Ireland's former monopoly fixed line operator eircom today published its second-quarter and half-year financial results for the period to 31 December, saying that the deteriorating economic environment has impacted the group's 1H performance, reflected in a fall in subscribers and traffic volumes, lower prices and an erosion of EBITDA. Group revenue for the six months under review was EUR1.03 billion (USD1.31 billion), broadly the same as the corresponding six months for the previous financial year, although EBITDA was down 4% year-on-year to EUR333 million. CAPEX for the first six months of the financial year was EUR197 million, eircom said in a statement, part of the approximately EUR900 million capital expenditure spent in the past two and a half years.
In the fixed line segment, eircom said it added a net 46,000 DSL broadband subscribers to 639,000 in the six months to 31 December, down 42% from 79,000 net additions in the same period of FY2007/08, while the number of retail telephony customers leaving the operator reached 41,000 compared with 8,000 previously. The group's mobile arm Meteor generated revenues (before intra-company eliminations) of EUR255 million in 1H2008/09, up 7% on the corresponding period a year ago, and mobile EBITDA was EUR57 million, up 6% year-on-year. Although mobile subscriber growth was down 44% year-on-year at 49,000 in the period, the operator said its continued increases in market share reflect the 'compelling value to customers of Meteor's products and services.' As at 31 December 2008, the cellco had a total of 1.032 million subscribers, of which 131,000 were post-paid customers (up 13% y-o-y). Meteor is progressing to roll out of its 3G mobile data network in the Republic and says the commercial launch of Meteor's 3G services will take place in the greater Dublin and Cork areas next week – with major towns across the country being added during 2009. In addition, eircom says its DSL broadband services are now available on more than 1.4 million of its telephone lines, and that 245,000 retail broadband customers are now enjoying a 3Mbps or faster service following a recent network upgrade.


Hello, I'm interested in 12312 White Oak Pt and would like to take a look around.
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Gun shops play off NRA fearmongering of Obama to scare up gun sales. Why do I feel the gun sales would match up well with the counties here who voted more GOP than in the past, mostly in the south. Or, The Rube Belt, as I like to call it.


text:
Ballad of The Sneak Visuals
Below is a chart showing the visuals that occur during the Ballad of The Sneak.
An Old-Timey introduction reading "The Ballad of The Sneak" as performed by Da Vinci's Notebook is shown.
I know a lively fellow,
who is really quite unique.
He's small and smart and yellow,
with a rodent-like physique. One member of The Barbershop Trio is onscreen with a stack of barrels in the background. He is quickly joined by the other two members and they sing.
He doesn't play the cello,
and he never deigns to speak.
He's The Strong Bad's Leporello,
and they just call him The Sneak! Cuts to reveal the trio's whole bodies and more barrels. Toward the end of this scene, all members outstretch their arms to their left and look upward in that direction.
If you've got a caper
then you know who to call. The Sneak walks along a wall, passing a boot.
It's The Sneak! The Sneak's head and front arms are showing through a circle. The text "it's the sneak" appears above the circle.
It's The Sneak! The Sneak instantly turns around so that only his tail and back legs are showing. Another "it's the sneak" appears below the circle.
Who's the Dapper Swindler
out of Tammany Hall? A wanted poster of The Dapper Swindler unrolls on a wall. It's a picture of a mobster with The Sneak's nose and mouth. Above it is the text WANTED. Below is the text "THE DAPPER SWINDLER" known in the Northwest Territories as The Sneak.
Vo-vo-vo-dee-oh-do A picture of a door and stairs in onscreen. A sign nearby reads "TAMMANY HALL." There's a caption underneath the picture that reads, "Boss Tweed gives The Sneak what-for!" One member of The Barbershop Trio's head pops up in the bottom-left part of the screen and sings the line.
It's The Sneak! The Barbershop Trio member leaves as a the picture changes. The door is open and a leg is sticking out with the word "PROHIBITION?" written on the pants. It has "boot"-ed The Sneak, who is flying away. A piece of paper with the words "HOOT- SMALLEY TARRIFF" is falling down.
A drum appears over the picture, which becomes faded. The drum is hit.
That charming little whatsit
who's The Strong Man's greatest pal? Old-Timey Bubs is playing a banjo while sitting on a haystack. The Sneak walks by behind him.
It's The Sneak! A hand pops out of the haystack holding a sign that reads "it's the sneak!"
It's The Sneak! Another hand pops out of the first hand's sign. This new hand is holding a similar sign.
Another sign-holding hand pops out of the second hand's sign. Then a fourth sign-holding hand appears out of the third one's sign.
