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"We consider that kind of sacrifice worthwhile from all angles because it had hastened the birth of Taiwan's democracy," Lu said.
Kaohsiung, with its population of 1.5 million, is Taiwan's second-largest city and the chief city of the feisty and independent-minded south. It has historically supported Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which can usually count on 60 percent of the city's vote.
"Southern Taiwanese use their votes to express their grievances toward the KMT in every election because they have no other option," southern provincial legislator Yan Wenxiang told RFA. "Even though we are not absolutely sure that Ah-bian [Chen Shui-bian] will be elected, from southern Taiwan's point of view, the white terror of the Nationalist Party still exists."
Yan said the KMT's record in the south was not simply confined to its actions in the days of authoritarian rule. "During the last decade of its rule, the Nationalist Party invested one trillion Taiwan dollars in northern Taiwan's infrastructure while its investment in southern Taiwan was 56 billion. This was almost a 20-fold difference. As a result, the attitude of southern Taiwanese toward the Nationalist Party has always been one of distrust," Yan said.
Chen's KMT opponent in the race, former premier Lien Chan, together with popular running mate James Soong, make a reassuring and formidable option for those voters who are concerned that the island's first DPP president is steering too close to confrontation with Beijing. The KMT has traditionally supported eventual reunification with China, though not under communist rule.
Chen's brainchild, a March 20 referendum aimed at using the popular vote to ward off the threat of military action from Beijing, has been condemned by mainland Chinese officials, who see it as dangerously close to a referendum about whether or not the island should seek formal independence and sovereignty as Taiwan.
But while Kaohsiung, home to several non-party pro-democracy magazines and a strong pro-independence culture, may still vote against the KMT, others argue that some southerners feel that the DPP has lost its contact with Taiwan's grass roots.
"The people who were on the side of the DPP in the labor movements of the past now feel that they are being left out and are only used as a means to wield power," said Chang Chao-hsiung, who is a representative of both the KMT and its offshoot People's First Party (PFP) in Kaohsiung.
"In the last decade, DPP has actually not done anything for marginalized groups but has instead shown how quickly it has drawn close to the rich. So these people have many grievances and disappointments toward them," Chang said.
Updated at 8:49 p.m. on Tuesday, August 14, 2018.
Unable to provide specifics to the Chattanooga City Council or the public about its plans for disposing of three city-owned buildings for private development, Mayor Andy Berke on Monday asked for more time.
On Tuesday night, the council voted to table a resolution declaring the buildings surplus and transferring them to the Chattanooga Downtown Redevelopment Committee.
Received departmental updates from the Chattanooga Fire Department and the Youth and Family Development Center.
The mayor's office has been talking about redeveloping those buildings — the City Hall Annex on 11th Street, the Water Building on Lindsay Street and the former city wellness center on 1oth Street — for months.
Berke has proposed turning the buildings for redevelopment as part of the Innovation District, perhaps for business, retail and moderate-income housing.
But even on the day of the council's first vote whether to declare the buildings surplus, the administration had not answered questions the council and the public have been asking for weeks: What are the buildings worth? Who might buy them, and for what re-use? Where would the city employees whose offices are in those buildings go and how much would it cost to relocate them?
At the council's strategic planning session Tuesday, Berke's chief of staff, Stacy Richardson, said it would be "very fair" to delay the vote while the administration hones its approach.
Rather than declaring the building surplus as a first step, she said, that could become step three or four, while other questions are answered.
"I think there is a true potential to put these properties back on the tax rolls and make them part of the thriving Innovation District," Richardson said.
Councilman Jerry Mitchell said he had talked with the administration and thanked Berke's staff for being willing to adjust the timing. He said the council wants to ensure minority and female participation in the projects.
"We understand disparities in the communities, and the council is working with the administration to step up and do something about it," Mitchell said. "We want to put our money and our votes where our mouth is to show some improvements in the minority community."
Councilmen Chip Henderson and Darrin Ledford agreed.
"This is a great opportunity but we certainly need all the facts in order to make the right decision," Henderson said.
Council members supported another economic development change proposed by the administration. They voted 9-0 to pump more money into and ease requirements for the Small Business Incentive Grant Program and the Innovation District Grant Program in hopes of getting more businesses to participate.
Charita Allen, with the city's economic development office, said both programs give money grants to businesses that hire new workers.
The small business grant would double, from $500 to $1,000, for companies that hired five or more workers and extend the time period from a year to 18 months.
Allen said 24 businesses have collected awards averaging $2,400 since the program started in 2015.
