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Guests: David Corn, Veronica De La Cruz, Evan Kohlmann, Barney Frank, Jennifer Donahue, Nicolle Wallace, Matt Cooper, Joan Walsh, Matt Cooper, Joan Walsh, Robin Wright
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Send out the clowns.
Let`s play HARDBALL.
Good evening. I`m Chris Matthews in Washington.
Leading off tonight: Clown show. That`s what the Republican field is
amounting to. Michele Bachmann starts talking about the "sign of the
beast" during a presidential debate. Rick Perry says the American
revolution happened in the 16th century, and Newt Gingrich says Chris Dodd
and Barney Frank should be imprisoned for writing legislation he disagrees
No wonder Mitt Romney never, quote, "loses a debate." How could he in
this crowd? Barney Frank`s here to deal with Newt`s bomb-throwing at the
top of the show.
Also, Mitt Romney turns out to be the movie you see when the movie you
wanted to see is sold out. As Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway sang,
"Where Is the Love?" Polls show Romney treading water while Republicans
keep picking a new flavor of the month.
Plus, Joe Biden said today it won`t happen. Hillary Clinton said
today it won`t happen. And I have no evidence that it will. So why do
some people keep stirring the pot, saying a desperate President Obama will
dump Biden and put Hillary on the ticket?
And what are we to make of that alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi
Arabian ambassador here in Washington? Was it a rogue operation or was it
planned at the top in Iran?
Finally, "Let Me Finish" with the sorry display we saw last night. As
Miss Peggy Lee would say, Is that all there is?
We start with the clown show that the Republican field has become, as
we saw last night in that debate. U.S. Congressman Barney Frank`s a
Democrat of Massachusetts, David Corn, of course, is an MSNBC political
analyst and Washington bureau chief for "Mother Jones" magazine.
Congressman Frank, I have a lot of respect for you, as you know. I
want you to listen to what -- if you didn`t catch it last night, here was
inimitable Newt Gingrich last night talking about you and former senator
Chris Dodd, saying you should both be in prison. Let`s watch.
NEWT GINGRICH (R-GA), FMR. HOUSE SPEAKER, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If
they want to really change things, the first person to fire is Bernanke,
who is a disaster as chairman of the Federal Reserve. The second person to
fire is Geithner. If you want to put people in jail, I want to second what
Michele said, you ought to start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, and
let`s look at the politicians who created the environment, the politicians
who profited from the environment, and the politicians who put this country
in trouble.
CHARLIE ROSE, MODERATOR: Clearly, you`re not saying they should go to
GINGRICH: Well in Chris Dodd`s case, go back and look at the
Countryside (SIC) deals. And in Barney Frank`s case, go back and look at
the lobbyists he was close to at Freddie Mac.
MATTHEWS: Well, that was a portrait of malevolence. Congressman
Frank, what do you make of this? Is this libel, or what is it? I don`t
know what to make of it.
REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Well, first of all, you have to
understand, when you think you are the intellectual leader of the free
world and you find yourself struggling to pass Michele Bachmann in a poll
in Iowa--
FRANK: -- it is unsettling. I understand that the poor man isn`t
getting his due.
But what was particularly extraordinary was he was talking about a
period when he was in charge, not me. You know, the run-up to this crisis
-- the crisis began to bubble over in 2007 and 2008. The Republicans
controlled the Congress from 1995 through 2006. Newt was himself speaker
for four years, did nothing about the problems he accuses me and Chris of
causing and then it was Tom DeLay.
So apparently -- and I`m regretful, Chris. Apparently, I had some
secret influence over the Republican leadership that I never knew about
because if I had, I would have told them not to impeach President Clinton.
I would have told them not to go to war in Iraq. I would have told DeLay
not to go on the dance show. I mean, there are a lot of things I would
have done.
FRANK: The second thing I would say is, what he then is objecting to
is the bill we passed. Yes, they don`t like an independent consumer agency
and the work that Elizabeth Warren did. They don`t want derivatives to be
regulated. Incredibly, they want to go back to the situation where AIG was
able to get itself into all this trouble. They don`t want a fiduciary
responsibility on people who advise investors.
So as I said, first of all, he`s talking about the period when his
party was in control. In 2007, when we took over, we began to make illegal
these subprime loans, et cetera.
And as I said, poor Newt is just beside himself. He thought he was a
great gift to the country, and he finds himself being taken back to the
return window, not at Tiffany, I guess--
FRANK: -- but a different place, and he can`t deal with it.
MATTHEWS: Well, let me suggest that behind the malevolent comment of
Newt Gingrich last night about you and former senator Dodd was a grim
effort to try to raise a few bucks in this campaign.
As you must know, Congressman Frank, as everybody in business knows
it, you and Chris Dodd did something to regulate those people, and the one
problem (INAUDIBLE) like it the least. Is this the way to pass the tin cup
around and get some money for what is already a cash-strapped campaign, not
only a ludicrous one but a poor one?
FRANK: Oh, I suppose so. Look, there are a lot of people who made a
great deal of money, and if you read the "Journals" and other papers, you
listen, yes, there are people who are complaining that because of what we
did, they can`t do as much.
By the way, what we did, I think, was to restrict some of the activity
that added nothing to the real economy, trading paper back and forth. I
mean, these people had -- they were engaged in economic transactions that
had as much relationship to the real economy as fantasy football has to
Sunday afternoon, except they were making money off it. And yes, there are
some people who are very angry at us because they`re not making the trading
profits they used to make. And yes, I`m sure that Newt does make some
money off that.
MATTHEWS: Well, what do you make of the Republican Party? You grew
up in Massachusetts, and New Jersey way before that. And you know there
used to be a Clifford Case Republican Party, a party of Governor Sargent
and reasonable people. And what happened to that?
Last night -- well, I want you just start (INAUDIBLE) I want you to
take a look at -- here`s Rick Perry, who actually is a governor of one of
the states, maybe a secessionist governor but a governor, and here he is
talking about the revolutionary war. Of course, Massachusetts had much to
do with it. Here he is talking about when it was fought, not about when
the earth was founded 5,000 years ago, according to these people, but when
we fought our revolution (INAUDIBLE) that part. Let`s listen.
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our Founding Fathers
never meant for Washington, D.C., to be the fountain of all wisdom. As a
matter of fact, they were very much afraid of that. It was actually the
reason that we fought the revolution in the 16th century was to -- to get
away from that type of onerous crown, if you will.
MATTHEWS: How do you describe this knucklehead history? I mean, this
guy`s the guy that said Texas has the right to secede from the union. I
think we fought a war over that. Now he has placed -- well, they always
have problems with the history of the universe. You know, they -- you know
their problems with that. But here he is saying our country was founded
back in the 1500s.
FRANK: Well, I`ll be honest with you. I think Rick Perry is jealous
of me, and here`s why.
FRANK: He wrote a book, or he signed a book that someone wrote, and
he said, oh, he could never live in Massachusetts because they vote for Ted
Kennedy, a great senator who was alive (INAUDIBLE), John Kerry and me, even
after they know what we stand for. And he was appalled that people would
vote for us even after they know what we stand for.
The reason I think he`s jealous is, as people in the Republican Party
have found out what he stands for, they`re not voting for him.
FRANK: So he`s very jealous that someone can tell people what he
thinks and not have to repudiate it or go back on it.
The floundering around, yes, it`s discouraging. But to go back to
your main point. I was very bipartisan when I was in the legislature.
There were some differences, but we could work together on things. You
have a group of people now -- the Republican Party today is in the grips of
the most rigid ideological splinter we`ve seen. And the problem is that
they don`t represent the whole country, they represent the people who vote
in Republican primaries. And that has driven all of them far to the right.
So Mitt Romney, for example, is in a mode of repudiating position
after position. I noticed in the debate last night, they quoted his having
supported the Bush administration`s efforts to deal with the financial
crisis in 2008. He`s now repudiating that. He`s, of course, repudiated
the health care.
I mean, there has never been a time in American history when so
rigidly ideologically extremist a group has controlled one of the major
MATTHEWS: And he was the sober one last night. Let`s look at Rick
Santorum last night -- I want David to get in here -- Rick Santorum last
night advocating basically getting rid of all corporate taxes for
manufacturers. Just get rid of them all. Don`t pay for it, just get rid
of them. Let`s listen.
RICK SANTORUM (R-PA), FMR. SEN., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What
happened was we became uncompetitive, so we need to be competitive. That`s
why I propose taking the corporate tax for manufacturers and processors,
taking it from 35 percent and eliminate, zero percent tax. Allow this to
be the manufacturing capital of the world again.
MATTHEWS: This is just in line with what Bachmann said the other
night in the last debate, saying we shouldn`t have to pay any taxes.
DAVID CORN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first I think I should say
that I`m here to make a citizen`s arrest of Barney Frank, if I have the
chance. I mean, they`re bidding down. Pretty soon, it`s going to be
negative numbers on taxation. I mean, you know, Herman Cain`s plan would
raise taxes on the poor. Michele Bachmann says we shouldn`t pay taxes. He
doesn`t want taxes on any manufacturing. But his headline was, I want to
go to war with China.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
CORN: He meant an economic war, but it`s like the war language, the
rhetoric has to be as excessive as it can for any of these guys to have a
chance of winning over those Republican primary voters that Barney was
talking about.
FRANK: Can I add, by the way, you`re talking about not raising taxes.
They`ve backed away from cutting -- savaging Social Security and Medicare.
But these are all, including -- except for Ron Paul, they all want to
greatly increase military spending. Here we are spending at the highest
rate -- we`re spending at cold war rates of military spending, going all
over the world. And Romney`s attacking President Obama for not spending
enough on the military.
So the nonsense is that you cut taxes, you claim that you`re going to
protect Social Security and Medicare, and you increase military spending.
They`re not just going to -- they`re going to really make the military the
volunteers, volunteers in the sense that we won`t be able to pay anybody.
