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Former US Attorneys: FISA Abuse Report Will Be 'Worse Than You Can Imagine' and 'Careers Will Be Ruined' [VIDEO]
By Raymond Draper	 On Nov 8, 2019
'Are we ever going to see this?' – Fox Business News' Lou Dobbs asked former U.S. Attorney Joe DiGenova and his wife, former DOJ Deputy Attorney General, Victoria Toensing, this week. They had some stunning predictions about the long-awaited DOJ Inspector General's report on FISA abuse during the 2016 election.
Yeah, this is what we'd all like to know, Lou.
Toensing tells him, "You are going to see it, Lou." but she can't give him a date and does not offer any predictions. She says, "But I can tell you this, we have darn good sources for this. It's going to be very bad for the people in the Obama administration. My source said to me, it's going to be worse than you can imagine."
"That's a heck of a tease, Victoria. I'm already chomping at the bit to get the thing," Turning to her husband and business partner Joe DiGenova, Dobbs says, "Your thoughts on that Horowitz report. It doesn't sound like it's going to be a tepid matter. Explosive, would you would say?"
DiGenova replies:
I would say explosive and I would say for people at the highest levels of the FBI and at the highest levels at the Justice Department, more important the Justice Department, it's going to be devastating. It's going to ruin careers. It's going to make people have bar problems…
Because what's clear now we know is that the senior levels of the Obama Justice Department were complicit in knowingly submitting materially false applications to the FISA court for an illegitimate counterintelligence purpose, not for a legitimate purpose but to spy on Americans for political purposes. It really will end up being the beginning of the greatest political scandal in history. And it's being held up partially because of John Durham's new grand jury which by the way exists for one reason and one reason only because people are going to be indicted.
Dobbs asks if the report is being "held up because of the vast scope of the investigation."
Toensing: Well, it's being expanded, Lou, because he's gone back into whole other areas. He's gone back to the origins of the investigation. For those of us who know this business, if you're in counterintelligence and you get word that a George Papadopoulos has said he heard that the Russians have something, you go knock on his door within a week and ask him about it and have him give you the information. They didn't do that. They didn't do that at all. They disobeyed all the rules of a counterintelligence investigation.
DiGenova: And it's expanded because originally, Barr wanted Durham to just look at the beginnings of Cross Fire Hurricane. But then, what they discovered, They found from the Devin Nunes experience at the White House in March of 2017 that there had been massive, massive unmasking of Americans for political purposes and that this information was given and leaked to the press. And by the way, the Michael Flynn/Ambassador Kislyak call, which was leaked to David Ignatius of the [Washington] Post is, in fact, the subject of one of the criminal investigations because that leak is a 20-year felony.
Toensing: And I've got another idea for John Durham. He ought to bring in Mark Zaid before the grand jury and ask him how he knew that CNN was going to be a part of it. Was he talking to James Clapper? And did he know that Clapper was going to leak the dossier?
These two are never dull. And they have generally been accurate on substance if not on timing. Especially on Epstein not killing himself… Jesse.
And in the end, Republicans, conservatives and Libertarians sit and wait for what will turn out to be nothing but big talk. That's all it ever is. Why is Hillary walking around free and Roger Stone is on trial for his life? No one can or will answer that question.
Former Federal Prosecutor says, 'There is no Doubt That the Obama Administration Spied on the Trump Campaign' – here's what it means:
Federal Judge rejects FBI plea to keep Comey memos redacted
Trump Jr. Destroys Behar On The View: 'You've Worn Blackface,' Here's The Photo Of Behar's 'African Woman' Costume
'Epstein Didn't Kill Himself' Memes Last Longer Than Jeffrey Did In Prison
Jim Jordan Lays Out the Case Against the FBI: [Video] Mueller 'can't get…
Valerie Jarrett Suggested Americans Owe Obama A Debt Of Gratitude, The Reason Why?…
Obama's AG, Loretta Lynch, Could Be Facing A Decade In Prison After She Is Caught…


The Harewood based soap scooped the big Best Serial Drama award at the National Television Awards last night.
The Yorkshire based soap Emmerdale beat off Coronation Street, Eastenders and Hollyoaks for the coveted prize.
The awards are chosen by viewers so Emmerdale is "the nation's favourite soap"
Emmerdale, which is filmed in Harewood and Leeds, scooped the coveted Best Serial Drama at the National Television Awards in London last night.
The whole cast were thrilled to take to the stage and receive the award which has made its way back to Yorkshire this morning.
Stray FM's David Whittle grabbed producer Kate Brooks for an exclusive to find out how much it meant for the team.
Santander to close 140 of its UK branches.


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A dominant senior season continues to result in awards for Ashland University defensive end James Prater Jr.
On Wednesday (Dec. 5) morning, Prater Jr. was named to the second team defense of the 2018 American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II Coaches' All-America team. This comes on the heels of Prater Jr. garnering first-team Super Region 3, Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Defensive Lineman of the Year and first-team All-GLIAC honors. He also finished fifth in the finals of the vote for the Gene Upshaw Award, the Division II Senior Lineman of the Year.
This past season, Prater Jr. was second in the GLIAC in sacks (9½) and tied for third in tackles for loss (15), and finished runner-up on the team with 65 total tackles (27 solo). He also broke up four passes.
This is the fourth consecutive season that Ashland has had either first-teamer, second-teamer or both on the AFCA All-American squad, and it is the seventh season this decade this has occurred.


