test
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Top Australian brain surgeon makes appeal to Congress
A leading Australian brain surgeon has travelled to Washington to lobby Congress to help fund his plan for a brain cancer cure within 10 years.
Dr Charlie Teo told Congressional representatives and advisers that the devastating disease costs the economies of Australia and the United States billions of dollars every year.
Money is tight in Washington as mandatory cuts to government spending are starting to bite.
But the Australian surgeon says he had a receptive audience, as Brendan Trembath reports from Washington.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Last month the US president Barack Obama announced a $100 million plan to map the brain.
The Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo hopes it will help advance the treatment of brain cancer.
He's gone to Washington to speak to the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus.
CHARLIE TEO: Well I was invited to present a White Paper to the US Congress on the importance of funding brain cancer research.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: How hopeful are you that there might be some money about? It's a tough time for the US economy and the Congress is deadlocked.
CHARLIE TEO: They were very honest about that, actually, they did mention that it's tough times. But I don't know if they're just talking the talk, but they did say all the things that I wanted them to say, and that is that they felt that mapping the human brain and understanding the human brain was a frontier that really should have been explored centuries ago.
They have of course, as you know, sent people to the moon, they've explored the deepest oceans of the planet, and yet they haven't even explored probably our most powerful resource, the human brain.
So they said all the right things. And they also mentioned that in studying the human brain, one must study the diseases of the brain, and that's exactly what I want to try and impress upon them. It's useless just studying the brain without understanding the things that make it work and the things that make it don't work. And one of those things that's very important to me - and I think should be important to the world - is the study of brain cancer.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: How prevalent is brain cancer in the world?
CHARLIE TEO: Again, I tried to make that clear to them, that it's not a disease of developing nations, it's not a disease that's unique to one continent. It is unfortunately a very universal problem; it's a public health problem because it's increasing in frequency.
It's also a public health problem because it costs all nations so much money.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Associate professor Teo came to Capitol Hill with a leading researcher.
Kuldip Sidhu is professor of stem cell research at the University of New South Wales and the newly-elected president of America's Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics.
KULDIP SIDHU: This particular topic is quite commonly discussed here, and we found that our audience in the US Congress was quite educated in terms of what we were talking about.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: What's the timeline for mapping the brain?
KULDIP SIDHU: That's a good question. I think this is like asking "can you count the number of stars in the sky?" As I said in my talk, there are 100 billion neurones in the human brain. Think about the complexity of talking going on between the cells within the brain. It's a very, very complex system.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Next year Australia hosts the World Congress for Brain Mapping. Hundreds of specialists in the field will meet in Sydney.
This is Brendan Trembath in Washington for Saturday AM.
Dr Charlie Teo told Congressional representatives and advisers that the devastating disease costs the economies of Australia and the United States billions of dollars every year.
Money is tight in Washington as mandatory cuts to government spending are starting to bite.
But the Australian surgeon says he had a receptive audience, as Brendan Trembath reports from Washington.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Last month the US president Barack Obama announced a $100 million plan to map the brain.
The Australian neurosurgeon Charlie Teo hopes it will help advance the treatment of brain cancer.
He's gone to Washington to speak to the Congressional Neuroscience Caucus.
CHARLIE TEO: Well I was invited to present a White Paper to the US Congress on the importance of funding brain cancer research.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: How hopeful are you that there might be some money about? It's a tough time for the US economy and the Congress is deadlocked.
CHARLIE TEO: They were very honest about that, actually, they did mention that it's tough times. But I don't know if they're just talking the talk, but they did say all the things that I wanted them to say, and that is that they felt that mapping the human brain and understanding the human brain was a frontier that really should have been explored centuries ago.
They have of course, as you know, sent people to the moon, they've explored the deepest oceans of the planet, and yet they haven't even explored probably our most powerful resource, the human brain.
So they said all the right things. And they also mentioned that in studying the human brain, one must study the diseases of the brain, and that's exactly what I want to try and impress upon them. It's useless just studying the brain without understanding the things that make it work and the things that make it don't work. And one of those things that's very important to me - and I think should be important to the world - is the study of brain cancer.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: How prevalent is brain cancer in the world?
CHARLIE TEO: Again, I tried to make that clear to them, that it's not a disease of developing nations, it's not a disease that's unique to one continent. It is unfortunately a very universal problem; it's a public health problem because it's increasing in frequency.
It's also a public health problem because it costs all nations so much money.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Associate professor Teo came to Capitol Hill with a leading researcher.
Kuldip Sidhu is professor of stem cell research at the University of New South Wales and the newly-elected president of America's Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics.
KULDIP SIDHU: This particular topic is quite commonly discussed here, and we found that our audience in the US Congress was quite educated in terms of what we were talking about.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: What's the timeline for mapping the brain?
KULDIP SIDHU: That's a good question. I think this is like asking "can you count the number of stars in the sky?" As I said in my talk, there are 100 billion neurones in the human brain. Think about the complexity of talking going on between the cells within the brain. It's a very, very complex system.
BRENDAN TREMBATH: Next year Australia hosts the World Congress for Brain Mapping. Hundreds of specialists in the field will meet in Sydney.
This is Brendan Trembath in Washington for Saturday AM.
Monday, May 13, 2013
SEO news: Penguin 2.0 still weeks away, Cutts says
Whether Google releases a new Penguin algorithm update in the coming weeks or not, marketers still need to go through the same optimization steps to build stronger websites and create quality user experiences. A lot of chatter has flooded the web over the past week about potential updates to Penguin, Panda or any of Google’s 500 ranking signals, but the search engine company’s Matt Cutts took to Twitter to derail any Penguin talk that might take place.
Cutts tweeted that no new Penguin algorithm rolled out yet, but in the next few weeks, version 2.0 will hit the streets. Now, for those self-proclaimed SEO gurus who say, “Penguin 2.0? What about the previous two updates?” Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan is on your side, and he’s got the scoop. According to an exchange between Sullivan and Cutts on Twitter, Google refers to the minor Penguins tweaks last year as minimal refreshes, calling them Penguin 1.1 and Penguin 1.2. Cutts emphasizes that the internal Google team refers to the upcoming update as the true Penguin 2.0 because it will bring major changes to the search space.
Back in March 2013 at SMX West, Cutts told the audience that Penguin 2.0 would be the most talked about algorithmic change this year, which alarmed many marketers. The problem: SEOs get up in arms when any new ranking fluctuation influences their sites’ PageRanks. Understandably, dropping from Page 1 of Google SERPs to Page 2 can greatly affect organic traffic, and it’s easy to point fingers toward algorithms. However, marketers should once again stick to the basics of content creation to absorb and outmaneuver any Google update.
Last week when a subtle change to search rankings had people wondering if either Panda or Penguin hit again, Brafton advised SEOs and marketers to remember how content marketing can help deflect any updates. Creating unique, custom content for the web builds an informational hub for users, and positions brands as true thought leaders in their fields. More, content writing can lead to guest blogging opportunities, generating natural links to improve PageRank. These tactics all help businesses optimize their sites for search in honest ways, and these practices also cooperate with Google’s guidelines, so any update shouldn’t be a threat.
Of course, beware of the next Penguin coming out in a few weeks – it will be influential to search and discovery. But remember that content can be the much-needed ally, and it’s never too late to put an editorial strategy in place.
Cutts tweeted that no new Penguin algorithm rolled out yet, but in the next few weeks, version 2.0 will hit the streets. Now, for those self-proclaimed SEO gurus who say, “Penguin 2.0? What about the previous two updates?” Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan is on your side, and he’s got the scoop. According to an exchange between Sullivan and Cutts on Twitter, Google refers to the minor Penguins tweaks last year as minimal refreshes, calling them Penguin 1.1 and Penguin 1.2. Cutts emphasizes that the internal Google team refers to the upcoming update as the true Penguin 2.0 because it will bring major changes to the search space.
Back in March 2013 at SMX West, Cutts told the audience that Penguin 2.0 would be the most talked about algorithmic change this year, which alarmed many marketers. The problem: SEOs get up in arms when any new ranking fluctuation influences their sites’ PageRanks. Understandably, dropping from Page 1 of Google SERPs to Page 2 can greatly affect organic traffic, and it’s easy to point fingers toward algorithms. However, marketers should once again stick to the basics of content creation to absorb and outmaneuver any Google update.
Last week when a subtle change to search rankings had people wondering if either Panda or Penguin hit again, Brafton advised SEOs and marketers to remember how content marketing can help deflect any updates. Creating unique, custom content for the web builds an informational hub for users, and positions brands as true thought leaders in their fields. More, content writing can lead to guest blogging opportunities, generating natural links to improve PageRank. These tactics all help businesses optimize their sites for search in honest ways, and these practices also cooperate with Google’s guidelines, so any update shouldn’t be a threat.
Of course, beware of the next Penguin coming out in a few weeks – it will be influential to search and discovery. But remember that content can be the much-needed ally, and it’s never too late to put an editorial strategy in place.
Monday, April 29, 2013
Obama administration begins bullying campaign against Israel
It appears more and more each day that Barack Obama is deluding himself that he’s not only the President of the United States, but also the Israeli prime minister.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a stern warning to Israel: Do not attack Iran without the approval of the United States. This came fast on the heels of a demand from Secretary of State John Kerry delivered to the Israeli Knesset Wednesday to release Islamic terrorists in their custody as a gesture of “good will.”
On Sunday, WND.com’s Aaron Klein reported that “Hagel informed the Israeli government the Obama administration will not accept any unilateral Israeli attack against Iran” and “that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot decide alone whether Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold.”
That “nuclear threshold” is the so-called “red line” Netanyahu referred to in his September speech in the United Nations. The prime minister indicated that should Iran cross that nuclear threshold, Israel would have the duty and responsibility to proceed against Iran in order to protect herself.
Speaking Tuesday at a security conference in Tel Aviv, former head of IDF Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said that “for all intents and purposes, Iran has crossed Israel’s red line… in the summer, Iran will be a month or two away from deciding about a bomb,” according to the Times of Israel.
Last week The Jerusalem Post reported that defense secretary Hagel demanded that Israel release jihadists imprisoned by Israel as a “gesture of good faith,”
Knesset member Orit Struk reported, “the demand is shocking, not just because the peace talks must begin without preconditions, and not just because of the danger that these terrorists will return to terrorist activity once they are released, but because the release of terrorists is an energizing shot of encouragement to terror and terrorists.”
She continued, “Every release like this causes potential terrorists to make the decision to become one, because they see that they will be given support.”