We`ll have to have volunteer people to give us bullets, volunteer people to
fly planes.
I mean, the illogic is overwhelming. How do you substantially
increase the largest single item in the discretionary budget, military
spending, and then cut taxes and say, Oh, but Social Security and Medicare
will be fine?
MATTHEWS: Well, last night, Congressman and David, they were supposed
to stick to economics, but of course, Michele Bachmann couldn`t avoid
religious concerns. Here she is passing what even my producers think was a
joke -- I don`t think so -- talking about the "sign of the beast," which I
learned from some of these characters is apparently 999, Herman Cain`s
economic program, turned upside down, 666.
Let`s listen to her brand of humor. This is Michele Bachmann --
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you take
the 999 plan and you turn it upside down, I think the devil`s in the
CORN: Oh!
MATTHEWS: What would you say if you were debating a person like that,
who -- who shifted the topic to the strange far right Christian notions
about the devil and the sign of the beast? She can`t resist that catnip.
FRANK: I guess if I were debating her -- not just debating her, but I
was losing to her in the polls, I would do exactly what Newt Gingrich did.
I`d just start to say outlandish things and change the subject.
MATTHEWS: David, I can`t keep up with -- by the way, Barney`s as
smart as Newt thinks he is--
MATTHEWS: That`s the problem we have here. Your thoughts?
CORN: I think there is a slight chance, maybe more than slight, that
Michele Bachmann really believes this.
MATTHEWS: The sign of the beast.
CORN: Yes, the sign of the beast.
MATTHEWS: That Herman Cain is the anti-Christ.
CORN: That (INAUDIBLE) I mean, she has said so many outlandish things
over the years, and she has a very fundamental view of the world. She has
a very conspiratorial view of the world. Next time you get her on the
show, ask her about "Agenda 21." She believes in black helicopters and
MATTHEWS: Yes, I know.
CORN: -- leading up to the Rapture. So it`s not inconceivable that
this wasn`t a joke.
MATTHEWS: Let me go back to square one. Congressman Frank, again,
besides being a liberal and a progressive supporter of your interests in
your district up there in Massachusetts, you do study politics and history.
What has happened to the Republican Party? Why does it look like a Tea
Party-fueled party looks like it`s given up on finding a candidate that it
likes and looks like it`s willing to go with one it doesn`t like?
FRANK: Well, it`s a combination. I think the fact is that the
economy went very sour during a Republican regime. And I want to stress
this again. They -- the Republicans have had this great success in saying,
Oh, the Democrats caused the problems. For six years, from 2000 through
2006, which is clearly the time when the economic problems festered and got
worse and were ready to blow up, we had Republican control of the
presidency, the House and the Senate.
That`s unusual. The last time we had a six-year period of one party
controlling all three branches was Lyndon Johnson. So they had control,
and it went terribly wrong. And here was this problem. They could not
deal with that and they could not deal with the problems that there was too
little regulation, too little government intervention, too little of a
public sector along with the private sector.
So they were literally kind of driven mad by it, and the anger just
exploded on themselves. So I guess they had to say -- look, they couldn`t
possibly go to the left. If George Bush`s administration was a failure in
this leading up to the economic crisis, and of course, in the Iraq war, the
greatest mistake in American history, I believe, that was a single
conscious decision, then the only answer is to go further to the right.
I mean, they couldn`t stick with Bush. They are constitutionally
unable to move even to a more centrist position, so they had then -- the
only place they could go is to the right. That`s why you have people like
Gingrich and like Romney and a lot of others far to the right of where they
ever were before because, again, the model they had of a Bush
administration became indefensible, and they had to find a new model. And
given their ideology, given their positioning, the only one they could find
was to the right.
MATTHEWS: You`re invited back on this program any time you`d like,
especially when you`re accused of a felony by Newt Gingrich.
FRANK: Well, be fair -- he didn`t say -- it might have been a serious
MATTHEWS: OK, serious misdemeanor. Any time, any place. Thank you
very much, Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who I do believe has
the IQ that Newt in his delusions thinks he might have had at one point in
his earlier life. Thank you very much, of course, David Corn.
Coming up: If Mitt Romney`s the Republican front-runner, the voters
didn`t get the memo. They don`t certainly have a heart for this guy.
Polls show Romney`s numbers have been stagnant, while Bachmann and Perry
and now Cain have all shot to the top. Why the Tea Party just doesn`t love
this Romney character. Maybe because he`s not one of them.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: We`ve got new poll numbers on two of the hottest Senate
races out there. Let`s check the HARDBALL "Scoreboard." First to
Massachusetts, where Republican senator Scott Brown faces a well-funded
challenge from consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren. Right now, Brown leads
but not by much. He`s up by 47 to 42. That`s within the reach of
Elizabeth Warren. Root for her up there.
Next to Virginia, for the Senate, for the seat of the retiring Jim
Webb. It`s a former governor, Tim Kaine, up against former senator George
Allen. Looks like Kaine`s got a 1-point lead, 45 to 44. What a great race
that is, Tim Kaine a great candidate.
These are two premier matchups that we`re going to be watching all the
way to election day. We`ll be rooting for one of those candidates in each
And we`ll be right back.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
For a supposed front-runner, Mitt Romney`s still having trouble
gaining traction with actual Republican voters. In poll after poll, his
support has stayed virtually unchanged as other candidates have battled to
fill the anti-Romney, if you will, position. Last month, it was Rick Perry
in that position. Now it appears to be Herman Cain challenging him. This
is despite the fact that he`s been strong in debates, Romney has, and has
racked up a number of impressive endorsements.
But what`s wrong with Mitt Romney? Will his numbers begin to move
now? And here`s what we can tell from what the results of the newest NBC
News/"Wall Street Journal" poll tells us, and that`s just out today.
Compare how Republican voters view Mitt Romney to Herman Cain. Well,
16 percent of voters are very positive towards Governor Romney -- that`s
Republicans, 16 percent, 1 in 6, are very positive, while 28 percent are
very positive toward Cain.
Romney also has stronger negative numbers, though it`s also true that
more people certainly know who he is, having run for so many more years,
and Cain`s a newcomer.
For more on all this, we`re joined by Nicolle Wallace -- there she is
-- a former senior McCain-Palin adviser and the author of a book, "It`s
Classified" -- there it is -- and Jennifer Donahue`s a fellow at the
Eisenhower Institute at Gettysburg College.
I`ve been talking to you, Jennifer, so I want to start with you, about
this recently, and I get this sense that there`s two fights going on in the
Republican Party. Romney`s won one of those fights, the sort of the more
establishment Republican wing, the more Eastern wing historically, and
that`s always been one of the wings of the Republican Party. It used to be
-- and it probably still is -- the dominant wing. The Western and Southern
wing, which is basically Tea Partiers, conservatives, very anti-government
people, they don`t have a candidate yet, and it is not Romney.
Your thoughts? That`s my thought. What`s yours?
JENNIFER DONAHUE, THE HUFFINGTON POST: I agree with your thoughts.
I think one of the reasons that people aren`t really talking about
that much in a non-sensational way is the fact that Romney is a Mormon. I
think, in Iowa, for example, where 44 percent of GOP primary voters are
evangelical, 42 percent say they know people -- that people they know would
not vote for Romney. That`s like saying, I won`t vote for Romney.
MATTHEWS: I know it does.
DONAHUE: You know, that is a huge obstacle for Romney. That means
that the evangelical vote, as it moves from Iowa, maybe not so much in New
Hampshire, but then as it hits in South Carolina and the Southern states,
if he`s got almost half of Republican primary voters questioning whether
his religion is a cult, he`s got a huge problem on his hands.
MATTHEWS: Well, let me go to Nicolle on that.
Your thoughts? I didn`t want to start on that. I want to start on
what seems to be this tissue rejection of Romney by the Tea Party
conservative wing of the Republican Party. But address that question
raised by Jennifer. Will his LDS religion end up forcing the Republicans
to look to another candidate between now and next year?
don`t think so.
And I think, Chris, you know that every candidate in both parties
always has to bring some burden with them on the campaign trail. For John
McCain, who is the last candidate I worked for, it was his position on
immigration. He had once supported comprehensive immigration reform with
the late Ted Kennedy.
So George W. Bush brought some positions that were suspect to the
Republican base when he ran in the primary in 2000, things he had done in
Texas with the late Lieutenant Governor Bullock. So every nominee brings a
burden of some positions and obstacles.
And I don`t think your analysis of what`s been going on, on the
Republican side is entirely unfair, but I do think we`re seeing a
transition. I think as we speak together tonight, I think that Romney may
be -- I think people may be settling in with Romney. I think they may be
getting more comfortable with the idea that this lusting after all these
other guys who have shown no interest in running for president has been
detrimental, has been a waste of time, and has been a disservice to the
guys who are on the field.
Whatever you think of our eight nominees, the business of running for
president is excruciating, and I think it has been a disservice to the
eight candidates who are on the field for our party to have been -- I have
called it dysfunctional dating, but it`s that age-old phenomenon of wanting
what you can`t have. So I`m happy for the party that that period seems to
be over.
Well, then the question still applies. And I want to go back to
Jennifer on this. Apart from his LDS -- let`s talk about his LDS religion
for one more -- one more back and forth here. If it is -- well, certainly,
it`s more than a position he holds. It`s who he is religiously, and the
question is if they are happy, two-thirds or three-quarters of
evangelicals, with the notion that he`s a cultist, will they ever put a
cultist in the White House?
Will they have a hand in it, even come November, when the choice is
Obama? Now my question to you, Jennifer, it`s a tough one. If they have
to choose between a cultist and Obama, who are they going to put in the
White House?
DONAHUE: I think that if people believe he`s a cultist, they are
going to have a lot of trouble turning out for him.
What we saw in `96 with Dole, what we saw in 2008 with McCain is
centrist candidates who couldn`t produce a turnout, who couldn`t win, and
they weren`t Mormons. They weren`t a first. So you have to ask yourself,
in the middle of a huge recession, in the middle of a time where people are
very critical of government, are they going to take the step of electing
another first right now, in 2012?
