Monday, March 30, 2009

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Mike Hegedus: Open up the Circle 7, close down the Newscenter, stop the Action in Action News--it's 'Looney' time Top
Want to 'save' broadcast journalism? It's time to throw the baby out with the bath water. Film at 11! As journalists we will look back at these last couple of years as the 'Hand Wringing' era, the same way the Romans looked back on Nero's reign as the 'toasty' times. We are typing while our journalistic world burns. My time in the newspaper business was short. It dawned on me quickly that the pay in broadcasting was better--about $20 more a week. So while I can't speak with any authority about the demise of the daily rags, I'm guessing that there are parallels with broadcasting, particularly television. While I get allot of my 'breaking' news from various Internet sources, the time I spend every day with a couple of newspapers is some of the most pleasurable and fulfilling. So why is journalism dying? It's not, but the old business models are. And that's one of the biggest problems with the entire discussion about the future of my profession--the lack of distinction between journalism and the business of journalism. Journalism, the profession, has always been under some kind of attack from somewhere. Most likely from people or institutions who don't like the idea of someone asking questions and getting answers that they might not want exposed to public view. That's when we're doing our best work. Even the idea of calling it a profession has been questioned on occasion--there's a silly notion these days that 'citizen journalists' can somehow make up for the shortfall in academically trained ones. It has the same populist appeal as a Holiday Inn Express commerical, and is about as useful. What say we make up for the shortfall in general practioners with some 'citizen doctors'? But assuming that we journalists have enough self respect to call ourselves professionals and defend the notion, then why are we letting the sales department control our fate? You see, journalists don't actually run the journalism business---business people do. Owning a newspaper, or television station, or Internet site doesn't make you a journalist, it just means you're in the journalism business. And while its too early to tell how the Internet thing is going to go, we do know that the television business has allot in common with the automobile industry. In fact, you might say that television, particularly at the local level, is dependent on one economic sector more than any other for revenue--car sales. I wonder how that's going to turn out? What the broadcast journalism business needs is an infusion of journalism---new, energetic, passionate, journalism. It also needs a new presentation model--do you have any idea how long the circle 7, Eyewitness News, Newscenter 4, Action News formats have been in use? Too long. Why hasn't there been a change? Why didn't GM figure things out before this? Because those folks who have spent thier lives running the business side of both industries have been trying hard to 'maintain'. Looking backwards, doing things the way they used to be done. Well, it's time for a new approach. It's time for some brave soul somewhere to ditch the '3 good looking people behind the desk' format and go to something new. It's time for the 'leadership' of news departments and television stations around the country to figure out a new revenue model, instead of just sending those same sales people out to the same car dealerships day after day. It's time to understand that sharing news resources eliminates competition and competition spurs good journalism. It's time to understand that a federal bailout is a silly notion, but that making news and public affairs a requirement for license renewal, and enforcing it, is not. Its time to understand that doing anything just to hold onto that 3 share at 5 just so it won't go to a 1 share isn't going to work. Its going to a 1 share no matter what--unless you change. And its time journalists became activists on their own behalf. Where is the anger instead of the angst? Broadcast journalism is not dying a natural death, its being killed off slowly by a lack of business leadership and neglect. It was suggested by someone recently that if I felt so strongly I should consider getting into management. I ran it by a manager or two that I know, they wanted to know if I was 'looney'. Maybe its time to get crazy.
 
Paul Helmke: Another Mass Shooting, More Silence From Leaders In Washington Top
To the families of the innocent victims in Carthage, North Carolina, we offer our sorrow and condolences. We are having too many incidents like the one at the Pinelake Health and Rehab Center in this country. In Oakland , in Alabama , on the Mexican border , even in churches like one in Southern Illinois , our weak gun laws are costing innocent people their lives . If, in the month of March, tainted peanut butter or spinach had led to the deaths of ten people in Alabama, eight in North Carolina and four in California, Congress would be calling for investigations and legislative reform. But 22 die in mass shootings in less than a month, and Congress and the White House do nothing. With 30,000 Americans dying every year from gun violence in America, we owe it to our citizens to exercise a similar diligence in addressing gun violence. (Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post .) More on Barack Obama
 
