David Fedler, Vice President of Sales for iKS, stated, "Sanjay's ability will be invaluable to our company. Not alone will he be developing cardinal business partnerships for approach sales, he will aswell be our apostle for the SAE Automotive CAD acceptance affairs in India. With the growing amount of aerospace and auto accomplishment plants architecture analysis and development centers throughout India, Sanjay is geographically amid to advice our business accommodate engineering ability supply and abilities certification.

The abridgement of India, abstinent in USD exchange-rate terms, is the twelfth better in the world, with a GDP of about $1 abundance (2008).[2] It recorded a GDP advance amount of 9.1% for the budgetary year 2007–2008 which makes it the additional fastest big arising economy, afterwards China, in the world.[3] At this amount of abiding advance abounding economists anticipation that India would, over the advancing decades, accept a added arresting bread-and-butter aftereffect on the apple stage. Despite this astounding amount of growth, India's ample citizenry has a per capita assets of $2,659, abstinent by PPP, and $978, abstinent in nominal agreement (revised 2007 estimate). India's abridgement is assorted and abide of assorted activities including manufacturing, agronomics and services. Although a lot of of the Indian workforce still earns its alimentation anon or alongside through agronomics and manufacturing, top tech casework are a growing area and play an more important role in India's economy. The appearance of the agenda age, and the ample amount of adolescent and accomplished association chatty in English, is gradually transforming India as an important 'back office' destination for all-around outsourcing of chump casework and abstruse support. India is a above exporter of highly-skilled workers in software and banking services, and software engineering. Other sectors like manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, nanotechnology, telecommunication, shipbuilding, aerodynamics , tourism and bartering are assuming able potentials with college advance rates.

Nciku is basically an online Chinese-English dictionary. I had a look at it a while ago and came to the conclusion that it was a social networking dictionary. You can sign up and interact with others in the nciku community, as you look up new vocabulary. It didn't appeal to me, as I thought the concept was odd and had been happily using mdbg.net.

That said, the Handwrite Characters function, or handwriting recognition tool, is brilliant! pinyin.info recently highlighted this feature which I have used several times.

The handwriting recognition tool has been around for many years. My Chinese teacher introduced me to it a few months ago. It was part of his Chinese language Windows OS or MS word suite. Unfortunately, I run an English language version of XP and that tool is not included.

This tool/software can also be put on a PDA. A mobile handwriting recognition tool! Just the thing for long bus journeys.

On Thursday, I received an email from a gal that I've corresponded with (as we both share ancestors in our Maple/Fuller line) from Coshocton, Ohio. She forwarded information from the Ohio Civil War list on Rootsweb that Evendon.com now has several records and books that can be searched.

Yesterday, Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County reminded me that Google Books is a very valuable resource. I've used it for awhile now and concur with Terry! If you haven't searched this site for any resources related to your ancestry, I urge you to give it a try! Thanks, Terry, for the reminder about this site!

And if you who use Family Search Labs, you'll notice that many more records have been added. Earlier this week, the site was updated and two databases - Ohio Death Records and Freedman's Bank Records - weren't there! They were back online Friday. Apparently, according to a response I received from my feedback email, there had been some problems with the records that needed to be fixed.

This morning I was reading an article on Questia (amazing website, saving my already creaking book cases from further distress). The article is from the Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association and is entitled "Intimacy: The Key to a Healthy Relationship" (full reference below).

The article raises a number of significant points about intimacy in the relationship between two people - mostly emotional - and some of the prerequisites for the creation of an intimate relationship. This got me thinking about how this can fit with the therapeutic relationship which is of course far from "normal".

I read in psychotherapy texts, blogs, forums, articles and journals constantly about the need for creating intimacy within the dyad (emotional intimacy - and always platonic, of course) in order to build trust, a stronger more effective therapeutic relationship, access more challenging material etc. But if we apply the rules of this article then this is simply impossible.

I'm going to look at some of the key points of the article that really struck me but with the therapeutic relationship in mind.

The first point the article made that struck me was the need for equality in any relationship for emotional intimacy to take place. The article says that, for example, you cannot say that a person and their dog are emotionally intimate because one simply cannot know the other on an intimate, equal emotional level.

The article states that for intimacy to be created, "both partners give each other the opportunity to see what is inside the other."

Er.... no.

The therapeutic relationship this is not.

Well, not unless you are working with a therapist who has no concept of boundaries and the therapeutic frame and spends at least half of the time talking about themselves in which case frankly you are working with the wrong therapist.

We are never going to be emotionally close to our therapist in the way this article suggests. We are never going to know their innermost thoughts, fears, hopes, dreams and all the stuff that we share in an emotionally intimate relationship with a person in the real word - so how on earth can we create "intimacy" in therapy?