And is the turnout going to be there for a centrist, and a centrist
who is Mormon? And I don`t think we should be afraid to talk about the
subject. If Romney or another candidate were Jewish, we would certainly be
talking about whether this country were ready for the first Jewish
president. I don`t think this is off-limits.
But I do think it goes much beyond Romney`s religion. He`s flip-
flopped on issues that evangelicals care about. He`s flip-flopped on the
life issue. That really resonates. There`s still a lot of single-issue
voters out there.
He`s flip-flopped on the issue of gay marriage, and I don`t think that
people have gotten past the flip-flopping. I don`t think Nicolle is right
that people have accepted Romney and settled in. Three months out from the
elections that begin, I think people will go back to Perry. They may go
back to Bachmann. They may go back to Ron Paul.
DONAHUE: They are going to look for a nominee that represents their
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Nicolle, about this race. There`s two ways
it could end right now. It could end slowly over months and months and
months of back and forth with Perry coming back, or Romney can decide to
shoot the moon, in cards` terms, and go to Iowa and say, I can beat Herman
Cain, who is now the front-runner, I can beat that guy in Iowa.
What would you recommend, he go for the kill, knock off Herman Cain
and win the whole thing early on? What would you recommend?
MATTHEWS: You sound like you`re optimistic about Romney winning this
thing, so I`m asking you the big question. Can he win it early?
WALLACE: Look, I am optimistic. And I guess I just think more of the
country than both of you. I don`t think that the country only looks at
someone`s religion. I think they can--
MATTHEWS: Well, I`m not taking a position on this. Don`t put me in
that box.
WALLACE: Yes. So I don`t think that`s the impediment that you --
that we seem to be making it. But--
MATTHEWS: Well, we`re talking about the polling numbers. The polling
numbers keep coming up to say that he`s a cultist, that these people in the
conservative Christian world don`t see him as Christian. Isn`t that a
problem, or isn`t it?
If they don`t think he`s a Christian, do you think they will vote for
him, Nicolle?
WALLACE: I think that Republicans--
MATTHEWS: If they don`t think he`s a Christian, will they vote for
WALLACE: I think -- I think that Republicans, Tea Party members and
independents are united in wanting to see President Obama and his economic
policies, which have been so detrimental for the middle class and for the
vast majority of this country, voted out of office.
So I think that there will be bigger themes and bigger ideas that
unite the country around a candidate like Mitt Romney. But if you look at
2003, this point in the Democratic Party, we were looking at Howard Dean as
a likely Democratic nominee.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WALLACE: And we were talking about Wesley Clark. So all three of us
may be talking about the entirely wrong cast of characters. So I`m not
ready to count anybody out.
MATTHEWS: Let me ask you one last question. I need to fill -- I need
to check in with you. I haven`t talked to you in a while, Nicolle. Do you
think Herman Cain would be a great president, yes or no?
MATTHEWS: Yes or no.
WALLACE: I think he would be a great nominee for our party.
MATTHEWS: A great nominee.
WALLACE: And I think it would be a great contest.
But I -- how do you ever know? No one can predict what kind of -- the
job is so extraordinary.
WALLACE: And it`s why I write novels about the presidency. It`s so
extraordinary. You can`t ever predict what kind of president anyone will
be until they are in that office. You know that.
MATTHEWS: Well, that`s a wise assessment, actually.
Thank you, Nicolle Wallace. I think all of better of you, sir -- I
mean madam.
MATTHEWS: Thank you.
Anyway, Jennifer -- Jennifer, you`re strong tonight, very strong. You
don`t like Romney tonight.
Up next, we have got the final word on Herman Cain`s 999 plan next in
the "Sideshow." I don`t get this. Anyway, I think it`s better than 666,
from what I have heard.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Back to HARDBALL. Now for the "Sideshow."
First up: giving it all you have got. Vice President Joe Biden is not
pleased with last night`s defeat of President Obama`s jobs bill in the U.S.
Senate. Far from it. In an interview on "The Today Show" this morning,
Biden was asked why the president had not launched an effort for a
bipartisan jobs bill many months ago.
Get ready for his no-holds-barred response. Let`s listen.
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hey, I not only --
he not only rolled up his sleeves. We rolled up our sleeves, our pant
legs. We were in our gym shorts working like the devil.
They have made it real clear that under no circumstances are they
prepared to pay for anything that we need to do now, so we don`t raise the
debt further in order to help people have jobs.
MATTHEWS: Well, got it. This jobs bill was not too big for the
Republicans to swallow. He made that point. It was meant to be bite-
sized. And no wonder the frustrations that Republicans didn`t bite.
And next up, how is this for a winning endorsement, or not? It all
starts with Tennessee state Senator Curry Todd, a leading sponsor of a law
down there to allow people to bring handguns into barrooms. There he is.
Well, things went sour for Curry late last night when he was pulled over
and arrested for a DUI. And what was right next to Curry as he sat in the
driver`s seat? That`s right. a loaded gun, holstered right next to him.
According to the police affidavit, Curry was -- quote -- "very
unsteady on his feet, almost falling down at times. His speech was
slurred. His eyes were red, watery and bloodshot. The subject" -- that`s
him -- "was obviously very impaired and not in any condition to be carrying
a loaded handgun."
Well, think he might want to take a backseat now, I would say, in this
legislative fight to let people like him carry guns into barrooms.
And now for the "Big Number."
It`s all about that 999. Jon Huntsman may have joked that he first
thought the term referred to the price of a pizza, but that didn`t push
Herman Cain`s economic plan far from front and center throughout the debate
last night, mostly thanks to Cain himself.
Let`s listen.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have put my 999 plan on
the table. The 999 plan that I have proposed is simple -- 999 is bold.
What 999 does, it expands the base. I have proposed 999. Put it in the
999 plan -- 999 plan -- 999 will pass -- 999. Remember, 999 plan -- 999.
My top priority is 999, jobs, jobs, jobs.
MATTHEWS: Well, repetition is the mother of memory. At the very
least, you can`t say he`s not trying to get traction there.
So how many times did Mr. Cain say 999 during in that two-hours`
debate? Twenty-five times. No surprise that 16 of those times came from
the former Godfather`s Pizza himself -- pizza CEO himself -- 999 times 25,
that`s tonight`s "Big Number." Lots of numbers.
Up next: Vice President Joe Biden says there`s no way President Obama
would replace him, Joe Biden, and put Hillary Clinton on the ticket as vice
president next time. Is there any push by any Democrat -- I can`t find
them -- to make Hillary the running mate? That`s ahead.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: I`m Veronica De La Cruz in
the MSNBC newsroom with some breaking news. Here`s what`s happening.
Police in California say a gunman wearing body armor shot and killed
at least six people at a hair salon in the town of Seal Beach. Three
others were critically wounded. Police do have a suspect in custody. He
was arrested at a traffic stop about a half-mile away from the scene.
Again, nine people have been shot at a hair salon in Seal Beach.
We`re going to go ahead and continue to track this developing story and
bring you another update as soon as we get more information.
I`m Veronica De La Cruz. Let`s get you back to HARDBALL.
ANN CURRY, NBC ANCHOR: Now, are you, yes or no? Are you on the
BIDEN: Absolutely, positively yes. There`s never been a question
about that. The president has made that clear, and hardly anybody is
raising it anymore. I guess it`s parlor game talk, but the parlors are
even bare down here now.
MATTHEWS: Well, welcome back to HARDBALL.
Well, Ann Curry certainly raised it on "The Today Show." And that was
Vice President Biden earlier this morning explaining or plainly stating
that he`s not going anywhere and will be on the ticket as vice president
running with President Obama for reelection in 2012.
However, news stories that Biden will step aside and let Hillary
Clinton step in as vice president still show up here and there. For
example, today in "The Chicago Sun-Times," the columnist out there Laura
Washington phrased it like this today -- quote -- "An Obama/Clinton ticket
would be a potent and historic lure. It would pander to female voters, but
I suspect they will go with it."
So why won`t this story just go away completely?
Joan Walsh is the editor at large with Salon. And Matt Cooper with
"The National Journal."
Joan and Matt, we`re, all three, professionals. We watch these things
come and go.
MATT COOPER, "THE NATIONAL JOURNAL": Right.
MATTHEWS: It seems like if you have a column that`s nobody has read
lately and you want somebody to read it, this certainly worked for Laura
Washington today. I shouldn`t say that. I don`t know her column.
But let me just say we`re talking about it, so it worked. Is this the
way to get a column read, to bring up this proposition?
COOPER: Sure.
JOAN WALSH, EDITOR IN CHIEF, SALON.COM: I have known -- I have known
Laura -- I have known Laura for a long time.
No, I don`t think that`s what she was doing, Chris. I think she finds
it interesting. People find it perennially interesting, but it`s just not
going to happen. And, you know, I`m a huge, huge admirer of Hillary
Clinton. I don`t think it`s a good idea. I don`t think it really adds
what people think it would add.
I don`t -- the group that she did well with, certainly women, Latinos,
the white working class in particular, I don`t know that Hillary as V.P.
necessarily lures them back. She`s not running her own candidacy. She
becomes part of a team. And I just don`t see President Obama doing that to
Joe Biden. I don`t see why.
MATTHEWS: Well, let`s go to Matt Cooper.
Your thoughts? Is there anything to this besides -- and I know I have
written columns to stir the pot. It`s good to stir the pot. It gets
people thinking. Sometimes, I say things on this show, Laura, if you`re
watching, to stir things up, although I`m not sure they are true yet,
because I think they are emerging or they might emerge.
Your thoughts, Matt?
COOPER: Yes.
I mean, look, it does stir the pot. She`s endlessly interesting, and,
look, if there was ever anything, God forbid, that happened to Biden`s
health or something, she`d be the obvious next in line to come in for that
veep spot.
