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PoliticsQ&A: What does AU suspension mean for Egypt? The African Union is the first international body to punish Egypt following Morsi's overthrow. Azad Essa | 06 Jul 2013 03:38 GMT | Politics, Africa, Central African Republic, Egypt, Guinea The AU has urged Egypt to return to constitutional order [Al Jazeera/Matthew Cassel] As the crisis deepens and unrest spreads in Egypt following the ousting of Mohamed Morsi as Egyptian president, there remains little international consensus on the fast-moving developments in the country. While most countries have expressed "concern", and "hope for a rapid return to democracy", a decisive international condemnation against the overthrow of the democratically elected government has remained unseen. In this light, the swift action by the African Union is noteworthy. Live Box 201312812309295995 The African Union's Peace and Security Council (PSC) on Friday suspended Egypt from all activities, following the overthrow of Morsi's government and called for an immediate return to "constitutional order". Egypt becomes the fourth country in the past four years, after Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau and Mali (which has since been reinstated) to be suspended from the organisation. The Egyptian foreign ministry responded immediately to the suspension by expressing "deep regret" in a statement posted on its official Facebook page. While the AU's move is customary in the event of the interruption of a member country's constitution, it is still remarkably significant given the international indecision that has lingered following Morsi's removal from power, and fears of such an incident creating a precedent for the continent. It also means that Egypt has now been suspended from all branches of the AU, reducing its influence over internal African affairs, at a time when the North African giant had been attempting to regain influence in the continent. Crucially, the PSC's decision to suspend Egypt will likely be seen as adding legitimacy to the outrage felt by Morsi's supporters. Al Jazeera's Azad Essa spoke to El Ghassim Wane, director of Peace and Security Council (PSC), the organ within the AU responsible for the suspension, about how the AU viewed the crisis unfolding in Egypt - and why the body had no choice but to suspend one of its founding members.Al Jazeera: Why has the AU suspended Egypt's membership? El Ghassim Wane: The suspension is a measure that is automatically provided by the AU instrument whenever an unconstitutional change in government takes place. It includes suspension of Egypt's membership in AU activities, and of course this does not prevent the AU from engaging, interacting with the Egyptian authorities and other stakeholders to support the returning to constitutional order. And we intend to fully and actively engage with the Egyptian people to help make this happen, so that elections can be held as soon as possible. AJ: Would the AU describe the overthrowing of Morsi as a coup? Most countries and regional bodies have refrained from using the description - but where does the AU stand on the terminology?Wane: As I said, the AU has instruments and rules, and these apply to all member states. The African test on democracy and elections and the Lome declaration of 2000 contain a definition of the AU's understanding of an unconstitutional change of government. This includes the overthrowing of a democratically elected government - and the AU has already stated that what happened in Egypt falls under this definition. Whenever this happens, automatically, a certain set of measures have to be taken. AJ: Are you saying that the AU will not call this a coup? Wane: We are calling it an unconstitutional change of government because you have a situation that falls under the definition of an overthrowing of a democratically elected government, or the overthrowing of a government that happens in violation of the rules provided by the constitution. AJ: What would you need to see change for Egypt to be allowed back into the AU?Wane: What should happen is to get the country back to constitutional order, and this has to happen through elections that are free and fair. This has to happen without delay and through a consultation process. And as I indicated, we stand ready to support this process. AJ: What does Egypt lose from being suspended, and vice-versa? Wane: I don't think we should be framing the issue [in a way] that looks at what Egypt loses from being suspended. Instead, the issue should be looked at through the frame of what the AU has to do in implementing its policies in all AU member states. And what the Peace and Security Council (PSC) has done today is fully in line with what has been agreed upon by all member states. Clearly what has happened in Egypt is a setback as far as the AU is concerned, and our wish is, of course, to ensure that Egypt returns to constitutional order as soon as possible. Of course, the AU stands to gain from a strong, democratic Egypt and Egypt stands to gain from a strong African Union, applying its rules and aiming for higher standards in terms of democracy, governance and human rights. Egypt is a committed member of the AU, a founding a member of the AU, and I'm sure they are committed to the AU. I have no doubt about their desire to be actively participating in our activities - and I'm sure they will make every effort to ensure that these elections are held and so they regain their membership in the AU. AJ: The AU's position differs from much of the Arab World, in which many leaders have congratulated the new president. Does the AU's position matter? Wane: Look, the AU is acting on the basis of its own rules... And Egypt is one of our important member states, so I am sure that Egyptian officials will understand the rationale of the decision taken by the AU and we have no doubt whatsoever about Egypt's commitment to the AU and its ideals.Follow Azad Essa on Twitter: @azadessa Source: Al Jazeera
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PlantFiles: Big Red Sage
Salvia penstemonoides
Family: Lamiaceae (lay-mee-AY-see-ee) (Info) Genus: Salvia (SAL-vee-uh) (Info) Species: penstemonoides (pen-stem-on-OY-deez) (Info) » View all varieties of Salvias One vendor has this plant for sale. 7 members have or want this plant for trade. Category: Category: Spacing: Hardiness: Sun Exposure: Danger: Bloom Color: Bloom Time: Foliage: Other details: Soil pH requirements: Patent Information: Propagation Methods: Seed Collecting: | Click thumbnail to view: By frostweed By frostweed By frostweed By Gerris2 By Marilynbeth By Marilynbeth By Gerris2 There are a total of 15 photos. |
4 positives
No neutrals
No negatives
Gardeners' Notes:
This plant has been said to grow in the following regions:
Glendora, California
Wilmington, Delaware
Derby, Kansas
Hebron, Kentucky
Merryville, Louisiana
Lincoln, Nebraska
Holly Springs, North Carolina
Arlington, Texas
Austin, Texas
Belton, Texas
Crawford, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Houston, Texas
Longview, Texas
San Antonio, Texas (2 reports)
Spring Branch, Texas

subset: commoncrawl


text: James Williams. Courtesy of the artist hide caption itoggle caption Courtesy of the artist James Williams Remembered On JazzSet WBGO-FM May 21, 2009 If you had anything to do with jazz in the 1980s and '90s, you knew pianist James Williams (1951-2004). He made a great first impression, and the goodness just kept coming. Fellow faculty at the Jazz Studies program at William Paterson University play his music to celebrate their much-missed friend. Listen Loading… 57:56 Playlist


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History Hotel Istanbul - Istanbul
Genctürk Caddesi. Sirvanizade Sk. No:14 Sehzadebasi - Istanbul
1-877-662-6988History Hotel Istanbul offers hotel accommodation in the Laleli area.
This Istanbul hotel offers free Wi-Fi and an elevator (lift). Outfitted with a bar/lounge, you'll find the perfect place to have a drink.
Multilingual staff are available at the front desk 24 hours-a-day and can provide tour/ticket assistance. Missed breakfast? Have no fear! There's coffee in the lobby to keep you going.
Nice and friendly staff Very small room with a VERY small window, moore a cell th...
Venere Guest, SwedenThese reviews have been left by customers who actually stayed at this hotel
Check Availability at History Hotel Istanbul
Breakfast at History Hotel Istanbul
A free buffet breakfast is available between 7:00 AM and 10:00 AM.
Facilities at History Hotel Istanbul
- Bar
- Restaurant/Dining
- Lift/elevator
- Room service - limited hour
- Multilingual staff
- City tour
- Front desk - 24 hour
- Internet/Email services
- Shuttle service from and/or to the airport
Know before you go
- This property offers transfers from the airport (surcharges may apply). Guests must contact the property with arrival details 24 hours prior to arrival, using the contact information on the booking confirmation.
Check-in: between noon and noon.
Check-out: before noon.
Extra-person charges may apply and vary depending on hotel policy.Government-issued photo identification and a credit card or cash deposit are required at check-in for incidental charges.
Special requests are subject to availability upon check-in and may incur additional charges. Special requests cannot be guaranteed.
- No onsite parking is available.
City tax and/or any other fees charged by the hotel
The following fees and deposits are charged by the property at time of service, check-in, or check-out.
- Rollaway beds are available for an additional fee
The above list may not be comprehensive. Fees and deposits may not include tax and are subject to change.
Renovation and closures
This property will be closed from 2 January 2015 to 31 March 2015 for renovations and will resume operation once the renovation is complete (completion date subject to change).Every effort will be made to minimize noise and disturbance.History Hotel Istanbul is also known as
History Hotel
History Hotel Istanbul reviews
- May 2009
- Venere Guest
- Single traveller
- Sweden
Nice and friendly staff Very small room with a VERY small window, moore a cell then a room.
- April 2008
- Venere Guest
- Couple
- Sweden
Polite and helpful personnel, clean bathrooms and good beds!! (especially in comparison to surrounding hotels) The area is rather noisy with alot of tourists. But the proximity to the bazaar and down town Istanbul is great. Prices quoted on the internet were a little higher than the prices quoted in the reception. Reason unknown. However - we had to pay the price quoted on the internet.. We got a double room, but were able to change to a room with king size bed. Very helpful personnel! The breakfast was ok, but not the best I have had. Though - they did have coffee! =)
- October 2011
- Venere Guest
- Turkey
- April 2011
- Venere Guest
- Group
- Italy
- November 2009
- Venere Guest
- Single traveller
- Italy
Loading reviews in other languages...
