Monday, February 9, 2009

Y! Alert: The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Carrie Pollare: For The Love Of Doggies... Top
It's said that when you first arrive in heaven, all the dogs who have ever been a part of your life are there to greet you. Whether there's a heaven or not and whether that statement is true or not, it still plays to the sentiment that dogs and unconditional love go hand in hand...that for those of us who have been lucky enough to have doggies in our lives, the bond is as good as it gets. If you haven't figured it out, I'm a dog lover. My dog, Noah, is a rescue, who has the sweetest disposition of any dog I know (okay...I'm biased). He was found by the pet adoption organization on the streets of South Central Los Angeles at about six months old with terrible mange (picture a combination of a German Shepherd, Akita and Chow...we're talking big curly tail and lots of fur...who had become almost bald with red irritated skin). To add insult to injury, the vet found bee bees lodged in his body because some sadist used him for target practice. Yet, in spite of his hideous beginning, this resilient guy walked right up to us on the fateful day and sat in my daughter's lap. To say that it was love at first site would be a gross understatement. It's amazing how dogs can capture your heart in an instant... one intensely expressive look, a great kiss and they own you. As a doggie devotee, you can imagine how it pains me to see all the dogs with no homes or families...to witness how many have to be euthanized, while breeders continue to over breed for profit, putting more dogs into the population. I've always wanted to make a difference for these innocent victims. Finally, after an interesting winding road of a career, I am doing exactly that with a campaign called "I'm Tired of..." that raises money for many important causes, including animal cruelty. I don't know about you, but I want to rid the world of the unconscionable puppy mills we read about and the horror of psychopaths, like former NFL quarterback Michael Vick, who deliberately and methodically abused so many Pit Bulls, forcing them to fight and even pulling out the teeth of those that were designated for breeding so they wouldn't bite. Now affectionately known as the "Vicktory" dogs, 22 of these animals were rescued and rehabilitated by a phenomenal organization, called "Best Friends Animal Society," which brings me to "Dogtown." My husband makes fun of me because one of my favorite shows is the National Geographic Channel's "Dogtown." If you love dogs and you haven't watched it, you should tune in. It really tugs at this girl's heartstrings. Created by "Best Friends," it takes place mostly at their 33,000 acre animal sanctuary in Utah. Typically tracking dogs from rescue to adoption, you witness first hand the efforts of Best Friends' vets, trainers and caregivers, as they care for what could be called the most severe cases to try to bring about a happy ending. Some dogs are sick or injured; some are not socialized or have vicious tendencies because of their horrid backgrounds. Two of the most amazing episodes involved a puppy mill rescue and the rehabilitation of the "Vicktory" dogs. After being a fan for some time, I never would have thought that I would find myself engaged directly with Best Friends. But here I am, raising money for the organization...not only that, but also the cast of "Dogtown" and the "Vicktory" dogs, no less, are now wearing the very fashion product that we created to support them. I'm definitely star struck! It's all about a fashionable, eco friendly bracelet called "I'm Tired of Animal Cruelty." Made of recycled tires and metals, the little bracelet that could costs just $10 and we donate half of each sale ($5) to Best Friends. I am proud to say that the stars of "Dogtown" now wear their bracelets all the time and will be sporting them on next season's shows, which premier very soon. The "I'm Tired of..." campaign is probably the most important thing I've done in my career. The animal cruelty bracelet is one of many bracelets we make, all of which support important causes in the world that we are all tired of, like world hunger, global warming, cancer and diabetes. So, how did my brother and I get here from being hard core computer industry executives? You can find out here -- but stay tuned for subsequent posts, where I'll share with you the rewards and knowledge that have come from making a difference. More on Animals
 
The Toxic Paradox: What Are You Protecting Your Kids From? Top
Every morning, as part of their daily routine, my husband slathers our daughter with all-natural sun block that claims to ward off skin cancer without causing something worse. Because of suspected harmto children's reproductive systems, we don't microwave in plastic or use shampoo containing phthalates. We limit tuna, since elevated mercury levels are linked to learning delays. Better safe than sorry, I say. But safe from what? And, more to the point, safe from which? My own mother forbade me to drink the water in the Minneapolis suburb where I spent my teens: creosote from a closed plant had leached into several of the town's wells. Although they were shut down, she remained suspicious. Better safe than sorry, she said. Still, during six years of daily showers, my skin would have absorbed plenty of whatever may have been lurking there. Could that be why I scored lower on my SAT's than I thought I should have? Might the creosote have contributed to my breast-cancer diagnosis at age 35? Or was the culprit the pesticide sprayed each year over my summer camp to combat mosquitoes? (To be fair, we were told to put our pillows under our blankets beforehand.) More on Health
 
Usher's Wife "Stable" After Surgery In Brazil Top
NEW YORK — A representative for Usher says the singer's wife, Tameka Foster, is recovering from surgery in Brazil. Publicist Simone Smalls says Foster "is in stable condition after suffering complications from routine surgery in Brazil. Her husband Usher is with her at the hospital." No further details were provided. In her statement, Smalls says "the family requests privacy at this difficult time." Usher was supposed to be one of the performers at music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party Saturday night, but he had to back out for what Davis called a serious family illness. The 30-year-old R&B star married Foster in August 2007. They have two young sons, 2-year-old Usher Raymond V and 2-month-old Naviyd Ely Raymond.
 
Michael Wolff: Wannabe Car Czar: How Heavy Is His Heavy Hand? Top
At what point, if you're a powerful person, does trying to influence the way the press covers you become an abuse of power? After all, it's hardly unusual that the powerful spend lots of money and energy shaping their coverage. For a politician the main job may be just that: spinning message, buffing image. So why is the allegation here that the financier, and would-be Car Czar, Steven Rattner influenced the New York press to bury or erase coverage of his wife's drunken driving episode more extreme than normally aggressive PR? In a sense, it's not Rattner's efforts to save his wife and himself from embarrassment that are so glaring, but rather the hypocrisy of the press for bending to him so completely. The Daily News deep-sixed its coverage of Rattner's wife, Maureen White, a major Democratic party fundraiser, and the Times and the Post did no coverage at all--even though Rattner's been a likely candidate for high position in a Democratic administration. The Rattner cover-up--let us call it buy its name--is a window into how power, in this case media and financial power, laced with personal connections of long standing, actually works. Powerful people do each other favors; they grant them; they call them; they trade them. In New York newsrooms (as in newsrooms everywhere) there are certain names that make editors pause: life-is-too-short names. It will cost you, in your own stature with the powers that be, and in the time it will take you to explain yourself, if you piss on them. Practically speaking, the Rattners haven't subverted the justice system; they haven't gotten an agency of government to grant them special favors; they haven't received an exceptional bank rate. They just tampered with reality to make it suit their personal needs, which politicians and business people try to do everyday. Continue reading at newser.com
 
Ex-Gitmo Detainees Transferred To Iraqi Custody Top
BAGHDAD — Four Iraqi prisoners have been transferred from the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay to Iraqi custody, two senior Iraqi security officials said Monday. The officials said the men had been arrested in Afghanistan, then transferred to Guantanamo, before being released to the Iraqis for questioning. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, did not give a timeframe for their arrests or release. "We have interrogated four Iraqi men who are now in our custody," one of the officials said, adding the detainees included a Shiite from Basra. He said one more Iraqi citizen remains at the U.S. naval base in Cuba and was seeking refugee status in the United States. The sister of one of the prisoners, Hassan Abdul-Hadi al-Jawhar, said the International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed her brother's release. The Red Cross said it would not comment on individual cases. President Barack Obama has ordered the detention center in Cuba to be closed within a year as part of his overhaul of U.S. national security policy. An estimated 245 men are being held; most of them have been detained for years without being charged. Neda Abdul-Hadi said her brother disappeared in 1999 while serving with the Iraqi military under Saddam Hussein in northern Iraq. After almost losing hope, she said the family received a letter from Hassan in 2004 saying he was in Guantanamo. "We received a handwritten letter from him almost every three months," she said. "He would only tell us about his well-being and send his love to the family, but nothing about his arrest or why he was in Guantanamo." She said the family, which lives in Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, heard through news reports that her brother was one of four people now in an Iraqi prison run by the Ministry of Justice. "I never knew him to be overly religious or extreme in his faith," said Abdul-Hadi. "We just want to know where he is." Thousands of Iraqi security forces were meanwhile deployed along routes leading to the Shiite holy city of Karbala to protect pilgrims marching there for religious rituals this week. Attacks by al-Qaida in Iraq, other Sunni insurgents, Shiite extremists and a Shiite cult have killed hundreds of people during pilgrimages in recent years. Underscoring the dangers, a roadside bomb killed two pilgrims Sunday in Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers also discovered another explosive south of the capital believed to have been placed to target those making the trek on foot. About 40,000 soldiers and police officers have been stationed in the area, including a main road linking Karbala and the holy city of Najaf to the south, said Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Mustafa, Najaf's police chief. In addition, hundreds of security cameras have been mounted and air patrols are being conducted along the less trafficked routes. "We want to deny any terrorist the opportunity to mar the occasion," said Maj. Gen. Ali Jassim Mohammed, Karbala's police chief. Hundreds of thousands of Shiite pilgrims are expected to visit Karbala by next Monday to mark the end of 40 days of mourning that follow Ashoura, the anniversary of the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein. He was killed in a battle for the leadership of the nascent Muslim nation following Muhammad's death in 632. In January, a suicide bomber killed at least 38 people at a Shiite shrine in Baghdad during celebrations marking Ashoura. Security also was tight at the Najaf airport where more than 40 flights carrying pilgrims from as far away as London, Pakistan and India were expected to arrive within the week, said Safa al-Furati of the United Arab Emirates-based Jupiter Airlines. Last year, about 5,000 pilgrims flew to Najaf to begin the pilgrimage to Karbala, he said. This year, more than 20,000 were expected, he said. ___ Associated Press writer Hamid Ahmed contributed to this report. More on Guantánamo Bay
 
Mike Alvear: Sex On Valentine's Day Top
Is it, as comedian Lord Carret said, "her knees over my shoulders, with my wallet hidden where she'll never think of looking for it?" Or is it a little more romantic than that? But then, is there such a thing as a romantic sexual position? Certainly, there are elements that up the intimacy -- positions that allow eye contact, kissing, caressing, and offering unobstructed heart space (both partners facing each other so they figuratively and literally have heart-to-heart contact). But the whole thing breaks down when you try to pull all these elements into definitive positions. Especially, if you try to name those positions. "Missionary?" "69?" "Doggie Style?" Not part of any Romance Language I know. Recently, I asked my readers to come up with intimate names for sexual positions. Here's a sampling from the men: • The You Tube • Snatcher in the Rye • The Backward Death Dive • The Screaming Pelican • The Tony Danza (what you say after you yell, "Who's the boss?") Not much help. Did the women come up with anything better? Take a look: • The Rolodex of Love • The Butter Churn Tilt-a-Whirl. • The Whiskey Waltz • The Flckr Licker • The Why Me Waterfall Nobody got it right because it's not gettably right. Soaring romance is at odds with the nuts and bolts of the bomp-chicka-wow-wow. It can lay the groundwork or clean it up afterwards, but in the end, it's a victim of the often awkward, sometimes comedic attempt at physical union. Sexual physics is the Hoover Dam to the river of romance. I gorged on Google Images, trying to find a visual for "romantic sexual positions." I think it's safe to say there's a big difference between romantic and pornographic imagery. One makes you long for something; the other makes you reach for it. One asks where it can take you; the other asks what it can do for you. The two are inseparable, of course, but not if you want your family-friendly browser to deliver pictures that make the point. And there are some that do. It only took me a day and a half to find them, but they're there. Or rather, here . They're beautiful, they're PG, and they prove my contention that there's only one romantic sexual position for Valentine's Day: Eyes closed. Mike Alvear is the author of Sex Inspectors Masterclass: How to Have an Amazing Sex Life , based on the TV series. Click here to see my collection of romantic sex positions (all PG-rated!) More on Sex
 
The Jonas Brothers' Dubious Grammy Fashion (SLIDESHOW) Top
The Jonas Brothers may score high with the Obama girls, but at Sunday night's Grammy Awards they lost major fashion points. We don't know where to begin. See how their looks evolved over the course of the evening, from the red carpet to their performance with Stevie Wonder, and let us know what you think. More Grammy photos here. Also let us know if you can identify some of the accessories seen below. PHOTOS: More on Slideshows
 
Gitmo Detainee's 'Genitals Were Sliced With A Scalpel,' Waterboarding 'Far Down The List Of Things They Did': British Paper Top
Material in a CIA dossier on Mr Mohamed that was blacked out by High Court judges contained details of how British intelligence officers supplied information to his captors and contributed questions while he was brutally tortured, The Sunday Telegraph has learned. Intelligence sources have revealed that spy chiefs put pressure on Mr Miliband to do nothing that would leave serving MI6 officers open to prosecution, or to jeopardise relations with the CIA, which is passing them "top notch" information on British terrorist suspects from its own informers in Britain. More on Guantánamo Bay
 