Who did the Hully-Gully
on the Panama Canal? The Sneak is dancing on a barrel. When "Canal" is spoken, some text reading "Not the Panama Canal" appears on the right with an arrow pointing to the barrel.
Doo-wacka-doo-wacka-doo The Sneak does a different dance and the words "doo wacka doo wacka doo" appear on the upper-left, one word at a time.
It's The Sneak! Cut to the Old Timey Radio. The words "IT'S THE SNEAK!" come out of it and stay underneath it as they are spoken.
A train whistle wearing an engineer's hat toots twice.
{music} Strong Bad, The Homestar Runner and Fat Dudley are dancing on a steel girder high above the city. The Sneak is crawling in the space underneath them. Another girder comes up and connects to the first one, and The Sneak continues crawling into it. The Homestar Runner is standing next to a bottle of hooch with a fence in the background. The cork pops off of the bottle and The Homestar Runner's body flies up with his feet staying on the ground, stretching out his legs. As The Homestar Runner goes up, a mooing sound is heard. Sickly Sam is doing the Charleston on a steel girder. The girder leans and Sickly Sam falls off. The girder then gets back to its correct position. A silhouette scene of two hills with flowers and a tree. The Sneak runs along the path.
Who's that jaunty jackanapes
with moxie and pizzazz?
It's The Sneak! (Yes, sir!) The Sneak is riding a piano that is moving quickly past factories and circus tents.
It's The Sneak! Cut to the Old-Timey Cliff. Strong Bad flies by in a biplane, spelling "the sneak" with smoke as he flies by. Then The Sneak comes by riding on the piano and it rolls of the cliff, taking The Sneak with it.
Who's been drinking bootleg hooch
and listening to the jazz? One member of the Barbershop Trio is shouting the words into a megaphone.
Vo-vo-voh-de-oh-doh The other two members of the Barbershop Trio stick their heads out of the megaphone and sing the line.
It's The— The two members retract their heads back inside. The first member shouts the words into the megaphone.
—Sneak!
Who captures all the— The Sneak is standing in front of a phonograph. Suddenly a blast comes out from it, causing The Sneak's head to explode.
—flapper girls' affections? The Sneak is chasing Marzipan in the Old-Timey field. A member of the trio is in the foreground, singing the line.
Who made off with my Fluffy Puff confections? A fattened The Sneak is holding his belly, looking sick. He is surrounded by cans of Fluffy Puff confections and little cupcakes scattered on the ground, some completely eaten, some nibbled, and some whole. A member of the Barbershop Trio's head is sticking out from the top and says the line.
He's dastardly! The Sneak is back in the circle. He wiggles his nose and grows Old-Timey Strong Bad's mustache on his mouth.
He loves catastrophe! The Sneak's mustache grows bigger.
His schemes are masterly!
Takes tea at— The Sneak's mustache grows even bigger and he also grows a large beard that hangs out of the circle.
—half past three! A Strong Bad wristwatch is shown. It is a regular wristwatch with Old-Timey Strong Bad in the middle and his hands telling the time. The time is 3:29. The minute hand moves forward to 3:30.
That sneaky sneaker's sneakin' all over town! The Barbershop Trio are back by the barrels, singing with their hats in their left hands.
Who dropped the Homestar Runner from his— The Strong Man hops onto a see-saw that The Sneak is sitting on, causing him to fly off into the background.
—flying machine?
Is it The Sneak? A badly injured the Homestar Runner with bandages and crutches & The Sneak dance left and right among a fence background.
(28 Skidoo!) It's The Sneak! Fort Wayne Locomotive holds The Sneak as if he were a football, while running like a football player does. A football field is in the background.
Who put a bengal tiger— Strong Bad leaps in the air while grabbing his behind, accompanied with cartoon sound effects. He eventually lands, and The Sneak comes up from the bottom left screen corner, with a piece of Strong Bad's pants in his mouth.
—in The Kaiser's latrine? (Ach Du lieber!) A visual of a wooden outhouse/latrine is shown. Cartoonish fighting symbols coming out of there accompanied with the rocking and jamming of the outhouse/latrine are shown, and eventually, The Kaiser comes out.
It's The Sneak! One of the Barbershop Trio's members sticks his head out from the bottom of the screen. The background of barrels is from the beginning of the Ballad.
You know it's The Sneak! Another Barbershop Trio member sticks his head out from the bottom the screen.
The Sneakity Sneak all day long!! The last Barbershop Trio member sticks his head out from beneath.
{music} The screen flashes between Old-Timey Bubs playing a guitar, Old-Timey Marzipan jumping and The Sneak jumping on the piano keys. The Homestar Runner appears.