There are only two places 23-year-old Tasha Frost will not take her Dash cell phone and hot pink Bluetooth earpiece: her bed and the shower.
"It never stops," Frost said as she waited in line to see Ne-Yo at The Showbox on Sunday, the flash of pink drawing double takes to her right ear. It's a constant companion, she said. What's more, she never lets a call go to voice mail, no matter what she's doing. Frost is one with her phone.
You might think a person who wears her phone as often as she wears her shoes would love, love, love it. I said as much.
"I don't have a phone," Frost said, shaking her head. "I have a problem."
In that case, maybe we all do.
Nothing tramples the barriers of space and time like communications technology. But despite all that our cell phones and iPods and PDAs have done in the name of connectivity and convenience, there's a sense in which they've failed us.
They were supposed to give us more control and more freedom in an increasingly hectic, demanding world. Yet 45 percent of Americans say technology has weakened their handle on life or made no difference whatsoever, according to a 2006 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life project. Fully 42 percent of Americans say they're annoyed by tech-borne intrusions on the go. And a quarter of cell-phone users -- who made up 73 percent of the U.S. population in 2006 -- say they don't like being so darned available.
Even convenience comes at a cost, and not everyone wants to pay. But more than 2 billion cell-phone users worldwide do, with millions more joining every year.
It makes me think of "The Matrix," because every pessimistic thought about technology makes me think of "The Matrix." There's a reason a world ruled by a race of machines feasting on humans caught in a virtual techno-trance resonates with us: We already know what it's like to be slaves to technology. For some, it means feeling naked without their e-mail. For me, it means checking Facebook 10 times a day. For Frost, it means always wearing pink.
We also know how easily our toys can make us lose touch with reality. At least we do a great job at denying our complicity.
Kipp Beck, 18, listens to her iPod on her walk home and on the bus. But she isn't disconnected, she said -- no, no -- because if someone did want to talk to her, which is unlikely, she'd take out her ear buds and listen. "I don't see it as a way to get me out of the real world," she said. "I'm not trying to get out of my life."
Maybe that's because her "real world" isn't everybody else's -- yet.
Maybe the "real world" is changing.
Like many who have integrated technology into their daily lives, Beck draws a distinction between the physical world of traffic, overcast skies, screeching tires and distant conversations (the only world we thought we needed) and the world of personal communication, which can be either physical or virtual and where the likelihood of social interaction determines our level of investment.
The latter is only possible through technology. But does that mean the former is still more "real"?
Forty-one percent of cell-phone users say they do much of their chatting while they commute or while they wait to meet with someone. That means about 90 million Americans would rather be disconnected from the physical world, but connected to a more active virtual one, than just be.
A displaced reality is becoming the new reality. In 20 years, we might define the real by our connections, not our locations. In 50, we might be explaining the meaning of the phrase "stop and smell the flowers" to our bored grandkids.
It sure sounds like it, even to yours truly, who rarely walks alone anywhere with both ears naked and would defend the integrity of online social networking from the highest hill.
But you can bet a child born into such a world won't find a thing wrong with it. And that, ladies and gentlemen of the Digital Age, is technological progress.
Is it also human progress?
We'll have to ask the robots.


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Alison Powers demonstrating her well practiced victory salute. Photo via Amgen Tour of California.
If you're a fan of road racing, you're no doubt familiar with Alison Powers. If not, you certainly should be. In her eight year professional career, Powers was consistently dominant, winning four national championships, a Pan American championship, two National Race Calendar (NRC) overall titles, and many, many more. Last year, she became the first American woman to win all three road national championship titles–criterium, time trial, and road race–at the same time. Powers followed up that tremendous feat by retiring from professional racing. And though she's burnt out on being an athlete after 20-plus years of high-level ski and bike racing, Powers' passion for cycling continues on through her coaching business, ALP Cycles Coaching. I spoke to Powers about her entry into bike racing, her lightning fast rise to the professional ranks, the glacial growth of professional women's racing, her race career burnout, and her new life as a retiree.


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Home > Projects > Healthcare Projects > Atchison Hospital
Services Performed:
General Contractor:
JE Dunn Construction Co
City of Atchison
Atchison Hospital
Atchison, KS
Atchison Hospital opened the doors of its new, state-of-the-art hospital in early 2010. The single-story facility design allows for all departments to be closer in proximity, increasing efficiency that is entirely patient focused.
New features at Atchison Hospital include 25 private family-friendly patient rooms, an emergency department with nine private rooms, a four-bed intensive care unit (ICU) located in the center of the Acute Care area, three larger surgical suites with comfortable pre-op and post-op areas, a new Gastrointestinal (GI) Lab and Infusion Services room, and comfortable, hotel-life family-friendly Obstetrics (OB) rooms equipped with video and technology, with nursing stations located closer to patient's rooms.
Faith Technologies' scope of work included the installation of two 3000 amp services, a 1000kw emergency generator, lighting, voice and data, specialty systems, fire alarm systems, nurse call systems, and power distribution for the complete hospital package, patient headwall, emergency room, operating room, and helicopter pad.
The careful planning and full coordination with other trades provided an uninterrupted production schedule.
Additional Projects:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Some frames are irreplaceable. If your frame is in need of repair we can help. Our frame experts can replace losses and match finishes.
Visit our shop, email [email protected] or call 518.789.3428 for consulation on your project.
If your art is in need of restoration, we can help. We work with qualified restoration experts and will guide you through the process.


24/7 Gallery - This restaurant specializes in American cuisine and serves breakfast, lunch, dinner, and light fare. Open 24 hours. Open daily.
Stayed here several times. Always clean and comfortable. Derek was great at check, very friendly and accommodating.
Was scheduled to be picked up by their "shuttle service" at 6 pm from the airport, I called at 6:20 pm to see when the shuttle would get there and was told "It's on it's way and should be there within 15 min's" so at 7:40 pm I decided to call back because still no shuttle and was told, with much attitude by someone I believe named Corey that "That shuttle has been there twice since the last time you called" which it had not been, as I was sitting on the bench at the pickup area the entire time watching the other area hotels van/bus come and go, so at almost 8 pm when the shuttle finally arrived (yes 2 hours later) I asked the driver when those two times were that he came through and he looked at me and said, "I've not been here since right before 6" and said he had no idea I was there waiting, (Ironically enough he was there to pick up a flight crew at a specific time) Simply put, Corey forgot to tell the shuttle I was there and instead of admitting that and offering a simple apology he gave me attitude while lying to me about it, Yes I could have used uber or other means of transportation but with no rush to be anywhere I waited it out simply to see how long it would take. I will never book this particular Hyatt again as I don't appreciate the attitude and lie. Self accountability goes a long way.
Great place. Love the service and hospitality. Breakfasts are perfect.
Needed place close to airport that was comfortable and reasonably priced. Service was top notch from moment we entered until time we departed. Recommend and will stay again as opportunity presents!


