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Some erosion has occurred in the number of people who feel this way, though a strong majority still says they support their own representative.
The other political barrier protecting Republicans may be more powerful, because they built it with state-of-the-art technology to keep members of Congress in office. These are the district boundary lines that change every 10 years to make sure the party in power stays in power.
Both parties take full advantage of congressional redistricting when the time for reapportionment (to ad-just to population changes) comes around each decade. Only this time, the Republicans who controlled more state legislatures in 2000 got to redraw more district lines, picking up new seats and making sure they had even more GOP voters in their constituencies than ever before.
"The level of congressional redistricting that took place in 2000 was so technologically advanced that it can pretty much withstand the strongest challenges. That's why it's become much harder to beat incumbents who are using other technical advances in mailings and voter targeting."
But if these are the Republicans' front lines of defense, the Democrats are going to have to breach still others if they are going to cut deeply into the GOP's House and Senate majorities in the fall.
One of the GOP's latest strategic shifts is to play to local issues from sales taxes to overcrowded suburbs in an effort to blunt the Democrats hopes of nationalizing the election.
I discussed this lucrative political opening for the GOP in a recent column, but for the first time recently, top Republican campaign officials said it was now a major strategy they were planning to exploit in races across the country.
"We're content to have Democrats talk about the national atmosphere. We're focused on local issues," Ed Patru told me.
And it's not just in the House campaigns where this shift is apparent. They're pursuing this strategy in the GOP's Senate races, too.
"Winning on the local issues is going to be the key to Republican success in November," said Brian Nick, chief spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). The word has gone out, he added, to play to local concerns every chance you get.
North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, the NRSC chairman, "is definitely stressing to the candidates to run on local issues," Nick said.
The GOP's switch to local concerns has been building slowly for months, as poll after poll showed increasing voter dissatisfaction of the Bush administration and the Republican-run Congress.
But this is the first time that national party officials have begun to talk openly about changing the focus of their campaign debate away from the national issues, which Democrats say favor them, to local issues that often draw more voter interest than do national issues.
This doesn't mean that GOP candidates can ignore national issues such as Iraq, terrorism and the lobbying scandal in Washington. But the word has clearly gone out to change the debate.
Says GOP consultant Scott Reed: "When the national climate stinks, you have no choice but to go local."
Republican campaign officials are loath to blame their predicament on Bush alone, but many believe his unpopularity is their biggest albatross. "It would be very helpful if Bush's numbers could go above 40," said one national party official.
What would Dems do about terrorism?
You don't need 19 kids to see that there are tips to learn from the popular reality TV family.
March 20, 2013, 9:35 a.m.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have 19 kids and two – soon to be three – grandkids. On their TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting," we get to see how Jim Bob and Michelle manage their big family. Even if you don’t have a double-digit number of kids in your house, there’s still a lot to learn from one of America’s most famous families.
Because the Duggar family is so large, the older kids are assigned to sibling “buddies,” whom they’re responsible for taking care of during the day. You can teach kids accountability and empathy by helping them take care of others, whether it’s helping dress a younger sibling or feeding the family dog.
It’s hard coming up with activities that entertain both toddlers and teens, but the Duggars mix it up and try to find things that every member of the family will enjoy. While traveling, they visit historical sites as well as kid-friendly amusement parks. Another trick? They often interact with other large families, making it more likely that there’s an age-appropriate friend/playmate for everyone.
The Duggars’ motto is “buy used and save the difference,” and if you had 19 kids, you probably wouldn’t want to drop several hundred dollars to take the whole family out to a movie. The Duggars create fun family experiences at home, such as a Friday-night movie rental complete with homemade snacks. You can do this with your own family, too: rotate family members so that someone different picks the movie each week, get creative toppings for the popcorn, and settle in for the night. Best of all, the movie gives you something to talk about afterward.
Although it would be easy for Jim Bob and Michelle to just be Mom & Dad 24/7, they make an effort to spend time together without the kids, whether that’s a special trip to New York City for their anniversary or just a couple of hours out of the house with Grandma babysitting. They make time for one-on-one time to talk, connect and focus on something other than their children. When they return to the family, they’re energetic and happy to get back to business.
Two and a half years ago, the enormously talented community at OverClocked Remix set about creating the ultimate Donkey Kong Country 2 remix album. Featuring 1.25GB of amazing free music, the end result is definitely Serious Monkey Business.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business, available now as a free download, compiles the work of more than 30 remixers across three discs, totaling more than two hours of music for your listening pleasure. And this isn't simply the work of lone basement remixers either. The game's original composer David Wise gets in on the action, as well as Rare alum Grant Kirkhope and Rare's music department head Robin Beanland. With such an official presence, one could call this the definitive Donkey Kong Country 2 compilation.