And is the kind of intimacy we are therefore creating truly helpful to our personal development? Sure, they know everything about us - but this article suggests that this is simply not enough.

Another section of the article says that "Another important aspect of an intimate relationship is each partner's capacity to be in touch with his or her own feelings.”

Surely this is what we are in therapy to learn - not what we already know.

Is this author then saying we can learn intimacy by the end of the relationship..? And if we can only reach that level of intimacy when we actually lose the relationship, then what message is this sending to us...?

Next up - "Insofar as partners [...] lack honest self-disclosure, their relationship is less intimate. To the extent that one party feels the need to constantly monitor the relationship, thus inhibiting the self-direction of the other partner, intimacy is decreased. "

Well this explains how obsessed we become about our therapist's every reaction - we are looking for the intimacy that cannot be achieved. I imagine that this is where a lot of insecure attachment issues get raised.

And finally, the article says that intimacy is about "Enjoying being together without being dependent on each other”.

The issue of reciprocity notwithstanding, surely we are supposed to become dependent on our therapist to a certain extent in order to build trust and examine attachment issues when there are breaks in therapy, work through transference etc? So are dependence and intimacy mutually exclusive?

Conclusion/Confusion:
Is emotional intimacy something we really are meant to feel or learn with our therapist? Or is it just a misuse of the word in this context? And if so, why is an article targeting psychotherapists seeming to suggest that emotional intimacy with a client can never be achieved when it is something all the other texts actively promote for the success of the work?

Surely we're meant to be in therapy to learn suitable skills for dealing with the world and improving our relationships outside of therapy by working things through with the therapist - but how do we not end up learning an extraordinarily dysfunctional concept of intimacy?

Help me out here people.


REFERENCE:
Article Title: Intimacy: The Key to a Healthy Relationship. Contributors: Will Mosier - author. Journal Title: Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association. Volume: 9. Issue: 1. Publication Year: 2006. Page Number: 34+. COPYRIGHT 2006 American Psychotherapy Association; COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale Group


See also
List of all posts
Building trust - the collaborative relationship
How insecure attachment effects the therapeutic relationship
Rights and responsibilities in therapy
Emotional “resistance” - building trust with extremely defensive clients
The mind-body connection in therapy
Special moments in therapy
Introductions

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is available for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 is now natively supported in Mac OS X.

Basically occult underground provides free resources and one of those is an extensive Ebook library that covers a variety of subjects from Aleister Crowely to Yoga. I've found a bunch of books here that have been on my reading list for a while, but have either been too expensive or hard to get hold of.

From what I've downloaded so far all the files are clean (virus free) and in PDF format so they can be read on PC/iPhone/Palm Pilot/Ebook Readers etc with ease.

‡♥‡

I tell all of my opinion in this book!

• No appointment is necessary to do an in-store exchange.
• Bring your iPhone 3G or at least the serial number.
• Ask Apple Retail Store Concierge to direct you for the exchange, or
• Walk up to the cashier and ask about the exchange.

The new Ultracompact USB Power Adapter will have a green dot.

An Autism Conference will be held November 18 - 21 2008  at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.   It is presented by the Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI), the Autism Society of America (ASA), and the Network of Autism Training and Technical Assistance Programs (NATTAP). 

Dont miss the "premier international autism conference in training, technical assistance and effective strategies."

There will be over 1500 participants -- including state and national leaders, general and special educators, higher education faculty, related service providers, parents and much more -- from across the US and as far away as Bangladesh, Ghana and Australia.

A State Team Forum comprised of teams of state special education directors and other state-level leaders will be featured.

Registration is now open at http://www.nattapconference.org

Contact: Simon Buehrer, Conference/Events Manager, Ohio Center for Autism and Low Incidence (OCALI), 5220 N High Street, Columbus OH 43214.  Phone 614-410-0995; FAX 614-410-1090.

Registration is $300/$100 for parents/families of children with autism.

10' x 10' exhibit booths start at $700.  Table displays for the Tuesday evening autism EXPO are only $100.  Deadline for exhibitor inclusion in the conference program is Friday October 17, 2008.

tutoring in Columbus OH:   Adrienne Edwards   614-579-6021   or email   aedwardstutor@columbus.rr.com

If you study classical ballet, you are well aware that the outward rotation of the hips (or turnout) is essential to the training and traditions of this form.  Even if you are not a trained in ballet, as a dancer you probably use turnout at least some of the time.  Concert or theatrical dance forms (like modern or jazz dance) in particular utilize turnout within their movement vocabulary. Ask most dancers, and you'll discover that turnout is high on their list of things to improve and increase.  But how important is turnout, really? And is having extreme turnout really ideal?