But if you look at the presidents who have had to dump their veeps,
you know, whether it`s Jerry Ford and Nelson Rockefeller to move to the
right, or FDR and Henry Wallace, they did it for big political reasons that
wouldn`t be the same if you exchange Biden for Hillary.
Hillary was, as Joan said, popular with white working class voters.
She picked up two-thirds of white voters in the primary against Biden -- in
primary against Obama, excuse me, in 2008. Biden plays well with those
voters. Maybe not as well, but well.
So, you wouldn`t really get that much with a Hillary on the ticket.
MATTHEWS: Well, the "Associated Press" reports that Hillary Clinton
said this about her future plans, quote, "I am looking forward to being out
of public life, whether it`s high-level appointments like this or elected
office. I have no interest in or no plans of any sort to pursue that any
more than I am really looking forward to returning to private life."
You don`t have to give a Shermanesque speech for the vice presidency
because you can`t run for it, Joan, but I do wonder.
WALSH: Right.
MATTHEWS: Here`s my question, something you sort of got to. I always
felt bad about Jerry Ford dumping Nelson Rockefeller because Nelson
Rockefeller, whatever party you`re in, is certainly a public servant and a
good one all those years as governor of New York and accepting the vice
presidency, and to have him dumped in `76 just to sort of lighten the
burden of Jerry Ford certainly didn`t help Jerry Ford much.
WALSH: No. And, you know, I think --
MATTHEWS: He got beaten.
WALSH: Exactly, and I don`t think -- I don`t think it helps Barack
Obama. I think that Joe Biden has been a good vice president. I think
he`s helped him out. And, you know, as Matt says, he brings some
credibility with some of the same groups that Hillary does.
Now, look, I`m a woman. I`m a feminist. I can`t deny that certainly
in 2008, she brought -- she just brought a movement feeling, especially at
end of the campaign, to her candidacy, and there would be some of that. No
doubt there would be a little bit of that. But would that balance out the
feeling of desperation and being disloyal to Joe Biden that such a move
would raise, I just don`t -- I don`t think it balances it out.
I think it`s kind of a dangerous -- it`s one of those things. You
know, the Beltway giveth and the Beltway taketh away. We would love this
story because it`s a good, juicy story, and then the next day it would be -
- oh, my God, Barack Obama, he`s desperate.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
WALSH: Joe Biden, kicked to the curb, you know? The optics on this,
as we like to say, are not very good.
MATTHEWS: Well, let`s take a look. This was Laura Washington
entirely. She`s probably a great columnist. But here she is, Bob
Woodward, one of the great investigative reporters of all time actually,
perhaps the big one, here he is in an interview on October a year ago which
sort of started this buzz at one point.
Let`s watch.
BOB WOODWARD, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: It`s on the table, and some of
Hillary Clinton`s advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012. President
Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with
during the 2008 primaries, and so they switch jobs.
MATTHEWS: Well, Matt Cooper, it`s hard to read exactly what Bob meant
there when he says the Clinton people are talking this up. The Clinton
people see it on the table.
COOPER: Right.
MATTHEWS: The Clinton people see it as a real possibility.
They don`t make this call. I mean, if Sid Blumenthal or (INAUDIBLE)
or one of the guys over there that would like to see this happen is talking
this up, it has no consequence, does it?
COOPER: No, it doesn`t. I mean, look, there`s Hillary people always
go through a lot of what if? What if it had been us?
MATTHEWS: Yes.
COOPER: And there are no shortage of Obama supporters who are
thinking, you know, maybe she would have been tougher and a little better
taking on John Boehner. But, you know, where she is right now is just
physically exhausted. I don`t think you can over -- underestimate how
tired you must be after eight years as first lady, going right to the U.S.
Senate, being the senator to New York right after 9/11, going right into a
presidential campaign and then logging about 1 billion miles as secretary
of state. That is a lot for a 63-year-old.
MATTHEWS: You know, I have to say personally, on a personal basis,
nobody I like to bump into more and meet than Hillary Clinton. I get the
biggest giggle out of meeting her. She is something else in person. I say
that to our worst enemies, meet her and you`ll be amazed.
Anyway, thank you, Joan Walsh, and Matt Cooper. I got a little
chuckle out of Joan with that one.
Up next, that alleged terror plot by Iran -- this is serious -- to
assassinate the Saudi ambassador here in Washington. How high up the
ladder did that go?
This is HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: Boy, a lot -- all of us have been watching these anti-Wall
Street -- look at them. There they are, protests around the country,
especially up on Wall Street.
Well, now, we have our first idea of what Americans think of those
demonstrations. Our new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll out today asked
people whether they support or oppose the protests. A plurality tend to
support that, something less than 50, but most; 37 percent say they tend to
support the "Occupy Wall Street" protests versus 18 percent who say they
oppose them.
That 18 is a pretty low number. That suggests the protests might have
legs and more importantly political value to the Democrats especially.
We`ll be right back.
JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea that you
would assassinate a diplomat, that is something for the whole world, every
nation in the world will learn the facts of this will be outraged. This is
all about keeping the world united in opposition to the activities of Iran,
and we`ve taken nothing off the table. We will take nothing off the table.
MATTHEWS: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
That`s Vice President Biden this morning, of course, reacting to the
alleged plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador here in Washington.
So, what does this alleged plot tell us about Iran`s terrorism
ambitions and how high up in the Iranian government does this plot actually
go? We don`t know.
Evan Kohlmann is an MSNBC terrorism analyst. Robin Wright is a fellow
at the United States Institute of Peace and the Woodrow Wilson Center, also
author of "Rock the Kasbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World."
Robin, what do we know now?
ROBIN WRIGHT, UNITED STATES INSTITUTE OF PEACE: Well, the United
States has made some very serious allegations about Iran`s intent to
assassinate the Saudi ambassador.
This is a fascinating story because Iran is capable of so much more.
It was engaged in the support role, allegedly, behind the largest loss of
U.S. military life in a single incident since World War II in the bombing
of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1982. It`s been involved, allegedly,
in bombings of U.S. embassies. It`s allegedly been involved in attacks in
Iraq and Afghanistan, in facilitating, arming and so forth.
MATTHEWS: So Hezbollah?
WRIGHT: Through Hezbollah, through proxies.
This case doesn`t make sense in a lot of different ways. If it`s
true, then something dramatic has changed in Iran.
MATTHEWS: How they got away with it, the assassins? If they would
have gotten caught, they would have talked?
WRIGHT: Well, most of the time, Iran has used cutouts, and it`s been
quite effective. The idea of using a car salesman from Corpus Christi,
Texas, working through the Mexican drug cartel is not clearly in keeping
with its past operations.
MATTHEWS: It looks there they got caught.
Let me go to an expert on this, Evan Kohlmann.
Would they risk getting caught in an operation where they go and try
to buy a Mexican cartel to do their dirty work, to plant a bomb in a
Washington restaurant to kill the ambassador? It seems like our FBI would
be able to trace that to them.
EVAN KOHLMANN, NBC NEWS TERRORISM ANALYST: Yes, the calculus here is
very strange. If you try to imagine this as the product of collective
thinking on the part of the Iranian government, it seems like this is
Russian roulette. I mean, if you killed the Saudi ambassador to the U.S.,
you would be guaranteeing a very serious U.S. reaction, and I would believe
a military one.
So, it`s difficult to understand this as a product of collective
thinking. It`s much easier to try to understand this as maybe the product
of a rogue individual within the revolutionary guard corps or the Quds
force -- somebody who`s influential, somebody who`s very powerful, maybe
somebody who`s very senior. But you wonder how many others within the
Iranian government really had fingerprints on this.
MATTHEWS: What`s the purpose besides mayhem of killing the Saudi
ambassador here in Washington? What would you gain strategically if you`re
already hated by the United States, you`re already under all kinds of
embargoes from the West, this would add to those embargoes, add to the
sanction, add to the hatred and fear of Iran`s troublemaking.
KOHLMANN: Yes, and I think most importantly, especially for the
countries involved here, Iran desperately needs China to stay out of what`s
going on at the U.N. Security Council. If China, all of a sudden, had a
reason, i.e., instability in Saudi Arabia, to be in favor of greater
sanctions against Iran, greater against Iran, it just doesn`t make any
I mean, the Chinese right now are staying out of this. The last thing
that Iran wants to do is push them into cooperating with the U.S. in
further sanctions. It`s a very strange calculus.
MATTHEWS: You know, one thing missing in the debates last night, I
want to shift a little because you know this stuff, you would expect the
right wing candidates especially last night, the real right wing like
Bachmann and people over there -- it`s hard to tell who isn`t right wing in
the Republican Party. I don`t think Romney is or Huntsman.
They would be pushing the Iran button right now. Why don`t we bomb
those nuclear facilities in Iran? Why don`t we do this for Israel? Why
don`t we do this for us?
You used to expect that kind of bell to wring. How come that bell
hasn`t rung yet in these debates?
WRIGHT: Well, you know --
MATTHEWS: It should be coming up all the time, you would think.
WRIGHT: Well, Romney has talked about a line in the sand over Iran`s
nuclear program, which again is another reason it doesn`t make sense, that
this is a time Iran is trying to avoid more sanctions because of its
controversial nuclear program. And it knows that -- Iran doesn`t want to
be an issue in the American presidential election.
WRIGHT: So, the timing of this doesn`t work. The fact that no one
has yet talked about Iran in more specific terms, it will come.
MATTHEWS: Do we have a right-wing -- a far -- I don`t know if these
terms mean anything -- an extremist government in Tehran right know that
might support something like an attack on Saudi ambassador here? Evan?
KOHLMANN: I just don`t think so. I mean, you`d say what you like
about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, I don`t know if he`s going to win any award for
a Nobel Peace Prize.
KOHLMANN: But I just don`t think he`s that irrational. I think he of
all people wants to avoid a direct confrontation with the United States.
MATTHEWS: OK. Got you.