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European public policy
Turkey: Who's the enemy?0
International Relations and Global Affairs, Op-ed
The repression of Kurds in Turkey has been a long lasting situation, leading to violent outbreaks between the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and the Turkish state. The latest cease fire ended in 21 July 2015 and from then on attacks have been undertaken on Kurd majority areas in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, one of the most recent being the killing of 32 on the 10 January 2015.
The actual effects of changing formal voting rules in the Council0
Analysis, EU Governance and Politics
In a recent article conveyed by Politheor.net, Attila Marján put forward numerous assumptions concerning the change of the blocking and policy-shaping power of the Visegrad Group – V4 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) in the post-Lisbon era of the Council of the European Union (Council). The author voiced his concerns amid the most recent changes in the Council voting system ushered in by the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, only to be implemented this November.
The New EU Voting system – the old west-east north-south division0
Economic governance reforms and Eurozone consolidation has significant institutional and political consequences: a multiple-tier integration is ever more realistic. "Out" countries seek to mitigate the negative impact of these developments. In this respect V4 – Visegrad countries differ a lot: Slovakia, a relative latecomer in economic reforms is part of the currency union. Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are not Euro-members. But even this sub-group is divided: Poland intends to join whenever requirements are fulfilled while the Hungarian and the Czech governments are cool on accession. At the same time, further economic federalisation in the Eurozone is to come. Against this background, the question whether a long-term "great divide" among V4 group countries in relation to their EU policies and consequently their future situation in the rapidly altering EU will be maintained, is of key importance.
"Consensus in EU politics has become almost an end in itself"0
EU Governance and Politics, Interview
Interview with a Professor of EU governance from Central European University, Mr. Uwe Puetter
Political Commission: What can we learn from the past and what does the future hold?0
On 1st of November 2014, the new European Commission with Jean-Claude Juncker as President started its mandate. Among the first public events Mr. Juncker chose to attend are the presentation of Helmut Kohl's book in Frankfurt and a debate with former Commission President Jacques Delors. The two people he decided to meet have, along with Francois Mitterrand, marked the process of building the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in the 1990s. This process is known to be characterized by the strong influence of the Franco-German engine of EU integration and the European Commission with a strong leader, Jacques Delors. I believe most of us can agree that in the meantime, we had three Commission Presidents that hardly left a mark.
European Pillar of Social Rights: a blunt weapon in the fight for citizens' hearts
Op-ed, Social and Economic Policy
Can the Energy Union secure the future of European integration?
Environment and Energy, Op-ed
Healing the European patient – Narrowing the gap between the EU and its citizens
EU Governance and Politics, Op-ed
The devil is in the detail: Trade secrets protection vs accountability?
International Trade, Op-ed
EU/Morocco trade: How can a David engage in a win-win situation with a Goliath?


Card Text Whenever Cephalid Aristocrat becomes the target of a spell or ability, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.
It's easy to tell the difference between the devious cephalids and the trustworthy ones. The trustworthy ones are dead.


Give Knit a Rest Ribbed Hoodie | Shop Clothes at Nasty Gal!
Have some downtime.This hoodie comes in a chunky ribbed knit and features an oversized, cropped silhouette and hood.
Fabric: 100% Acrylic. Machine wash. Model wears size M.


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Product Care - Stones
Aquamarine takes its name from "aqua marina", Latin for sea water: its distinctive hue immediately brings to mind the soft shimmer of the ocean. It possesses an exquisite luster and is almost entirely free of inclusions. Aquamarine is a hard gem whose distinctive color results from the presence of iron.
Carnelian was one of the first stones used in jewelry, probably because of its abundance. Yet it is rare to find carnelian with a rich, natural coloring. Each gem-cutter has his own method of obtaining a perfect hue, one which usually remains shrouded in secrecy.
Cubic zirconia (CZ), a flawless diamond simulant, is widely considered as the finest simulated diamonds in the world today. The similarities of cubic zirconia to a diamond are so remarkable that even gemologists can't tell the difference easily. Cubic zirconia possesses less brilliance, but has more fire (flashes of rainbow color) when compares to diamonds. Due to the hardness and clarity of cubic zirconia, it can be cut using the same proportions used in cutting fine diamonds. In addition, Cubic zirconia does not have internal flaws, it sparkles with perfection and is nearly indestructible.
Diamonds are the purest and hardest of the natural gemstones. A diamond is said to last an eternity, making it the ideal stone to symbolise the eternal bond of marriage. A diamond is made up of virtually pure carbon which formed millions of years ago into a crystal, many miles below the earth's surface. Diamonds are cut into all different shapes and sizes and owing to their natural formation each diamond is completely unique.
Worshipped for their rarity and their exceptional beauty, emeralds take their name from the Latin "smaragdus", the heart of stone. Emerald is a type of beryl mineral, they are colored green by trace amounts of chromium. Most emeralds are highly included, which makes them sensitive to pressure.
Malachite comes from ancient Greek "moloché", which originally means mauve, though the most famous type of malachite is known for its green hue. An opaque stone with light and dark striations, malachite was mined as early as 4,000 BC by the ancient Egyptians. Its distinctive shade results from the presence of copper. Because of its recognizable green color and the fact that it usually accompanies copper deposits, malachite is used as a guide when prospecting for this metal.
Mother-of-pearl is produced organically inside sea shells. It consists of a blend of minerals secreted by oysters and other marine creatures with shells to protect their bodies from parasites and foreign objects. Although iridescent white mother-of-pearl is the most well-known color, grey mother-of-pearl is more mysterious, reflecting the light in a rainbow prism of ever-changing colors.
With its fine texture and luxurious black color, onyx has been popular since the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans. A black variety of chalcedony, onyx is similar to agate but with straight bands as opposed to curved ones. Some onyx also displays white bands or ribbons against a black background: if the layers are even, this type of onyx may be carved into cameos.
Opal is a mineraloid gel formed many millions of years ago in the fissures in rocks. Precious opals – such as black and Ethiopian opals - are distinguished by their combination of milky to pearly opalescence and their attractive play of many colors. They are very rare and highly prized. Common opals like the pink opal do not exhibit this play of colors, but can be very highly polished. Fire opals, famous for their yellow, orange, or red hue, are unique in the lush world of opals.
Throughout most of recorded history, rubies have been the world's most valuable gemstones apart from colored diamonds. In the Sanskrit language, ruby is called "ratnaraj" meaning King of Gemstones. They are composed of aluminum oxide and minute quantities of chromium, which accounts for their distinctive hue and also their rarity. While chromium gives ruby its superb color, it also causes a multitude of cracks within the crystals. Only a tiny proportion of ruby crystals are able to grow intact into larger sizes and form perfect gemstones.
In earlier times, some people believed that the firmament was an enormous blue sapphire in which the Earth was embedded. The word sapphire comes from the Greek word "sappheiros", meaning blue stone. Although commonly associated with the color blue, sapphire can in fact be any color other than red. Trace amounts of titanium, iron, or chromium can give the gem blue, yellow, pink, orange, or greenish shades.
Tiger's eye is a chatoyant gemstone. Its iridescent silky luster is caused by the reflection of light within the material's thin fibrous bands. A member of the quartz group of chalcedonies, tiger's eye typically displays glossy alternating bands of yellow and brown, which resemble the eye of a tiger.
Imported from Sri Lanka at the beginning of the 18th century, tourmaline comes from the Singhalese "tura mali", which means stone of various colors. Its chemical formula is complex and includes many elements. This explains both its incredible range of colors and the numerous inclusions and flaws which can be found within the stone. When transparent and containing very few flaws, its colored varieties are cut as gems. Transparent crystals of tourmaline are strongly dichroic, which means that its color varies and changes as it is turned in the light.
With its blue hue, turquoise is among the oldest known gemstones. A hydrated phosphate of copper and aluminum, turquoise is a secondary mineral deposited by circulating water: it mainly occurs as an opaque, granular vein running through a host rock. Its name comes from the French "pierre de Turquie" ("stone from Turkey") ever since the stone first arrived in Europe via the Turkish after the Renaissance era.