Jeremy Waters and Wesley Cho directed the compilation, which features music from many different genres, including new age, trance, rock ballad, and orchestral tunes. There's something here for everyone, and from what I've heard so far, it's uniformly brilliant.
You can download the entire three-disc set, complete with custom CD and case labels, using your torrent downloading program of choice, or find out more via the link below.
And please remember to seed!
Polk’s Boise city directory for 1891-92 lists one George Butler as proprietor of the “Anti-Chinese Hotel.” Who was George Butler, and why would he choose such a racist title for his hotel? His biography, published in Gov. James H. Hawley’s 1920 “History of Idaho,” tells us that George W. Butler was “an ice dealer of Boise, connected also with ranching and cattle raising interests.” He had come to Idaho from Missouri in 1880 at 21 years of age, after working on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad as a brakeman.
Anti-Chinese feelings were strong in 1880, especially in the West, where in some places violence had been used to drive them out. This mood of the country led to the passage by Congress of a Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, with subsequent renewals in 1892 and 1902, intended to halt all further Chinese immigration to the United States.
The owners of the old Overland House at 8th and Main had planned to erect a large modern hotel on that historic corner, but in October 1904 announced in the Statesman that they had abandoned the project in favor of a four-story business block instead. They had found it impossible to build the hotel at a cost commensurate with the probable revenue and reluctantly changed plans. The new structure was to be erected at once. John E. Tourtellotte & Co. architects were in charge of preparing plans for the new Overland Building. Two additional storeys were added to the first four in 1910, and it was renamed the Eastman Building in 1927 in honor of Eastman brothers H.B. and Ben. The building survived until Jan. 24, 1987, when it was gutted by a fire of mysterious origin and then knocked down, smashing its elegant lions-head cornice.
Asda has dropped its fuel prices by upto 2p per litre from today.
Customers will benefit when filling up at its 320 petrol stations after the supermarket announced a cut of up to 1ppl off unleaded and 2ppl off diesel, following continued decreases in the wholesale cost.
The retailer’s new price means that drivers across the country will pay no more than 113.7ppl on unleaded and 123.7ppl on diesel. It’s the seventh fuel price drop Asda has delivered to motorists since October 26, dropping the price of unleaded fuel by 14ppl and diesel by 11ppl.
Common sight in Beijing: Bicycle commuters wearing face masts to combat smog. Photo is from January.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed on Sunday to hold polluting factories liable for excessive emissions, but he sidestepped a question about the government's censorship of a viral documentary video about the nation's smog crisis.
"Enforcement of environmental laws should not be a cotton swab but a killer mace." Li said at a news conference after the close of China's annual legislature in Beijing.
Li's comments come at a time of growing public anger over the degree to which China's rapid industrial growth - and weak regulation of that growth - has fouled air and water in the nation's urban centers.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at news conference Sunday folllowing the end of the National People's Congress.
Partly in response to those concerns, China's government has committed to peaking its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 at the latest, and increase its share of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. This would involve significantly scaling up clean, renewable power plants and a lower reliance on the dirty coal plants responsible for much of the smog that cloaks Beijing and other cities for days at time.
Li also called upon citizens to recognize their own environmental responsibilities.
"It's a project in which everyone in the society should take responsibility," Li said. "If you cannot change the environment you are in, you can modify your behaviors."
Li's comments on the environment came in response to a question by a Huffington Post reporter about a recent documentary exposé about smog in China, "Under the Dome." The online video drew more than 200 million views in China before being blocked by censors.
Li avoided directly answering the question about “Under the Dome,” but he acknowledged some of the problems raised by the documentary, especially lax enforcement of pollution laws.
“All acts of illegal production and emissions will be brought to justice and held accountable,” he said.
The Hong Kong news site South China Morning Post has a useful list of the topics that Li addressed, avoided and sidestepped during his news conference.
Talk about nonsense. Anyone who knows any US history at all knows that is complete BS. That's why unions arose, in fact, because they proved to be the only tool workers had.
There is essentially NO competition among employers, at least not at the blue-collar level (among white collar, there is some). Laborers are expendable. Easily replaced.
EE has announced that it will take over 58 stores from Phones 4u, and rebrand them, which will save the retail outlets from closure, and a number of jobs of course.
Some 359 jobs will be saved after the deal, the Beeb reports, which was agreed with the administrators of Phones 4u, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Phones 4u descended into administration the weekend before last, and last Monday, the firm didn't open any of its shops – following EE announcing that it wasn't going to renew its contract with the chain. That left Phones 4u without any major networks on its books, and effectively in an untenable position in terms of sales.
Vodafone had previously withdrawn its support at the start of September – and Vodafone has also bought up some of Phones 4u's stores, a bigger chunk than EE in fact, with 140 shops. Previously, there have been rumblings about a certain degree of foul play, with both network operators pulling the rug so closely together and then looking to hoover up the remains. It's also thought the networks will be looking for a deal on Phones 4u's remaining inventory of stock.
