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Here he reminds me that there are other means of protest that do not involve taking to the streets.
Meanwhile, the perception of environmentalists as a dying breed does not stand up to the reality that NGOs are slowly consolidating into a much more compact confraternity. One recent example was the formation of Terra Firma, a collective of environmental NGOs which aims to put forward a united voice on green issues.
Ever the philosopher, Edward Mallia leaves me with a few choice pearls of literary wisdom.
John Lehman, who took up his post last year at age 38, is one of the youngest Navy secretaries in US history. He also may be one of the most powerful.
Mr. Lehman holds office at a time when, following trouble in Iran and concern for the Persian Gulf and Caribbean region, the Navy is seen as increasingly important. He is part of an administration that not only wants to spend a lot more on defense, but also is decentralizing considerable Pentagon authority to the service secretaries.
Lehman has a masters degree from Cambridge University in Great Britain, and a doctorate in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. He has served in the Pennsylvania National Guard and Air Force Reserve. He now is a commissioned officer in the US Naval Reserve, with the rank of commander. He is a trained naval flight officer, and has flown on active duty as a bombardier-navigator.
Lehman was on the National Security Council staff from 1969-1974 under Henry Kissinger. He was a US delegate to the mutual balanced force reduction talks in Vienna in 1974-75. He was then appointed deputy director of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and served until 1977.
The Navy secretary is well-versed in military, diplomatic, and arms control affairs. His outspokenness and hard-line stance have made him controversial at times. He has not hesitated to openly criticize those defense contractors that in his view have tried to cheat the government.
Republicans have only won the popular vote for president once in the last 25 years, a steep decline in their fortunes from the period from 1972 to 1988, when they won the popular vote every time but one--1976, the aftermath of Watergate. Add to that massive policy failures and demographic trends against them, and the motivations to cheat are overwhelming.
Voter suppression seemed promising at first—and it’s helpful in many downticket races—but it’s not going to be enough to secure the White House. So they’ve been working on another idea as well—make the popular vote totally irrelevant by leaving red states just as they are, with statewide winners getting all the electoral votes, while making electoral votes more or less proportional in as many blue states as possible—many of which the GOP controls at the state level. If they can rewrite the rules fast enough, they could even win in 2016, with no more votes than Mitt Romney received.
If that sounds like a comedown from electing President Romney, so be it. “Something is better than nothing,” Demas told Salon. “It would help Republicans more than they've been able to achieve since 1988, the last time the GOP took Michigan's EV votes.” It’s also something that could happen quite soon, as we’ll see below—and it might, in turn, help revive efforts in other states. But before we get into the particulars there, we need to spend some time reflecting on the broader view.
First, we should note how serious these Electoral College schemes are; they’re popular in many GOP circles—although not with everyone. RNC Chair Reince Priebus has endorsed it. "I think it's something that a lot of states that have been consistently blue that are fully controlled red ought to be looking at," he said in January 2013.
The next month, the Michigan Republican Party convention overwhelmingly endorsed a proposal for their state to allocate electoral votes by congressional district—the vote was 1,370-132. Outgoing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett endorsed the idea as far back as September 2011, while others such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker and Michigan’s Rick Snyder have danced back and forth, and the National Review has weighed in favorably as well, as already noted. Interest fizzled at the time, but just after the midterms, the National Review ran an even more gung-ho story pushing the scheme, “The Constitutional Idea that Could Guarantee a GOP Win in 2016.” A “Constitutional” idea to quash majority rule; who could argue with that?
Lots of people, obviously, which is a big part of why the idea fizzled in early 2013. And it wasn’t just Democrats or the “liberal media.” Mike Duncan, RNC chairman under George W. Bush, was “unimpressed,” Steve Benen noted. "This is not a viable pathway for the party to win nationally," Duncan opined. And it wasn’t just an establishment view. Benen also cited Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli telling Dave Weigel, "I don't like breaking up states," after a discussion sponsored by the National Review. "I think winner-take-all is part of how a state matters as a sovereign entity.... It makes the state, as a state, matter more."