Don McNay: Wealth Without Wall Street Top
I'll find somebody new and baby we'll say we're through. And you won't matter any more -Buddy Holly We've had a number of government bailouts and "stimulus" programs over the past year. Trillions of dollars have gone down the drain. None of the money ever makes it to people like me, who run small businesses in places like Kentucky. Like many, I am angry. Washington and Wall Street are tied at the hip and spend most of the time talking to each other. They have social and economic connections and media outlets devoted to promoting their philosophies. I saw an insipid column by CNBC's Charlie Gasparino, who was horrified at the idea of capping Wall Street compensation at $500,000. He said waiters and restaurant workers would suffer if investment bankers don't have millions to throw around. Here in Kentucky, I've not run into those Wall Street types throwing around big tips. Maybe the Wall Street crowd isn't hitting the local Cracker Barrel. Wall Street and Washington are not impacting my world in a positive way. With the public outraged about out of control bonuses and out of control lobbyists, I keep waiting for someone on Wall Street and Washington to get it. I don't think they ever will. Politicians make gestures to keep us from rioting, but as soon as our backs are turned, Wall Street will go back at it again. Wall Street and Washington developed the saying, "too big to fail." The idea is that big institutions must stay in business, no matter how badly they screw up. The Soviet Union operated on the same premise. Wall Street and Washington do not understand that entrepreneurs and small business people have been the economic growth engines of the past few decades. Advances in technology have made it possible for smart people living in Kentucky, Oregon, India and China to compete with any business that Wall Street has to offer. There has been a long and irreversible trend toward small, entrepreneurial businesses, located far from money centers. Instead, Washington keeps throwing money at these "too big to fail" money losers. As noted, the Soviet Union is a good example of why this doesn't work. Most of the "too big to fail" organizations were created and encouraged by those who ran Washington. After the last depression, we learned a lesson and put a variety of regulations in place. That worked well for over 50 years. Then "deregulation" became the hottest fad and gave us companies like Enron. After the last depression, there were laws that let banks do banking and insurance companies issue insurance policies. In the modern world of deregulation, Citibank, a bank, was allowed to merge with Travelers, an insurance company. Since the new company, Citigroup, is sucking down bailout money like a sailor on Cinderella liberty, I'm not seeing the advantages that this "too big to fail" business model brought to us. One of the reasons small business gets overlooked is that they don't know anyone in Washington or on Wall Street and don't really want to. Their customers are local and a lot of them, like me, deal with local and regional banks that know them and their business. If Wall Street knew a lot about their customers, they would not have spent billions on credit default swaps and mortgage-backed derivatives. People starting their own businesses don't need bailouts. Businesses in a start up phase aren't in need of tax cuts. Small businesses need cash flow, access to capital, mentors and guidance. The most important thing they need is the proper mindset. People who work for large companies expect employers to look out for their concerns. If someone is going to be an entrepreneur, they have to start looking out for their own concerns. In a year of massive layoffs and cuts in employee benefits, big company workers "get" that their company may not be there for them. People are looking at entrepreneurship because big companies aren't hiring and in a changing economy, we are not creating new corporations that are "too big to fail." I've seen a lot of lip service and dollars thrown at Wall Street and very little devoted to entrepreneurs. I would like small businesses to get enough clout in Washington so that politicians can tell the "too big to fail" corporations that "you don't matter anymore." Don McNay, CLU, ChFC, MSFS, CSSC is the founder of McNay Settlement Group in Richmond, Kentucky. You can read his award winning, syndicated financial column at www.donmcnay.com or write to him at don@donmcnay.com . McNay is the author of Son of a Son of a Gambler and the Unbridled World of Ernie Fletcher . More on CitiGroup
 
Obama Bumps His Head While Boarding Marine One (VIDEO) Top
President Obama bumped his head boarding Marine One as he left for Indiana Monday morning. Unfortunately for the President, the press got every mila second of the quick bump. CNN has the video: Embedded video from CNN Video More on President Obama
 
Margaret Ruth: The 4 Worst American Myths About Romantic Relationships Top
Experience from my professional psychic practice, spanning thousands of client interviews, and being KXRK's Radio From Hell's Love Psychic, live every Friday morning these last seven years, has led me to become quite snippy over the amount of ludicrous relationship mythology that continues to permeate our culture. Here are the most damaging American relationship myths, along with what is actually true, so that relationships can be conducted with more awareness and healthy attitudes than the following untruths and partial truths currently encourage. Horrible Relationship Myth #1: The Jerry McQuire Syndrome: You Complete Me! Or, in other words: "If I love you enough, you will feel better." "If you love me enough, I will feel better." Crock . Wrong. These things can never happen! It is metaphysically impossible for another human being to complete us or make us feel anything other than what we choose to feel. What is metaphysically true, and also what we actually observe in real life, is that the more complete and whole we are, the better our relationships. The causal arrow runs that way. First we are healthy, and then we have a healthy relationship. First we are happy, and then we have happy relationships. See The Missing Piece Meets the Big O (Silverstein, S.) for the definitive word on this topic. Truth: First be complete, then enjoy a great relationship with another complete individual. Horrible Relationship Myth #2: Relationships Take Work! Crappy relationships are truly tough and mediocre relationships take some drudgery to keep them going. These are like bad cars that keep breaking down. Sure, yes, the vast majority of people in this country, especially those of my own Boomer generation, have less than fabulous relationships and therefore exhibit a certain amount of laborious work. And these folks want to tell you that this is Normal! "Relationships Take Work" translates to: "In order to keep many relationships going, you have to do a lot of pushing and repairing and ignoring and suffering and..." This is Not True with happy, healthy relationships. They do not take drudgery and large effort sort of work to keep them going -- they take attention and maintenance sort of work. Relationships between two happy, joyful, whole people are happy. Healthy people tend to have good self awareness and good communication tools. Whole people tend to accept other people's truths, even if these are different from theirs. Great relationships are not that difficult to maintain. They flow easily, even through difficult times, and are not constantly in the shop. Truth: A Happy Relationship between two healthy, happy people requires attention and maintenance Horrible Relationship Myth #3: Relationships Require Compromises! If you are now in, or are contemplating, a relationship that requires you to sacrifice, or compromise, something important, then you do not have a perfectly happy or healthy relationship. Excellent, healthy relationships do not require any kind of a major compromise for part of either person. People use this myth as an excuse to accept less than they really want in their important voluntary relationships, like romances, in order to feel safe. No one has ever been made safe by compromising what you really want in love and who you really are. I make an enormous amount of money from people who keep compromising who they really are and what they really want and cannot figure out why they are not happy. What is true is that great relationships seem to thrive on cooperation -- something quite different in scope than compromise. These do often exhibit the spirit of cooperation and teamwork. People who care for you, the authentic you, will not ask you to compromise who you are to make them, or the relationship, happy. This is just a fact. Truth: Authentic, real relationships sometimes need cooperation, but never require important personal compromises Horrible Relationship Myth #4: No One is Perfect! This is just a weird statement for many reasons. What is "Perfect"? Discussing that concept is a complete book by itself. What is wrong here is that carrying this vague notion into our important relationships is that many people are not willing to believe that someone could be perfect for them. It becomes an excuse to accept situations that are not completely satisfying. The flip side of this strange statement is that since "I'm not perfect, I cannot get a perfect relationship." Or expect a great one, in the name of our personal imperfections. This is a really bad one in American culture. Many of us were taught to believe that our constant life job is to fix our flaws. These insidious flaws are shown to us constantly on air brushed magazine covers and prime time television. And these flaws keep others from wanting to date us or, worse, mate with us. Since, you know, men like thin woman and, you know, women like rich men. Notice that those statements are only true for a portion of the population - the rest of us, most of us, are pretty ok with average human traits. So, why do these ideas keep percolating since they aren't really true? What is true, metaphysically, is that there is some flawed person out there that could very well be perfect for you. There are men and women out there who do not look like magazine models, aren't millionaires yet, and have 0 athletic medals to show for it, and yet they could be wonderful possible mates because of their happy, healthy personalities. And the good news is that you , despite never having been on a magazine cover, could be perfect for them. That is what is really true. Browse Margaret's other posts here at Huffington Post and at margaretruth.com . Comments, questions and input are very welcome. Contact Margaret at mr@margaretruth.com for more information. More on Relationships
 
Kristen Breitweiser: Our Meeting With President Obama Top
Last Friday, I and other 9/11 family members and victims' families from the USS Cole met with President Obama to discuss issues surrounding the status of GITMO. As many of you know, I have been an outspoken critic of GITMO from the beginning. I believe that we must never abandon the fundamental principles upon which our nation was founded. When ill-conceived decisions are coupled with secrecy, urgency, and questionable motives, democracy and justice cannot prevail. Indeed, with respect to the Bush Administration's role in arresting, detaining, prosecuting and sentencing terrorists, we find nothing more than the delaying and denying of what we need most - justice for victims by holding the perpetrators accountable. Almost everybody agrees that the Bush Administration pushed the edge of the envelope of constitutionality in their often ill-conceived, rash march to "win the war on terror." Extraordinary renditions, torture, wireless surveillance, GITMO, the Patriot Act -- the Bush Administration told us that these were all "necessary tools" that kept us safe in our post 9/11 world. But their fabrications, missteps and exaggerations damaged our collective trust in government and diminished our nation's reputation around the world. That's why we need to have a meeting of the minds so we can conduct an honest assessment of what works and what doesn't work in the effort to keep our nation secure in the face of an ever-present terrorist threat. That kind of open, honest, and emotional debate took place Friday afternoon in the Old Executive Office Building during the meeting with the President. As one of the family members attending the meeting, I was very encouraged to know that we have an Administration where cooler heads will prevail, where opinions and points of view are openly invited, voiced, and digested. What a breath of fresh air. As a 9/11 widow and New Yorker, I believe we have waited too long for justice to be served when it comes to prosecuting terrorists. But I also know that we need to be deliberate and judicious in our approach, something entirely lacking in the previous Administration. We all need to give President Obama and Attorney General Holder a chance to remedy the mistakes of the Bush Administration. Because those mistakes are complex and sweeping in scope, admittedly, it will take some time. Friday's meeting with the President was a trusted step in the right direction. More on Barack Obama
 
Former GOP Leader Writes Sarcastic Letter To Limbaugh: What's Your Plan? Top
Dear Rush, Congratulations! You have been selected by the Obama administration, the mainstream media and 20 million of your most passionate followers to be the new head of the Republican Party. As such, you are given all the rights and responsibilities that come with being a true political leader.
 
5 Things The Obamas Can't Get Away With Top
Now that the Obamas are on top, vicious, disgusting, racist hell demons like Rush Limbaugh have already started lining up and hoping for their downfall. To avoid the "I told you so"s, the First Family is going to have to work harder at being "normal" than any of their predecessors. Here, five actions of other politicians and political families that the Obamas could never get away with. * Get pregnant with an ignorant thug's child * Abuse Drugs * Chappaquiddick * Blast Israel * Have sexual relations with a white intern More on Barack Obama
 
Craig Newmark: Getting government to listen to us; a new twist Top
A neighbor of mine, Sunil Paul, pointed out something I didn't quite get before. Political staffers, like people who work for Senators and Representatives, make a lot of Congressional operations really work, and are charged with listening to their constituents, and doing something about it. I hear that staffers are under-appreciated and and under-paid. On the other hand, right now they have to be so careful in response, it dramatically limits their ability to respond. In the current political environment, there are lots of people who deliberately misinterpret one's words. Current thinking has involved large-scale discussion boards where politicians are required to listen and respond. This shares that responsibility with their staffers in an environment that could be safe. There would be some way to verify that staffers, even if anonymous, are actual staffers, and that there's some large degree of confidence that stated constituents are really constituents. (Hey, Sunil, did I get that right?)
 
Obama Impressed With What He Saw At Camp David Top
ELKHART, Ind. — President Barack Obama has given the Camp David mountaintop retreat rave reviews after his first visit there. Obama called the hideaway in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains "beautiful" as he talked Monday about his weekend visit to the presidential retreat with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia. "It was beautiful. The girls just had a great time. They had a lot of fun," Obama told reporters as he flew from the nation's capital to Indiana for a town hall-style meeting on the economic stimulus bill pending in the Senate. "You can see during the summer it's going to be a nice place to spend a lot of time." Obama said he hit a few golf balls and played a little basketball while there. Accompanying the first family were a friend of Sasha's, and a friend of Michelle Obama's who brought her two kids. "So it was nice," Obama said.
 