Aaron Keyak: What is Best for Coleman? Top
This morning when I read JTA's "World War III over a Senate seat?" I couldn't help but worry that this battle may be far from over. In JTA's post on the Minnesota Senate race, Eric Fingerhut asked, "Will Minnesota ever get its second senator?" Fingerhut immediately answered his own question in his introduction to a Politico article that quotes Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) as "threatening 'World War III' if Democrats try to seat Al Franken in the Senate before Norm Coleman can pursue his case through the federal courts." The answer is, "maybe not." However, another question came to mind: What's best for Norm Coleman? I do not know Coleman personally, but I imagine that there aren't many people around him who consider Coleman's best interest over their own personal agendas. I have little doubt that Coleman's lawyers and political supporters have the ability and incentive to push this race well into the future. I fear that the inherently deliberative nature of our courts, combined with the partisan agenda of Coleman's advocates, means that the people of Minnesota will continue to be denied full representation in the Senate. Yet, there comes a point when Coleman's closest friends need to remind him that it's his name at stake, that Coleman should think of his future and his former constituents. Coleman's true friends ought to remind him that sometimes the hardest people to say no to are your supporters. At the end of the day, the immediate past senator from Minnesota needs to look into his mirror and say, "Norm Coleman, enough is enough." Coleman knows that there are ways to continue delaying his departure from this race, but he will also come to realize that the people advising him to prolong Minnesota's longest unresolved election are not the ones he should be listening to. Crossposted on NJDC's blog. More on Al Franken
 
Halle Berry Mentally Ready For Another Baby Top
Berry confirms to Ellen DeGeneres on her show that she wants another child, but says she's not up for double digits. "I hope I don't have like 14 more," quips Berry, who is mom to 1-year-old Nahla Ariela. Still, Berry isn't ruling out that a brother or sister could be in the future for her daughter with model Gabriel Aubry. "My mind says yes," she tells DeGeneres, "but the rest isn't up to me so we'll see." More on Celebrity Kids
 
Kate Clinton: Re-Gifting Top
In a quiet ceremony held earlier this month, I celebrated my twenty-eighth year of performing. Please, no gifts. On the night of March 21, 1981, on a challenge from my best friend, I did my first show in my hometown Syracuse, New York at a woman's club called Ms. Adventure. When my friend, Rita, started heckling me about five minutes in, I stopped. "Rita, what are you doing?" She was older, a photographer, always in black turtlenecks because she fancied herself a beatnik. "It's comedy; we're supposed to heckle." Though I was three semesters retired from my teaching gig, I still had my study hall monitor mojo and shut her down expertly. "Cut it out." She slumped. Many years and dry heaves later, I marvel at my career. It certainly was not one of the options on the jobs checklist on sixth grade career day. Other: lesbian comic. The same year I began my career, Pope John Paul and President Ronald Reagan began their careers. Together they were Forgive and Forget. It was also the year that gay men started dying from AIDS. Then it was called "the gay cancer". Those three events and the thematic variations on them have been intertwined touchstones in my routines for 28 years. Warm and fuzzy histories of the People's Pope belie the fact that he championed heterosexual supremacy and the subjugation of women, pedophilia cover-ups, and the end of liberation theology. Though compared to his successor, John Paul seems a benign Mr. Magoo, his tenure began a long conservative retrenchment in communion with other right wing religious movements. Warm and fuzzy histories about the Great Communicator belie the fact that President Reagan championed deregulation of markets, disregard for minority rights and the anti-government mantra that led years later to Bush at president-select, Brownie at FEMA and Gonzalez at Justice. As the health epidemic raged, Reagan never uttered the word AIDS in his eight years in office. It was under Reagan, that the right-wing religionistas got a seat at the table and said grace. There are no warm and fuzzy stories about the appalling health crisis that was and still is AIDS. As AIDS rages in poor communities and especially among women worldwide it is cold comfort to know that in the early 80s it forced gay men and lesbians to work together out in the open on protests, community organizing and public education about our LGBT community. Fighting AIDS did unify and galvanize our LGBT movement but I would rather have my friends back and be able to grow old with them. We are gradually emerging from the PTSD of being in an abusive relationship for the last eight years. Bush was a bully; he was on the crack of Iraq; he and his B&E thug pals terrorized the neighborhood especially the gay kids; he ran up the credit cards; he left the place in a shambles; he was always at the gym, no one could understand why we stayed with him. Hopefully that was the last blast of a cycle begun almost thirty years ago. Despite obstacles aplenty, we LGBT people have made dramatic changes in the forty years since Stonewall. I look forward to working more years. I plan to chronicle the passage of a trans-inclusive ENDA, the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell, full federal marriage equality, safe schools for LGBT youth, full health care for elder gays, and freedom from religious intolerance. Happy Anniversary to me! In lieu of gifts, send money to your favorite LGBT group or your local food pantry. More on Careers
 
