Friday, March 6, 2009

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Michelle Obama's Most Inspirational Quotes Top
There are no shortage of reasons to admire and be inspired by Michelle Obama; her poise, her style , and her steadfast determination to make a change in this world, one soup kitchen at a time make her a strong role model for men, women, and children everywhere. But while her husband Barack has been championed as the all-star orator, Michelle herself is no stranger to the power of words. Beliefnet.com has put together an uplifting list of some of Mrs. Obama's most encouraging words. Below are our favorites. On being the First Lady and Mom-in-Chief: "My first job in all honesty is going to continue to be mom-in-chief. Making sure that in this transition, which will be even more of a transition for the girls...that they are settled and that they know they will continue to be the center of our universe." On the importance of self-care: "Women in particular need to keep an eye on their physical and mental health, because if we're scurrying to and from appointments and errands, we don't have a lot of time to take care of ourselves. We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own 'to do' list." On dealing with stress: "Exercise is really important to me--it's therapeutic. So if I'm ever feeling tense or stressed or like I'm about to have a meltdown, I'll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls." On staying true to oneself: "One of the lessons that I grew up with was to always stay true to yourself and never let what somebody else says distract you from your goals. And so when I hear about negative and false attacks, I really don't invest any energy in them, because I know who I am." And on making a difference: "And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us--no matter what our age or background or walk of life--each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation." What do you find most inspirational about Michelle Obama? How have her words and/or actions made an impact on your life? Related: SLIDESHOW: Michelle Obama Spends Lunchtime Serving Those In Need SLIDESHOW: Michelle Obama Visits DC Social Services Center, Tells Teens: "When You Get, You Give Back" SLIDESHOW: The Obamas And Bidens Give Back On National Day Of Service SLIDESHOW: Obama Family's Thanksgiving Food Drive Visit SLIDESHOW: Three Anything But Ordinary Citizens Who Inspired The President SLIDESHOW: Michelle Obama Entertains Kids At The White House In Celebration Of African American History Month More on The Giving Life
 
Michael Shapiro: Can Suffering Redeem Alex Rodriguez? Top
The path to redemption has revealed itself to Alex Rodriguez and in comes through pain. A-Rod is hurt and his injury is far more extensive than the Yankees had imagined. He has torn the labrum on his right hip, an injury that often requires surgery that would sideline him for four months. But Rodriguez has chosen to avoid the scalpel for now, in the belief that he can somehow soldier on. This will be difficult. As the Yankees' hitting coach told The New York Times , the hips are essential in turning on a fastball, which means that A-Rod will have to call on all his many gifts to compensate for the limitations that his body will afflict upon his game. And yet the news is not all bad. For in what promises to be a seasoning of public and daily suffering, A-Rod can achieve what no scripted press conference or seemingly candid interview can offer: a stab at nobility. This had been the spring of Rodriguez's humiliation. Busted by Sports Illustrated , he has been forced to confess to years of using performance enhancing drugs. But his confession - in which he assumed blame but avoided responsibility; I was just a dumb kid - brought him no peace. Nor will his injury, which ironically, is just the point. The nobility of suffering did not begin with sports-talk radio hosts lionizing those who play through pain, and questioning the manhood of men, who feeling the need to sit, are somehow "soft." The hero's trial dates to Homer - Odysseus's years of trials and wandering until he finally returns home - runs though Shakespeare and, in a baseball context, reaches its zenith in the legend of Mickey Mantle. No one suffered as the Mick suffered. No one played so many games so well through so much pain. The fans did not like Mantle when he was young and strong; he was so good that anything other than perfection seemed like underachievement. Only later, when it became ever more apparent that it was all he could do to tape himself from ankle to hip and will his way out to center field at Yankee Stadium that the fans who had once booed him came to love him, loudly. Mantle could be a boor and a drunk. No matter. The Mick would sleep off his handovers on the trainer's table. But he would never ask out of a game. And unlike, say, Roberto Clemente - who displeased his teammates by his unwillingness to play when his back was acting up - the men who played with Mantle admired him not only for his talent but for his fortitude. So it is with us all. Heroes are supposed to suffer, because in their suffering they reveal qualities the rest of can only look upon with wonder. But there is more to this than pain alone. A hero is also expected to gain wisdom through his suffering, which is why Mantle had no moment more heroic than when he sat before the cameras, thin and dying, and offered himself as a brutal example of where a life of dissipation could end. Alex Rodriguez will be tested this season, and the baseball world will watch to see how much he can endure. But hitting through gritted teeth is only part of the hero's redemption. Perhaps through his suffering A-Rod might at last discover himself.
 
Jeff Biggers: Al Gore: Your Heroic TVA Watchdogs Are Being Arrested Top
Matt Landon deserves a Medal of Honor. He's a modern day Tennessee Volunteer and American hero. After billion of gallons of toxic coal sludge broke through the TVA coal ash pond on December 22, he and the United Mountain Defense non-profit organization have worked full-time through the holidays and winter to deliver aid and water, assist the affected residents, collect data and provide professional air and water monitoring. National and international media have relied on Landon's dogged and insightful reporting behind the scenes. Landon has given tours to untold numbers of legal and legislative aides, including Robert C. Tanner the Majority Senior Investigator for Senate Committee On Environment & Public Works. Considering the gross negligence of the TVA, and the whopping $825 million bill for clean up costs, you would think the TVA had enough sense to recognize Landon's and UMD's important role and accept their help. Instead, the TVA police have not stopped harassing, detaining and arresting Landon and other members of the United Mountain Defense. Amazingly, Landon was arrested again yesterday for giving a ride home to an elderly disabled Swan Pond resident, Eva Hewitt. The two were returning from the Tennessee Environmental and Conservation public meeting held earlier that day where Eva was one of several community members who spoke at a citizen's press conference about health concerns relating to the TVA disaster. Eva is blind in one eye and does not drive so Matt was returning her to her home on South Swan Pond Road. Eva said "It's a shame they arrested him when he was just trying to help me out and give me a ride home." "I feel that arresting me today is just a continuation of the ongoing harassment I have experienced from the TVA police," Landon said. "TVA has tried to prevent United Mountain Defense from conducting independent water testing, deploying independent air monitoring, delivering bottled water to locals and working with the community of Roane County and they have consistently harassed me while doing this work. The citizens of Roane County deserve more from TVA and I do not plan on abandoning them in this time of need. " Three days ago, two other United Mountain Defense volunteers were detained by cigar-chomping TVA police that would have made Bull Connor, the police scourge of the Civil Rights Movement, proud. The TVA police arrested volunteers for setting up independent air quality monitoring stations. The monitoring program was initiated in response to complaints by local residents of worsening respiratory problems since the disaster and UMD's discovery that TVA's air testing is inadequate. For the latest updates on the continuing scandal of the TVA coal ash disaster, visit: http://dirtycoaltva.blogspot.com/
 
Christian Nwachukwu, Jr.: My Appointments for the Supreme Court Top
We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it's like to be poor, or African American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that's the criteria by which I'm going to be selecting my judges. -- President Barack Obama Whither lists? Or, and perhaps more important, why? Well, they are extraordinarily helpful for organizing ideas -- the grocery store can be mapped; the day wrangled; the career ladder bulleted and dead-lined. Prospects -- for love or money -- are plotted in a single place, to be re-visited at will, viewed on demand. Thornier, though, is to what end? The why of lists seems sufficient if the list is private; but what of public lists: the editorial in underline, bold letters in newsprint or web log? To influence? To provoke? To predict? Perhaps. For the reporter, beat or institution, perhaps all of these. For the adviser, probably only the first. For me? Of course, it is always a delight to be right, but that is not the driver of this list. If it were, my list would be shorter (Power Ball is won with six numbers for a reason). While I believe any of my "names" could be confirmed, I make no claim that they will be nominated -- only that they should be. Is this list biased? Doubtless. I did not undertake this exercise as either journalist or adviser, but rather, as citizen. My criteria are my own -- lensed by my life and limited only by the President's words, which appear above. You will find that it is peopled primarily with women. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's ongoing battle with pancreatic cancer demands that any list be dominated by the names of women. But my list would lean heavily on feminine shoulders, regardless. The current Court -- eight men and one woman -- reflects the classrooms of the nation's law schools not seen since 1970. The time for a high court with more than two women has passed. Let us catch up. It is also largely African American. That there has never been a black woman nominated to the Supreme Court seems to me a bit like Duke Ellington never having won a proper Pulitzer for music* -- their names were excluded (see Constance Baker Motley, et al.). I have decided to write them in. Also, names are notably absent -- there are several people who are proving astoundingly suited to their current positions, or who I hope will ascend to higher perches of public service that a Supreme Court appointment would preclude, e.g. Attorney General Eric Holder; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; and Senator Claire McCaskill, among them. Many of those listed are judges -- this is more a consequence of recognizing reality than personal preference, i.e. if I ruled the world Dr. David Levering Lewis would have made the cut (to my thinking, his mere months at University of Michigan School of Law is sufficient legal tenure for an intellectual lion). The list is, sadly, ageist. Dr. Levering Lewis is 72 (perhaps two strikes is a strike too many). The newest member of the Court, Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., is 58. Although he was 55 upon his appointment, I used his current age as my cut-off. Were human hearts to routinely beat for a century and more I would have perhaps named Eleanor Holmes Norton (71); Marian Wright Edelman (69); Drew S. Days, III (67); Robert Harris (66); Susan Deller Ross (65); Barrington Parker, Jr. (64); or Eric L. Clay (61). But we must make do in the world as we find it, and in this world Justice Clarence Thomas (60) ascended to the Supreme Court at 43. Finally, there were several notables routinely mentioned on the shortest of short lists in the days following news of Justice Ginsburg's surgery, e.g. future Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Judge Diane Wood. With apologies to Nina Totenberg and Jeffrey Toobin, Dean Kagan's and Judge Wood's names are absent from my list. I like them and would be pleased were the President to name either. But this is a list for the warming of cockles (mine), the breaking out of champagne if any of it becomes reality (by me), and my general pleasure and good cheer. And there goes another reason: lists can be fun. In no particular order; drum-roll, please: 1. Sonia Sotomayor , 54 (Princeton, Yale), United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A former editor of the Yale Law Journal and former Assistant District Attorney to New York County District Attorney Robert Morgenthau, Judge Sotomayor became the first Hispanic federal judge in New York State in 1991. When President Bill Clinton nominated Sotomayor to the appellate court in 1997, she was roundly criticized by the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages and Rush Limbaugh. But she is "widely considered a political centrist by the American Bar Association" ( New York Times , USA Today ) and "politically moderate" (Salon.com), which should make for a smooth confirmation should the President nominate her. 2. Jennifer Granholm , 50 (University of California, Berkeley, Harvard), Governor of Michigan. The Canadian-born American, Governor Granholm has served as her state's Attorney General and is currently serving her final (due to term limits) term as Michigan's governor. 3. Teresa Wynn Roseborough , 50 (University of Virginia, Boston University, UNC School of Law), Chief Litigation Counsel at MetLife. A former editor of the North Carolina Law Review , Roseborough served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Clinton Administration and worked as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Dickson Phillips, Jr., and as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. She was brought in as counsel to Vice President Al Gore in 2000. The American Spectator reported in its November 1997 issue that President Clinton had intended to nominate Roseborough to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, but that Senator Orrin Hatch, then-chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, "balked" at the appointment and "suggested that a more moderate Clinton-appointed U.S. district judge, Frank Hull, would have clear sailing." Judge Hull was ultimately nominated and confirmed. 4. Deval Patrick , 52 (Harvard, Harvard School of Law), Governor of Massachusetts. A former Assistant Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, former attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, businessman, and close friend to the President, Governor Patrick is my pick for most likely to become the high court's next liberal lion. His tenure as Massachusetts's governor has not been entirely smooth, but whose is? 5. Leah Ward Sears , 53 (Cornell, Emory), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia and Chair of the Judicial Council of Georgia. Justice Sears, who began her judicial career when Mayor Andrew Young named her to the Atlanta Traffic Court in 1985, became the first African American woman to serve on Georgia's Superior Court in 1988; the first woman and youngest person to sit on the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1992; and the first African American female Chief Justice in the United States in 2005. 6. Victoria A. Roberts , 57 (University of Michigan, Northeastern), U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. A former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Judge Roberts's name was originally held up for confirmation by Senate Republicans after she was nominated by President Clinton. Then she met for an hour in Justice Clarence Thomas's chambers. According to the Washington Post : "He told her how he grew up listening to Motown artists and rattled off tunes by the Temptations, the Marvelettes, and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. About 15 or 20 minutes into the conversation, Thomas abruptly stopped, Roberts recalled. 'I have spent longer talking to you than I talked to President [George H.W.] Bush when my name was submitted to the bench,' he told Roberts. 'To this day, I'm still not certain why or how I got this nomination.'" After the meeting, Thomas called his friend Judge Damon Keith, who had vouched for Roberts: "You can tell her she'll be confirmed. I've talked to Orrin Hatch and Trent Lott." 7. Patricia Timmons-Goodson , 54 (UNC, UNC School of Law), Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. A former Fayetteville prosecutor, Judge Timmons-Goodson served as a District Court judge from 1984 to1997 and on the North Carolina Court of Appeals from 1997 to 2005. She has served on North Carolina's high court since 2006. 8. Richard L. Revesz , 50 (Princeton, Yale), Dean of the New York University School of Law. Argentina-born Revesz edited the Yale Law Journal and clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall. He has taught Environmental and Administrative Law and has served as his school's dean since 2002. 9. Jesse Jackson, Jr. , 43 (N.C. A&T, Chicago Theological Seminary, University of Illinois School of Law), Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district. Despite the dust-up surrounding Congressman Jackson and allegations of possible impropriety from people close to him and former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's attempts to fill President Obama's vacated U.S. Senate seat, the Congressman's record speaks for itself. 10. Janet Napolitano , 51 (Santa Clara University, University of Virginia), Secretary of Homeland Security. Secretary Napolitano served as Arizona's Attorney General and was re-elected as her state's governor in 2006. She was appointed by President Bill Clinton as United States Attorney for the District of Arizona where she focused on consumer protection issues and improving general law enforcement. Napolitano served as an attorney for Anita Hill in 1991. 11. Kim McLane Wardlaw , 54 (UCLA, UCLA School of Law), United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Born to a Scottish-Irish father and a Mexican American mother, Judge Wardlaw is the first Hispanic American woman appointed to a United States Court of Appeals. She worked on the successful campaigns of President Bill Clinton (1991-92) and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan (1993). She has also served as a U.S. District Court Judge. Wardlaw was nominated for her two federal bench posts by Senator Dianne Feinstein. 12. Martha Vasquez , 55 (University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame Law School), Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico. Following a brief stint with Michigan Migrant Legal Services, Judge Vasquez was a public defender in New Mexico from 1979 to 1981, and then entered private practice, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from 1981 until her appointment to the federal bench in 1993. She is the first woman to be appointed as a federal judge in New Mexico. 13. Keith Ellison , 45 (Wayne State University, University of Minnesota), Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives representing Minnesota's 5th congressional district. Congressman Ellison is actually a member of Minnesota's Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, but let's not split hairs. When he was 19 and studying at Wayne State, Ellison converted from Catholicism to Islam. Ellison has been a litigator specializing in civil rights, employment, and criminal defense law; the executive director of the nonprofit Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis that specializes in the defense of indigent clients; a trial attorney; and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He has also worked as an unpaid radio host for a public affairs talk program on Minnesota's KMOJ and a volunteer track coach for youth ages 5 to 18. 14. Vicki Miles-LaGrange , 55 (Vassar, University of Ghana, Howard University School of Law), Chief United States District Judge for the Western District of Oklahoma. A former editor of the Howard Law Journal , Judge Miles-LaGrange worked as a criminal trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, and she later prosecuted sex crimes as an Assistant District Attorney in Oklahoma County. Miles-LaGrange served as chairwoman of the Oklahoma Senate Judiciary Committee; the Oklahoma Legislative Black Caucus; and the Law and Justice Committee of the National Conference of State Legislators. From 1986 to 1993, she served in the Oklahoma Legislature while also conducting a private law practice. 15. Johnnie B. Rawlinson , 56 (N.C. A&T, McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific), United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Rawlinson spent 17 years as a Deputy District Attorney and Chief Deputy in the office of the Clark County District Attorney in Las Vegas, Nevada before being named a United States district judge in 1997. She was appointed to the Ninth Circuit in 2000, becoming the first African American woman to sit on that court. 16. Ruben Castillo , 54 (Loyola University, Northwestern), United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Born in Chicago to parents who immigrated to the United States from Mexico, Castillo was the first in his family to attend college. He has worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney and as regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. He was appointed to the federal bench in 1994. 17. Harold Hongju Koh , 54 (Harvard; Magdalena College, Oxford; Harvard School of Law), Dean of the Yale Law School. A Korean-American, Koh earned a Marshall Scholarship and also studied at the Hague Academy of International Law. Koh clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun. A leading constitutional law scholar and the author of several books, he served as Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor under President Clinton. 18. Stephen L. Carter , 54 (Stanford, Yale), William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Yale Law School. The former editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper, The Tattler , and the author of several non-fiction books, Professor Carter published his first novel, The Emperor of Ocean Park , to wide acclaim in 2002. A former clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall, he has taught at Yale School of Law since 1982. 19. Kamala Harris , 44 (Howard; University of California, Hastings College of the Law), San Francisco District Attorney. The daughter of an Indian American mother and a Jamaican American father, Harris is the first female District Attorney to be elected in San Francisco, the first African American elected as District Attorney in California, and the first Indian American elected to the position in the United States. In April 2004, Harris announced that she would not seek the death penalty for the man accused of murdering police officer Isaac Espinoza, a decision which triggered protests from police officers and many citizens. Attorney General Bill Lockyer threatened to intervene on behalf of the State of California to take the case out of Harris's jurisdiction, but ultimately ruled that Harris had acted within her legal authority. 20. Harold Ford, Jr. , 38 (University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan), Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. A scion of the Fords of Tennessee, Ford Jr. is a former Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district. He ran an unsuccessful bid to become his state's first African American senator in 2006. A former staff aide to the Senate Budget Committee and special assistant to the United States Department of Commerce, moderate Democrats short-listed him to serve as Commerce Secretary. Then the President named Gov. Gary Locke. That Mr. Ford is a vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, despite early evidence that he never received a bonus and was not involved in developing or selling mortgage securities, probably did not help his case. And the safe money may be that President Obama would
 
