like, what is happening? Am I a
secretary on "Mad Men"?
FEY: What`s happening? Todd Akin claims that women can`t really get
pregnant from a legitimate rape because the body secretes hormones -- no, I
can`t even finish this sentence without getting dumber.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, next, Ohio Senate candidate Josh Mandel`s latest
dodge. It was tough to miss the news of Richard Mourdock`s comments about
rape in a debate on Tuesday night. Republicans everywhere were being asked
for their reaction. They`re in a tough spot, of course.
One strategy? Act oblivious. Josh Mandel put that one to use.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said that, I think, even when life begins in
the horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended.
Is that something that you would denounce or...
JOSH MANDEL (R), OHIO SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: I think I would want to
see his comments and see -- is there a video of it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was in a debate last night.
MANDEL: Yes. I think I would want to see the video or see the debate
before commenting on that.
MATTHEWS: God, that guy looks 10 years old.
Anyway, well, Mandel -- Mandel seems to have finally seen the video
and is just fine with it. Today, he came out in support of Mourdock,
calling him a class act. Well, it turns out Mandel is an old hand at
failing to just answer the question. Check out his rising frustration last
month as a local newspaper board asked whether Mandel would be -- would
have supported the auto bailout.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was the federal government right in stepping in to
bail out Chrysler and GM?
MANDEL: I think it probably depends on who you ask.
QUESTION: I`m asking you, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
MANDEL: Sure.
I am angry and feel terrible that politicians like Sherrod Brown and
others supported a process that stripped hardworking retirees in the
Youngstown area of their pensions.
QUESTION: That hasn`t answered the question, first of all. But let`s
get back to the question.
MANDEL: I personally would have had a very real problem with
stripping these Delphi...
MANDEL: Please, sir, don`t put words in my mouth. The premise of
your question...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody has got to put words in your mouth,
because all you do is talk in circles.
MATTHEWS: Unbelievable. It takes talking in circles to an even wider
Anyway, up next -- how could anybody vote for that guy?
Anyway, coming up: Colin Powell endorsed President Obama today and
warned about the neocon crowd that surrounds Mitt Romney. Do we really
want to go back to the same people that took us to war in Iraq? That`s a
good question. And you`re watching -- well, you`re going to get the answer
here in a minute here on HARDBALL, the place for politics.
TYLER MATHISEN, CNBC CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon. I`m Tyler
Mathisen with your CNBC "Market Wrap."
The Dow up 26, the S&P and Nasdaq both posting four-point gains.
After the closing bell, Apple reported earnings that missed estimates,
but revenue was slightly better than people had forecast.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com shares are falling after hours. The company
posting a wider-than-expected loss and revenue that fell short of
As for the economy, filings for jobless benefits fell 23,000 last
week, which was a little bit less than expected.
That`s it from CNBC, first in business worldwide -- now back to
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
When former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed President Obama
this morning, he cited Mitt Romney`s foreign policy as a major concern.
This Monday, we saw Romney present himself as a moderate, emphasizing peace
and diplomacy.
For the past year-and-a-half, however, Romney has courted the far
right and the neocons, neoconservatives of his party, with his hawkish
Well, Secretary Powell pointed out today the obvious. It`s not clear
who exactly we would get if Romney was elected, the moderate or the neocon.
Powell also praised President Obama`s handling of foreign policy over the
last four years. Let`s listen.
POWELL: I also saw the president get us out of one war, start to get
us out of a second war, and didn`t get us into any new wars.
And, finally, I think that the actions he has taken with respect to
protecting us from terrorism have been very, very solid. And, so, I think
we ought to keep on the track that we are on.
MATTHEWS: Well, later today, the president acknowledged the
endorsement by Powell at a rally in Richmond. Let`s watch.
OBAMA: I was proud and humbled to learn that we have Colin Powell`s
support in this campaign.
OBAMA: I`m grateful to him for his lifetime of service to his
country, both as a soldier and as a diplomat. And every brave American who
wears this uniform of this country should know that as long as I`m your
commander in chief we will sustain the strongest military the world has
ever known.
MATTHEWS: Secretary Powell remains one of the most respected names in
politics, of course, across party lines.
Will his endorsement matter?
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson was Secretary Powell`s chief of staff and
Tom Ricks is a contributing editor at "Foreign Policy" magazine and the
author of the new book "The Generals."
Let me go with Lawrence Wilkerson.
Colonel, thank you for joining us.
What do you make of our old boss` decision to get into this thing
right when it matters, right with about 12 days to go?
STAFF: Colin Powell has always had an exquisite sense of timing, Chris.
And I won`t pretend to speak for him, but I thought he was bold, I
thought he was forthright, I thought he summed it up well. The president
inherited a catastrophic situation, banks failing, automobile industry
collapsing, housing market tubing, and he steadied the ship. He stabilized
the ship. He needs another year -- another term, rather, to do more.
There`s a lot to be done yet. Unemployment is still too high, but he
needs a second term to improve on the improvements he`s already -- already
MATTHEWS: The great thing about fighting men historically is they do
know the importance of peace. You find very few hawks among people who
have been soldiers, whether it`s Yitzhak Rabin, or whoever it is, or Anwar
Sadat, the great George Washington.
They have been through it. They have proven their manhood, and they
got nothing to prove. They just want to be wise. I think Powell is like
What do you think he was saying today about the neocons and they
danger they pose under a Romney administration?
TOM RICKS, AUTHOR, "THE GENERALS": I think he was saying...
MATTHEWS: I`m talking to Tom Ricks now.
Go ahead.
RICKS: I think he was saying, if you want to know where Romney is
going to be going with foreign policy, look to the people around him.
And what you see is a lot of people who are the neoconservatives who
did advise going into Iraq. So he`s saying effectively if you like the war
in Iraq, Romney is your guy.
MATTHEWS: It just seems often -- I mean, without being in any way
comical about it, because it`s going to laugh about -- people die in wars,
and you ruin things forever with these wars.
There`s always a war that the neocons are looking forward to. They`re
always pushing a war. They never like settle down and say, well, let`s
take time out for maybe a decade without a war. And now it`s Iran. And we
all know that neither party can go to war, but the way they go to war, what
conditions they set, and how they deal with the consequences are really
critical to me.
And it seems to me the president is more to be trusted for
understanding the consequences, Tom Ricks.
RICKS: Powell was kind of an Eisenhower Republican.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
RICKS: Well, guess what? So is Barack Obama.