Dave Zirin: "Like We Were Dogs": The Story of Ryan Moats Top
"Like We Were Dogs": The Story of Ryan Moats By Dave Zirin The first time Ryan Moats touched a football in an NFL game he ran it 40-yards for a touchdown. That was part of an 11-carry 114-yard debut for the Philadelphia Eagles rookie. Currently, Moats plays for the Houston Texans in the football mad Lone Star State. This would seem to be a charmed life. But none of that protected Moats from one of the uglier cases of DWB (driving while black) that's come across the wires. Moats' money and fame couldn't insulate him. A police dashboard video camera, however, recorded the ugly interaction shedding light on a practice all too common in these United States. Moats was rushing, hazard lights on, with his wife, Tamishia and her family to the Baylor Regional Medical Center. Tamishia's mother, Joanetta Collinsworth, was dying from advanced breast cancer, and the hospital put out the word that they had to get to her bedside right away if they wanted to say good bye. But then their lives collided with the 25-year-old Powell, and the Moats family ordeal became something more than a personal tragedy. Powell pulled the Moats family over in the hospital parking lot for rolling through a red light. Tamishia jumped out of the car to rush to her mother and Powell drew his gun, yelling, "Get in there! Let me see your hands!" "My mom is dying," she shouted back. "I saw in his eyes that he really did not care," Tamishia Moats said. Ms. Moats and her great-aunt ignored the officer and headed into the hospital. (Powell says he "merely" drew his gun, while Ms. Moats says it was pointed at her as she rushed in the facility. Ryan Moats has said that he feared for her life.) Ryan Moats and his grandfather in law - the father of the dying Ms. Collinsworth, were then kept for 13 minutes. "You really want to go through this right now?" Moats pleaded. "My mother-in-law is dying. Right now!" The response was the threat of arrest. "I can screw you over. I would rather not do that. You obviously will dictate everything that happens; and right now, your attitude sucks." Moats tried to explain why he rolled through a red light: "I waited until no traffic was coming. I got seconds before she's gone, man." Powell responded with a demand for a license, registration, and proof of insurance. Moats began to lose patience and said, "Just give me a ticket or whatever." "Shut your mouth," Powell told him. "You can cooperate and settle down, or I can just take you to jail for running a red light." After Moats urged him to hurry up so he could be there with his wife, Powell - in a slow cadence - spoke down to Moats like he was a toddler. "If you want to keep this going, I'll just put you in handcuffs," Powell said, "and I'll take you to jail for running a red light." Moats began to say "Yes sir" repeatedly, clearly trying to be done with the Officer. But Powell wasn't done. "Understand what I can do," he continued. "I can tow your truck. I can charge you with fleeing. I can make your night very difficult." "I understand," Moats responded. "I hope you'll be a great person and not do that." As this is taking place, hospital security guards rushed to the scene to tell Powell that Ms. Collinsworth was on death's door. Powell ignored them, wasting several more minutes checking Moats for arrest warrants. Then a nurse ran to the car insisting that the Moats family be allowed inside. "Hey, that's the nurse," another officer can be heard telling Powell. "She said that the mom's dying right now, and she's wanting to know if they can get him up there before she dies." " All right," Powell replied. "I'm almost done." After several more minutes,Moats and the father of Jonetta Collinsworth, then ran inside, but unlike Ms. Moats, did not make it to Ms. Collinsworth's bedside in time to say goodbye. The furor generated by the videotape has led Powell to be reassigned and the ticket to be dismissed. Police spokesperson Lt. Andy Harvey said, "There were some things that were said that were disturbing, to say the least." This wasn't the first "high profile arrest" for Powell. In 2008, he placed Maritza Thomas, the wife of former Dallas Cowboy linebacker Zach Thomas in cuffs and then prison for three hours. The crime: an illegal u-turn. "This in no way compares to what happened to Ryan Moats and his family," Zach Thomas told The Dallas Morning News. "But we wanted to tell our story, not knowing how many others have been affected by Officer Powell...." Moats said after the fact, "For him to not even be sympathetic at all, and basically we're dogs or something and we don't matter -- it basically shocked me," he said. It is shocking, but it isn't rare. According to the most recent Justice Department report, Blacks were almost three times as likely as whites to be searched at a traffic stop. They were also twice as likely to be arrested, and almost four times as likely to be the victim of "excessive force." This is also the latest of a series of high profile confrontations between cops and jocks. When you layer the "driving while black" pandemic on top of the dynamic of pro athletes more comfortable on a pedestal than in a police car, you have a recipe for future tragedies. Let the Moats' ordeal serve as a warning and not a harbinger. And let Officer Powell be compelled to find another line of work. [Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]
 