- May 2009
- Venere Guest
- Not Specified
- Germany
History Hotel Istanbul reviews by TripAdvisor
Room Details
History Hotel Istanbul has 46 guest rooms. Guests can unwind at the end of a long day and enjoy LCD televisions with satellite channels. Business travelers will have access to free wireless high-speed Internet access as well as safes and phones during their Laleli visit.
Private bathrooms are outfitted with showers, slippers, hair dryers and complimentary toiletries. Additional guest comforts include minibars, soundproofing and air conditioning.
Irons/ironing boards can be provided on request.
Accommodation Services
- Telephone
- Air conditioning
- Mini bar
- Extra beds
- Soundproof rooms
- Ironing facilities on request
- Hairdryer in each room
- Safe
- Satellite TV
- Wireless Internet access
- LCD flat screen TV
Distances from History Hotel Istanbul
Sehzade Mosque - 0.2 km / 0.1 miValens Aqueduct - 0.4 km / 0.2 mi
Column of Marcian - 0.5 km / 0.3 mi
Vefa Kilise Mosque - 0.6 km / 0.4 mi
Beyazit Bath - 0.6 km / 0.4 mi
Museum of Turkish Calligraphic Art - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Suleiman the Magnificent's Mausoleum - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Istanbul University - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Suleymaniye Mosque - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Zeyrek Mosque - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Beyazit Tower - 0.8 km / 0.5 mi
Beyazit Square - 0.9 km / 0.5 mi
Beyazit Mosque - 0.9 km / 0.6 mi
Fatih Mosque - 0.9 km / 0.6 mi
Sulemaniye Bath - 1 km / 0.6 mi
The preferred airport for History Hotel Istanbul is Istanbul (IST-Ataturk Intl.) - 12 km / 7.4 mi.
Distances are calculated in a straight line from the property's location to the point of interest or airport and may not reflect actual travel distance.
Distances are displayed to the nearest 0.1 mile and kilometer.
Transportation services History Hotel Istanbul
- Shuttle service from and/or to the airport
We have the accommodation you need, all over the world
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It's always a great strategy to find a fattie to stand next to.
Meh. Hard to say anything without shredding the civilian who (inexplicably) decided to have her picture taken with Ms. Sugar Tits.
Someone used up all the good 'wingman' jokes last week.
As always, there's a nerdy accountant type in the background, saying it all with his eyes…
It's really a shame that Chris Farley got all mixed up with this transvestite prostitute scene. He would have probably been better off dead.
for 25, she sure has alot of wrinkles near her eyes and mouth
The mouth wrinkles came from blowing NFL players. The eye wrinkles came from squinting for the cocks of pretty much everyone else.
this bitch has the fakest smile in the history of fake..and smile..
and boobs.
Fatty, fatty two by four, why the hell are you standing next to a whore?
5 seconds later: "People tell me I look just like you!"
Yeah, my blond friend always told me to stand next to a fat chick to look better….
Is that her sister or Mom? I can't imagine anyone else wanting to be photographed with her.
"I am so happy to have a picture taken with my Mom. I am going to look just like her in 18 years, maybe sooner."
yikes, Kirsie Alley really took a downward spiral
"Some company hired me to stand next to you all day so you'll look better by comparision."


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USDA defines biobased products as goods composed in whole or in significant part of agricultural, forestry or marine materials. Armstrong's linoleum contains 100% biobased content by weight per ASTM test method D6866 USDA certifies and awards labels to qualifying products to increase consumer recognition of biobased products and to help assure consumers that a product or package contains a verified amount of renewable biological ingredients.
Linoleum is the original sustainable floor from the brand that first put linoleum in American homes and businesses. More than a century ago, the company ceased discarding post-industrial cork waste and began recycling it—first into corkboard insulation, and soon afterwards into the product on which its modern flooring business was built: linoleum.
Today's linoleum is still made with natural ingredients, like linseed oil, (which comes from the flax plant) wood powder, resins and ground limestone. The rich colors come from mineral pigments and the floor has an all-natural jute fabric backing. The added benefit of NATURCote, an exclusive UV-cured coating, protects the floor from scratches and scuffs and reduces the time, chemicals and labor needed for routine maintenance.
Spot Coolers commercial portable heating & cooling. Nationwide Emergency service 24/7. Your source for portable air conditioning rentals and sales.
Need portable cooling for data centers, offices & more? Atlas Sales & Rentals is on call 24/7 from locations nationwide. Fast service, competitive prices.
The FARO Focus3D X 330 Laser Scanner is the perfect tool for 3D documentation of as-built conditions for architectural, construction, and engineering applications and projects. http://www.faro.com/focus
Red Hawk: A comprehensive range of contemporary fire and security solutions. One that's just right for your business. That's the power of experience. www.redhawkus.com


text:
I posted a thread about a week ago about my Belgian Abbey beer smelling really bad (like old lunch meat). Well, over a week later and the smell is still somewhat there in the beer and the airlock is still going. There is also still krausen on the beer and i took a gravity reading and it seems like it's still not close to finished yet. My concern though is that i'm seeing something collecting on the inside of the carboy on the side. It almost looks kinda like yeast sediment (or at least that color) but i'm not sure. Has anyone ever had this?
RDWHAHB. That's completely normal.


text:
The Good News: Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast
Date: November 6, 2013
by: Nick Friedman | Staff Writer
There are many things one can point to when defining what makes a man. Arguably one the most important qualifiers, however, lies in assuming civic responsibility and being a good role model. That's exactly what Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast is seeking in its 100 Real Men Mentor campaign.
The organization, a one-to-one mentoring program that pairs children, ages 6 to 18, with volunteer mentors, or "bigs," has nearly 300 boys waiting to be matched with a volunteer. CEO Joy Mahler says she hopes to draw more attention to the fact that 52% of the organization's matched children are boys, while only 39% of its matched volunteers are men. Launched Friday, Nov. 1, the campaign aims to recruit 100 male volunteers in 100 days.
"A lot of young men have not had a man in their life," says Mahler. "Maybe their father is missing or their grandpa isn't in their life, either. It's important that these young men learn the male experience and have a role model to emulate what it's like to grow up and be a man in the community."
Gina Taylor, vice president of communication and marketing at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Suncoast, served as a big sister in the program for 15 years. She says the experience is almost as rewarding for the mentor as it is for the child.
"Talking with other volunteers, it's the first thing out of their mouth," she says. "We hear that over and over."
Mahler emphasizes the flexibility and customization of the volunteer positions, and that all it requires is a caring attitude. She says even the busiest of men can find time to meet with a little brother — even an hour a week can make a difference.
"The thing we always hear from the littles is, 'They cared about me when no one else did. They never gave up on me. They believed in me,'" says Mahler. "That's big. A lot of these children are dealing with so much more than most, and these volunteers can be a key motivating force to help them through the speed bumps of life."
100 — Number of male volunteers sought
276 — Number of boys awaiting a big brother
52% — Of matched children are boys
* THE GOOD NEWS is a trademark of Observer Media Group, Inc.
Currently 0 Responses
- Feb
27 Lakewood Ranch Republican Club Luncheon
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm - Feb
28 Faith Preschool's Annual Kid's Carnival and Silent Auction
10:00 am - 1:00 pm - Feb
28 Service Club 50th Antiques, Vintage & Collectibles Show
5:30 pm - 4:00 pm - Mar
2 Archie Griffin Celebrity Golf Classic
6:00 am


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TrainingLtE's training programmes have allowed us to directly impact over 9000 lives in life changing ways |
BRCOur job creation initiative offers a variety of handmade high-quality products to purchase from conference bags to corporate gifts and more. |
The feel good project'Where doing good never goes out of fashion' – tfgP is a unique civil society project aimed at supplying the retail industry with quality staff |
Read More |
Read More |
Enterprise DevelopmentLtE's E³ department mentors entrepreneurs to start and grow businesses through a programme that nurtures and equips with sound technical and business skills to ensure a healthy approach to business. |
AssociationLtE's Association helps other organisations make an impact on job creation, poverty reduction and enterprise development |
Media |
Read More |
Read More |


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Get Involved! Volunteer with DRC!
DRC sponsors a number of races throughout the year that are free to members and helps other organizations that serve the interests of the running community. These events would not be possible without your assistance! Get to know your fellow runners, and gain the feeling of satisfaction from knowing you contributed. From the Board of Directors on down, everyone usually chips in at least once or twice a year to make sure all the members benefit fully from all the events.