The human body is designed primarily for forward motion.  We walk, run, sit, and stand in the sagittal plane.  In dance, the use of turned out legs is primarily utilized for ease of motion on the proscenium stage, a venue in which the performers present movement to an audience which sits entirely on one side of the stage (as opposed to all around or on three sides).  When dance (ballet) moved to this forum from the royal courts, dancers spent more time moving side to side, necessitating a degree of turnout.  Since then, this rotation of the legs has been exaggerated, accepted as the ideal, and adopted as the aesthetic in ballet.

With developments in dance medicine, most dance educators would now agree that 180-degree turnout is not truly a necessity in ballet or otherwise (although this has yet to really change ballet tradition).  Sideways locomotion certainly does not require rotation to such a degree.  Turnout does allow the greater trochanter to avoid the ilium as the leg is lifted above the waist,  however 180 degrees of turnout is not required for this clearance.  In fact, some research (discussed here) suggests that "most dancers have a maximum rotation of 55 degrees in their hips."  This means that many who appear to have 180º turnout are probably making up the difference in the lower leg.  I suspect that dancers who have danced for years without injury probably discovered early that it is not how much turnout you have that is important, it is how you use what you have. Therefore, it is imperative that one have an understanding of how the hip functions, what is improvable and what is not, how to increase turnout safely and without injury, and how to make the most of what one has.

What Is Turnout?

In anatomical terms, turnout is the outward (sometimes called lateral, or external) rotation of the hip joint.

The hip joint is the joining of the head/top of the femur (thigh bone) to the acetabulum, or hip socket

(seen in the diagram below).

This joint is a ball and socket joint, which allows for a wide range of motion on all three planes (sagittal, lateral, and transverse).  The hip joint can produce flexion (forward of the body), extension (as in standing, not the unfortunately labeled lifting of the leg which is actually flexion in anatomical terms), abduction (away from the midline of the body), adduction (toward the midine of the body), inward rotation (turning-in), and outward rotation (turning-out).  Most dance movements are a combination of these actions.

The hip joint is very complex and most of the muscles surrounding the socket are responsible for more than one action of the hip joint.  These muscles both initiate and restrict movements of the hip. The outward rotators are pictured in the diagram on the right.  The muscles that pass posterior (behind) the hip joint contract to initiate turnout while the anterior muscles lengthen, and those anterior (in front of) the joint contract to initiate inward rotation while the posterior muscles lengthen. If this is confusing, picture the spine of a book - when the book is opened the outside edge of the binding contracts while the other edge lengthens and visa versa.  This inverse relationship is true for all muscle actions and is the key to analyzing movement.

Turnout, although often used in dance as a noun or a position, would more appropriately be considered an action, a verb.  Outwardly rotating the hips requires continual action within the body even when the rotation is held or maintained.  The work does not stop once the position has been attained because maintaining turnout is not what the body is designed for.

Turnout does not occur from anywhere other than the hip.  A false turnout can be achieved by pronating the tarsus (rolling in) to create the illusion of a wider turnout than is being achieved by the hips alone.  This causes a twisting in the knee, a joint which is only designed to extend and flex in the sagittal plane, and this usually leads to misalignment of the pelvis, which actually reduces outward rotation.  False turnout also creates the potential for a myriad of injuries, as we'll discuss in Part II.

How To Recognize Proper/Improper Turnout

There are some simple visual cues that teachers and students can look for that indicate if turnout is being executed properly and without force.  First of all, if someone is bending their knees (no matter how slightly), turning out, and then lengthening the legs, they are very clearly forcing their turnout. If you try this, you'll see (and feel) that the feet are rolling toward the big toe (pronating) to maintain this position. When you hear teachers say "knees over toes," they are asking you to properly align the turnout of your legs and avoid pronation both in standing and in plié. When the legs are opened without force and turnout is supported with the deep rotators, iliopsoas, and abdominals, one should be able to trace a line directly from the hip, through the center of the knee, and to a point between the second and third toe of the foot.  A neutral or properly aligned pelvis (with the sitz bones pointing downward) is a good indicator as well because when the turnout is forced, generally the pelvis will tilt, creating a swayed back.

Dance instructors looking for indication of false turnout will expect to see the feet roll in, the pelvis tilt, and the knees and toes pointing a different direction than the center of the hip joint indicates.  When a dancer is forcing turnout beyond their physical capabilities, tension will appear in the buttocks and probably other areas of the body such as the shoulders or neck.  A dancer who consistently performs with false or forced rotation in the hips will eventually complain of sciatic, knee, foot, and/or back pain.  Therefore, if a dancer is having any of these problems it is always a good idea to pay special attention to their turnout and alignment while dancing.