The Innovation District grant was created in 2015 and no companies have applied so far, she said. So the city wants to reduce the number of jobs from 25 to 10, extend the period from a year to 18 months, and quadruple the incentive from $250 to $1,000 per job.
In addition, the grant will be available across the city, not just in the Innovation District, to companies that are in the business of innovation or creation.
Russia has accused European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton of interfering in the country's internal affairs.
Dmitry Medvedev has not only become the lamest of lame ducks, but his political partnership with Putin appears to have outlived its sell-by date.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has expressed a wish to see the country's children play with toy guns and tanks made in Russia rather than the West.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov says Moscow will not stop selling weapons to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, one of Russia's top arms customers.
Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboroneksport has reported sales of $11 billion in 2011, a rise of more than $2 billion from the previous year.
Russia's chief health inspector, Doctor Gennady Onishchenko, has forbidden Muscovites from participating in opposition protests this weekend -- unless they dress warmly.
A Russian opposition group erected a huge banner reading "Putin, Go Away" on a rooftop facing the Kremlin today.
Russian Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin says the wave of public protests that has hit Russia in recent months is a sign that "people care."
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has instructed a state bank to bail out a bankrupt travel company that has left thousands of Russian tourists stranded abroad.
This will be a long post, but I hope it will be helpful for the new airforce wife that wrote in!
I highly recommend going to any pre-move briefing available on your base. Your husband most likely must go to this and spouses are encouraged to attend as well.
I recommend a couple of books: Today's Military Wife and Married To The Military. There are many books out there, but these two books helped me a great deal, they have good information on PCSing and explanations of the entire PCS process.
Make 10-20 copies of your orders, you will need them. If your husband will not be there the day of the move or the day they deliver the goods to your new location, make sure you have a special power of attorney from JAG to act on his behalf for the move (this is very important if you will be moving alone due to TDY or deployment.) Be sure you know what you will be getting for DLA and what your household goods weight allowance is.
I am a pre-planning fool. PCSing several times has caused my OCD planning habits to worsen, that is for sure. I begin going through the entire house room by room months before a move. I call this my making weight allowance cleaning. I go through and make piles to throw away, to give away, to sale in a yard sale. I also separate all of my husbands pro gear from the rest of the house.
I then go through all paperwork and make sure I have everything of importance and file them and put them into storage bins or small filing cabinets that I can load into our car or uhaul trailer. I have had things get lost during moves, so I never trust the movers with paperwork, things with SSNs or anything of great sentimental value such as jewelry, etc. I always keep it with us. This includes all of my husbands military paperwork, marriage certificates, birth certificates, passports, school records, tax returns and so on. I either put all of these items in my car ahead of time or have one room of the house off limits to the movers with a sign on the door, PLEASE KEEP OUT, DO NOT PACK THIS ROOM!
I also take down all pictures off of the walls, take down curtains and wash them. I also throw dryer sheets into boxes or containers with my clothing and linens while they are being packed. I never let the movers touch my undergarments, etc. I always bag them up myself and then leave them in the drawers. I also find it helpful to wash my silverware and put it all in zip lock bags. Yes, I have OCD!!!
In the Do Not Pack Room you may also want to put a few pillows, blankets, an air mattress, a pot and pan, etc, anything you will need to stay afloat until you actually hit the road for your new duty station.
One the day your movers come do try to have a few snacks and sodas, water or coffee available to them. They will appreciate it. You can also offer to get them pizza or something else that is cheap and quick for lunch, it is up to you. If you have a several day experience, as in they pack you for 2 days and load on the third day, you do not have to feel obligated to purchase them food each of those days, but offering drinks and snacks is a nice gesture.
Take pictures or videos of everything and close ups if you can. You can even video the movers while they are there if it makes you feel better. I don't do that, but I do know many families that do. Write down lists of all movies, cds, etc if your movers are packing these. Also write down all of the serial numbers for all electronic items and if you have time, put a personal mark on them, DON'T use SSNs. Keep these lists with you during the move.
If you feel the movers are not doing their jobs well or are being rude, showing up late, etc DO CALL your transportation office and let the transpo officer know. That is what they are there for.
If you have animals it is best to crate them or put them out in a fenced backyard while the movers are there. On the same pet note, I have found that most bases/posts do not have temporary lodging facilities that allow pets, so you must plan accordingly for this and it seems that each base/post has a different total animals allowed regulation for military housing. An example is that we live on a post that allows 3 animals, we are moving to a post that only allows 2 animals so we had to let our friends adopt one of our dogs. I hope that in the future there will be a military wide animal amount allowed per family in military housing and that more bases/posts will have temp lodging that allows animals, but until then, check out all of these rules in advance of your move.