Jay Glatfelter: On Lost: "LaFleur" Top
What a turnaround for a character on Lost! Sawyer, who started out this show as one of the characters you love to hate, has officially made the turn as one of the characters you love and go "Awww" over. I was worried about this episode being another Sawyer and Kate "Shipper" episode but it actually made me care about a relationship that isn't Penny and Desmond's. Isn't Sawy... Jim LaFleur Dreamy I know I may get some hate over this, but "Skater" shipping is over. Let's bring in the Jawyers (Juliet and Sawyer). I'm really tired of the Kate and Sawyer angle. Sawyer genuinely loves her and she seems to only run to him (and Jack) in times of distress. She's not fully into either relationship and therefore leaves a trail of broken hearts behind her. The possibility of Juliet and Sawyer getting together seemed odd at best when the possibility first arose after last season's finale. I must say now though that they seem to work really well with each other and make one of the best 1, 2-punch leader combos. Richard Alpert=Ra the Egyptian Sun God? Moving on from the relationships, I want to get into some theorizing from this episode. The light bulb turned on for me on Wednesday night while recording our podcast. Richard Alpert, who is excellently portrayed by Nestor Carbonell, has very dark eyelashes that make him look like he's always wearing eyeliner. (Carbonell himself has confirmed that it's merely his dark eyelashes that make him look like he has "manliner.") Regardless, I believe that his natural eyeliner, along with what we saw as the four-toed statue from behind, means that Richard Alpert is part of an ancient race that helped develop ancient Egypt. There have been a lot of Egypt references lately. Hurley's drawing of the Sphinx last week, for example. Tunisia being the exiting place of the island - after all, Tunisia is only a stone's throw from Egypt. How about the use of hieroglyphics in the Swan Hatch and on the ruins around the island, specifically the smoke monster's hideout? There was also the prominent showing of the Egyptian symbol Ankh, which means "eternal life." It was worn by the deceased Paul and cherished by his widow Amy. The four-toed statue looked to be holding this same symbol in one hand. Most discussions and theorizations point to the Four Toed Statue being a representation of the Egyptian god Anubis the jackal-headed god, who is the guardian and judge of the dead. He is often pictured holding an Ankh symbol. Needless to say, I think it's time we started brushing up on our Ancient Egyptian history and mythology. I have a strong feeling that it's going to play a big part in what is going on now and what is going to happen on the island. Is the Four Toed Statue the Egyptian god Anubis? While this episode was of the more lighthearted fare with a less frantic pace than the rest of the episodes this season, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the writers have added enough drama and story to the narrative by making the people that stayed behind a part of Dharma for those three years. My opinion is that it's a very smart move. I love the fact that Jin speaks English now and that three years apart from Sun will only make that reunion more special. I love that Juliet and Sawyer built a very strong relationship. A big question, however, is where have Rose and Bernard been for those three years? Did they join Alpert's crew? I think that is a very good question and hopefully we find that out soon. We are getting answers to a lot of questions and being given a lot of big puzzle pieces, but the powers-that-be are still creating more holes to fill at the same time. This is probably annoying to some viewers, but I am enjoying it a lot and can't wait to see where they take us next. What did you think of the episode? What are your thoughts about the new Sawyer/Juliet relationship? Think that Ancient Egypt is going to play a big role on the show? Let us know in the comments below.
 
Surgeon General Job "Not The Right Fit" For Dean: Ally Top
The news that Sanjay Gupta has decided not to go for the gig of surgeon general has already fired up supporters of Howard Dean, who are now touting him for the post. But a close Dean ally familiar with his thinking tells me that it's not really a gig that would work for him. "It's not a good fit for him," this ally tells me.
 
Laurie David: Veteran Meteorologist Bravely Calls It Like He Sees It Top
How ironic that one of the last of the dying breed of global warming deniers in America is welcomed into our family home every night. They're your local TV weathermen (yes, mostly men) who despite their careful tracking of weather disasters and trends are hell bent on denying that global warming is happening. That's why today I have to take my hat off to veteran meteorologist Bob Ryan at Washington DC's NBC4. On WashingtonPost.com , Ryan speaks honestly and frankly about weather forecasters who can't see the truth about global warming. Ryan tells the Post : "We all have political views on what should, or should not be done, but we should be able to keep that separate from what the current scientific research is telling us," Ryan stated. "If we have reached some political conclusion first and then look at science to find weaknesses in some studies or cherry pick some study to support our political view, we shouldn't be representing science, meteorology or climate science." Don't underestimate how brave this is. There are hundreds of meteorologists on TV and very few ever mention the words global warming. Even the founder of the Weather Channel denies climate change. When the Weather Channel's former climate expert Heidi Cullen expressed views similar to Ryan's, Rush Limbaugh accused her of Stalinism. The Weather Channel has since eliminated that position. CNN's Rob Marciano says that tornadoes will not necessarily get worse because of global warming, a contradiction of highly respected weather models which scientists say prove severe weather fluctuations from climate change will produce wild weather the likes of which will make Dorothy and Toto's plight look like a walk in the park. So bravo Bob Ryan. And what about your local weathermen? It's worth paying attention. And it can't hurt to let the folks at the American Meteorological Society know how you feel about weathermen trying to masquerade as climate experts who clearly don't know what they're talking about. Laurie David, NRDC Trustee NRDC.org
 
Newt Gingrich Openly Talking About 2012 Run Top
Newt for president? ... "Callista and I will look seriously and we'll probably get our family totally engaged, including our two grandchildren, probably in January, 2011, Gingrich told reporters during a sit-down interview before last night's speech.
 
Jim Cramer On "Colbert Report" Night After Jon Stewart's CNBC Rant Top
Just one day after Jon Stewart ripped into CNBC , Jim Cramer appeared on "The Colbert Report" to talk about the markets and President Obama's economic plan. "You and me, we live by the pundit code," Colbert told Cramer. "I got your back here. How dare people like Robert Gibbs or, for that matter, that pinko jon Stewart, attack you after all that you have done? What is it you do again? Rather than let Cramer scare people with negative market commentary, however, Colbert went for the "puppies and kittens" approach — displaying graphics of cute, cuddly animals while Cramer shared his thoughts on President Obama (and how he's trying to do too much, too soon). Watch: More on Colbert
 
Circuit City Closes Sunday Top
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Circuit City Stores Inc. will finish its going-out-of-business sales by March 8, earlier than the bankrupt company, once the second-biggest U.S. electronics retailer, had projected. "We expect all the stores to run out of inventory by the end of the weekend," said Scott Carpenter, executive vice president of the Great American Group WF LLC, one of four companies that is liquidating the electronics chain. "Overall, we are pleased with the way things went."
 