More generally, state legislative leaders did not seem enthused, and they were the ones needed to make the whole plan go, since it requires getting bills through state legislatures. That doesn’t mean the plans are dead—only that the earlier rollout was premature. If you’re going to throw a couple hundred years of precedent out the window, you need to do some spadework first. Republicans have spent decades nurturing voter fraud myths, and developing narratives to rationalize voter suppression laws. Electoral College schemes are quite new, by comparison—they’re just getting started with them. Which is why Democrats should not be complacent about them. There’s still time for them to be implemented before the 2016 election, and the first such plan could be passed by New Year—although it’s a relatively muted alternative.
Looking forward just two years, Ladd noted a “blue wall” of states no Republican could hope to win, and counted 257 electoral votes—out of 270 needed to win, a number that rose to 270, if you included Virginia, where “Democrats won the Senate seat there without campaigning in a year when hardly anyone but Republicans showed up to vote and the GOP enjoyed its largest wave in modern history.” With a future that bleak, Republicans have no choice but to look for another way.
The second reason for trying to rewire the Electoral College is that Republicans already have a template for doing it—their successful gerrymandering based in seven key states identified by Mother Jones just after the 2012 election—Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. These seven midsized-to-large states, which Obama won in 2008, sent more than a 2-1 GOP majority to the House of Representatives in 2012, following their GOP-controlled reapportionment in their states, resulting in the most widespread partisan gerrymandering effort in U.S. history.
Despite a nearly even split in the popular House vote in these states, and the fact that Obama again won six of the states, and only narrowly lost the seventh, the GOP captured a massive 73-34 advantage in House seats in these states. Meanwhile, in the rest of the country the Democrats held a narrow 167-161 advantage. The extreme gerrymandering in this small handful of states was a main cause of to the gridlock of the past two years. Those congressional districts could also be key to winning the White House without a popular majority as well, if those states were to apportion electoral votes by congressional district—which is why the gerrymander serves as a template for GOP’s Electoral College schemes.
The GOP’s House gerrymander gives them an enormous amount of anti-democratic power on which to build, but it also helps to set a precedent. Much like the acceptance of filibustering everything in sight in the Senate, the political establishment has accepted and normalized the House gerrymander, which means it's now a part of political landscape on which other things can be based, so it’s worth taking a moment to take a closer look at it.
Wang’s point is further supported just by comparing what’s happened between 2008 and 2012 in the handful of states highlighted by Mother Jones with what’s happened in the rest of the nation. From 2007 to 2012, the Democrats' share of popular votes in these states dropped 6.3%, compared to 10.3 percent in the rest of the country. But the share of seats they won in those states dropped 44.8%, compared to 19.6% in the rest of the country. They lost House seats in those seven states at more than 3½ times the rate they lost them in the rest of the country, for the same decline in popular vote share. Clearly, the effects of gerrymandering were dramatically large.
Moreover, in January 2013, a report from the Republican State Leadership Committee, “How a Strategy of Targeting State Legislative Races in 2010 Led to a Republican U.S. House Majority in 2013,” boasted about its success in gerrymandering, using $30 million to target Democratic-held state legislature races in blue states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Of course, gerrymandering has a long, ignoble history, so even a gerrymander of unprecedented scope has a good deal of lesser precedents to call upon. But rewiring the Electoral College to subvert majority rule is something else again—which helps to explain why it hasn’t gone as smoothly as the gerrymander has. There are, in fact, two different sorts of problems that the Republicans face. First, they’re trying to do something that flies in the face of deep social norms—deliberatively crafting a strategy to defeat majority rule in the highest office in the land. They’re actually pretty good at this sort of thing, having done it rather often in the last couple of decades, as we’ll see below. But to succeed, they first need to solve the second sorts of problems they face—problems involving intra-party conflicts of various sorts.
