The Ledes

Sunday, October 6, 2024

New York Times: “Two boys have been arrested and charged in a street attack on David A. Paterson, a former governor of New York, and his stepson, the police said. One boy, who is 12, was charged with second-degree gang assault, and the other, a 13-year-old, was charged with third-degree gang assault, the police said on Saturday night. Both boys, accompanied by their parents, turned themselves in to the police, according to Sean Darcy, a spokesman for Mr. Paterson. A third person, also a minor, went to the police but was not charged in the Friday night attack in Manhattan, according to an internal police report.... Two other people, both adults, were involved in the attack, according to the police. They fled on foot and have not been caught, the police said. The former governor was not believed to have been targeted in the assault....”

Weather Channel: “Tropical Storm Milton, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Saturday, is expected to become a hurricane late Sunday or early Monday. The storm is expected to pose a major hurricane threat to Florida by midweek, just over a week after Helene pushed through the region. The National Hurricane Center says that 'there is an increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge and wind impacts for portions of the west coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning late Tuesday or Wednesday.'”

The Wires
powered by Surfing Waves
Help!

To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

Link Code:   <a href="URL">text</a>

OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Contact Marie

Click on this link to e-mail Marie.

Sunday
May122013

Speaking Ill of the Dead

Maureen Dowd is right about this much:

... in this hottest of hot spots, the State Department’s minimum security requirements were not met, requests for more security were rejected, and contingency plans were not drawn up, despite the portentous date of 9/11 and cascading warnings from the C.I.A., which had more personnel in Benghazi than State did and vetted the feckless Libyan Praetorian Guard. When the Pentagon called an elite Special Forces team three hours into the attack, it was training in Croatia — decidedly not a hot spot.

Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Chris Stevens were rushing to make the flimsy Benghazi post permanent as a sign of good faith with Libyans, even as it sat ringed by enemies.

The hierarchies at State and Defense had a plodding response, failing to make any superhuman effort as the siege waxed and waned over eight hours.

This isn't new or newsy. In December,

an outside accountability review board has released its report on the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.... Former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chaired the outside accountability review board.... Overall, the report found that, 'Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies resulted in a security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.' ...

In a letter that accompanied the full report, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it 'a clear-eyed look at serious, systemic challenges that we have already begun to fix.' She said she accepted all of the recommendations. The report didn't single out specific individuals, but three State Department officials ... resigned....

(The unclassified version of the report is here.)

Dowd goes on to theorize about the Benghazi talking points, and here too her suppositions may be partially right:

In the midst of a re-election campaign, Obama aides wanted to promote the mythology that the president who killed Osama was vanquishing terror. So they deemed it problematic to mention any possible Qaeda involvement in the Benghazi attack.

Looking ahead to 2016, Hillaryland needed to shore up the mythology that Clinton was a stellar secretary of state. Prepared talking points about the attack included mentions of Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sharia, a Libyan militant group, but the State Department got those references struck.

But Dowd undercuts her own hypothesis when she reveals that the State Department staff who "got those references struck" was "Victoria Nuland, a former Cheney aide." Raise your hand if you think a former Cheney aide was totally into bolstering Hillary Clinton's presidential creds. No, I don't think Nuland was a Cheney mole determined to undermine Hillary's future political career. But Nuland's first inclination, having worked on the dark side, would certainly be toward more opacity, not less.

However, since we're looking for motivations, we should acknowledge that the talking points are a subject of discussion whose sole purpose is political. They were first an issue Fox and Friends raised to undermine President Obama's chance for re-election in 2012. Mitt Romney's debate meltdown put an end to that. (And thanks again, Candy Crowley.) So now, the National Republicans Congressional Committee and Karl Rove are moving on dot org to 2016:

Francis Wilkinson of Bloomberg News explains, at least in part, why Darrell Issa, et al., have been so enamored of Susan Rice's talking points:

Unlike Whitewater, a convoluted, shady-sounding and quite possibly greasy real-estate investment deal, Benghazi consists of a discrete event, a brief aftermath and not much of a paper trail. After all, how much paper is produced in the course of a frantic night of violence in a faraway place?

So paper production is the first order of business. We will need lots and lots of documents citing multiple sources whose large and small discrepancies in memory, perspective and testimony can subsequently be magnified, scrutinized and exploded into controversies.

What's a scandal without a paper trail? A Congressional scandalmonger needs something to subpoena, preferably something that the executive branch can claim is privileged or too classified for the likes of Darrell Issa to view. Hooray! More wrangling with the administration. More facetime on Fox!