Eisenhower kept us out of Vietnam. He explicitly said, I don`t want
to fight wars on the periphery...
MATTHEWS: He kept us out of Suez, too.
RICKS: And he was very careful about it. He believed in indirect
action. Libya was an Eisenhower-type operation. Don`t -- only do the
MATTHEWS: The hidden hand.
RICKS: Yes.
Only do the things that the United States can -- is uniquely available
to provide. So, provide things like intelligence that other countries
can`t, but don`t put boots on the ground. Don`t put pilots in danger.
MATTHEWS: Well, Colin Powell said he was -- he has concerns about
some of Romney`s views on foreign policy.
Let`s listen to the general.
POWELL: One day, he had a strong view about staying in Afghanistan,
but then on Monday night, he agrees to withdrawal. Same thing on Iraq.
And almost every issue that was discussed on Monday night, Governor Romney
agreed with the president with some nuances. But this is quite a different
set of foreign policy views than he had earlier in the campaign.
And my concern, which I have expressed previous in a public way is
that sometimes I don`t sense that he has thought through the issues as
thoroughly as he should have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you concerned about the people that are
advising Governor Romney?
POWELL: I think there`s some very, very strong neoconservative views
that are presented by the governor that I have some trouble with.
MATTHEWS: Colonel Wilkerson, let`s talk about that. Secretary
Powell, when he looks back at the Iraq war and his role in justifying it
before the United Nations, what do you think he`s thinking right now?
LARRY WILKERSON, COLIN POWELL`S FMR. CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, Powell
and I have seen these people before, the John Boltons, the Doug Feiths,
even the Donald Rumsfelds and Dick Cheneys. And we`ve seen them with an
inexperienced president and we have seen what they can do, lead the nation
to war -- a war that was unnecessary as Richard Haass characterized it.
I`m very worried as I think Powell was saying and I`ll say it even
more candidly and frankly than he did. I`m very worried about these people
with the new, that`s what it is, inexperienced, fresh president, and their
experience at bureaucratic in play and so forth and leading this president
down to war most likely with Iran.
And that`s why I`m going to vote -- I`m a Republican just like
Powell, and I was looking for a good, solid Republican candidate so I could
vote for him. I will not vote for Romney. I`m voting for Obama.
MATTHEWS: I watched Romney the other night in that debate, the third
one on foreign policy, and I heard strange words coming out of his mouth.
Now, he`s a business guy, obviously he`s a successful businessman, made a
quarter billion dollars. He doesn`t have any interest in the world, never
shown any interest in the world beyond that.
My question, where did he get that thing about how we`re going to
charged Ahmadinejad, the president of Iran, with genocide for the words
he`s spoken, not what he`s done, but the words he`s spoken about Israel,
strategy towards Israel. That would seem to be a deal breaker. You start
charging with guy with genocide, you`re not going to cut a deal with the
Do they want war with Iran? Just period, do they want war are Iran
no matter what Iran does henceforth, Colonel, the neocons?
WILKERSON: I think the question you ask has to be answered yes.
There are gradations between the different neocons. But I think ultimately
they want to paint the president, whoever it is, into a corner to say all
military -- all options are on the table, including the military option,
and then milk out all the other options, no diplomacy, no solution, and
then have to use the military.
I can see it, it`s the same sheet of music, the same sheet of music.
MATTHEWS: I know. They didn`t tell Saddam he had a way out. That`s
for sure.
Anyway, Tom Ricks, thank you for joining us.
TOM RICKS, AUTHOR: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: The name of your book is --
RICKS: "The Generals."
MATTHEWS: "The Generals," thank you. Good luck with that one.
Up next, Caroline Kennedy is coming here, of course, the daughter of
the late President John F. Kennedy. She joins us next here on HARDBALL.
She`s hitting the campaign trail, by the way, for President Obama.
And this is HARDBALL, the place for politics.
MATTHEWS: Remember that bayonets and horses line from Monday night`s
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think Governor
Romney maybe hasn`t spent enough time looking at how our military works.
You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we
did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets.
MATTHEWS: So much better.
Anyway, the Romney campaign is using that in ads in Virginia,
Florida, and New Hampshire, doubling down on his claim that the Navy is at
its smallest level since 1917. The trouble is Romney is wrong. The Navy
actually hit it`s lowest number of ships under George W. And under
President Obama the fleet has actually grown.
And those fact checkers, by the way, the ones in the Romney camp, the
camp over there, says it`s going to ignore or give Romney`s claim a rating
of pants on fire. Not a good rating for a truth teller by Romney.
Anyway, we`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: We`re back.
Fifty years ago this month, in fact, right now, the nation was locked
50 years ago in the 13-day crisis known as the Cuban missile crisis. It
involved the possible nuclear war between us and the Soviet Union and one
guy got us out of it, John F. Kennedy.
His secret Oval Office recordings of that detailing the pivotal
moments are now available in the book "Listening in the Secret White House
Recordings of John F. Kennedy." His daughter, Caroline, wrote the
introduction for the book.
Quote, "I was always told my father installed secret Oval Office
recording devices after the Bay of Pig disaster so he could have an
accurate account of what said what in case of any later disputes to the
exact nature of the conversations. He intended to draw upon this material
in his own memoirs."
With me now is President John F. Kennedy`s daughter Caroline.
Thank you.
CAROLINE KENNEDY, AUTHOR, "LISTENING IN": Thank you.
MATTHEWS: We`re out here explaining this book and its importance.
Why do you think it`s important -- it`s just a wide open question -- 50
years later that we know what happened?
KENNEDY: I think we can learn so much from the past. You know,
studying this crisis is really an exercise in studying leadership and
And right now, we`re at really close to another presidential election
and I think when you get inside a crisis like this and you understand the
kind of complexity of these issues, first of all, it makes the world we`re
living in right now more interesting. But also, I think, it really, you
know, can help people as they approach, you know, smaller crises obviously,
but it`s just fascinating because you really see how complicated these
questions are and how dangerous that it can be.
MATTHEWS: I think what came through in working on a book on this
subject, I thought that President Kennedy`s great advantage was the
coolness, to slow down and think through the consequences. Anybody can go
KENNEDY: Right.
MATTHEWS: Anybody can say, we`ll show though reds.
KENNEDY: Right.