During his 2009 European “apology tour,” President Obama claimed the Bush administration had “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” to its allies according to The Telegraph.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel delivered a stern warning to Israel: Do not attack Iran without the approval of the United States. This came fast on the heels of a demand from Secretary of State John Kerry delivered to the Israeli Knesset Wednesday to release Islamic terrorists in their custody as a gesture of “good will.”
On Sunday, WND.com’s Aaron Klein reported that “Hagel informed the Israeli government the Obama administration will not accept any unilateral Israeli attack against Iran” and “that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot decide alone whether Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold.”
That “nuclear threshold” is the so-called “red line” Netanyahu referred to in his September speech in the United Nations. The prime minister indicated that should Iran cross that nuclear threshold, Israel would have the duty and responsibility to proceed against Iran in order to protect herself.
Speaking Tuesday at a security conference in Tel Aviv, former head of IDF Military Intelligence Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said that “for all intents and purposes, Iran has crossed Israel’s red line… in the summer, Iran will be a month or two away from deciding about a bomb,” according to the Times of Israel.
Last week The Jerusalem Post reported that defense secretary Hagel demanded that Israel release jihadists imprisoned by Israel as a “gesture of good faith,”
Knesset member Orit Struk reported, “the demand is shocking, not just because the peace talks must begin without preconditions, and not just because of the danger that these terrorists will return to terrorist activity once they are released, but because the release of terrorists is an energizing shot of encouragement to terror and terrorists.”
She continued, “Every release like this causes potential terrorists to make the decision to become one, because they see that they will be given support.”
During his 2009 European “apology tour,” President Obama claimed the Bush administration had “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” to its allies according to The Telegraph.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Obama raises campaign money in California as protesters call for blocking Keystone XL pipeline
President Barack Obama is raising money for the Democratic Party in California, eager to weaken his Republican opposition in Congress even as he confronts protests from his liberal flank over a contested oil pipeline project that is awaiting approval from his administration.
Obama was attending four fundraisers for Democrats in the San Francisco area Wednesday and Thursday, urging donors to help wrest the House away from Republicans and to reinstate House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.
Environmental activists protested the pipeline, knows as the Keystone XL project, outside one of the events, and his host at another one is a vocal opponent of the project. The pipeline would transport oil from Canada’s tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
“No pipeline for the 1 percent,” demonstrators chanted about a block and a half from the Pacific Heights home of composer and philanthropist Gordon Getty, who was hosting a dinner fundraising event.
At a cocktail reception earlier, Obama did not address the pipeline, but discussed the environment broadly. The reception, for 100 donors who contributed between $5,000 and $32,400 each, was held at the home of Tom Steyer, owner of a capital management firm and who with his wife, Kat Taylor, finance environmental causes. Steyer opposes the pipeline.
The president said he needed Pelosi as a “fully empowered partner” to tackle issues such as climate change and to boost the economy.
But he cautioned that in pressing environmental issues, he also needed to keep in mind the economic needs of struggling Americans.
“The politics of this are tough,” he said. “If you haven’t seen a raise in a decade, if your house is still $25,000-$30,000 underwater, if you’re just happy that you still have that factory job that is powered by cheap energy ... you may be concerned about the temperature of the planet but it’s probably not rising to your No. 1 concern.”
He added: “Part of what we’re going to have to do is to marry a genuine, passionate concern about middle class families and everybody who’s trying to get to the middle class to show that we’re working just as hard for them as we are for our environmental agenda.”
Obama made his remarks just hours after pressing for legislation to tighten gun laws to an audience in Denver. Wednesday evening’s events were to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which assists candidates for the House. Thursday’s events will be to raise money for the Democratic National Committee.
Keystone opponents did not demonstrate at Steyer’s home given his opposition to the project.
“No doubt Tom Steyer, who is deeply committed, is going to be delivering a strong message to the president when he talks to him in person,” said Becky Bond, the political director of CREDO, a liberal activist group that organized the protest outside Getty’s home.
Getty and his wife, Ann, were hosting Obama at a fundraising dinner for an expected 75 donors who contributed $32,400 per person.
“We don’t come with $32,000 checks, so we have to be really loud,” Bond said.
The State Department, which has final say on the Keystone pipeline because it crosses an international border, issued an environmental report on the pipeline last month that found no evidence to block the project, raising worries among opponents that the administration was on track to give its OK. A public hearing on the report is scheduled for this month.
Obama has been under pressure from environmentalists to scuttle the project, whereas labor unions and Republicans have been pushing for its approval because of its potential to create jobs.
The project has received renewed attention in recent days because of an Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture in Arkansas on Friday that prompted the evacuation of nearly two dozen homes in the town of Mayflower in the central part of the state.
White House spokesman Jay Carney deflected questions about the Keystone project Wednesday, saying the decision rested with the State Department.
“When an incident like what has happened in Arkansas occurs, there are procedures in place. The EPA takes the lead; the responsible party is held responsible, as is the case in this situation,” Carney said.
As for Keystone, he said: “We’ve seen over time that there are strongly held views on this issue, on both sides. And the president is following a process that has been in place for quite some time, through multiple administrations of both parties, and that is the way it should be.”
Obama was attending four fundraisers for Democrats in the San Francisco area Wednesday and Thursday, urging donors to help wrest the House away from Republicans and to reinstate House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as House speaker.
Environmental activists protested the pipeline, knows as the Keystone XL project, outside one of the events, and his host at another one is a vocal opponent of the project. The pipeline would transport oil from Canada’s tar sands to Texas Gulf Coast refineries.
“No pipeline for the 1 percent,” demonstrators chanted about a block and a half from the Pacific Heights home of composer and philanthropist Gordon Getty, who was hosting a dinner fundraising event.
At a cocktail reception earlier, Obama did not address the pipeline, but discussed the environment broadly. The reception, for 100 donors who contributed between $5,000 and $32,400 each, was held at the home of Tom Steyer, owner of a capital management firm and who with his wife, Kat Taylor, finance environmental causes. Steyer opposes the pipeline.
The president said he needed Pelosi as a “fully empowered partner” to tackle issues such as climate change and to boost the economy.
But he cautioned that in pressing environmental issues, he also needed to keep in mind the economic needs of struggling Americans.
“The politics of this are tough,” he said. “If you haven’t seen a raise in a decade, if your house is still $25,000-$30,000 underwater, if you’re just happy that you still have that factory job that is powered by cheap energy ... you may be concerned about the temperature of the planet but it’s probably not rising to your No. 1 concern.”
He added: “Part of what we’re going to have to do is to marry a genuine, passionate concern about middle class families and everybody who’s trying to get to the middle class to show that we’re working just as hard for them as we are for our environmental agenda.”
Obama made his remarks just hours after pressing for legislation to tighten gun laws to an audience in Denver. Wednesday evening’s events were to benefit the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which assists candidates for the House. Thursday’s events will be to raise money for the Democratic National Committee.
Keystone opponents did not demonstrate at Steyer’s home given his opposition to the project.
“No doubt Tom Steyer, who is deeply committed, is going to be delivering a strong message to the president when he talks to him in person,” said Becky Bond, the political director of CREDO, a liberal activist group that organized the protest outside Getty’s home.
Getty and his wife, Ann, were hosting Obama at a fundraising dinner for an expected 75 donors who contributed $32,400 per person.
“We don’t come with $32,000 checks, so we have to be really loud,” Bond said.
The State Department, which has final say on the Keystone pipeline because it crosses an international border, issued an environmental report on the pipeline last month that found no evidence to block the project, raising worries among opponents that the administration was on track to give its OK. A public hearing on the report is scheduled for this month.
Obama has been under pressure from environmentalists to scuttle the project, whereas labor unions and Republicans have been pushing for its approval because of its potential to create jobs.
The project has received renewed attention in recent days because of an Exxon Mobil pipeline rupture in Arkansas on Friday that prompted the evacuation of nearly two dozen homes in the town of Mayflower in the central part of the state.
White House spokesman Jay Carney deflected questions about the Keystone project Wednesday, saying the decision rested with the State Department.
“When an incident like what has happened in Arkansas occurs, there are procedures in place. The EPA takes the lead; the responsible party is held responsible, as is the case in this situation,” Carney said.
As for Keystone, he said: “We’ve seen over time that there are strongly held views on this issue, on both sides. And the president is following a process that has been in place for quite some time, through multiple administrations of both parties, and that is the way it should be.”
Monday, March 18, 2013
Obama in Israel: Peace Process Is Surprisingly Resilient
President Obama is coming to Israel next week. Among other things, I hope that he is coming to restart the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. Most pundits remain pessimistic, but I remain hopeful. The following anecdote will explain why.
Last Sunday I gave a talk at St Bart's Church on Park Ave. and 51 St., in the heart of the prestigious East Side of New York. The talk was in the format of a public interview and took place at the "Rector's Forum" in the informal atmosphere of their famous "St. Bart's Cafe." When I arrived a few minutes early, I was warmly greeted by the new rector of St. Bart's, Rev. Buddy Stallings, to whom I had been introduced by a Jewish friend in New York last fall.
Rev. Stallings was greeting many of his congregants at the end of their worship services in their magnificent historic church when I walked in, and he immediately introduced me to a congregant by the name of George Mitchell. Yes, the very same Senator George Mitchell who was instrumental in bringing about the "Good Friday" agreement between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (in 1998 as the special envoy of President Clinton) which ended the decades old bloody conflict in that part of the world. I was, of course, greatly honored to meet him.
And when I began my talk on "The Other Peace Process -- Interreligious Dialogue in Israel in the Service of Peace," Senator Mitchell came into the room to be part of the audience. So I was even more honored. Moreover, since I knew that he had served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009-2011) under President Obama, I knew that I had to be careful to be historically accurate in what I said.
During the public interview, I was asked many difficult questions by the moderator, Rev. Stallings, but also by the attentive and perceptive audience. Undoubtedly, the most difficult question was: "What is the most difficult challenge that you encounter in your work in peace-building through dialogue in your country and your region?" I replied that my most difficult challenge is attempting to engage in dialogue among Jews and Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) in an atmosphere of ongoing political stalemate and the resulting individual and communal despair which leads many people to believe that our conflict will never be resolved.
I explained that it has been almost 15 years since the last peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was the Wye River agreement in 1998 (signed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, which only proves that he can make a peace agreement with the Palestinians if he really wants to). Moreover, the decade that began in the year 2000 -- which was characterized by the failure of the Camp David talks in August of that year, and which was followed a month later by the outbreak of the Second Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) -- was a decade in which separation replaced normalization and despair replaced hope.