Volunteer Opportunities |
Opportunity | Description | Dates | More Information and Contact |
Monthly Club Races |
We need 40 to 60 volunteers for each monthly club race:
See Club Races and Event Calendar |
Register to volunteer on our Event Calendar firstname.lastname@example.com |
Shoreline Spruce-Up | Help us spruce up the Sunset Bay Shoreline (near the DRC Clubhouse) and adjacent park area at White Rock Lake | Second Saturday each month, from 8 to 10 a.m. | email@example.com |
City Championship Volunteers | City Championship Series participants are required to volunteer for at least one club race. Learn more. | See Club Races and Event Calendar |
Register to volunteer on our Event Calendar email@example.com |
Membership Committee | Work with club leaders to develop programs and benefits to attract and retain club members | Ongoing | email@example.com |
Race Management Committee | Work with club leaders to organize and implement club races | Ongoing; see Club Races and Event Calendar | email@example.com |
Merchandising Committee | Work with club leaders to organize sales of club merchandise | Ongoing | email@example.com |
Communications Team | Work with Communications Director to develop and execute communications plans in support of other DRC programs | Ongoing | email@example.com |
DRC Summer Picnic |
We need:
Every summer; see Event Calendar for the exact date. | firstname.lastname@example.com |
DRC Half Marathon & 5K | This is our biggest race of the year. It brings 4,000 participants and requires around 300 volunteers to make it a success. | A week before the race and race day. Visit drchalf.com for the exact date. |
Visit drchalf.com and click on volunteer firstname.lastname@example.com |
DRC Booth at Dallas Marathon Expo | Help promote DRC at the Marathon's Fitness Expo. Visit dallasmarathon.com to get location and more info about the expo. | Every December. Visit dallasmarathon.com for exact date. | firstname.lastname@example.com |
DRC-Sponsored Aid Station at the Dallas Marathon | We deed 40 volunteersl. You get to help and cheer your friends and DRC members! | Every December. Visit dallasmarathon.com for exact date. | firstname.lastname@example.com |
DRC Holiday Party |
We need:
Every December; see our Event Calendar for exact date. | email@example.com |


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What's happening to the world wide web 0
We stand on the opposite side of the Great Political Divide (freedom v socialism) from Britain's Guardian newspaper. But it covers the news better, and provides more useful information, than most of its competitors.
We quote from an extract it has taken from a book titled, The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business by Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen.
The story of yesterday's post was about the US government controlling our uses of the internet. Today's story is about international controls on this last zone of freedom; and how a country could build a virtual wall round itself to cut itself off from the global internet – and then enforce extreme censorship within its own "walled garden".
Each state will attempt to regulate the internet, and shape it in its own image. The majority of the world's internet users encounter some form of censorship – also known by the euphemism "filtering" – but what that actually looks like depends on a country's policies and its technological infrastructure. …
In some countries, there are several entry points for internet connectivity, and a handful of private telecommunications companies control them (with some regulation). In others, there is only one entry point, a nationalised internet service provider (ISP), through which all traffic flows. Filtering is relatively easy in the latter case, and more difficult in the former.
When technologists began to notice states regulating and projecting influence online, some warned against a "Balkanisation of the internet", whereby national filtering and other restrictions would transform what was once the global internet into a connected series of nation-state networks. The web would fracture and fragment, and soon there would be a "Russian internet" and an "American internet" and so on, all coexisting and sometimes overlapping but, in important ways, separate. Information would largely flow within countries but not across them, due to filtering, language or even just user preference. The process would at first be barely perceptible to users, but it would fossilise over time and ultimately remake the internet.
It's very likely that some version of the above scenario will occur, but the degree to which it does will greatly be determined by what happens in the next decade with newly connected states – which path they choose, whom they emulate and work together with.
The first stage of the process, aggressive and distinctive filtering, is under way. China is the world's most active and enthusiastic filterer of information. Entire platforms that are hugely popular elsewhere in the world – Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter – are blocked by the Chinese government.
On the Chinese internet, you would be unable to find information about politically sensitive topics such as the Tiananmen Square protests, embarrassing information about the Chinese political leadership, the Tibetan rights movement and the Dalai Lama, or content related to human rights, political reform or sovereignty issues. …
China's leadership doesn't hesitate to defend its policies. In a white paper released in 2010, the government calls the internet "a crystallisation of human wisdom" but states that China's "laws and regulations clearly prohibit the spread of information that contains contents subverting state power, undermining national unity or infringing upon national honour and interests."
The next stage for many states will be collective editing, states forming communities of interest to edit the web together, based on shared values or geopolitics.
For "edit" read "censor". States' governments will decide what values it shares with other states' governments.
For larger states, collaborations will legitimise their filtering efforts and deflect some unwanted attention (the "look, others are doing it too" excuse). For smaller states, alliances along these lines will be a low-cost way to curry favour with bigger players and gain technical skills that they might lack at home.
Collective editing may start with basic cultural agreements and shared antipathies among states, such as what religious minorities they dislike, how they view other parts of the world or what their cultural perspective is …
Larger states are less likely to band together than smaller ones – they already have the technical capabilities – so it will be a fleet of smaller states, pooling their resources, that will find this method useful. If some member countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an association of former Soviet states, became fed up with Moscow's insistence on standardising the Russian language across the region, they could join together to censor all Russian-language content from their national internets and thus limit their citizens' exposure to Russia.
Ideology and religious morals are likely to be the strongest drivers of these collaborations. Imagine if a group of deeply conservative Sunni-majority countries – say, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria and Mauritania – formed an online alliance and decided to build a "Sunni web". While technically this Sunni web would still be part of the larger internet, it would become the main source of information, news, history and activity for citizens living in these countries.
For years, the development and spread of the internet was highly determined by its English-only language standard, but the continued implementation of internationalised domain names (IDN), which allow people to use and access domain names written in non-Roman alphabet characters, is changing this. The creation of a Sunni web – indeed, all nationalised internets – becomes more likely if its users can access a version of the internet in their own language and script.
Within the Sunni web, the internet could be sharia-complicit: e-commerce and e-banking would look different, since no one would be allowed to charge interest; religious police might monitor online speech, working together with domestic law enforcement to report violations; websites with gay or lesbian content would be uniformly blocked; women's movements online might somehow be curtailed; and ethnic and religious minority groups might find themselves closely monitored, restricted or even excluded. …
There will be some instances where autocratic and democratic nations edit the web together. Such a collaboration will typically happen when a weaker democracy is in a neighbourhood of stronger autocratic states that coerce it to make the same geopolitical compromises online that it makes in the physical world.
For example, Mongolia is a young democracy with an open internet, sandwiched between Russia and China – two large countries with their own unique and restrictive internet policies. … Seeking to please its neighbours [and so] preserve its own physical and virtual sovereignty, Mongolia might find it necessary to abide by a Chinese or Russian mandate and filter internet content associated with hot-button issues.
What started as the world wide web will begin to look more like the world itself, full of internal divisions and divergent interests.
And full of tyranny.
Some form of visa requirement will emerge on the internet. … Citizen engagement, international business operations and investigative reporting will all be seriously affected. …
Under conditions like these, the world will see its first Internet asylum seeker. A dissident who can't live freely under an autocratic Internet and is refused access to other states' Internets will choose to seek physical asylum in another country to gain virtual freedom on its Internet. … Virtual asylum will not work, however, if the ultimate escalation occurs: the creation of an alternative domain name system (DNS), or even aggressive and ubiquitous tampering with it to advance state interests.
Today, the internet as we know it uses the DNS to match computers and devices to relevant data sources, translating IP addresses (numbers) into readable names, with .edu, .com, .net suffixes, and vice versa. No government has yet achieved an alternative system, but if one succeeded in doing so, it would effectively unplug its population from the global internet and instead offer only a closed, national intranet. In technical terms, this would entail creating a censored gateway between a given country and the rest of the world, so that a human proxy could facilitate external data transmissions when absolutely necessary – for matters involving state resources, for instance.
It's the most extreme version of what technologists call a walled garden. On the internet, a walled garden refers to a browsing environment that controls a user's access to information and services online. … For the full effect of disconnection, the government would also instruct the routers to fail to advertise the IP addresses of websites – unlike DNS names, IP addresses are immutably tied to the sites themselves – which would have the effect of putting those websites on a very distant island, utterly unreachable. Whatever content existed on this national network would circulate only internally, trapped like a cluster of bubbles in a computer screen saver, and any attempts to reach users on this network from the outside would meet a hard stop. With the flip of a switch, an entire country would simply disappear from the internet.
This is not as crazy as it sounds. It was first reported in 2011 that the Iranian government's plan to build a "halal internet" was under way, and the regime's December 2012 launch of Mehr, its own version of YouTube with "government-approved videos", demonstrated that it was serious about the project. Details of the plan remained hazy but, according to Iranian government officials, in the first phase the national "clean" internet would exist in tandem with the global internet for Iranians (heavily censored as it is), then it would come to replace the global internet altogether. The government and affiliated institutions would provide the content for the national intranet, either gathering it from the global web and scrubbing it, or creating it manually. All activity on the network would be closely monitored. Iran's head of economic affairs told the country's state-run news agency that they hoped their halal internet would come to replace the web in other Muslim countries, too – at least those with Farsi speakers. Pakistan has pledged to build something similar. …
How exactly the state intends to proceed with this project is unclear both technically and politically. How would it avoid enraging the sizable chunk of its population that has access to the internet? Some believe it would be impossible to fully disconnect Iran from the global internet because of its broad economic reliance on external connections. Others speculate that, if it wasn't able to build an alternative root system, Iran could pioneer a dual-internet model that other repressive states would want to follow. Whichever route Iran chooses, if it is successful in this endeavour, its halal internet would surpass the "great firewall of China" as the single most extreme version of information censorship in history. It would change the internet as we know it.