Forget all that. The real question goes back to the beginning: WTF was Ambassador Chris Stevens doing at an unsecured consulate in Benghazi -- "this hottest of hot spots" -- on September 11? It suits no one's political purpose to lay the blame where it belongs, so Stevens is portrayed, even in the Accountability Review Board (ARB) Report, as an heroic martyr to Libyan democracy and American values.

In fact, Chris Stevens was a hotdogger who put himself, his staff and his security personnel at undue risk. He is a tragic figure only in the classical sense: he was directly reponsible for his own death and -- the deaths of three others. The ARB obliquely acknowledges this: "Embassy Tripoli did not demonstrate strong and sustained advocacy with Washington for increased security for Special Mission Benghazi" and describes the facility as having an "insufficient ... security platform." The Benghazi staff consisted of

relatively inexperienced American personnel often on temporary assignments of 40 days or less.... Plans for the Ambassador's trip [to Benghazi] provided for minimal close protection security support and were not shared thoroughly with the Embassy's country team, who were not fully aware of planned movements off compound. The Ambassador did not see a direct threat of an attack of this nature....

Notice how the report employs the passive voice and substitutes "Embassy Tripoli" for "Stevens." What the Board means is that Stevens put inexperienced temps in a dangerous facility with an "insufficient security platform," then popped off to join them (or whatever) without a proper security detail and without even telling staff where he was going and what he was doing because, you know, he just didn't think anybody in an unstable Muslim country would want to kill an American ambassador on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The evidence is that Chris Stevens saw himself as a modern-day Lawrence of Arabia, with "his knowledge of Arabic, his ability to move in all sectors of the population, and his wide circle of friends, particularly in Benghazi." Well, maybe not "all sectors" and maybe his circle of friends was not quite as wide as he imagined. As the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Stevens had a primary responsibility to protect Americans in Libya. But that responsibility conflicted with his dream of a horde of enthusiastic Libyans shouting, "Ste-VENS! Ste-VENS! Ste-VENS!" He put his personal ambitions before the safety of those in his charge. Stevens -- and other Americans -- are dead only because Stevens himself was woefully irresponsible.

The real scandal is the one that dare not speak its name.


P.S. Please feel free to use the Comments section to vehemently disagree with me.

Reader Comments (9)

Marie, I can't disagree, since from the first I reached the same basic conclusion. As Chief of Mission, Stevens had the best on-site information concerning the security situation in Benghazi, and he used his judgment to go there, then, with the protective detail he took. He got caught short on a bad night and died, with others.

Had he lived and others died that night, he would be squarely in the GOP/Fox sights. But we make heroes of our dead, and of those whose jugment is overcome by their optimism while engaged in national leadership. General Custer was surprised at the number of Sioux who came at him even though he had been told. Audacity and self-confidence had worked for him the past. He had a hard time imagining it would not work again.

In Stevens' defense: Foreign Service Officers expose themselves to danger every day. The long odds are that some will die. And when they do, the public finds it remarkable. Note that Ms. Smedinghoff's name and face were well-publicized after her tragic death in Afghanistan -- but her military colleagues who died from the same VBE were not. I suppose people expect soldiers to die for their country (i.e. are not surprised when they do) but still don't understand that civilians do, too.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

On this Mother's Day this mother and her husband are sitting side by side in their study both on their computers, both reading the real scandal that dare not speak its name. The husband who reads faster than his wife says, "Wow, Marie nails it!" and continues to read how exactly Marie has done that, but the wife says, shhhh, she wants to read it herself which she has and agrees that indeed Chris
Stevens, the darling of a small circle of Benghazi fans, evidently thought he was invincible thereby putting himself and others at risk. But for the Republicans who will grab at any straw even though slippery saw an opportunity to not only fault the administration, but Hillary–-their real target. And the nail that Marie hammers in is the simple fact that the dead ain't fodder for the fuckers, is it?