This has led most people on both sides -- Israelis and Palestinians -- to be despondent and to believe that this conflict could go on forever. Even though polls on both sides show that both peoples still strongly desire a two state solution, most people do not see it coming in the near future. This has led to a dangerous psychological and conceptual situation in which individuals see no way out of the current impasse.
Toward the end of the conversation, Senator Mitchell rose to make a comment. He told us that five days before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland, a public opinion poll revealed that 84 percent of the people on both sides of the conflict felt that the conflict would never end. And yet it ended with an agreement that has led to the cessation of the cycle of violence and the beginning of power-sharing and reconciliation among the parties to the conflict there.
So conflicts can and do end. And ours will end in the Middle East, hopefully sooner, rather than later.
And then we can get on with the real work of peace-building, i.e., of training Palestinians and Israelis to learn to live together in mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. This will be a long-term project, which will involve many sectors of civil society on both sides, including rabbis, imams and priests, educators, youth, students, young adults and women. It will be a decades long educational, religious, spiritual and psychological process in order to secure safety and wellbeing for all people in our region. We in Israel have already begun to do this through our work in interreligious dialogue and education for peace. But when the peace agreement is actually completed, we will have a lot more work to do!
Last Sunday I gave a talk at St Bart's Church on Park Ave. and 51 St., in the heart of the prestigious East Side of New York. The talk was in the format of a public interview and took place at the "Rector's Forum" in the informal atmosphere of their famous "St. Bart's Cafe." When I arrived a few minutes early, I was warmly greeted by the new rector of St. Bart's, Rev. Buddy Stallings, to whom I had been introduced by a Jewish friend in New York last fall.
Rev. Stallings was greeting many of his congregants at the end of their worship services in their magnificent historic church when I walked in, and he immediately introduced me to a congregant by the name of George Mitchell. Yes, the very same Senator George Mitchell who was instrumental in bringing about the "Good Friday" agreement between the Protestant majority and the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland (in 1998 as the special envoy of President Clinton) which ended the decades old bloody conflict in that part of the world. I was, of course, greatly honored to meet him.
And when I began my talk on "The Other Peace Process -- Interreligious Dialogue in Israel in the Service of Peace," Senator Mitchell came into the room to be part of the audience. So I was even more honored. Moreover, since I knew that he had served as the U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009-2011) under President Obama, I knew that I had to be careful to be historically accurate in what I said.
During the public interview, I was asked many difficult questions by the moderator, Rev. Stallings, but also by the attentive and perceptive audience. Undoubtedly, the most difficult question was: "What is the most difficult challenge that you encounter in your work in peace-building through dialogue in your country and your region?" I replied that my most difficult challenge is attempting to engage in dialogue among Jews and Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) in an atmosphere of ongoing political stalemate and the resulting individual and communal despair which leads many people to believe that our conflict will never be resolved.
I explained that it has been almost 15 years since the last peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, which was the Wye River agreement in 1998 (signed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, which only proves that he can make a peace agreement with the Palestinians if he really wants to). Moreover, the decade that began in the year 2000 -- which was characterized by the failure of the Camp David talks in August of that year, and which was followed a month later by the outbreak of the Second Intifada (Palestinian Uprising) -- was a decade in which separation replaced normalization and despair replaced hope.
This has led most people on both sides -- Israelis and Palestinians -- to be despondent and to believe that this conflict could go on forever. Even though polls on both sides show that both peoples still strongly desire a two state solution, most people do not see it coming in the near future. This has led to a dangerous psychological and conceptual situation in which individuals see no way out of the current impasse.
Toward the end of the conversation, Senator Mitchell rose to make a comment. He told us that five days before the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland, a public opinion poll revealed that 84 percent of the people on both sides of the conflict felt that the conflict would never end. And yet it ended with an agreement that has led to the cessation of the cycle of violence and the beginning of power-sharing and reconciliation among the parties to the conflict there.
So conflicts can and do end. And ours will end in the Middle East, hopefully sooner, rather than later.
And then we can get on with the real work of peace-building, i.e., of training Palestinians and Israelis to learn to live together in mutual respect and peaceful coexistence. This will be a long-term project, which will involve many sectors of civil society on both sides, including rabbis, imams and priests, educators, youth, students, young adults and women. It will be a decades long educational, religious, spiritual and psychological process in order to secure safety and wellbeing for all people in our region. We in Israel have already begun to do this through our work in interreligious dialogue and education for peace. But when the peace agreement is actually completed, we will have a lot more work to do!
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Anticipating Obama In Israel
No matter how hard he tries, President Obama cannot lower expectations surrounding his visit to Israel.
Yes, we'll hear a great deal about how this is only—as American Ambassador Dan Shapiro put it—about sending a clear message "to the Israeli nation, to neighboring countries, and to the American nation, regarding the strong and deep connection between the two countries," as if clear isn't crystal by now, especially to Palestinians. And, yes, Obama and Netanyahu have personal tensions to alleviate, so that, once the president gets here, both men will go through the motions, like the president and John Boehner pretending to overlook the other's stiffer-than-usual golf swing.
But it's not personal. It's business. The president is walking into a land of forlorn hopes, which in spite of everyone's better judgment have been rekindled by his reelection. If he endeavors to keep hope dead, something bad will begin to happen. He doesn't have the luxury of doing no harm with empty platitudes.
As Sam Bahour and I argued recently in the New York Times, two-thirds of Israelis would support a two-state agreement, but more than half of even left-of-center Israelis said Mr. Abbas "could not reach binding decisions to end the conflict." At the same time, 52 percent of Palestinians favor a two-state resolution (a drop from three-quarters in 2006, before two Israeli clashes over Gaza), but two-thirds judged the chance of a fully functional Palestinian state in the next five years to be "low or nonexistent."
Translation? Moderates on both sides still want to see the peace process renewed, but they are being shrunk by a status quo that's explosive. The settlement project continues, Hamas gains in prestige, and the only way to see beyond a grinding fight to the finish is an American-sponsored peace process in which, finally, the president can be expected to put a thumb on the scales to outweigh the thumbs of Netanyahu's political allies.
Just anticipating Obama in Jerusalem is spooking Israeli politics. You do the math: Netanyahu could, if he wanted to, build a tight, rightist coalition very much like the one he had for the past four years, albiet with 61 seats—63 if you include Shaul Mofaz—not the 65 he had before. (Menachem Begin had 61 in 1981.) But Netanyahu, by all accounts, is simply afraid of sitting in a room with Obama and telling him that settlements cannot be scaled back, or Jerusalem cannot be discussed, because this will cause Moshe Feiglin or Naftali Bennett to pull the plug on his government. Like it or not, Obama is a kind of coalition partner, too. All expect Netanyahu to concede just about anything to get Yair Lapid into the coalition, just to prove he has a proxy for U.S. interests and sensibilities.
For his part, it is true, Lapid seems more focused on "equality of burden-sharing" than on peace negotiations, code for getting haredim into the labor force and the army; he knows his votes came from a revolution of the employed, taxed and conscripted against spongers. But even if some of Lapid's voters consider all peace efforts naive—that we don't have a partner, yada, yada—the settlement project persists and, to most of Lapid's voters, settlers feel as burdensome as haredim. Lapid's "moderation" may be little more than an incipiently guilty conscience—you know, the prospect of having to defend settler fanaticism to the world—yet nobody inflames this conscience more than Obama 2.0.
For all Israelis, now, Obama may be Mr. President-ally, but he also embodies the hybridity of globalist forces, as well as skepticism regarding Zionist special pleading. Everybody supposes he'll give everything for Sderot, nothing for Tapuach—that unlike Reagan and Bush, he's smart enough to know the difference. Unlike Obama 1.0, however, Obama 2.0 is strong enough to enforce the difference.
The Israeli press, certainly, assumes Obama will get to the Palestinians sometime after his visit to Yad Vashem, just like he got to taxes with Boehner sometime after the 15th hole. Yesterday morning, "informed sources" told Israeli radio correspondents that Obama will "seek assurances" from Netanyahu that Obama will be able to pursue negotiations, public and otherwise, with Iran without "military surprises" from Israel. In a heartbeat, Arye Golan shifted to Palestine, wondering aloud whether, by conceding a non-strike on Iran, Netanyahu might deserve less pressure on curtailing settlers—as perfect an example of the narcissism of the Israeli "consensus" as you're likely to hear. (Presumably, the reward for not dragging the U.S. into a precipitous regional war should be less pressure on ending what the region considers an ongoing causus belli.)
The point is, Obama is expected to provide some kind of political horizon, which means public gestures for Palestinian statehood and against the settlement project. He cannot appear cavalier about this expectation. If the next four years will seem continuous with the last four, tempers will flare, especially in Palestine, and violence will come to seem inevitable. All the wrong people on both sides will be saying "I told you so."
Okay, Obama will have to make the rounds with Netanyahu at the Knesset, and speak reassuringly about Israeli security. But he should also do what Joe Biden did: fill an auditorium at Tel Aviv University. Or, if security arrangements can be worked out, fill Rabin Square, as Mayor Ron Huldai has asked. There, he should lay out, albeit in broad terms, principles for a two-state deal: the 1967 borders with land swaps, two capitals in an undivided Jerusalem, security arrangements buttressed by American monitors and bilateral defense agreements, and a refugee solution consistent with the modalities worked through at Taba and in the Olmert-Abbas talks. And then he should count the ovations and watch them be transformed into new political facts.
A speech of this kind along with a presidential visit to Ramallah—where officials will receive him as representatives of an internationally recognized state—will finally provide the region what it's needed all along: a way for the sides to trust in the future without having to trust one another, and a process European countries can rally to. In any case, Obama cannot leave the region the same place it was before he came. History may bend toward justice but hopelessness bends it back.
Yes, we'll hear a great deal about how this is only—as American Ambassador Dan Shapiro put it—about sending a clear message "to the Israeli nation, to neighboring countries, and to the American nation, regarding the strong and deep connection between the two countries," as if clear isn't crystal by now, especially to Palestinians. And, yes, Obama and Netanyahu have personal tensions to alleviate, so that, once the president gets here, both men will go through the motions, like the president and John Boehner pretending to overlook the other's stiffer-than-usual golf swing.
But it's not personal. It's business. The president is walking into a land of forlorn hopes, which in spite of everyone's better judgment have been rekindled by his reelection. If he endeavors to keep hope dead, something bad will begin to happen. He doesn't have the luxury of doing no harm with empty platitudes.