As the Guardian puts it (not necessarily implying disapproval): the net is closing in.
The perpetual church bizarre 4
The Left has long wanted government to act as a nanny or better still a parent to the people it governs.
Millions, perhaps billions, of people want to be kept like children by governments: housed, fed, taught, nursed, cared for, from the cradle to the grave. For this supreme benefit – having all their needs supplied by the Grown-Ups in the Castle – they are willing to give up their freedom; to do as they're told; to keep their heads down, their hands out. Oh, and more. Much more. They will love Big Father and Big Mother.
Their bodies will be tended. Even their minds will be fed – just adequately, enough to keep them obedient.
Could glorification of government be taken any further?
Why, yes! It could. It is.
Congressman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) goes much further. He wants government to be the people's god.
CNS news reports that Cummings, addressing the Legislative Conference of the National Treasury Employees Union on February 4, said:
So many people come to government knowing that they are not going to make the kind of money they would make in the private sector but they come to government to feed their souls.
There's a gap in his message. He must be meaning to say:
So many people come to government knowing that they are not going to make the kind of money they would make in the private sector but it is not just money they want, not just the means to feed their bodies. They are not gross materialists! They are not greedy like bankers, conservatives, rich people, big donors to the Republican Party, entrepreneurs, businessmen, capitalists, free marketeers, and people who voted for Bush. No: they come to government to feed their souls.
His assertion on behalf of "so many people" frankly confirms our contention that Leftism is a religion.
Gravest danger 2
Even while the Cold War was on, and not just in hindsight, the chances of a nuclear war between the West and Soviet Russia never seemed very high. The possibility of it never seemed critical enough to stir up intense or widespread fear. Not even when thousands of peace protestors marched on the streets of Europe's capitals (at least some of them being perfectly aware of, and cynically indifferent to the fact that their movement was funded by the Soviets in hope of panicking the West into unilateral disarmament) did many people in the West seriously think – or at least show signs of thinking – that mankind was really in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth.
But if Iran becomes a nuclear power – which it will because Obama is letting it – the case will be very different.
Fear of "mutually assured destruction" may have had something to do with the Soviets' restraint. The ayatollahs who rule Iran will not be restrained by that fear. They love death as we love life. Because death will translate them to a brothel in the sky.
So now the possibility of nuclear war is high. Would it be unreasonable if there were to be intense and widespread fear of it? Or if people in the West at least began to think that we are in imminent danger of being wiped off the face of the earth?
No, not unreasonable. So why aren't they? Because nuclear armageddon is not yet looming so large as to terrify us.
Before that happens other smaller wars will rage on. America might be singed by them but not devastated.
There'll be no panic until the Iranians actually deliver their first uranium or plutonium bomb.
Yet there have already been irreversible changes, and the human race is in more danger now from human causes than ever before. Largely because of the ideology-driven policies of the Obama presidency.
J. E. Dyer writes (in part) at Liberty Unyielding:
The Iranian nuclear program is just one of several problems that are working together to destabilize our world, and throw it into – quite possibly – the gravest danger mankind has ever seen.
Even aside from her nuclear program, revolutionary Iran is backing insurgencies and radical clients around the Middle East (like the Houthi insurgency that just pulled off a coup in Yemen). The problem of radical Islamism is coming to a head with the vicious, bloody state-Islamism of ISIS, but also with tribal and Islamist-factional insurgencies elsewhere (Libya, Nigeria), and the collapse of century-old nation-states. Borders are being rendered meaningless. Huge tracts of territory are being taken over by opportunists, who bring no popular charter from anyone, but only a fanatical willingness to slaughter.
Russia, meanwhile … has already invaded Ukraine, something that would have been unthinkable ten years ago. China is imposing a veto on other nations' economic and maritime activity in the South China Sea – a Chinese aggression against a core U.S. security principle that the world, until only a few years ago, expected American power to deter. Both Asian giants have bigger plans, which everyone can foresee, and there is no longer an American-led consortium with the preparedness and capability to stop them.
In fact, Russia and China are both modernizing their militaries and developing new strategic weapons as rapidly as they can, while the United States is losing ground with our strategic (as well as conventional) arsenal, and doing nothing about it.
Our fast-declining military advantage is one reason our power no longer carries the import it once did. But the more significant point here is that our legacy of power is now being turned against us. America is still the leader of the status quo pack: the nations that aren't looking to shift borders, remake the map, create economic dependencies abroad, or establish a caliphate. And that leadership, particularly in the case of the Iranian nuclear program, is being leveraged to hold the status quo nations passive and inert while the radical actors do what they want.
Our president's negotiating policy with Iran is worse than an obstacle to preventing an Iranian bomb. By fencing the "Iran problem" off and giving it time, Obama is actually aiding Iran in pursuing nuclear weapons. The main thing Iran needs is time, and Obama's management of the P5+1 process gives her that.
Few if any of our highest-profile voices have found a way to make this plain, and articulate the implications. But the main implication – that in the crunch, Obama's leadership will have to be actively disregarded, or we're all sunk – is the one the nations in the most danger have to deal with. That's their reality.
Israel is one of the nations facing this reality, but by no means the only one. Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf states, Jordan, Egypt; the nations bordering Libya and Nigeria; the nations of Eastern Europe; the neighbors in China's sights in the Far East; the nations bordering the combined socialist and cartel-driven tumult in Central America – all face the same reality. Cooperating with Obama's America under the old conventions can't be a given for them, because it's likely to actually do harm.
Just as important, to those who want to deter threats to American security, is that America herself needs to establish that Obama's leadership is not what we are committed to. We vigorously disagree with giving Iran time to build a bomb. We have no intention of being held hostage to it.
We know there is a point, in general, at which the trend of policy is no longer disputable, but clearly weak and ineffective – even counterproductive, as with the Iranian nuclear program and the security of our own border. And we've reached that point.
The American people have to speak, as much as the other nations. That's what's going on with Boehner's invitation to Netanyahu. …
Having Netanyahu come speak to Congress is the way available to him of giving the American people a voice against the Obama policy on Iran. The same attempt is at work in the Iran-policy bills being pushed in the Senate. … [T]he untethered radicalism of the Obama approach – its violation of America's own principles of power – is what they're trying to hold in check.
The president is given primacy in foreign relations by the U.S. Constitution, and it is a very big step to posture against him. It's not so big a step for a foreign leader to do so. His responsibility is to his people, not to a particular president of the United States, or to that president's policies. The Obama administration does huff petulantly at the drop of a hat, and make it all personal, but the real point is that Netanyahu, or any other foreign leader, must look out for his country's interests. [Prime Minister Netanyahu] knows that it's in Israel's interest to affirm her people's iron-forged link with the American people, and to articulate what policies a true reckoning of that link would dictate in this hour. …
Boehner has made a big decision because America faces a problem of unprecedented dimension. The world is not what it was five years ago, and trying to maintain the same priorities would, in sober truth, be fatal.
Note; While we fully agree with Commander Dyer's analysis and warning, we don't ourselves use the term "Islamism". The danger we are in comes from Islam, aided by the indulgence of the Obama administration.
The president-whisperer 5
Discover the Networks is a superb resource, gifted to researchers by Front Page.
The "networks" are those of the Left. Together they constitute the Vast Leftwing Conspiracy.
We went there to read all about Valerie Jarrett, the decision maker who stands behind Barack Obama and speaks into his ear.
We know that Obama was raised a Communist, so it is not surprising that he picked a Communist to be his closest adviser.
We have extracted some of the most important facts from the Discover the Networks dossier on Jarrett – but urge our readers to see the whole account.
First we learn about her Communist roots.
Valerie Jarrett was born as Valerie Bowman on November 14, 1956 to American parents in Shiraz, Iran. Her late father — a physician named James Bowman — worked as a pathologist and geneticist at a children's hospital in Shiraz as part of a U.S. aid program to assist developing countries.
Jarrett's mother is the early-childhood-education author Barbara Taylor Bowman (born1928), who in 1966 co-founded a Chicago-based graduate school in child development known as the Erikson Institute, named after the psychoanalyst Erik Erikson; in 1950 Erikson became a hero to the left by choosing to resign from his professorship at the University of California rather than sign an anti-communist loyalty oath as the school required. Indicative of the Erikson Institute's radical political orientation is the fact that its board of trustees has included, in addition to Mrs. Bowman, such figures as Tom Ayers (father of the formerWeather Underground terrorist and lifelong Marxist Bill Ayers) and Bernardine Dohrn (longtime wife of Bill Ayers) …
… and leading member of the Weather Underground.
Jarrett's maternal grandfather was a Chicagoan named Robert Taylor, the first African-American head of the Chicago Housing Authority. In the 1940s he was involved with such Communist fronts as the American Peace Mobilization and the Chicago Civil Liberties Committee. Also a member of these groups was Frank Marshall Davis, the communist journalist who in the 1970s would mentor a young Barack Obama.
Jarrett's maternal grandmother, Dorothy Taylor, was a Berkeley, California native who was active with Planned Parenthood in its early years.