We had a very controversial, conservative lame duck with Right to Work, anti-abortion legislation and a new Emergency Manager law (just weeks after voters dumped it). Republicans paid zero political price, as Gov. Rick Snyder was just re-elected and Republicans added to their majorities in the Legislature. So a lot of Republican activists are urging them to go for it. No one pays attention in lame duck. And the main proponent, Rep. Pete Lund, is term-limited and wants to be the next state GOP chair.
Lund first introduced his bill in 2011, and has never stopped pushing. “It's more representative of the people," Lund said in late 2012, even though his plan would have given Romney more electoral votes than Obama in a state that he lost by 450,000 votes. As already noted, in February 2013, the state party endorsed his plan overwhelmingly, by 1,370-132 margin, just a few weeks after Governor Snyder came out against it—at least at that time. So it’s clearly popular with party activists, even as professional politicians tend to be more wary.
There's also the factor that Snyder wants a road-funding bill and would likely be willing to trade the Electoral College change for it. And state House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) has also told Democrats to go along with what he wants for lame duck, or they can expect the Electoral College bill to go through.
The bottom line is Republicans have the votes and Snyder is unlikely to veto. If they want to shove it through with brute force, they can.
It’s a complicated situation, not likely to replicated elsewhere in the short run, though the general contours of conflicting and coinciding concerns are the stuff of politics everywhere. Which is why it could have an ice-breaker effect. Once something’s been done to rewrite the rules in one state, Republicans in other states will have the beginnings of a playbook. It’s a long way to November 2016, so there’s plenty of time for other states to act and start radically changing the rules of the game.
So for those of you keeping track at home, here are the three factions within the Pennsylvania GOP.
Protect Me First: GOP Reps. Jim Gerlach, Pat Meehan and Mike Fitzpatrick care more about keeping their own jobs than they do about electing a president who will eliminate Medicare, so they oppose a plan which might endanger their ability to get reelected in what have traditionally been Democratic-leaning districts.
Be More Coldly Calculating: Perhaps the most despicable faction is captured by Matthew Brann’s statement that Corbett should only rig the election if he is not sure the GOP can carry the state. This faction apparently believes that the biggest problem with Corbett’s election rigging scheme is that it could backfire and benefit the Democrats.
The “protect me first” group is particularly noteworthy. If congressional districts become the basis for winning electoral votes, then obviously much more effort will go into turning out voters in those districts, which will increase the chances that some otherwise safe House seats might flip. This is a very big deal for sitting congressmembers, but it could be offset by a combination of other factors, if institutional protections (and threats) could be put into place—career rewards for congressmembers who do fall prey, on the one hand, and primary challenges to those who stand in the way, for example.
In short, developing a more coherent and elaborate strategic plan should be expected to reduce some—but not all—of the internal conflicts. Which means that stumbling blocks which have prevented these plans from going forward in the past should not be counted on to always be there in the future. Instead, we ought to take this threat very seriously, simply because (a) the GOP really doesn’t have any other good options and (b) the GOP has tried similarly drastic measures in the past, which should inform how we deal with them now and in the future.
[Constitutional hardball] has three characteristics: it involves arguments and behavior by political actors (including judges, although their role is less interesting than that of other political actors) that are defensible -- though sometimes only barely so -- by standard constitutional doctrine; it is inconsistent with settled pre-constitutional understandings; and it involves extremely high stakes (control over the national government as a whole). I argue that constitutional hardball occurs when political actors see the chance for a permanent transformation of the constitutional order.
Oh, and one more, one that is closely tied to the latest plan: the threat, during the 2000 presidential recount fight, that the Florida legislature would simply toss the entire election out and pick the electors themselves.
What all these efforts have in common is that they are all perfectly legal, and yet they all violate the norms of how American politics had been practiced for decades or even for centuries.