Amitai Etzioni: You read it here first Top
If this was part of the print media, the editors would proudly flap their wings when an idea their editorials helped advance ended up becoming public policy. The editorials would be flagged as "scoops"--news they broke first or best predicted. Well, you read it here first that Obama ought to offer Hillary the Sectary of State position ( here ); that the stimulus package will and ought to grow to a trillion dollars or higher ( here - we are almost there); and that public buildings should be greened in short order ( here and here -- the House stimulus package includes $6 billion for the greening of federal buildings). Above all, you read here the wisdom of changing U.S. foreign policy to focus first on security (ours, theirs, and of the globe), and of not starting with the lofty but highly elusive goal of democracy building, especially by the use of force ( here , among others). This is clearly where the Obama Administration is heading. It is all folded into the President's masterful statement -speaking to the Muslims world--"we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Frankly, I am reluctant to post these lines because I am painfully aware that most people frown upon those who run around saying "I told you so." However, much more is at issue here than pride of authorship. For a society to function well, those who regularly send us in the wrong direction ought to be retired, and those who get it right should be given more of a hearing in the future. Public leaders can be sent packing during elections. The same should hold for public intellectuals and policy advocates. Indeed, it would be very helpful if every time one made a prediction, one's previous predictions would pop up. Thus, for instance, I found it very useful to read in the Wall Street Journal on December 27th that Goldman Sachs predicts oil at $35 dollars a barrel for the fist half of 2009. The Journal also noted that the same firm predicted that a barrel of oil would cost $200 in 2008. While the Journal did not mean it this way, for me it was a fair warning: why should I pay mind to the predictions of someone who was dead wrong last time? In other areas, we compile performance records. We can, with a click of the mouse, find out the stats for a quarterback, a basketball star, or a Fortune 500 company, or how often an official running for office has won -or lost. Publications, and those of us who use their spaces to prognosticate, should be subject to the same discipline . Amitai Etzioni is Professor of International Relations at The George Washington University and author of Security First (Yale, 2007). www.securityfirstbook.com email: icps@gwu.edu
 
Joseph A. Palermo: The Evil of Banality Top
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's fulminations on the Senate floor last Friday were a sight to behold. He denounced President Barack Obama for being "A.W.O.L." on providing leadership for his economic stimulus bill and theatrically concluded: "This bill stinks. The process that's led to this bill stinks. If this is a new way of doing business, if this is the change we can all believe in, America's best days are behind her!" Graham then made his usual rounds on corporate media repeating his "it stinks" tag line. When I caught a snippet of Graham's dramatic soliloquy it led me to wonder to what constituency is he speaking? Could it be the people who live in those counties in South Carolina where unemployment is now 20 percent? Or was Graham just channeling the sentiments of the beleaguered white men of his state? Graham voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and for a ban on gay adoptions. For those votes and many others the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest gay rights organization in the country, gives him a zero rating. Conversely, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC) and the Christian Coalition give Graham's voting record a 100 percent rating. All said, in addition to his horrible record on civil rights, the environment, and the separation of church and state, Lindsey Graham has one of the most atrocious voting records on issues that affect the lives of gay and lesbian citizens as does any member of Congress. It's a curious voting record for a 53-year-old bachelor who is rarely seen in the company of women. Meanwhile, right-wing talk radio and its television counterparts continue to trivialize the current economic crisis. The Republicans' failed economic theories are causing real suffering among millions of Americans who have recently joined the ranks of the unemployed and the biggest mouthpieces of the Right fail even to acknowledge the hardships of their fellow citizens. The discredited former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, who spent $1.2 million redecorating his office, was on John McCain's short list to be his Treasury Secretary (as was Phil Gramm). How's that for "new ideas" coming from the Washington Republicans? No GOP personality could win a national election today, not John McCain, not Sarah Palin, not Bobby Jindal, not Lindsey Graham, not Jon Kyl, not even Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. The leadership vacuum at the top has enhanced the power of "conservative" media personalities. The target audience for right-wing talk radio is mostly white workingmen, many of whom are now unemployed. It is the target demographic that explains that pitiful contrivance, "Joe the Plumber," a cartoon character that allows Republicans to say: "See, we have average working stiffs who love our anti-labor agenda." And then there's the cynical elevation of former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Michael Steele to be the first African-American to chair the Republican National Committee. A colleague of mine who has been part of the black struggle for forty years told me that he thinks the Steele pick is part of a ploy aimed at trying to win over to the Republican cause upscale people who happen to be non-white -- the same yuppies at which the Republicans aim Bobby Jindal. He calls Steele the "reverse Harriet Tubman"; whereas Tubman led enslaved people to freedom, Michael Steele is going to lead freed people to slavery. I guess some white males are attracted to Steele because his sister was once married to "Iron Mike" Tyson. (With luck, his political judgment will turn out to be as poor as his sister's taste in men.) There has been little commentary of substance on the racial implications of the new RNC chair. Many people in the black community, in light of the first African-American president, no doubt see the move as an expression of tokenism, but these views in the media are as invisible as the people who hold them. The only time race relations were addressed in a meaningful way recently was when Obama spoke about the topic last September in Philadelphia. And that was only after the Republicans and the Clinton camp did everything they could to derail his candidacy through endless tape loops of Reverend Jeremiah Wright's most inflammatory sound bites. And then we turn to "experts" like the Republican propagandist of youth Ben Stein. In yesterday's New York Times Stein pooh-poohs President Obama's stimulus goals of putting people back to work arguing that the solution is not "to hire men and women to build more wind-power windmills, or '21st-century classrooms.'" Not for Stein. His "solution" is for Obama and the Congress to throw more money at Wall Street. Stein wants the Obama Administration to ignore the fraudulent waste that is going on of scarce tax dollars spent on corporate jets, lavish bonuses, and vacation retreats because, as Stein puts it: "Yes, they will do stupid, immoral, evil things with some of the money. They are humans and that's what humans do. We're sloppy and often dishonest." Speak for yourself Ben. So much for strict government oversight on how the TARP money is flushed down the toilet. As Stein would have it the American taxpayer should just throw more money at Wall Street and hope for the best without even purchasing equity in the banks "we" are saving. That's exactly what is wrong with TARP in the first place, and it is generating widespread public disgust. Stein uses the Savings and Loan scandal of the early-1990s as his model, and in a typical Steinian feat of intellectual dishonesty he states: "In the end, the government made money on many of the assets, then 'toxic,' that it bought." But Stein fails to mention that American taxpayers lost over $150 billion in the deal. To Stein Wall Street malfeasance is "what happens in life" because "life is sloppy." I wish Stein and other high-profile Republicans had this same kind of "que sera, sera" attitude toward the people on the lower income scale when they receive tax dollars in the form of government subsidized health care, cash payments, or other social welfare programs. We are also seeing in the mainstream press a great deal of hand wringing and fretting about "protectionism." There's a consensus running from the Wall Street Journal to the editorial page of The New York Times and beyond that is screaming that any "Buy American" provisions put inside the stimulus bill will be a disaster on par with the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. What a sorry joke! After thirty years of the relentless internationalizing of production where multinational corporations have "outsourced" and "downsized" the American manufacturing base nearly into oblivion; and at a time when we face severe trade imbalances to the tune of $50 billion each month; and when we already had a $10 trillion federal debt before the current economic collapse; a few provisions that protect American jobs inside a giant taxpayer-funded stimulus bill are not even in the same economic universe as the conditions that surrounded Smoot-Hawley. It's a scare tactic that capital and its mouthpieces use to ensure that working people will not accrue their rightful benefits from their own government's largesse. Under these economic conditions the "free trade" argument is a disgrace. Our political discourse insists on framing the trade debate on Republican terms and still uses laissez-faire concepts that the current economic bloodbath has completely discredited. Even the "moderate" Republicans like Senators Susan Collins and Arlen Specter who voted for the stimulus bill only did so after gutting $40 billion out of it that was designated to help ease the fiscal crises of state governments. My friend who just took a nine percent pay cut as part of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's "furlough" program of state workers could have used a helping hand from Uncle Sam. It makes no sense to force state governments to lay people off at a time when the federal government is trying to stimulate employment. We are about to find out whether or not our governing institutions have the capacity to deal with the serious economic and political crises facing our country. It could be that our institutions are so corrupt, our political discourse so banal and polluted, that they are incapable of lifting us up from our national malaise. After seeing one prominent Republican after another on television railing against the stimulus bill as if it is just another "pork barrel" project from any old Congress; and then seeing these stupid arguments disseminated through the corporate media and influencing public opinion, it is clear that Washington Republicans still frame the debate. And with their filibuster power in the Senate they still control Washington. At some point the logjam must be broken. This state of affairs, if not disrupted by the mass energy of organized people, threatens to succumb to stasis and gridlock. More on Stimulus Package
 
Obama Gives Camp David Retreat Rave Reviews Top
ELKHART, Ind. — President Barack Obama has given the Camp David mountaintop retreat rave reviews after his first visit there. Obama called the hideaway in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains "beautiful" as he talked Monday about his weekend visit to the presidential retreat with his wife, Michelle, and daughters Sasha and Malia. "It was beautiful. The girls just had a great time. They had a lot of fun," Obama told reporters as he flew from the nation's capital to Indiana for a town hall-style meeting on the economic stimulus bill pending in the Senate. "You can see during the summer it's going to be a nice place to spend a lot of time." Obama said he hit a few golf balls and played a little basketball while there. Accompanying the first family were a friend of Sasha's, and a friend of Michelle Obama's who brought her two kids. "So it was nice," Obama said. More on Barack Obama
 
Roland Burris's Big Money Backer: Businessman Loaned Burris Nearly $1.5M, Little Repaid Top
Roland Burris, Illinois' newest senator, likes to talk about his years of service to the people of the state and his steadfast refusal to engage in the politics of favors. He rarely discusses one milestone in his long public career: a record $800,000 campaign loan he received in his 2002 run for governor. Nor is he quick to mention the man who made the loan, businessman Joseph Stroud, who provided most of Burris' financial support for that failed bid, $1.57 million in all. But court documents in an obscure civil case shine light on that relationship and raise questions of how much influence flowed from such a large loan, none of which Burris has repaid.
 
10 Ways To Create Kindness Top
Kindness, as well as being a quality of the heart, is a skill. It deepens as we learn to pay attention to ourselves and one another with awareness. When we step out of our comfort zones and experiment with speaking to one another, listening to one another, and caring for one another in a different way, kindness grows. The fruits of greater kindness are revealed in our minds, in our lives, and in our communities. Here are 10 ways to increase your kindness quotient. More on Happiness
 
Jane Hamsher: Obama Undermines Jobs Mandate For the Sake of Bipartisanship Top
The stimulus package is consistently being attacked because not enough Republicans support it.  The fact that the bill received no Republican votes in the House, and "only" three Republicans support the Senate version, is sufficient to conclude that it fails Obama's objective of being "bipartisan." We'll overlook for the moment that two years ago, any bill Joe Lieberman voted for was considered "bipartisan."    When Obama sketched out the goals for the stimulus package in early January, he started negotiating with himself by offering "huge tax cuts" as "a way to defuse conservative criticism and enlist Republican support."  But the biggest ground he gave up to the Republicans was control of the primary objective he set for the bill, that it have "bipartisan" support.  As one veteran DC political observer notes:  Rule one is that you never empower your opponents to control your victory, and once Obama said "80 votes" or "bipartisan" was the goal, he gave the Republicans the sole ability to determine success or failure -- because the Republicans are the only ones who can determine whether something is going to be "bipartisan" or not.  He put a gun in the hand of every Republican who wanted to take a shot at the bill, and they're firing away. Roosevelt had the New Deal, Kennedy had the New Frontier, Johnson had the Great Society, Newt Gingrich had the Contract With America, and Obama has...the stimulus plan.  An abstract goal with fungible components that valued process above all else.   Americans want jobs, and had the White House team in charge of presenting the bill to the public defined it as a "put America to work" bill and set a standard for measuring bipartisanship -- i.e., how successfully each side worked toward creating jobs  -- Republicans who cried that their ideas weren't being respected would have been forced to explain how those ideas met that goal.   We could have all laughed together at John Kyl's ridiculous assertion that "nobody thinks tax cuts are going to do it all" when that's expressly what the Republican House plan did.  We could have laughed even harder as economists ripped apart the claim that tax cuts alone would create 6 million jobs and it would have provided the opportunity to expose the fundamental flaw in the GOP's belief that tax cuts are the answer to any question.   Instead, we're all focusing on the fact that John Cornyn isn't happy, because the message that came out of the White House is that he needs to be. The administration assumed that Obama's overwhelming popularity, combined with a rapidly worsening economic crisis and a welcome mat for the GOP would be enough to push Republicans into a collaborative mode.   It wasn't.  They belatedly began calling the act the Economic Recovery Act , but it never caught on.  The  White House hailed the Nelson/Collins compromise because it creates "jobs jobs jobs," yet Paul Krugman and others maintain that the changes they made significantly reduced job creation, with estimates ranging between 600,000 and 1.25 million jobs over the next two years.   When Larry Summers was confronted with that charge on This Week with George Stephanopoulos he would not dispute it .  Apologists like Claire McCaskill are left to tilt at straw men . When you factor in a 2:1 advantage for the Republicans in terms of TV face time, it's clear that they already have a leg up in controlling the terms of this debate.  The media is not pressing them about GOP governors unhappy about the aid to states that Susan Collins just hacked out of the bill, or pointing out that Senate Republicans who say this bill is "just too big" had no problem voting for George Bush's $1.35 trillion in tax cuts in 2001 .  They didn't need to be told that the ultimate good was to make John Cornyn happy, especially when John Cornyn  has a vested interest in being unhappy. If this becomes the template for all future sausage making between the White House and the Hill, progressive interests will continue to be offered up in sacrifice every time the Republicans decide they don't like something so the administration can appear to "rise above it all."  And rather than being forced to defend their propositions, dithering "centrists" will continue to be patted on the head for pitching public temper tantrums , holding the Senate hostage and parading before the cameras like a bunch of peacocks until their egos are suitably stroked. There is no inherent value in bipartisanship, it's the means to an end.  If the administration doesn't define what that "end" is and gives the Republicans the power to determine success or failure by a simple refusal to participate, they will continue to do so. Jane Hamsher blogs at firedoglake.com More on Stimulus Package
 