Try to plan out your driving route and hotel accommodations in advance, especially if you have pets and/or children. You are only alloted so many days of paid (after the fact) travel depending on the miles from your current location to your new duty station, your husband can ask about this when he files paperwork before your move.
Keep every receipt you get, food, gas, hotel, weight if you are hauling a trailer, storage facility at your new location, etc. DO NOT count on DLA to cover the entire cost of your move and find out how many days you are alloted from the military in temporary housing. They will only pay for so many days (on base or off) and if you don't get housing quickly, you will then begin to pay out of pocket for a hotel. You will begin to get BAH, but that normally never covers the cost of extended stays in hotels. It is good to look into housing in advance. If you plan to live on post you can call the housing office in advance, they may or may not be able to project anything, but my experience has been to not buy or rent unseen. Bad experiences there.
I know this sounds stressful and is a lot to digest, but trust me, after you do it once, it becomes like old hat by the time the next move comes around. If you have time and the means, take your time while driving to your next duty station, take an alternate route, stop and see something fun or interesting or even visit some family or friends.
Warren Buffett became very rich and famous because he is a terrific investor. Not everyone agrees with his political stances, but his ability to achieve great return on investments is unquestioned.
Most people are familiar with the parable in the Bible of the 10 talents. Two servants who made wise investments were praised and rewarded with even more opportunities, while the one servant who simply attempted to preserve his talent was referred to as wicked, and his one talent was taken from him.
The point is, we have these very complex brains for a reason. Our intricate frontal lobes allow us to extract information from the past and the present, process it and project it onto the future — as a plan. This means we can plan, strategize, and figure out ways to maximize the return on our investment.
If we are observant and analytical, we also have the ability to see what is happening in our environment and take steps to change direction if we don't like it, or accelerate down the pathway if we do like what we are seeing.
An examination of American society today would show we are consolidating power in the hands of relatively few politically powerful or financially powerful individuals — while the middle class, which was once the seat of power — is rapidly shrinking and the dependent class is rapidly expanding.
This is clearly not the model the Founders of this nation were trying to create. In fact, our Constitution was designed to prevent this from occurring. Instead of complaining and despairing, we the people must recognize this nation was built around us — not around the government.
The government is supposed to exist for the purpose of facilitating life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for the citizens of this nation. It must conform to our will, rather than impose its will upon us.
When it comes to investing in the future of our country, we should remember we had a meteoric rise among the nations of the world because we quickly developed a can do attitude. Investments returning us to that kind of thinking will be extremely valuable.
Instead of fighting each other, we should use our collective intellect, fashioning programs allowing us to invest in our fellow Americans, with the return on investment being deliverance from a state of dependency and realization of the tremendous potential for achievement residing in each of us — regardless of station of birth. We can indeed become successful investors.
I'm not saying the government is wicked, but like the wicked servant, its programs confine people in a state of dependency, rather than advancing and empowering them to become independent contributors to society.
A tremendous amount of resources resides in American business, industry, Wall Street, churches, charitable community organizations, and private families. I have witnessed a number of impressive organizations around the country whose members have decided — without government intervention — to invest in less fortunate members of their own communities, with spectacular results.
Every person the private sector invests in is likely to become a contributor to society, ultimately helping to raise the tide that floats all boats. Purveyors of hatred and division don't like our system, believing we should all worship at the throne of government. They wish to create dissatisfaction with the current system — in order to fertilize the ground for a fundamental change.
We don't need a change. We need a fix. With the can do attitude, once such an important part of our identity, we can achieve the greatest return on investment our nation has ever seen.
The latest news from MarketWatch on the proposed withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Fearing a Stock Market Correction? Think Options, One Analyst Says.
Another big library bill for council tax payers?
Council taxpayers in Lincolnshire could be hit by another whopping bill if a judge grants a second judicial review over proposed changes to the county’s library service.
Lincolnshire County Council spent more than £100,000 at a judicial review trying to defend its plans to shove 30 libraries into the hands of volunteers while keeping 15 core libraries.
The council now intends to keep that model of service while having it run by an outside organisation instead of keeping it “in house”.
Council executive member for libraries Coun Nick Worth said: “We’ve been notified that the decision on whether or not to grant permission for a judicial review will be taken in court at an oral hearing before a judge on 21 and 22 July.
“If permission is not granted, the claim will fail. If permission is granted, the court will proceed immediately at the same hearing to decide whether the challenge has any merit.
“We are now preparing the strongest possible defence. Sadly, this will mean further – and, in our opinion, unnecessary – expense for taxpayers.
“In the meantime, we’ll continue to implement our plans to create a new-look library service, including working with local groups to develop the network of community hubs.