Nature vs. Nurture

Almost everyone "afflicted" with what he/she considers a limited degree of turnout has at one time found solace in the idea that, for some, the degree of turnout is limited by the unchangeable structure of the body and not for lack of trying.  It is true that some have a narrow sacrum which allows for more efficient locomotion overall.  Men have a narrower sacrum than women, giving them the potential for more impressive jumping skills.  Of course the width of this area varies among women as well.  But, before you begin to think that having a narrow pelvis is ideal, some have observed that this narrow pelvis often is paired with a forward facing acetabulum.  This facing results in, you guessed it, a lesser degree in outward rotation than those with a side-facing hip socket.  The depth of the acetabulum can also affect turnout.  A shallow hip socket allows for higher degrees of both outward and inward rotation in the hip than does a deeper hip socket.

Aside from these natural limitations, turnout is only hindered by problems in how we have nurtured (or not nurtured) the muscles and tissues surrounding the hip. There are three ways in which a dancer can nurture their ability to turnout and to actively maintain that turnout during movement:  Awareness, Release, and Strengthen Without Tension.  And we will learn more about these in Part II!

"The best mirror is an old friend."
~George Herbert

Barack Obama & Raila Odinga

Obama Backing Islamic Terror Regime in Kenya

Jerome Corsi - Obama & Odinga of Kenya

The Obama and Odinga Connection

First, Barack Obama lies and misleads the American people about his relationship with friend and fellow radical socialist, Bill Ayers, the unrepentant domestic terrorist bomber.

Second, Barack Obama lies and misleads the American people about his continuing relationship to ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

ACORN has been in the news lately because of its involvement in both widespread voter registration fraud  in a many states and its history of advocating and extorting banks to make mortage loans to unqualified borrowers that over time lead to the current financial crisis on Wall Street.

Now, Barack Obama is silent about his relative and fellow radical socialist, Raila Odinga, a Kenyan unrependent terrorist that incited tribal violence in Kenya resulting in the deaths of over 1500 Kenyans primarily Christians.

Kenya is predominantly a Christian nation with over 78% of the population being either Protestant or Catholic and about 10% Moslem.

There seems to be an Obama pattern and practice here of associating with radical socialist and terrorists.

Barack Obama is a socialist that associates with a network of socialists both in the United States and abroad.

Senator Obama exercises poor judgement when it comes to selecting his friends.

When the truth of the relationship and the ideas and activities of his radical socialists friends becomes known, Senator Obama routinely  "throws them under the bus" by denouncing them and disassociating himself from them.

How convenient.

The American people regard radical socialist terrorists like Ayers and Odinga as beyond the pale.

I agree with Charles Krauthammer who wrote recently:

"Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association.

But associations are important. They provide a significant insight into character. They are particularly relevant in relation to a potential president as new, unknown, opaque and self-contained as Obama. With the economy overshadowing everything, it may be too late politically to be raising this issue. But that does not make it, as conventional wisdom holds, in any way illegitimate.

McCain has only himself to blame for the bad timing. He should months ago have begun challenging Obama's associations, before the economic meltdown allowed the Obama campaign (and the mainstream media, which is to say the same thing) to dismiss the charges as an act of desperation by the trailing candidate."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/09/AR2008100902328.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

I urge you to read Krauthammer's entire editorial opinion.

Barack Obama freely chose to associate himself with Ayers, Wright, Pflager, and Odinga and only renounced them when the revelation of his friends activities and views became widely known.  

Why did Barack Obama associate with these people?

There are two possibilites.

Both of which make him unqualified to be President of the United States of America.

One, Barack Obama has poor judgement as to the character and integrity of the people he associates with such as Ayers, Wright, Rezko, and Odinga, just to name a few.

Second, Barack shares their radical socialist views, means and ends.

I am convinced the second possibility is the truth and where Barack Obama heart lies.

Obama knows that he must mask his association with radical socialists and his socialist views to get elected in the United States.

This is not guilt by association, it is guilt by revelation.

The pump and dump drive-by mainstream media, black Americans, liberals, progressives, communists and socialists are supporting him by a margin of 9 to 1. 

This is blind identity politics; they are not interested in seeing or hearing the truth about Obama.

A case of mass invincible ignorance--do not confuse me with the facts, I have already made up my mind.

This will result in Barack Obama getting about 35% of the vote and maybe another 1%  by organized voter fraud using such organizations as ACORN and its affiliates.

Only if the mask remains in place will Obama get another 15% of the vote needed to win in November.

The time to rip off the mask of Barack Obama and reveal what he is past due.

Barack Obama is bad for America; he is bold, arrogant, and dangerous (BAD).

Governor Palin was absolutely right when she said of Senator Obama:

 “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America.”

Sarah Palin Tells The Truth About Obama's Terrorist Friends (Barack Obama Palling Around With Terrorist Friend, Bill Ayers)

Only you can prevent socialism in America. 