MATTHEWS: But if we had done that --
KENNEDY: Right. I mean, I know -- I think he said later that if he
had only had two days, he would have made the wrong decision. So it just
shows how important it is to work through these decisions and I think he
deserves a lot of credit for always having people around him who presented
a range of options and he had the confidence to, you know, to disagree with
generals, to disagree with people.
MATTHEWS: How about Curtis LeMay, the chief advisor, the Dr.
Strangelove? Who`s saying bombs away?
KENNEDY: Bombs away, absolutely. And he was just --
MATTHEWS: Let`s watch. Here`s a guy that you or I or anybody would
say was a smart guy to listen to and he was wrong. Here he is checking in
on the phone with President Eisenhower, his predecessor, of course, won
World War II in Europe, Western Europe, about what he should do with Nikita
Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, in terms of what would happen if we did
invade Cuba, what would be the reaction by the Soviet leader.
And here`s Ike`s conversation about it. Fascinating here, let`s
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: General, what about if the
Soviet Union -- Khrushchev -- announces tomorrow, which I think he will,
that if we attack Cuba, that it`s going to be nuclear war? And what`s your
judgment as to the chances that they`ll fire these things off if we invade
DWIGHT EISENHOWER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I don`t think they will.
KENNEDY: You don`t think they will?
EISENHOWER: No.
KENNEDY: In other words, you would take that risk if the situation
seemed desirable?
EISENHOWER: Well, as a matter of a fact, though, what can you do?
KENNEDY: Yes.
EISENHOWER: If this thing is such a serious thing, here on our
plank, that we`re going to be uneasy and we know what thing is happening
now. All right, you`ve got to use something.
KENNEDY: Yes.
EISENHOWER: Something may make these people shoot them off. I just
don`t believe this will.
MATTHEWS: Well, there`s the general, the great general who won World
War II in Europe. He said, don`t worry about the Soviets, if we bomb their
missile sites, kill a bunch of Russians and Cubans, blow up all their
material, don`t worry, they won`t do anything.
That`s Ike. He`s a little out of date.
As I wrote in "New Republic" this month, we later learned that
Khrushchev intended to strike New York if the United States invade in Cuba.
Khrushchev wrote in his own memoirs, quote, "I knew the United States could
knock out some of our installations but not all of them. If a quarter or
even a tenth of our missiles survived, even if only one or two big ones
were left, we could still hit New York, and there wouldn`t be much of New
York left." That`s Khrushchev`s own words.
So, President Kennedy`s thinking what would he do -- what would I do
if I were him and thinking it through that he had his own hawks around him.
KENNEDY: Right.
MATTHEWS: We need to help him get away from them.
KENNEDY: That`s what people give so much credit to the resolution of
this crisis, is that he really thought about it all the time from both
sides and how can Khrushchev save face and what can I offer him that will
make this deal attractive to him. So, I think that`s something that I will
always keep in mind.
But these crisis are complicated, which now there are even more
actors than any crisis we face.
MATTHEWS: Let`s talk about now. What are you going to do in the
next couple of weeks?
KENNEDY: I`m going to be campaigning for President Obama?
MATTHEWS: Where are you going?
KENNEDY: I`m going to Virginia, New Hampshire, and who knows where
MATTHEWS: What`s your pitch?
KENNEDY: I think we`re on the right -- he`s done a great job. He`s
a man of courage, conviction, and judgment. And if you`re talking about
judgment and how important it is to have a cool head in the crisis, that
somebody who you know with their gut values are, and how they are going to
make decisions and who has done a good job, a great job in keeping us out
of war and building our economy back up, and certainly it`s on the side of
women and women`s health. And he absolutely is the right --
MATTHEWS: So you`re with him on all these points.
KENNEDY: Absolutely.
MATTHEWS: You know, just across the street is American University.
KENNEDY: Right.
MATTHEWS: Where your dad gave -- President Kennedy gave the great
peace speech which was so successful, it brought the Soviets to the table
and we have to eliminate nuclear arms agreement, the first agreement with
the Soviets since the beginning of the Cold War.
KENNEDY: Right. Well --
MATTHEWS: Let`s look at that speech because I think it`s the theme
that you are carrying on here. Here is President Kennedy speaking on
peace. I think it`s his best speech, the American University commencement
address, across the street here. Let`s watch.
JOHN F. KENNEDY: Our most basic common link is that we all inhabit
this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our
children`s futures. And we are all mortal.
MATTHEWS: Well, there it is. Khrushchev put that -- he put that in
his best chip, played that all over the Soviet Union, everybody heard it
and then they had the treaty afterwards. It worked.
KENNEDY: Right.
MATTHEWS: That was a good thing that came out of the Cuban missile
KENNEDY: Absolutely. I think it`s to see that we have more in
common that divides us and that`s something that we don`t hear enough of.
MATTHEWS: What do you think about Romney? Can you figure him out?
KENNEDY: No, I think about President Obama.
MATTHEWS: Is he the moderate he pretended to be two months ago, or
is he the hawk that he has all of these people around and got us into Iraq?
KENNEDY: You know, I think that we need to stick with somebody who
has told us where he stands and that`s President Obama. And I think most
people really admire him and understand where he`s coming from and I think
he`s put now forth the plan and so, I think there`s really not --
MATTHEWS: You don`t like this hardball thing, do you?
KENNEDY: No. Don`t you hear that? We all cherish our children`s
future, we`re all mortal and we`re trying to look for the good in everyone,
but I see more good in President Obama.
MATTHEWS: Well-said. Anyway, thank you. That`s not how I do
But the book is called "Listening In." Thank you, Caroline Kennedy,
for coming on HARDBALL.
KENNEDY: Thank you, Chris.
MATTHEWS: We`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this. Let`s talk about what
happened 50 years ago and what could happen five months from now.
Fifty years ago, the Soviet Union placed nuclear weapons 90 miles
from Florida. They were offensive weapons, some of them aimed at New York
as Nikita Khrushchev made clear later, he fully intend to launch them if
the United States tried to knock them out. It was frightening time.
The only good news, the world saving news is that we had leaders
determined not to let the frightening situation in Cuba escalated into a
nuclear world war.
Jack Kennedy knew how things worked in the world. He knew from his
reading of history that one step leads to another, one country takes one
step it thinks it must take, the other country takes the next step and
suddenly they are at war.
Here`s something else from reading history: countries that have
weapon almost always end up using them. After all, we the good guys had
used atomic weapons to end the World War II in the Pacific.