When Valerie Jarrett was five, her family relocated to London for one year before settling in Chicago's elite Hyde Park neighborhood in 1963.
Jarrett earned a B.A. in psychology from Stanford University in 1978, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan Law School in 1981. From 1981-87 she practiced law at two Chicago-based private firms. In 1983 she married Dr. William Robert Jarrett, son of the Chicago Sun-Times reporter Vernon Jarrett.
Vernon Jarrett (Valerie Jarrett's father-in-law) was a pioneering black journalist in the 1940s. He freelanced at Kansas City's The Call from 1954-58, then returned to Chicago to become the first nationally syndicated black columnist for the communist-influenced Chicago Defender, where he wrote columns extolling the Communist poet Langston Hughes and lifelong Stalinists W.E.B. DuBois and Paul Robeson. Also in the 1940s, Jarrett was a leaderof the Chicago chapter of American Youth for Democracy — youth wing of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). Moreover, he served on a publicity committee for the Packinghouse Workers Union, a Chicago-based entity dominated by the CPUSA. In each of these endeavors, Vernon Jarrett had close contact with the Communist Frank Marshall Davis. When Jarrett died in 2004, he was saluted in the pages of People's Weekly Worker, the house organ of the CPUSA.
As historian Paul Kengor summarized in 2014: "[Barack] Obama's mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, worked with the literal relatives of Valerie Jarrett — her grandfather and future father-in-law — in Chicago's Communist Party circles in the 1940s." In an earlier piece, Kengor put it this way:
So, imagine where we are today: Barack Obama, Frank Marshall Davis's political godson, and Valerie Jarrett, daughter-in-law to Vernon Jarrett and granddaughter of Robert Taylor—men with links to pro-Stalinism—are the two dominant figures in the White House, the power center that battled the USSR throughout the Cold War.
Jarrett enters politics:
Valerie Jarrett entered Chicago politics in 1987 as Deputy Corporation Counsel for Finance and Development in the administration of Harold Washington, the city's first African-American mayor. Jarrett's father-in-law, whom The Washington Post called "a key influence in [Harold] Washington's decision to run for the Chicago mayoralty", may have facilitated Valerie's rise through Chicago's political ranks.
After Mayor Washington's death in 1987, Valerie Jarrett served as deputy chief of staff for the next mayor, Richard M. Daley. During her tenure in that post, Jarrett met and befriended a young lawyer named Michelle Robinson, (the future Michelle Obama), who at the time was engaged to Barack Obama. In 1991 Jarrett and her colleague Susan Sher recruited Michelle to Chicago's City Hall, and Jarrett quickly became a trusted confidante of both the Obamas.
From 1992 through 1995, Jarrett served the Daley administration as commissioner of the Department of Planning and Development. From 1995-2003, she chaired the Chicago Transit Board. Sometime in the early 1990s, Marilyn Katz, an activist/public-affairs consultant with close ties to City Hall — and a former Students for a Democratic Society radical — introduced Jarrett to Daniel Levin, a cousin of both Senator Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and Rep. Sander Levin (D-Michigan).
She has a lucrative career as a slum manager:
From 1995-2008 Jarrett worked for Daniel Levin's real-estate firm, the Habitat Company. In 2007 Jarrett became Habitat's president and CEO, drawing a $300,000 in salary plus $550,000 in deferred compensation.
From 2001-08, the Habitat Company managed Grove Parc Plaza, a federally subsidized, 504-unit public housing complex situated in a neighborhood that Barack Obama had represented for eight years as a state senator. But under Habitat's management, Grove Parc fell into disrepair and became largely uninhabitable, plagued by a host of unaddressed problems such as collapsed roofs, fire damage, rodent infestation, and sewage backups. According to a 2008 Boston Globe report: "In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale — a score so bad the buildings now face demolition." Eventually government inspectors seized control of the complex because of its horrid conditions.
Also under Jarrett's stewardship, said the Globe, "Habitat … co-managed an even larger subsidized complex in Chicago that was seized by the federal government in 2006, after city inspectors found widespread problems."
But for Jarrett the news was not all bad. Indeed she became immensely wealthy while presiding over the aforementioned slum apartments. As of 2012 Jarrett owned an 11-percent equity interest in Kingsbury Plaza, a 46-story luxury apartment complex developed by the Habitat Company during 2005-07 at a cost exceeding $100 million. On her 2011 financial disclosure form, she valued that investment — which a Jarrett spokesman said was "a direct result of her 13 years working for Habitat" — at between $1 million and $5 million. According to a 2012 report in the Washington Free Beacon: "Cook County records show the Kingsbury property's worth at approximately $27.2 million, but thanks to a series of legal appeals beginning in 2003, the land and building are assessed at a much lower value for tax purposes. Since 2008, the property has been designated a 'special commercial structure' and is taxed at a value of just $6.8 million, or 25 percent of the actual value. Asked how such a property could enjoy such a low taxable value, an official with the Cook County Assessor's Office told the Free Beacon that the property's owners 'must have good attorneys'." …
She becomes President Obama's closest adviser:
Following Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, Jarrett co-chaired the Obama-Biden Transition Project. After that, she was appointed to a prominent position in the Obama administration: Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs. In this role, Jarrett was one of President Obama's (and Mrs. Obama's) closest and most trusted advisers.
Consider the following observations, by a variety of informed sources, about Jarrett's importance as an Obama adviser:
- An Obama 2008 campaign official told the New York Times, "If you want [Barack Obama] to do something, there are two people [he's] not going to say no to: Valerie Jarrett and Michelle Obama."
- Also in 2008, the aforementioned Susan Sher, who had helped Jarrett recruit Michelle Obama to the Chicago mayor's office in 1991, emphasized "how incredibly instrumental [Jarrett will] be in virtually everything" in the White House.
- In July 2009, President Obama himself told New York Times reporter Robert Draper, "I trust her [Jarrett] completely … She is family." Obama said also that he trusted Jarrett "to speak for me, particularly when we're dealing with delicate issues". When asked, the President admitted that he was in the habit of soliciting Jarrett's input on his every decision.
- The New York Times described Jarrett as Obama's "closest friend in the White House", his "envoy", his "emissary", his "all-purpose ambassador", and the "ultimate Obama insider".
- Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank says that Jarrett's connection to Obama is "deep and personal', calling her "the real center of Obama's inner circle". Milbank also describes Jarrett as Obama's "longtime mentor and friend", and as someone in a "position of unparalleled influence over the president".
- Obama's former White House communications director, Anita Dunn, says: "Her [Jarrett's] role since she has been at the White House is one of the broadest and most expansive roles that I think has ever existed in the West Wing".
- Chicago tycoon Martin Nesbitt says that Jarrett establishes both Michelle and Barack Obama's "whole notion of authenticity". According to Nesbitt, Jarrett channels the Obamas' inner voice, telling them, for instance: "That's not you. You wouldn't say that. Somebody else is saying that. Barack Obama wouldn't say that".
- According to a November 2014 New Republic report: "Jarrett holds a key vote on Cabinet picks … and has an outsize say on ambassadorships and judgeships. She helps determine who gets invited to the First Lady's Box for the State of the Union, who attends state dinners and bill-signing ceremonies, and who sits where at any of the above. She has placed friends and former employees in important positions across the administration — 'you can be my person over there', is a common refrain. And Jarrett has been known to enjoy the perks of high office herself. When administration aides plan 'bilats', the term of art for meetings of two countries' top officials, they realize that whatever size meeting they negotiate — nine by nine, eight by eight, etc. — our [the U.S.] side will typically include one less foreign policy hand, because Jarrett has a standing seat at any table that includes the president".
- Jarrett herself is wholy cognizant of the influence she wields with Obama. "We have kind of a mind meld," she said in 2009. "And chances are, what he wants to do is what I'd want to do." On another occasion Jarrett told Vogue magazine, "I kind of know what makes them [the Obamas] who they are."
Jarrett is deeply concerned with racial issues. After the tape recordings of Jeremiah Wright's racist, anti-American diatribes threatened to sink Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, it was Jarrett who encouraged Obama to give his "race speech" at Constitution Hall. African-American administration staffers have said that without Jarrett's patronage, "their opinions and the often-legitimate concerns voiced by black leaders like [Al] Sharpton would have been thoroughly disregarded by the white-dominated senior staff".
When future White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to downplay Obama's assertion (during the 2008 presidential campaign) that Republicans were emphasizing the fact that Obama "doesn't look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills", Jarrett instructed white staffers: "You guys, you're not getting this issue right." After Jarrett's intervention, candidate Obama told his white staffers that they were too "gun-shy on race issues". According to a campaign source, "[M]oving forward, the candidate made it very clear to us that we were just a bunch of white people who didn't get it — which, by the way, was true."
After Obama's inauguration in January 2009, Jarrett successfully pushed to loosen restrictions barring government officials from meeting with lobbyists, a rule enshrined in Obama's executive memo on the Recovery Act [stimulus bill], for fear that other "legitimate" concerns — raised by "civil rights organizations whose directors happen to be registered lobbyists — will not be heard".