As Sam Bahour and I argued recently in the New York Times, two-thirds of Israelis would support a two-state agreement, but more than half of even left-of-center Israelis said Mr. Abbas "could not reach binding decisions to end the conflict." At the same time, 52 percent of Palestinians favor a two-state resolution (a drop from three-quarters in 2006, before two Israeli clashes over Gaza), but two-thirds judged the chance of a fully functional Palestinian state in the next five years to be "low or nonexistent."
Translation? Moderates on both sides still want to see the peace process renewed, but they are being shrunk by a status quo that's explosive. The settlement project continues, Hamas gains in prestige, and the only way to see beyond a grinding fight to the finish is an American-sponsored peace process in which, finally, the president can be expected to put a thumb on the scales to outweigh the thumbs of Netanyahu's political allies.
Just anticipating Obama in Jerusalem is spooking Israeli politics. You do the math: Netanyahu could, if he wanted to, build a tight, rightist coalition very much like the one he had for the past four years, albiet with 61 seats—63 if you include Shaul Mofaz—not the 65 he had before. (Menachem Begin had 61 in 1981.) But Netanyahu, by all accounts, is simply afraid of sitting in a room with Obama and telling him that settlements cannot be scaled back, or Jerusalem cannot be discussed, because this will cause Moshe Feiglin or Naftali Bennett to pull the plug on his government. Like it or not, Obama is a kind of coalition partner, too. All expect Netanyahu to concede just about anything to get Yair Lapid into the coalition, just to prove he has a proxy for U.S. interests and sensibilities.
For his part, it is true, Lapid seems more focused on "equality of burden-sharing" than on peace negotiations, code for getting haredim into the labor force and the army; he knows his votes came from a revolution of the employed, taxed and conscripted against spongers. But even if some of Lapid's voters consider all peace efforts naive—that we don't have a partner, yada, yada—the settlement project persists and, to most of Lapid's voters, settlers feel as burdensome as haredim. Lapid's "moderation" may be little more than an incipiently guilty conscience—you know, the prospect of having to defend settler fanaticism to the world—yet nobody inflames this conscience more than Obama 2.0.
For all Israelis, now, Obama may be Mr. President-ally, but he also embodies the hybridity of globalist forces, as well as skepticism regarding Zionist special pleading. Everybody supposes he'll give everything for Sderot, nothing for Tapuach—that unlike Reagan and Bush, he's smart enough to know the difference. Unlike Obama 1.0, however, Obama 2.0 is strong enough to enforce the difference.
The Israeli press, certainly, assumes Obama will get to the Palestinians sometime after his visit to Yad Vashem, just like he got to taxes with Boehner sometime after the 15th hole. Yesterday morning, "informed sources" told Israeli radio correspondents that Obama will "seek assurances" from Netanyahu that Obama will be able to pursue negotiations, public and otherwise, with Iran without "military surprises" from Israel. In a heartbeat, Arye Golan shifted to Palestine, wondering aloud whether, by conceding a non-strike on Iran, Netanyahu might deserve less pressure on curtailing settlers—as perfect an example of the narcissism of the Israeli "consensus" as you're likely to hear. (Presumably, the reward for not dragging the U.S. into a precipitous regional war should be less pressure on ending what the region considers an ongoing causus belli.)
The point is, Obama is expected to provide some kind of political horizon, which means public gestures for Palestinian statehood and against the settlement project. He cannot appear cavalier about this expectation. If the next four years will seem continuous with the last four, tempers will flare, especially in Palestine, and violence will come to seem inevitable. All the wrong people on both sides will be saying "I told you so."
Okay, Obama will have to make the rounds with Netanyahu at the Knesset, and speak reassuringly about Israeli security. But he should also do what Joe Biden did: fill an auditorium at Tel Aviv University. Or, if security arrangements can be worked out, fill Rabin Square, as Mayor Ron Huldai has asked. There, he should lay out, albeit in broad terms, principles for a two-state deal: the 1967 borders with land swaps, two capitals in an undivided Jerusalem, security arrangements buttressed by American monitors and bilateral defense agreements, and a refugee solution consistent with the modalities worked through at Taba and in the Olmert-Abbas talks. And then he should count the ovations and watch them be transformed into new political facts.
A speech of this kind along with a presidential visit to Ramallah—where officials will receive him as representatives of an internationally recognized state—will finally provide the region what it's needed all along: a way for the sides to trust in the future without having to trust one another, and a process European countries can rally to. In any case, Obama cannot leave the region the same place it was before he came. History may bend toward justice but hopelessness bends it back.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Obama to lobby for immigration reform amid citizenship dispute
Obama plans to hold a series of White House meetings with corporate chief executives, labor leaders and progressives on Tuesday to lobby for their support, and he has dispatched Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to the Southwest to tout the administration's border security efforts.
The flurry of activity, including new moves in Congress, comes amid disagreement between the Democratic president and many Republicans over the question of citizenship for illegal immigrants, an obstacle that could make it hard to reach a final deal on sweeping legislation.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, will address immigration reform and other issues in a speech on Tuesday to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
In excerpts to that speech, Cantor walked a fine line on future citizenship for those in the United States illegally. "We must balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those waiting to enter this country legally, with care for people and families, most of whom just want to make a better life and contribute to America," he said.
Obama is expected to use his February 12 State of the Union speech to Congress - a major annual address by the president in which he lays out his legislative priorities for the year - to keep the heat on Republicans, who appear more willing to accept an immigration overhaul after they were chastened by Latino voters' rejection in the November election.
But differences have emerged since Obama and a bipartisan Senate working "group of eight" rolled out their proposals last week aimed at the biggest U.S. immigration revamp in decades.
Obama wants to give America's 11 million illegal immigrants a clear process to achieve citizenship, including payment of fines, criminal background checks and going to the "back of the line" behind legal applicants. He has vowed to introduce his own bill if Congress fails to act in a timely fashion.
But top Republicans want to defer citizenship until the county's borders are deemed more secure - a linkage that Obama and most of his fellow Democrats would find hard to accept.
Obama's aides are confident the president has enough leverage to avoid giving ground. They believe that if the reform effort fails in Congress, voters are more likely to blame the Republicans and they would suffer in the 2014 midterm congressional elections.
The Republican strategy could soon become clearer. The Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled House, where reform faces the toughest fight, will kick off hearings on Tuesday with a broad look at the immigration system and border security.
A congressional Democratic aide said Republicans have lined up a set of witnesses that is "a lot more balanced than you would have seen in previous Congresses, when you would have seen hard-line enforcement-only advocates be front and center."
SETTING NEW TONE
A number of leading Republicans, worried that their party has alienated Hispanics with anti-immigrant rhetoric, have made clear they want to set a new tone with the fast-growing Latino electorate. More than 70 percent of Hispanic voters backed Obama in the November 6 presidential election.
Immigration reform advocates will watch the hearing closely to see whether Republicans mostly stress piecemeal reforms, such as more border security and more guest workers and high-tech visas, rather than the comprehensive reforms that Obama and the Democrats are seeking.
Some conservatives have warned that the reform efforts now taking shape essentially could offer "amnesty" for law-breakers.
A bipartisan House group has been working behind the scenes on a reform package they hope to unveil before the State of the Union. But it was unclear whether they would meet that goal.
Underscoring the difficulty of resolving such a volatile issue, Republican Jeff Sessions, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday introduced narrow legislation aimed at removing illegal immigrants from the workplace.
"Before considering some broad-based amnesty, shouldn't we finally deliver for the American people on the enforcement of those laws already in place? What good are new promises when old ones are being broken," Sessions said.
At the White House on Tuesday, Obama will try to rally business and labor leaders with a sales pitch that immigration reform will be good for the fragile U.S. economy and help boost job creation, administration officials said.
Obama will meet with chief executives from 12 companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc's Lloyd Blankfein, Yahoo Inc's Marissa Mayer as well as Arne Sorenson of Marriott International Inc, Jeff Smisek of United Continental Holdings Inc, and Klaus Kleinfeld of Alcoa Inc.
He was also scheduled to meet with leaders from labor and progressive organizations such as the NAACP and AFL-CIO.
The flurry of activity, including new moves in Congress, comes amid disagreement between the Democratic president and many Republicans over the question of citizenship for illegal immigrants, an obstacle that could make it hard to reach a final deal on sweeping legislation.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, the second-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, will address immigration reform and other issues in a speech on Tuesday to the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
In excerpts to that speech, Cantor walked a fine line on future citizenship for those in the United States illegally. "We must balance respect for the rule of law and respect for those waiting to enter this country legally, with care for people and families, most of whom just want to make a better life and contribute to America," he said.
Obama is expected to use his February 12 State of the Union speech to Congress - a major annual address by the president in which he lays out his legislative priorities for the year - to keep the heat on Republicans, who appear more willing to accept an immigration overhaul after they were chastened by Latino voters' rejection in the November election.
But differences have emerged since Obama and a bipartisan Senate working "group of eight" rolled out their proposals last week aimed at the biggest U.S. immigration revamp in decades.
Obama wants to give America's 11 million illegal immigrants a clear process to achieve citizenship, including payment of fines, criminal background checks and going to the "back of the line" behind legal applicants. He has vowed to introduce his own bill if Congress fails to act in a timely fashion.
But top Republicans want to defer citizenship until the county's borders are deemed more secure - a linkage that Obama and most of his fellow Democrats would find hard to accept.
Obama's aides are confident the president has enough leverage to avoid giving ground. They believe that if the reform effort fails in Congress, voters are more likely to blame the Republicans and they would suffer in the 2014 midterm congressional elections.
The Republican strategy could soon become clearer. The Judiciary Committee of the Republican-controlled House, where reform faces the toughest fight, will kick off hearings on Tuesday with a broad look at the immigration system and border security.
A congressional Democratic aide said Republicans have lined up a set of witnesses that is "a lot more balanced than you would have seen in previous Congresses, when you would have seen hard-line enforcement-only advocates be front and center."
SETTING NEW TONE
A number of leading Republicans, worried that their party has alienated Hispanics with anti-immigrant rhetoric, have made clear they want to set a new tone with the fast-growing Latino electorate. More than 70 percent of Hispanic voters backed Obama in the November 6 presidential election.
Immigration reform advocates will watch the hearing closely to see whether Republicans mostly stress piecemeal reforms, such as more border security and more guest workers and high-tech visas, rather than the comprehensive reforms that Obama and the Democrats are seeking.