Community Sourced Capital | We want to introduce and expand Caffe Santoro Part Two!
We want to introduce and expand Caffe Santoro Part Two!
We have opened our second cafe and it needs capital improvements to the facility and some additional equipment for operating.
Caffe Santoro has been operating from it's original location for 7 years. We've always believed that in order to best serve our community and extend a brand embraced by those in one part of town that when the opportunity to duplicate ourselves arrived we would take it. 6 months ago we secured a location almost completely built out. We stepped out and into this location. With a few hiccups we're in our 7th month and we are on target to meet our sales goals. Our plan has always been to secure the capital needed to see us through the first year of marketing and operations. This expansion means a total of 22 entry level jobs in a company where a young person can thrive and learn basic people/personal skills. It also means there's another convenient place for great coffee and connecting.
This campaign's success will see us secure the future and take us to the next level.
Our company's back bone is our relationships... with our team, our guests and community and the relationship with our suppliers and vendors. All of these relationships form to build Caffe Santoro. We ask a lot of our team in service to each other and our guests. What sets us apart is YOU!
We're dedicated to serving the people of our community by offering a great product with PERSONALITY!
We are your local brand of coffee cafés that see our mission in the people we serve. Our greatest resource and our greatest contribution has been our ability to see our mission accomplished through our investment in our team. Our mission? Bringing our guests a place that they can truly say is theirs. Our vision is to see as many local communities in the El Dorado county region and even stretching to Sacramento County embrace our concept of community invested cafés. How? As stated in the opening sentence, through the people we serve. Who are those? Our Team and our Guests! Our team learns how to treat people, fellow team mates and our guests, while delighting customers with great tasting drinks and food.
1. You need to meet a client or friend without feeling like you're going to take up space you come to Caffe Santoro! 2. You want to have your kid have a first job that they'll remember for their whole lives and be equipped with life skills that will serve them in all areas of life, you want them working at Caffe Santoro. 3. You have a need for coffee and coffee related products and like the idea of your dollars staying in your community but you also want the product to be AMAZING and not feel like your guilted into propping up a poorly run business, you go to Caffe Santoro!
Caffe Santoro was established in 2008, and is located in Cameron Park, CA.
Benvenuto! Welcome to Caffé Santoro, a modern taste of old-world Italiano. Translated from Italian, Caffé Santoro means "coffee the Santoro way," and for our team, that's more than just great coffee, it's where you'll get coffee with personality, served with a dose of laughter and authentic hospitality. We hope that when you visit us, you experience an extension of ourselves — warm, friendly, inviting and a place where you can connect with family and friends. When you visit, you'll be greeted by our team who have high expectations of providing you an experience that can only be had at Caffé Santoro. Our enthusiastic energy and genuine interest in people will make you feel right at home.


text:
__version__ = "0.2"

import Image

from PcxImagePlugin import PcxImageFile

MAGIC = 0x3ADE68B1 # QUIZ: what's this value, then?

def i32(c):
    return ord(c[0]) + (ord(c[1])<<8) + (ord(c[2])<<16) + (ord(c[3])<<24)

def _accept(prefix):
    return i32(prefix) == MAGIC

##
# Image plugin for the Intel DCX format.

class DcxImageFile(PcxImageFile):

    format = "DCX"
    format_description = "Intel DCX"

    def _open(self):