So, Kennedy decided that he would deal, not just with those missiles
in Cuba but what would happen if we acted to remove them, what would the
Russians do, what would we do then and what would we be trapped to doing
then. Because he thought it out, because he knew his history, because he
was not an ideologue, Jack Kennedy got us through.
When you vote for president this time, think about which of the
candidate you trust that consider the consequences of what he does, because
it is the consequences that we have to live through or not live through.
One thing for sure, if Romney wins, he brings those crowds around W., the
Cheney crowd, the John Boltons, whole hawkish crew with him right back in
with him.
And that`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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text:
Exhibition dates: 3rd October – 14th December 2013
Presented by Monash University Museum of Art in association with Melbourne Festival
Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) is generating an enviable reputation for holding vibrant, intellectually stimulating group exhibitions on specific ideas, concepts and topics. This exhibition is no exception. It is one of the best exhibitions I have seen in Melbourne this year. Accompanied by a strong catalogue with three excellent essays by Thierry de Duve, Dr Rex Butler and Patrice Sharkey, this is a must see exhibition for any Melbourne art aficionado before it closes. My favourite pieces were Jeff Koons' tactile Balloon dog (Red) (1995, below) and the coupling, copulating lights of Lou Hubbard's Stretch (2007, below).
I am not going to critique the exhibition pieces per se but offer some thoughts about the nature of the readymade below.
Many thankx to MUMA for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image. All photographs taken at the opening © Monash University Museum of Art and Dr Marcus Bunyan unless otherwise stated.
Download this essay as a pdf (9.8Mb pdf) Text © Dr Marcus Bunyan
"This transition is a flash, a boundary where this becomes that, not then, not that – falling in love, jumping of a bridge. Alive : dead; presence : absence; purpose : play; mastery : exhaustion; logos : silence; worldly : transcendent. Not this, not that. It is an impossible presence, present – a moment of unalienated production that we know exists but we cannot define it, place it. How can we know love? We can speak of it in a before and after sense but it is always a past moment that we recognise."
Dr Marcus Bunyan. Made Ready: A Philosophy of Moments. December 2013
Made ready: A Philosophy of Moments
Dr Marcus Bunyan
December 2013
The readymade is everywhere in the world (for the readymade can be made of anything); the readymade is nowhere in the world. This is the paradox of the readymade: it does not exist in the world as art until after the artist has named it. In this sense it can be argued that there is no such thing as a readymade. It only comes into being through the will and intention of the artist. The readymade may live unnamed in the world for years but it does not exist in the world as art until the artist has intentionally named it (or made it). As Marcel Duchamp observes,
"It's not the visual aspect of the readymade that matters, it's simply that fact that it exists… Visuality is no longer the question: the readymade is no longer visible, so to speak. It is completely grey matter. It is no longer retinal."1
The readymade is (initially) a concept of the brain and not of the eye. It is a commodity made by man living in the world made ready for identification as art 'already made' by the recognition of the artist of its exchange value – the object as transitory metonym which "stands in" for another place of being through a change of name or purpose. It is the intention of the artist to impose an (alternate) order on the object, an order in which the readymade questions aesthetic criteria and categories such as taste, authorship and intentionality. As Dr Rex Butler notes, "The work is not simply intended – which is an obvious fact about any work of art – but about an intention that has come to replace, while entirely reproducing, that which is the very embodiment of the contingent and unpredictable."2
According to Thierry de Duve, the choosing of the object is accompanied by three other acts: naming the object, signing it and devising some original presentation for it.3 There are the so called unassisted readymades (such as Duchamp's Bottle dryer, 1914 reconstructed 1964 below) and there are also plain, aided, sick, unhappy, reciprocal and semi-readymades.4 In reality no readymade is unassisted as all are called into being by the mind of the artist. But the concept of the readymade "heralds the realisation that art can be made from anything whatsoever."5 If this is the case then the readymade "makes of all aesthetic judgements something unconvincing, derivative, second-hand,"6 perhaps even deliberately "invoking" criticism before the artwork is even constructed. If the inherent structural and aesthetic function of all things is predetermined, as though fulfilling some underlying design, it is the artists intentionality in naming the object as art – a model of explanation "that abducts from external products to internal processes, from what is visible to what must be inferred"7 – that deliberately places and fixes these objects in a new moment in space and time.
Through appropriation, readymades "make their claim to the dignity of an art object through some unexpected presentation that decontextualises them and pulls them away from their daily use."8 Through appropriation, artists laud everyday objects as art for all to see.9 Through appropriation, art institutes emphasise the power of the art institution, the readymade made taxidermied, stuffed object, placed on a stand, an everyday object lauded as art for all to see. In this scenario, the desire of manufacturing that wants consumer objects to be seen as useful, valuable is inverted as readymades become institutional objects of desire just out of reach of the audience (10,000 dollar coins just lying around on the floor!). The death of the object as an object and its reanimation "to the dignity of an art object" is completed "simply by its presence in the museum."10 As Elizabeth Wilson states, "The only defence against transgressive desire is to turn either oneself or the object of desire to stone."11 In this case it is the museum officials that turn the object of desire into stone (by lionising them as readymades). In actuality, these objects that artists imagine explore the dichotomy between presence and absence and the nature of transgressive desire.
Essentially, the concept of the readymade is both elastic (like the band that holds together the brick and book cover in Claire Fontaine's witty La société du spectacle brickbat 2006, below) and fixed (like the brick itself), the readymade being both a performative act (ritualised play) and citational practice by which discourse produces the effects it names.12 Further, a link can be made to Bachelard's theory of space and imagination which describes literary space as reflexive, resonant and moulded by consciousness.13 In their playfulness the spatial dynamics of readymades challenge and illuminate the human, sensory possibility. They examine how the reality of contemporary life is disguised and concealed from view, and how human beings are alienated from the very objects that they produce. For the French philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, "(The) critique of everyday life is … at once a rejection of the inauthentic and the alienated, and an unearthing of the human which still lies buried therein."14
"One avenue for this unearthing is what Lefebvre describes as moments of presence – fleeting, sensate instants in which the "totality of possibilities contained in daily existence" were revealed. While destined to pass in an instant, it is through such moments that we are able to catch glimpses of the relation between the everyday and the social totality."15 This philosophy or theory of moments was developed in opposition to Bergson's understanding of time as a linear duration (duree) of separate instances and for Lefebvre, these "moments are "experiences of detachment from the everyday flow of time" which puncture the banality of everyday life…"16
"All the activities that constitute everyday life must then be rethought in terms of a dialectic of presence and absence and each moment is simultaneously an opportunity for alienation and disalienation."17 The readymade, then, explores the politically radical potential that lies within the everyday through play and the intentionality of the artist. Through representation, readymades mediate between absence and presence; through poësis they begin to inhabit another time and space.