Some conservatives have warned that the reform efforts now taking shape essentially could offer "amnesty" for law-breakers.
A bipartisan House group has been working behind the scenes on a reform package they hope to unveil before the State of the Union. But it was unclear whether they would meet that goal.
Underscoring the difficulty of resolving such a volatile issue, Republican Jeff Sessions, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, on Monday introduced narrow legislation aimed at removing illegal immigrants from the workplace.
"Before considering some broad-based amnesty, shouldn't we finally deliver for the American people on the enforcement of those laws already in place? What good are new promises when old ones are being broken," Sessions said.
At the White House on Tuesday, Obama will try to rally business and labor leaders with a sales pitch that immigration reform will be good for the fragile U.S. economy and help boost job creation, administration officials said.
Obama will meet with chief executives from 12 companies including Goldman Sachs Group Inc's Lloyd Blankfein, Yahoo Inc's Marissa Mayer as well as Arne Sorenson of Marriott International Inc, Jeff Smisek of United Continental Holdings Inc, and Klaus Kleinfeld of Alcoa Inc.
He was also scheduled to meet with leaders from labor and progressive organizations such as the NAACP and AFL-CIO.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Before a Departure, a Rare Joint Interview
They sat side by side, trading laughs and finishing each other’s thoughts. Five years ago, the very prospect of such a moment would have been “improbable,” as one of them put it.
But now as the improbable partnership between President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton winds down with her pending departure from the cabinet, the two rivals-turned-allies sent a public signal of solidarity on Sunday — at a time when one has run his last election and the other is contemplating one more.
The unusual joint interview with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” was noteworthy mainly because it happened. Neither broke much ground in describing the journey that took them from bitter opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 to collaborators in dealing with terrorism, war, diplomacy and global economics.
But the picture of comity was presumably what the White House wanted when it proposed the interview to CBS in the first place.
“I consider Hillary a strong friend,” Mr. Obama said.
“Very warm, close,” Mrs. Clinton said.
The two laughed off the meaning of the interview for the 2016 election, when many Democrats expect Mrs. Clinton to run again. Mr. Obama could hardly endorse her when his vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., appears to be angling for the party’s nomination as well.
“You guys in the press are incorrigible,” Mr. Obama told Steve Kroft when he asked about the 2016 race during the interview, which was taped last week. “I was literally inaugurated four days ago, and you’re talking about elections four years from now.”
Mrs. Clinton suggested that it might even be illegal for her to answer. “I am still secretary of state,” she said, “so I’m out of politics. And I’m forbidden from even hearing these questions.”
Mrs. Clinton said she was still recovering from the concussion she suffered last month after falling and hitting her head. Among other things, she has to wear glasses for the time being instead of contact lenses. “I have some lingering effects from the concussion that are decreasing and will disappear,” she said. “But I have a lot of sympathy now when I pick up the paper and read about an athlete or one of our soldiers who’s had traumatic brain injury.”
Mr. Obama defended himself against criticism that he has been too passive on the world stage, pointing to his intervention in Libya, where a revolution aided by NATO warplanes led to the death of the country’s longtime dictator. “Muammar Qaddafi probably does not agree with that assessment,” Mr. Obama said of the criticism, “or at least if he was around, he wouldn’t agree with that assessment.”
The president lavished praise on Mrs. Clinton for her discipline, stamina and talent. And they put a glossy shine on history by brushing off the tough primary attacks five years ago as the product of trying to find differences where, they now say, there actually were not that many.
“Despite our hard-fought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country,” Mrs. Clinton said.
“Made for tough debates, by the way,” Mr. Obama added, “because we could never figure out what we were different on.”
“Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard,” she said.
As for any residual bad feelings, they said it had taken their aides longer to get over it than it had taken them. “What did evolve was a friendship, as opposed to just a professional relationship,” Mr. Obama said. “Friendships involve a sense of trust and being in the foxhole together. And that emerged during the course of months when we were making some very tough decisions.”
But now as the improbable partnership between President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton winds down with her pending departure from the cabinet, the two rivals-turned-allies sent a public signal of solidarity on Sunday — at a time when one has run his last election and the other is contemplating one more.
The unusual joint interview with Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton on the CBS News program “60 Minutes” was noteworthy mainly because it happened. Neither broke much ground in describing the journey that took them from bitter opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 to collaborators in dealing with terrorism, war, diplomacy and global economics.
But the picture of comity was presumably what the White House wanted when it proposed the interview to CBS in the first place.
“I consider Hillary a strong friend,” Mr. Obama said.
“Very warm, close,” Mrs. Clinton said.
The two laughed off the meaning of the interview for the 2016 election, when many Democrats expect Mrs. Clinton to run again. Mr. Obama could hardly endorse her when his vice president, Joseph R. Biden Jr., appears to be angling for the party’s nomination as well.
“You guys in the press are incorrigible,” Mr. Obama told Steve Kroft when he asked about the 2016 race during the interview, which was taped last week. “I was literally inaugurated four days ago, and you’re talking about elections four years from now.”
Mrs. Clinton suggested that it might even be illegal for her to answer. “I am still secretary of state,” she said, “so I’m out of politics. And I’m forbidden from even hearing these questions.”
Mrs. Clinton said she was still recovering from the concussion she suffered last month after falling and hitting her head. Among other things, she has to wear glasses for the time being instead of contact lenses. “I have some lingering effects from the concussion that are decreasing and will disappear,” she said. “But I have a lot of sympathy now when I pick up the paper and read about an athlete or one of our soldiers who’s had traumatic brain injury.”
Mr. Obama defended himself against criticism that he has been too passive on the world stage, pointing to his intervention in Libya, where a revolution aided by NATO warplanes led to the death of the country’s longtime dictator. “Muammar Qaddafi probably does not agree with that assessment,” Mr. Obama said of the criticism, “or at least if he was around, he wouldn’t agree with that assessment.”
The president lavished praise on Mrs. Clinton for her discipline, stamina and talent. And they put a glossy shine on history by brushing off the tough primary attacks five years ago as the product of trying to find differences where, they now say, there actually were not that many.
“Despite our hard-fought primary, we had such agreement on what needed to be done for our country,” Mrs. Clinton said.
“Made for tough debates, by the way,” Mr. Obama added, “because we could never figure out what we were different on.”
“Yeah, we worked at that pretty hard,” she said.
As for any residual bad feelings, they said it had taken their aides longer to get over it than it had taken them. “What did evolve was a friendship, as opposed to just a professional relationship,” Mr. Obama said. “Friendships involve a sense of trust and being in the foxhole together. And that emerged during the course of months when we were making some very tough decisions.”
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Tips to help stick to health related New Year resolutions
Forty-five percent of people will make a resolution at the start of 2013, yet less than half of those promises will still be in effect six months later.
Monday is like the January of the week: the day that people can reset their intentions after the weekend and try again. By recommitting to their resolutions every Monday, they get 52 opportunities to stick with it and incorporate healthier habits into their lives.
Plus, having a Monday resolution means people don’t have to do it alone.
The tips to help stick to their new year resolutions are
On Monday, people should eat a more diverse, nutrient-dense diet by swapping meat one day a week for fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.
People can take 8-11 quit attempts to kick smoking for good, so they should gain an advantage by recommitting to their quit every Monday
They should add more fitness into their daily life by starting the week with physical activity
They should maintain sexual health, their weekly reminder to call the clinic, set up a preventative health appointment, or restock on condoms and other essential supplies.
People should set aside some time each Monday to plan their needs for the week and ensure that they stay healthy.
Monday is like the January of the week: the day that people can reset their intentions after the weekend and try again. By recommitting to their resolutions every Monday, they get 52 opportunities to stick with it and incorporate healthier habits into their lives.
Plus, having a Monday resolution means people don’t have to do it alone.
The tips to help stick to their new year resolutions are
On Monday, people should eat a more diverse, nutrient-dense diet by swapping meat one day a week for fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains.
People can take 8-11 quit attempts to kick smoking for good, so they should gain an advantage by recommitting to their quit every Monday
They should add more fitness into their daily life by starting the week with physical activity
They should maintain sexual health, their weekly reminder to call the clinic, set up a preventative health appointment, or restock on condoms and other essential supplies.
People should set aside some time each Monday to plan their needs for the week and ensure that they stay healthy.
Monday, December 24, 2012
SEO Master Expert Reveals New Advanced Techniques in SEO
SEO master expert shares his views with MEST Education on new advanced SEO and SMM techniques
Online businesses in India are growing at a rapid pace. The fast paced world of online marketing demands the webmasters to research and stay up-to-date with not only existing, but also all the forthcoming SEO and SMM trends.
As part of his research, the well known SEO Master Expert and Trainer, Swapan Kumar has devised a new online marketing strategy combining the power of SEO and SMM techniques.
There are great benefits of combining SEO and SMM techniques, which many companies don't fully utilize, says Swapan Kumar, who has been working closely with a number of businesses in India, helping them achieve first page rankings with impressive ROIs.
Implementing a search engine optimization program with little or poor social media marketing is throwing money down the drain. Not knowing the missing link between the optimized content and SMM many companies incur huge losses on their e-commerce and other online ventures, added the SEO master expert.
When looking for SEO India service, SEO India company, or SEO India agency, his advice to businesses is to insist on an online marketing program that takes content optimization and social media optimization together.
The SEO trainer and founder of SEOMasterExpert.com added, Creating useful social content such as blogs, videos, images, and audio, making it available on social media platforms, making it searchable through search engines, and finally shared by millions of potential customers is a powerful way to reach an audience and improve a brand's visibility.
Online businesses in India are growing at a rapid pace. The fast paced world of online marketing demands the webmasters to research and stay up-to-date with not only existing, but also all the forthcoming SEO and SMM trends.
As part of his research, the well known SEO Master Expert and Trainer, Swapan Kumar has devised a new online marketing strategy combining the power of SEO and SMM techniques.
There are great benefits of combining SEO and SMM techniques, which many companies don't fully utilize, says Swapan Kumar, who has been working closely with a number of businesses in India, helping them achieve first page rankings with impressive ROIs.
Implementing a search engine optimization program with little or poor social media marketing is throwing money down the drain. Not knowing the missing link between the optimized content and SMM many companies incur huge losses on their e-commerce and other online ventures, added the SEO master expert.
When looking for SEO India service, SEO India company, or SEO India agency, his advice to businesses is to insist on an online marketing program that takes content optimization and social media optimization together.