This is where we are today, headed for complete destruction of our constitutional order, driven by people who claim a unique relationship with the Constitution, unwilling and unable to change in light of the fact that they cannot win national elections anymore—and therefore determined to destroy national elections, one way or another. Will they try to steal the 2016 election? They’re already working on it. But that’s only the symptom, not the disease.
We should not expect them to “return to normal,” if only we do this or that thing properly. We should not expect “the fever to break,” as Obama did during the 2012 election. We should only expect more of the same madness, using every last letter of the law to kill every last shred of its spirit..
It’s not constitutional hardball, actually. It’s constitutional beanball. Batter up?
Fort Smith Tiderider Madison Edwards, center, is congratulated for her gold-medal victory in the 200-meter LC backstroke Saturday at the 2012 Arkansas Long Course State Championships at Creekmore Park. Edwards is flanked by silver medalist Andi Burroughs of Little Rock, second from left, and bronze medalist Virginia Carr of Camden, right. The meet will begin again at 8 a.m. today.
Advice on how an artist can cope with copy and paste culture.
Aim to make art so original that no one will question who made it.
Pursue credit in innovative ways.
ALBANY — New York City's hotel industry is set to deliver its harshest attack yet on Airbnb.
An ad set to begin airing Monday raises security concerns about the popular home-sharing site, and even references the recent Manchester, England, bombing.
It cites media coverage that bomber Salman Abedi used a short-term rental apartment he found through a local online real estate agent and had "massive packages" sent to him at that location — which was not an Airbnb unit.
"Are you at risk?" text in the ad reads.
The ad, which has no voices, just ominous music and text, goes on to state that Airbnb has refused to provide the addresses of the 40,000 city apartments it lists on its site to law enforcement, even though it does so in cities such as Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans.
The ad ends by asking, "So who's in your building? Airbnb won't say."
It lists a phone number to register complaints against the company with a message to "stand up for NY's safety and security."
Paid for by the Hotel Association of New York City and a hotel workers union, the roughly half-million-dollar ad buy will run for 10 days in prime morning and evening spots on major cable networks in New York City like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, and during Yankees and Mets games, those involved say.
Airbnb spokesman Peter Schottenfels ripped the ad as "an outrageous scare tactic by big hotels who themselves have a long history of lodging people who engage in acts of terror."
Among the examples he cited were terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City and in 2015 in Paris, who stayed in hotels.
"The fact is Airbnb had nothing to do with the tragic events in Manchester and we are one of the only hospitality companies that runs background checks on all U.S. residents, both hosts and guests," Schottenfels said.
"Hotel CEOs have a responsibility to tell us why they don't do the same and why they continue to fund this sort of despicable, cynical advertising."
The anti-Airbnb ad does not mention legislation the hotel industry is backing that would require ads on home-sharing sites to include full location details, like street name, street number, apartment number, borough, town and county of the unit being offered.
"It's crucial that enforcement agencies have access to address information to ensure that Airbnb and other short-term rentals comply with the laws designed to protect affordable housing, and the safety of residents, guests and communities," said bill sponsor Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan).
A clever brain game for all ages! 50% luck + 50% skills = 100% fun. The aim of this game is to erase fruits from a game board. You erase by arranging five or more identical fruits in a line. You can move a fruit an arbitrarily distance, if there is a free path to its destination. New fruits drop down after each move, making it harder to find a free path... You score points whenever you erase a line of fruits. The longer the line the higher the score, and it is therefore very tempting to try to build up a long line of fruits before filling in the gap to erase it. But the board may become jammed while trying... The game has many nice animations, sound affects, and rawarding applauses. It has also some interesting features. For instance: your very best game is captured and can be replayed at any time! If you like sudoku you are likely love this game of strategy! See the developers home page for more info and a video!
Stimulus contracts, grants and loans in Ouray County, Colo. Data last updated on September 2012.
UNCOMPAGHRE BOARD OF CO OPERATIVE SERVICES $320,929 Grant Special Education Grants to States, Recovery Act Assist States in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities in accordance with Part B of the IDEA.