GOP Rep: GOP Budget Would Increase The Deficit "A Lot" Top
Last week, the House GOP presented its alternative budget proposal. Members of the media, including conservative commentators, widely panned the document for being scant on details and appearing more as "campaign-style talking points." Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, has said he will release yet another budget proposal, but this time with more specifics. More on Obama's Budget
 
Government Spending On Bailout (CHART) Top
In an interactive chart, CNN Money tallies up how much the government has allocated since December 2007 ($10.5 trillion) and how much it has spent ($2.6 trillion). There are breakdowns for certain expenditures, including FDIC bank takeovers and TARP. More on The Bailouts
 
Carl Pope: The Lesson of GM Top
The news that the Obama administration is insisting that General Motors Chair Rick Wagoner step down as one of the conditions for continued federal support comes as no surprise. But there is a danger that everyone will miss the real lesson. What happened to GM is the poster child for what really created the economic crisis -- short time horizons. GM, Ford, and Chrysler all actually knew (and admitted in private conversations with the UAW) that their business model -- high-margin, low-fuel-efficiency SUVs built on outmoded technology platforms -- wasn't sustainable. But every year they told themselves that, while they had only a decade to catch up technologically with Japan and Europe, they could do the job in ten years. And every year, they gave themselves another year to begin. This morning's New York Times calls Wagoner a "steady optimist" , but the flaw here wasn't Wagoner's personal temperament -- it's an American business culture that has taught that short-term shareholder value, not long-term product leadership, is the test of management. The Big Three have been just as short-term focused as the banks, even though they're in a business where it takes years to bring new models to markets -- not the months in which an investment bank can change strategy and unload its positions.  It was the ability of Toyota and Honda to think ahead that enabled them to take so much market share away from the Big Three prior to this economic crisis -- so that the American manufacturers were already in deep financial trouble, even in good times. And there is a very real danger that as we move from recovery to reform we will overemphasize the role of oversight and regulation, when what we really need to do is restructure corporate governance to change the incentives and time horizons of management. Any reform agenda needs to answer this question: "With this set of rules, will management be encouraged to think ten to twenty years out instead of obsessing about next quarter's earnings?"
 
Obama Didn't Want Congress' Advice On GM Head Top
President Obama didn't want any advice from Congress on the decision to ask GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign, according to Carl Levin (D), Michigan's senior senator. "He didn't ask us about it, he informed us," Levin told reporters in a conference call Monday afternoon. "The president said he'd already decided."
 
Henry Blodget: The Question Tim Geithner Refuses To Answer Top
Tim Geithner did a good job on the Sunday talk-show circuit yesterday. He has survived his near-death experience of two weeks ago, and the betting odds that he'll be ousted by June have fallen back to 10% . But there's one question he still refuses to answer. Why is he bailing out the people who lent trillions of dollars to our now-insolvent banks? Each of the financial institutions that Geithner is desperate to bail out has tens or hundreds of billions of dollars that could be used to cover losses before the taxpayer had to cough up a dime. And with the exception of Lehman Brothers (and, now, General Motors), Geithner has protected these gigantic pools of money to the tune of 100 cents on the dollar. Who are these people? The bondholders. The folks who lent AIG, Citigroup, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other disasters the hundreds of billions of dollars that they subsequently vaporized. In any fair world, the bondholders would lose everything before any taxpayer money was put on the line. Ever since Lehman Brothers, however, Tim Geithner & Co. have been so afraid of a Lehman-repeat that they refuse to even publicly discuss the possibility of making bondholders share the pain. Whenever anyone suggests this idea, moreover, Geithner & Co. immediately dismiss it by saying it would lead to another Lehman. At best, this is wrong. At worst, it's disingenuous. The reason Lehman caused such havoc was that it was an uncontrolled and unexpected bankruptcy. No one is suggesting that AIG, Citi, et al, be forced into one of those. What LOTS of people are suggesting, including Paul Krugman, is that Citi, et al, be put into a managed receivership. This is what happened to WaMu last fall, and the process went so smoothly that few folks can even remember it. WaMu bondholders took a hit. General Motors bondholders will take a hit. So why can't the bondholders of Citi, AIG, etc, take a hit? The answer, Tim Geithner would probably tell you (if he could be induced to comment on the elephant in the room) is that insurance companies, pension funds, and other companies that hold the future of Americans in their hands invest in those bonds. And if we force those companies to take a loss, we'll hurt ordinary Americans. Which is just another way of saying "all financial sector debt has always had a Triple A rating like Treasury bonds--you were just too stupid to notice." And that's ridiculous. The folks who lent money to AIG, Citi, etc., knew exactly what risks they were taking. It's time to at least discuss the possibility that they should have to answer for this. See Also : Mortgage Crisis Over? Please--It's Just The Beginning More on Timothy Geithner
 