The founder of Phones 4u, John Cauldwell, has called the moves "ruthless" and the phone networks "predatory", an accusation that the networks naturally deny.
At least jobs are being saved with these moves to take over stores, of course, although there are still a lot of jobs in danger. Phones 4u has some 700 retail outlets across the UK, so while almost 200 are safe, the majority still have an uncertain future. Staff at HQ, some 630 of them, have already been told they are losing their jobs.
Phones 4u has around 5,600 employees in total.
An anonymous source from administrators PwC had indicated that three companies were in discussion about taking over some of Phones 4u's assets – and while EE and Vodafone have now put their cards on the table, there might be a further snapping up of retail outlets yet.
Marco Gerada has been named newly promoted Hamrun Spartans coach.
He will be replacing Bulgarian Atanas Marinov who is back home in Bulgaria after failing to come to terms over a new contract with the Spartans. It was he who led the side to promotion back to the Premier League after just one season.
Gerada had coached St George’s last season, but the side failed to keep its place among the elite.
In “The IRS Mess” [June 3], The Nation mentions allegations that the Internal Revenue Service targeted groups with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their tax documents. Since it is well-known that the Koch brothers have used Tea Party groups as fronts for funneling money to right-wing causes, I believe the IRS did not overstep its bounds in directing extra scrutiny toward them. The IRS was just doing its job. Shame on the Obama administration for caving in to right-wing pressure and on the Justice Department for opening a criminal investigation.
When will we admit that sorting “charitable” from “political” causes, and figuring out the amount of any budget attributable to each, is impossible? Then we can take the next step: abandon all charitable deductions! This would be a jolt to many churches and causes I support. But why should I subsidize others’ charities and causes, and they mine? Let taxes be paid by the public for public purposes. Let private causes be supported by all who believe in them, without that Pandora’s box of deductibles. Period. Think of the hypocrisy, parsing, agonizing and bureaucratic salaries this would save. And some of that savings would go to the causes we cherish—money honestly recruited, spent and accounted. Why not?
In “Why I’m Voting for Her” [“Body Politic,” June 3], Jessica Valenti writes, “Like most politicians, a woman president could be just another disappointment. So why not a female disappointment? Equal representation of jerks is still equality.” Equality for what? Equal opportunity to continue the same inequality? Look at recent female power figures—put in place, of course, by men: Madeleine Albright, who thought it was OK to starve hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children; Condoleezza Rice, who did the criminal bidding of Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld; or Margaret Thatcher, who shmoozed with a mass killer, General Pinochet, and whose cruel legacy still haunts Britain (and the United States). Change the system, not the gender!
Those who will vote only for a woman in 2016 should start mounting a campaign for Senator Elizabeth Warren. She would not only be the “game-changer” Jessica Valenti hopes for; she will stand up for the interests of all of us, not the banksters, whom Hillary Clinton’s husband elevated to the status of gods.
A revisionist myth pops up in “Empire States” [June 3], Thomas Meaney’s review of books on the modern history of relations between developing nations and the West. The explanation of why the aspiring New International Economic Order (NIEO) flamed out in the 1970s is often cast in terms of the willingness of third world resource cartels to sacrifice their political solidarity with the poor for the allures of Western compound interest. The central narrative is that the West “broke the trade union” of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) by persuading its members to “join the capitalist system” through major investments in Western banks. In turn, the banks promised to recycle these oil monies back into loans to generate development for poor nations, which didn’t pan out because high oil prices in these borrowing nations ate up the bulk of the loans, leading to massive debt crises in Latin America and Africa that lasted throughout the 1980s. During the early Reagan years, this conventional analysis created historical amnesia on both the right and left. The actual circumstances deserve a deeper look.
After the dramatic oil price hikes in 1973–74, OPEC publicly discussed using its surplus of oil wealth to fight poverty and create trading alliances and development banks in the third world. Meanwhile, the United States, having delinked the world from the gold standard in 1971, was eager to maintain the operational status of the dollar as the world’s monopoly currency. When OPEC nations broke ranks with poor nations and “funneled their dollars through New York and London” banks during the late 1970s, it was not because higher oil prices had led to crippling inflation in the North and higher debt in the South, as Meaney suggests. These were the effects, not the cause, of OPEC’s new economic alliances with the West. To be sure, the financial yield and security of these investments played a part in enticing OPEC to abandon the NIEO agenda, but interventionist threats from the United States, the Soviet Union, Israel and other nations in the Middle East were also stirring the pot. The recycling of oil profits through Western banks took place chiefly because OPEC nations—with Saudi Arabia at the helm—were promised US military protection for their oil fields, pipelines and shipping lanes in return for their promise to continue using US currency in oil trading, thereby assuring US dollar hegemony in the free and nonaligned world. Monetary politics is underestimated and ignored in most historical analyses of this period, not unlike today.