In early 2009 Jarrett lobbied President Obama to create the office of Chief Diversity Officer within the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), a position filled soon thereafter byMark Lloyd, an Alinskyite and a former senior fellow at the [George Soros supported] Center for American Progress.
Jarrett also helped recruit Obama's regulatory czar, Cass Sunstein, who supports the Fairness Doctrine and has argued that Americans should "celebrate tax day".
Without Jarrett's patronage, the self-identified communist revolutionary Van Jones would not have gotten his appointment as the Obama administration's green jobs czar in March 2009. A White House official told Politico that Jones "did not go through the traditional vetting process". Instead, Jarrett interviewed Jones, a signal that she pushed for his appointment. Indeed, Jarrett gushed to the Netroots Nation conference in August 2009: "We were so delighted to be able to recruit him [Van Jones] into the White House. We were watching him … for as long as he's been active out in Oakland. And all the creative ideas he has. And so now, we have captured that, and we have all that energy in the White House." …
Examples are given of how she brought persons with a variety of subversive and (Islamic) terrorist connections into contact with the president, and urged them to promote his agenda.
She is a keen advocate for "green energy" at any cost:
In 2010-11 Jarrett promoted the California-based solar-power company Solyndra, where one of her wealthiest Chicago connections, billionaire George Kaiser — a leading Obama bundler — held a 35% share in the company. On Jarrett's advice, President Obama famously visited and publicly extolled Solyndra in 2010, even though auditors were already warning about the abysmal state of its finances. In September 2011 the company declared bankruptcy, but not before it had received a $535 million government-backed loan.
In general, it is her political philosophy that prevails:
In September 2011, Jarrett said the following about what she viewed as the proper role of government:
We have to give people a livelihood so they can provide for their families…. His [President Obama's] is a moral vision. It's a vision based very deeply in values and taking care of "the least of these". And making sure that we are creating a country that's a country for everybody, not just for the very, very wealthy. We are working hard to lift people out of poverty and give them a better life, a footing, and that's what government is supposed to do.
A neat summary that of the Left's eternal pretext for extending government control over every aspect of life – and the fail-safe recipe for keeping people in dependence and poverty.
There follows a story about her contact with illegal immigrants. In the light of all else that is revealed about her influence over Obama's policies, a reasonable inference is that Jarrett has had much to do with Obama's policy of amnesty for illegal aliens. And there is corroboration of this:
A September 2012 New York Times report identifies Jarrett as the person responsible for a number of controversial Obama Administration policy decisions, including … the president's decision to allow illegal immigrants to apply for work permits.
Then comes an outline of her influence on foreign policy:
… Jarrett, prior to the May 2011 U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, repeatedly urged President Obama not to kill the al Qaeda leader, prompting Obama to cancel the mission on three separate occasions—in January, February, and March of 2011. …
And she has a large share of responsibility for the administration's policy towards Iran:
In October 2012 it was revealed that for several months, Jarrett, who had no experience in international negotiations, had been leading secret negotiations with representatives of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, in an effort to develop normalized relations between the U.S. and Iran.
Obama is letting Iran become a nuclear power. When it is (and it may be so even now), it will very likely be the crowning achievement of Valerie Jarrett's political career.
In sum, Valerie Jarrett, elected to no office, is governing the United States. And not without malice:
A few days before the November 2012 presidential election, a representative from Jarrett's office quoted Jarrett as having told several senior staffers the following:
After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go.
There speaks the spirit of Communism! Of Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Castro. Its gloating use of naked ruthless power. Its mean, petty, cruel drive for vengeance on its perceived enemies. Its contempt for the people and their representatives in government. Its determination to have its hands on all the wheels of power and use them to advance its totalitarian ends.
And there are almost two years still to go in which that spirit will be presiding over America.
The elephant in ass's clothing 4
Rule by the Democratic Party is nasty, and where can voters look for relief but to the Republicans?
Because the desperation was strong, too much hope was placed in the Republicans.
Now the disappointment begins. They are starting – so soon! – to copy the Democrats.
And already – of course – the Democrats are gloating.
Catherine Rampell writes in the Washington Post:
Republicans have taken the Senate and expanded their fiefdom in the House, but the Democrats seem to have won the intellectual narrative nonetheless. The GOP, inexplicably, is having its Thomas Piketty moment.
Seriously, guys: Republicans have suddenly started caring about inequality. …
When Republicans have taken note of our country's income and wealth gaps, the sentiment has usually been dismissive and disdainful, full of accusations of class warfare waged by resentful, lazy people unwilling to hoist themselves up by their bootstraps.
Then, in just the past week, many of the likely 2016 Republican presidential contenders began airing concerns about the poor and condemning the outsize fortunes of the wealthy.
On Fox News after the State of the Union speech, Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) denigrated the administration's economic track record by doing his best Bernie Sanders impression.
"We're facing right now a divided America when it comes to the economy. It is true that the top 1 percent are doing great under Barack Obama. Today, the top 1 percent earn a higher share of our national income than any year since 1928," he said, quoting an oft-cited (by liberals) statistic from the work of economists Piketty and Emmanuel Saez.
Likewise, here's Mitt Romney, in a speech last week: "Under President Obama, the rich have gotten richer, income inequality has gotten worse and there are more people in poverty than ever before." Sound-bite highlights from his past presidential campaign, you may recall, included a reference to the "47 percent" who don't pay federal income taxes and a conclusion that "my job is not to worry about those people".
Apparently his job description has changed.
Jeb Bush, too, has newfound interest in the lower income groups and deep inequity flourishing in our nation. His State of the Union reaction: "While the last eight years have been pretty good ones for top earners, they've been a lost decade for the rest of America." Sen. Rand Paul, as well: "Income inequality has worsened under this administration. And tonight, President Obama offers more of the same policies — policies that have allowed the poor to get poorer and the rich to get richer."
Someone up the GOP food chain seems to have decided that inequality and poor people now belong in everyone's talking points, class warfare be damned. But why?
The rest of the article is not worth quoting. Rampell's answers to her "why?" are unconvincing (you can judge them for yourself here).
What matters is that the Republican Party may not after all be the lesser of two evils. It may simply be the same evil under a different name.
In an open society, the rich are not rich because the poor are poor.
The poor are not poor because the rich are rich.
When Republican politicians encourage that misapprehension, they are encouraging the politics of envy.
As Thomas Sowell says (see our post Listen to Sowell, January 21, 2015), most people are poor when they are young and rich when they are older.
The main cause, in America, of poor people staying poor is that government keeps them so, by keeping them dependent on government.
The best cure for poverty is freedom from government "help".
The more government "helps" the poor, the more poor people there will be, and the longer they will be trapped in poverty.
We had assumed that Republicans like conservative Ted Cruz and libertarian Rand Paul knew this. Seems we were wrong.
What do bleeding-hearted politicians think the rich do with their money? Keep it in boxes?
No. They invest it, generally in ways that do far more good for the economy than if they give heaps of it to government in taxes. Government uses tax money to pay a vast army of administrators to distribute some it to those they keep on hand-outs. Government wastes money. And higher taxes never did, never can, and never will cure poverty.
It cannot matter how unequal people are in wealth as long as everyone has enough to satisfy their wants. If they don't have enough, they can do better for themselves in a market economy. Only if they are left free to work for themselves in an uncontrolled economy. Unless they are socialist tyrants, enriching themselves at the people's expense.
Poverty is a problem. Wealth is not.
A libertarian view of the state we're in 2
John Stossel, in his plain-speaking, clear-headed way, deplores Obama's failed economic policies:
President Obama sure is consistent. His State of the Union address sounded like his other speeches: What I've done is great! America is in a much better position. We've created a manufacturing sector that's adding jobs. More oil is produced at home. I cut deficits in half!
Give me a break. The deficit is lower now not because of any prudence on Obama's part but merely because the $800 billion stimulus spending blowout didn't continue. All the president does is increase spending: free community college, free Obamaphones, free birth control, etc. Yes, our annual deficit is lower, but it's still $488 billion! Our $18 trillion national debt increases by $3 million every minute!
Yes, more oil is produced at home, but that's in spite of the administration. Oil production is down on public land.
Yes, the manufacturing sector added jobs, but that's mostly because of cheaper natural gas created by fracking, which Obama's cronies opposed. Also, America is finally recovering from recession. Obama's policies probably slowed that recovery.
Does the President delude himself when he takes credit for oil production, lower deficits, etc.? Or does he mislead on purpose? I don't know.
More recently he bragged, "I created the lowest unemployment rate in years." He created it? He must know it's "low" only compared to the 10 percent reached during the recession — and because millions have simply given up looking for work. This recovery is the slowest in 70 years.
Then he goes on to propose a very different speech from the one Obama gave last night:
If Obama gave the State of the Union address I'd like to hear, he'd say this:
I heard you, voters, in November when you took control of the Senate away from my party. I get it. I overreached. I was arrogant. I imposed Obamacare on a nation that was deeply divided about it. I ruled through executive orders instead of legislation. I threw money at "green" nonsense. …
We've cut a bit out there, because at that point he pulled out the biggest bone of contention we have with libertarians like John Stossel: defense. He wants less spent on it – as Obama does – and we want more spent on it.