Alan Miller: "A Bumpy Ride" - An Understatement Top
When David Gregory suggested Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has had a "bumpy ride" on Meet The Press , it seemed to be somewhat of an understatement. However, while the president declared on Jay Leno that he thought Geithner was doing an "outstanding job" others have called for his head. Of course this is to be expected, however a deeper concern is that while commentators such as Paul Krugman have highlighted the similarities in Geithner's plan to his predecessors what few have really examined is to what extent there is no strategic overview based on a comprehensive outline with clear objectives and understanding. This is because, it seems, nobody seems to really understand what is going on. It may well be that there are "no quick fixes" as President Obama has argued, however we seem to be lacking coherent political clarity and the entire discussion is illustrative of the degeneration of analysis in economics and history. In the Age of TINA (There Is No Alternative) to the market, as Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan reminded us, the resultant paucity of creative suggestions and innovative thinking about how we deal with our economic situation is astonishing. When Gregory asked Geithner why now everybody was declaring how angry they were, but surely someone could have said something -- or done something -- earlier, Geithner looked like a naughty school boy whose only refrain was to respond "how could anybody not be angry?"-- and then say that there were "no good choices". Many have blamed bankers and the commercial world recently -- yet politicians have not been held accountable for their lack of leadership. But blaming the bankers is superficial and misses the point. We need a discussion about how the western economies have been transformed to manufacturers in to a credit driven society -- and simply attempting to "resuscitate" credit is not in any way adequate. Senator McCain came on after Geithner to talk about "generational debt" while Geithner said we need a "sustainable recovery" that would lead us to be able to prevent these boom and bust cycles from happening again. This is a fallacy as it ignores the history of the market and speaks volumes about the ignorance of how it works. We are facing serious problems that are severely impacting ordinary people's lives around the world and empty platitudes will never be sufficient to resolve anything. What we need is an honest debate about how we can understand the reality of what we are faced with, which is the precondition for any real change. This is a debate that citizens need to be involved with and a part of. More on Economy
 
Booker T. Jones: HuffPost Premiere: "Native New Yorker" Top
This song is called "Native New Yorker," from my new album Potato Hole . The idea was to paint a picture of a post 9/11 New Yorker, born and raised, who knew the pain but was moving ahead with pride, a nice suit, and playing air guitar with a smile and some attitude. Neil Young, who plays guitar on this track, had an instant understanding of where we were going with this one. The only thing to work out was the structure. Then he just looked at me through the studio glass and we played. Click the play button below to hear "Native New Yorker." More on New York
 