        # Header
        s = self.fp.read(4)
        if i32(s) != MAGIC:
            raise SyntaxError, "not a DCX file"

        # Component directory
        self._offset = []
        for i in range(1024):
            offset = i32(self.fp.read(4))
            if not offset:
                break
            self._offset.append(offset)

        self.__fp = self.fp
        self.seek(0)

    def seek(self, frame):
        if frame >= len(self._offset):
            raise EOFError("attempt to seek outside DCX directory")
        self.frame = frame
        self.fp = self.__fp
        self.fp.seek(self._offset[frame])
        PcxImageFile._open(self)

    def tell(self):
        return self.frame

Image.register_open("DCX", DcxImageFile, _accept)

Image.register_extension("DCX", ".dcx")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Bombast: D.W. Griffith's America
By Nick Pinkerton on April 3, 2015
The phrase "The Great American Novel" remains in the popular parlance, in no small part because of its frequent use in The Great American Comic Strip, Charles Schultz's Peanuts. Like most language denoting outsized ambition, I suspect it is generally employed in these overcautious times with real or implicit scare quotes, although many a writer young and old may aspire to it in their secret heart all the same.
We can, as it happens, pinpoint the moment of the coinage of "Great American Novel" quite precisely. This occurred in an article titled, of all things, "The Great American Novel," which was published in The Nation in 1868, under the byline of John W. De Forest. De Forest, a Connecticut man, had served with distinction in the Civil War. Aged 35 at the beginning of hostilities, he mustered a company in New Haven, the 12th Connecticut Volunteers, fought in Louisiana and Virginia, spent, by his own estimation, "forty-six days under fire," and ended the war with the rank of captain, before returning to civilian life and literary pursuits.
Searching for a definition of the Great American Novel, De Forest turns to the work which he believed had come nearest to hitting the mark, a novel which by some reckonings had hastened the coming of the civil war, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). The Great American Novel, after the model provided by Beecher Stowe, ought to provide "[a] picture of the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence." There needs also be "a national breadth to the picture, truthful outlining of character, natural speaking, and plenty of strong feeling…"
Fig. 2 Engraving by Hammatt Billings, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin page 321, 1852
Uncle Tom's Cabin "was a picture of American life, drawn with a few strong and passionate strokes, not filled in thoroughly, but still a portrait." There was, then, room for improvement. At the time that "The Great American Novel" appeared, De Forest's third novel, Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty, had recently been published by Harper & Brothers. The heroine of the title, Lillie Ravenel, is brought to the Yankee capital of "New Boston, Barataria" by her father, fleeing occupied New Orleans, though her sympathies with her homeland remain intact until they are challenged by her acquaintance with two eligible Northern bachelors. Until the appearance of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage almost 30 years later, Miss Ravenel's Conversion was the definitive novel of the Civil War, perhaps only exceeded in literary accomplishment by the short stories of fellow combat veteran Ambrose Bierce. Modestly, De Forest only averred vaguely to his own literary output when discussing the various attempts at The Great American Novel, though like many a critic/ creator, the thing that De Forest proscribed just happened to be embodied in the work that he was producing.
The idea of The Great American Film has not obsessed our native filmmakers in quite the same way that The Great American Novel has our writers of prose, though I am not at all certain that this was the case in 1915. The cinema, in something like its modern form, was then barely 20 years old, the span of time which separates us from the first Toy Story and Billy Madison, and I hope that I am not supposing too much to say that the people who made and watched movies were still in the process of understanding exactly what it was they were—half-novel, half-play, or something else entirely.
I specify 1915 because this was the year that David Wark Griffith's The Birth of a Nation premiered, in February, at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles. With this colossal film, Griffith was making an attempt at the Great American Film in something like the sense that De Forest had described The Great American Novel, though despite his evident reverence for the figure of Lincoln, his own sentimental loyalties, inherited from his father, Confederate Colonel "Roaring Jake" Griffith, were closer to those of secessionist Lillie Ravenel. Griffith's film, based on Thomas F. Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel The Clansman, certainly boasted "national breadth," moving as it did between events in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, both in antebellum and Reconstruction times, and using two representative families bound by sympathies, the Northern Stonemans and Southern Camerons, to represent the two sides of the War Between the States.
We have recently passed the 100th birthday of The Birth of a Nation. Anticipating the event, the usually sanguine Dave Kehr, rarely moved to Tweet, announced "Looks like we'll have a whole year of people calling BIRTH OF A NATION the 'first feature film.' Which is just wrong." In fact, the Birth centenary passed with little more than a quiet mutter of acknowledgement, while what acknowledgement there was tended to confirm that film culture is, in the main, sick to death of The Birth of a Nation.
In the AV Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky addressed the "troubling contradiction" at the heart of Griffith's opus, that being "the idea that art or entertainment can be aesthetically good while being ideologically bad." When it comes to the reputation of the "problematic" Birth, Vishnevetsky writes that "American culture has had a really hard time letting it go, or has turned not letting it go into a critical art in and of itself." While typically perspicacious in his insights, Vishnevetsky is vague when it comes to describing what exactly that "letting go" (or "draw[ing] the line" or "dismiss[ing]") would be comprised of. Burning the negative? (This was the subject of a fine recent essay by Glenn Kenny at Rogerebert.com's Balder and Dash section, on what he terms the "'What Is To Be Done?' piece.") It is not as though Birth is today praised in the terms reserved for a Great Gatsby or a Citizen Kane, to cite two American masterpieces generally thought to be uniquely American in their subject matter and manner of expression. One argument against the "letting go" of The Birth of a Nation came from proverbial stopped-clock Armond White in The National Review. "It's important to fully confront the history of our cinema and media," wrote White, "to measure their earliest falsehoods by their present racist lies and realize how we often mask and defend contemporary political presumptions. Otherwise, hindsight becomes duplicitous—a way to fend off honest self-examination."
Unlike De Forest or Beecher Stowe, Griffith was not seeking to show America as it was in his day, but how, to his mind, it had been, and how it had gotten to be where it was at the present. Where it was in 1915, to be precise, was on the brink of a largely-unhoped-for war with European powers, a possibility which was referred to by what White calls the "powerfully homiletic subtitle 'War's Peace'" before a Matthew Brady–like scene of battlefield carnage, one of what Vishnevetsky refers to as "assorted pacifist asides," which an audience of the day would have seen with newsreel footage of the Marne fresh in their minds. Today, when The Birth of a Nation is remembered, it's not for its antiwar sentiments but for its battle scenes, and for its racial politics which have not, let us say, aged particularly well.
After making several cogent points, White, for whom self-examination is presumably an affair to be carried out in private, digresses into recounting a curious "dream sequence" in which he teaches Orson Welles to appreciate the beauty of Griffith's Birth—which is odd, because it was reading of Welles's esteem for Griffith that brought me in the first place to this artist who, to my teenaged self, seemed fusty and Victorian. In particular I remember a text which Welles wrote for a Spanish film magazine called Griffith in the 1960s, which is reproduced in Peter Bogdanovich's This Is Orson Welles:
"I met D.W. Griffith only once and it was not a happy meeting. A cocktail party on a rainy afternoon in the last year of the 1930s. Hollywood's golden age, but for the greatest of all directors it had been a sad and empty decade. The motion picture which he had virtually invented had become the product—the exclusive product—of America's fourth-largest industry, and on the assembly lines of the mammoth movie factories there was no place for Griffith. He was an exile in his own town, a prophet without honor, a craftsman without tools, an artist without work. No wonder he hated me. I, who knew nothing about film, had just been given the greatest freedom ever written into a Hollywood contract. It was the contract he deserved. I could see that he was not at all too old for it, and I couldn't blame him for feeling I was very much too young. We stood under one of those pink Christmas trees they have out there, and drank our drinks and stared at each other across a hopeless abyss. I loved and worshipped him, but he didn't need a disciple. He needed a job. I have never really hated Hollywood except for its treatment of D.W. Griffith."
I re-watched The Birth of a Nation when it played at Film Forum a day before its New York City centennial—it debuted at Liberty Theater, near Times Square, an event which has not been immortalized as the Clune's screening was in Bogdanovich's Nickelodeon (76). I have returned since, and will continue to return, to Film Forum's Monday screenings of Griffith features, where most recently I saw for the first time his 1924 America.
America, which finds the director once again trying to encompass a drama of national scope in a single film, was adapted from The Reckoning, a 1905 novel of the American Revolutionary War by a since-largely-forgotten author named Robert W. Chambers. Its dramatis personae includes many of the generals and statesmen of that conflict, among them General George Washington, King George III, William Pitt (seen having risen from his sickbed to speak for the rights of the colonies), Samuel Adams, and John Hancock. While the King is merely a dupe misled by "evil councilors," the true villains of the piece are two real-life historical figures, Captains Walter Butler and Peter Hare (played by Lionel Barrymore and Louis Wolheim), both American-born Loyalists whose names have since been forgotten by most folks without a pronounced interest in musketry, though once they were hugely reviled figures for their roles in the Battle of Wyoming and Cherry Valley massacres of 1778.
The invented characters are Nathan Holden (Neil Hamilton), a farmer, express rider, member of the Boston Committee of Public Safety, and revolutionist, and the extended Montague family, proud descendants of Charles, Lord of Halifax. Their number includes the Virginia Montagues—daughter Nancy (Carol Dempster), for whom lovestruck Nathan Holden composes Romantic verse; sissified son Charles (Charles Emmett Mack); and the patriarch, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses (Erville Anderson)—as well as a Loyalist uncle, Sir Ashley (Sydney Deane), whose homestead is located in "Northern New York." It is to there that the Southern Montagues retreat after having been coincidentally on hand to witness the battles of Lexington and Concord, in the course of which Charles has his tattered London finery reduced to rags and throws his tricorner hat in with the colonial rebellion, inspired by a memory of family friend Gen. Washington which has about it something of the quality of unrequited homosexual longing.
I have not read Chambers's book—how many people living today can claim that distinction?—but I can't imagine it has anything near to the same amount of influence on America that The Birth of a Nation did. The presence of Birth isn't felt looming over America in the same way that it is, say, over Griffith's Intolerance (1916), Broken Blossoms (1919), or Abraham Lincoln (1930), all works in which—with what degree of success we can debate elsewhere—the filmmaker may be seen attempting to redress or repudiate the reputation for racism that his greatest catastrophic success had (deservedly) earned him. In America, Griffith reworks entire sequences from Birth within a new historical context, right down to including some charming comic business with pussycats. The borrowing is most notably visible in the film's climax of convergent montage, as Birth's breakneck Ku Klux Klan ride-to-the-rescue, lifting a siege on a farmhouse by mulatto Lt. Gov. Silas Lynch, becomes a cavalry charge in which Nathan and his men rush to save Fort Sacrifice, where Nancy and other Mohawk Valley settlers have holed up against Capt. Hare and his half-Mohican, half-white army.
In America, again, miscegenation is an agent of anarchy, here as evidenced by Butler and Hare's allegiance with the Native American tribes. In a treaty sealed among the stygian "council fires of the great Indian Confederacy," Butler induces the Sachems of the Long House to fight with the British against the colonial uprising before retiring to his "hunting lodge," a pleasure dome where dusky dames frug about in next-to-nothing. Hare, for his part, gets himself up in redskin drag before battle, so that he can slake his bloodlust with impunity, not bound by the white man's conventions. (He is contrasted with Riley Hatch's Joseph Brant, the college-educated Mohawk chief who comports himself with imperious manners.) An opening intertitle poses the revolution as "a civil war between two groups of English people"—justified on the part of the English Americans, certainly, but nothing to stay sore about. Griffith is curiously careful to disassociate the actions of Butler and Hare from the gentlemanly warfare practiced by the proper British regulars—this despite the fact that he had every bit as much inherited reason to detest the Redcoat as "Roaring Jake" had given him to hate the carpetbaggers. Griffith's grandfather, Captain David Griffith, had fought against the Brits in 1812, and he came of revolutionist stock. In a Photoplay profile published in 1916, Griffith speaks of "a great-grandfather in Virginia, a stormy, fierce old man who refused to allow the word England to be spoken in his presence and who, as far as he could, barred his door to anything English." In this same profile, Griffith recounts his first memory, of his father playing a "prank" that involved the threatening and intimidation of an elderly ex-slave with a cutlass. "That sword," Griffith recounts, "remains the first memory of my existence."
"Roaring Jake" died when Griffith was 10. Griffith, sentimental about him as one who retains only a boy's memory of his father might tend to be, speaks of the man's great culture and intelligence, though the Southern gentleman described in the sword anecdote—tantamount to child abuse—sounds like a prick and a gloating bully who delights in striking mortal fear into a man incapable of defending himself, however many Waverley novels the bully had read notwithstanding. One wonders what he would have made of his boy come of age, an airy-fairy lad with a passion for dramaturgy?
If The Birth of a Nation was an anachronism when it first appeared, America was even more so. Calvin Coolidge, who gave the first radio address from the White House the day after the film's February 21 premiere, had come to the oval office the previous summer after the premature death of Warren Gamaliel Harding, whose brief stay in Washington has widely been reckoned as among the most corrupt periods in all of American life. The film's rather starry-eyed vision of the democratic experiment, then, may have seemed somewhat out of step with the cynical times, what we tend to think of as the F. Scott Fitzgerald period. (A word from blowhard Tom Buchanan, from the following year's Gatsby: "It's up to us, who are the dominant race, to watch out or these other races will have control of things.") If Coolidge provided a presidential pull-quote to America along the lines of that with which Woodrow Wilson famously supplied The Birth of a Nation, it has not been preserved by historical record. Griffith, it should be said, understood the system of patronage and kickback that defined Harding's America—he decorated Birth with footnotes referring to Wilson's 1902 A History of the American People.