P.S. Victoria Nuland is married to Michael Kagan, the historian, whom if I remember correctly was touting the Iraq War and agreeing with Bush/Cheney on some issues.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

Re: Woulda', coulda', shoulda' theory. Catastrophic failure in infrastructure is almost always chained. There is no one thing that goes wrong, two or three or more things fail at the same time or like a zipper one link fails, followed by another at increasing speeds until collapse.
I look at the Benghazi disaster in the same way. If any two of the conditions had been different would the outcome be the same?
Patrick mentions ol' "yellowhair" as a classic example of things going bad. "No, General; I didn't see an Indian for miles; well, maybe a few." "Let's go get those pesky redskins, home by dinner."
The three orphans nobody wants to claim the parentage of; Woulda'; Coulda'; and little sister, Shoulda'; that's the spawn of Benghazi.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

I’ve been thinking for the past number of days since Marie said that I was, “about as cold-hearted & self-absorbed as one can get” because of my opinion against gun registration.
I have a couple of observations, if you’re willing to post them, or read them.
A lifetime ago I hitchhiked around 50,000+ miles through the flyover states and Canada. I came to the conclusion by the introductory offer of generosity that my rides displayed in picking me up, that most people are decent and mean well. A lot of the people who picked me up hitching were politically a whole lot more conservative and Republican than I am. They weren’t bad people, they had political elements to themselves, which I discovered in talking with them, I totally disagreed with.
Upon thinking the last number of days, I’ve come to the conclusion that some people in the pro-gun registration groups are just like me: I won’t vote for anyone anti-choice for abortion rights and to me that is the same thing as someone who won’t vote for a politician who is against gun registration. Both of us have the same inflexibility toward one political position.
On the front page of RealityChex recently was an article from Atlantic Monthly, What Really Sank Gun Control: Distrust of Government . For me, in a nutshell that’s what it is. I don’t accept that my distrust of government means I’m cold hearted and self-absorbed.
More important than your opinion of me, is that as I grow older I don’t lock myself into a way of thinking and neglect new information. Otherwise, learning and developing are just words. One commenter on RealityChex wrote something to the effect that they wouldn’t want to know someone with a different opinion against gun registration. I do want to know people with different views than my own. One of the great blessings I’ve had in my life is to work all over the world with lots of different people who don’t think like I do on all subjects. I try to listen to people. Most people are decent and mean well. Muslims, former Soviets, Scandinavians, South Americans, Canadians, hell even Texans mean well most of the time. Your opinion about me, says something about you. Even if I don’t speak your language, I got your vibe. Whether it is air-conditioning, automobiles or cable teevee, we’ve created a world where you can throw shit and not deal with neighborly consequences of unneighborliness.
The London Review of books article about Niall Ferguson calling Keynes “gay”, referred to in RealityChex, got me thinking about where you all gun registration supporters can go from here. Huh, you say? That whole give and take written in the LRB just seemed like perfect talking points about the refutation of a twit with a scholastic pedigree. I happen to own the “The Life of John Maynard Keynes” by R.E. Harrod, I’m a long time fan of Keynes. I’m not a DNC guy; I’m a guy who works in an occupation twice as dangerous as mining. When you work in a small insular environment and have to ‘go along to get along’ the blather of your opinion becomes secondary to the needs of the group. When you spend your life in a blue collar occupation some of that ‘get ‘er done’ thinking is bound to drive you. The pro-registration folks need to go outside their group for talking points to sell their point of view. And they need separation from the political parties and their machinations. All of the blather of Wayne LaPierre and the NRA are talking points waiting to be exploited and developed and target marketed. Instead of that, you address my heart temperature and the status of my ego vis-à-vis the outside world.
One talking point in support of registration is the ratio of car accident deaths to gun deaths. I didn’t know how many people die every year from guns. Repeat that ratio or relationship. The statistic that “90% of Americans supports gun registration” doesn’t fly where I live. This is the Internet Age: tailor your remarks accordingly. Here’s a suggestion: under 18 year car drivers have many different driving restrictions they didn’t have years ago: why not not compare the lack of gun regulations with car driving ones? I’m one person here. Where are the political people who do this messaging stuff every day? Or is this another case that as long as it is a problem, the political parties can raise money from it?

When you shut off discussions with those with whom you share 85% of your political views, you neglect using the faculties of give and take to sustain civil society and you do both people a disservice by removing yourself from review or critique of dialogue. Also, you are ultimately less effective at progress because the 15% of disagreement consumes a becomes the focus. So with all the aforementioned as explanation, this is my response. And labeling someone who disagrees with you as “about as cold-hearted & self-absorbed as one can get” brings you not one iota closer to your desired political resolution.
I hope to continue to believe that “a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet” and I enjoy your website.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

Marie this is a great clear-eyed logical view of the Benghazi situation. I hope you can find a wider audience for publication of an article on your thesis. I have been there with you in re: Stevens from day one. It should have been a gymnastic exercise in the 9.5 to 10 range to keep the subject away from Steven's role in his own demise as well as 3 other people. Instead it was all silent, all the time. I have commented on a few other sites and even sent an email to Rachel Maddow, shortly after the incident, urging her to explore Steven's role. Surprisingly, there was no one else commenting in this vein on other sites, as I have always felt the question was obvious.