Marlene H. Phillips: Egyptian Women: Image vs. Reality Top
I'm walking the crowded streets of Cairo on a Tuesday afternoon. An Egyptian woman passes me, her black hair blowing in the strong spring breeze, and as she walks confidently down the narrow sidewalk she is followed by many eyes; men and women alike turn their head to watch her. Even though my hair also flows freely across my shoulder, I find myself gazing after her too. She is so different than other women around me that I can't help but wonder about her story. But when I pass a newsstand, every woman looks like her. According to an article in the March 30 issue of Time, more than 80% of Egyptian women wear the hijab, loosely defined as a head covering or modest dress. Based on my observations during a recent visit to Egypt, I would not agree with that figure; it is too low. Virtually every Egyptian women I saw covered her hair completely, most wore loose fitting clothes, and a smaller but surprisingly significant number donned a full burqa. That was why I, too, followed the unscarved woman with my eyes, even after only a few days in Cairo; with virtually every woman around me covering her hair she appeared exotic and unusual. Business women in tailored suits and laughing twenty-somethings in designer jeans all wore scarves, often matching the color of their outfits in spectacular fashion (making me wish I could see their clothes closets). As an un-scarved tourist I received plenty of looks but no outward disapproval, from men or women. Egyptian women in particular greeted me with great warmth; they seemed eager to catch my eye, just to offer a smile and a nod, a way to make friendly contact. A French woman living in Cairo told me if you see a woman with her hair uncovered, she is either Christian, a tourist, or "very, very brave." She spoke of a friend, a Muslim woman who does not wear the hijab. "It is difficult for her," she said. "She faces remarks every day, from both men and women." Some observers believe that is why some women cover; to neutralize and eliminate an issue viewed as a stumbling block to a woman's success. Nabil Abdel Fattah, author of The Politics of Religion, is one of those observers. He believes the headscarf is not always worn for purely religious purposes, describing the hijab as a "religious mask" in one interview, arguing in Time magazine that the headscarf "gives women more power in a man's world." Yet as dominant as the head scarf is on the streets of Egypt, there is one avenue where women's hair flows freely: mass media. In advertisements and on television, scarved women are rarely to be found. The first time I saw this was on a billboard in Giza; the unscarved model on the giant sign stood in such sharp contrast to the scarved women walking below her that it seemed shockingly out of place. And it was the model's hair that I noticed first: long, dark and lustrous, the perfume billboard seemed to flaunt that hair, at least to my eyes. In all Egyptian media, women without scarves rule the day. If I had prepared for my trip by reading Egyptian magazines or watching women deliver the news, I may have thought women in hijab were the exception instead of the norm. This disparity between reality and image was noted in an article in Arab Media & Society published in 2007; the author observed what I observed, that it is "rare to see a veiled woman in an ad specifically targeting the Egyptian market." Nowhere was the discrepancy between reality and image more shocking than in the Alexandrian Desert. The freeway from Alexandria to Cairo is lined with giant billboards announcing soon-to-be built planned communities near already built business parks. The billboards promise communities of suburban looking homes in close proximity to malls, schools, golf courses and spas. All women on the billboards were more than just scarf-less; they were golfing in shorts, lounging by a pool in a bikini or getting a massage in nothing but a towel. And they were usually blond. When seen in person, the difference between the woman on the Egyptian street and what is portrayed by the Egyptian media and marketers is so stark it leads to many questions. Did the women on television agree to give up the hijab when they accepted their job? Are marketers sending a subliminal message of encouragement to the French woman's unscarved friend, or are they simply emulating Western nations? I got no answers: as friendly as the Egpytian women were almost all my interactions were with men; they didn't seem willing to discuss it, and quite frankly I didn't feel comfortable asking. Left to my own musings as I admired the magnificent carvings of Egyptian women from long ago, I couldn't help but wonder how close they were to the reality of women of that century, and what images will someday be viewed as portraying the women of Egypt in the 21st century, accurately or not. More on Egypt
 
Dem Senators Push Foreign Banks To Aid Global Bailout Top
A group of Democratic senators, in advance of the G-20 summit in London, are calling on the administration to push foreign central banks to cooperate with the U.S. bailout of the global financial system. If central banks don't hang together, argue the Democrats, they'll surely hang separately. "I do think these nations might recognize," freshman Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) tells the Huffington Post, "that in order for us to be most helpful down the road, we need to maintain the support of our citizens and that what we did here is completely unacceptable to American citizens." Merkley, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) lobbied the administration last week to push for more action from foreign central banks when it comes to bailing out banks within their own borders. It might seem self-evident that it is not the American taxpayer's obligation to bail out foreign banks, but it's happening nonetheless. "It seems strange and bizarre and not appropriate for our taxpayers to be bailing out these foreign entities. It seems like the foreign [central] banks should be involved in that," says Merkley. The same day that American International Group announced it would reward its executives with $165 million in bonuses, it also announced that billions would be sent overseas to foreign "counterparties" who had placed bets with AIG. While the media and the public threw a fit about the $165 million, tens of billions quietly sailed across the ocean. And the trio's effort to curb further payments has gotten little traction. "I can't say they've been pounding our door for response one way or the other," says Merkley of his Senate colleagues. The Treasury Department has not responded to the letter and did not respond to a request for comment from the Huffington Post. We'll update this story if and when they do. "I think for most folks here, their constituents have been far more aware of and upset by the bonus side, which is certainly an appropriate area to be outraged, but I think that's a little easier for folks to get their hands around than the issue that the counterparties were foreign counterparties," Merkley said. Unless the next round of counterparty payments is overshadowed by another bonus debacle -- hey, anything's possible -- Merkley is sure that the American people won't look kindly on billions headed for foreign banks from AIG. "Now that we understand who the counterparties are and where the [payments] went, they need to help us out on this," he says of the foreign central bankers meeting in London this week. Merkley recalls that senators on both sides of the aisle had been pushing for the identity of the counterparties from the Federal Reserve, which initiated the AIG takeover, but "the response was largely, 'Look, we're a little cautious about it because we feel if we disclose the counterparties we may trigger a public reaction equivalent to a run on the bank.' I must say, senators on both sides of the aisle didn't really buy that thinking." Throughout the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has been providing hundreds of billions in liquidity for foreign central banks, exchanging dollars for foreign currency. U.S. negotiators at the summit will need to rely on powers of persuasion, however, rather than threatening serious action, says Merkley. "I think it really is a matter of diplomacy. Are there tools? Yes," he said. "I think, though, that I don't really picture the US saying, 'We're not going to talk to you about any transactions that effects international liquidity or unfreeze the markets unless you do x-y-z.' I don't think we're likely to use that kind of leverage. We need their help, too. We're all so deeply intertwined." More on The Bailouts
 