Meghan Rhoad: Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize Top
In remarks that have been broadcast over and over this past week, President Obama said that he "screwed up" in nominating former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle to be secretary of health and human services. Why? Because his vetting team failed to identify a problem with unpaid taxes on a car and driver provided by a Democratic contributor. The demise of the Daschle nomination, which was expected to breeze through confirmation, made quite a story: the rise and fall, the unexpected revelations, the president's admission of responsibility. But, although we should expect our public servants to pay their taxes, all the discussion drew attention away from the overall objective of appointing a secretary who can fix our health system. When it comes to health care, Americans, and women in particular, cannot afford to lose focus. Our next Secretary of Health and Human Services should be able to lead the United States through much-needed health care reform and bridge gaping inequalities in health services. Here are some issues the new secretary will need to take on. Throughout his election campaign, President Obama stated his intention to take on the United States' faltering health care system. Quality health care remains out of reach for millions of people in the United States, and the current economic crisis threatens to force many more to go without critical services. According to the latest numbers available from the Centers for Disease Control, 15.3 percent of people in the US were uninsured in 2007, which translates into more than 45 million people, including 8 million children, going without coverage. Among the insured, most had health insurance coverage that is tied to an employer, and thus susceptible to termination as the economic crisis leads to job losses. But the problems are even greater when it comes to women's health needs. Women face discrimination in obtaining coverage through the private insurance market, and insurance policies often leave out women's core health needs, such as access to contraception and prenatal services. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the recent withdrawal of contraceptive funding from the economic stimulus package, women's reproductive health continues to be a political bargaining chip. In this environment, the secretary must be a determined advocate for women's right to control their own bodies and lives. This will include pushing for the restoration of subsidies for birth control pills to clinics serving low-income and college women, and undoing the harm caused by the Bush administration's last-minute regulations on "conscientious objection" for health care providers. These regulations are formulated in such a broad and ambiguous manner that they seriously jeopardize women's access to abortion and contraception. In addition to serious sex equality issues in access to health care, this country has stark racial disparities in disease prevalence and health outcomes. Nationally, the rate of AIDS cases for African-American women is 21 times that for white women; for Latina women the rate is five times that for white women. African-American women have the highest rates of death related to HIV, with HIV ranking as the third leading cause of death among African-American women ages 25 to 44. These numbers demand the development of a national action plan, and the nomination of a leader who will see it through. And here is another task for the new secretary. During the past eight years, policies and programs that should have been based on scientific evidence were instead determined by ideological considerations. Most notoriously, the Bush administration's Department of Health and Human Services promoted manifestly ineffective abstinence-until-marriage sex education. In another example, despite medical evidence about the safety of the drug, the Food and Drug Administration refused to approve Plan B (a form of emergency contraception) for over-the-counter sale until pressured to do so by grassroots activism and a still-pending lawsuit. In both cases, the Department's resources and stature were commandeered in the service of an ideological agenda at the cost of Americans' health. The nation must be able to trust that the next Secretary of Health and Human Services will make policy based on medical evidence and scientific findings rather than politics. President Obama, in looking for a new nominee for this crucial post needs to find someone who can show leadership on these issues and come up with a better, and far fairer, way to serve the country's health needs.
 
Jenna Busch: An Interview with the Final Cylon Kate Vernon Top
Since the revelation that there were five additional cylons in the Battlestar Galactica universe, fans have been endlessly debating their identities. I should know since I've been watching from the beginning. We learned the identities of four of them, but the fifth has remained a mystery...until this season's opening episode. Kate Vernon plays Ellen Tigh, wife of Colonel Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan). Ellen has always been a wild card, seducing the crew, sleeping with cylons to get information and save her husband. When Saul found out what she was doing, he poisoned her. To the shock of BSG fans everywhere, the last shot of the show revealed Ellen as the fifth and final skin job. (For those of you who don't know, that's a cylon who looks human.) Vernon has known she was the final cylon for two years and kept the secret the whole time. In next week's episode, we get to see Ellen's return. I just got a chance to speak with Vernon about keeping the secret, where Ellen goes from here and whether or not she actually uses "frak" in everyday life. What was your reaction when you heard the news? Well, when Ron told me...I had called Ron periodically after they'd killed me off. You know, I was hard pressed to let this role go because it was such a great role. So I kept calling him every few weeks saying, 'Hey, am I coming back in a flashback or a fantasy sequence? I just want to know.' And the last time I phoned him, he stopped me mid-sentence and I thought, 'Oops, I've gone to far here.' And he said, 'Look, I've just pitched a story line to the network that would feature your character heavily. If they green light it, you'll come back heavily. If not, then I'll write you in a few more episodes.' So I thought, 'Holy cow, what does that mean?' So he caled me a week later saying that the network had green lit this story arc. And I thought, 'Oh this is incredible.' I didn't have a clue that the conversation would then take this other turn. Oh, you're the fifth cylon. I had no clue. So I was flabbergasted. You know? I couldn't believe it. I was in a state of disbelief. Me? (laughs) He assured me so thoroughly since they'd killed me off, that I was not coming back as a cylon. I was completely stunned. Did you tell anyone? I told my manager. I told my agent. I kept it really really tight. I mean, I was so afraid for this secret to get out. I would not want to be responsible for ruining such an anticipated moment. Did anyone figure it out? There were a few people that had very strong ideas that Ellen would come back and that Ellen was the fifth, but it was easy to dispel those ideas. When my friends would say, 'Why are you going back to Vancouver? Why are you working on Battlestar ?' I would say, 'Well, I'm going back to torture my husband. I'm going back as another fantasy sequence.' I played up the fact that my husband has all this guilt for killing me. It was easy actually...to totally avert any thoughts. And then I would say, 'Oh yeah, I'd love to be the fifth cylon. Who wouldn't?' I don't know if anyone really figured it out...but there are people out there today still, who are in denial that I'm the fifth cylon. They don't believe it. 'No, no. You see, Saul has been hallucinating her and maybe this is just a hallucination. No, no, no. It can't be Ellen Tigh.' It's pretty funny. How much did you know, once you found out you were the fifth? Did Ron Moore just tell you that or did he tell you anything else about how it was going to end? Oh, he gave me the whole scenario. I was stuck in traffic. 4:30 traffic from the West Side, going north on Sepulveda. So you know I was going 2 mph. Nowhere fast. And so we had a 45 minute conversation about what the story line was going to be. How he was going to introduce my character, what my character was going to mean. The shift in my character. He told me everything! (laughs) It was fantastic. It was so much information. It was so hard to hold it all. The other cast members have said they didn't know right away. Did they bribe you with gifts and fine jewelry? (laughs) No gifts, no jewelry. That would have been lovely. You had a bit of a Lady Macbeth story line. (Ellen tries to convince her husband to take over the ship at one point in the story.) Is that something we're going to see revisited? Since they're both cylons? They could take over... Right. I would say the Lady Macbeth scenario has seen it's day. No, Ellen comes back...I don't want to give away anything...she's much more realized now in terms of who she is. And with that she carries an important agenda and an important intention. I've read that Ellen knew she was poisoned right before she died. Do you think she knew she was a cylon? No. I mean, that's the word from Ron. No. At that point she was a sleeper cylon. The recognition and awareness of who she is had not been downloaded. It had not been turned on. That part of her was dormant. She was a civilian. A human being. There was no, at that point, memory of her being a cylon. Way back in the series, when Baltar (James Callis) tested Ellen's blood, he said she wasn't a cylon, but it was indicated that he might have been lying. Do you know if he actually found anything out or if that was just left open? That was a suggestion that left it open for the writers. Because at that point I was only going to be on the show for 3 or 4 episodes and that was it. It was more about stirring the curiosity and stirring up options. And the wonderful way that Ron writes, it's very much a developmental experience and he just writes and it flows out of him. He has an idea, of course, of where the story is going to go. but he allows for the moment to moment discovery to happen. So leaving the possibility of Ellen being a cylon open created a sort of ominous threat. It created an element of danger. Could she be a cylon? It's nice that it wasn't buttoned up, leaving it an absolute no. Because Ellen walked into a room and nobody knew what was going to happen. There was always trouble following her or that she would stir up. The girl couldn't help it! (laughs) Ellen is such a great character. Oh, she was so much fun to play, which is one reason why, every time I picked up the phone, I took a chance...hey, honestly, I adored playing this role and I really didn't want to let it go. And I took the chance and called Ron several times and asked, 'Hey, am I coming back?' And he always said yes. As a fantasy sequence. So I thought, 'Well, I'm going to pick up that phone one more time.' And then I got this tremendous news. There's going to be a Battlestar Galactica movie...will you be in it? There has been a movie and that's been discussed. It's called, "The Plan". We shot it. And I'm in it. It's a movie for TV like "Razor" was. And it's sort of a prequel. It takes place right before Battlestar Galatica the series started. It takes us right back to right before that time period. It's not really far in the past at all...and it's called "The Plan" so there's a lot of information that's revealed. How was it wearing the Number Six (Tricia Helfer) wig? (Ellen comes back in one of Saul's fantasy sequences dressed and acting like Number Six.) (laughs) It was fun. It was fun being a platinum, I tell you. It was really interesting wearing the black cat suit and the whole Number Six get up. And to assume Tricia Helfer's physicality and to neutralize me and take on her essence. To become as much like her as possible. That was really fun to do. What do you think it is about Battlestar Galactica that's made it such a cultural phenomenon? I think it has to do with the fact that they've taken very current stories that are affecting our lives deeply, political stories that are insidiously changing our lives. The way the whole Bush regime has created this intense fear and this ominous threat has changed our psyches as Americans. The writers used the current political canvas and laid this fantasy story on top. Here we are, a couple of generations removed in Battlestar . It doesn't take place so much in the future that if feels like it couldn't happen to me. I think Battlestar is so powerful because you could really feel this happening to us as human beings. And how they use politics and the current topics, suicide bombings, cloning, the political take over...it's relateable. It's current politics, just one step removed. I think emotionally we're very caught up in how we're being affected by our political regime. And it's right there in Battlestar . But because it's a TV show and it's in the future, it's easier to hear and to respond to. I think it's also the human element of survival. And, oh my gosh, it's only these few people and they're rewriting how to do it. How do we rewrite the rules of survival? What's the best way to survive? How do we do this? What is right? What is wrong? It's like anarchy in space. Human life is fragile. All they've got is each other. They have to work it out. They live and love and frak and there's not a lot of hope but it's all they've got. You just used the word "frak", which is one of my favorites. ("Frak" is Battlestar Galactica's version of an expletive I'm sure you can figure out.) Do you use it in everyday life? Yes. It's pretty much a part of my language now. (laughs) Frak! Battlestar Galactica airs Friday night at 10 pm on Sci Fi.
 