Burson-Marsteller has appointed a former G4S comms chief as UK chairman.
Mike Love is set to join B-M next week, following the departure of Gavin Grant last year to become chief executive of the RSPCA.
Until March, Love led strategic comms for G4S' cash transportation arm, G4S Cash Solutions. He previously held pan-European roles at McDonald's and Microsoft.
Love also had a career in political campaign management, including five years as party agent to then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
As chairman, he will work across B-M practices on pitches and new business, as well as providing counsel to clients. Love will report to chief executive Matt Carter.
The move is Love's first agency-side role. He told PRWeek he knew the agency well, having worked with B-M in several of his roles.
The appointment follows B-M's creation of a worldwide leadership team to oversee global business.
Chief executive officer for EMEA, Jeremy Galbraith, takes on the additional role of worldwide vice-chair for strategy.
On Saturday night, he was Walk-Off Wilmer.
Wilmer Flores smacked a walk-off, solo homer to left field in the ninth inning, giving the Mets a 6-5 comeback victory over the Athletics before a crowd of 39,629, many hoping to get a Noah Syndergaard/Thor bobblehead.
Flores, of course, had the famous walk-off homer two years ago two days after he cried when he thought he was going to be traded. The Mets erased a 5-0 deficit and have won four in a row.
Zack Wheeler gave up five runs in five innings, four of them in the first. He surrendered seven hits and four walks while striking out six. Over his last six starts, Wheeler (3-8) has a 9.89 ERA, his overall ERA for the season ballooning from 3.45 to 5.21.
Wheeler served up a homer to Matt Joyce on the second pitch of the game. A walk, single, walk, double and sac fly later, the Mets trailed 4-0 after a half-inning in which Wheeler threw 36 of his 100 pitches. The Mets have a 7.11 ERA in the first inning this season.
Jay Bruce's 25th homer of the year, a two-run shot, began the Mets' four-run rally in the sixth. Lucas Duda tied the game with a pinch-hit single in the eighth. Josh Smoker, Josh Edgin and Hansel Robles combined to throw four shutout innings out of the bullpen.
Khris Davis leaped, missed and crashed into the left-field wall in the sixth inning on Jose Reyes' deep fly ball. That allowed Reyes to reach third for his second triple. He then score on Travis d'Arnaud's RBI single.
Duda pinch-hit for Josh Edgin, who threw two scoreless innings of relief, in the eighth inning and delivered the game-tying, RBI single, the Mets finding the equalizer they fell just short of in their four-run sixth inning.
Reyes (above), who has been scorching in the month of July, during which he's now 22-for-61 (.361) with 11 extra-base hits and nine runs.
9. Reyes recorded two triples in one game for the ninth time in his career. He last did it with the Marlins on Sept. 7, 2012, and was the last Met to do it on May 29, 2011.
Travis d'Arnaud finished 3-for-3 with a double and an intentional walk. He scored the tying run in the eighth after he hit a two-out double.
A day after professing his love for Oakland and Bob Melvin, Yoenis Cespedes went 0-for-5. He struck out swinging with the game tied in the ninth.
Terry Collins on getting the win with many contributions: "It can really mean a lot. Anytime, the way things have been going, if you can help out in a big win like this, if you can make an impact, I think it helps the entire spirit of the club."
Rocko, Spunky and Heffer are back for more wacky adventures and surreal moments in modern life as they know it in O-Town. Relive more hilarity-filled misadventures of Australian wallaby Rocko and his gang when Rocko’s Modern Life: Season Two 2-DVD set arrives in stores nationwide for the first time on February 7, 2012 from Shout! Factory. Packed with all 22 brain-popping adventures and special bonus content, this DVD set features an all-new cover art illustration by series creator Joe Murray. The collectible Rocko’s Modern Life: Season Two DVD set is priced to own with a suggested retail price of $19.93.
Created by award-winning animator Joe Murray for Nickelodeon, Rocko’s Modern Life boasts an all-star voice cast — Carlos Alazraqui (CatDog), Tom Kenny (SpongeBob SquarePants), Charlie Adler (Aaahh!!! Real Monsters), and Doug Lawrence (SpongeBob SquarePants). Memorable antics from Season Two include a bad hair day for newspaper photograph, Rocko’s Modern Christmas special, Rocko and Filburt’s travel to TV Central, appendicitis and more!
Rocko’s Modern Life is one of the most celebrated Nick animated classics. A favorite with viewers and critics alike, this hit animated series debuted in 1993. Over the course of its four-season run on Nickelodeon, the series garnered a Daytime Emmy® Award and an Environmental Media Award.

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