Limbaugh: If Obama Fails, America Is "Saved" Top
Bill O'Reilly wants to see President Obama succeed, he says, but Rush Limbaugh is as adament as ever that he hopes Obama will fail in the White House. During his Monday radio show, he told listeners that Obama's failure would mean the country would be "saved." "Based on what we've seen with General Motors and the banks, if he fails, America is saved," Limbaugh said. "Barack Obama's policies and their failure is the only hope we've got to maintain the America of our founding." LISTEN: O'Reilly has a different outlook. Asked if he want Obama to fail: "No. We want him to succeed. We want to persuade him that perhaps some of his policies are not going to help him succeed." More on Barack Obama
 
Dennis Danziger: That Student-Teacher Thing Top
The education theory du jour is now official; it's all about that student-teacher relationship thing. Luckily the gods of education have figured that out because I've been terrified for years that my high school English teaching position would be eliminated the moment some genius at Microsoft developed a software program that could do my job only better, faster, and without requiring health insurance. The latest research has found that if you take a bunch of second graders who are pretty much on the same level at the same school and half go to Miss Stern and Organized, Yet Young and Empathetic and the other half go to Miss Sixty Years Old and Still Working Toward Her Emergency Credential that in three years the first group will be on or ahead of grade level while the second group can plan on staying after school the rest of their lives. The idea is to fire the incompetent teachers and who could be against that? As a union member I'm all for sacking the losers among us who are wasting their students' time, our taxpayers' dollars and sullying the already lowly image of our profession. If it's true that teachers' effectiveness can be quantified, then bring on the testing. I want to know my rank. I want to be measured and either given merit pay, or sent back to school for retooling, or given 15 minutes to grab my stapler and Crazy Glue and be hustled out the school house door. It's the right thing to do. It seems possible to judge elementary school teachers since most of them stay with their students a good chunk of if not the entire school day. But how do you judge the effectiveness of middle and high school teachers? How does one measure and compare the AP History teacher whose students are all university bound with the history teacher next door whose class is a dumping ground for the slow, the stoned, and those with warrants out for their arrests? When I time travel back to my high school days in the Texas, two of my teachers pop into mind. Hazel Timmins. Imagine Tallulah Bankhead teaching high school English. She wore inappropriately short skirts and enough fire engine red stick for three women. One day when she suffered from one of her many painful hangovers, she handed me a copy of Catcher in the Rye and told me to sit down and shut up or she'd cut off my nuts. When I finished Catcher we had a three minute one-on-one talk, my first tutorial. She inquired a bit about my tastes and told me to blow off all future class assignments and instead read Philip Roth's Goodbye Columbus and when I was done with that she introduced me to Vonnegut, Malamud, I.B. Singer, and Kerouac. I don't recall any test she gave, any essay assigned, any paper marked and returned. And yet she lead me, a no-nothing teenage jock who had never read a book unless it was assigned (and then I read the Cliff's Notes ), to become a lifelong reader. The administration despised Hazel Timmins, but they loved my senior year English teacher, Margaret Fitzgerald, a first year teacher, a former nun who had just left the convent, and was working on her Masters at the University of Houston. She was early 30s, peppy, boring, but every day she wrote the lesson plan on the board and greeted us with a smile and a handout as we slouched toward our seats. She loved Chaucer and had us stand one by one and recite, off book, 25 lines from the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. She made sure we pronounced the diphthongs correctly. Her tests were a parade of minutia. I still remember that Chaucer was derived from the French word chausser which meant shoemaker. It has never come up again in conversation or on Jeopardy . What I remember most about Ms. Fitzgerald's class is that when I wasn't staring at the clock, I was deciding which of my body parts to rip off and hand her in protest. When I think about Ms. Timmins I realize that she was a wisdom figure, the first teacher who really saw me, listened to me, and pushed me in the academic direction I needed to follow. Had they been analyzed, tested or judged for merit pay, Ms. Timmins would have been booted out of school, while Ms. Fitzgerald would have become the first public school teacher in Texas to declare as a free agent. I don't know how a test can measure the kind of positive, life-long effect that Ms. Timmins had on me, but if principals and school districts want to pay teachers what they're really worth, they're going to have to figure it out.
 