"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?"

Matthew 7:16

Background Articles and Videos 

Kenya

"...The country has an area of 225,000 square miles and a population of 35.5 million; approximately 80 percent live in rural areas. Approximately 80 percent of the country practices Christianity; Protestants represent 58 percent of the Christian majority, Roman Catholics represent 42 percent. Ten percent of the population practice Islam, less than 1 percent practice Hinduism, Sikhism, and Baha'i, and the remainder follow various traditional indigenous religions. There are very few atheists. Some Muslim groups claim to represent up to 30 percent of the population; this figure is not supported by demographic data.

Certain groups tend to dominate particular regions. For example, North Eastern Province, where the population is chiefly ethnic Somali, is home to 15 percent of the Muslim population. Sixty percent of the Muslim population lives in Coast Province, comprising 50 percent of the total population there. Western areas of Coast Province are mostly Christian. The north-central part of the country is home to 10 percent of the Muslims, making it the majority religious group there. Apart from the ethnic Somali population in Nairobi, the rest of the country is largely Christian.

Many foreign missionary groups operate in the country. The Government generally permits missionary groups to assist the poor and to operate schools and hospitals. Missionaries openly promote their religious beliefs and encounter little interference from the Government.

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2007/90103.htm

Why did Obama support muslim terrorist Raila Odinga & Sharia law in Kenya?

"When Obama went to Kenya in August of 2006, he was hosted by Raila, his cousin, and spoke in praise of him at rallies in Nairobi: Obama's bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenya government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila's ‘stooge.’
Raila Odinga, then the current presidential frontrunner, had promised to implement strict Islamic Sharia law if he received the Muslim vote and was elected president. Odinga had signed a secret memorandum of understanding with Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi, chairman of the National Leaders Forum, in which Odinga had allegedly stated his intention, if elected, to: ‘within six months, rewrite the Constitution of Kenya to recognize Sharia as the only true law sanctioned by the Holy Quran for Muslim declared regions’. I hope Obama's female voters are ready to be stoned to death if they visit Kenya and even look sideways at a man. ..."

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080223182108AACaLqU

Obama: The Kenya Connection
BY Edwin Okong'o

"...Kenyans believe in Barack Obama so much that I'm willing to bet that if he were to run against our President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga -- the two men at the center of Kenya's disputed December 27 election that has led to widespread tribal violence -- he would win in a landslide.

The absolute support that Kenyans offer Obama comes from the fact that his father was Kenyan, which, according to our tradition, makes him our own. In most of our tribal cultures, a child belongs to the father. This overshadows the fact that his mother was a white American. Likewise, the fact that Obama doesn't hold Kenyan citizenship, or speak any Kenyan language, is insignificant. Kenyans, especially those from his father's home province of Nyanza, love him so much that they have already renamed a primary school and a high school in his honor. In Kenyan bars, you can order "Obama beer," a brew that used to be named "Senator" long before he became one. ..."

"...But given Odinga's controversial background and the continued ethnic violence in Kenya, his attempts to invoke Obama's name may undermine Obama's campaign in the U.S.

Odinga is the son of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenya's first vice-president, a socialist who sent his son to Communist East Germany for college. The younger Odinga named one of his sons Fidel Castro and has also admitted to being one of the masterminds of a 1982 attempted coup against Daniel arap Moi, Kenya's second president. In American Op-Ed pages and in the blogosphere, many of Obama's political foes are already capitalizing on his supposed ties to Odinga.

When Obama took time off his campaign in New Hampshire to make a five-minute phone call to Odinga, urging him to talk with President Kibaki in order to avoid more bloodshed, New York Sun columnist Daniel Johnson wrote, "If [Obama] has been putting tribal or family considerations above America's national interest by supporting Mr. Odinga's anti-Western candidacy, it raises serious questions about his judgment."

By using the words "tribal considerations" Johnson assumes that Obama identifies with his father's tribe, the Luo, the main group clashing with the majority Kikuyus. But Obama has never claimed to be a Kenyan, let alone a Luo. He has said repeatedly that his loyalty is to the people of Illinois, who he represents, and to his fellow Americans. ..."

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2008/01/the_kenya_conne.html

Who Are the Kikuyu?And why do Kenya's other tribes resent them so much?

By Michela Wrong

"...There's a reason for this. Central Province is the home of President Mwai Kibaki—his Othaya constituency lies just south of Nyeri. While his Kikuyu kinsmen have been burned alive and lynched across the rest of Kenya, punished for his suspected rigging of the December elections, only a madman would dare lift a hand to a Kikuyu on his home turf.

 obama-odinga cousins?