KOHLMANN: So it seems very strange.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much for coming. I love that assessment.
It`s quick and clear.
Thank you, Evan Kohlmann.
KOHLMANN: Thank you.
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Robin Wright.
When we return, "Let Me Finish" with the clown show that is the 2012
Republican presidential debate team, if you call it that.
You`re watching HARDBALL, only on MSNBC.
MATTHEWS: "Let Me Finish" tonight with this -- I don`t think the
Republican Party is enjoying a robust competition for its nomination. In a
year when you would expect a feisty all-out battle for the nomination, the
chance to go one-on-one with a weakened Democratic president, you would
expect to see several serious candidates testing each other`s abilities.
Instead, we`ve seen a bizarre pattern of one conservative candidate after
another put up his head, then bow it, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Christie.
The head up now is businessman Herman Cain. But the pattern is clear.
Each rises and then fades -- each with one main appeal: as an alternative
to Mitt Romney.
Last night, this odd ritual of despair on the Tea Party-led right to
what a fair-minded observer might think was a clown show, but for the
sober-minded Romney, think of what was on display last night. Rick Perry
confessing he came to a debate on the economy without a plan for jobs. Did
the dog eat his homework?
A U.S. congresswoman responding to a proposal by another candidate by
saying his 999 tax proposal could be a cover for 666, the sign of the
beast. What did Ms. Bachmann mean by saying this in a presidential debate?
Was it a joke?
If so, where is the humor in making an off-the-wall reference to the
devil, or was she simply clowning around? What did she mean when she
warned students in the audience that they would be paying a 75 percent
income tax rate?
What did former Senator Santorum mean when he said he wanted to
eliminate all together the corporate tax on manufacturing and replace it
with what?
What kind of conversation was that last night around that table?
Then in a special category of malevolence came Newt Gingrich`s charge
that Senator Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank should be imprisoned
for passing legislation regulating financial institutions. Well, this is a
Gingrich bomb-throwing, it seemed to actually fit in last night around the
strange table, where one person seemed to be the adult, and so many others
were simply acting the part of clowns, doing anything to get attention,
having realized that the contest, such as it was, seems at least for this
fall season to be over.
Perhaps the caucuses and primaries of January will bring out a higher
level of seriousness. Sadly for the country, it is too late to bring out a
more serious cast of candidates. That hope is gone, as the viewers of last
night came to discover.
Again, the question looms: why in a year they had a chance to lead
have the Tea Party-jibed Republicans shown up with such a pathetic array of
And that`s HARDBALL for now. Thanks for being with us.
"POLITICS NATION" with Al Sharpton starts right now.
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text:
Photo by Dylan Collins.
Every year, throughout October and November, Palestinians carry out an ancestral tradition: the olive harvest. Palestinians farmers along with their relatives, friends and international supporters begin picking olives from the eight and a half million productive olives trees that bring economic sustenance to around 100,000 families in West Bank.
"The home of the olive tree is Palestine," states the Minister of Agriculture, Walid Assaf, during an interview with the Palestine Monitor. "The Palestinians have been living here with the olive tree during the history. Actually, we have been living through it," he explains when asked about the meaning of the olive tree for Palestinians.
Apart from being a national symbol related to Palestinian culture and its wisdom of peace and sovereignty over the land, it is also considered as a strategic tree: "we depend on this tree through the oil, the olives, za'atar, its wood, etc." Assaf explains.
For Palestinians, the olive tree is not only a national and cultural symbol, but a vital of their everyday subsistence. "We depend on this tree through (sic) the oit, the olives, Za'atar, its wood, etc." Assaf explains.
Olive trees provide sustenance, give a boost to the development of the domestic economy and are considered to be the center of many important family events."As the Bedouins count their wealth regarding to the amount of sheep that they have, Palestinians do the same with the olive oil,"says Assaf. "The money that they get from the oil is destined to do something important for their lives: pay the University fees, build the houses or even people organize the weddings after the season of the olive."
During this year alone, settlers and Israeli soldiers have uprooted more than 4,000 olive trees within the West bank
During this year alone, settlers and Israeli soldiers have uprooted more than 4,000 olive trees within the West bank
In the past, the West Bank headed up the production of this golden liquid in the region, annually exporting more than 3,000 tons of oil to Gaza, Jordan, Gulf countries as well as to some Palestinians within present-day Israel, according to ministerial sources. After a good olive season, West Bank used to be able to export more than 15,000 tons after keeping oil enough to meet domestic consumption and storage needs.
"But things have changed," remarks Assaf. "Now Syria, the fourth largest producer in the world, is leading the production in the region, although they cannot export due to the current situation in the country. And Jordan, which used to be our customer, is producing more than us."
This year is expected to be a bad harvest. Although an estimated 12,000 tons of oil will be produced by the end of the season, an amount which is added to the approximated 3,000 tons left over from previous years, about 10,000 tons will be needed for domestic consumption, leaving only 5,000 tons of oil available for export.
According to Assaf, a decrease in demand has raised the price of the oil in the West Bank up to an average of 25 shekels per kilogramme, far above the the 12-17 shekels in 2012. When translated into monetary values, this year's production of olive oil will bring 400 million NIS to the fragile domestic Palestinian economy. The Palestinian olive oil industry accounts for about 22% of direct and indirect employments in the domestic labour force.
"Most of the people living in the villages, they work during this season. A very important fact related to the olive tree is it that helps to reduce the poverty because some people are just able to find a job now," Assaf states. "The farmers will earn money to support their families at least for half of the year," he says, but are forced to scrounge for part-time work during the off season.
Israel stifles the Palestinian agriculture
However, the viability of this traditional way of life is threatened by Israel's occupation. "The occupation has changed everything," regrets the Minister of Agriculture, Walid Assaf.
In his own words, the construction of the Wall, the annexation and destruction of thousands of square kilometres of agricultural land and the restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinian farmers' access to lands near the Wall and the settlements-some of whom are allowed just six hours a day, a few days a month—"have decreased the olives' productivity up to a 50 per cent, especially in the areas surrounded by settlements, where the farmers are losing the incomes because they are just producing the costs."
A recent report published by the World Bank holds Israel responsible for the Palestinian economy's loss of about 3.4 Billion USD. This significant deficit is largely due to the fact that "more than half the [Palestinian] land in the West Bank, much of it agricultural and resource rich, is inaccessible to Palestinians," not only this year, but always.
The brief suggests that if Palestinian businesses and farms were permitted to develop in Area C (the 60%% of the West Bank under full Israeli military and civil), the rate of development in the Palestinian economy would significantly increase, since it would be possible "to create new areas of economic activity and set the economy on the path to sustainable growth."
"But we are limited," Assaf points out. "We do not have control over our lands or resources. Almost the 40 per cent of the farmers suffer from this shortage and in addition they have to deal with settler attacks."
Settlers attacks against the crops
"During this year alone, settlers and Israeli soldiers have uprooted more than 4,000 olive trees within the West bank," condemned Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, during a press conference in Bethlehem in late October.
Meanwhile the Minister of Agriculture remarked that the number of settler attacks against Palestinian groves started raising its frequency significantly weeks before the beginning of the olive picking. Some voices have gone as far as saying that the increase in the price of olive oil is linked to such aggressions.
Israeli Human Rights organization, Yesh Din, similary denounced that the sabotage of Palestinian olive and fruit trees, maintaining the problem "has become one of the symbols of the occupation," warning about the negative impact of this action on the Palestinians.
Yesh Din, an organization in charge of tracking and monitoring settler attacks on Palestinian crops, published a report in October documenting 211 deliberate acts of aggression by settlers against Palestinians. The report covers the period from 2005 to June of this year.
According to the group, Palestinians submitted a complaint to the Judea & Samaria District Police on each case and, in almost each case, an investigation file was. Out of 197 fully processed cases, 166 were closed with findings reading, "perpetrator unknown," 20 reading "insufficient evidence," and two reading "absence of criminal culpability." For the last five, the Samaria & Judea District Police did not inform the concerned party on the grounds of the three of the closure, whilst two files were lost. In just four cases over the past seven years were the accused aggressors indicted.
"These figures show that in the field of offenses involving damage to Palestinians trees, 97.4 percent of the investigative files in which processing has been completed were closed due to the police's failure to locate suspects and collect sufficient evidence for prosecution of the offenders," states Yesh Din's report.
"This failure is exceptionally high, even in comparison to the general failure rate of the SJ [Judea & Samaria] District Police to investigate offenses by Israelis against Palestinians and Palestinian property in the West Bank, which stands at 84 percent."
Along similar lines, the Israeli daily, Haaretz, recently disclosed that a series of incidents regarding settler attacks on Palestinian groves have been purposely kept secret by Israeli Authorities.
The incidents allegedly happened in September and October in West Bank, most often in areas close to settlements and outpost where the Israeli Defence Forces have full security responsibility. Similar actions have been carried out before, but the attacks were left unreported by both the IDF and media officials.
Despite the hardships, Palestinians are adamant in continuing to preserve this source of life, cultural and economic stability—the olive tree. The Palestinian Authority announced the seeding of 750,000 olive trees across West Bank to compensate the damages produced by these attacks, and recently approved a new fund to support farmers who have suffered from these aggressions.
"Israel and the settlers want our land. They want us to abandon the fields and destroy the trees to leave us without a source of incomes. They want the land to be uncultivated to put their hands on the land, because this is a matter of stealing the land. So we will invest in it," Assaf maintains.
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Martha Southgate author of "The Taste of Salt" was complaining about the movie "The Maid" on CNN. Then, on comes one of the actresses and says something like, that she had to debate doing the movie because she had trouble with doing a part (that of the maid in 2011), that being a maid is demeaning.
Now, don't shoot me if I misunderstood because far be it for me to get anything wrong and run with it, but I'm not about to stop now.
Is being a ditch digger demeaning? Is it more demeaning to be a lawyer than a doctor or a babysitter than a waitress?