Jihad Fail (PHOTO) Top
Fail Blog found this hilarious picture of a protester with a spelling problem. In all fairness he could really hate O.J. Simpson, but it's more likely he hates Jews and wasted a perfectly good piece of posterboard to rail against fruit-based beverages. More on WTF
 
Starbucks' $3.95 Value Meals To Roll Out Top
NEW YORK — Starbucks Corp., which is trying to refashion its image as a more recession-friendly coffeehouse, offered more details Monday on the breakfast "pairings" it will sell beginning March 3. The gourmet coffee chain said it will introduce value-meal type options for $3.95 each in its U.S. company-owned stores. Customers can order a tall latte and an oatmeal or a slice of reduced-fat cinnamon swirl coffee cake. Drip coffee drinkers can get a tall brewed coffee with a breakfast sandwich at the same price. Starbucks said it will also launch two new breakfast sandwiches _ a bacon sandwich with egg and gouda cheese and a ham sandwich made with egg and cheddar. Regular prices for the drinks and food items vary depending on the location of the store but a tall latte and an oatmeal can cost as much as $5. Starbucks said the pairings will provide customers with an average savings of as much as $1.20. Seattle-based Starbucks has struggled to keep its customers as the recession has deepened and has been promoting loyalty cards and other options to give customers more value without hurting its premium brand status. The company first mentioned the pairings last month after it released fiscal first-quarter results that showed same-store sales _ or sales at stores open at least a year _ fell 10 percent in the U.S. The sales drop was the biggest yet for the company. Starbucks also has had to make room for a new lower-priced competitor in the specialty-coffee industry since McDonald's Corp. introduced espresso-based coffee drinks in its U.S. stores. Earlier Monday, McDonald's said its same-store sales in January jumped 7.1 percent worldwide and 5.4 percent in the U.S. Starbucks shares fell 16 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $10.38.
 
Alice Singleton: The Goodman's "Desire Under the Elms" Reaps a Theatric Whirlwind Top
"What God and money have joined together, let no man put asunder", so the Texas oilman's creed goes. Why not? TMZ.com and the National Enquirer would not exist if this axiom bore no truth. Robert Falls directs a seamless production of Eugene O'Neill's "Desire Under the Elms" as allegory for the modern reality-show line-up - its classic Jerry Springer and Maury Povich on perpetual familial loop: the cold-blooded father that sees his children as merely vultures hating his live body, waiting to pick the lint from his burial frocks and leave the carcass weighted down to Hell by the sins committed while earning and hording the wealth that kept the ungrateful progeny in physical comfort in the first place. http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/69731-eugene-oneills-desire-under-the-elms/
 
Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn: First Foie Gras Ban, Then Trans Fats, Now All Meat? Top
According to the Chicago Tribune , Chicago's health commissioner, Dr. Terry Mason, wants everyone to join him in going vegetarian for a month. First city officials tried to ban foie gras, then trans fats, and now another one wants us to lay off meat for 8.3% of the year? Not this Meathead. Can you imagine the city built by Armour, Swift, and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters going meatless for a month? Can you just see Da Coach wandering from table to table at Ditka's selling grilled tofu during the playoffs? Or Mr. Beef changing his sign to Mr. Eggplant for two fortnights? Or Hot Doug's serving nothing but asparagus on a bun for 31 days? I'm wondering if The Good Doctor ever heard of Lent, or perhaps this is where he got the idea? For centuries, during the 40 day run up to Easter, many Catholics swore off meat. Why? In the late 13th century St. Thomas Aquinas explained in his seminal work, Summa Theologica , that the Church forbade those foods which afford "most pleasure to the palate." He went on to explain that meat encourages the body to produce a surplus of "seminal matter, which when abundant becomes a great incentive to lust." Perhaps Dr. Mason is really advancing a stealth population control plan. Catholics loved the idea of renouncing meat so much they created Carnivale, a weeklong bacchanale of debauchery before the advent of Lent. Carnivale comes from the Latin word carne, which means "meat", and levare, which means "to put away". Meatless Lent was such a good idea that most modern Catholics pretty much ignore it and instead give up a vice of their choice, like chocolate. But there are other reasons not to proscribe meat. We are programmed to eat meat by our ancestors. I can envision a pre-human tribe padding warily through the fragrant ashes of a forest fire as they follow a particularly seductive scent. When they stumble upon the charred carcass of a wild boar they squat and poke their fingers into its side. They sniff their hands, then lick their greasy digits. The magical blend of warm protein, molten fat, and unctuous collagen in roasted meat is a narcotic elixir and it addicts them on first bite. They become focused, obsessed with tugging and scraping the bones clean, moaning and shaking their heads. The aromas make their nostrils smile and the flavors cause their mouths to weep. Today Chicagoans do it almost the same way all across the city. Our noses lead us into a place of burning wood where we eat without forks or linen. Just pig on a stick, grease and sauce on our faces. "Don't play with your food" doesn't apply when you're in a rib joint. If you don't get it on your shirt you're not doing it right. This is what we were bred to do. This is our heritage. This is pure carnal joy. There are also sociological reasons for eating meat. Since that first conflagration, cooking meat over a fire has always meant a gathering of the clan outdoors, and there is no more intimate gathering than hanging around the grill with the sweet smell of smoke mingling with the perfume of proteins caramelizing in the air, and a beer in hand. To this day, nothing says "party" more profoundly to the prehistoric remnants in us than barbecue meat. Now don't get me wrong, I love my greens. I've written numerous killer vegetable recipes, and I'm the first to admit that fresh corn on the cob and August tomatoes come close to meat in sheer gustatory pleasure. I even occasionally relish meatless meals. But I do not plan to make a month of it. I'm sure reading such graphic porknography horrifies vegans, but I'm tired of fundamentalist evangelists pushing their religions and diets on me like some nightmarish mother from a Fellini flick pushing a plate towards me commanding, "Eat your rutabaga, Craig, eat it!" Dr. Mason and the food police should be teaching teaching nutrition, cooking, and moderation with all the food groups, not abstinence. I asked Barry Sorkin of Smoque, one of Chicago's great barbecue emporia, what he thinks of Dr. Mason's idea and he said "Sure, we'll cut meat out of our diets and we'll all live longer. But will we want to?" Remember, no rules in the bedroom or the kitchen! Meathead More on Food
 
Harvey Wasserman: $50 Billion Debate vs. Pro-Nuker Patrick Moore on Democracy Top
A coalition of environmental groups are calling on senators to remove a controversial provisions from the $900 billion stimulus bill that could lead to the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants. We recently hosted a debate between independent journalist and longtime anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman and Patrick Moore, a Greenpeace co-founder and member of the pro-nuclear Clean and Safe Energy Coalition. The transcript follows: Amy Goodman : As the Senate continues debate on President Obama's $900 billion economic stimulus plan, a coalition of environmental groups are calling on senators to remove a controversial provision that could lead to the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants. The Senate bill includes a proposed $50 billion in federal loan guarantees that would likely go to nuclear power and liquid coal technologies. The amount is just a fraction of what the nuclear power industry is seeking. Last year, the industry asked Congress for $122 billion in loan guarantees in order to build twenty-one new nuclear reactors. No nuclear plant has been built in the US since the meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. Critics of the proposal question the safety of nuclear energy, doubt the federal loan guarantees would provide much of an immediate stimulus to the economy. But supporters of nuclear energy say nuclear should be considered a clean, safe and emissions-free source of power. We're joined now by two guests to debate the issue. In the early '70s, they were both prominent members of the anti-nuclear movement. Today, they take opposing views on the future of nuclear energy. Harvey Wasserman is with us, an independent journalist, longtime anti-nuclear activist. In the early '70s, he helped found the grassroots movement against nuclear power in the US and helped coin the phrase "No Nukes." He joins us from Ohio via DN! video stream. Patrick Moore is with us. He's co-founder and former leader of Greenpeace. He now serves as co-chair of the pro-nuclear Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, known as CASE. He's joining us from Boston. Let's start with you, Patrick Moore. Why do you support this provision in the stimulus plan? Patrick Moore : Well, first, it's important to set the record straight on when the last nuclear plant was built. There were forty-seven nuclear plants commissioned in the 1980s. Three Mile Island was in 1979. So it's not as if Three Mile Island really marks the end of building nuclear in the States. About nearly half the plants in the United States were built after Three Mile Island or commissioned after Three Mile Island. I support nuclear power simply because I think we all made a big mistake in the 1970s by confusing nuclear energy with nuclear weapons. Greenpeace started against US hydrogen bomb testing in Alaska. We were all scared as young people back then, myself at the University of B.C. doing a Ph.D. in ecology, that we were going to be wiped out by an all-out nuclear war. And we thought everything nuclear was evil. That would be as foolish as thinking that nuclear medicine was evil. Nuclear medicine is a very beneficial use of nuclear technology, and the medical isotopes that are dangerous otherwise are used to diagnose and cure many, many millions of people every year. Those medical isotopes are made in nuclear reactors in the same way that we can make electricity in nuclear reactors, and I don't think we should mix the destructive versus the beneficial uses of nuclear technology up in the way we did back then. AG : Harvey Wasserman, why are you opposed? Why do you want this out of the stimulus plan? HW : Well, there's no reason for the United States taxpayers to get stuck with another $50 billion tab for building new reactors that Wall Street won't fund. Nuclear power has failed utterly in the marketplace, and it's back at the taxpayer trough trying to get more money. And this is a time when we actually need stimulus in our economy, and no nuclear plant that's funded now with taxpayer money could come online for at least a decade. It's a complete waste of money. It has no business being in the stimulus package, and people need to call their senators and Congress people to stop this from happening. It's a real perversion of the stimulus package. And the Senate may vote on this as early as this week, possibly next week, and we have a very difficult struggle to get rid of this $50 billion boondoggle going into the stimulus package. It has no business being there. And what's more, the reactors that would go under construction will be dangerous. They will be terror targets. We have had experience with atomic reactors causing cancer, leukemia, birth defects in the nearby neighborhoods where they've been built. We have fifty years of experience with atomic power, and it's all been bad. So, we have wind and solar and tidal and geothermal technologies that are ready to move ahead, along with the restoration of mass transit and the increasing efficiency in our economy. This is where our energy money needs to go, not to a failed twentieth century technology that cannot get private funding and, by the way, that cannot get private insurance. The United States government and the taxpayers are still on the hook for the financial impacts of any major catastrophic meltdown. The public was told in 1957 that soon private insurers would come forward and insure nuclear power plants against major disasters. That has not happened. And to this day, the taxpayer is on the hook if we have a catastrophe by terror or error, and it seems to me that that needs to end. AG : Patrick Moore? Patrick Moore : Well, actually, Amy, there's 104 nuclear power plants operating clean and safely every day in the United States, more than any other country in the world. Nuclear energy provides 20 percent of US electricity, and that amounts to nearly 75 percent of the clean energy now being produced in the United States. It is simply impossible to run the world on wind and solar energy. They are intermittent. They don't work when the wind stops blowing or the sun stops shining, and we need backup power, base load power that's there 24/7. Unless we build nuclear plants, we've got to keep building coal plants and more gas plants, which are fossil fuels that release greenhouse gas and cause air pollution. The whole reason for the nuclear renaissance around the world is energy security and climate change and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the air. And Harvey and the rest of the people in my old organization of Greenpeace are stuck in the 1970s mentality. They have to come forward in time and think about what it is we can actually do. We're not going run the country on tidal power, Harvey. It's just -- that's a pie in the sky, and so is a lot of the other stuff about running the country on wind and solar. They have their place in the scheme of things, but they cannot run the country. So how are we going to produce the thousands of megawatts of power we need every day, especially when we're going to start charging our cars, our batteries in our plug-in hybrids, which doesn't make any sense to charge a plug-in hybrid on a coal-fired power plant or a gas plant. It makes a lot of sense to charge it on hydroelectric, nuclear and wind, when the wind is blowing. But, you know, you've got to have something for when it isn't, the two-thirds of the time when it isn't. Unfortunately, every time you build a wind farm, you have to build a gas plant to back it up. And that's going to make -- AG : Alright, let's get Harvey Wasserman's response to Patrick Moore. HW : Well, Patrick, unfortunately, hasn't advanced much since he's signed up with the nuclear power industry. Nuclear power is a failed technology. We have $50 billion lined up in the Congress that needs to stop and not come out of the taxpayers' pocket, because, among other things, the reactors that these $50 billion would fund cannot come online in less than a decade. We need the answers to our energy solutions now. It's nuclear power that's really pie in the sky. It's a failed technology. The first reactor went online in 1957 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, and we have a half-century of experience with this. The nuclear industry still cannot get private insurance against a major catastrophe. You do not have to take out insurance on a wind farm against an accident or a terror attack that will destroy an entire city. We need to build technologies that will come online, will bring us energy within a year or two, and that's wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, increased efficiency. The plan is there. Take a look at Carbon-Free, Nuclear-Free by Arjun Makhijani. There's plenty of other things, my own Solartopia book. We all have plans-- AG : Harvey, Harvey -- HW : -- that are very clear, but [inaudible] work. AG : Steven Chu, President Obama's Energy Secretary, seems to agree with Patrick Moore. Among the things he said was -- this is Steven Chu -- "There is certainly a changing mood in the country, because nuclear is carbon-free, that we should look at it with new eyes." HW : That's fine, but the fact is that we disagree with Steven Chu on that, and you also have to pay for these reactors. The Seabrook nuclear plant, Shoreham, Three Mile Island itself, Diablo Canyon in California, these reactors came in at more than 500 percent over budget. The average construction cost for a new nuclear plant in the last century, in the twentieth century, was twice as high as originally estimated. There are reactors now that are supposedly going to go under construction in Florida whose price -- estimated price has tripled, prior to even digging the first shovel at the construction site. AG : Patrick Moore, what are you going to do with the nuclear waste? PM : We're going to recycle it and use the 90 percent of the energy that's still in it. One of the great secrets that's been kept from the American people is that the used nuclear fuel, which does contain a small amount of waste that needs to be taken out of it before it can be recycled--the used nuclear fuel that is now at all the reactors around the country is one of the most important future energy resources, which is domestic, for the United States. There's twenty times as much energy in that used fuel as was produced in the original cycle when it went through the first time. But let me answer Harvey's point about tax -- AG : Wait. On that issue of -- HW : Amy, by the way -- AG : On that issue of waste, I want to ask -- get Harvey Wasserman's response to that. HW : Oh, by the way, that's utter nonsense. Talk about pie-in-the-sky technology. The recycling of nuclear fuel has been a disaster in Britain, France and Japan. It is not workable technology. It creates much more toxic nuclear waste than was originally dealt with. And it's not economic. We have experience with attempting to reprocess nuclear fuel, and it has failed. That's why the $50 billion in this stimulus package has got to come out. PM : And that's one of the reasons I left -- AG : Patrick Moore? PM : One of the reasons I left Greenpeace is because people like Harvey spread this misinformation. The French are fueling twenty-two of their fifty-nine nuclear reactors on recycled fuel. Just go to COG La Hague. They've got a huge facility there. Japan has also built a $30 billion facility to fabricate and recycle fuel. But on the point of taxpayers, every other country but the United States has state-owned electrical utilities -- Canada, France, Britain, you name it. The government takes 100 percent of the risk on electric utilities, because they are perceived as a monopoly and a national security issue in most countries. The United States is the only place where private capital is expected to pay for electricity infrastructure. And the only reason wind and solar are being built is because of mandates and extremely high costs being paid to these technologies. It's political. If there was no subsidy for wind and solar, there would hardly be any wind and solar. People would be building base load power like nuclear and fossil fuels. But, you know, I'm not in favor of continuing to build coal plants. I think 50 percent is enough. That's how much electricity in the US comes from coal. And again, it doesn't make sense to charge a plug-in hybrid or run a ground-source heat pump on a coal-fired power plant. It just puts the pollution somewhere else. HW : No, but it does -- AG : Harvey Wasserman? HW : It does make sense to run them on wind farms. And Patrick, who is Canadian makes a good--and will not be paying, by the way, for the $50 billion bailout that the nuclear industry wants in advance here. And by the way, the congressional budget office has warned that 50 percent of the nuclear utility--the utilities that build nuclear plants will go bankrupt. And he has -- Patrick has pointed out, you know, that the nuclear utilities in Europe are all government-owned. All this hype about the French reactors putting out so much energy obscures the fact that these are owned by the government. It is a national socialist form of electric generation. We don't want that in the United States. And by the way, don't go anywhere near the La Hague reprocessing facility. Every country in Europe has asked France to shut down this reprocessing facility, because it's such a major polluter. It has put huge quantities of radioactive waste into the water bodies around it, and every other country in Europe is asking that this reprocessing facility at La Hague be shut down. The same with Sellafield in England, and the Japanese plant also, the reprocessing plant, has tremendous problems. Reprocessing nuclear fuel is pie in the sky. We don't want this $50 billion rider stuck into the stimulus bill. People need to call their senators and Congress people and get it out. Patrick, you pay taxes in Canada. You want to pay for it up there, that's your issue, but don't tell us here in the United States that we've got to pay another $50 billion for a failed twentieth century technology that can't stand on its own. AG : Patrick Moore, your response? Your response on the French plant that you just recommended? PM : Well, first off, that's total misinformation that other countries are asking France to turn it off. It's just completely ridiculous. Most of the countries in Europe depend on nuclear energy for their electricity -- Slovakia, 60 percent; Belgium, 65 percent; France, 80 percent. HW : That doesn't speak to reprocessing. Speak to reprocessing. PM : Yeah, but that's the only way -- it's the only way to get the energy out of the used fuel, Harvey, and people are doing it around the world. The United States is thirty years behind. HW : At huge cost. It's extremely expensive. It doesn't work. We have a $50 billion boondoggle coming down the line here. PM : Do you think that if -- do you think that if it was -- HW : It's got to get out of this stimulus package. PM : Do you think that if it was too expensive, the French would have 80 percent of their electricity coming from nuclear? They have a very -- HW : Yes, because it doesn't work in the marketplace. The French industry is national socialism. It's owned by the government. There is not -- the private money in the French industry is minuscule. The French reactors cannot compete in the marketplace. PM : Since
 