Barack Obama - Kenya - Odinga - Obama Nation

Kenyans clash over election results - 03 Jan 08

Al Jazeera interviews Raila Odinga - 11 Jan 08

Obama's Kenyan Roots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UreJZMY_2IY 

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special Part 2

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special Part 3 

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special Part 4

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special Part 5

Barack Obama & Friends Sean Hannity Special Part 6

Raila Odinga

"Raila Amollo Odinga (born January 7, 1945) is a Kenyan politician, currently serving as the Prime Minister of Kenya with president Mwai Kibaki in a coalition government. He has served as a Member of Parliament for Langata since 1992, was Minister of Energy from 2001 to 2002, and was Minister of Roads, Public Works and Housing from 2003 to 2005. He was the main opposition candidate in the disputed 2007 presidential election. Following a post-electoral crisis that resulted in the deaths of 1,500 people and the displacement of 600,000 more, Odinga took office as Prime Minister, at the head of a national unity government, in April 2008.

Odinga is the son of the first Vice President of Kenya, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga; his brother, Oburu Odinga, is also currently an MP. Raila is commonly known by his first name due to coincidence: he was an MP at the same time as his father between 1992 and 1994, and is currently in the House with Oburu. Raila was a presidential contender in the 1997 elections, coming third after President Daniel arap Moi of KANU and Mwai Kibaki now the current president of Kenya but then a member of the Democratic Party. Odinga campaigned to run for president in the December 2007 elections on an Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) ticket. ..." 

"...According his website, Raila lists himself as a social democrat,^[20] thus distancing himself from his late father, who was openly socialist. His party, the LDP, is affiliated to the Liberal International.

Raila Odinga gets noticeable support from all over the country, especially among third largest ethnic base in Kenya, the Luo. He is seen as an effective mobilizer of grassroots support.

Further to this, there have been recent calls from the Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, Martha Karua, for Raila to answer allegations regarding impropriety in the purchase and subsequent sale of land on the Kisumu Molasses Plant.^[21]

"...Raila Odinga is of the Anglican faith^[24] and is married to Ida Odinga (born Ida Anyango Oyoo). They live in Nairobi (but has a second home in Bondo District) with their four children—two sons and two daughters. His oldest son, Fidel, is named after Fidel Castro^[25] and their youngest child, Winnie, is named after Winnie Mandela.^[25]

In a January 2008 interview, Odinga suggested that he was the first cousin of American Senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama through Senator Obama's father.^[26] However, Barack Obama's paternal uncle Said Obama has denied any direct relation to Odinga, stating "Odinga's mother came from this area, so it is normal for us to talk about cousins. But he is not a blood relative."^[27] Obama's father belonged to the same Luo tribe as Odinga. ^[26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raila_Odinga 

 TREASON: OBAMA'S TACIT SUPPORT FOR ODINGA'S VIOLENT OVERTHROW OF DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED LEADER IN KENYA

By Pamela Geller on Atlas Shrugs

"...Jerome Corsi is back from Kenya and he confirms everything I have been reporting about Obama and Odinga since January 2008. Obama supported a vicious killer to overthrow the duly elected President of Kenya. The  Odinga strategy exploited "anti-Kikuyu sentiments,"  clearly a racial strategy aimed at inflaming long-standing tribal animosity to gain electoral advantage for Odinga".

Why would Obama support the exploitation of ethnic violence and murder? To further his own career? To position himself to "save the day"? Isn't this the same malevolent, anti-American, me-me-me subterfuge that Obama tried in Iraq? His private attempt to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence was sabotage, treason even. His objective was to keep our boys in Iraq until he became President so that he could position himself to take credit "for bringing our boys and girls  home" when he he was vehemently against the surge and advocated surrender and defeat in Iraq.This Mansourian candidate depends and wishes for, advocates for American failure.

This is the currency in which he trades - bad for America is good for Obama. ..."

"...When Raila Odinga lost the presidential election last week (12/27) to Mwai Kibaki, he claimed the vote was rigged, whereupon his tribal followers went on murderous rampages such as in the town of Eldoret, where on New Years Day dozens of people were burned to death in a church set on fire.

Throughout Kenya, hundreds of people have been politically murdered in the last few days.

Kenya's 37 million people are divided up into over three dozen tribes and sub-tribes, but the two dominant ones are Kikuyu and Luo.  Kenyan politics since independence in 1963 has essentially been a duke-out between them.

The father of Kenyan independence and president until 1978 was Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu.  His main political opponent was Oginga Odinga, known as "OO," a Luo and Raila's father. 

While Kenyatta was pro-West and sided with America in the Cold War, OO was a Communist who was aided and supported by the Soviet Union.That's why Raila went to school in East Germany (born in 1945, he graduated from Magdeburg University in 1970), and named his first-born son after Fidel Castro. ..." 