Here is the other contradiction at the heart of Griffith: he was, for a moment at least, simultaneously antique and state-of-the-art, a difficult balance to maintain. (And to maintain it is not necessarily desirable—the same combination could be said to apply to suicide bombers using cell phone detonators.) Griffith's films are very often touching in their obsolescence, however, for they seem to provide a tactile linkage to a bygone pastoral America, a place of milking stools and corn-lofts and carriage-houses and sugaring off maple cider. This they have in common with those of many made in this country near to the turn of the last century, though in Griffith this is not merely incidental, as it is in, say, Mack Sennett comedies, to which sleepy Los Angeles suburbs provide a backdrop.
Though not generally placed in the first rank of Griffith's films, America contains some of the most ravishing images to be born in "the camera box of Billy Bitzer" (one of the film's four credited cinematographers). I am thinking particularly of the smokepot-wreathed battlefield reenactments and the trick photography shots of Boston, particularly the "One if by land, two if by sea" view of the Old North Church from across the Harbor, which precedes Paul Revere's breakneck ride—a legend which failed to capture my imagination in history classes of yore, and ever after, until I saw it here. In this setpiece, as in the rout of the British at Concord Bridge and the bitter loss at Bunker Hill, Griffith quite outdoes Birth for sheer stirring spectacle. When possible, America was shot on or around the actual scenes of the events depicted, and Griffith's film abounds with plein air views of the Eastern woods in all seasons, from the barren snowfields of Valley Forge in the winter of discontent to the groves of white ash and black birch and red spruce from which the Minute Men pick off British Regulars. (That the Minute Men are borrowing from the Indians in their gun-and-run guerilla warfare style is a matter which is not touched upon.)
Steeped as he was in the pictorial tradition of the previous century, in lithographs and Hudson River Valley painting, the matter of Griffith's legacy as a cinematic stylist is a tricky one. John Dorr, in his 1974 FILM COMMENT essay on "The Griffith Tradition" (which can be found in the Allan Dwan Dossier), traces the movement of the "essentially nationalistic tradition of dramatic narrative" codified by Griffith into genre filmmaking, particularly the Poverty Row variety practiced by such filmmakers as Dwan, whom Andrew Sarris, in a semi-ironic jibe, noted that some French critics treated like "Griffith's ghost." In the case of Dwan, who worked under Griffith on Intolerance, along with Erich von Stroheim and Tod Browning, the connection to this tradition was not merely a case of influence, but of physical proximity—much as it was for John Ford who, in what is for Quentin Tarantino an unforgivable act of moral cowardice, rode with the Klan as an extra in The Birth of a Nation when aged 20. Ford proved that he had not forgotten Griffith in a film that appears in the "last year of the 1930s" when Welles met the disillusioned director of Intolerance. The film in question is Ford's Drums Along the Mohawk, arguably the third-best film that he made which was released in 1939, and nothing less than magisterial. Again in Ford's film, the presence of the British in the Revolutionary War is diminished while that of their Indian cohorts is emphasized—when America was released, we had recently ended one war with them as allies; when Drums Along the Mohawk appeared, we were about to go into another.
Drums Along the Mohawk
Unlike Griffith, Ford acknowledges the tribes, like the Oneida, who fought on the side of the revolution. Like America, Drums Along the Mohawk climaxes with a combined Redcoat and Indian attack on a rebel stronghold in Northern New York, the historically-real Fort Dayton. (The siege depicted in based on one in 1882, led by none other than Joseph Brant.) The last-minute reprieve, a convergent montage of reinforcements arriving while the defenders have fallen into a last redoubt in the blockhouse, seems almost certainly to have been undertaken after a re-viewing of Griffith's America. (Or perhaps its 1915 antecedent.) Inasmuch as any director after Griffith took up the project of the Great American Film, it might be said to be Ford. In the year of its release, his The Iron Horse appeared, a dramatization of the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, connecting East and West coasts and, in a symbolic sense, signaling another Birth of a Nation.
While Ford's sprawling output went on to comprise something like a cinematic Comédie humaine, Griffith's career petered out with his epochal ambitions. Towards the end of his life, in 1947, Griffith gave an interview which I am hardly the only critic guilty of over-quoting, in which he bemoaned that the modern cinema had forgotten "the beauty of moving wind in the trees." This gets at the thing which makes The Birth of a Nation so impossible to forget. It embodies a harrowing juxtaposition of that which many of us value most about America—an Arcadian, bucolic tradition, with roots in Emerson and Leaves of Grass—and that which most of us would like to forget about it, a record of historical crime which may not be better or worse than those of other nations, but which is certainly thrown into grotesque relief when contrasted with the ideals that we have never ceased to represent ourselves as believing in. It shows both the beauty of moving wind in the trees, and the Blood on the Leaves.
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Crazy Smart Mentoring Topics: Behavioral Interviewing – Are You Asking the Right Questions?
Done correctly, the mentee experience can radically advance your career and change your life. The mentee typically has the most to gain from the relationship, and can benefit the most by being bold in conversations with their mentor. eMentorConnect offers this third installment of a five-part series on game-changing mentoring topics, to help mentees make the most of their mentorship opportunity.
Part of the candidate interviewing process? Got a mentor?
Talk to your mentor about how to look past aptitude and interview for attitude!
'Behavioral interviewing' is now considered a gold standard among recruiters. Carefully crafted questions sidestep the traditional emphasis on skills, and focus on revealing a candidate's attitude in the workplace. When you understand the strengths of the behavioral interviewing technique, you can be confident you're making the most of precious interview minutes.
For example, Monster.com interviewed three top behavioral interview experts who said it's a mistake to ask hypothetical questions about the experience. It also suggested that you don't ask a behavioral interview question about the last time someone used a skill. Instead, ask a question about the most effective way they used that skill.
Were you properly prepared for the discussion? Why or why not?
Did you feel you asked the right questions?
If it went well, what aspects went well? If it didn't go well, why?
Did you feel you got a strong sense of how this candidate would handle situations specific to your work environment?
Next, work with your mentor to design a behavioral interview plan that incorporates fresh questions and techniques. Are you asking leading questions? Or questions specifically designed with behavior in mind? We all know the saying that past behavior is a predictor for future behavior. When you start with opening phrases such as "tell me about a time," or "describe for me," you're already on the right path. Discuss with your mentor specific open-ended questions that will address the desired skills for a particular role (client-facing, team-facing, management skills, adaptability, etc.). Work together on creating questions that you both feel will be more effective in hiring the right person for the right job.
Now, dig into the details of that experience that encourage the candidate to show off their mental agility.
When you have people on your team who can consistently identify the best and the brightest, you've set up your company for success. On the flipside, hiring the wrong person can bloat your training and recruitment budget. A weak hire can lead to poor employee morale, decreased productivity and even tarnish your company's image. Public reviews on job sites like Glassdoor are increasingly the jobseeker's first stop for learning about a company's culture. When they see a string of complaints, that's a red flag that something's not right.
A custom mentoring program designed by eMentorConnect can turn your good interviewers into great interviewers. A recent eMentorConnect survey showed that before participating in a mentoring program, mentees had a 38 percent rate of understanding the topics covered in their mentorship programs; after the program they catapulted to 90 percent. Tap into the diverse benefits of a strong mentoring program: click here for a demo today!