The SEO trainer and founder of SEOMasterExpert.com added, Creating useful social content such as blogs, videos, images, and audio, making it available on social media platforms, making it searchable through search engines, and finally shared by millions of potential customers is a powerful way to reach an audience and improve a brand's visibility.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Ten tips for a healthy, holistic holiday
Make this holiday season one you really enjoy and feel good about,
and during. Why wait until January to slough off bad habits and to start
doing what will make you joyful and inspired? Joy ought to be what the
holidays are all about! Try out these techniques, and go find some now!
1. Breathe, deeply and with your belly.
When someone tells you in the heat of the moment “to take a deep
breath,” it can sound condescending. But if you seriously start the day
with deep breathing,
even just a few minutes, maybe those moments won’t get so heated. Belly
breathing activates the parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous
system to help you calm. If you breathe only into your chest instead,
the sympathetic branch stays engaged, putting you in a near-constant
state of fight-or-flight. So breathe into your belly even before you get
out of bed, or before you make breakfast, in front of a candle, under a
tree (or next to the tree in your living room), or every time you hit
“Send” or “Post.” You’ll be amazed how much happier your body will be
for the extra oxygen.
2. Leave the sugar to someone else
Yes, Virginia, it is possible to go an entire holiday season
consuming no sugar whatsoever. But the suggestion here is simply that
you stop using it in anything you make, drink or eat. If there are so
many goodies out in the world, and if you know you won’t abstain or be
able to keep the kids from overindulging, then just be sure not to add
any yourself. If you must bake sweets, experiment with using honey,
molasses, or maple syrup, or stevia. Or coconut flakes. Or just a lot of
applesauce and some extra spices and natural vanilla flavor. Be the
person who brings something to the party that won’t make the kids go
crazy. Load it with nuts if there are no allergies and let the richness
of those sustain you blood sugar levels. Sugar not only causes up and
down mood swings and contributes to sleep problems, but it can also
weaken your immune system and make you more likely to catch the cold of that snotty kid running through your neighbor’s living room.
3. Let go of negative emotions
If you’ve never heard of Emotional Freedom Technique,
prepare to be wowed. This technique of tapping certain spots on your
body can seriously make some of those annoying things that have weighed
on you for years – frustrating conversations, stupid mistakes, hurtful
words – just melt into thin air. A newer technique called WHEE (a combination of EFT and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing,
or EMDR) is even easier: you simply tap yourself on your forehead
alternating your index and middle fingers while you affirm that “Even
though” you feel (whatever emotion), you love and honor yourself. Be
sure to rate your level of the feeling before you start (1-10) so that
you stop when you notice the level has gone down to zero or the feeling
has shifted to something else. It may sound too good to be true, but
watch videos online and get ready to meet your new self without all that
baggage.
4. Go to bed by 10 p.m.
It’s tempting to stay up late shopping online, wrapping, baking, or
visiting with family. But our bodies really do need to do important work
in the night, and they need us to be sleeping to do it effectively. The
liver and gallbladder need to detox, but they can’t do that effectively
if you are engaged in activity. There’s a whole lot of interesting
chemistry related to times of rest and even seeing lights after a
certain hour. (Give your pineal gland the rest it wants and turn off the
tablet after dark!)
And, as tough as it may seem, try to keep kids’ bedtimes relatively stable and as early as you can. The book NurtureShock
makes a powerful case for consistency and for adequate sleep. Even
losing a half-hour for a few days in a row can dramatically alter how
kids perform on tests. Imagine, then, how they must feel. Talk about
sleep as something they are so lucky they get to do! Isn’t it true we
all wish we didn’t have so much work and responsibility that we could
spend more time sleeping? Help your children value rest!
5. Stop eating by 8 p.m.
It might seem like some kind of sacrilege to suggest, but your body
will thank you if you let it do its nighttime rituals of cleansing
without having to instead digest a whole bunch of new food. Ayurvedic practitioners
might even say to stop by 6 or 7 p.m., but 8:00 seems reasonable,
doesn’t it? Eat what you want, even a lot if you have to get yourself
out of a nighttime snacking habit. But then Just. Be. Done. You may be
surprised to find yourself sleeping better. It might feel good right
away or take your body a few days to adjust, but before long it will
just be what you do.
6. Eat with intention
Okay, so maybe there is a theme here. It’s about fully enjoying what
you’re doing rather than doing it to get by or just because you are
distracted or frustrated. This is especially important with food,
because what we put in really does become who we are. If you’ve got an
emotional attachment going on with, say, eating and stress, try EFT (see
above), but if it’s just a matter of habit, just pay attention and
start a new habit. Chew enough and slowly enough that your body gets the
signal it’s full. Sit and eat and only eat so that your body can use
its energy to digest. If it gets the signal that there is stress afoot –
like, say, that a bear is chasing you – your body is not thinking to
itself, “Let me break down this food.” Instead it’s saying, “Let’s pump
the adrenaline so that we survive to make it another day!” Drink only a
little – and nothing iced or cold – with food so that your digestive
juices don’t get diluted or the digestive process stalled by having to
bring everything up to body temperature.
7. Limit screen time
Whether you or your kids have sensory issues or not, everyone can
benefit from a little less blinking on the boob tube, especially at a
time when there are so many extra things to take in, from decorations to
performances to tasty treats. It might seem like relaxation to sit in
front of the TV, but give your senses a rest and watch only what is
really important to you. At other times, light a candle, read a book,
play a board game, draw a picture or, have a simple conversation, if you
must have some kind of input, just listen to some music if you don’t
have the means to play an instrument yourself.
8. Move your body
Some people say you need to exercise a minimum number of consecutive
minutes per day; others tell you multitask your muscle-time and just
walk further in parking lots and do squats each time you pick up
something for the floor. How about instead you just make the commitment
to spend some time – even five minutes – just moving your body and not
trying to accomplish anything else. Whether you sweat or not doesn’t
matter. Just get outside, or on the stairs, or on a bouncer, or on your
yoga mat, and tell yourself this is a gift. If you do it every day, it
will start to become something you look forward to, and then you can try
to up the minutes or set greater goals.
9. Get outside
Even if the gym or your treadmill at home are what gets you moving
your body in any kind of weather, do make sure that you also have some
connection with the natural world. Studies show that spending time in
nature can improve mood and concentration and provide a whole lot of
other great benefits. You don’t need to read a research report to see
for yourself. Even if you just get to the local park to shuffle through
leaves or to sled down your neighbor’s hill, make sure you spend some
time without walls around you.
10. Say thank you
Showing gratitude is not just the domain of lofty quotes by revered
thinkers; it is an everyday act that can totally shift how you feel and
how others around you feel. If people feel appreciated by you, they feel
better and go out to spread the good karma. We might be in the habit of
thanking people for gifts or for having us over to their home (and if
we aren’t, start now!), but we can also develop the habit of showing
gratitude for their very existence. It’s fun to practice: say thank you
to every person you can for anything you can think of. Start with the
cashier, the people who hold the door and other usual suspects. But go
on to thank the people who do volunteer work, even if they do it all the
time, and anyone who performs any action that in any way makes your
life easier or more enjoyable.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Tips for eating healthy during holiday season
First there’s Thanksgiving.
Turkey, pie, stuffing, cranberries, pie, ham, broccoli casserole, pie… the list of foods that add to the waistline drags on and on.
Turkey, pie, stuffing, cranberries, pie, ham, broccoli casserole, pie… the list of foods that add to the waistline drags on and on.
Now, a week removed from the first holiday of the holiday season, we’re in the early stages of a month-long engorging.
Parties are planned on every weekend, while those
tins with three kinds of popcorn – cheese, caramel and butter – come out
from hibernation.
And cookies. Oh, man, those cookies.
“It’s continuous for weeks and weeks,” said Carol
Reeder, a registered and licensed dietician at Jennie Edmundson
Hospital. “How do you get out of that rut?”
Reeder said unhealthy eating is a staple of the
holidays – “We know we’ll eat more calories” – and the key is
counteracting with physical activity.
“Get out and walk – we don’t have any excuses lately, we’ve had great weather,” she said.
Or go to the gym.
“It’s calories in, calories out. If you’re going to
eat food high in calories – those holiday favorites – then you have to
get out and burn those calories,” said Barb Fuller, a nutrition and
health program specialist for Iowa State University Extension and
Outreach who covers southwest Iowa.
Fuller noted treadmills, stationary bicycles and
other cardiovascular machines as a good option, especially when
temperatures drop. And if a person has room in their home, a workout
video is a great way to trim calories.
At those holiday parties, if they’re potluck, Reeder
suggested bringing a healthy dish – fruit, or a vegetable tray. Use fat
free sour cream when combining a packet of seasoning for dip. Make sure
salad dressings and gravy are on the side and limit portions to a
tablespoon.
Vegetables and fruits, along with whole grains, are key.
“Try to make sure half your plate are those items,” Reeder said.
Fuller passed along these “top ten survival tips.”
- Eat a light, healthy snack before a party. This will help you curb your hunger and make better choices.
- Limit alcohol. Enjoy one alcoholic drink, and then switch to diet soda or flavored water.
- Bring a low-fat holiday dish to the party, maybe some fruit or raw veggies.
- Keep minimal baked goods on hand. Only bake enough to give away or use for one party.
- Eat a large salad or hot broth based soup before a meal. This helps keep you full longer.
- Substitute healthier ingredients, replacing or reducing fat and sugar in baked goods.
- Make a goal with a friend to lose five pounds or to
maintain weight during the holidays. This way you have a valuable
support buddy.
- Remember the holidays are truly only 3 days. This
means if you blow it on those three days, you won’t cause much damage.
It is the vicious cycle of not enough exercise and too many calories on
the other days that cause weight gain through the year.
- Sign up for a 5K or a fitness walk or other event to keep you focused on physical activity.
- Finally celebrate and focus on what the holidays
are really about - family and friends. Find creative activities or ways
to get your family to play a game or be active instead of eating. Pick a
time to get together that does not involve a meal.
“It all comes down to a little planning ahead and
sticking to your goals,” Fuller said. “Not just saying ‘ahh, it’s the
holidays I’ll eat all this and gain 10 pounds.’”
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Cream Of Australia Aims To Rise To The Top In Adelaide
Riders in the northern hemisphere may have packed up for their winter break, but it’s all go at the other side of the world as competitors prepare for their premier event, Australia’s International 3 Day Event in Adelaide, the second leg of the HSBC FEI Classics™ 2012/2013.