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/kenyas_killing_fields/ 

Politics of Kenya

"The Politics of Kenya take place in a framework of a presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Kenya is both head of state and head of government, and of a multi-party system. Recent constitutional amendments have enabled sharing of executive powers between the President and a Prime Minister. Executive power is exercised by the government, with powers shared between the President and a Prime Minister, who coordinates and supervises the cabinet. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Assembly. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Kenya

The World Fact Book: Kenya

"...Mwai KIBAKI, running as the candidate of the multiethnic, united opposition group, the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC), defeated KANU candidate Uhuru KENYATTA and assumed the presidency following a campaign centered on an anticorruption platform. KIBAKI's NARC coalition splintered in 2005 over the constitutional review process. Government defectors joined with KANU to form a new opposition coalition, the Orange Democratic Movement, which defeated the government's draft constitution in a popular referendum in November 2005. KIBAKI's reelection in December 2007 brought charges of vote rigging from ODM candidate Raila ODINGA and unleashed two months of violence in which as many as 1,500 people died. UN-sponsored talks in late February produced a powersharing accord bringing ODINGA into the government in the restored position of prime minister.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ke.html

The Obama Witch Project: RAAAAAAAAACISM!

By Michelle Malkin

"...Such paranoia is not limited to the fever swamps of the Internet. Earlier this week, the Associated Press disseminated an “analysis” accusing Palin of injecting a “racial tinge” into the campaign because she criticized Obama for his longtime relationship with Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. Palin’s comments were completely unobjectionable: “This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America.”

I saw a vice presidential candidate drawing stark philosophical differences between two tickets. The AP saw Freddy Krueger with lipstick and a noose.

“Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as ‘not like us’ is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American,” the AP piece frothed.

Obama is half-black. Ayers is white. One of the Weather Underground’s victims was black police officer Waverly Brown of Nyack, New York. Where do I buy a pair of the super X-ray glasses that can detect the racism in Palin’s remarks about the Obama-Ayers alliance?

http://michellemalkin.com/2008/10/10/the-obama-witch-project-raaaaaaaaacism/

Related Posts On Pronk Palisades

Obama–Ayers–Chicago Annenberg Challenge–ACORN–Radical Socialists–Terrorist Bombers–Videos

Outting Obama: Radical Racist Rabble Rouser Reader

Voters Beware: The Radical Rules of Saul Alinsky and Leftist Democrats

Obama–ACORN–CRA–Congress–Democratic Party–Fannie Mae–Freddie Mac–Bailout–Socialism– Just Say No!

ACORN–Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now–Obama’s Red Shirts

Barrack Obama’s Kansas Values–Killing Babies in Cold Blood?

Barack Obama: The First Previable Puppet Presidential Candidate!

Barack Obama–A Reader Not A Leader!

Barack Obama Cult? 

Barack Obama: A Watermelon Man–Green on The Outside–Red on The Inside

Barack Obama–Damaged Goods–Birds of A Feather Flock Together

Obama Bombs Bailout Meeting–Whitehouse Still Standing–McCain Saved By House Republicans

Stop The Bailout: The American Elites’ Bum Rush of The American People–No Sale!

Unconstrained Obama vs. Constrained McCain: A Conflict of Vision

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Senator Obama: The Experience Challenged Candidate of Change

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Obama: Pump Up Your Tires–Main Stream Media: Pumps Up Obama

Identity Politics: Blacks, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals for Obama? 

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I've been listening to the album for about a week now.  Overall it's a good album - here's my thoughts on each song.

Sing, Sing, Sing
I like this track.  It's a great call to praise.  Great bass part.

Jesus Messiah
This song is getting a lot of radio play right now.  Not sure if that means it's a hit or not but I'm not warming to this one yet.  The lyrics are solid and easy to sing along because they are also somewhat predicable.  Perhaps that is the songs appeal.

You Lifted Me Out
Great song!  I've been singing a lot more backing vocals than I ever used to recently.  This probably has something to do with why I like this song.  I love the backing vocals part.  The song has energy, moves along at a good pace and would be fun to sing.

God Of This City
Wow!  This might just be the best song on the album for me.  It is written by a band called BlueTree from Belfast, Northern Ireland.  Being Northern Irish, I hate to say it (sorry guys), but I like Tomlin's version a (skinny) hair better.

I Will Rise
I like this song.  I'm not sure it is one I would use, but I have liked listening to it.

Praise The Father, Praise The Son
What seems to be a growing trend is the new hymn like songs that are appearing.  They may be old hymns with new refrains, or entirely new songs written in the style of a hymn.  I do like the occasional hymn, especially when leading.  You will find a certain (aka 'older') part of your congregation will really connect with this style of song.  ;-)

God Almighty
Nice chorus.