James Quilligan seems to believe that in the 1970s OPEC nations were bribed into trading away their ambitious development agendas in return for Western finance with military protection. But we do not have to resort to shadowy political deals to explain the OPEC countries’ investments in the United States or their decision to price oil in dollars. The fear of oil being priced in some other currency was never a top concern of US policy-makers. They were far more worried about oil production cuts and price increases, which were a threat even if the dollar maintained its status as the world’s reserve currency.
The fact is that the political and economic relationship between countries like Saudi Arabia and the West was overdetermined. Saudi Arabia and the United States had a longstanding political relationship based on anticommunism and opposition to leftist nationalism in the Middle East that went back long before 1973. The same was true of Iran. It didn’t need to strike any secret bargains to build a relationship with the United States during the 1970s; that relationship was already there.
Oil producers had plenty of economic incentives to invest their surplus earnings in the West, where the financial markets were larger, more liquid and less risky than in the third world. The promise of OPEC to use its surplus of oil wealth to fight poverty and create trading alliances with third world nations made for good rhetoric, but it shouldn’t be any great mystery why most OPEC members didn’t implement those ideas as policy.
Following a 281-run defeat to Australia in the first Test, Proteas captain Graeme Smith said the wicket aided Aussie quick Mitchell Johnson as he claimed 12 South African scalps during the match.
"I believe he [Johnson] is bowling well, the wicket played a big role in the success that he had," Smith said after the match.
Johnson returned figures of 12/127, but Smith played down the under-performance of his batsmen at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Saturday.
South Africa made 206 in their first innings and 200 in their second, as only AB de Villiers (91 and 48) was able to progress past 35 in two attempts.
"The stats in the Ashes also say he picked up a lot of lower-order wickets, so the key is for our top order to set some big partnerships.
"Hopefully, we make sure he keeps coming back and bowling and bowling and bowling."
Without the efforts of De Villiers, the top six Proteas scored 57 runs in the first innings and 68 in the second. Smith, however, said there was nothing wrong with the gameplan of his batsman.
"I think our gameplans and mindsets are good. I think the surface suited his style of bowling here.
"He got a lot of indifferent bounce.
He got a lot of balls to get really big on batters from good areas, which made it very tough."
Smith said it was not long ago that the Proteas were able to put Johnson under pressure.
"He's obviously in form at the moment and confident. We've just got to find a way to make sure he doesn't bowl as he did in this game."
Smith said everything went wrong for the Proteas during the match.
"We just never hit our straps in any department throughout the four days. Three of the four days we had little mishaps with illness, injury, niggle and everything just seemed to not fall into line," he said.
"Ultimately, we allowed Australia to play cricket on the front foot. When they do that, they're a very dominant team, no matter what Aussie team it is. We need to look at ourselves."
He said that at 100 for four in the first innings the Proteas had a real opportunity.
PSA members working in mental health units across the Auckland region are staging a protest in support of workers at the Auckland District Health Board's, Te Whetu Tawera Mental Health facility who are facing unacceptable levels of violence in their workplace.
Over the last 12 months some 213 assaults occurred at the mental health facility which is based on the grounds of Auckland City Hospital.
"This number of assaults is unacceptable. Our members should not have to put up this level of violence on a daily basis," says PSA organiser Brendon Lane. The assaults include being punched, choked and hit with objects as well as being kicked, grabbed and spat at.
"Our members should not be going to work fearing for their own safety," says Mr Lane.
"Te Whetu Tawera has said that any incident of assault is one too many but such words are falling on the deaf ears of our members who work at the facility. "They want to see management take stronger action to prevent violent attacks in their workplace.
"The PSA is calling on the Auckland District Health Board to listen to our members and work with the union to put in place health and safety measures that protect staff and reduce the level of assaults occurring at Te Whetu Tawera.
"Our members believe management needs to review staffing levels and the use of seclusion as well as improve its rostering system. We need to get back to basics to solve this problem," says Brendon Lane.
PSA delegates will gather at 1.20pm at the main gates of Auckland City Hospital, Park Road. They will then march to Te Whetu Tawera mental health facility where they will present management with a vote of no confidence in their ability to deal with the issue of violence in the workplace.
About thirty delegates are expected to attend this march. PSA organiser and spokesperson Brendon Lane will be present at the event.
Here's your handy-dandy roundup of Vancouver concerts going on sale to the general public on Friday (September 7) at 10 am.
Jeff Martin October 19 at the Imperial.
Seether October 22 at the Commodore Ballroom.
Funkoween October 27 at the Commodore.
Mac Ayres November 7 at the Fox Cabaret.
Chase Atlantic November 21 at Fortune Sound Club.

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