The Australian event offers them a chance to get a
foothold on the leaderboard for the valuable HSBC FEI Classics™, in
which last year’s Adelaide winner, Stuart Tinney (AUS), secured fifth
place in the overall standings for the 2011/2012 season.
This year, Tinney, an Olympic gold medallist in 2000, rides the 14-year-old grey Pluto Mio, recent winner of the Goulburn CIC3*.
Two members of Australia’s 2008 Olympic silver medal team are competing: Shane Rose, who rides APH Moritz, second behind Pluto Mio at Goulburn and a recent winner of Berrima CIC3*, and Megan Jones.
Jones rides the veteran Kirby Park Irish Jester, the horse on which she won her Olympic medal, and also a team bronze at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games™ and four FEI World Cup™ Eventing competitions. The diminutive grey gelding is now 19.
There are seven CCI4* first-timers, one of whom will take home the HSBC Training Bursary worth US$1,000 for the best CCI4* début. One of the group is Craig Barrett, husband of the Australian team coach Prue Barrett, riding Sandhills Brillaire and Wendela Jamie.
The all Australian field will come before a Ground Jury led by Christian Landolt (SUI) as president, who is joined by Marilyn Payne (USA) and Vicky Brydon (AUS). Alec Lochore (GBR), who directed the Eventing competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games, will act as Technical Delegate.
The event, directed by double Olympic gold medallist Gill Rolton, literally stops the traffic, as the Cross Country takes place in the city centre, in Victoria Park, where Course Designer Wayne Copping is sure to have built another spectacular thriller.
This year, Tinney, an Olympic gold medallist in 2000, rides the 14-year-old grey Pluto Mio, recent winner of the Goulburn CIC3*.
Two members of Australia’s 2008 Olympic silver medal team are competing: Shane Rose, who rides APH Moritz, second behind Pluto Mio at Goulburn and a recent winner of Berrima CIC3*, and Megan Jones.
Jones rides the veteran Kirby Park Irish Jester, the horse on which she won her Olympic medal, and also a team bronze at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games™ and four FEI World Cup™ Eventing competitions. The diminutive grey gelding is now 19.
There are seven CCI4* first-timers, one of whom will take home the HSBC Training Bursary worth US$1,000 for the best CCI4* début. One of the group is Craig Barrett, husband of the Australian team coach Prue Barrett, riding Sandhills Brillaire and Wendela Jamie.
The all Australian field will come before a Ground Jury led by Christian Landolt (SUI) as president, who is joined by Marilyn Payne (USA) and Vicky Brydon (AUS). Alec Lochore (GBR), who directed the Eventing competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games, will act as Technical Delegate.
The event, directed by double Olympic gold medallist Gill Rolton, literally stops the traffic, as the Cross Country takes place in the city centre, in Victoria Park, where Course Designer Wayne Copping is sure to have built another spectacular thriller.
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Obama signals he's putting climate change on back burner
The fact that climate change got some attention at Wednesday’s
presidential press conference could be viewed as progress by
environmentalists, after they watched the issue go virtually ignored
during the just-concluded campaign.
President Obama
made many of the right sounds for activists on the issue. In response
to a question from the New York Times’s Mark Landler, Obama said America
must “make sure that this is not something we're passing on to future
generations, that's going to be very expensive and very painful to deal
with.”
But the president also signaled that reducing carbon
emissions comes nowhere near the top of his agenda, at least as he looks
forward to the start of his second term.
Obama repeatedly hammered away during the 50-minute session on the impending “fiscal cliff”
and his support of tax increases for the wealthy. He said he saw
“incredibly encouraging” signs for comprehensive immigration reform. But
when Landler asked about reducing carbon emissions, Obama only talked
about big challenges and the need for more dialogue.
“Understandably,
I think the American people right now have been so focused and will
continue to be focused on our economy and jobs and growth,” Obama said,
“that if the message is somehow we're going to ignore jobs and growth
simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody is going to go
for that. I won't go for that.”
This is the same president who,
in his first term, talked expansively about how clean-energy “green”
jobs could be the key to not only environmental progress but to job
creation. On Tuesday, Obama talked only in the broadest terms about
initiating a “conversation” with scientists, engineers and elected
officials to try to find areas for progress.
He said he would look
for “bipartisan support” to try to move the issue forward. It’s hard to
imagine where that support would come from, since many Republicans in Congress refuse to even acknowledge that global temperature increases can be tied to human activity.
When
reporter Landler said it sounded like there was no consensus to move
forward, Obama did not disagree. Instead, he turned the question back to
his theme of the day.
“Look, we're still trying to debate whether
we can just make sure that middle-class families don't get a tax hike,”
the president said. He said that is where his focus would remain for
the foreseeable future.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Election 2012: Obama Wins Pennsylvania and Its Latino Vote
President Barack Obama claimed victory in the Keystone state Tuesday
night and its 20 electoral votes, thanks in part to Pennsylvania’s
Latino voters.
According to Fox News exit polls conducted in the state, Obama
claimed 82 percent of Pennsylvania’s Latin voters. The Hispanic
population in the so-called battleground state is about 7 percent.
Fox News also reported that Obama claimed 54 percent of the vote in
Pennsylvania, with Romney grabbing 45 percent after just under 70
percent of the votes were reported.
Pennsylvania had been considered to be in Obama's column for much of
the campaign. But in recent days, as polls appeared to narrow, Mitt
Romney's campaign saw an opportunity. There was a late advertising blitz
for Romney, and the candidate added visits to Pennsylvania Sunday and
again on Election Day.
Former President Bill Clinton also spent the last days of the campaign in Pennsylvania trying to get out the vote for Obama.
Democrat, Sen. Bob Casey, has also won another term in Pennsylvania.
Democrat Bob Casey has won a second term in the United States Senate,
defeating his well-financed Republican challenger, Tom Smith, according
to a projection by the Associated Press.
Several TV networks have also called the race for Casey, 52, who is
now the winner of five consecutive statewide elections, including two
for auditor general and one for state treasurer.
Smith, a coal-mining millionaire from rural Armstrong County in
Western Pennsylvania, spent at least $17 million of his own money on the
race.
Early on, Casey had seemed a prohibitive favorite, but Smith's money -
together with help from national conservative organizations - made
Casey sweat coming down the stretch.
Voters in Indiana have rejected one of the two Republican Senate
candidates whose campaigns ran into trouble because of comments about
rape and abortion. Democrat Joe Donnelly defeated Republican Richard
Mourdock, who slipped in the polls after saying during a debate that
when a woman who is raped becomes pregnant, it's what "God intended."
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
My visit to golf's mecca, Bandon Dunes
For years, friends who were avid golfers told me I had to visit the “mecca.”
Last week, I did.
My two-day trip to Bandon Resort gave me a new appreciation for the Wonderful World of Golf.
I
played Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes, the two oldest courses. I
eyeballed Bandon Trails and Bandon Preserve, the latter the par-3 course
that opened in May. I didn’t get to see Old MacDonald, the latest of
the four full-scale courses that have made Bandon the target of golf
aficionados throughout the world. Next time.
Full disclosure: My
greens fees were complimentary, provided along with lodging at “The Inn”
by B.R. Koehnemann, Bandon’s director of communications, who doesn’t
have to worry about buying “positive” media coverage. The entire
experience sells itself.
I’m not a fan of “links” courses, the
station-to-station tracks designed along the lines of the Scottish and
Irish courses revered by so many in the golfing game. The shaved
fairways make it nice for a player who likes to putt from 50 feet off
the green, but very difficult to hit an iron shot off a surface as hard
as Ray Lewis’ forearms.
In August, I played a links course,
Chambers Bay near Tacoma, the already famed course that is set to play
host to the 2015 U.S. Open. Didn’t much care for it, and panned it in my
Tribune review. The fairways were mostly brown and rock-hard and, in
some cases, just rock and dirt. I didn’t think it was in very good
shape. There was a nice view of the bay, but no holes directly on the
water, far too many bunkers, and the rest of the scenery didn’t move me.
What to expect, I guess, from a course built atop what was once a
quarry.
Bandon was much a different story. But first, some history on how Bandon Dunes Golf Resort came to be.
Mike
Keiser, the owner and developer, is a Chicago resident who made his
fortune as co-founder of Recycled Paper Greetings, a greeting cards
company. Keiser, now in his late 60s, had played college golf at Amherst
and loves the game. Sometime in the 1980s, he made it a goal to build a
public course that could be the next Pebble Beach, or the Pinehurst of
the West.
Keiser’s pal, Howard McKee, was an architect and land
planner, though not a golfer. Keiser sent McKee, who had lived for a
short time in Portland, on a mission to find a suitable plot of land —
hopefully near the ocean in California or Oregon. Keiser, incidentally,
had never been to Oregon.
The initial piece of land, 1,215 acres,
was purchased for $2.4 million in 1991. Keiser soon bought 400 more
acres northward for an additional $2.3 million. Ironically, the land was
covered with gorse, a thorn, prickly plant indigenous to the United
Kingdom that had been introduced to Bandon many years earlier by an
Irishman.
Bandon Dunes opened in 1999. Pacific Dunes joined the
ranks in 2001, followed by Bandon Trails in 2005 and Old MacDonald —
named for C.B. MacDonald, a Chicago native and the first American who
called himself a golf course architect — in 2010.
My drive to
Bandon, along Interstate-5 before cutting over to Highway 38 through
Reedsport and Coos Bay, covered four hours and five minutes with little
traffic on a Wednesday morning. It’s a pleasant drive on a sunny day
through forest and farm land along the Coquille River before arriving on
the Bandon Resort property north of the coastal town.
The final
mile takes you on a wooded path to the secluded spot along the ocean
chosen by McKee. There are no homes bordering any of the courses and, I
am told, there never will be.
There are also no carts to be used
by golfers, or cart paths, on the premises. It would spoil the purity of
the round as enjoyed by those who initially played the game.
As
Keiser noted in the testimonial book, “Dream Golf,” written by Stephen
Goodwin, “I wasn’t interested in commercial golf. I was interested in
dream golf.”
Even so, the Bandon Resort is profitable, with
greens fees from $75 to $275 for each of its courses and revenue flowing
freely at the on-site lodging quarters, restaurants and lounges.
(Oregonians get a special golf rate during the “shoulder” season from
November to April.)
“Business is good,” Koehnemann tells me.
“We’re in the right kind of marketplace right now. We fit nicely into
the national golf scene.”
A shuttle bus takes you from the lodge
or your living quarters to all the courses and the practice center,
where I stop to hit a few balls. Most of my 20 or so practice balls are
well-struck and straight. Funny how that happens.