Were these maids possibly treated in a demeaning manner? HELL YES!
But, were they also doing an honest day's work for less than an honest days wage to feed their families? HELL YES!!
No matter what society you live in, you do the best you can with what you are given.
I grew up in the 50s, in a household that did not believe that women should go to college. Women were to be taken care of, (all the while they are cleaning the toilets, that is.) Did I finally get my butt through college? Yes, I did. Did I pick the best vocation for the money? Well, no!
I started off in pre-law. Made straight A's and thought about doing something, other than being a lawyer in this vein. Then, I got a divorce and needed to work to support my girls. So, I became a legal secretary. It was there, I was good at it and it was a wage. I never once thought about it being demeaning to be a secretary rather than a lawyer.
I have, however, been treated in a VERY demeaning manner by bosses, and then I have had other bosses who treated me like family.
In the end, I'm an artist and there is definitely a reason why they call it us "Starving artists." I have my hand in about five separate ways to
make a living. I get $200 here and $20 there. I don't care if I paint toilets, there is nothing about working any job that is demeaning.


text:
Thanks to Tee Magnet, we have a pretty nifty roundup of awesome t-shirts awaiting your credit card numbers. Four of those are gaming related. Four of those are awesome. Four of those need your attention.
Check them out above and below, and make your choice(s) wisely.
Imperial Damacy [TeeFury]
Occupied [Shirt Woot!]
OOOOOOH! [Qwertee]
Rapture [The Yetee]


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PicaJet Forum has been moved to
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Select all is dangerous!
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:35 pm
Post subject: Select all is dangerous!
I was hoping to batch rename some images in a directory and paressed CTR- A did the rename and found to my horror that it was renaming all the images on the hard drive!
That I call dangerous there should be a warning prompt!
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2005 2:49 pm
Post subject: agreed, a prompt would be cool when working with multiples
I've done a similar thing - selected all images when I thought I had just selected a subset and then reset ratings to 1 for everything. My problem is getting used to the "view bys" on the right - they still display all images but take you to the point where you click (i.e. all 3 start images) - they do not act as a filter.
This is fine but needs a bit of adjusting to if coming from IView.
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PicaJet Team
Joined: 19 Feb 2005
Posts: 296
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2005 5:09 am
Post subject:
To select all images inside the group just click on the group section.
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Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2005 1:27 pm
Post subject:
how do I do that "select all images inside the group just click on the group section."
In fact this experience has left me very uncertain of picajet, to rename every image file on my harddrive was completey nuts!
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Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 8
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2005 10:33 pm
Post subject:
I assume the "group section" is the selected category. Just click the blue
area above the images in that category and all the images will be selected. That is, a blue frame will appear around each image.
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Joined: 20 Aug 2005
Posts: 17
Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2005 7:16 pm
Post subject:
@photoman and Wizard: you show how the correct way is. But the problem is "Select all is dangerous".
I think the whole "group by" thing is not very intuitive, see my problem with the "group by rating" function. It looks like a second filtering system (first is select category) but it isn't. (I know it is named "group by" and not "filter"
but I expect a second filter there).
And that "not-filtering" with ctrl+a is dangerous.
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Joined: 09 Mar 2005
Posts: 12
Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2006 5:50 am
Post subject:
I guess I can't quite sympathize. The only time I use ctrl-A is when I want to select all the pictures of a certain category. Otherwise, I just always click on the title bar of whatever grouping they are in. And I guess I'm not expecting a filter from the 'arrange by' functionality. If I want a filter, I use the search tool to search, say, for all photos above a 3.5 to get all 4 & 5 star pictures, leaving the 'search selected categories' button checked.
This is part of the reason I love Picajet: two filters (category and anything you can search on) and two sorts (the locate by and arrange by funcitonalities). Gotta love all the sheer combinations of categories/dates/ratings/anything-you-can-possibly-hope-to-find-as-long-as-you've-tagged-it in your wilderness of pictures.
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Joined: 09 Mar 2005
Posts: 12
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:43 am
Post subject: holy <explitive>!
Ok, apparently I jinxed myself with that last post. "I guess I can't quite sympathize". Well, fate has certainly showed me.
I thought it wasn't really an issue since I don't usually rename files. Captioning, on the otherhand...<grr> So here's my Ctrl-A horror story. I spent about 2-3 hours captioning a whole ton of videos I had taken and just recently fixed a thumbnail not showing issue. I had the probem for a while (which makes it virtually impossible to work with the videos) so I had a lot of videos to go through.
So I watch each one, ranging from 30 seconds to 2 minutes each and put a little description and a rating. Well, I'm nearing the last 10 and I make a caption that I want to change. I click in the caption area below the rating under the thumbnail and I want to select all the text to replace it. I try triple clicking, but it doesn't work. So I hit...Ctrl-A (dun dun DUN!). This promptly selects all my photos and at this point, I'm screwed.
There is nothing I can do now to prevent all my movies clips from gaining whatever caption I write once I do any of the following: hit return, hit escape, click somewhere outside the thumbnail section of the window. That's right, even hitting ESCAPE changes all the captions to the same thing. And no undo button. This is the first serious photo management error (that wasn't my fault) I've had in picajet, so I'm not about to give it up, but WOW! Ctrl-A IS dangerous if you're changing anything about the file instead of just selecting to drag into another program.
Please either make Escape truly cancel whatever change you're doing (as it should) or provide us with an undo button already! (PLEASE!)
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Joined: 22 Mar 2005
Posts: 13
Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 2:40 pm
Post subject:
Same happend to me earlier ... that's why I regularily make a backup of the database (should be done anyway ... ). So the loss is not that big ... somehow Ctrl+A is a natural habit ...
But I would second lanmat with the PLEASE make Esc do what it's supposed to do!
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Two hospital workers and a pilot were killed when a medical helicopter crashed in Tennessee as the aircraft was headed to pick up an ailing child, officials said Tuesday.
Le Bonheur Children's Hospital President and CEO Meri Armour said the Hospital Wing helicopter was cleared for both weather and flight plans when it took off Tuesday morning headed to Bolivar (BAW'-luh-vuhr).
"This was a very experienced pilot and a very experienced crew and a great helicopter, so we're all anxious to know what happened," Armour said.
When the helicopter didn't respond during a routine 10-minute check-in around 6:20 a.m., authorities began searching by air and ground. They found the burning wreckage in a wooded area of Somerville, about 45 miles east of Memphis.
WMC-TV in Memphis reported NTSB investigator Ralph Hicks walked through the site Tuesday afternoon. He said everything located in an area of about 100 feet diameter. Investigators will make sure all parts of the helicopter are accounted for as well as look closely at the weather and speak to witnesses.
Armour estimated that the aircraft was about a half-hour into the flight when it went down.
Fayette County Sheriff's Office Inspector Ray Garcia spoke by phone from the scene.
"There not very much left of (the helicopter), and what little there is is badly burned," he said. "It's just basically debris at this point."
Garcia said the National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are conducting the investigation into what happened.
As for the weather for the time of the crash, Corey Chaskelson, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Memphis, said there were clouds at about 4,000 to 5,000 feet, but "we do not know if weather was a factor."
In a news release, the hospital identified those killed as 47-year-old pilot Charles Smith, 43-year-old nurse Carrie Barlow and 43-year-old respiratory therapist Denise Adams.
Barlow worked as a nurse in West Tennessee for 13 years. She lived in Halls with her husband, Keith, and was the mother to three children.
Adams had served as the hospital's Pedi-Flite respiratory therapist for the past eight years. She lived in Arlington with her husband, Rodney, and was the mother to three children.
Smith began his career at Hospital Wing in 2012, the same year he retired from the aviation unit of the Memphis Police Department after 25 years of service. He lived with his wife, Chi, and their two sons in Eads.
The sick child was not aboard the aircraft and was eventually taken by ground ambulance to Le Bonheur, Armour said.
According to a news release, Le Bonheur offers the only pediatric transport service in a 130-mile radius and takes more than 400 critically ill or injured children by helicopter each year. Hospital Wing is a non-profit air medical transport partnership with Le Bonheur and other Memphis-area hospitals.
Another Hospital Wing helicopter crashed in West Tennessee in March 2010 when the pilot tried to outrun a storm. That crash killed the pilot and two nurses.
At that time, improving the safety of emergency medical services flights was on the NTSB's "most wanted improvements" list.
It first made the list in 2008, a year when the industry suffered a record 28 fatalities in seven helicopter accidents. The agency's focus on the problem may have had some impact.
According to statistics provided by NTSB, 2011 and 2012 each saw only one fatal helicopter emergency medical services crash. But those numbers began to creep up again this year. Including Tuesday's accident, 2013 has seen 5 fatal helicopter EMS crashes with 12 killed.
AP Exclusive: Nuclear officers left blast door open at command post
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CT Shellfish industry still trying to recover
Connecticut shellfishermen, many living in communities where people lost possessions or even their houses during Hurricane Sandy, are the first to tell you that others have it far worse than they.
Still, the last couple of days of October and first three weeks of November have been a trying times for those who make their living on Long Island Sound.
Offshore shellfish beds were closed for most of that time, and idled boats began to get back to work in many parts of the state just this past week.
Near-shore "provisional" beds -- primarily recreational beds controlled by individual towns -- remained closed as Thanksgiving approached.
"It's destroyed me," said Michael Franza, owner of Fair Haven Clam & Lobster, located along the Quinnipiac River on Front Street. "It's destroyed me through (loss of) product. It's destroyed me through damage to my buildings."
During the height of Sandy's Oct. 29 storm surge, his entire property -- and Front Street itself -- was underwater, said Franza, who owns five boats that work shellfish beds off East Haven and Milford.
While he knows the storm upended the lives of many people, he said Sandy nevertheless had an impact on the livelihoods of shellfishermen.
"There used to be 500 shellfishermen in Connecticut. Now there are just 41, and they're all little family operations," Franza said.