Paul Krugman: Obama Let Centrists Ruin Stimulus Bill Top
What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses? More on Paul Krugman
 
Study: Pregnancy Doesn't Increase Breast Cancer Odds Top
ATLANTA — Pregnant women who develop breast cancer do not have worse odds of death or of cancer returning than other young breast cancer patients, a new study has found. The study is one of the largest to look at whether breast cancer hits pregnant and recently pregnant women harder than other women. It contradicts some smaller, earlier studies that suggested maternity made things worse. "If we can get them early, we can treat them aggressively and have good and promising outcomes for both woman and child," said the study's lead author, Dr. Beth Beadle of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. The Houston hospital has the world's largest registry of pregnant breast cancer patients and their children. Frightening for any woman, a breast cancer diagnosis is particularly terrifying for a pregnant woman. It presents complicated decisions about how to treat the mother and not harm the fetus. Some doctors recommend abortion so they can focus on treating the mother. In the new study, being published Monday in the journal Cancer, researchers analyzed data from 652 women ages 35 and younger who were treated for breast cancer at M.D. Anderson from 1973 through 2006. The study group included 104 women with pregnancy-associated cancers _ 51 who had breast cancer during pregnancy, and 53 who developed the illness within a year after. The rates of cancer recurrence, cancer spread and survival were about the same for the women with pregnancy-associated breast cancers as they were for the other women, the researchers found. The researchers calculated the rates for 10 years after the cancer diagnosis. The women who were pregnant had tumors at a more advanced stage, probably because women and their doctors may have discounted breast changes, attributing them to breast feeding or pregnancy, the researchers believe. Generally, breast cancers are more aggressive in younger women, and survival rates are significantly lower. While age may be a factor, it's not clear that pregnancy is: There was no evidence in the new study that tumors were faster growing in the pregnant women, said Beadle, a radiation oncologist. Radiation _ dangerous to a fetus _ is commonly used in mammography and breast cancer treatment. But ultrasound can be used to look for breast tumors instead. And surgery and certain kinds of chemotherapy can treat the cancer without poisoning the womb. However, it remains a complicated medical situation that can depend on the severity of the cancer and how far into the pregnancy the mother is, said Dr. Ruth O'Regan, an associate professor at Emory University's Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta. "It's quite complicated, but all of us have been able to treat pregnant women successfully," O'Regan said. The study did not present data on how well the children did. Other research at M.D. Anderson has not found developmental problems in those children, Beadle said. One success story was Emily Behrend, 35, who gave birth to a healthy baby girl last spring. Behrend was diagnosed roughly four months into her pregnancy. On New Year's Day last year, she felt a lump at the top of her right breast. "It didn't feel like your typical swollen gland," said Behrend, a tax auditor from Tomball, Texas. Doctors diagnosed cancer. She talked to several physicians about what to do, including one who suggested an abortion. "That was never an option for me," said Behrend, noting this was going to be her first child. She went to M.D. Anderson, where surgeons removed the lump. She also had three chemotherapy treatments before she gave birth in May. Her daughter, Julia Grace, was healthy with a full head of blonde hair. "I looked for that right away," said Behrend, who had lost her hair during the chemotherapy. Behrend underwent additional chemo after the birth and her cancer is in remission. She called the whole experience "a blessing." Her advice to other pregnant women: Don't be shy about signs you think might be related to breast cancer. "I would definitely ask your doctor," she said. More on Health
 
Jamie Malanowski: Command and Control? Top
Maybe I missed it, but where was the Fireside Chat? Eight days after his swearing-in, Franklin Roosevelt went on the radio for the first of the so-called fireside chats. He had declared a bank holiday, and he told people why. He explained why bank runs were so damaging, how they worsened the crisis. And he told people what steps his administration was going to take. That little chat helped FDR enormously. It showed people that he had command of the problem, and was taking control of the situation. Obama thus far has not demonstrated such command and control. He's been nicked up by the mistakes he made with his appointments. He's felt obliged to say that he screwed up, which, while refreshing, is not an admission we want to hear from our president with any frequency. And he's really taken a curious role with this stimulus bill. By allowing the House Democrats to write it, by allowing the Republican opposition to define it, by devoting so much attention on whether or not the bill would have bipartisan support, the president has taken what should be his first signature piece of legislation, and somehow failed to put his stamp on it. And at a time when the country is virtually pleading with his to exert command and control, he has yielded that role to congressional partisans that the public doesn't quite know and almost certainly doesn't trust. Imagine if he had sat down in front of a national television audience and said, in effect, here's where we are; here's what we have to do; here's what the elements of the bill will accomplish; and here is where what we will do next. Doubtless the debate in Congress would have been very different. Soon the Treasury Department is going to announce its plans for addressing the financial crisis. Already critics are denouncing this as another trip to the bailout well, a follow-up to the TARP plan already tarnished by that plan's shortcomings. Obama needs to take charge of his plans before they drift into a cloud of uncertainty. He needs to show his command of the problem. He needs to take control of the situation. More on Barack Obama
 
Krugman: Obama Let Centrists Hurt Stimulus Bill Top
What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses? A proud centrist. For that is what the senators who ended up calling the tune on the stimulus bill just accomplished. More on Paul Krugman
 
Brian Dickie: Last Night's Fantasy Top
The Civic Opera House was transformed Friday evening into a splendid party place - and there was a pretty good turn out for a grand evening of food, wine, dancing and the general noise that one gets at such affairs. This was all in aid of the Lyric Opera and no doubt they raised a lot of money. There was an impressive list of sponsors and as always the corporate attendance was prominent. But as so often at these affairs there was not a lot of opera! In the entertainment, amusingly compered by Andrew Davis, opera was clearly strictly off limits. I guess that was necessary playing to this particular crowd. But there were some splendid opera singers on tap including Deborah Voigt, Erin Wall and Joseph Kaiser. Meanwhile since my post of yesterday the democratic process has now also sidelined the arts with Senator Coburn's amendment to the stimulus bill winning the vote. It was worded as follows: "None of the amounts appropriated or otherwise made available by this Act may be used for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, swimming pool, stadium, community park, museum, theater, art center, and highway beautification project." Unfortunately, the amendment passed by a wide vote margin of 73-24, and surprisingly included support from many high profile Senators including Chuck Schumer of New York, Dianne Feinstein of California, Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, and several other Democrats and Republicans. There is some irony here. Senator Coburn's daughter is a fine opera singer and although she is perhaps unlikely to suffer since she has an excellent international career, many of her friends and colleagues will as opera companies cut back. There will be less jobs - yes, that is JOBS! There will be more unemployment - yes, UNEMPLOYMENT. More on Stimulus Package
 
NEW KINDLE: Amazon Kindle 2.0 Available February 24 (PHOTOS) Top
Paperless media keeps growing -- the second version of the Amazon Kindle is being shown off today, and will be available to consumers on February 24. The new version is sleeker, holds more memory and has a longer battery life. It's also able to sync to old Kindles (and future Kindles) and can use your old data. Amazon.com also sent out these photos of the new Kindle: Among the touted features: New 2 GB Memory Holds Over 1,500 Books With 2 GB of memory, Kindle 2 can hold more than 1,500 books, compared with 200 with the original Kindle. And because Amazon automatically backs up a copy of every Kindle book purchased, customers can wirelessly re-download titles in their library at any time. 25% Longer Battery Life Kindle 2 customers can read for four to five days on one charge with wireless on and for over two weeks with wireless turned off. New Instant Dictionary Lookup Kindle 2 comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and its 250,000 word definitions built-in, and with Kindle 2 definitions appear instantly at the bottom of the page. New Experimental Read-To-Me Feature Kindle 2 offers the experimental read-to-me feature "Text-to-Speech" that converts words on a page to spoken word so customers have the option to read or listen. Customers can switch back and forth between reading and listening, and their spot is automatically saved. Pages turn automatically while the content is being read so customers can listen hands-free. Customers can choose to be read to by male or female voices and can choose the speed to suit their listening preference. Using the read-to-me feature, anything you can read on Kindle, including books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and personal documents, Kindle 2 can read to you. More on Slideshows
 