"In the poetic act, presence is the given. Lefebvre intends 'poetic' to cover unalienated production – the Greek poësis – as he explained in The Production of Space (1974)… Presence and poësis stand outside social relations of production. Flashes of inspiration, moments when one feels 'all together' and 'in touch', are not determined by economic relations, and cannot be prevented, even in a prison camp."18
Readymades are a reaction against the linear production of industry, which is both functional and hierarchical. They are a reaction against the banality and repetition of the everyday – of the hegemony of capitalist production and the social relations of everyday life. In a culture of use and use by, the readymade "inscribes the work of art within a network of signs and pre-existing material."19 Theses assemblages enable us to ask the question, what makes aesthetic judgement possible. They offer an alternative form of resistance to the imposition of linear repetition, through a form of mental and visual play. The moment of the representation encloses a transition (something transitory, something which 'traverses')20 – through a plethora of creative, emotive and imaginative practices – from something stable to un/stable.
This transition is a flash, a boundary where this becomes that, not then, not that – falling in love, jumping of a bridge. Alive : dead; presence : absence; purpose : play; mastery : exhaustion; logos : silence; worldly : transcendent. Not this, not that. It is an impossible presence, present – a moment of unalienated production that we know exists but we cannot define it, place it. How can we know love? We can speak of it in a before and after sense but it is always a past moment that we recognise.
It is the same with the readymade. The inscriptions on the early readymades (such as the bottle dryer and urinal) detailing authorship, dates, times, places can be seen as an attempt to 'fix' an individual artwork in the flow of time, to distinguish it from its unacknowledged neighbour – like "fixing" a photograph. It is telling that when the bottle rack was lost and remade in the 1960s the text that was originally on the lower metal ring was lost with the object itself.21 The text sought to fix these transitory moments of absence : presence.
Søren Kierkegaard calls this transition a "leap," where a human being chooses an ethical life-view, one that resides in the actual and not in an ironic-aesthetic attitude.
"It is important to see that choice, as the characteristic of the ethical lifeview, forms a radical break with the ironic spiral of the aesthetic attitude. Kierkegaard sometimes calls the ethical choice a "leap," a term that expresses the fundamental uncertainty of each commitment to actuality: contrary to aesthetic fantasy, which is "safely" self-contained, the outcome of the individual's ethical choice is dependent on actuality and therefore not fully under the individual's control. This is a decisive difference between aesthetic irony (including meta-irony) and the ethical leap: instead of merely rejecting all actuality, the latter takes responsibility for a certain actuality and tries to reshape it."22
And tries to reshape it. Thus we can say that readymades are human beings taking responsibility for their actuality by choosing to name an object as art, creating objects that challenge aesthetic value judgements and an ironic-aesthetic lifeview through their very presence, by their very selfness. Remembering (ah memory!), that it is always a past moment that we recognise. The familiar is not necessarily the known – it has to be named.
Dr Marcus Bunyan for the Art Blart blog
1. Duchamp, Marcel. "Talking about Readymades," Interview by Phillipe Collin, June 21, 1967, quoted in Girst, Thomas. "Duchamp for Everyone," in The Indefinite Duchamp. Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2013, p. 55 quoted in Day, Charlotte. "Introduction," in Reinventing the Wheel: The Readymade Century. Melbourne: Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), 2013, p. 85
2. Butler, Rex. "Two Snapshots of the Readymade Today," in Reinventing the Wheel: The Readymade Century. Melbourne: Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), 2013, p. 98
3. Duve, Thierry de. "Readymade," in Reinventing the Wheel: The Readymade Century. Melbourne: Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), 2013, p. 92
4. Ibid.,
5. Ibid.,
6. Butler, op. cit.,
7. Danto, Arthur C. "Criticism, advocacy, and the end-of-art condition: a working paper," on Artnet website [Online] Cited 01/12/2013. www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/danto/danto97-3-6.asp
8. Duve, op. cit. p. 91
9. "Still, appropriationism, which defines the end-of-art condition, is pretty much the defining principle of our moment, putting, as it does, everything and every combination of things at the service of art, even including bad drawing and bad painting, since these, being designated, tell us only what kind of point the artist who appropriates them intends, not what kind of artist she or he is."
Danto op. cit.,
10. Duchamp, Marcel. Definition of the readymade in the Dictionnaire abrégé du Surréalisme quoted in Duve, op. cit. p. 92
11. Wilson, Elizabeth. "The Invisible Flaneur," in Watson, Sophie and Gibson, Katherine (eds.,). Postmodern Cities and Spaces. Cambridge, Mass: Blackwell, 1995, p. 75
12. Butler, Judith. Bodies That Matter. New York: Routledge, 1993, p. 1-2
13. See Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press, 1958 (1994)
14. Trebitsch, M. "Preface," in Lefebvre, Henri. Critique of everyday life Vol. I. London: Verso, 1991, pp.ix-xxviii quoted in Butler, Chris. Law and the Social Production of Space. August 2003, p.60 [Online] Cited 01/12/2013. www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/6e262ab2-3509-3354-9079-f0a16c85949c/1/02Whole.pdf
15. Harvey, D. "Afterword," in Lefebvre, Henri. The production of space. Blackwell, Oxford, 1991, see note 1, at p. 429 quoted in Butler, Chris. Ibid., p. 60
16. Shields, Rob. Lefebvre, love and struggle: spatial dialectics. London: Routledge, 1999, see note 4, at p. 61 quoted in Butler, Chris. Ibid., p. 61
17. Shields, Rob. Lefebvre, love and struggle: spatial dialectics. London: Routledge, 1999, see note 4, at p. 70 quoted in Butler, Chris. Ibid., p. 61
18. Shields, Rob. Lefebvre, love and struggle: spatial dialectics. London: Routledge, 1999, p. 99 [Online] Cited 01/12/2013. Google Books website.