Lucky Brand, the iconic clothing company best known for their Lucky Brand jeans, engaged Bennett Awards to create a new custom award design for a new employee recognition award program. These achievement awards are called the Rivet Award, and are for a monthly peer-to-peer recognition program at the Lucky Brand corporate office. Rivet Award recipients are associates – at the Sr. Director level and below – who do their job well and also demonstrate positive behavior in their work and relationship with others.
Individuals are nominated by their peers, and HR has final approval of the recipients. Employees can only nominate individuals outside their own department, and only individuals may receive the award – entire teams are not eligible.
A new company recipient is chosen each month. During the "Passing Ceremony", the current Rivet Award recipient is present to pass it on to the next Rivet Award recipient. Team members, cross-functional partners, and members of the HR and leadership teams are all invited to the ceremony. In addition to the personalized Rivet Award, each recipient also receives a VIP Parking Pass to use for the month they are recognized, granting them access to their own parking space in the company parking lot.
For these recognition awards, Bennett Awards worked with Lucky Brand to create a new custom design that supported the Lucky Brand brand image. The award form-factor for this design became unique, custom-designed medallions. As their centerpiece, these medallions feature a raised image of a rivet – like those found on Lucky Brand jeans. The name of the award – "THE RIVET AWARD" – is featured in raised letters surrounding the rivet. Finally, the recipient's name, along with the month they received the award, are engraved in the lower portion of the medallions. These unique awards are created in pewter, and have a copper-plated finish with antique accents designed to highlight the raised images.
About Lucky Brand: Lucky Brand knows that jeans are much more than just denim and grommets; they're a true blue American icon.
Staying true to the rich heritage—and authentic, all-American spirit—of denim, Lucky Brand began crafting great-fitting, vintage-inspired jeans in Los Angeles in 1990. Lucky Brand gave them their distinctively Lucky look by literally putting them through the wringer—ripping, fraying, sanding, patching and washing by hand—to give them true character and soul. Then, they added authentic hardware, personalized touches and playful details, and an American legend was born.
Lucky Brand jeans are made for the free-thinker, the artist, the dreamer; they're made to dance, work, run, jump, play and rock 'n' roll (just like you). Their inspiration doesn't just come from the rugged workwear of denim pioneers, but from the free spirit and laid-back lifestyle of their Southern California roots. They find inspiration everywhere, from the secluded outlooks of Big Sur, to the old-school tattoo parlors of Venice and the beautiful beaches of Malibu. They reference music, art and photography—old and new—to create truly unique pieces that you'll wear over and over again. You'll find Lucky Brand all over America—in 222 stores (and counting)—as well as select department stores and online at www.LuckyBrand.com.


Made to order - personalised fused glass wall hanging. Measuring approx. 20cm x 25cm with copper loops for hanging.
The heart is made of different coloured glass pebbles with a few sparkly ones added for hi-lights.
I will do my best to accommodate colour requests and wording, please email me your requirements.
Perfect for any commemorative occasion - wedding, anniversary, engagement or possible a special memorial keepsake. May take up to 2 weeks to despatch depending on workload.