Obama To Address Police Recruits Saved By Stimulus Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, who often says his $787 billion economic stimulus package will save or create millions of jobs, can point to at least 25 jobs saved in Ohio's capital. Obama was to travel to Columbus on Friday to speak at the graduation ceremony for 25 police recruits who owe their jobs to the economic recovery bill he signed into law less than three weeks ago. The recruits are part of a class of 27 who were laid off in January by Mayor Michael Coleman, a Democrat, before they could even start walking the beat. Coleman blamed city budget problems at the time. But Coleman announced last week that the Justice Department had informed the city that it would get $1.25 million in stimulus money to pay the officers' salaries through the end of the year. Two of the recruits chose not to return. When he signed the bill on Feb. 17, Obama cited saving the Ohio police recruit class as one use for stimulus money. Obama has been highlighting programs to be funded by the legislation, along with the jobs he says are being saved or created by those dollars. He has practically staked his presidency on his promise that the stimulus package, which drew scant Republican support in Congress, will save or create 3.5 million jobs within the next two years. The latest economic news was a fresh reminder for the Obama administration of the nation's grim financial outlook. The government said Friday the nation's unemployment rate jumped to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as employers slashed 651,000 jobs. Over a three-month period, nearly 2 million jobs have been cut. At the Transportation Department this week, Obama talked about the $28 billion in stimulus funds being invested in road-building projects, and the 150,000 jobs he says that money will save or create. Obama's chief spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the president believes trips like the one to Columbus help demonstrate what the government is doing to try to turn around the economy. Friday's trip also gives Obama a chance to inject some good news into a day dominated by the bleak unemployment report. "The city is understanding that the money that they'll see from the legislation will allow them to save those jobs, put those cops back on the street, and I think that's a good news story in a day in which there will be some very tough economic figures," Gibbs said Thursday. Vice President Joe Biden was in Miami to talk about how stimulus money will benefit state and local law enforcement. Columbus rehired the officers using money from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program. The stimulus bill set aside $2 billion for that program, which is being delivered to local departments by a predetermined formula. But while stimulus money saved those jobs, it is only a temporary fix. The money will run out at year's end, and the mayor has not said how he'll pay the officers' salaries after that. "If anyone thinks this solves our long-term budget challenges, they're going to be disappointed," Coleman's spokesman, Dan Williamson, said Thursday. The trip will be Obama's first to Ohio as president. He won the state in the November election. ___ Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and Matt Apuzzo in Washington and Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov More on Barack Obama
 
Merrill Lynch Trading Inquiry: Hundreds Of Millions Possibly Lost Top
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- One Merrill Lynch trader apparently gambled away more than $120 million in the currency markets. Others seemingly lost hundreds of millions on tricky credit derivatives. But somehow all this red ink did not spill into plain view until after Merrill earmarked billions for bonuses and staggered into the arms of Bank of America. More on Bank Of America
 
Bob Burnett: Is Afghanistan Obama's Weakness Top
So far, President Obama has kept his campaign promises by addressing the economy, Iraq, healthcare, civil liberties, and a host of other issues. Nonetheless, liberals fear Obama is about to make a big mistake in Afghanistan. Historians will cite conduct of the Afghanistan war as a major mistake of the Bush Presidency. After the US invaded Afghanistan on October 7th, 2001, a series of dreadful Administration decisions let Osama bin Laden, and other Al Qaeda leaders responsible for the 9/11 attacks, escape and reconstitute in the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Pakistan. Rather than admit their hunt for bin Laden had failed, the White House shifted focus to Iraq. For the past eight years, despite receiving billions of dollars in US military aid, Pakistan studiously ignored Al Qaeda and their Taliban cohorts. When asked why the US has not captured the 9/11 planners President Obama replied , "We took our eye off the ball... Iraq was an... enormous diversion of resources and attention... There's no doubt that had we stayed more focused on Afghanistan and the problems there, and had we thought through more effectively Pakistan and its role in this whole process of dealing with extremists, that we would probably be further along now than we are." The President has assigned veteran diplomat Richard Holbrooke to review American policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and present a comprehensive report by mid-March. Obama said, "The achievable goal is to make sure [Afghanistan is] not a safe haven for terrorists, to make sure that the Afghan people are able to determine their own fate." After Obama ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan many observers noted a disturbing parallel to Vietnam . Retired Army colonel and professor of international relations, Andrew Bacevich , warned, "Efforts to stabilize Afghanistan are contributing to the destabilization of Pakistan, with potentially devastating implications. No country poses a greater potential threat to U.S. national security--today and for the foreseeable future--than Pakistan. To risk the stability of that nuclear-armed state in the vain hope of salvaging Afghanistan would be a terrible mistake." As he reassesses US involvement in Afghanistan, President Obama needs to be mindful of five realities: The first is that the conflict in Afghanistan also involves Pakistan and the Federally Administered Tribal Area, a lawless state. The second reality is that Afghanistan-FATA-Pakistan is a threat to all of Central Asia, an area that includes Iran, India, China, and Russia - because Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are Russian allies, former members of the USSR. The third consideration is that Pakistan possesses as many as 100 nuclear warheads that, because of Pakistan's weak civilian government, are under the control of the army and the infamous Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Many observers believe that the Pakistani army-ISI has cut a deal with the Al Qaeda-Taliban leaders in FATA: "You stay out of the rest of Pakistan and we will leave you alone." (The same reporters believe the army-ISI sees Hindu India, not Muslim terrorists in FATA, as the primary threat to Pakistan.) The fourth reality is that there is no effective central government in Afghanistan. Recently, Dexter Filkins, the veteran New York Times reporter in the region, noted , "Kept afloat by billions of dollars in American and other foreign aid, the government of Afghanistan is shot through with corruption and graft. From the lowliest traffic policeman to the family of President Hamid Karzai himself, the state built on the ruins of the Taliban government seven years ago now often seems to exist for little more than the enrichment of those who run it. A raft of investigations has concluded that people at the highest levels of the Karzai administration, including President Karzai's own brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, are cooperating in the country's opium trade." (Unlike Iraq, where three ethic-religious factions dominate politics, Afghanistan is Balkanized, a conglomeration of warlord states.) The fifth consideration is that opium fuels Afghani politics : "Since its liberation from Taliban rule, Afghanistan's opium production has gone from 640 tons in 2001 to 8,200 tons in 2007... 93% of the global opiate market." Opium brings more than $3 billion into the Afghani economy, 35 percent of its GDP. Any Obama Afghanistan initiative should involve China, India, Iran, and Russia, as well as NATO. To build a new coalition to eradicate Al Qaeda, the US must establish regular diplomatic relations with Iran and mend relations with China and Russia. This endeavor needs the participation of both India and Pakistan; to ensure this, the US should help them resolve their longstanding conflict over Kashmir . Our strategic focus should be on quashing Al Qaeda rather than "democratization" of Afghanistan-FATA-Pakistan, but the US must bring stability to the Afghani economy by finding a suitable substitute for their opium crop. One tactic would be to legalize production of opium and for the US and its allies to purchase all that is produced, while facilitating transition to comparable revenue sources. Thus, Obama faces two daunting challenges: stopping the recession from becoming a multi-year depression and preventing Afghanistan-FATA-Pakistan from sliding into a quagmire. More on Barack Obama
 
Experienced Professionals Wanted: For Free Internships Top
Reporting from New York -- Sitting in a bare cubicle, with her reading glasses perched halfway down her nose and typing away on a laptop she'd brought from home, Lois Draegin looked a bit like the extra adult wedged in at the kids' table at Thanksgiving. This accomplished magazine editor lost her six-figure job at TV Guide last spring and is now, at 55, an unpaid intern at wowOwow.com, a fledgling website with columns and stories that target accomplished women older than 40.
 
Shelly Palmer: Chris Brown Charged with Two Felonies: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer March 6, 2009 Top
Chris Brown has been charged with 2 felonies over the alleged beating of girlfriend and pop star Rihanna. While Brown is free on $50,000 bail, his charges include assault with intent to cause bodily harm, as well as making criminal threats. Viacom and Harmonix will release "The Beatles: Rock Band" on September 9th, 2009 . The game, which will retail for $250 with instruments and $60 without, has been in the works for years as MTV Games and the Beatles record label Apple Corp have been in negotiations. "The Beatles: Rock Band" will be the first time the legendary band's music will be available in a digital format of any kind. Amazon launched a used video game marketplace yesterday that allows gamers to trade in old games for store credit. The move puts video game giant GameStop, who has had a lock on the used video game market for quite sometime, right in Amazon's cross-hairs. On the news, GameStop's stock fell 14%, despite being up almost 26% so far this year. Investors might be missing the point here, these are two completely different customers. A gamer who wants instant cash or likes shopping for a new game while his old one get inspected is not going to use Amazon's new service. President Barack Obama named Vivek Kundra the first Chief Information Officer of the White House . Kunda, who held the title of Chief Technology Officer for the District of Columbia, plans on expanding the government's use of cloud systems, as well as creating a data.gov site that will make information available to the public. Barnes and Noble purchased e-book retailer Fictionwise for $15.7 million in cash . The move comes as the company prepares to open its own e-book store. Barnes and Noble has not sold e-books since 2003, however, with Amazon's Kindle receiving a lot of press, the decision to re-enter the marketplace is not surprising. Shelly Palmer is a consultant and the host of MediaBytes a daily show featuring news you can use about technology, media & entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC and the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press). Shelly is also President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards ). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here . Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net . More on Barack Obama
 
6 Ways To Keep Hunger Under Control Top
Feeling ravenous can undermine a sensible diet in at least two ways. First, it can make you eat when you don't need any food--sometimes the feeling is the product of a bored or worried mind rather than an actual indication of hunger. Second, it's real enough to send you into an eating frenzy at your next meal. By adopting a few smart strategies, you can make it through those moments of weakness--or prevent them from happening in the first place. More on Health
 
Robert M. Grossman: Ms F ... and Me Top
I had already been standing for well over an hour and needed a place to rest. I finally found a chair in the small section of the huge hall that had been set aside for tired folk. It was Inauguration night and we were at the Home State Ball to honor our neighbor, Barack Obama. Sitting next to me was a middle-aged woman dressed in a beautiful red silk African gown with small round, yellow designs on both her gown and her red head piece. I assumed she was in attendance as a representative of some foreign country. We smiled at each other and sat in silence for a few moments. She then asked me in clear English where I was from. "Obamaland," I proudly answered. "So am I," she said. "In Hyde Park or Kenwood?" "Hyde Park," I answered with some surprise. "I'm in Kenwood. 4855 Woodlawn." "So we are neighbors," I responded, realizing I had misread where she was from. "We're each about halfway from Barack's house, which is right across the street from my synagogue." "That's our new President's way of bringing us together," she stated warmly. "Barack was a close friend of my rabbi who died recently. I'm told they used to have lunch together on 57th Street at the Medici. It's a student hangout." "Oh, yes, I know the Medici." I continued. "Let's see. 4855 Woodlawn. The only houses I know there are Louis Farrakhan's guarded mansion and his townhouses." "Yes. I live in one of them. I'm Maria, his daughter." She confidently reached out her hand and, hesitating a moment, I reached out mine. "What's your name?" she asked. "Bob Grossman." I paused. She struck me as gracious and unpretentious, which contradicted what I might have expected. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to say what was on my mind. "You know I don't think much of your father." His ugly and bombastic rantings years earlier came to mind, singling out Jews for biblical and cultural contempt. I remembered hearing that he had granted three rabbis an audience at his Nation of Islam mansion. The rabbis came in the hope of engaging in a peaceful discussion with him. Instead, I was told he proceeded to harangue and vilify them. "He's nicer than you've heard," she said. "He even has a Jewish violin teacher." "That's probably because he likes the violin, not because he likes Jewish people. He's made a lot of thoughtless and cruel statements." "He's not that way. He doesn't say those kind of things any more. Would you like to meet him?" "You mean would I like to be granted an audience at his mansion," I said laughingly. She laughed, too. I liked her laugh. She seemed much closer to Barack's generation and attitude than her father's. Farrakhan, I said to myself, was much more of the generation and attitude of Jesse Jackson and Jeremiah Wright. Barack had passed them by. He didn't see things their way. Perhaps she didn't either. "I heard your father isn't well. Is that why he's not here?" "He's fine now. He was invited to the Inauguration. He didn't come because he didn't want to draw any eyes away from the President." "Was that because he was deferring to our new President or because he can't stand not being the center of attention?" She didn't respond. "Here's my card," she said. "You can call me and I'll arrange a visit with him for you." I thought for a moment and then said, "If your father has really changed, why don't you have him dial my number instead of my beseeching him for an audience at his mansion. I'm in the Hyde Park phone book. We can arrange to have lunch at the Medici -- just like the President and my rabbi." I'm still waiting for his call.
 
Amb. Swanee Hunt: For Czechs, a Far Reach to Afghanistan Top
Continuing on my Eastern European trip, after Austria and Ukraine, I passed through the Czech Republic. Twenty years ago, Czechoslovakia became a democratic nation as a result of the Velvet Revolution. In 1993, the country peacefully split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Ten years ago it became a member of NATO and last year became the first Eastern Bloc country to achieve World Bank recognition as a developed country. Although it joined the European Union only in 2004, the first half of this year, the Czech Republic holds the EU presidency. As impressive as this meteoric rise to a stable and thriving country has been, equally noteworthy is how, as Czechs have risen upward, they've reached outward as well. While in the Czech Republic, my able assistant Erin Loughney and I had the opportunity to spend a day meeting with Radio Free Europe, People in Need, and Berkat. The three NGOs differ in their size and sophistication, the macro or micro levels they target, and their modi operandi. But they share a common passion: Afghanistan. At the offices of Radio Free Europe, founded in 1949 (in part by the CIA) and today reaching 25 million people, I met with the Afghanistan branch known as Radio Free Afghanistan, or Radio Liberty. RFA began with funding from the U.S. Congress in 2001; in the years since, they have become the most popular radio station in Afghanistan. In most parts of the country, they are the primary source not only of outside news, but also of education and inspiration. I explained to the nine men standing in the center of the room my keen interest in promoting the voices of Afghan women. On cue, four women came forward from their carrels and joined the group. My next meeting was with People in Need. PIN was one of the first Czech NGOs formed after the fall of communism, to address social needs such as poverty and lack of housing. We met with three staff. One had lived and worked in Afghanistan three years, focusing on education, health, jobs, water, and sanitation in 14 districts and more than 500 communities. When we probed, we learned that People in Need doesn't focus on policy and other macro changes; rather, they're committed to direct help such as microloans and microenterprise. I asked about the role of women in his work. He let me know that he had not worked with women in Afghanistan, since the culture made it impossible for women to be involved in decisions outside their homes. I remarked that that's too bad, since the life expectancy of an Afghan woman is 44 -- and 36 years shorter than that of a Czech woman. One reason for that is that males tend to see males. But women leaders are more likely to notice, understand, and address the needs of all women. After my host insisted a third time that there were no women with whom he could work, I offered to send him names, pictures, email addresses, and cell phone numbers of 50 female lawyers, judges, entrepreneurs, accountants, and human rights workers. The most unique NGO we met with, Berkat, is housed in a warm, cozy house in the middle of downtown Prague. There we sat around a table, enjoying a home-cooked meal of traditional food, prepared by an Afghan member of Berkat. Through a twist of fact, Berkat came to help children receive corneal transplants. The story's this: A Czech woman saw an article about Afghan children starving. There was a particular picture of a little boy named Adzamal, who was blind. Going only on the name and the photo, this woman decided to find him and help him - with $20. She contacted the couple running Berkat. Using fliers with the photo and his name, after months, they tracked down the boy. Back in the Czech Republic, a young doctor agreed to come during his vacation to do the operation. As the cornea was being prepared for transplant, a concerned government official asked the religious affiliation of the dead donor. Eventually, the infidel cornea arrived. The boy's operation was not successful, but his case inspired others. Berkat has delivered more than 100 corneas - sometimes carried in their laps. To help with expenses, elderly Czech women are making and selling dolls. These three meetings were sobering and uplifting. Jaromir Štětina, co-founder of People in Need, beautifully described what seems to be a general Czech attitude: "When the Czechs needed a helping hand from the world, we got one. Now that we're better off, it's our moral responsibility to help others." So they are.
 