Texas Evangelicals Funded Attempt To Stop Palin Troopergate Probe Top
New state gift disclosures show it cost Liberty Legal Institute and the two law firms working with it $185,000 to represent six Alaska legislators in an unsuccessful lawsuit to halt their colleagues' "troopergate" investigation into whether Gov. Sarah Palin acted improperly in firing the state's public safety director. The legislators listed a $25,000 gift of services from the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute. Liberty is the legal arm of the Free Market Foundation, which is associated with evangelical leader James Dobson's Focus on the Family, and lists its guiding principles as limited government and promotion of Judeo-Christian values. More on Sarah Palin
 
Sally Duros: How To Save Newspapers Top
Chicago's newspapers could find a lifeline to solvency and a return to social purpose in a new kind of corporate structure called an L3C , or low-profit limited liability corporation. Why is that? Illinois foundations have $350 billion in assets and they are required to invest 5% of that, or $17 billion, in programs that serve a social purpose each year. If the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune were to be reborn as L3Cs -- a corporate structure that encourages foundation investment while allowing a profit --they could tap into some of that $17 billion. With foundation heavyweights on board, other investors seeking a decent, but not excessive, return might contribute to the coffers. Bill SB 239 creating the L3C hybrid was introduced to the Illinois legislature Feb. 4 by Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago) . Prospects for the bill are good, supporters say. The L3C structure was signed into law in Vermont in 2008, and into law in Michigan and the Crow Nation in January. Legislatures in Georgia, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon are also expected to pass L3C legislation this year. In Washington, D.C., draft legislation called the Program Related Investment Promotion Act of 2008 is being considered by staff in the Senate Finance committee. While many types of businesses--from community yoga centers to affordable housing--could benefit from L3Cs, the successful creation of newspaper L3Cs is largely contingent on passage of the Federal law, which would effectively expand charitable purposes to include newspapers. The L3C structure plays well in Peoria where the Peoria Newspaper Guild , and a coalition of Journal Star employees and community leaders have been quietly looking for two years at alternatives including co-ops and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) to operate the Peoria Journal Star . The one idea that really clicked was the L3C. "We are looking at long-term ownership that puts journalism first," said Jennifer Towery, President of the Peoria Newspaper Guild and also Neighbors Editor for the Peoria Journal Star . "[The L3C] just resonated. It has so much potential." Because it can tap into foundation money, an L3C is sustainable, and because an L3C business must meet a social purpose, it realigns newspapers with their mission of community service. "It insists that serving the readers is your mission," she said. "If it doesn't serve the readers to cut your newsroom staff you can't do it." While good news judgment is essential to accomplishing the social return, the L3C structure has significant sweeteners to generate returns for investors. "The participation of the foundation, which is seeking high social return but low monetary return serves as a catalyst for high investor return," said Marc J. Lane, a Chicago-based attorney who authored the Illinois L3C legislation and last year launched Chicago's chapter of the Social Enterprise Alliance , which believes in investing in businesses that do well by doing good. "You can end up with a blended financial return that is fairly modest but skewed toward the private sector investor." "Capital is formed," Lane said. "Social purpose is achieved." The L3C is different from a typical nonprofit because it can earn a return, but the social purpose must trump the financial purpose. Lane says that he expects the Illinois law will pass with little debate. "I see it sailing through," he said. But even if it doesn't, Illinois news gathering organizations could incorporate in Vermont or other states that have legalized L3Cs. The creator of L3Cs, Robert Lang, CEO of the Mary Elizabeth & Gordon B. Mannweiler Foundation , says the Federal legislation is essential for any of these good news scenarios to play for newspapers. Lang, an economist and businessman by trade, devised the L3C structure to address the problems he was having while trying to invest family foundation money in a sustainable and effective way. "Historically, the IRS has not accepted newspapers as nonprofits," Lang said. "The Federal legislation mentions L3Cs specifically and it lists newspapers specifically." The problem newspapers are dealing with today is that investors turned news-gathering into Wall Street product. "The Peoria paper still makes money," Lang said. "The problem is it cannot make enough profit for all the games normal for-profits get involved in." But in the L3C scenario, newspapers can make "enough" money. "What we are looking at is the newspaper as a self-sufficient entity," he said. "It will not be a high profit entity." The idea of the Newspaper L3C is to bring back those journalistic contributions like neighborhood reporting, music reviews and book sections and make them part of the community service. And ads are part of the mix too. "I think there is a lot of viability to newspapers still," Lang said. Could the L3C save Chicago's newspapers? "Somewhere you still need a newsgathering organizations," Lang said. Newspapers still drive much of the news circulating on the web, he added. "I'm not saying that we can save the Chicago Tribune and make it what it was 10 years ago," he said. "But at least the money that's made today can go toward improving the product not paying off leveraged debt." Meanwhile back at the Journal Star , which has an owner and is not for sale, Peoria Guild President Towery says, "We are all interested in finding models that others can replicate. It's not saving the paper, it's saving journalism. " "One of the bright spots is that [newspapers] have lost so much value that it is now feasible for communities to buy their newspapers."
 
Nadya Suleman, Octuplets Mom, Identifies Fertilization Clinic Top
LOS ANGELES — The mother who gave birth to octuplets has identified the California fertility clinic that she says provided in-vitro fertilization for all 14 of her children. Nadya Suleman said in an interview aired Monday morning on NBC's "Today" show that she used the West Coast IVF Clinic in Beverly Hills for all of her pregnancies. Video from 2006 aired Monday morning on KTLA-TV in Los Angeles shows Dr. Michael Kamrava from the clinic treating Suleman and discussing the implantation process. Without identifying the doctor, the Medical Board of California said last week it was looking into the matter to see if there was a "violation of the standard of care" for implanting so many embryos. There was no answer to a telephone call placed before business hours to the clinic Monday. Kamrava did not immediately return a pager message.
 
Karl Frisch: Right-Washing the New Deal Top
It's probably a good thing that cable news generally doesn't draw much of an audience from the 18- to 24-year-old demographic. Otherwise, history professors across the nation could very well be witnessing the undoing of their work to educate students about the dire economic climate the United States faced for much of the 1930s. Those who have been watching cable news lately have undoubtedly noticed the litany of conservative media figures attempting to rewrite history by denigrating the tremendous successes of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal policies in what amounts to an orchestrated effort to derail the economic recovery plans of President Obama. Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume recently called Roosevelt's policies " a jihad against private enterprise ," just after claiming that "everybody agrees, I think, on both sides of the spectrum now, that the New Deal failed." That may be accurate if by "both sides of the spectrum" Hume is referring to the right and far-right over at Fox News. Hume's own jihad against the facts, however, represents only a small portion of the historical misrepresentations passed off as reasoned debate about the New Deal. Witness the day-break machinations of the crew over at MSNBC's Morning Joe. During a recent broadcast, Joe Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski kicked off a string of attacks against the president's recovery plan , using the New Deal as their dubious weapon du jour. Mika said of Obama's plan, "I think we're going to have the same unemployment in three or four years, just like the New Deal." That just isn't true -- unemployment fell every year from 1933 through 1937. CONTINUE READING... Karl Frisch is a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America , a progressive media watchdog, research, and information center based in Washington, DC. Frisch also contributes to County Fair , a media blog featuring links to progressive media criticism from around the web as well as original commentary. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook or sign-up to receive his columns by email. A shorter version of this column first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News . More on Stimulus Package
 
Madonna In W With Naked Model Jesus Luz Top
A powerful, sexy woman and her boyish plaything. Sound familiar? In sultry Rio de Janeiro, the ever-provocative, newly single superstar teams up with photographer Steven Klein for a no-holds-barred 46-page portfolio. Once again, it seems, Madonna does it her way. Click through for the photos with model Jesus Luz More on Madonna
 
David Sirota: Energy Taxes' Faustian Bargain Top
In states all over the country, environmentalists and the progressive movement are pushing forward proposals to raise taxes on oil, gas and coal companies. Specifically, they are pushing what's known as "severance taxes" - taxes assessed when those companies sever natural resources from the earth. But as I show in a new article for the San Francisco Chronicle , there's a big unintended consequence of these proposals if they aren't structured correctly: Namely, they can politically strengthen the fossil fuel industry. Obviously, I'm all for taxing the energy industry and all for severance taxes. But I don't want to see those severance taxes strengthen an industry that already has an outsized amount of political power, and that has used that power to prevent all sorts of critical pollution and drilling regulations. That's why I wrote this article - to look at how many of these tax proposals could break apart the traditional progressive coalition. I won't be redundant on how exactly these proposals would do that - you can read the article for that . What's disturbing, though, is that this very important dynamic has gone almost completely unreported in states that are considering these taxes. The last thing we need is tax policy politically strengthening an industry that has had way too much power for way too long. And fortunately, there are severance tax proposals that are structured properly and that can be emulated everywhere. Now, it's just a matter of replicating those.
 
Senator Bernie Sanders Backs Dean For HHS Post Top
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is the latest lawmaker to back Howard Dean, the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, for secretary of Health and Human Services. In a letter to President Obama that was released on Sunday, Sanders backed Dean, the former Vermont governor and physician, as someone who is "eminently qualified" to reform healthcare after Obama's first choice, former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), withdrew his nomination last week.
 
Marijuana may raise testicular cancer risk: study Top
Marijuana use may increase the risk of developing testicular cancer, in particular a more aggressive form of the disease, according to a U.S. study published on Monday. The study of 369 Seattle-area men ages 18 to 44 with testicular cancer and 979 men in the same age bracket without the disease found that current marijuana users were 70 percent more likely to develop it compared to nonusers. The risk appeared to be highest among men who had reported smoking marijuana for at least 10 years, used it more than once a week or started using it before age 18, the researchers wrote in the journal Cancer.
 
Andy Borowitz: A-Rod Backs Stimulus Top
President Barack Obama picked up support for his stimulus package from an unexpected source today as Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez said that he was "totally in favor of stimulus." "Sometimes when you have to get the job done, you need a shot in the arm," said Mr. Rodriguez at a press conference in the parking lot of Yankee Stadium. "This stimulus sounds like it could be that injection." The slugger, known to his fans and detractors alike as A-Rod, said that the U.S. economy may not seem very muscular at the moment, but that "juicing the economy" could change that overnight. "Mark my words," he said. "If the economy gets the right injection, its muscles will bulge to monstrous proportions." Mr. Rodriguez's words were in stark contrast with remarks made last week by another athlete, swimmer Michael Phelps, who said that the economy "just needs to chill." "As far as the economy goes, I'm comfortably numb about it," Mr. Phelps said. "Dude, did I just say that out loud?" At his press conference today, Mr. Rodriguez bristled when asked questions about steroid use, at one point throwing a car at a reporter. Andy Borowitz is a comedian and writer whose work appears in The New Yorker and The New York Times , and at his award-winning humor site, BorowitzReport.com . He is performing at the 92nd St. Y on April 30 at 8 PM with special guests Judy Gold, Hendrik Hertzberg, and Jonathan Alter. For tickets, go to 92y.org . More on Stimulus Package
 
Egypt: Mummies Found In Newly Discovered Tomb Top
CAIRO — A storeroom housing about two dozen ancient Egyptian mummies has been unearthed inside a 2,600-year-old tomb during the latest round of excavations at the vast necropolis of Saqqara south of Cairo, archaeologists said Monday. The tomb was located at the bottom of a 36-foot deep shaft, said Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass. Twenty-two mummies were found in niches along the tomb's walls, he said. Eight sarcophagi were also found in the tomb. Archaeologists so far have opened only one of the sarcophagi _ and found a mummy inside of it, said Hawass' assistant Abdel Hakim Karar. Mummies are believed to be inside the other seven, he said. The "storeroom for mummies" dates back to 640 B.C. during the 26th Dynasty, which was Egypt's last independent kingdom before it was overthrown by a succession of foreign conquerors beginning with the Persians, Hawass said. But the tomb was discovered at an even older site in Saqqara that dates back to the 4,300-year-old 6th Dynasty, he said. Most of the mummies are poorly preserved, and archeologists have yet to determine their identities or why so many were put in one room. The name Badi N Huri was engraved into the opened sarcophagus, but the wooden coffin did not bear a title for the mummy. "This one might have been an important figure, but I can't tell because there was no title," Karar said. Karar also said it was unusual for mummies of this late period to be stored in rocky niches. "Niches were known in the very early dynasties, so to find one for the 26th Dynasty is something rare," he said. Excavations have been ongoing at Saqqara for 150 years, uncovering a necropolis of pyramids and tombs dating mostly from the Old Kingdom but also tombs from as recent as the Roman era. In the past, excavations have focused on just one side of the site's two most prominent pyramids _ the famous Step Pyramid of King Djoser and that of Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty. The area where the current tomb was found, to the southwest, has been largely untouched by archeologists. In December, two tombs were found near the current discovery of mummies. The tombs were built for high officials _ one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and the other for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs. In November, Hawass announced the discovery of a new pyramid at Saqqara, the 118th in Egypt, and the 12th to be found just in Saqqara. According to Hawass, only 30 percent of Egypt's monuments have been uncovered, with the rest still under the sand. More on Middle East
 