But on:
I've been in government for years now. I know how badly it works. The last thing I should try to do is make it bigger. In fact, with Republicans now in control of Congress, it's time I worked with them to shrink government. If we shrink it, we might even dig our way out of the debt hole we're in. Heck, if we just slow the growth of government to 2 percent a year, we'd be in better shape.
But I didn't even try to accomplish that. I pretended taxing the rich would solve our financial problems. But there aren't enough rich people to tax.
That's not what's wrong with the idea. What's wrong is the idea of redistribution itself. The right argument is against any form of redistribution by a central agency.
But on again:
I got drunk on the idea of promising voters "free" stuff such as low down-payment mortgages and guaranteed paid family leave. I told them that all good things come from government. That's nonsense.
We should put an end to all bailouts. Businesses that screw up should accept the consequences, just like ordinary people who spend recklessly. Main Street should never again be forced to rescue Wall Street.
Instead of expanding government control of health care, we should phase it out. That includes Medicare. I know Medicare is popular, but it is unsustainable. Let current retirees receive their benefits as promised, but younger people should pay for their own health care.
People criticize the economic distortion created by welfare, but Medicare and Social Security are almost as bad. Both redistribute money away from the young and struggling toward those of us who have had decades to invest and save up.
To make these challenges a little easier to deal with, let's make America richer by abolishing most regulations. They strangle opportunity.
The more I think about it, the more Congress and I could transform America for the better just by getting out of America's way. The state of our union will be truly strong if the state – by which I mean government – is strictly limited.
That we would applaud.
Liberty versus equality 2
We extracted these paragraphs from an article we liked in the Washington Post by Professor Jonathan Turley, who, though reputed to be a liberal, does actually seem to have a taste for liberty:
The greatest threat to liberty in France has come not from the terrorists who committed such horrific acts this past week but from the French themselves, who have been leading the Western world in a crackdown on free speech.
Indeed, if the French want to memorialize those killed at Charlie Hebdo, they could start by rescinding their laws criminalizing speech that insults, defames or incites hatred, discrimination or violence on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, sex or sexual orientation. These laws have been used to harass the satirical newspaper and threaten its staff for years.
Speech has been conditioned on being used "responsibly" in France, suggesting that it is more of privilege than a right for those who hold controversial views.
In 2006, after Charlie Hebdo reprinted controversial cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper, French President Jacques Chirac condemned the publication and warned against such "obvious provocations".
"Anything that can hurt the convictions of someone else, in particular religious convictions, should be avoided," he said. "Freedom of expression should be exercised in a spirit of responsibility".
The Paris Grand Mosque and the Union of French Islamic Organizations sued the newspaper for insulting Muslims — a crime that carries a fine of up to 22,500 euros or six months' imprisonment. French courts ultimately ruled in Charlie Hebdo's favor. But France's appetite for speech control has only grown since then. …
Charbonnier [one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists] died, as he pledged, standing up rather than yielding. The question is how many of those rallying in the Place de la Republique are truly willing to stand with him. They need only to look more closely at those three statues. In the name of equality and fraternity, liberty has been curtailed in France. The terrible truth is that it takes only a single gunman to kill a journalist, but it takes a nation to kill a right.
While we agree with what Professor Turley's point, we would put it a little differently. We always prefer to speak of freedom rather than of rights: as in "I am free to …." rather than "I have a right to …", because ideally we are free to do anything that a law does not proscribe, and ideally all laws protect freedom.
This is a good place for us to declare another of our long-held convictions. That it is impossible to have both liberty and equality. (Fraternity is a superfluous sentimentality that we'll simply overlook.)
This seems to us so obvious that we can only wonder why everyone, even the French, can't see it.
Equality – other than in the eyes of the law – can only be created and maintained by force, so there goes liberty. Leave people free and they will not match each other in accomplishment or anything else.
Where the people are free they are not equal, and where they are equal they are not free.
The Left wants equality. We want liberty.
The dear leader 1
As we often do, we raided PowerLine – to get this perfect picture of what's happened to the good ol' USA:
(PowerLine is trying to discover the origin of the cartoon.)
The lord of injustice 4
President Obama and New York Mayor de Blasio are guilty of encouraging lawless mobs in Ferguson and New York (see here and here). So they both have a share in the events leading up to the murder of two New York police officers, Winjian Liu and Raphael Ramos, last Saturday, December 20, 2014.
More deeply guilty of creating conditions in which those murders could happen, is the outgoing attorney general of the United States, Eric Holder, who has been working for racial injustice for years.
This is from PJ Media by J. Christian Adams:
Wickedness has darkened this season of lights in Brooklyn. It is no surprise or accident that a ghoul like Ismaaiyl Brinsley bathed himself in messages of hate, racial division and anger and then chose to destroy lives. But Brinsley wasn't alone in his racially soaked hatred of the police.
For starters, a mob has Brinsley's back. This seemingly disconnected mob has been on the prowl in the months since America learned of Ferguson, Missouri. They've smashed up windows of banks in Berkeley, burned up bakeries in Ferguson, and looted, burned, shot, robbed and killed across the nation. But such mobs are really never disconnected, are they?
When a mob led by Al Sharpton chants on the streets of New York City they want "dead cops," people should expect dead cops.
The clapping and laughing at the crime scene in Brooklyn as well as the happy-it-happened racialist venom on Twitter leave no doubt that the mob has Brinsley's back. …
The culture of the West has largely distinguished itself by elevating the dignity of the individual, by treating others as they wish to be treated.
But ideas alone aren't enough to turn back barbarians. Sir Winston Churchill understood that leaders must lead civilized people against barbarism. "Civilization will not last," he said at the University of Bristol in 1938, "freedom will not survive, peace will not be kept, unless a very large majority of mankind unite together to defend them and show themselves possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe."
Without men in power and police on the streets who share these values, history trends toward barbarism.
All of which brings us to Eric Holder and his swarm of lawyers at the Justice Department. Holder, rather than opposing the lawless, says things to make the mob's fury seem more justified.
Holder went to Ferguson and complained that the police even treated him in a racially unfair manner. His stories are always thin on detail and merit closer media scrutiny. …
After visiting Ferguson, Holder sent swarms of federal officials into town and made it clear the federal government was on the side of the protesters. The "constabulary powers" which Churchill spoke of had crossed over.
For those who haven't paid attention to Holder's anti-police policies, now is a good time to start paying attention. And it isn't just Holder. He's hired swarms of other lawyers and put them in important positions where their anti-police attitudes have become federal government policy.
Hans von Spakovsky covered the rabidly leftist backgrounds of the lawyers hired by Holder who police the police. For example, Christy Lopez was hired as a deputy chief of the section. Prior to working at DOJ, Lopez helped an illegal alien support group called Casa de Maryland teach aliens how to avoid speaking with police officers. Even worse, von Spakovsky notes:
On her resume, Ms. Lopez proudly references the paper she authored for the liberal American Constitution Society, entitled The Problem with "Contempt of Cop" Arrests. She also highlights the presentation she gave on "Flying While Brown" at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's annual convention. She has made numerous media appearances alleging post 9/11 ethnic profiling. She is also a founding partner of "Independent Assessment and Monitoring," which provided oversight of police departments and prisons.
Lopez had the perfect qualifications to work for Eric Holder. She was a crusader against cops. … [And] Lopez isn't alone.
Every single one of her coworkers hired by Holder is a radical leftist, more often taking the side of the lawless than the law-abiding citizen. The professional background of attorney after attorney in Holder's Special Litigation Section reads like a farce. They've worked for Islamic terrorists, black nationalist groups and even an organization called the Junta for Progressive Action. …
These lawyers are not fans of "constabulary powers." You cannot fully understand what the Justice Department's policies are toward police officers without understanding the outlandish personal and professional backgrounds of the lawyers enforcing those policies.
To oversee these dozens of new radical lawyers, President Obama appointed a radical's radical to lead them — Debo Adegbile. Adegbile was Obama's nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at Justice. Adegbile's anti-police history is what eventually sunk his nomination.
In response, Obama and Holder have tapped Vanita Gupta to run the Civil Rights Division as acting assistant attorney general, and eventual nominee. Gupta is no different than Adegbile … [She] came from the ACLU, where she spent most of her time waging a war against the police. …
After filling government jobs with anti-police radicals, Holder's Justice Department got busy attacking police departments and law enforcement across the United States. Actions against police departments have been launched in Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, Albuquerque, New Orleans, Miami, and, naturally, New York City.
In Ferguson, Holder even leveraged federal power to agitate against police officers wearing bracelets of solidarity with Officer Darren Wilson. In a letter signed by Christy Lopez of the Special Litigation Section, the Justice Department says such bracelets "upset and agitated people."
The mob was offended, and thus Holder acted. Holder used his power to attack "constabulary powers," over jewelry.
To "train" police officers how to behave, Holder's Justice Department has hired an outfit which has been affiliated with Angela Davis. That would be the same Angela Davis who was a Black Panther radical. That's the same Angela Davis who went on trial for the murder of a judge presiding over another murder trial of race radicals who killed a prison guard. Davis is still a racially venomous anti-police radical. That Holder's DOJ goes within a country mile of her is a disgrace.