19. Sharkey, Patrice. "When Everything is already a Readymade," in Reinventing the Wheel: The Readymade Century. Melbourne: Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), 2013, p. 107
20 Lefebvre, Henri. The production of space. Blackwell, Oxford, 1991, p. 213 quoted in Shields, Rob op. cit., p. 99
21. Duve, op. cit. p. 91
22. Dulk, Allard Den. "Beyond Endless "Aesthetic" Irony: A Comparison of the Irony Critique of Søren Kierkegaard and David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest," in Studies in the Novel Vol. 44, No. 3. University of North Texas: Fall 2012, pp. 325-345
Man Ray
Cadeau (Gift)
1921 reconstructed 1970
Iron with brass tacks and wooden base
19.0 x 14.9 x 14.9 cm (overall); iron & base: 17.9 x 14.9 x 14.9 cm; glass cover: 19.0 cm (h.)
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Marcel Duchamp
Bicycle wheel (detail) (with Dr Marcus Bunyan)
1913 reconstructed 1964
Painted wooden stool and bicycle wheel
Stool: 50.4 cm (h.); wheel: 64.8 cm (diam.); overall: 126.5 cm (h.)
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Photo: © Joyce Evans
Marcel Duchamp
Bicycle wheel (detail)
1913 reconstructed 1964
Painted wooden stool and bicycle wheel
Stool: 50.4 cm (h.); wheel: 64.8 cm (diam.); overall: 126.5 cm (h.)
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Marcel Duchamp
Bottle dryer
1914 reconstructed 1964
Galvanised iron bottle dryer
65.0 x 44.0 x 43.0 cm (overall); base: 37.5 cm (diam.)
Collection: National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Martin Creed
Work no. 88 A sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball
A4 paper, ed. 625/Unlimited
Approx. 2 in / 5.1 cm diameter
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, London
Aleks Danko
Art stuffing
Synthetic polymer paint on paper-stuffed hessian bag
75.0 x 58.0 x 30.0 cm
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales – John Kaldor Family Collection
Barry Humphries
Battle of the plate
Welded steel forks
28.5 x 87.0 x 26.5 cm
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne
Bequest of Barrett Reid 2000
Photo: © Joyce Evans
Haim Steinbach
Untitled (graters, Victorian iron banks) (details)
Aluminium laminated wood shelf with glass display case and objects
150.0 x 150.0 x 62.0 cm (overall installed)
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tony Cragg
Glass and steel
220.0 x 210.0 cm
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Tony Cragg
Spyrogyra (detail)
Glass and steel
220.0 x 210.0 cm
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales
"Arguably the most influential artistic development of the twentieth century, the readymade was set in motion one hundred years ago when Marcel Duchamp mounted an upturned bicycle wheel on a stool. Duchamp's conversion of unadorned, everyday objects into fine art completely inverted how artistic practice was considered. Suddenly, art was capable of being everywhere and in everything. It was a revolutionary moment in modern art and the ripples from this epochal shift still resonate today.
Reinventing the Wheel: the Readymade Century pays tribute to Duchamp's innovation, including two key examples of his work: Bicycle wheel 1913 and Bottle dryer 1914. Other important historical works that MUMA has borrowed for the exhibition reveal the readymade's presence in Minimalism and Conceptual art as well as its echoes in Pop art. The exhibition traces some of the ways the readymade has been reinterpreted by subsequent artists in acts of homage to Duchamp or further expanding the possibilities the readymade has unfurled.
Among the various trajectories of the readymade, Reinventing the Wheel traces its elaborations in neo-dada practices, with a particular focus on everyday and vernacular contexts; the mysterious and libidinous potential of sculptural objects; institutional critique and nominal modes of artistic value. These discursive contexts also provide a foundation to explore more recent tendencies related to unmonumental and social sculpture, post-Fordism and other concerns, particularly among contemporary Australian artists. Bringing together works by over forty artists – from Duchamp and Man Ray to Andy Warhol and Martin Creed, along with some of Australia's leading practitioners – this is a one-of-a-kind salute to an idea that continues to define the very nature of contemporary art.
"This is the most ambitious exhibition that MUMA has yet presented, including works that establish the historical moment of the readymade in Europe and its reception in the USA and in Australia. Most exciting is the opportunity for living artists to see their work as part of this ongoing history," said Charlotte Day, Director of MUMA."
Press release from the MUMA website
Joseph Kosuth
One and three tables
Wooden table, gelatin silver photograph, and photostat mounted on foamcore
Installation dimensions variable
Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales
Julian Dashper
Untitled (The Warriors)
Vinyl on drumheads, drum kit
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the Julian Dashper Estate and Michael Lett Auckland
Masato Takasaka
Smile! Bauhaus babushka sundae boogie woogie (model for a prog rock SCULPTURE PARK) (detail)
MDF, vinyl, marker on foamcore, soft drink cans, acrylic, paper notepad from Bauhaus Museum giftshop, plastic wrapper, cardboard, polycarbonate sheeting, marker on paper, Metallica babushka dolls, toy guitar, sundae keyring
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artist and Studio Masatotectures, Melbourne
Jeff Koons
Balloon dog (Red)
1995 designed
Porcelain, ed. 1113/2300
11.3 x 26.3 cm diameter
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Lou Hubbard
Two 'Studio K' Planet lamps, fluorescent lights, MDF, acrylic paint and Perspex
108.3 x 251.8 x 29.0 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Sarah Scout, Melbourne
Andrew Liversidge
10,000 $1 coins (AUD)
30.0 x 30.0 x 30.0 cm
Courtesy of the artist and The Commercial Gallery, Sydney
Andrew Liversidge
IN MY MIND I KNOW WHAT I THINK BUT THAT'S ONLY BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE (installation photograph)
10,000 $1 coins (AUD)
30.0 x 30.0 x 30.0 cm
Courtesy of the artist and The Commercial Gallery, Sydney
Photo: Joyce Evans
Callum Morton
Polyurethane resin, wood, fibreglass, synthetic polymer paint
290.0 x 200.0 x 26.0 cm
City of Melbourne Art and Heritage Collection
Claire Fontaine
La société du spectacle brickbat
Bricks and brick fragments, laser impression
178.0 x 108.0 x 58.0 cm
Courtesy of the artist and Metro Pictures, New York
Word History: The earliest sense of brickbat, first recorded in 1563, was "a piece of brick." Such pieces of brick have not infrequently been thrown at others in the hope of injuring them; hence, the figurative brickbats (first recorded in 1929) that critics hurl at performances they dislike. The appearance of bat as the second part of this compound is explained by the fact that the word bat, "war club, cudgel," developed in Middle English the sense "chunk, clod, wad," and in the 16th century came to be used specifically for a piece of brick that was unbroken on one end.
Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)
Ground Floor, Building F.
Monash University Caulfield campus
900 Dandenong Road
Caulfield East, VIC 3145
Opening hours:
Tuesday – Friday 10am – 5pm
Saturday 12 – 5pm
Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) website

subset: commoncrawl


text:
"The Gospel of FSM" record the Genesis of FSM.
The world are not perfect, there are earthquakes and tidal waves, they may kill people.
Infact this is not the ONLY world FSM creat, nether the first one nor the last. There are worlds FSM creat earlier. They are worse, and we called them HELL chronically. The better ones FSM creat later we called HAVEN.
3k years ago, someone knew the secret of these parallel universes accidentally. He found that if a man is a good man, there will be a better world after death, and bad man goes to bad world accordingly. If someone do better enough, He/She will be a person of enlightenment and be able to go across these different worlds. He divid the people that wandering in the different worlds to six types, called six realms.
Buddha "knew" the law of the worlds, and FSM is the law.
Suppositional Expand of a FSMism's Opinion of the World
The place for general discussion about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and most things related to Him.
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Suppositional Expand of a FSMism's Opinion of the World
焚我娇躯 熊々欲火 生不知欢 死焉知苦
海盗行侠 惟面神故 汁丸汤条 皆归尘土
怜我世人 惑患实多 怜我世人 惑患实多
海盗行侠 惟面神故 汁丸汤条 皆归尘土
怜我世人 惑患实多 怜我世人 惑患实多
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Here's another couple of cameras shown off at CES. Pentax had its compact Optio A10 with 8 megapixels and a 1.8-inch CCD with its own "shake reduction" technology. Whether any of these motion-stopping technologies work is still a mystery, but I guess it's good to have it in there just in case. Though if your hands are shaking that much, we suggest checking out the closest rehab. Other features include 3x optical zoom, 2.5-inch LCD monitor, MPEG-4 video recording, PictBridge Direct Printing Support, 24MB of internal memory and expansion via an SD card slot. Retails for $350.
The Optio E10 was also announced, though at only 6 megapixels but with a nice $200 pricetag. This is pretty much an entry-level camera and comes with six different still-image shooting modes, movie mode and setup mode. Also includes a 2.4-inch LCD monitor, 10MB built-in memory plus an SD expansion card slot, PictBridge compatibility, and AVI movie capture.
PENTAX UNVEILS OPTIO A10 AND OPTIO E10 AT CES 2006 [Pentax]
Pricing for Pentax Optio line [Shopping.com]


text:
Your pregnancy and baby guide
What you'll need for your baby
Open all pages about Your pregnancy and baby guide
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Baby clothes
Babies grow very quickly. All you need for the first few weeks are enough clothes to make sure your baby will be warm and clean.
You'll probably need:
- 6 stretch suits (all-in-ones) for both day and night, or 4 stretch suits and 2 nightdresses (nighties) for the night – use socks or bootees with the nightie if it's cold
- 2 cardigans, wool or cotton rather than nylon, and light rather than heavy – several light layers of clothing are best for keeping your baby warm
- 4 vests
- a shawl or blanket to wrap your baby in
- a wool or cotton hat, mittens, and socks or bootees for going out if the weather is cold – it's better to choose close-knitted patterns rather than those with a loose knit, so your baby's fingers and toes won't get caught
- a sun hat for going out if it's hot or the sun is bright
Washing your baby's clothes
There's no evidence that using washing powders with enzymes (bio powders) or fabric conditioners will irritate your baby's skin.
Baby bedding
For the first few months, you'll need a crib, carrycot or Moses basket (a light, portable bassinet). Your baby needs to sleep somewhere that's safe, warm and not too far from you.
Baby nests are not suitable for your baby to sleep in when you're not there because of the danger of suffocation.
If you're borrowing a crib or a cot, or using one that's been used by another of your children, you should ideally buy a new mattress.
If you can't do this, use the cot mattress you have, as long as it's firm (not soft), flat, fits the cot with no gaps, is clean, and waterproof.
You'll need:
- a firm mattress that fits the cot snugly without leaving spaces round the edges so your baby can't trap their head and suffocate
- sheets to cover the mattress – you need at least 4 because they need to be changed often; fitted sheets make life easier but can be quite expensive, so you could use pieces of old sheet
- light blankets for warmth
Pillows and duvets
Don't use pillows and duvets – they're not safe for babies less than a year old because of the risk of suffocation. Duvets can also make your baby too hot.
Sheets and layers of blankets tucked in firmly below your baby's shoulder level or a baby sleeping bag are safe for your baby to sleep in.
Cot safety
Your baby will spend many hours in a cot, so make sure it's safe. If you're buying a new cot, look for the British Standard mark BS EN 716-1.
- The mattress must fit snugly, with no space for the baby's head to get stuck.
- The bars must be smooth, securely fixed, and the distance between each bar should not be less than 25mm (1 inch) and not more than 60mm (2.5 inches), so your baby's head can't get trapped.
- The cot should be sturdy.
- The moving parts should work smoothly and not allow fingers or clothing to get trapped.
- Cot bumpers are not recommended as babies can overheat or get tangled in the fastenings.
- Never leave anything with ties, such as bibs or clothes, in the cot as they might get caught around your baby's neck.
- The safest place for your baby to sleep is on their back in a cot in the same room as you for the first 6 months.
For more information on safe sleeping, see Reducing the risk of SIDS.
You can also visit the Lullaby Trust website, which has lots of information on safe sleeping.
Out and about with your baby
Spend some time looking at what's available for getting around with your baby. Think about what will suit you best before you make a choice, and ask other mums what they have found useful.
Before buying a pushchair or a pram, check that:
- the brakes are in good working order
- the handles are at the right height for pushing
- the frame is strong enough
Baby carriers
Baby carriers – also called slings – are attached with straps and your baby is carried in front of you. Most babies like being carried like this because they're close to you and warm.
The back part of the carrier must be high enough to support your baby's head. Check that buckles and straps are secure.
Older babies who can hold up their heads and whose backs are stronger – at about 4 months old – can be carried in carriers that go on your back.
See the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) website for more advice on using baby carriers and slings safely.
Pushchairs, also known as strollers and buggies, are only suitable for young babies if they have fully reclining seats so your baby can lie flat.