Melissa Silverstein: When Going to a Movie Makes You Stupid Top
So here's the news. Women across the country really wanted to see He's Just Not That Into You even though it got rotten reviews across the board. 80% of the audience was women, and 60% of the audience was over 25. As someone who thinks about women's films and the women's market the success of a movie like this (which I did not see and am not very interested in seeing) gives me pause. I was expecting the film to make at least $20 million. Think about it. It opened on over 3,000 screens. Had a high profile cast. Had a lot of marketing behind it. Smartly opened right before Valentine's Day when women in relationships and not in relationships are pondering the state of their relationships or lack thereof. But it beat all expectations and made $27 million beating The Pink Panther 2 (which looked bad), the new thriller Push and last week's box office champ Taken . All week writers have been talking about how these types of chick flicks are regressive and are setting women back, and many (mostly guys) have asked why women would be interested in these types of films. I've been quoted in a bunch of pieces talking about the lack of women writers and directors and my desire to see different types of movies with stronger female characters. I really don't see these early 2009 films on the same continuum with Sex and the City and Mamma Mia . I just don't. Sex and the City had romance and a wedding, but to me, the film was about the friendship between the women. Mamma Mia also had romance and a wedding but, to me, it was a mother-daughter love story. What's different about Mamma Mia and Sex is that the women are seen from a place of strength, not a place of weakness. Maybe it's the age of the women that gives them more substance. I remember that both Sex and the City and Mamma Mia got a bunch of pretty shitty reviews too. I remember when Sex opened that people were making fun of Sarah Jessica Parker's face. I remember people writing that Meryl Streep has ruined her career for appearing in Mamma Mia . But I don't remember people saying that women were stupid for going to see these movies. They called us shallow and materialistic but I don't remember being called stupid. While I don't have any interest in seeing Bride Wars and He's Not Into You , I don't agree with the name calling and think it needs to stop. Just because you see a stupid movie doesn't make you stupid. Did anyone call the people (both men and women) who went to see Paul Blart Mall Cop stupid? That movies got pretty bad reviews too. It's not my type of movie but it seems that it's OK for guys to act stupid, yet, there is this accepted, nasty misogynistic tone that pervades the criticism of movies targeted at women. Long time movie critic Peter Travers puts it this way in Rolling Stone: " Are women desperate or just desperately stupid? This is the misogynist question at the core of He's Just Not That Into You , a women-bashing tract disguised as a chick flick." The facts are clear. Women do direct less than 6% of the films and write only 10%. But I'm not letting women off the hook. We (me too) are complicit in this problem. When we go and see these films and make them successes that means that Hollywood will make more of them. That's law #1 of Hollywood. I blame the system for these films. Women writers have credits on all these films (and Drew Barrymore produced He's Just Not That Into You ) including the upcoming Confessions of a Shopaholic . Everyone needs a job and if the only movies that get made in Hollywood that you can make any money on are chick flicks you're going to take the gig. Let me tell you, principles don't pay the rent or mortgage even if we wish they would. I blame the system for these films. I blame a system that perpetuates stereotypes on a regular basis. I wish that a film like Frozen River could get on 3,000 screen but struggles to keep 100. I wish that women would have other choices in their multiplexes beyond He's Just Not That Into You . I wish that people would stop calling women stupid for going to a movie. H/T The Rope of Silicon
 
Democratic Leaders Seek To Move Beyond Blago: 'There Is No Need To Be Ashamed' Top
A gathering of Democrats in DuPage County, once seemingly a counter-intuitive phrase, drew more than 500 people as well as Illinois' statewide officers to the Drury Lane Oak Brook where references to the turmoil over Rod Blagojevich's ouster as governor were ever present. [...] But Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan tried to sound a hopeful note Sunday night, saying that while the ouster of the two-term Democratic governor involved "some of the most stressful, difficult times" in her career, she and other Democrats need to look forward. "Look at the history of the good elected officials from the state of Illinois," she said, citing Abraham Lincoln, Paul Simon and President Barack Obama. "There is no need to be ashamed." More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Haute Couture Spawns Joan Collins Revival Top
Some of you may be too young to remember Dynasty, but those of us who do know it was absolutely all about Joan Collins/Alexis Carrington. Nobody could work 80 pounds of tulle and an up-do quite like her. Yes, all those big diamond-dipped gowns and line-backer blazers were great for a good on-screen bitch-slapping, but it was Collins' off-screen style that drew several links to the recent couture shows. Gaultier, Valentino, Armani Privé, and Lacroix all turned out looks that Alexis would have been proud to preen in. Look at her in that gold lamé jumpsuit! God, they just don't make 'em like they used to.
 
Pakistan Urges Holbrooke To Take Regional Approach Top
Islamabad will urge US special envoy Richard Holbrooke to adopt a regional approach to solve the prevailing issues of terrorism and extremism, diplomatic sources told Daily Times on Sunday. "We believe that not only Pakistan and Afghanistan, but the whole region is badly affected by terrorism and extremism and we hope that Ambassador Holbrooke would see the issue in the regional context," they said ahead of Holbrooke's visit to the region today (Monday). More on Middle East
 
Quinn Wants Stimulus Details Before Crafting Budget Top
As Gov. Pat Quinn on Sunday conducted the latest in a series of news conferences unveiling pieces of his new administration, concerns mounted over a more immediate need to demonstrate plans to cope with an ever-increasing state budget deficit. [...] But on Sunday, Quinn said he would wait to see what Illinois would get from a congressional stimulus package and suggested that any decisive steps would wait until March, when he is scheduled to present lawmakers with a new state spending plan for the budget year that begins in July. More on Stimulus Package
 
Holbrooke Visits Wary U.S. Ally In Pakistan Top
When the envoy Richard C. Holbrooke arrives here Monday looking for ways to stop a runaway Islamist insurgency that is destabilizing Pakistan, he will find a pro-American but weak civilian government, and a powerful army unaccustomed and averse to fighting a domestic enemy. In a nuclear-armed nation regarded as an ally of the United States and considered pivotal by the Obama administration to ending the war in neighboring Afghanistan, Mr. Holbrooke will face a surge of anti-American sentiment on clear display by private citizens, public officials and increasingly potent television talk shows. More on Pakistan
 
Coleman: "God Wants Me To Serve" Top
While Al Franken remains fairly elusive, Norm Coleman is keeping a high profile these days as his court challenge of the Minnesota U.S. Senate recount plods along. Coleman is adept, somewhat too adept, his critics might say, at skillfully tailoring his message to his audience, and that skill set was on full display Friday.
 
Lasantha Wickrematunga's Wife On A Mission To Bring Justice To Sri Lanka Top
There had been previous incidents, threats and warnings scrawled in red paint. And on that very morning, when they had driven before work to the chemist's shop, two sinister-looking men on a large black motorbike raced past their car. Lasantha Wickrematunga, a newspaper editor, and his wife, Sonali Samarasinghe, were convinced they were being tailed. Back in their home, Mrs Wickrematunga, who is also a journalist, pleaded with her husband to stay at home. But it was a Thursday - a vital production day at her husband's Sunday newspaper - and he had to go. "See you in the office," she said as he left. Thirty minutes later she received a phone call telling her he had been fatally shot as he made his way to the office on the outskirts of Colombo. She rushed to the hospital and found her husband on a trolley, blood seeping from his mouth and ears. Doctors struggled to save him, but there was nothing they could do. Mrs Wickrematunga has been forced to go into hiding through fears for her safety. But in the first interview she has given since her husband's assassination last month sparked outrage across Sri Lanka and around the world, she told The Independent: "I don't feel anger, truly. I feel grief, I feel despair. "But I know that there is only one mission for me. I have to take forward what he was fighting for. His death cannot have been in vain." Lasantha Wickrematunga edited The Sunday Leader, a newspaper that had persistently highlighted the civilian toll of President Mahinda Rajapaksa's military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist guerrillas. The newspaper has also campaigned on other human rights issues, highlighting the soaring number of attacks on journalists in Sri Lanka since the President took office in late 2005. Sonali, Mr Wickrematunga's second wife - they had been married just two months, though they had been a couple for several years - is editor-in-chief of The Morning Leader. In the aftermath of Mr Wickrematunga's death, his newspaper published a remarkable editorial written by him perhaps just days earlier: he said that if he were ever to be murdered the finger of blame should be pointed at the government. His wife agrees with that assessment and believes the authorities are involved in a cover-up. Even now she has yet to be handed the results of her husband's post-mortem examination. "There is a phrase cui bono? - who benefits?" she said. "Well there is no doubt that it was the government that stood to benefit. He was a thorn in their side week after week. I do not yet have any evidence of complicity, but their actions afterwards suggest there was some complicity." She added: "The Defence Secretary [Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, younger brother of the President] was asked by the BBC about the murder. He just giggled. He said 'I'm not concerned'. This is the man who is in overall control of the police. What message does that send to the police?" Mrs Wickrematunga, who last year received the Global Shining Light Award for investigative journalism, said that when she rushed to the hospital and saw him, fatally injured, she saw deep cut marks on his side yet no bullet wounds. The cause of death, however, was officially listed as a gunshot wound. Mrs Wickrematunga said doctors told her they found no such wounds but did discover a large injury to his head, consistent with having been viciously attacked with a metal bar. She said no one reported hearing any gunshots. "A month has passed, yet there has been no proper investigation - no appeal for people in the area, no call for anyone who saw people on motorbikes," she said, speaking from a location she asked not to be identified. "All they have done is to question the people who stole his mobile phone." The assassination of Mr Wickrematunga took place against a determined military operation by government forces to crush the LTTE separatists who have been engaged in a vicious guerrilla war for the past three decades. Up to 250,000 Tamil civilians are trapped in the north of the country where the fighting is taking place. Aid groups say hundreds have been killed and wounded after being caught up in the crossfire. Campaigners say there has been a parallel operation by the government to silence its critics, with at least 15 journalists killed since 2006 and another 29 having fled the island after receiving death threats. Many journalists have been held without charge and the premises of media organisations critical of the government have been attacked. Among those who have fled is Mrs Wickrematunga. "It was out of fear," she says. "You cannot live in a place where the [government] says that any dissent is treason and that if you are against you are a traitor." She stresses that while she and her husband have been critical of the government, neither of them supported the methods of the LTTE. "When you talk about the LTTE, it is the most ruthless terrorist organisation of our time," she said "It's an insult to the Tamil people that all they have to represent their cause is the Tigers. Lasantha and I fully support the view that in a civilised world there is no room for the LTTE or al-Qa'ida." What they were also opposed to, she said, was civilians being driven from their homes in the effort to crush the LTTE. Mrs Wickrematunga insists that a military defeat of the LTTE will not solve Sri Lanka's problems. The minority Tamil population must receive a political settlement and be treated as equals rather than inferior to the Sinhalese Buddhist population. As an example of lack of willingness to treat Tamils as equals, she points to a comment from the army commander, Lieutenant-General Sarath Fonseka, that minorities "can live in this country with us. But they must not try to - under the pretext of being a minority - demand undue things". "Reconciliation will take such a lot of work," she said. "We have wounded a section of our society to such an extent. Scars are lasting. This problem is not going away." A death foretold: Wickrematunga's last article Just before his murder, Lasantha Wickrematunga wrote an article which he said should be published if he was assassinated. Here are some extracts: No other profession calls on its practitioners to lay down their lives for their art save the armed forces and, in Sri Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past few years, the independent media have increasingly come under attack. Electronic and print-media institutions have been burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless journalists have been harassed, threatened and killed. It has been my honour to belong to all those categories and now especially the last... The Sunday Leader has been a controversial newspaper because we say it like we see it: whether it be a spade, a thief or a murderer, we call it by that name. We do not hide behind euphemism ... Every newspaper has its angle, and we do not hide the fact that we have ours. Our commitment is to see Sri Lanka as a transparent, secular, liberal democracy ... It is well known that I was on two occasions brutally assaulted, while on another my house was sprayed with machine-gun fire. Despite the government's sanctimonious assurances, there was never a serious police inquiry into the perpetrators of these attacks, and the attackers were never apprehended. In all these cases, I have reason to believe the attacks were inspired by the government. When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me. Related article: Woman suicide bomber kills dozens in Sri Lanka Read more from the Independent. More on Asia
 

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more

Weather - Get today's weather conditions




You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)