Jimmy Fallon And Serena Williams Face-Off In Beer Pong (VIDEO) Top
Beer pong has gotten a bad rap lately what with Fox News picking up a fake story about the drinking game spreading herpes , but now that the world knows Jimmy Fallon sucks at it, it might regain some street cred. Fallon faced off against the world's leading female tennis player, Serena Williams, last night in a game of beer pong. He was slaughtered and had to drink some beer on air, which may have been a blessing for the nerves-addled host. His failure at the game didn't seem to have much to do with her competence (she chose a weird underhand throwing style) but with his complete incompetence, seeing as he failed to sink a single ball. WATCH: More on Jimmy Fallon
 
Explaining The Credit Crisis (VIDEO) Top
Check out this video explaining the credit crisis: WATCH: The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo . More on Video
 
Dr. Dean Ornish: All Calories Are Not the Same! Top
Recently, The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published a study comparing the effects of different diets on weight loss. Their conclusion? It doesn't matter what you eat, only how much you eat. So, pick a diet you can stick with, as that's all that really matters. It's only partially true. How much you weigh is a balance between calories in--how many you eat--and calories out--how many you burn, i.e., how much you exercise. The laws of thermodynamics haven't changed recently. However, it is emphatically not true that all foods are equally healthful. In general, losing weight is a good thing for those who are overweight, but it's important to lose weight in a way that enhances your health rather than one that may compromise it. Although many news reports of this study made it seem as though the researchers were comparing an Atkins diet with the way of eating that I recommend, they weren't. One of the major reasons that an Atkins diet may be harmful to your health is that it raises LDL-cholesterol, sometimes referred to as "bad cholesterol" because it is the fraction of cholesterol most strongly linked with coronary heart disease and stroke. One of the reasons that it raises LDL-cholesterol is that red meat, eggs, bacon, brie, and butter--the foods that Dr. Atkins used to say are really good for you and your heart--are rich in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, which have been shown in numerous studies to raise LDL-cholesterol. Atkins acolytes such as Gary Taubes continue to say that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol do not affect your blood cholesterol level despite decades of research clearly showing that they do. (He also writes that exercise does not help you lose weight--being a contrarian is one thing, being obtuse is another.) In the recent NEJM study, the researchers significantly limited the intake of saturated fat and cholesterol in all of the diets that they tested. Specifically, they limited dietary cholesterol to less than 150 mg per day--this is half of what the American Heart Association recommends for a heart-healthy diet. They also limited the intake of saturated fat to less than 8% of calories per day, which is also essentially what the American Heart Association recommends. This is not surprising, since the lead author of the NEJM study, Dr. Frank Sacks, who is one of the country's leading nutrition researchers, is also vice-chairman of the American Heart Association's nutrition committee and co-authored their dietary guidelines. In other words, all of the diets were made heart-healthy. Significantly limiting the amount of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol in an Atkins diet is like, well, putting lipstick on a pork rind. Even so, the NEJM researchers found that "At 2 years, the two low-fat diets and the highest-carbohydrate diet decreased LDL-cholesterol levels more than did the high-fat diets or the lowest-carbohydrate diet (low-fat vs. high-fat, 5% vs. 1%; highest-carbohydrate vs. lowest-carbohydrate, 6% vs. 1%." In other words, the low-fat/high carbohydrate diets decreased the fraction of cholesterol most strongly linked with heart attack and stroke five to six times more than did the high-fat/low-carbohydrate diets. And this was after asking those on an Atkins-type diet to significantly limit their dietary intake of cholesterol and saturated fat, which is likely why LDL-cholesterol did not increase on the Atkins diet as it has it other studies. Despite this finding, The New York Times wrote , "For people who are trying to lose weight, it does not matter if they are counting carbohydrates, protein or fat. All that matters is that they are counting something." The Associated Press wrote , "Low-fat, low-carb or high-protein? The kind of diet doesn't matter, scientists say. All that really counts is cutting calories and sticking with it, according to a federal study that followed people for two years." It may not matter if all you're concerned about is losing weight, but it does matter if you're concerned about losing your health. Studies that measured blood flow rather than only risk factors such as cholesterol levels found that blood flow and inflammation worsened in those who consumed an Atkins diet but not in those following the dietary guidelines I recommend, causing these researchers to conclude that "the Atkins diet may negatively impact cardiovascular health." Another study showed that heart disease got worse on an Atkins diet . HDL-cholesterol levels were a little higher on the low-carbohydrate diet than on the low-fat/high carbohydrate diets, but as I have written about many times before, a rise in HDL in the context of eating a high-fat diet is not necessarily beneficial . Your body makes HDL to remove excessive cholesterol from your blood and tissues, a process known as "reverse cholesterol transport." When you eat more fat and cholesterol, your body makes more HDL. The easiest way to increase your HDL is to eat a stick of butter. In contrast, my colleagues and I have published numerous studies showing that when people follow a very low-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and low in refined carbohydrates along with moderate exercise, stress management techniques, and social support, their health improves dramatically. My colleagues and I at the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the University of California, San Francisco, have studied this diet and lifestyle program for more than three decades and published our findings in the leading peer-reviewed journals. We reported in a randomized, controlled clinical trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association a 24-pound weight loss after one year and 13-pound average weight loss after five years in a group of men and women, much more than weight lost in the NEJM study. These findings were replicated in larger demonstration projects as well. Using state-of-the-art measures in randomized controlled trials, we found that this program caused reversal of coronary heart disease after only one month , even more reversal after one year , and still more improvement after five years . This is why Medicare is now covering intensive lifestyle programs such as this. We also measured a 40% decrease in LDL-cholesterol levels after one year in a free-living group of men and women without cholesterol-lowering drugs. We also conducted a randomized controlled trial showing that this program was able to stop or even reverse the progression of early prostate cancer and, by extension, may affect breast cancer as well. Our latest study showed that these diet and lifestyle changes caused beneficial changes in gene expression in over 500 genes in just three months-"turning on" disease-preventing genes and "turning off" genes that promote heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. And we found increases in telomerase, and thus telomere length, by 30% in only three months. Our telomeres are the ends of our chromosomes that control how long we live--the longer our telomeres, the longer we live. So, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, a calorie is a calorie is a calorie in its effect on your weight but not in its effect on your health. As I describe in my new book , you have a spectrum of dietary choices, but some are more healthful than others. What you choose to eat is a very personal decision. I just want to make sure that you have the information you can use to make informed and intelligent choices. More on Health
 
Jamal Dajani: An Arrest Warrant for al-Bashir, Could Bush Be Next? Top
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes--the court's first against a sitting head of state. The court's decision grimly spelled out the suffering of the people of Sudan's western region of Darfur, a history full of murder, extermination, torture, rape, pillage, the forcible transfer of people and deliberate attacks on civilians. According to the United Nations, some 300,000 have died in Darfur since the conflict erupted in 2003 and more than two million have been displaced - figures strongly rejected by Khartoum. Al-Bashir, however, remains defiant. "The true criminals are the leaders of the United States and Europe," he told some 10,000 protesters who crammed themselves into central Khartoum in support of their president. While the US and several western countries have hailed the court's decision, most Arab countries and several African nations called it "regrettable" and warned that al-Bashir's arrest could damage peace negotiations. Meanwhile, editorials in the Arab press have expressed strong feelings that the ICC employs a double standard in focusing on Africa while avoiding issues involving the Middle East and powerful members of the U.N. Security Council. A commentator on Al Jazeera demanded that the precedent be extended to former U.S. President George W. Bush, "who authorized torture in Iraq's Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, thereby giving his approval of American crimes against humanity." An Al Arabia television report showed Washington's ally Israel as a potential candidate for prosecution, in view of the fact that it recently used banned weapons on civilians in Gaza. The strongest attacks against the ICC's decision came on Hezbollah's Al Manar television, where a Lebanese member of the parliament wondered "about the blindness of justice and its absence from the prosecution of war criminals from U.S. officials and the Israelis, who filled the graves of Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Pakistan with hundreds of thousands of dead and destroyed infrastructure, and milestones of human civilization." Could the ICC's decision set a precedent? According to David Crane, an international law professor at Syracuse University, the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir could extend to former U.S. President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects. Crane is a former prosecutor of the Sierra Leone tribunal that indicted Liberian President Charles Taylor and put him on trial in The Hague. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has asked the ICC to accept a complaint against Israel. After visiting Gaza, Britain's secretary of state for international development, Douglas Alexander, publicly stated that the war crimes charges should be investigated. During the war, nine Israeli human rights groups also raised the possibility that Israel had violated the laws of war and called for investigation. Could Israeli leaders or former president George W. Bush be next? Jamal Dajani produces the Mosaic Intelligence Report for Link TV More on Palestinian Territories
 
Christina Bellantoni: Dispatch from the Gulf Coast Top
First published at WashingtonTimes.com EN ROUTE TO BAY ST. LOUIS, MISS. — That's a shot from the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, one of many that shows rebuilding progress but also that there's more to be done. I spent most of yesterday in New Orleans with Secs. Napolitano and Donovan, who did not tour that neighborhood but pledged President Obama won't forget the region. We're working on a larger project about the recovery effort, but I had a story in today's paper highlighting their frustration with the sluggish pace of rebuilding. NEW ORLEANS - President Obama deployed two Cabinet secretaries to the Gulf Coast region Thursday to signal that his administration will push stalled rebuilding efforts, and in a stark change to the backslapping that residents usually witness from federal officials, neither was shy about frustration with red tape. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told residents that he is "personally disturbed" and even "angry" by the sluggish pace of rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the new administration has freed hundreds of millions of dollars for affordable housing, moving assistance and the rebuilding of schools, fire departments and police stations destroyed during the 2005 storm. The ruined Gulf Coast became a symbol of President George W. Bush's time in office and his limited-government philosophy. Mr. Obama dispatched his top lieutenants early to try to prove that his approach to government can do better. "We are getting a view of what has not yet happened and what needs to happen. We took these jobs to get something done and to move issues forward, and the Gulf Coast and this area is top on that agenda," Ms. Napolitano said. Although Mr. Donovan acknowledged the sight of the freshly painted homes surrounding him during a press conference in the once-leveled Upper 9th Ward, he said that "far too little progress" had been made on housing in New Orleans. "To be honest, we have been disturbed by what we have seen and what we have not seen in terms of progress," he said. Read the full story here . It ran on today's front page, along with a photo of Brad Pitt, who caused a bit of hullabaloo on Capitol Hill. His " Make it right " affordable and sustainable housing project in the Lower Ninth Ward is pretty fascinating. Here's a shot I snapped earlier this week. We're on our way now to the hardest hit parts of Mississippi for the story and later today will see Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Gov. Haley Barbour. (My stuff from last year's Gulf Coast trip here .) Last night photo rock star Rod Lamkey and I met a guy who runs one of those Bourbon Street bead shops who brought up the president as we shopped. "When people complain that I raised the prices I tell them to thank Obama," he said, referring to the tax on cigarettes approved with the children's health care bill and adding he didn't vote for the Democrat. —   Christina Bellantoni , White House correspondent, The Washington Times Please track my blog's RSS feed here . Find my latest stories  here , follow me on Twitter and visit my  YouTube page . More on Brad Pitt
 
Dressy Jacqueline Kennedy: A Retrospective (SLIDESHOW) Top
The Obamas have done quite a bit of socializing since they moved to Washington in January, so let's take a look back at the First Couple who started the trend: the glamorous President John F. Kennedy and wife Jacqueline Kennedy. Below are a few of the former First Lady's most elegant evening looks. Or see some of the current First Lady's most elegant evening and daytime looks here . SLIDESHOW More on Michelle Obama Style
 