OURAY, COUNTY OF $47,839 Grant ARRA Child Care and Development Block Grant The CCDF ARRA funds will be used to provide child care financial assistance to low-income working families and fund activities to improve the quality of child care.
OURAY COUNTY R-2 SCHOOL DISTRICT $35,274 Grant State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund - for the support of public elementary , secondary, postsecondary and, as applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
OURAY SCHOOL DISTRICT R-1 $29,302 Grant State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) - Education State Grants, Recovery Act Education Fund - for the support of public elementary , secondary, postsecondary and, as applicable, early childhood education programs and services.
To stop carjackers from fleeing with his car Thursday, a Pasadena man jumped onto the hood but was thrown off, suffering minor injuries.
But Pasadena police later found the stolen car and arrested two men and a 16-year-old girl.
The carjacking occurred in the 300 block of North Garfield Avenue at about 2:40 a.m. Thursday. The victim’s car, a 1999 Nissan Sentra, was parked at the rear of an apartment complex, Pasadena Lt. Marcia Taglioretti said.
A young woman knocking on the driver-side window woke up the victim, who was sleeping in his car. The 42-year-old Pasadena man got out to talk to her.
A man emerged from the shadows and told the young woman to take the Sentra, the lieutenant said.
The girl entered the car and started to drive away. The victim climbed onto the hood but was thrown to the street.
The male suspect ran off, police said, and the victim was taken to a hospital.
The car has LoJack, a stolen-vehicle recovery system, so officers were able to find the Sentra at Sunnyslope Avenue and Nina Street just before 11 a.m.
It was unclear how police located the suspects, and the role of the second man.
A 16-year-old girl from Los Angeles was arrested on suspicion of carjacking, while Stephen Lopez, 24, and Jose Morales-Turcios, 35, were arrested on suspicion of carjacking and child endangerment. The men are transients, the lieutenant said. They face child endangerment because of the age of the third suspect.
Lopez was being held without bail at Pasadena jail, while Morales-Turcios remained in custody at the Inmate Reception Center in Los Angeles in lieu of $100,000 bail. The girl was taken to a juvenile hall, Taglioretti said.
The Cool Cruise Car Show in La Verne.
La Verne Cool Cruise Car Show: Hundreds of vehicles, from hot rods and muscle cars to antiques and classics, music by The Answer, children’s activities and more. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. March 26, Third and D Streets between Bonita Avenue and Arrow Highway, La Verne, free, 626-386-5306, www.greenleafevents.net.
Norm MacDonald : Best known for his stint in “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” does stand up. 8 p.m. March 29, The Ice House, 24 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena, $25-$32, advance tickets only, plus two-drink minimum, ages 18 and over, 626-577-1894, www.icehousecomedy.com.
Bike Train: Join in a group bicycle trip to Whittier Narrows Recreation Area and back. 9 a.m.-1 p.m. March 27. Short route meets at Arcadia Gold Line Station, 235 N. 1st Ave., Arcadia, distance riders meet at Peck Water Conservation Park, 5401 Peck Road, Arcadia, free, all ages, 323-270-7275, www.bikesgv.org. Rides continue last Sunday of every month, go to website for details.
“The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace”: Composed by Sir Karl Jenkins, the Mass will be performed by the Kirk Choir and the Friends of Music Orchestra. 7:30 p.m. March 25, Pasadena Presbyterian Church, 585 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, free, 626-793-2191, www.ppcmusic.org.
Young Dubliners: The popular Celtic rock band, in concert. 7 p.m. March 25, The Rose, Paseo Colorado, 300 E. Colorado Blvd., Unit 101, Pasadena, $24-$32, 888-645-5006, www.roseconcerts.com.
“An Evening with Rumer”: A charity concert by the British soft rock singer/songwriter to benefit the Friends of the South Pasadena Public Library and Save Korean Dogs/NamiKim.org. 8 p.m. March 26, South Pasadena Library Community Room, 1151 El Centro St., South Pasadena, $25, advance tickets only, www.rumerconcert.eventbrite.com.