But Robert Granfield, a Milford shellfisherman who works beds in Milford, New Haven and West Haven, said that while he did have "about a two-week period where I couldn't harvest shellfish," he realizes that others got hit far worse.
While he couldn't work for a couple of weeks, "considering the circumstances, I feel pretty good about it. ... You miss the cash flow for a couple of weeks, but it's a volatile business."
Franza and other lobstermen already faced difficulties related to a temporary moratorium on the catch of Connecticut's dwindling lobster population when Sandy struck, he said.
In the wake of the storm, Franza would like to see more help for shellfishermen come from the state or federal government.
He said U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, is the only official "who even tried to help," although he also had generally kind words for the state Department of Agriculture's Bureau of Aquaculture and Laboratory Services in Milford.
David H. Carey, director of the bureau, said state shellfish beds in Bridgeport -- where many shellfishermen get their seed oysters -- were due to reopen on Friday.
The state, in ordering beds closed after the storm, was cautious, in part, because while sewage treatment plants "did very well" during Sandy compared to Tropical Storm Irene a year ago, "when you have the kind of shoreline flooding that we had during Sandy ... more homes got flooded and every one of those homes has some kinds of hazardous materials" that could end up in Long Island Sound, Carey said.
"That's why we were a little reluctant" to reopen shellfishing too soon, he said.
In addition, "sand from eroding beaches is floating in the water" and all the oysters in state beds "have a covering of sand around them," Carey said.
He said he knows from talking to old-timers who withstood the 1955 hurricane that those oysters, if given time and clean, clear water, will eventually cleanse themselves and even blow off the sand that covers them.
But they need days after all the sand settles out of the water, he said.
The good news is that, based on reports from Stamford, Westport, Milford and Branford, "there is no damage" to clamming ground from the storm. Clams, unlike oysters, are buried in the sand anyway.
The state opened all of the "approved" oyster beds located in 20 feet or more of water on Nov. 16, including beds in Greenwich, Stamford, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Milford, Branford and Groton.
Carey's office, which has been understaffed for months as a result of the state's early retirement program, was working earlier this past week to reopen beds in Guilford, where sanitarians took water samples last Sunday.
But "we can only collect and process so many samples per day," Carey said. "So we always try to open where we're going to get the most results.
"We are working towards getting everybody working," he said. Carey said he expected "almost everything statewide should be open by next Wednesday or Thursday."
Noank shellfisherman Jim Markow, part of the eight-member Noank Aquaculture Cooperative, said the closure has been particularly tough because beds in Rhode Island and New York were opened earlier, and a number of customers in that part of Connecticut simply just bought from out-of-state sources.
"That's pretty discouraging, when you go to a place that you're always selling oysters and they're buying oysters from other states," said Markow, who lost two boats in the storm. "Rhode Island was open a couple of days after the storm and it took us, like, a couple of weeks."
He said he "was putting a lot of pressure on (Carey) this time around, because last year, with Irene, we were closed for six weeks."
The beds the co-op works out of reopened Nov. 16, "so at least we're able to go back to work," Markow said.
Co-op fishermen "had a lot of damage to our boat and docks ... we were pretty anxious to get some sales going, because we do have employees," he said.
Milford oysterman David Youngquist, owner of Charles Island Oyster Co., said he believes he lost some oysters in his leased grounds because they got buried in too much silt.
"When they get buried this time of year, they usually don't survive," he said.
Since resuming operations a few days ago, his catch has been just about half what it usually is, Youngquist said.
Call Mark Zaretsky at 203-789-5722. Follow us on Twitter @nhregister or @markzar.


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text:
CLEVELAND — Travis Hafner tipped his cap and soaked in the applause from Indians fans who spent 10 years pulling for him.
CLEVELAND — Travis Hafner tipped his cap and soaked in the applause from Indians fans who spent 10 years pulling for him.
The love ended after his first at-bat.
Hafner hit a tone-setting, three-run homer in the first inning and drove in four runs in his Cleveland homecoming, and Robinson Cano busted out of his early slump with two homers as the injury-riddled New York Yankees ruined the Indians' highly anticipated home opener under manager Terry Francona with an 11-6 win Monday.
In a ballpark he knows better than any, Hafner turned the cheers to boos with one swing.
"If you're playing for the Yankees and do well, you're going to get booed," he said.
Hafner homered in the first off Ubaldo Jimenez (0-1) and added an RBI single in the third. Cano connected in the fifth and sixth for the Yankees, who are trying to hold on until All-Stars Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson and Mark Teixeira get healthy and come off the disabled list.
Hiroki Kuroda (1-1) shook off a shaky, 34-pitch first and showed no signs of being bothered by a bruised right middle finger as the Yankees finally won a home opener after losing their own and Detroit's last week.
It was a sweet return for Hafner, who spent 10 seasons with the Indians before signing a one-year, $2 million free agent contract in February with New York. His shot over the fence in center — his 100th career homer at Progressive Field — seemed to deflate Cleveland's sellout crowd that had been counting down the days until Francona and the Indians came home.
So was that Hafner's plan?
"Not a bad plan," he said, smiling.
Hafner, who hit a career-high 42 homers for the Indians in 2006 but was slowed by injuries in recent years, received a warm ovation during pregame introductions.
"It was really special," Hafner said. "It's something I'll never forget. There's so many people here I know. It's a little strange seeing people with Hafner Indians jerseys. It was strange coming to the visiting clubhouse and visiting dugout. It was a little weird, but overall it was great being back here."
Cano walked with one out and Kevin Youkilis singled before a slimmed-down Hafner, who lost 15 pounds during spring training, drove a 2-0 pitch from Jimenez over the wall in center for his second homer with New York. As he rounded the bases, Hafner, the man known simply as "Pronk" was booed — it didn't take Indians fans long to swear him off as a new enemy.
"They're passionate fans here," Hafner said. "I knew with me playing for the Yankees the cheers wouldn't last too long."
It was a breakout game for Cano, who came in batting .130 with no extra-base hits or RBIs. Manager Joe Girardi knew it wouldn't take long for Cano to bust out.
"I haven't even seen anything change Robbie's attitude no matter what's he's going through," Girardi said. "He come to the ballpark ready to work with a smile on his face and having fun. I wasn't worried."
Mike Aviles hit a two-run homer in the eighth for the rebuilt Indians, who lost the opener of a 10-game homestand after going 3-3 on the road.
After Francona was hired in October, Cleveland owner Paul Dolan spent nearly $120 million on free agents like Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn and Brett Myers. The Indians, though, may not have enough starting pitching to contend and that was the case against the Yankees as Jimenez was tagged for seven runs in 4 1-3 innings.
The Indians beat two Cy Young winners — R.A. Dickey and David Price — on their season-opening road trip, but couldn't keep pace with the Yankees.
"When Cano starts feeling good, he can hit anybody, anywhere," Francona said. "That's the last guy we want to get hot."
The day started oddly for Francona, who said he got lost while making the two-block walk from his downtown apartment to Progressive Field. While he may have needed directions to find the ballpark, it was a special day for Francona, whose father, Tito, played for the Indians from 1959-64.
Before the game, the Franconas took part in a special Indians sons-and-fathers ceremonial first pitch that included the Swishers, Alomars, McAllisters and Brantleys. After catching his dad's throw on one hop, Francona hugged his 79-year-old namesake, a touching moment on a day of pageantry.
It took 36 minutes to play the first, which ended with the score tied 3-all and Francona and Girardi both considering early calls to their bullpens.
After spotting the Yankees three runs in the first, the Indians responded with three runs off Kuroda. Jason Kipnis and Mark Reynolds hit sacrifice flies and Michael Brantley drove in the other run with a single off Lyle Overbay's glove at first.
Kuroda, though, recovered and only gave up two hits after the first and finished with six strikeouts in 5 1-3 innings.
"He had what I call some bad luck in the first inning," Girardi said. "He got a groundball up the middle that hit the base and another groundball that was tipped by the first baseman. He kind of gutted it up."
Hafner's fourth RBI gave the Yankees a 4-3 lead in the third, and New York extended its lead to 5-3 in the fourth on Brett Gardner's two-out single. The Yankees added two runs in the fifth, one in the sixth on Cano's homer, and three more in the seventh to make it 11-3.
During his eight seasons as Boston's manager, Francona faced the Yankees nearly 200 times and joked that being part of baseball's most heated rivalry did one thing to him.
"Made me older," he cracked.
Francona was also not disappointed New York was missing some of its top players.
"They're a little beat up," he said. "And to be totally honest, I hope they stay beat up until Friday."
Too late for that.
Even bruised, the Yankees can still inflict pain.
NOTES: Swisher said "it hurt" when asked how he felt when the Yankees chose not to re-sign him after four seasons. ... Indians C Carlos Santana was replaced in the ninth after he bruised his left thumb trying to catch a pitch from closer Chris Perez. The team said Santana will have X-rays. ... Francona said Indians DH Jason Giambi will be added to the roster Tuesday. But with Andy Pettitte starting for New York, the 42-year-old Giambi probably won't get his first at-bat until later in the week. ... Jeter is working out at the Yankees' complex in Tampa, Fla., as he recovers from a broken ankle. On Monday, he took 30 grounders and tested his lateral movement.


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[ Career Guide to Industries ]


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NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher as the market stabilizes after a three-day slump.
Technology stocks rose after taking a beating over the past week.
Investors will start to focus on company earnings this week. Bed Bath & Beyond reports after the market closes Wednesday and JPMorgan Chase releases its results on Friday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose six points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 1,851 Tuesday.
The Dow Jones industrial average edged up 10 points, less than 0.1 percent, to 16,256.
The Nasdaq composite rose 33 points, or 0.8 percent, to 4,113.
Gilead Sciences fell 3 percent following reports that Express Scripts plans to ask its clients to join a coalition that would stop using Gilead's Sovaldi Hepatitis C treatment once a rival medicine is approved.