Wait until your baby can sit by themselves before using another type of pushchair. Choose a light pushchair if you'll be lifting it on to trains or buses.
Prams give your baby a lot of space to sit and lie comfortably, but they take up a lot of space and are hard to use on public transport.
If you have a car, look for a pram that can be dismantled easily. Consider buying a pram harness at the same time, as you may need it to strap your baby securely into the pram.
Carrycot on wheels
A carrycot is a light, portable cot with handles, similar to but smaller than the body of a pram, and often attachable to a wheeled frame.
Your baby can sleep in the carrycot for the first few months, and the cot can be attached to the frame to go out.
3-in-1 travel system
This is a carrycot and transporter (a set of wheels) that can be converted into a pushchair when your baby outgrows the carrycot.
Shopping trays that fit under the pushchair or pram can also be very useful when you're out.
Car seats for babies
If you have a car, you must have a baby car seat. Your baby must always go in their seat, including when you bring them home from the hospital.
It's illegal and also very dangerous to carry your baby in your arms in a vehicle.
The best way for your baby to travel is in a rear-facing infant car seat on the back seat, or the front passenger seat as long as it's not fitted with an airbag. The car seat is held in place by the adult safety belt.
The following advice should help make sure your baby's car seat is as safe as possible:
- Make sure the car seat is fitted correctly.
- It's illegal and extremely dangerous to put a rear-facing infant car seat in the front passenger seat if your car is fitted with an airbag.
- Ideally, buy a new car seat. If you're planning to get a secondhand seat, only accept one from a family member or friend so you can be sure it hasn't been involved in an accident. Don't buy one from a secondhand shop or through the classified ads.
Look for the United Nations ECE Regulation number R44.03 or R44.04, or the new i-size regulation R129, when you buy a car seat.
For more advice on choosing and fitting baby car seats safely, go to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) website on child car seats.
Page last reviewed: 04/10/2019
Next review due: 04/10/2022


text:
Find Your Perfect Home.
Glen Ellyn Real Estate
Glen Ellyn is located in Illinois. Glen Ellyn, Illinois has a population of 28,256. Glen Ellyn is more family-centric than the surrounding county with 34% households with children. The county percentage for households with children is 32%.
The median household income in Glen Ellyn, Illinois is $87,457. The median household income for the surrounding county is $69,407 compared to the national median of $50,013. The median age of people living in Glen Ellyn is 41.8 years.
Glen Ellyn Weather
The average high temperature in July is 86.8 degrees, with an average low temperature in January of 14.2 degrees. The annual precipitation is 37.94.
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text:
The population of Spanish-speakers in New York City has been growing in numbers over recent years as more members of the Hispanic and Latino communities move to the area.
In fact, the most recent demographic data suggests that there approximately 170,000 Spanish-speakers in Westchester County alone with the majority of these residents living in cities with heavily concentrated Spanish-speaking communities such as Yonkers, New Rochelle and White Plains.
The growing population of Spanish-speakers in the Westchester County area has created a need for local businesses that offer bilingual services.
Ayuda Me Legal is a local workers compensation law firm that is dedicated to offering legal representation to the Spanish-speaking community throughout Westchester County, New York.
Brian Mittman, Esq. of Ayuda Me Legal commented on the law firm's recent decision to offer legal counsel to Spanish-speakers in the local community.
"Many Spanish-speakers immigrate to New York to work manual labor jobs in construction and other dangerous industries," said Mittman.
"Unfortunately, this results in a disproportionate number of Hispanic and Latino workers who become injured on the job each year. But despite the fact that so many Spanish-speakers are injured on the job each year, there is a shocking lack of legal support available to these injured workers in Westchester. Our law firm offers the legal assistance that is often needed by Spanish-speaking workers throughout the New York City area."
The law firm helps injured workers in New York to obtain workers comp benefits which can help pay for medical costs, lost wages and other financial expenses that are a result of a work-related accident.
The firm also has multiple office locations throughout New York City including an office in Westchester County, Manhattan, Queens and Long Island.
To find out more about about the workers compensation lawyers at Ayuda Me Legal are helping injured workers in the local community, visit their official Google+ page at: https://goo.gl/PhaHDJ
Media Contact
Company Name: Ayuda Me Legal
Contact Person: Brian Mittman
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Phone: 914-279-0696
Address:120 Bloomingdale Rd #401a
City: White Plains
State: NY
Country: United States
Website: https://goo.gl/6FdJrr


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Week of 9/28/09 - 10/4/09
* Alliance of Portland Neighborhood Business Associations Quarterly Meeting, on the Portland Spirit. Very fun, and the dinner was de-lish! Everyone paid for their own ticket, in case anyone is wondering. I paid for mine with personal funds, not taxpayers'.
* Office of Healthy Working Rivers/Bureau of Planning and Sustainability staff working group meeting
* Meeting with Maria Lisa Johnson, Director, Office of Human Relations
* Monthly Meeting with Commissioner Saltzman
* Meeting with Maryhelen Kincaid, East Columbia Neighborhood Association, regarding citizen involvement strategies
* Meeting with Ken Allen and James Hester from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), regarding their concerns about Council's actions or lack of actions with regard to labor issues
* Meeting with Tom Sass & Dave Harvey regarding the Working harbor and North Reach Plan
* Meeting with Sally Erickson and Marc Jolin, de-briefing on camping alternative work group
* The Ed Forman Show, 10 p.m. at Dante's, starring Wilson High School alumnus Aaron Ross
* City Council meetings Wednesday morning and afternoon, and Thursday afternoon
* Office of Human Relations Open House speech
* Meeting with Lul Abdulle, Sandra Lefrancois, Alison Stoll and Tom Peavy , Central Northeast Neighbors
* Meeting with Larry D. Harvey, PacWest, and Ronald Russ, President P&W Railroad, regarding the North Reach Plan
* Meeting with Josephine Romero, Philippine Trade Commissioner, Jamie Lim, Asian Reporter editor, and other local leaders of Asian communities
* Joint Metro Council, Metro Policy Advisory Committee and Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation public hearing in Gresham, regarding proposed urban/rural reserves and potential Urban Growth Boundary expansions. Six citizens testified.
* Spoke on a panel at Oregon Cities Annual Conference "Community Wellness in Tough Times", then attended the evening Welcome Reception hosted by the City of Portland
* Royal Rosarians' Prime Minister's Ball and Installation of Royal Rosarian Council
Dinners at home: Tuesday, Sunday


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