Bob Giloth: Nonprofit Stimulus Top
"To improve our nation's ability to address the serious challenges our country faces, America needs to take fuller advantage of the important asset represented by its 'citizen sector,' our country's vast network of private, nonprofit organizations." Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project," The Forward Together Declaration: Empowering America's Citizen Sector for the Change We Need ." I couldn't agree more with the overall thrust of this manifesto for greater appreciation and support for the nonprofit sector -- especially in this challenging time. But I have trouble with several of its premises. First, recasting the nonprofit sector as the "citizen sector" allows the obligatory Alexis de Tocqueville quote but conflates too easily nonprofit organization with volunteerism and grassroots associations. I know I'm treading on sacred ground but sometimes its hard to find "citizens" as "citizens" in many nonprofits. Second, the manifesto gives short shrift to the potential roles of nonprofits in various aspects of economic recovery work, including advocacy, planning, implementation, innovation, accountability, etc. I know, manifestos are supposed to be short. I just think the list could have beeen more expansive and strategic -- and thus more compelling. Moreover, the manifesto could have brought more attention to the big challenges that economic recovery efforts will face during implementation -- especially in terms of the stimulus reaching low-income families and communities. Third, as an umbrella framework, maybe I shouldn't expect a manifesto to take on some of the tough issues for the nonprofit sector. Some nonprofit challenges are mentioned in a "list" kind of way. When you brag about how many people your sector employs it's difficult to then talk about whether the sector is overbuilt (too many organizations with too little capacity), its effectiveness, the condition of nonprofits because of the recession and demographics, and what investments are needed to enhance nonprofit capacity. There was only a glimmer of honest self appraisal. A dissenting voice: "Nonprofits need to first look to their own community to help them out before asking government to pitch in." Pablo Eisenberg,Georgetown University, quoted in: Stephanie Strom," Charities Say Government is Ignoring Them in Crisis ," New York Times, March 5, 2009. By that test, should we even have a federal recovery effort? More on Economy
 
"Daily Show" White House Takeover: John Oliver Meets Press Corps (VIDEO) Top
"The Daily Show" 's John Oliver reported on the White House press corps last night. He describes the briefing room as "what Donald Trump would have designed if he'd decided to keep journalists as pets" and refers to NBC News' Chuck Todd as "the guy who manages Flight of the Conchords." More pointedly, Oliver gets CBS' Chip Reid to brag about meaningless soundbites and asks spokesman Robert Gibbs, "Which of the questions that your staff insisted be pre-approved would you like to answer?" But Helen Thomas gets the last word: "I don't know where you came from, but wherever it is you should go home." Watch: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M - Th 11p / 10c White House Press Corps Daily Show Full Episodes Important Things With Demetri Martin Political Humor Joke of the Day More on Daily Show
 
Eli Davidson: How I Lost My Marriage, Business and Health...and Survived! Top
Losing everything? Been there. Done that. In 18 months; I lost my marriage, business and health and ended up with $88,000 of corporate debt. That was in 1998. I've been through a meltdown, and what I learned can help you or your friends get out of theirs. As bleak as it may seem, you will get through this. I promise. As crazy as it seems the 'doo doo' of my past has become the fertilizer in my current life. My life is living proof that "Yes! You Can." You can get through this. NBC had me on "The Today Show," talking about how to get through these tough times...If you had told me that a decade ago - I would have asked you, "What planet are you living on?" But we'll get to more on that next week. My Meltdown My decent began with a bout of Meniere's syndrome. (I would see you - but there would be three of you, and the room was always spinning). It's a disease that causes some to be bed ridden for the rest of their lives. I started a design company with $17 and a glue gun (which I brought on The Today Show) and grew it to $1.5 million in retail sales within four years. I had no business training, and like many entrepreneurs my business plan was simple: work hard. My crazed pace of 16 hour days caught up with me. Since I failed to listen to my body's needs, it had no other choice than to shut down. My doctor took away my car keys and put me to bed - for several months. During my 'time out' employees embezzled my designs and my business began to unravel. Losing my business was like losing a baby. My plan was to build a successful business and then have children. No such luck. Losing my marriage was the final and toughest blow. During the bleak parade of March days, I hit my bottom. The woman weeping in her car in the alley so the neighbors didn't hear her - that was me. I looked at my life and decided that I had failed...at everything. I knew that I was supposed to "love myself." But how? I needed hands on tools to lift myself out of my 'funk'. I was desperate. Here are some simple things that helped me through my darkest days. Reach Out Pick up the phone. Call your friends. Even better go see your friends. Get and give a lot of hugs. Water Water is a key element. This is a huge de-stresser. Sure wine and Dr. Vodka numb the pain, but water will help your body over the long haul. Protein Eating protein is always a vital component in lowering my own stress levels. Studies show that people's eating habits deteriorate under a great deal of pressure. I know my eating habits did. "Stress disrupts people's normal eating habits. When they feel anxious or emotionally aroused or negative about themselves, they try to avoid these negative feelings by turning their attention to food," said Dr. Daryl O'Connor, a researcher at Britain's Leeds University. I have personally found that eating red meat is very helpful for lowering my stress. It is a food that fills me up and diminishes my sugar cravings. (Sorry my Vegan friends.) Please do what works for you. Pleasers Even If you are on a budget, you can make the items you consume deeply self-pleasing. Having a sister that lives in Italy has taught me a lot about the power of simple pleasures. If you are no longer going to Starbucks, you can make a cup of coffee that is Drive-Across-Town-Good. Serve it to yourself in one of your most beautiful cups. It tastes so much more satisfying. It sounds so good, I am going to do that now. Ah! My best china never looked so good! That coffee was so yummy that it made me think of God. You Are Not Your Stuff Your essence is so much bigger than that big metal thing you park in your garage or the fine clothes hanging in your closet. Take 15 minutes. Breathe in and out of your heart. If you have a spiritual practice, now is the time to use it. That quiet time focused on Spirit or what I call 'The Great Good" can help you get above the panic of "what the hell will I do now?" *** Are you ready to get out of the way and let your dreams have a say? Email Eli at info@elidavidson.com or go to www.elidavidson.com today. Eli Davidson is a nationally recognized executive coach and motivational speaker. Her book, "Funky to Fabulous: Surefire Success Stories for The Savvy, Sassy and Swamped", (Oak Grove Publishing) has won three national book awards. Eli is a reinvention catalyst, who can transform your professional and personal life from Funky to Fabulous with her ten, trademarked Turnaround Techniques that create rapid and remarkable results. More on Marriage
 
Mexico Blames Drug Cartels On US 'Corruption' Top
The Mexican president has blamed US "corruption" for hampering his nation's efforts to combat violent drug cartels. More on Mexico
 
South Korean Airlines Avoid North Korea After Threat Top
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean airlines are rerouting their flights away from North Korean airspace, hours after the North threatened Seoul's passenger planes amid heightened tensions on the divided peninsula. The move _ which will cost carriers thousands of dollars on each flight _ comes after Pyongyang warned in state-run media that it cannot guarantee security for South Korean civil airplanes flying near its airspace and accused the U.S. and South Korea of attempting to provoke a nuclear war with the upcoming joint military drills. It did not say what kind of danger South Korean planes would face or whether the threat meant the North would shoot down planes. South Korea has urged the North to immediately retract the threat. "The military threat against civil airplanes' normal flights is a violation of international norms and an inhumane act that cannot be justified under any circumstances," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon told reporters. Kim indicated it may be notice to clear the airspace before a possible missile launch but declined to elaborate. North Korea announced last week that it is preparing to send a communications satellite into space but regional powers suspect the claim is a cover for the launch of a long-range missile capable of reaching Alaska. In Tokyo, the U.S. special envoy on North Korea, Stephen W. Bosworth, called Pyongyang's threat against South Korean planes "unacceptable," while urging the communist regime to refrain "from the provocation of firing a missile." Japan is the second stop after China in Bosworth's trip to Asia. He plans to fly to South Korea on Saturday. The United Nations Command, the U.S.-led body overseeing the 1953 armistice that ended fighting in the three-year Korean War, called the North's threat to South Korean planes "entirely inappropriate." During a meeting Friday with North Korean generals, members of the command and said it should be retracted immediately, according to a statement issued after the meeting. North Korea rejected the demand, saying it made the decision to ban South Korean planes from flying near its airspace as a "self-defense measure" to fend off perceived U.S. military threats and pressure, according to Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency. The North's chief delegate to the talks also warned of "strong countermeasures" unless the United States calls off upcoming military exercises with South Korea, KCNA said without elaborating. Meanwhile, Asiana Airlines and Korean Air _ South Korea's biggest airline and the world's largest international cargo carrier _ said they will avoid the North's airspace. "We plan to make our flight detour through Japanese airspace until the crisis is resolved," said Park Hyun-soo, deputy general manager of Asiana Airlines' operations control center. He also said the rerouting will increase the flight time for about 40 minutes and cost about 4 million won ($2,500) per flight. In Washington, State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said North Korea's statement was "distinctly unhelpful." He said North Korea should be working on ways to fulfill its disarmament commitments in international nuclear talks "rather than making statements that are threatening to peaceful aviation." The North, which condemns upcoming military exercises with the South and the U.S. as preparations for an invasion, reportedly demanded that Washington call off the drills at previous talks earlier this week. But the U.S. military said it would go ahead with the drills involving 26,000 U.S. troops, an unspecified number of South Korean soldiers and a U.S. aircraft carrier. Both Washington and Seoul insist the annual exercises are purely defensive. ___ Associated Press writer Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report. More on South Korea
 
John Tepper Marlin: Enough Blood on the Street? Top
The U.S. economy lost 651,000 more jobs (nonfarm payroll) in February, says the BLS, for a cumulative loss of 2.6 million in the past four months. The unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent. These numbers were anticipated by the stock market to some extent yesterday. The market is always looking ahead and historically leads the economy by months. Higher unemployment rates are expected. Meanwhile, how low can the market go? In 1815, Nathan Rothschild said that the time to buy stocks was "when there is blood on the streets". Are we there yet? The Great Depression lasted a decade, but the Dow industrial index hit its low in less than three years. It fell 89 percent from its high of 381 on September 3, 1929 to its low of 41 on July 8, 1932. The economy remained sour for the rest of the decade but the stock market picked up. For the enthralling story of what happened during those years, I recommend chapters 17-20 of Liaquat Ahamed's timely Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World . I had the pleasure of listening to Liaquat talk at a recent evening event in New York City. He modestly disclaimed knowledge of the financial disasters that were going to happen and simply said that the Time magazine cover showing Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and Alan Greenspan with the caption "Committee to Save the World" suggested to him the idea for his book. The title reminded him of the name given to the top bankers working on global financial problems after World War I, "The Most Exclusive Club in the World." The book studies the origins of the Great Depression that is clearly told by taking the different perspectives of the four leading actors of the period, the Lords of Finance -- Montagu Norman in the UK, Benjamin Strong at the New York Fed, Hjalmar Schacht in Germany and Emile Moreau in France. Yesterday's stock-market drop brings us to a cumulative decline that can only be compared with the 1930s. Fearful of today's jobs report, investors drove the major U.S. stock averages down 4-7 percent. Jack McHugh has tallied from StockCharts.com how far down this took the markets from their peaks. I think we can all agree that what ails our economy and markets is worse than anything since that awful time [the Great Depression], and the worst punishment Mr. Market has meted out since the 1930's was a drop in the S&P 500 of just less than 50% (1974 & 2002). The cumulative drop from their peaks (October 11, 2007 so far is: Dow Jones Industrial Average -- All Time High: 14,198. March 5 - Down 53.6% to 6594. Standard & Poor's 500 -- All Time High: 1576. March 5 - Down 56.7% to 683. Russell 2000 -- All Time High: 856.50. March 5 - Down 59.2% to 349.45. KBW Bank Index (BKX) -- All Time High: 121.16. March 5 - Down 84.3% to 18.97. Barry Ritholtz's blog provides this list of Blue Clip penny and under-$10 stocks: AIG (39 cents - less than it costs to mail a letter). Citigroup (98 cents). E*Trade (66 cents). Fannie Mae (39 cents). Freddie Mac (39 cents). Unisys (37 cents). Ford ($1.83). GM ($1.83). Las Vegas Sands ($1.97). MGM ($1.99). CIT ($2). Kodak ($2.50). Bank of America ($3.15). New York Times ($4.00). News Corp ($6.15). Xerox ($4.36). International Paper ($4.22). Alcoa ($5.55). GE ($6.75). Dow Chemical ($6.56). Wells Fargo ($7.95). Dell ($8.50). In terms of timing, the Dow peaked before FDR came to office - before he was even elected. So the fears are lingering longer now than they did then. In what ways are markets and economies possibly worse off than in 1932? - Expectations are higher because billions of people in the developing countries who were anticipating joining the global economy are seeing their hopes dashed or diminished. The 1930s effects were severe but were concentrated on the industrialized countries. The potential for instability in some countries is great and the proliferation of weapons makes this scarier for more parts of the world than in the 1930s. - The size of the credit overhang is much larger. The gold standard, for all of its faults in extending the distress in the 1929-33 period, kept a lid on the growth of credit. Today's system has had no equivalent limit to credit growth. Credit-market exposures today exceed GDP - in the United States by 50 percent, estimates Liaquat, in the UK by four times, and in Iceland by eight times GDP. - In the world's second-largest economy, Japan, the stock market has fallen 81 percent from its peak at the end of 1989. Its 20-year decline raises questions about how quickly the world's current mess can be cleaned up. More on Larry Summers
 