What? The Sneak pops out of The Homestar Runner's mouth.
Retrieved from "http://hrwiki.org/wiki/Ballad_of_The_Sneak_Visuals"
Category: Music Video Visuals

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Searching for the Origins of Civic Community in the Newly Expanded European Union. Jean Monnet/Robert Schumann Paper Series Vol. 4 No. 18, December 2004
Davidson-Schmich, Louise K. (2004) Searching for the Origins of Civic Community in the Newly Expanded European Union. Jean Monnet/Robert Schumann Paper Series Vol. 4 No. 18, December 2004. [Working Paper] (Unpublished)
Although many scholars stress the importance of a civic political culture for a functioning democracy, there is little consensus about where such a culture originates. The 'bottom up' approach argues that the civic culture has centuries old, enduring roots that in turn shape political and economic institutions. The 'top down' approach implies that political culture itself can be shaped by political institutions. Both schools of thought, however, stress the interrelatedness of civic behaviors; voluntary group membership, newspaper readership, and voting are expected to all be high in civic cultures and low elsewhere. In contrast, this article argues that these four components of 'civicness' are differently influenced by contemporary political institutions and are therefore less interrelated than previous scholars have hypothesized. Germany and its neighbors in a newly expanded EU provide an excellent laboratory in which to empirically investigate these conflicting hypotheses about the origin of the civic community. If the 'bottom up' approach were correct, there would be no differences in the level of civic community between the Eastern and Western parts of Germany and Central Europe since they were separated by the Iron Curtain for only four decades. If the 'top down' approach were correct, forty years of communist rule would have indeed reduced the level of civic community in Eastern Germany and Eastern Central Europe. Instead, I find marked differences in voluntary group membership across the former Iron Curtain, but much less divergence in terms of newspaper readership and voter turnout.
EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-Central and Eastern Europe
Other > civil society
Series > University of Miami, Florida-EU Center of Excellence > Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series
http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/8133


text:
June 4, 2013 9:45AM EDT
Vietnam: Rights Abuses in the Spotlight
Back-to-back Hearings in US Congress Highlight Worsening Rights Situation
(Washington) – The United States government should consider new ways to pressure Vietnam on human rights issues in the wake of a worsening crackdown on dissent in the last year, Human Rights Watch said today. In Washington, DC, the US Congress launched two days of hearings on Vietnam before separate panels in the House of Representatives.
Obama administration officials are testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 5. Human Rights Watch urged the committee to take action on Vietnam's deteriorating rights situation.
"The trend-lines show a worsening situation in Vietnam," said John Sifton, Asia Advocacy director. "In the first few months of 2013, more people have been convicted in political trials than in the whole of last year."
Vietnam's authoritarian penal code prohibits public criticism of the government and the Vietnam Communist Party. In 2012, at least 40 people are known to have been convicted and sentenced to prison for peaceful dissent, an increase from the number in 2011, which itself was an increase from an even lower figure in 2010. In the first five months of this year, more than 50 people were convicted in political trials, more than matching the total for 2012.
Human Rights Watch provided new information on the recent May 16 convictions of two activists, Nguyen Phuong Uyen and Dinh Nguyen Kha, sentenced to 6 years and 8 years in prison for handing out pamphlets, and also noted the May 26 arrest of blogger Truong Duy Nhat and the May 28 conviction of eight ethnic Montagnards first arrested in June 2012, most of whom received sentences from 7 to 11 years in prison.
Human Rights Watch also highlighted a May 5 crackdown in four cities in which police broke up peaceful "human rights picnics" at which young bloggers and activists were disseminating and discussing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights documents. Police also violently broke up anti-China protests in Hanoi on June 2, arresting over a dozen people.
In a testimony, Sifton discussed the US administration's belief that current dialogues on military strategic partnership and trade negotiations might serve as an incentive for Vietnam to make changes and improve its record on human rights. Human Rights Watch suggested that the method was not working.
"It is time for the United States government to see things for what they are," Sifton said. "Vietnamese authorities have not unclenched their fists."
Human Rights Watch urged the US government to consider suspending its trade negotiations with Vietnam unless major improvements in the rights situation occur, and begin reviewing and possibly cutting the scope of engagement with the Vietnamese military.
May 15, 2013 News Release
Vietnam: Drop Charges for Leafleting
Vietnam: Stop Blocking 'Human Rights Picnics'
The Rehab Archipelago
Forced Labor and Other Abuses in Drug Detention Centers in Southern Vietnam
"Are We Not Human?"
Denial of Education for Rohingya Refugee Children in Bangladesh