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About the author
Rebecca Chaperon is our Artist-in-Residence
With a compulsion to create unique visual stories, her paintings often follow the thread of a heroine's misadventures through a surreal landscape.
She's had the pleasure of teaching at Langara College and given community workshops on painting techniques with an emphasis on watercolour, oil and acrylic. She is a board member at the Grunt gallery.
View her online portfolio
Website: thechaperon.ca


text:
Editorial: Connecticut gubernatorial hopefuls wrong on shutdown
The Connecticut Republican last week who best assessed the embarrassing predicament U.S. House Republicans have gotten themselves into after shutting down the government is a former GOP congressman himself.
"The Republicans in Washington are now out on a plank," the ex-congressman wrote, "trying to figure out how to save face and get back into their own life boat."
The GOP, he said, has painted itself into a lose-lose situation: Risk digging a deeper grave with the American people by holding fast to their demands that Democrats accept substantial changes to Obamacare in exchange for re-opening the government, or surrender and take both the embarrassment and the tea party backlash that would come with doing so.
The ex-congressman wasn't some Republican In Name Only who tends to agree with Democrats more often than members of his own party.
He was former Gov. John Rowland, a congressman from 1985-91, venting during his WTIC radio show and writing about the debacle on the station's website.
The troubling news for Connecticut Republicans is that, among significant GOP power players in the state, Rowland was virtually alone in acknowledging the political reality in Washington.
During a week in which Republican governors and senators throughout the country expressed exasperation with the antics of GOP House members, none of the four Republicans vying for the party's gubernatorial nomination next year seemed to get it.
In comments published by Hearst Connecticut Media Group, former ambassador Tom Foley, state Sen. John McKinney and Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton all indicated that the two parties shared equal blame for the shutdown.
State Sen. Toni Boucher, meanwhile, downplayed the shutdown's significance, saying the impact of past shutdowns has been over-hyped.
In a line that would have been hilarious in a less serious situation, the state GOP tweeted that the state's congressional delegation — which, because of Connecticut voters' disdain for the national Republican party, is made up entirely of Democrats — voted for a government shutdown by refusing to accept a resolution that would have kept the government open but gutted Obamacare.
The Connecticut GOP can't be — and won't be — taken seriously if it continues to perpetuate such nonsense.
In a comment that puts him far outside mainstream conservative thought, Foley, speaking of House Republicans, told Hearst: "I support what they're doing."
"I think some modified version of the health care bill that provided for universal health care, provided for coverage for pre-existing conditions, for example, and some other things in this bill are things that the majority of Americans support," he added. "(But) there are an awful lot of things in Obamacare that Americans don't want, and we can't afford."
All of that may be true. But by more than a 3-to-1 ratio, the American people disagree that it's an excuse to shut down the government.
McKinney and Boughton have both succeeded in Connecticut politics by compromising where needed and working with Democrats. We expect more of them than we do of Foley, whose campaign so far has been a train wreck.
That makes it particularly disappointing that McKinney told Hearst he was "disappointed and frustrated that both sides have engaged in a lot of partisan politics" and that Boughton said "both Democrats and Republicans have backed themselves into a corner."
The government is shut down because of — and only because of — House Republicans' insistence on using a government shutdown as leverage in their futile bid to defund Obamacare. It's bad policy and — at least in Connecticut and other blue states — horrible politics.
Anyone who wants to be governor of Connecticut ought to realize that's the case.


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Expectant mothers ask Dr. Donald Redelmeier about all sorts of pregnancy dangers from roller-coasters to bear attacks, but never about the one that counts: car crashes.
New research by Redelmeier's team involving more than half a million Ontario women shows pregnancy is associated with a substantial risk of a serious traffic accident requiring emergency care. The increased risk was largest in the early second trimester.
Women in their second trimester were 42 per cent more at risk of a life-threatening crash while driving, compared to before they got pregnant, the study found. That amounts to an extra 75 crashes sending expectant mothers to hospital each month in Ontario alone, according to a statement released with the study.
"An effect of this magnitude equals about one crash for every 50 pregnant women," said Redelmeier, a senior scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.
Pregnancy causes physiological changes — nausea, fatigue and insomnia — that can increase the risk of driver error, he said. Some women also complain of "baby brain," momentary episodes of absentmindedness.
"Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of fetal death related to maternal trauma," the researches write in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.
Car crashes involving pregnant women "are enormously stressful for all the clinicians involved," Redelmeier said in an interview. Pregnancy makes emergency care and standard resuscitation more difficult. Even administering analgesia can be more complicated when it involves a pregnant woman.
"The mom will usually survive because of the extra blood and the extra padding she has, but the downstream consequences for the fetus we just don't know, but it can't possibly be good for you," said Redelmeier, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and staff physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the country's largest trauma unit.
If concussions are harmful in young children, "they're also going to be a potential problem before you're born."
"We used to think that the surrounding amniotic fluid would be a perfect blanket for the fetus," he said. "It's just not true."
For their study, the researchers identified every woman in Ontario who gave birth to a baby between 2006 and 2011. The researchers followed each woman for five years — four years before delivery and one year after delivery — for any emergency department visit due to a car crash, before, during or after pregnancy.
In all, the study involved a total of 507,262 women.
During the three years before pregnancy the women had 6,922 crashes (177 per month). During the second trimester, the women, as drivers, had 757 crashes (252 per month), a 42 per cent relative increase.
The first month of the second trimester was the most hazardous month, with a crash rate of 7.7 events per 1,000 individuals annually. The last month of the third trimester was the least hazardous (a crash rate of 2.4 events per 1,000 individuals annually).
The increased risk held regardless of the woman's age, education, socioeconomic status, risky behaviours such as smoking and alcohol use, and other factors. The researchers also looked at season of the year, daylight, and roadway layout "and all sorts of other risk factors for a crash," Redelmeier said.
The risk of a crash during the second trimester was similar in magnitude to the risk associated with sleep apnea, the authors report.
"It's a combination of the fatigue, the insomnia and the stress, all building up as people try to get things done before the baby comes," Redelmeier said.
But the second trimester is, paradoxically, often the time when women feel their best, even though the hormone changes are dramatic, he said. Women might feel over confident and drop their guard while driving.
"By the third trimester, they're spending a great deal of time at home; there's much more back pain and more taking it easy."
The one-year period after delivery was the least hazardous year during the study period. "I refer to that as 'staying at home,'" Redelmeier said. Even when women are in the car the baby is often with them, he said. "They're very mindful to drive safety.
"What we're suggesting is that they should be equally aware in the second trimester that the same baby is with them."
Pregnant women "often ask me the most unusual questions about roller-coasters, airline flights and motor cycle riding," Redelmeier said.
Last week a woman asked whether she was at risk of a bear attack because of her hormones.
"And yet I'm never asked about roadway safety despite it being a much larger risk to adults in Canada," Redelmeier said.
Prenatal care guidelines in Canada, the U.S. and Britain have been silent on roadway safety, "despite it being a substantial risk to mother and child," said Redelmeier, who wants the guidelines revised. He said it's a greater risk than for pre-eclampsia — a potentially life-threatening rise in blood pressure — or a blood clot during pregnancy. "It's just because it's not a unique risk that people don't think about it."
The study is not a reason for pregnant women to stop driving, Redelmeier stressed. "Almost all of these collisions could be prevented by a small change in driver behaviour." He also stressed that driving shouldn't be delegated to young husbands, who are even more dangerous behind the wheel.
"We think the message is a reminder of the importance of road safety — stop at stop signs, respect the speed limit, signal turns, minimize other distractions and always wear a seatbelt."


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Maureen Dowd quoted Bill Maher's description of Chris Christie as "350 pounds of toast," in her article titled, "Christie puts the gloves on" in New York Times (February 22):
"I tend to agree with Bill Maher that Christie is "350 pounds of toast," and that he should have run for president in 2012 when he had "that new candidate smell" because "the longer you stay in the more likely some bad thing will stick to you."
The article of Daily KOS (February 15) titled "Bill Maher says Governor Christie is "350 pounds of toast" shows a cartoon of Chris Christie being toasted on toaster.
Cambridge English Dictionary simply defines 'toast' as; sliced bread made warm, crisp, and brown by being put near a high heat:
However, Oxford English Dictionary defines 'toast'' as a noun to mean a person or thing that is very popular or held in high regard by a particular group of people, beside the common notion of "sliced bread browned on both sides by exposure to radiant heat, such as a grill or fire."
Does "toast' have the meaning of a people being examined or grilled. What does "toast" here mean? "condemnation" or "praise"?


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The man accused of setting a fire that killed a young Lombard mother and seriously injured her friend pleaded not guilty Monday to murder and arson charges.
Todd Mandoline, 23, of Villa Park, appeared Monday in DuPage County court, where he is charged with the murder of Paula Morgan, 24.
He is facing nine counts of first-degree murder, aggravated arson and arson, and could face up to natural life in prison if convicted, according to prosecutors.
Judge John Kinsella ordered Mandoline to remain in the county jail, where he is being held in lieu of bond.
Mandoline attorney Brian Telander said after the hearing that he would meet with Mandoline's parents to see whether they had the financial resources that would make it worthwhile to ask the judge for a bond hearing.
Morgan died July 22 at her residence in the 1000 block of South Ahrens Avenue in a fire that authorities say Mandoline started when he set Morgan's car ablaze in her driveway. The flames spread from the car to the house.
Police said that earlier that night Mandoline had been at the residence, among a group gathered to celebrate Morgan's birthday. He and the victim previously had dated, police said, but he had been asked to leave the party and was driven back to his house.
Police say he walked back to Morgan's and spent several hours outside texting her before he became enraged and started the fire.
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Her 6-year-old son escaped without injury, but a friend of Morgan's named Jason Cassidy was badly burned. He remains hospitalized in very serious condition, Assistant State's Attorney David Bayer said.
"It looks like he's going to survive, but he's got a long road to go," Bayer said.
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