“Fame The Musical”: The tale of students at a high school for the performing arts during the 1980s. 8 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, plus 5 p.m. Saturday through April 10, Mysterium Theater, 311 S. Euclid, La Habra, $15-$30, 562-697-3311, www.mysteriumtheater.com.
“Dreamgirls”: The musical about three women who go from the streets to superstardom. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday March 26-April 17, La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd., La Mirada, $20-$70, 562-944-9801, www.lamiradatheatre.com.
“Six Characters In Search of an Author”: Explores the line between fact and fiction. Through May 14, A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena, $44 and up, 626-356-3100, Ext. 1, www.anoisewithin.org.
“Hairspray:: A bubbly musical about a misfit teen who dances her way into America’s heart. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday March 31-April 16, Warehouse Theater, Mary Hill Center, Azusa Pacific University, 701 E. Foothill Blvd., Azusa, $15-$20, 626-815-5035, www.apu.edu.
The Pink Tea Garden gathered all things wholesome, healthy, pure and organic in the idyllic, natural setting of Vincent Eco Estate in Mgarr on Friday, catching on to the wave of wellness out there and offering a taste of well-being to like-minded guests.
A Times of Malta event, the first of its kind, organised by Malta’s leading magazine for women, Pink, in collaboration with Tettiera, the tea garden was supported by all the best health brands and service providers on the island, ensuring that all top-quality products in the field, from beauty to health, food and drink, could be found under one blue sky.
The exclusive garden party proved to be the ideal space for networking between people who share a similar ethos, or who are keen to open their minds to the latest top-quality natural products and services on the scene.
The programme included enjoyable artisanal tea-tasting sessions and a variety of talks, touching on topics that ranged from functional medicine to a holistic approach to ageing, the farm-to-fork concept, the benefits of essential oils, holistic therapies, food intolerances, the cost of certified organic products and more.
Guests received a packed goodie bag at the gate, and while mingling, immersing in and discovering a world of wellness, they could enjoy mini spa treatments and sample flowing healthy and fine fare, washed down with refreshingly pure drinks and juices; they could experience live cooking and follow food demos, try and test various nourishing products on display and receive consultations – all in the clean air of the countryside.
The blissful and scenic setting was further enhanced by the décor of Mediterranean Ceramics, with their characteristic tables, vases, ornaments and crockery, and by Daniel Grech’s floral creations and vintage-inspired archway into the venue.
The Pink Tea Garden was supported by Alpro, Brown’s Pharmacy, Camilleri Caterers, Dical House, Dr Juice, Ellie & Carl, Farmer’s Deli, Good Earth, Honey & Zest, Jo’s Delights, Mint Health, My Melts My Remedies, Myoka Spas, Nupo, Perrier, Sanya, Saz Mifsud, Thalgo, The Health Store, Vincent’s Eco Farm and Nestlé’s Yes.
THE new man in charge of organising services of worship at York Minster will take up his role this weekend.
The Rev Peter Moger is to be installed as Canon Precentor at the historic cathedral during evensong on Sunday.
The position means he will take the lead on the most important services held there.
In the past, these have included the installation of the Dean of York, the Very Rev Keith Jones, the inauguration of the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, and the consecration of bishops for the Northern Province of the Church of England.
Mr Moger will also be responsible for planning and organising daily and weekly worship at the Minster.
He said: “I am delighted to be taking up the post and to be working with colleagues to contribute to the Minster’s mission through worship and music.
Born in East Yorkshire, Mr Moger has previously served as Minor Canon Precentor at Ely Cathedral and vicar of Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire.
In 2005 he was appointed as the Church of England’s first National Worship Development Officer.
Mr Moger succeeds the Rev Jeremy Fletcher, who left the Minster last July to become vicar of Beverley Minster.