As I indicated yesterday, the talking points obsession is completely irrelevant, not probative as the legal minds say. Speculation, in those 1st hours, which would name specific terrorists, is of no importance to anyone except those who have to find them. Benghazi is a tactic for a desperate pathetic, ignorant mob of mostly old white men who want to use it to disgrace and eliminate a whip smart black president. Not to embrace hyperbole, but its quite easy to see the constant vicious pursuit of this President as a contemporary metaphor for the doings of the Klan without the burning cross.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterDiane

As Patrick noted in his comment: "In Stevens' defense: Foreign Service Officers expose themselves to danger every day. The long odds are that some will die."

Yes, for sure that is true, and in certain countries that danger is obviously extremely high—that of Libya cannot be denied. Knowing this and going in to a country - especially after an uprising/turmoil - one would think that all precautions would be taken to assure that U.S. personnel would have proper security for their protection. It is stunning to view Google maps and see exactly where the American Consulate in Benghazi is/was located. It is absolutely and totally unfathomable that such a vulnerable site was selected.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterMAG

Re: Oh, what the fuck; I was going to add a little bit to my previous comment by asking the question; If you have over a thousand offices the world over; many in extremely dangerous locations, and those offices are the targets of hatred; would you not think that incidents like Benghazi would be prepared for and expected and avoided at most cost? To place the responsibility on Clinton or Obama is to ignore the realities of government work.

BUT; instead I got dragged back in...I swore I would write no more about guns because I think all the words in the world can't describe or influence the true believers. I gotta write; damn to hell...
Cit625 you seem like a reasonable man; "I’m a guy who works in an occupation twice as dangerous as mining." Cool; I like dangerous jobs; wonder if he's a roofer, maybe lumberjack; junior high bus driver, crabbing in the Arctic; he's OK. and; he likes other points of view. So, 625; you're heartless because your individual rights trump the society's rights when it comes to guns. C' 625 I don't give a damn if you have an Abrams tank in your garage; But when it's stolen and used to flatten a Seven-eleven I want the cops to know where it was stolen from. If by having your guns and WMDs listed somewhere saves one crazy ass from shooting up a school and you claim invasion of privacy; I say; not heartless; but not attuned to the times. Again, I don't know of a plan to take your guns away except in the minds of the NRA but if the weight of the Federal Government landed on your lawn; even your Abrams tank won't save you. So who cares? You register your car, your dog, your boat, all the tools you buy, register your guns; so?
Self-absorbed because you don't see the over-all picture. I have often times wondered why responsible gun owners wouldn't want guns to be registered. Why not have unlicensed cars and car drivers on the road? Because it's dangerous, duh.
I'm a registered driver with a registered truck; I don't fear my government on this point. Guns are mystical in the minds of many like you; 625; I don't want your guns taken away; or your myths. But if you don't like being called out on your selfishness you need to explain how unregistered guns help in todays world for us all.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterJJG

@Marie: I thought the same thing about Stevens from the get go. I saw the same "I'm invincible" attitude in Vietnam. I was guilty of it at times, too. If you escape unscathed many times, after awhile, you get the feeling "They can't get me. " Unfortunately, sooner or later, they will. Lucky for me that I left in time. I met a fellow in Germany who was trying to match Audie Murphy's medal count, They got him before he got the Medal of Honor--blew up his jeep with him in it. Not killed but too severely wounded to continue.

May 12, 2013 | Unregistered CommenterBarbarossa

@citizen625,
If I can get the gist of your lengthy post, its that you don't believe in gun registration because you don't trust the government. Exactly what government is it that you don't trust and what about it don't you trust? Government is nothing more than a collection of individuals doing jobs they've been hire, elected or appointed to do. Can you name me specifically which of these individuals you don't trust, and what that has to do with gun registration? Do you register your car? Do you get hunting licenses? Do you pay your taxes? These all require that we entrust our "government" with certain information. What is so special about your gun that exempts it? The fear that the government will take away your gun is an irrational one, which is a shame, because you sound like you could be a rational person. Except that you don't seem to care who gets killed with what guns. And if I'm wrong about that and you do care, than what is your suggestion to end gun violence. And please don't say more guns, because that is NOT a rational argument.

May 13, 2013 | Unregistered Commentercakers
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.