My Deliverer
Every time I hear the start of this song I'm singing, "At the cross You beckon me, You draw me gently to my knees..." (Sweetly Broken - Jeremy Riddle).

With Me
This is a nice song.  Does anyone think Chris Tomlin sounds a little like Chris Martin (Coldplay) on the first two lines of each verse - "I open my mouth and you speak for me, you move the mountains and roll back the sea..."?  Maybe I'm listening to this album too much?

Exalted (Yahweh)
A worshipful song.  "Yahweh, Holy is Your name!"

All The Way My Saviour Leads Me
A gentle song.  Might be good as a feature.

Love
There is an African children's choir singing along with Chris on this song.  "There is love, there is forgiveness... love is the answer, love will find the way... when we love one another, it's a brighter day...".  It's a good song but I would have no immediate plans to use it.

Many blogs have gave away this album recently, so here is one more chance.  To 'win' a copy of this album, simply leave a comment on this post.  I will randomly pick a comment and have the CD sent out to you.  Please ensure you use a valid email address when posting your comment so I can contact you should you turn out to be the winner.

I will 'draw' a winner on the evening of Wednesday 15th October.

Just WOW !

PERMISSIONS: These textures, belts, buckles and studs are set with full permissions. You can sell or give out your own creations you make using them.  Even though this item is free, there are restrictions on its use. Do not give away or resell the textures themselves.  Do not sell or give away belt pieces, studs, buckles or parts of buckles with full permissions.

Posted by Feodora Umarov

You really want to take a look at his posts on branding. They make you think - really think - about what you do, how you set yourself apart, and ways to reach your audience with your message. Adam gets right to the point without a lot of jargon or spin. He encourages you to stop hoping for your brand to make itself - get out there, say what it is, and do it!

Here are are some of the regulars I spend a couple of hours with each week.  

Lucy Kellaway

5 minutes of infuriatingly intelligent common sense.  Lucy Kellaway writes for the FT and is a bright cookie with a degree in Philosopy, Politics and Economics from Oxford.  She's ruthlessly sarcastic whenever business or business people get above themseves, and is particularly hot on language, bulls***, and self-regarding egotism.  I frequently disagree with her but she's always thought it through.  She can sound like the celebrity old-girl speaking at a school prize-day day, but get past that and listen to what she says.  She's funny too.

Peter Day’s World of Business

Superb 30 minute programmes from the BBC.  Peter Day tackles a specific topic each week, looking at it from several perspectives within different organisations.  Day gets insightful and illuminating answers out of the people he interviews, which says a lot about the questions he asks.  Topics in autumn 2008 are: branding, risk management in casinos and banking, agriculture, the future of the internet, and biotech and medicines. Wide-ranging, meticulous, insightful and fascinating.

The Bottom Line

Another 30 minutes from the BBC.  Ewan Davies invites some of the UK's most senior executives to kick-off their shoes and compare notes.  It feels like listening to experienced friends at a Sunday afternoon barbecue talking relaxed and slightly theoretical shop. Davies directs things with a light hand on the conversational tiller.   Superb.

The Businessweek Cover Story

Another conversational programme: John Byrne, the executive editor of Business week, spends 15 or 20 minutes chatting through the week's cover story with whoever wrote it.  It's a painless way to keep informed about the forces in American Business as well as the occasional headline news item.  These podcasts were my first introduction to terms like "sub-prime", "credit crunch" and "toxic title".  These are often recorded late at night as sub-editors add the graphics and finish the layout.  On a couple of occasions Byrne and the magazine's chief economist Mike Mandel were clearly a couple of drinks over a headline, but most of the time everyone concerned is on the tips of their well-researched and analytical toes.  An additional treat is Byrne's baby-boomer taste in intro tracks.  

The Cranky Middle Manager

A show by and for pragmatists with nothing to sell, its for those of us trying to keep our heads above water and below the parapet.  It's engaging, conversational, informative and oddly comforting.  Oh, and funny.  I like Wayne Turmel's energy and enthusiasm too.  The podcast is long on experience which makes it a good counterpoint to the journalists' analysis and the academics' theorising.  And it's got one of my favourite words in its title.

PoetryPolitic is a blog in fifty days—from September 15th through November 4th of 2008—presenting news from the intersection between poetry and politics. PoetryPolitic aims to offer a spectrum of critical and imaginative thinking, through which we—as citizens and as readers—might be brought into a field of greater and more urgent awareness. The poems, recordings, videos, essays and interviews represent the ways in which poetry might respond to the complexity of the moment, enacting and catalyzing the thinking and conversations necessary towards that response.

As we continue to be arrested by William Carlos Williams’s utterly timeless forewarning—that “It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there”**—we turn, ritually and reflexively, to poems.