Krugman: "The Obama Administration Is Dithering" On Banks Top
Last month, in his big speech to Congress, President Obama argued for bold steps to fix America's dysfunctional banks. "While the cost of action will be great," he declared, "I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade." More on Barack Obama
 
Mike Lux: Dems Need To Drop Culture Of Caution Top
You would think that with the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, Democrats at least would get that we need to make big, transformative changes as soon as possible. And most of them do. Certainly President Barack Obama's economic recovery bill and budget -- as well as calls for fundamental reform of health care, education and energy policy -- show that he does. Certainly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi does: On Tuesday, she said in a meeting I attended that the House would pass Obama's major reform legislation in 2009. Most Democrats in the House and Senate understand that the moment for big change has arrived. Not so much for a small minority of Democrats in the Senate. In Wednesday's Politico, 14 Democrats are identified as having concerns with Obama's policy plans. They're saying, "Hold on; not so fast; let's go slow; let's be cautious; Americans didn't want big change." Said Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.): "The American people and businesses are tightening their belts. I think we need to show that the government can economize, as well." Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), asked when he'd reach his breaking point, said, "Right now. I'm concerned about the amount that's being offered in [Obama's] budget." These senators are charter members of what I refer to in my new book as the culture of caution. In the 1960s and '70s, Democrats led the fight for major change in America, passing the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, the Legal Services Corp. and the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as getting us out of Vietnam and working on other great accomplishments. In the 40 years since, Democrats have accomplished a few solid achievements -- the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Family and Medical Leave Act, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the Superfund among them -- but they haven't pushed for big, bold, transformative change. Too many Democrats are comfortable with the status quo and their business lobbyist friends, and they are scared to go out on a limb. These kind of "be cautious, go slow" debates have been at the cusp of every big change moment in American history. Abraham Lincoln got a lot of advice from "go slow" Republicans not to write the Emancipation Proclamation. Teddy Roosevelt got massive pushback from corporate-allied members of both parties not to break up the big trusts. FDR got pushed by Southern Democrats and deficit hawks not to go forward with his New Deal programs, and he was even persuaded in 1937 to try balancing the budget, which caused the recession of 1937. The Kennedys and LBJ were begged by Southern Democrats and other cautious folks not to go too far with civil rights. In each case, those cautious naysayers slowed the tide of big change but were not able to roll it back. Unfortunately for those of us in the Clinton administration, our too-cautious message, along with the "don't do anything transformative with health care" Democrats -- folks such as Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) and Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) -- slowed the Clinton health care reform effort enough that it stalled in Congress, which kept our voter base home in the 1994 elections and cost Democrats control of Congress. With our problems far worse now than they were in the '90s, I fear that these cautious Senate Democrats could damage Obama's ability to make big enough change. If that happens, voters who expected big change from Obama will be severely disappointed, and 2010 could be another 1994. Windows for real change and real reform don't come around very often in American history -- four times since our founding days (in the 1860s, early 1900s, 1930s and 1960s). These moments close fast when they do arrive. Democrats need to break out of the culture of caution and embrace Obama's transformative agenda. Mike Lux was an adviser to President Bill Clinton and to the Obama-Biden transition team and is the author of " The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be " (Wiley, 2009). Published this morning in POLITICO
 
FINalternatives: Hedge Fund Gloms Onto Ex-Countrywide Officials' New Venture Top
Hedge funds have never been shy about getting their hands dirty, and so it goes with the latest unsavory money-making endeavor. Boston-based Highfields Capital is backing a new venture, headed by a dozen former top Countrywide Financial executives, to profit from the mortgage crisis their old firm helped cause. FINalternatives 03-06-09 - Free Legal Forms
 
Mauritania Expels Israeli Ambassador Top
Mauritania on Friday ordered the Israeli embassy to leave the capital Nouakchott within 48 hours. More on Gaza War
 
Lindsay Lohan Does Madonna, Keys Does Michelle O (PHOTOS) Top
Lindsay Lohan posed as an '80's Madonna for the April issue of Glamour. Lohan dons a wedding dress in an ode to Madonna's "Like a Virgin" days. The American Icons spread also features singer Alicia Keys dressed as Michelle Obama. Both photos are below. More on Lindsay Lohan
 
Jeremiah Wright: Obama 'Like Any Other President' Top
SELMA, Ala. — President Barack Obama's longtime minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, gave an assessment Thursday of his former congregant's short time in the White House: Obama is just like any other president. Speaking in a brief interview with The Associated Press before giving a speech at a civil rights landmark, Wright smiled at the mention of the name of the nation's first black president. "He's like any other president," Wright said. "He's a politician and he's got to do what politicians do." Wright's remarks were similar to those he made after his fiery preaching became a campaign issue last year, forcing Obama to distance himself from his longtime pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama resigned from Trinity United and, ultimately, cut ties with Wright because of the uproar caused by videotaped snippets of some of Wright's sermons, in which he shouted "God damn America" and accused the government of creating AIDS. On Thursday, Wright was addressing more than 700 people at a mass meeting that kicked off the 44th anniversary celebration of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march. The event was held at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, site of the first mass meeting that led to the watershed voting rights movement in Selma. During his address, Wright cautioned against putting too much faith in Obama. "Barack's name ain't Jesus. Barack ain't gonna improve your child's reading score. There are things we've got to do on our own," he said. Obama may no longer associate with Wright, but the program for the event featured a picture of the two, smiling together, on the front. The decision to invite Wright drew criticism from opponents including Obama's Alabama campaign chairman, U.S. Rep. Artur Davis. "I am offended by the vehemence of Wright's commentaries on race in America. President Obama was similarly offended," Davis said in an open letter to event organizers at the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. Davis represents the state's 7th Congressional District, which extends from Birmingham to rural west Alabama. A leader of the weekend-long commemoration, museum consultant Sam Walker, said Wright was invited to Selma not for his role in the election but for his decades of civil rights work. "He's just been out there in the movement for 40 years. Forty years is more than was captured in one 10-second snippet," said Walker. More on Barack Obama
 
Two Kenyan Activists Who Investigated Police Killings Shot Dead Top
Two Kenyan human rights activists who provided evidence to a senior UN investigator over execution-style murders by police were assassinated on a busy Nairobi street yesterday evening. More on Kenya
 
Nan Aron: Protection from Unsafe Drugs but Not "Medical Devices"? Top
Americans won a Supreme Court victory this week that underscored the urgent need for Congress to pass the Medical Device Safety Act that was introduced in both the House and Senate yesterday. It's a good news, bad news story - and I'll start with the good news. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court refused to let a subsidiary of the world's largest drug company "hit and run." A professional musician from Vermont named Diana Levine had lost her arm because Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, now part of Pfizer, failed to warn doctors and patients of health damage one of their drugs had caused to at least twenty people. The company, citing the Bush administration as its authority, argued that it couldn't be sued because the Food and Drug Administration had given permission to market the drug with the original label. Levine courageously stood up to the drug giant, backed by a public outcry that included public forums, a petition campaign, screenings of a documentary film, opinion pieces in major newspapers, and much more. The court upheld Levine's rights. Only three justices voted for the corporation's hit and run theory - including Chief Justice John Roberts, whose legally required disclosure forms showed before the decision that he owned stock in Pfizer. That's the good news - now the bad. Unless Congress acts, the court left the door open to the hit and run theory. It said that if the Bush administration had followed better procedures when it tried to protect drug manufacturers from legal accountability, the outcome might have been different. Worse yet, this same court ruled a year ago that a manufacturer of a defective heart device could avoid liability. Retiree Charles Riegel needed advanced life support and an emergency coronary bypass procedure because a balloon catheter produced by Medtronic burst. But the Supreme Court denied Riegel's right to sue, basing its decisions on a law that governs medical devices rather than prescription drugs. So the current legal situation is that if you are harmed by a drug you can hold the company accountable in court, but if it was a medical device like a defibrillator, heart pump, or artificial heart valve, hip, or knee, then you can't. It's now up to Congress to make clear that permission by a federal agency to market a product does not prevent Americans who are harmed from holding the manufacturer accountable. Legislation like the Medical Device Safety Act - introduced by Representatives Waxman and Pallone in the House and Senators Kennedy and Leahy in the Senate -- will not only ensure basic fairness for all Americans but also maintain a strong incentive for companies to make safe products in the first place. More on Supreme Court
 
Gibbs Defers To Sun Tzu's "Art Of War" For Handling Republicans Top
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs smiled and waved his hands when asked if he was ready to put an end to his battle with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. "If your enemies are fighting themselves, then don't get in the way," Gibbs said. More on Michael Steele
 
Jamie Court: Web Windows But Not Consumer Advocates At White House Health Care Summit Top
Thursday's White House summit on health care reform was much more show than substance. What is showed was that president has delivered on at least one campaign promise: making sure health care policy is not created in windowless rooms at the White House without public scrutiny. In the first major test of the White House new media operation, five break out sessions of 120 so-called stakeholders in the health care debate were web cast live. The sessions aired the basic positions of the interest groups and legislators, and the live webcasts provided the window for the world to see. There wasn't much to note other than Senator Max Baucus, the Senate Finance Chief who is driving the health care debate on the Hill, indicating who he would be repping in the debate. He said he had talked to insurers and drug companies, who were interested in reform, and that he and Senator Grassley intended to make the overhaul a bipartisan push.  Put bipartisan, insurance companies and drug companies into the same sentence as health care reform and something simply won't add up consumers. The president invoked "consumer advocates" in his opening remark, but there wasn't a single one in the group of 120.  No Consumer Watchdog, Consumes Union, Consumer Federation, Public Citizen. There were leaders of groups who represented various demographics in the debate, but none who looked at the overview from what consumers would pay and what they would get. The closest was Ron Pollack, but the former law school dean's Families USA is first and foremost dedicated to insuring the uninsured, not so much worrying about the costs in a more broad way. I phoned and wrote my friendly contact at the White House last week asking for an invitation, but didn't get a call back until Thursday, as the summit was beginning. He said an effort was made to get us an invite but the list was packed. Not much was said of substance today, and personally these aren't the types of rooms I want to be in, even when they are web cast.  The fact remains, as I told our contact at the White House, that the president needs to listen to the populist consumer viewpoint even if consumer advocates weren't welcome at Thursday's summit.  The perspective is one backed up by public opinion polls showing consumers crave real cost controls on the medical-insurance complex and don't want to be forced to purchase unregulated, private health insurance policies that they cannot afford. By contrast, 6 of 10 Americans do want the choice of a public health care option, like Medicare, as an alternative to the private market. Republican leaders and insurers weighed in Thursday about how unfair that approach would be, to force private insurers to compete with a public health care system. If HMOs cannot compete, they need to get out of the game. That's the point. And the White House needs to understand it. It does not matter how many white lab coats or Republicans the president surrounds himself with, or how Internet-transparent the policymaking process is, ultimately Obama will have to answer to the American public for how much his health care plan costs the average individual and what it delivers.  The effort is not simply about insuring the uninsured, it's about providing real and better health care to all Americans at a resonable price. That's what the public thinks its getting and what the president will ultimately be judged by. 
 
Have 'American Idol' Judges Been Easy On Blind Scott MacIntyre? Top
"American Idol" has chosen its final 13 competitors for season eight, and already the fans are rumbling over whether certain singers -- including the show's first blind finalist Scott MacIntyre -- really deserve to be there. This query appeared Thursday on the Fox show's hugely popular online fan forum: "If Scott wasn't blind do you think he would still be getting all that praise?" More on American Idol
 
Bottled Water That Came From Your Tap: The Ultimate Insult Top
I've seen this around, and I even met the entrepreneur behind it, a nice guy, and I still can't quite wrap my brain around it: tap water -- bottled and sold. I drink tap water every day. A lot of it. At restaurants, I'll sometimes even ask specifically for tap water. But I would never ask for somebody to first pour it into a plastic bottle. And yet, that's what's happening here. I'm flabbergasted. Why would anyone who has access to a reusable bottle (read: anyone) or a tap pay for bottled tap water -- it's such a waste. That's the most ridiculous thing about it. Of course, my roommate disagrees with me on this point. He says the most ridiculous thing about it is that somebody would have the audacity to sell tap water in today's economy. (I guess I'd better not show him that "Snuggie" ad, huh?) So here, from our friend Maura Judkis over at US News, is the pitch : Tap'dNY is a company that bottles and sells local New York City tap water, which is often rated as one of the best-tasting tap water sources in the country. By bottling and selling it locally, the company has cut out the emissions from transporting water halfway around the globe. They encourage their customers to drink water from the tap when they're near one. Tap'dNY wants to be the second-choice alternative - a brand that people will reach for when they are on the street and don't have a refillable water bottle at hand, but don't want to purchase an unhealthy soda. The bottles are designed to be reused, and the company, of course, encourages recycling. Their advertising is starkly honest, and there's no deception about the source of the water inside. So now I ask you to participate in our little poll and post it to Facebook:
 