Holder's lawyers aren't beyond using lies, deceit and illegal conduct to frame cops either. Take the Justice Department's prosecution of New Orleans police officers on civil rights charges. In that trial, Justice Department lawyers illegally and unethically set up fake blogging accounts. The DOJ lawyers ran a sock-puppet campaign against the cops on trial by posting comments to newspapers. They commented on evidence and attacked witnesses helpful to the police.
[You must] know who Karla Dobinski is … to understand Holder's tolerance of any means necessary to convict cops.
Dobinski was one of the lawyer puppeteers in the campaign against cops. Federal Judge Kurt Engelhardt called the DOJ misconduct "grotesque" in a 129-page order that must be read to fully understand the anti-cop rot inside Holder's Justice Department.
But Dobinski acted even more unethically than her fellow DOJ sock puppets. … It was Dobinski's job to guard against any information obtained in the internal affairs investigation conducted by the New Orleans Police Department from being used against the police on trial. Dobinski's job was to protect the rights of the defendant cops. Instead, [she] joined in the anonymous DOJ campaign posting [hostile] comments about the cops at newspaper sites.
When national and local government encourages violence against the very enforcers of law and order that it employs to carry out its prime duty of protecting the life, person and property of every individual, government is betraying the people. Obama, de Blasio and Holder can best be likened to generals who encourage the enemy to attack the troops they command, in hope of the enemy's victory.
When looting, burning mobs, screaming for "dead cops", are not only exonerated but actively encouraged by the President, the Mayor of New York, and the head of the Department of Justice, the country has descended into anarchy. First anarchy and then tyranny is what happens whenever and wherever the far Left acquires unconstrained power.
Is it too late to restore the free republic of America that the Founders tried to establish forever on the rock of the Constitution?
Why we matter 2
Here's one of the most important reasons why The Atheist Conservative needs to exist. Why what we have to say is important. Why we must make ourselves heard.
From Fox News comes this story of an atheist of the left. In everything except his atheism, he couldn't be more wrong.
If you sign up for Denver college professor Charles Angeletti's American Civilization class, be forewarned that you're going to have to recite his invective-filled "New Pledge" – and according to some of his students, also be ready to swallow a big helping of his politics.
Angeletti, who teaches at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has students learn an anti-American spoof of the Pledge of Allegiance that denounces the U.S. as a Republican-controlled bastion of injustice, all while spewing his own far-left brand of politics, according to current and former students.
The professor hands out this "pledge" on a flier to his students and demands that they repeat it.
I pledge allegiance to and wrap myself in the flag of the United States Against Anything Un-American. And to the Republicans for which it stands, two nations, under Jesus, rich against poor, with curtailed liberty and justice for all except blacks, homosexuals, women who want abortions, Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis, illegal immigrants, children of illegal immigrants, and you, if you don't watch your step.
The anti-U.S. recitation, first reported by higher education blog Campus Reform, was a satirical pledge aimed at getting students to question their nation's leadership, Angeletti said. The self-proclaimed atheist and socialist told the site that he has been distributing the pledge in his classes for nearly 20 years as part of his lesson plan.
"We're very racist, we're very repressive, we're very Christian oriented, we don't tolerate other kinds of thinking in this country," Angeletti told Campus Reform. "I could go on and on – and do, in my classes, for hours about things that we need to do to make this a better country."
Could anything be further from the truth?
Consider that a majority of voters twice elected a black man (though he was completely unqualified for high office) to the presidency, many of them just to prove they were not racist. But see how America has again become over race-conscious as a result. President Obama and his attorney-general Eric Holder are race-hustlers, working with others of their kidney; most prominently Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and Malik Zulu Shabazz (head of the New Black Panther Party). Racism is now mostly expressed by black politicians, black trade union bosses, black politicians and "community organizers".
The voices calling loudly for repression in the US are those of politically-correct lefties.
We too dislike Christianity, and we exist to prove that one can be conservative, a defender of the Constitution, a free marketeer, an advocate for states' rights, and a patriot without believing in the supernatural, or bible literalism, or creationism, or that "Jesus" is a god or a part of a god, or in that rump of a godthing they call "intelligent design". Our existence alone disproves his caricature of conservative thought.
And equally that one can be an atheist without being – yes – "Communists, welfare queens, treehuggers, feminazis"; or politically-correct progressives, Alinskyite community organizers, whitewashers of Islam, collectivists, redistributionists and America-hating racists.
As for "not tolerating other kinds of thinking", the US is the one country in the world which really does protect freedom of speech. The Left of course would change that if it could.
Academia is dominated by lefties like this professor, and – what is more and worse – his comrades are at present occupying the commanding heights of power.
A student from Angeletti's class told Campus Reform that the flier was handed out to the entire class and all students were required to recite it.
"This was an attempt to propagandize an entire classroom of young adults," Steven Farr, a freshman majoring in meteorology, told the blog site.
Officials at Metropolitan State University of Denver did not immediately return requests for comment. The 24,000-student school has the second-highest undergraduate enrollment in the state and has several notable Division II sports programs. It also bills itself as a top choice for active-duty military and veterans to pursue higher education, and has several notable Division II sports programs.
We wonder what the active-duty soldiers and the vets think of Professor Charles Angeletti's ravings.
Ah! – Fox tells us:
"This is typical elite, progressive, post-modernist garbage," said Pete Hegseth, a Fox News contributor and CEO of Concerned Veterans for America. "I hope and believe that vets in his class will challenge this professor. We have seen this time and time again. Lessons like this stack the deck against veterans and basically tell them, you fought for nothing," Hegseth added. "You fought for a lie."
(Hat-tip to our Facebook reader and commenter, Joe Compton. He rightly believes that to counter the lies of ill-informed, malicious, anti-America atheists like this, is why The Atheist Conservative exists.)


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Submit Prayer Request | Prayer is a very important part of our ministry at 88.3 WAFJ. We pray for your needs on-air three times each weekday at 6:40 AM, 11:30 AM and 5:30 PM. Our 24-hour prayer line is available at 1-877-800-PRAY |
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Pray for my family. I love them all so much and the devil is trying to attack. I feel my marriage could be under attack as well. Please pray God's protection for all of us.
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I am struggling today with anger at being made a fool and feel like such a stupid idiot for what someone has done to me! I know vengeance is the Lord's, and I am trying hard to let him be my avenger in this but want so bad to retaliate! He doesn't need to be in the position he is in at his job and needs to be removed! Pray the Lord will at least remove him before more damage is done! Pray also for the other party to have their eyes opened and get him out of her life before more damage is done there as well! It's a big mess!
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Anonymous posted on 02/27/2015 05:49:48 AM
I am really having trouble with two guys from my church harassing me, and I don't know what to do. I don't want to cause discord in my church, so I am leaving it but my prayer is for them, the guys, to overcome the obsession they have with me.
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Toni posted on 02/26/2015 4:42:13 PM
Please pray for my brother, my daughter and me to find jobs. Pray that we will stay encouraged and not waver in our trust and confidence in God to provide according to His word in Philippians 3:19.
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Please pray for a man and woman who are both battling cancer.
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My youngest grandson (16 months old) is having kidney surgery on March 5th.
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Broken Wife posted on 02/25/2015 9:37:27 PM
I need a miracle. The enemy is killing our marriage. Lust has taken a hold of my husband. He has battled with lust for years and refuses to recognize his sin . I believe it comes from roots of abandonment and rejection during his childhood. He has always lived with this. I am against this huge power of evil, that blinds him, confuses him, lies to him, steals his joy that gives him fools' gold instead of real treasures. I am devastated, desperate, confused. I don't know what to do.


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Home › Building Directory › The Portland
The Portland
Urban Edge has no apartments listed for The Portland at this time.
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Located in the heart of Gravesend, the Portland is an elegant apartment building close to the F train.
Neighborhood / Parking / Transportation
- Airport Nearby
Walking Distance to:
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2013 Spring College Fair Schedule
Looking for a College Fair in your area?
Here's the list of Spring 2013 college fairs sponsored by National Association for College Admission Counseling. For more info, click on the name or go to National College Fairs.
DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport Convention Center
Miami, FL
12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Kentucky International Convention Center
Louisville, KY
2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
SRC Arena
Onondago Community College
Syracuse, NY
Sunday, March 10: 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Monday, March 11: 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Rochester, NY
Austin National College Fair
Austin Convention Center
Austin, TX
5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
West Michigan National College Fair
DeVos Place
Metro Detroit National College Fair
Cobo Center
Detroit, MI
8:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
April 11
Reliant Center
Hartford National College Fair
Connecticut Convention Center
Hartford, CT
Thursday, April 11: 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m., 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Friday, April 12: 9:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Montgomery County National College Fair
Prince George's County National College Fair
San Francisco, CA
1:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Ventura/Tri-County National College Fair
5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m
Greater Memphis National College Fair
New Jersey National College Fair
Greater Los Angeles National College Fair
Pasadena Convention Center
Pasadena, CA
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
April 25
Providence National College Fair
New York National College Fair
April 28
San Diego National College Fair
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, CA
9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Boston National College Fair
Sharon Epstein is owner of First Impressions College Consulting.
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