My first round
is at Pacific Dunes on a sunny afternoon. I’m told the Bandon golf
experience isn’t complete unless the wind is blowing. It comes into
play, for sure, on this day, though a caddy tells me the wind today is
only “moderate. You should have seen it yesterday.”
The winds are
gusting to maybe 25 miles per hour, meaning if it’s in your face,
you’re adding two or three clubs. And if it’s blowing sideways, a ball
you directed at the left side winds up way over there on the right.
I
join partners Dennis, an examiner for the Securities and Exchange
Commission from Washington D.C., and Lawrence, a lawyer out of Houston,
with caddies Larry and Brian. Dennis has gone for the full Monty during
his week in Oregon, playing Pumpkin Ridge, Salishan and all four Bandon
courses.
Dennis, a 12-handicapper, chooses to play from the
green, or middle, tees. Lawrence does, too. Thinking I’ll wade into the
shallow water first, I hit from the gold, or front, tees. The game is
hard enough for a 20-handicapper. (Memo to Lawrence: play from the golds
next time.)
Even with the winds, Pacific Dunes is a joy to play.
There are plenty of deep bunkers and the omnipresent gorse are a
problem whenever you stray off the fairway. I’m off course a lot but
manage to play my trouble shots well enough to have only two blow-ups
holes.
The greens are fast and, on this day, being sanded, an
adventure I could have done without. Virtually every hole is a test that
requires concentration. Some of the holes are forgiving, and you can
usually play out of the rough, but stay out of there if you can.
The
scenery is spectacular as advertised, with four holes along the water,
including Nos. 10 and 11 — back-to-back 3s that provide breath-taking
ocean views. The looping route, unlike on most courses, never takes you
back to the clubhouse until the final hole.
Pacific Dunes, a
little shorter than Bandon Dunes, is a par-71 with seven par-4s on the
front side and only two par-4s on the back side. Pacific is more hilly
than Bandon, with plenty of up and down and some great views from the
clifftops of the entire course.
I manage five pars during my
round, lose only two balls and finish at 47-47—94 — glad to break 100.
Steady Dennis shoots 83. Lawrence, a smile on his face throughout the
day, is more concerned with taking photos of the scene than keeping
score. We get around in four hours on a day when traffic is only medium
busy.
I wake to bright sun on Thursday morning, but by the time I
tee off at 11:40 a.m., heavy fog has rolled in. Our threesome has one
caddy, Josh, a 20-year-old West Linn native, who ably serves as a
seeing-eye dog until the fog lightens midway through the round.
My
partners are both from Vermont — John, a financial analyst, and Brian, a
dentist. They are excellent players and choose the black tees. I muster
up some courage and hit from the greens.
The Vermonters are
deeply disappointed the fog is robbing them of an ocean view. Over the
first few holes, we can hear the ocean roar, but can’t see clearly
beyond 50 yards or so. Midway through the round, when the fog eases,
they delight at holes wrapping the water and spend time soaking in the
experience.
There are a half-dozen holes oceanside, with the
par-3 15th probably my favorite. Nos. 4, 5 and 6 are all located along
cliffs that provide a dazzling look downward. What a chunk of land on
which to place a golf course, I find myself thinking.
More of the
greens here seem hard and more spotty than at Pacific. With the wind
and the weather conditions, they must be a bear to maintain. Part of the
problem, Koehnemann explains, is the desire to have fescue grass. Over a
period of time, poa works its way into the system.
“We’re
fighting the poa grass battle,” he says. “We want our greens to be pure
fescue. It’s something we’re constantly up against. We’ve made some
changes in our agronomy practices over the last couple of years that
have allowed us to focus on making sure the greens are void of poa and
all fescue.”
On both courses — especially Bandon — fairways are
well-maintained and not cut quite as short as at Chambers Bay. A good
player can get his iron through the ball. I’m on and off with that, but
manage to hit some true iron and hybrid shots through my round.
I
shoot another 47 on the front side but get it together on the back side
as I finally begin to figure out the fast greens, finishing at 41 for
88 on the par-72 layout. The round is slower — 4 1/2 hours, in part due
to the fog — but we are slowed by the group ahead of us only a couple of
times.
I like Pacific Dunes better than Bandon Dunes, but Bandon
doesn’t get a fair shake because of the foggy conditions. I ask a dozen
players for their preference and get a 6-6 split, which doesn’t
surprise me. They’re both rather splendid.
Golf Magazine
currently rates all four Bandon courses among its top 15 for public
courses in the U.S. — Pacific Dunes No. 1, Bandon Dunes No. 8, Old
MacDonald No. 9 and Bandon Trails No. 15.
Golf Digest has it
Pacific Dunes No. 2 (behind Pebble Beach), Bandon Dunes No. 5 and Bandon
Trails No. 14. Koehnemann says Old MacDonald, open for only two years,
won’t be eligible for Golf Digest’s top 100 until 2014.
Bandon
seems a men’s retreat. Over two days, I see only a handful of women
players. Caddies are all over the place. During the peak season, 360
caddies are registered, a higher number than at any public course other
than Pinehurst, Koehnemann tells me.
The Preserve is 13 holes of
par-3 golf that looks like a miniature version of the other courses.
It’s a non-profit venture, with net proceeds going to the Wild Rivers
Coast Lines, which fund environmental organizations. It is expected to
generate $750,000 in proceeds this year alone.
“To play 36 holes
(of regular golf) in a day is too much for a lot of people,” Koehnemann
says. “Now, you can play 18 in the morning, take a break, eat lunch and
then go play the Preserve.”
Keiser’s next project is “Bandon
Muni,” a 27-hole project on property south of the town of Bandon. It’s
contingent on a land-swap deal that between Keiser and the State Parks
Department. Oregon natives would pay nominal greens fees — somewhere
between $20 to $25 to start — while out-of-staters would pay the full
resort fees.
“We have a robust junior caddie and golf program,” Koehnemann says. “That would be the hub of our junior golf.”
Bandon
has played host to a number of major national public events, including
the 2005 Curtis Cup, the 2006 Mid-Amateur and the 2011 Men’s and Women’s
Amateur Publinks Championships. I suggest to Koehnemann it would be a
more fitting spot for the Ryder Cup or U.S. Open than would Chambers
Bay. He says it’s not going to happen.
“Mr. Keiser is committed
to growing the amateur game,” Koehneman says. “We would jump at the
opportunity to host a higher-profile event such as the U.S. Amateur or
the Walker Cup, but we have no bids to announce at this time.”
Fair
enough. Leave the courses for the public to enjoy for now. Bandon is a
treasure, even for those of us who play the game as it was never meant
to be played.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Ryan blasts NFL replacement refs ... and Obama
Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan woke up Tuesday with a bone to pick after watching what many are calling an NFL debacle.
"I got to start off on something that was really troubling that
occurred last night. Did you guys watch that Packer game last night? I
mean, give me a break," an exasperated Ryan said.
This being a presidential campaign, Ryan swiftly made a connection with his grievances against the Obama administration.
"It reminds me of President Obama and the economy. If you can't get it right, it is time to get out," Ryan continued.
"I half think these refs work part-time for the Obama administration
in the Budget Office. They see the national debt clock starring them in
the face, they see a debt crisis and they just ignore and pretend it
didn't even happen. They are trying to pick the winners and losers and
they don't even do that very well."
After their collective bargaining agreement expired earlier this
year, the NFL's pro refs were replaced with "elite" retired college
officials, officials from smaller non-BCS conferences, and some
officials from the Arena League.
The NFL and representatives of the locked out referees remain divided on annual salaries and pension plans.
Fans have been decrying bad calls ever since the season started but
the furor reached a fever pitch after Monday night's game when the Green Bay Packers lost to the Seattle Seahawks
on a controversial call on the last play of the game -- a desperation
pass that many thought was an interception but was ruled a touchdown.
All joking aside -- with his comments, Ryan, an unabashed Green Bay Packers fan, injected himself into an ongoing labor dispute.
"Like all football fans, he just wants the two sides to find a
resolution soon, campaign spokesman Brendan Buck told Fox News. "Like
before yesterday."
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Online Marketing & Search Engine Optimization Executive Future Group
1. Report to and co-ordinate with all necessary departments including
brands and technical department and marketing team to implement, and
continually improve E-Marketing mechanics.
2. Maintain and support E-marketing activity which should be reflected on business flow, B2C & B2B activities.
3. Test and analyze keywords, titles and other factors.
4. Research and evaluate competitors paid search marketing efforts and identify new search opportunities.
5. Find solutions to increase free traffic to the companys site through optimization of website pages, E-Marketing and Social Media activities.
6. Search engine and directory submissions.
7. Strategic link building development.
8. Ongoing SEO research and development.
9. Implement on-page & off-page optimization techniques to all pages of all brand websites.
10. Monitor and report on activities completed each day/week.
2. Maintain and support E-marketing activity which should be reflected on business flow, B2C & B2B activities.
3. Test and analyze keywords, titles and other factors.
4. Research and evaluate competitors paid search marketing efforts and identify new search opportunities.
5. Find solutions to increase free traffic to the companys site through optimization of website pages, E-Marketing and Social Media activities.
6. Search engine and directory submissions.
7. Strategic link building development.
8. Ongoing SEO research and development.
9. Implement on-page & off-page optimization techniques to all pages of all brand websites.
10. Monitor and report on activities completed each day/week.
Skills
1. A degree in information technology or a related field is preferable.
2. Minimum 3 years affiliate in E-marketing and SEO experience. 3. Online marketing, SEO, Social Media and web design skills.
4. Programming knowledge is a plus but not a requirement.
5. Should have knowledge about how the various Internet search engines function, pay per click handling, web stat programs and be comfortable with web design in WordPress and working with codes.
6. Ability to multitasking and meet tight deadlines.
2. Minimum 3 years affiliate in E-marketing and SEO experience. 3. Online marketing, SEO, Social Media and web design skills.
4. Programming knowledge is a plus but not a requirement.
5. Should have knowledge about how the various Internet search engines function, pay per click handling, web stat programs and be comfortable with web design in WordPress and working with codes.
6. Ability to multitasking and meet tight deadlines.
Company Profile
Future Group is a multinational company established in 1994 &
specialized in software internationalization and localization existing
in USA, UK, UAE, South Africa, Malaysia, Poland, Turkey and Egypt.
We are proud to be the 1st localization company in the Middle East and
North Africa.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)