David Weiner: The Death of a Blogger Top
I'm about to sound like a member of my parents' generation, but here it goes: I'm constantly amazed by the blogosphere. I work at a blog (the one you're currently reading), so I really shouldn't feel this way. After all, I see the inner-workings, the behind-the-scenes maneuvering and the unpolished beginnings -- the process, so to speak, that should remove any and all sheen from the finished product. And I'll admit, oftentimes I do miss the larger picture and I do forget just how stupefying a "thing" all this really is. But then something clicks, some event unfolds or some action takes place that reminds me that blogs, and bloggers, are... well, simply incredible. Unfortunately, what reminded me this time around was not some genius piece of writing or some clever mashup of videos. No, sadly this is one of those moments that could only come to be out of profound loss. The type of moment that can only be marked by death. Bob Guskind, a journalist and the man behind the popular Brooklyn blog Gowanus Lounge, was found dead in his apartment on Wednesday. Now, I know for the vast majority of people reading this, that means nothing. Just another death on another day. And I know for those who knew him well, who, I'm sure, are too busy mourning his death to read this, it means everything. But then there are the people like me, who lost a man we never fully realized we had. We were his faithful readers, his web compatriots, his audience, his collaborators, and his neighbors, in our real and virtual lives. We were touched by him, learned from him, and grew with him. Yet most of us would never have recognized him if he were sitting across from us on the train or behind us at the movies. Indeed, I read Bob's work nearly every day, and I barely even knew his name. When I moved to Brooklyn, I stumbled upon his site, then living at a Blogspot address. It wasn't the prettiest website, but it helped me immeasurably. What the hell is that building going up across the street? Gowanus Lounge is on it. Is it just me or is my mail being stolen? Gowanus Lounge is on the case. Lost dog? Apartment hunting? Want to debate the Atlantic Yards? Talk local politics? Or even simply, what time does the park close? Gowanus Lounge could help you with all this, and more. The site, like so many local blogs, somehow used the very medium that is in many ways driving us apart, to bring us closer. People complain about the lack of community these days, but look, here it is! Here's our sounding board, here's our meeting place, here's our common ground. According to some, Bob had his troubles, and we saw hints of them on his site in recent months. But as the news spreads , I expect more and more people will realize what a large effect Bob and his blog had on their lives. He covered the big issues, the small issues, and the non-issues (photos of discarded sofas, anyone?). His blog, like a good blog should, express experience. In it, there was wonder, humor, sadness, history, anger, joy, curiousity, fear, love, beauty, denial -- there was, simply, life. On the surface, he was just a blogger, and his site just a blog, but when you're privy to someone's thoughts day in and day out, and when the site is about all the things that make up your life, just seen through a different lens, your perspective changes. And while of course life goes on and all those other clichés, his accent on our worldviews will surely be missed. This, about a man I never met, and sadly, never will.
 
Pakistan Identifies Cricket Culprits: Officials Top
Pakistani government officials said they had identified the suspects involved in Tuesday's attack on the Sri Lankan national cricket team and were stepping up their search for the fugitive gunmen. "We have identified the people who did the operation. We have made arrests, we are chasing them, we have rounded up people," said Salmaan Taseer, the Governor of Punjab province. "I am going to give you details in the next few days." Pakistan's Interior Minister, Rehman Malik, was quoted by local media as saying that al-Qa'ida could have been involved in the attack in Lahore. The terror group, based in Pakistan's remote tribal belt along the Afghan border, is believed to behind a number of previous attacks in the country, in league with local militant groups. The failure of the Pakistani government to protect the Sri Lankan team and capture the gunmen has triggered widespread criticism, while fears are growing over the stability of the country against a backdrop of mounting militant attacks and deepening political turmoil. In a reminder of the threat posed by hardline militant groups, a grenade attack injured at least 21 people yesterday at a 17th-century shrine in the north-western town of Dera Ismail Khan. The Australian umpire Simon Taufel, who was officiating in the Test, became the latest voice to criticise the poor security provided to the Sri Lankan cricketers' convoy. He accused the police of leaving the team "helpless" as the gunmen attacked from all sides. "You tell me why supposedly 25 armed commandos were in our convoy and when the team bus got going again we were left on our own," he told the Australian media, echoing the remarks made by British match referee, Chris Broad, earlier this week. But Ijaz Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, hit back at the criticism, saying: "There is not a single bit of truth in [Chris Broad's] statements." Mr Butt said that a formal complaint would be lodged about the remarks with the International Cricket Council, adding that a policeman was shot in the neck trying to protect the match referee and his colleagues. A total of six policemen were killed in the attack. In a rare public appearance, the former president Pervez Musharraf said that the police should have killed the gunmen on sight. "If this was the elite force, I would expect them to have shot down those people who attacked them," he told reporters in Lahore. "The reaction and their training should be of a level that if anybody shoots towards something that they are guarding, in less than three seconds they should shoot the man down." Leading members of the Pakistani opposition joined the chorus of criticism yesterday. "The security system in Pakistan under this regime has collapsed because this government is too busy doing other things. They are too busy in their quest for power," said Mushahid Hussain, a prominent senator. "They should be held responsible." Shahbaz Sharif, the former chief minister of Punjab - who was ousted after President Asif Ali Zardari imposed governor's rule on Punjab last month - has accused the government of creating an administrative vacuum that contributed to security failures. But Mr Taseer struck back yesterday, accusing Mr Sharif of failing to alert him to the looming security threat. It remains unclear why the Pakistani team bus left later than scheduled, fuelling speculation that the gunmen may have exploited the gap to target the Sri Lankans when they were alone and at their most vulnerable. Lahore's top police official has confessed to "certain security lapses, which are very vivid and very clear". Such failures include the absence of a police cordon, the decision not to clear the route of traffic and line it with marksmen, and not using alternative routes and vehicles. The team was steered to safety within the grounds of the Gaddafi cricket stadium by the driver, Mohammed Mehar Khalil. Yesterday, as Mr Khalil was being garlanded and financially rewarded for the heroism that may have saved the Sri Lankans' lives, it emerged that his brother had been killed in 1995 while fighting as a jihadist in Kashmir. Related article: IPL will go ahead say organisers Read more from the Independent. More on Pakistan
 
Geithner Alone: Top Two Treasury Nominees Pull Out Top
Two candidates for top jobs at the Treasury have withdrawn their names from consideration, complicating efforts by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to staff his department at a time of economic crisis, according to people familiar with the matter. ... Across the administration, several potential candidates have been blocked by the Obama administration's tough rules about who it will hire. In addition, the White House increased the rigor of its vetting process after tax problems threatened Mr. Geithner's confirmation and scuttled that of former Sen. Tom Daschle. More on Timothy Geithner
 
Keith Olbermann, Ann Coulter Battle Over Cornell Alumni Status (VIDEO) Top
Ann Coulter and Keith Olbermann are engaged in a bizarre but real feud over their alma mater, Cornell University. Earlier this week, Coulter wrote a column trashing Olbermann and alleging that he didn't attend "the real Cornell" because he went to one of the University's state schools, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (known as the Ag School). Coulter wrote that Olbermann "is constantly lying about his nonexistent 'Ivy League' education" despite the fact that he "didn't go to the Ivy League Cornell; he went to the Old MacDonald Cornell." She continued : The real Cornell, the School of Arts and Sciences (average SAT: 1,325; acceptance rate: 1 in 6 applicants), is the only Ivy League school at Cornell and the only one that grants a Bachelor of Arts degree. Keith went to an affiliated state college at Cornell, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (average SAT: about that of pulling guards at the University of South Carolina; acceptance rate: 1 of every 1.01 applicants). Olbermann's incessant lying about having an "Ivy League education" when he went to the non-Ivy League ag school at Cornell would be like a graduate of the Yale locksmithing school boasting about being a "Yale man." Olbermann responded on "Countdown" Thursday night, naming Coulter one of his Worst Persons in the World and displaying his Cornell degree for all to see. He also corrected the record on the acceptance rate disparity (there is none, he reports), and boasts that he paid much less for the same education as Coulter by attending the Ag School. Watch: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Video
 
Syria Dialogue Not A Threat To Lebanon, Says US Top
BEIRUT — The United States sought Friday to reassure Lebanon that its efforts to repair relations with that country's long-dominant neighbor, Syria, do not pose a threat. President Barack Obama is sending a senior U.S. diplomat and a White House official to Syria to evaluate the chances of opening a dialogue with the country, which former President George W. Bush had sought to isolate. That makes some politicians in Lebanon wary. In recent years, the country has succeeded in breaking away from nearly three decades of political and military domination by Syria, a break driven in large part by suspicions that Syria was behind the assassination of a former prime minister in Beirut in 2005. Syria denies any role in the killing. The two U.S. officials stopped in Beirut Friday to stress that the Obama administration stood beside Lebanon, whose pro-Western parliamentary majority has looked to America for support in its standoff with political rivals allied with Syria. The State Department's top envoy on the Middle East, Jeffrey Feltman, told a news conference that the visit was "to tell Lebanese officials, to tell the Lebanese people on behalf of President Obama's new administration in Washington that U.S. support for Lebanon will continue, that the U.S. strongly backs Lebanon's independence and sovereignty." Feltman, a former ambassador to Lebanon, and White House official Daniel Shapiro were to travel to Syria's capital, Damascus, as early as Saturday. By engaging Syria, Washington wants to try to persuade it to end its support for Hamas and Hezbollah militants and to pull it away from its alliance with Iran. It also wants Syria to stop what Washington calls its interference in Lebanese affairs. For its part, Syria is looking for U.S. help in starting up direct peace talks with Israel aimed at winning the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Relations between the U.S. and Syria reached a low point after the assassination of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a truck bombing that was widely blamed on Syria. The U.S. withdrew its ambassador from Damascus, and anti-Syrian protests in Beirut as well as pressure from the U.S. and other nations forced Damascus to withdraw its army from Lebanon. That effectively ended Syria's 29-year dominance of its smaller Arab neighbor. The Bush administration regularly accused Syria of seeking to destabilize Lebanon and sought to isolate it. The Obama administration is seeking a different approach through dialogue. Feltman said his visit to Damascus was an opportunity to start "using engagement as a tool to promote our objectives in the region." More on Lebanon
 
Allen Stanford Bathroom Tiles Top
Following on from the Bernard Madoff-branded emergency kit and sweater, eBay is now providing the opportunity to deck your bathroom out with a financial crisis rogues gallery through the medium of wipe-clean tiles!
 
Jobless rate bolts to 8.1 percent, 651K jobs lost Top
WASHINGTON — The nation's unemployment rate bolted to 8.1 percent in February, the highest since late 1983, as cost-cutting employers slashed 651,000 jobs. Both figures were worse than analysts expected and the Labor Department's report shows America's workers being clobbered by a relentless wave of layoffs. The net loss of 651,000 jobs in February came after even deeper payroll reductions in the prior two months, according to revised figures. The economy lost 681,000 jobs in December and another 655,000 in January. Employers are shrinking their work forces at alarming clip and are turning to other ways to slash costs _ including trimming workers' hours, freezing wages or cutting pay _ because the recession has eaten into their sales and profits. Customers at home and abroad are cutting back as other countries cope with their own economic problems. Job losses were widespread in February. Construction companies eliminated 104,000 jobs. Factories axed 168,000. Retailers cut nearly 40,000. Professional and business services got rid of 180,000, with 78,000 jobs lost at temporary-help agencies. Financial companies reduced payrolls by 44,000. Leisure and hospitality firms chopped 33,000 positions. The few areas spared: education and health services, as well as government, which boosted employment last month. Disappearing jobs and evaporating wealth from tanking home values, 401(k)s and other investments have forced consumers to retrench, driving companies to lay off workers. It's a vicious cycle in which all the economy's negative problems feed on each other, worsening the downward spiral.
 
Tibet Environment's $2 Billion "Protection Plan" Top
China has a new, $2 billion plan to protect the environment of Tibet , but Reuters reports that it may not be quite what it seems: It was not clear if the "Ecological Protection Plan of Tibet" covered a series of hydropower projects planned for the region's rivers, which are the source for many of Asia's great waterways. Environmentalists oppose the dams which they say will threaten the region's fragile ecology. Scientists say the rivers are already at risk from climate change because warmer weather is shrinking the glaciers that feed them. Glaciers around Mount Everest, which spans Tibet and Nepal, have shrunk 170 meters in the past decade. An Ecological Protection Plan that threatens a fragile ecology? It smacks of Sen. Inhofe's Clear Skies Act of 2002 . More on Tibet
 
Tallulah Morehead: Survivor Tocantins: Sandy Wastes. Top
Taj Fat Butt must DIE! I'll explain why she has suddenly passed Ex-Coach Full-of-Himself on my Hate List at the end of this column, but she has crossed a line. I'm not normally a vengeful person, unless you cross me in some trivial manner, but Taj must die. Of course, her husband has a "Heisman Trophy," that award they give to murderers, so hopefully, he will earn his award and take her out. She is Evil. You'll learn why. My job of recapping Survivor: Tocantins has become a more important duty this week, because this evening Survivor was on opposite American Idol , which means I was the only person in America watching it. Even the survivors themselves, and their families and friends, were watching AI . So I had to view the show for all of the Survivor fans, both of them (Hello darlings), who passed on it for the joy of seeing Tatiana rejected again, and gazing in horror at Paula doing her impression of a drunken mosh-pit floozy in a leopard-print dress that made her look like Norma Desmond playing a whore. Not that I watched American Idol . No, no. I was stuck - I mean happy to be - watching Survivor . I just intuited that Paula would be dressed like Tarzan-the-Streetwalker through my mighty psychic powers. I was watching Survivor . Honest. But first an interesting bit of news that reached me this week about Coach. It turns out that this misogynistic creep, a dues-paying member of "Spanky McFarland's Wimmin-Haters Klub," coaches women's soccer! Yikes! And now the good news. Since shooting Survivor , he's been fired! He's now an ex -coach. And thus, henceforth he shall be known here as Ex-Coach Full-of-Himself. If anyone knows why he was fired (I can't think of more than 20 or 30 reasons), please share it with all of us in the comments below. (And thank you, dear readers and people who have this read aloud to them, for all the kind comments and emails.) We began with Timbira dragging themselves back to camp after their second consecutive Tribal Council, having just shown America that Timbira does not support our troops, by voting out Jerry Army Guy, veteran of a year in Afghanistan, where he risked his life everyday to make America a little safer, when they could have voted out Ex-Coach Full-of-Himself. I'd say they had a special place in Hell awaiting them, except that they seem to be spending 39 days there right now. "Well, it's a dark, sultry, sulky night" said Ex-Coach. What is a "Sulky Night"? A night that pouts when it doesn't get its way, like Ex-Coach? Even Snoopy wasn't so illiterate that he wrote "It was a dark and sulky night," and he's just a dog. Ex-Coach was having a sulky night, pissed because Erinn said Brendan Hot Pecs would make a better leader than he would, which is true, although Jerry was the one who first suggested Brendan. (And only a fool wants to be a Tribe Leader, as it always gets you targeted for eviction) However, Ex-Coach still has a blinding, unmotivated hatred of Erinn, who is a female after all. Once again he described her as "the cancer of the tribe." Well that's a malignant tumor calling a blemish melanoma. Next morning, Brendan, who is nobody's fool, called a pow-wow in which he immediately suggested Ex-Coach or Tyson the Nude Mormon for Tribe leader. He knew better than to take the job himself. Tyson told us "So I guess Brendan or [Ex] Coach is the leader? I don't know. It's - ah - I wasn't paying attention. I don't really care." The discussion wasn't about him, so Tyson got bored and his mind drifted. I assume visions of himself in man tiaras were dancing in his head. Ex-Coach told us, "If Brendan got voted off and I was the leader, I think this tribe would be better ..." Ex-Coach's opinion of himself knows no bounds, nor reality. "... but I don't want to vote Brendan off, because that's my M.O." It's more like his H.O. M.O. He went on, "If you look at me, you look at Brendan, who looks stronger? I do!" Why would I want to look at Ex-Coach, in his faux-Steven Seagal hair, when I could look at Brendan? "... and I think the difference is, I've been here, and they haven't." They've been right beside him the whole time. Ex-Coach is insane. Over at Jalapeno, Taj Evil Bitch must seduce Stephen into "The Exile Alliance," her plot with Brendan Hot Pecs to make a secret cross-tribe alliance with Sierra Walking Skeleton and Stephen City Nerd. She lured Stephen off and told him, "This is going to change your life..." Is she going to convert him, or chop off one of his limbs? "... Do you want to be a part of the biggest upset on Survivor History?" I believe that was several seasons back. The woman is given to overstating. Maybe she isn't a "Pop Star," but just a "Pop Supporting Player." As Stephen eloquently put it, "So I might have just stumbled ass-backwards into a huge alliance." Well, it's only four people, so it's not all that huge . Of course, he was talking about Taj; so maybe he meant to say, "I might have just stumbled backwards into her huge ass." Of course, the plan hinges on Taj recruiting Stephen, who was all for it, and Brendan recruiting Sierra, both before the next challenge, and oops, recruiting Sierra slipped Brendan's mind. But then, Brendan's faulty memory is a good news/bad news sort of thing, since he also forgot to wear a shirt to the challenge. Brendan's nipples turned out to be all that kept me from switching over to listen to Paula Abdul saying "You're beautiful. You know who you are. I like grapes." Reward Challenge : The challenge involved two men and one woman from each team holding poles across their shoulders, while the other team loaded sandbags onto them. Last team with a pole-holder still standing wins. Since it only required five members of each team to play, the others just sat out, and we got to watch people stand still, holding poles. Yawn! Mark Burnett, must I remind you that I only have to press this one little button on my remote, and I'll be watching American Idol . This is your idea of how to compete with the number one show on TV? People standing still, holding poles? I could be watching Simon Cowell insult teenagers. And the reward? The winning team gets to burglarize the losing team's camp, and steal stuff. So now criminal behavior is a "Reward". Again I remind you that this show's first season winner is in prison. For Jalapeno, the pole holders were Joe Adonis, JT Hick, and Taj Evil Bitch. Joe stupidly wore a shirt. It will be his downfall, as we shall soon see. For Timbira, we had Brendan Hot Pecs, sensibly shirtless, and Debbie Bad Nose job. Also Tyson the Nude Mormon is a pole holder. Oh boy, is he. Tyson, only hold your own pole please! They put the ten pound sandbags on, two at a time, on one person's pole each round. After the first couple bags (In Taj's case we had bags being held by a bag), we suddenly leapt way ahead in time, as though Mark Burnett had given the Time Wheel a shove, and then woken up in Tunesia. A wise decision, because people just standing there holding stuff is boring, and it only takes the tiniest bit of pressure on this button to replace it with hearing Randy Jackson tell some kid, "I wasn't really feelin' it, dawg. It just wasn't the right song for you for me for you for me. Know what I mean?" (No, Randy. I never know what you mean. Do you?) Brendan collapsed first, when holding 220 pounds. As it happens my ghost writer, Little Dougie, who is typing this up while I enjoy a cocktail and dictate it, weighs 220 himself, so should Dougie's dreams of Brendan come true, Brendan will have to be on top. Tyson the Very Skinny Nude Mormon dropped at 140 pounds. Wimp! That man tiara better be weightless. Put a good-sized diamond on it and his neck will snap like a twig. (I'd like to see that.) JT Hick makes it to 220 before dropping his load, so to speak. Why are the men dropping out before the women? Because they're not bothering to load the women up until the men are out. I don't know why. I can not see how it would make any difference at all. Jeff Probst called it "strategy," but wouldn't Tyson have collapsed at 140 even if he'd gotten that much sand after the women collapsed instead of before? There is no "strategy" to this challenge. It's just strength, of which Tyson has none. And notice that Ex-Coach wasn't even holding a pole. He is such an asset - to the other tribe! Joe Adonis dropped out at 140 also. Good heavens, what a hunky weakling. I could do better than that! But then, I've had to carry a lot of dead weight co-stars over the years, for entire feature films. You try carrying Joan Crawford for two hours! Joe's problem was his shirt. All that extra fabric weighed him down and finished him off. If he'd just had sense enough to compete half, or better still, totally naked, he's have lasted longer. So now it was down to Taj and Debbie. Well Taj had a clear advantage, since she's used to carrying her impressively gigantic boobs and her gi-normous butt around 24 hours a day. Sure enough, She won, when Debbie fell under a mere 100 pounds. Taj holds up more than that just sleeping on her stomach. This was Timbira's fourth consecutive loss. Sierra got sent to Exile Dune with Taj, with Taj thinking she's in an alliance with Sierra that Sierra knows nothing about. Could be disastrous! Suspense! I notice that Sierra Walking Skeleton was wearing horizontal stripes, in an effort to create the illusion of her having width. That girl is so skinny, she only has two spatial dimensions. Timbira was worried that the Jalapeno camp raiders would steal both of their bean bags, leaving them with nothing to sit on. Joe Adonis and JT Hick arrived to raid Timbira. Tyson could not resist immediately hugging Joe, the hottest man on the show. How tasteful of him not to be fully naked for the occasion. Brendan asked "Can I get you a cocktail?" I knew I loved that man! (But which of them was he hoping to get drunk? A Joe/Brendan hook-up would certainly boost this show's appeal for me through the roof! My suggestion of it has just made it difficult for Dougie to reach his keyboard!) Tyson, whom you may recall last week rhapsodized over his love of seeing people cry when he crushed their dreams, further cemented his place as a role model for Good Mormons everywhere with this tidbit of Martha Stewart-style hospitality: "You want to be on good terms with them 'cause you're pro'a'ly going to be living with them in the future, but in the back of your mind you're like, I wanna punch these guys in the head." Lovely. Just this morning I read where the Mormon church, the taste of blood still fresh in their mouths from helping pass California's discriminatory, unconstitutional Proposition 8, is now encouraging its members to actively oppose gay civil unions in Illinois, as they continue to campaign against equal rights, writing their own bigotries into the law books of states across the country. Tyson's small-minded viciousness is in microcosm what his church is in the macrocosm. Bearing in mind that they could end up merging, or suffering a surprise tribal switch, JT and Joe decided to take only one of Timbira's two meager bags of food. This was smart. Arriving back in camp, Sandy Crazy Old Lady was furious at their leaving the other team any food at all. She was in favor of just letting Timbira starve. Sandy would make a good Mormon too. Sandy is nothing if not classy, by which I mean, she's nothing. She announced of the food haul: "They are fartin' beans." She'd know, as she is the tribe's resident old fart, to coin a phrase. And thus began the Mutual No-Admiration Society of Sandy Old Fart and Sydney Barbie Doll. I haven't mentioned Sydney much in these columns so far, as she has had minimal screen time, which means, she's never said or done anything interesting enough to make the edit of the show. She's exceptionally pretty for a girl with a man's name. She says she's a model, and she's just pretty enough and vacuous enough for it to be true. Sydney fired the first shot, announcing to us how annoying she finds Sandy. Can't blame her for that. Sandy is tremendously annoying. Sydney's complaints about Sandy's meaningless babbling was illustrated with a funny clip of Sandy blathering on about nothing at all, without ever managing to finish a sentence or complete a thought before launching an attempt at another sentence, all the while letting her leathery octopus hands roam and slither all over Spencer Jail Bait, who at 19, is roughly 35 years younger than she is. Ew. You may recall her cuddling and groping the poor boy as he slept in last week's episode. If Spencer were just a year and a half younger, Chris Hanson would be showing up at camp saying, "What are you doing here, Sandy? I have your inappropriate treemails to Spencer. The police are waiting for you just outside the lean-to." Sandy for her part, heard Joe Adonis call Sydney the "hottest Survivor Chick this season," (She is, but Joe, when you come up to see me sometime, and please do, perhaps it's best if you don't speak.) and decided that she wants Sydney gone. I guess she sees her as her competition for the men, although her real rival is Death. Sandy's complaints about Sydney included: "She runs around in her boxers and then, you know, doesn't sleep in a bra at night ..." (Who does?) "... and she is like up against the boys 24/7. Trust me; she is playing this game hard. And oh, it's working. Oh, they love her to death." Sounds to me like it's the boys who are playing hard , so to speak. And you'll notice that everything she's accusing Sydney of is stuff Sandy too is doing. In any event, the boys aren't complaining, whereas we heard Spencer threaten to "Smack" Sandy when she was getting handsy with him. Apparently Sandy's real complaint is that these men in their youthful prime prefer being flirted with and caressed by a beautiful girl their own age, rather than by a crazy leathery bat old enough to be their grandmother. I have the same problem. Fortunately, I'm rich enough to be able to afford to rent. Sandy has a plan though: "If I can't outwit her with a body, I'll outwit her with a brain." Whose? Because Sandy has no brain whatever. Exile Dune : Taj gets the Hidden Immunity Idol Clue this time, which basically announces to her that it's in the tree-mail statue. Taj then said "I knew it was tree mail... It's exactly where I thought it would be." She knew? Then why didn't she find it herself last week? Brendan found the one at his camp last week. And now the suspense; would Taj thinking Sierra was in the alliance when Brendan hadn't bothered to mention it to her yet result in Sierra getting spooked, and betraying it? Nope. Nothing came of it. Taj invited her to join the alliance, and Sierra, desperate for a friend, was delighted. Another drama fizzle. As any reality competition fan knows, the secret to a successful alliance, is picking the right name for it. Over the course of this episode, this alliance was called The Exile Alliance, The Awesome Foursome, and Team Secret. Pick an alliance name and stick to it! You're confusing the hell out of the internet message boards. I vote for The Awesome Foursome. Or maybe The Don't-Watch Men. Normally I don't comment on the B-roll footage of assorted local fauna slithering about, but here they had a shot of a crocodile snapping up a fish that looked cool except that the large fish it attacked was lying on the sand beside the river, apparently sunbathing. This struck me as odd fish behavior. It was almost as though the crew had put the fish there themselves, just to get the shot. This is supposedly reality TV. Such blatantly faked shots just reminds you how fake the whole thing is. Next time, how about a croc attacking ex-Coach? Or would that constitute
 
Senate Not Likely To Pass Climate Bill Of Obama's Dreams Top
Any climate bill that passes the Senate is unlikely to adhere to an Obama administration plan that the government auction all of the permits to emit greenhouse gases because it would be too harsh on big industry, a key democratic lawmaker said on Thursday. Instead, Senator Jeff Bingaman said any system capping and trading emissions developed by Congress will likely include a mix of carbon allowances that are given to polluters -- like cement factories and coal-burning power plants -- and the sale of permits. President Barack Obama promised during his presidential campaign that he would support a so-called cap and trade system that would put a price on carbon emissions that cause global warming. Obama's plan would require companies that emit more than the limit to purchase all emission permits, to help raise funds for clean energy technology.
 

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