Pavel Somov, Ph.D.: Allowing Yourself to Relax: a Misguided Duality of Relaxation Top
When listening to a recording of guided relaxation, have you ever felt annoyed by the following prescription: "Allow yourself to relax..." "Allow?!!! If I could allow myself to relax, if it was that simple, then why in the world would I allow myself to be stressed in the first place?!" Allowing yourself to relax - strange notion, indeed... It certainly presumes a degree of responsibility over stress that many of us are hesitant to admit! What a skillfully inoffensive pointing of the fingers! "Allow yourself to relax" - if stripped of its velvet-glove new-age sleaziness - means nothing other than this: "Relax!" "Relax?!!! If I could relax, if it was really up to me, then why in the world would I stress myself out in the first place?!" Relaxing yourself - strange notion, indeed... To relax yourself, there would have to be two Selves - the one that is stressed out and the one that relaxes the stressed out one. "So, what are you driving it, Relaxation Guru? That there are two of me or, worse yet, that I am split in half?" What a skillful contraband of Duality! What a schizophrenic notion of split-minded Self-care!! "So, how do I allow me? How do I get me out of my own way?" By allowing yourself... to be stressed! "Allowing yourself to relax" is a form of making yourself, a form of forcing yourself, a form of doing, however tactfully presented, it is a form changing yourself (from "what is" into "what is not"). That's how "we" stand in our own way. This notion of "allowing ourselves to relax" - in my self-searching opinion - is the misguided duality of relaxation. Relaxation - once again in nothing more than just my opinion - is about reducing the duality of our experience, about reducing the split-mindedness of our moment-to-moment being. Yet the language of "allowing ourselves to relax" seems to only reinforce this split as it creates an unfortunate juxtaposition between the state of mind that is allowed (relaxation) and the state of mind that is to be banned (stress). "Are we one or are we two?" I don't know. But what does seem to be the case - once again, on the basis of my own relaxation experiences and readings - is that we function "split" but to heal (to relax) we have to become one with our own experience. With this in mind, I recognize that the alternative suggestion that you "allow yourself to be stressed" is too a duality - but its vector is aimed at Authenticity of Being (in which nothing is disowned, not stress, not even pain). Allow yourself to allow - to see if you can get out of your own way! Aim your "I-me" Duality at Oneness! Pavel G. Somov, Ph.D., author of EATING THE MOMENT: 141 Mindful Practices to Overcome Overeating One Meal at a Time (New Harbinger, 2008) www.eatingthemoment.com Copyright, 2009 More on Happiness
 
NYC Taxi Cabs Do Well In Market Downturn Top
Additionally, taxi medallions are one of the few assets that have appreciated in value in 2008, increasing in every one of our operating markets, and have continued that trend thus far in 2009. Prices in 2008 for corporate medallions in New York City increased over 24% and are currently at all-time highs of $750,000 per medallion in March 2009 (see chart above, data here).
 
$3.2B Released In Local Energy Efficiency Upgrades Top
Of the $3.2 billion in block grant funds, $1.9 billion is to go to cities and counties; $770 million goes to states, which administer the money for counties and cities not large enough to directly receive DOE funding; and tribal governments get more than $54 million. The remaining $456 million is for local energy efficiency projects that will be funded on a competitive basis in solicitation that will be made later. "The block grants are a major investment in energy solutions that will strengthen America's economy and create jobs at the local level," said Chu. For running totals on how much stimulus money is being made available through the DOE, visit energy.gov/recovery .
 
Laura Ling, Euna Lee, US Journalists Captured In North Korea, Will Be Tried For Illegal Entry Top
SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists detained at North Korea's border with China earlier this month will be indicted and tried for illegal entry and hostile acts, Pyongyang's state-run news agency said Tuesday. The Korean Central News Agency report did not say when a trial might take place, but said moves to indict the Americans are under way as the investigation continues. "The illegal entry of U.S. reporters into the DPRK and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements," the report said, referring to the country by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV media venture, were detained by North Korean border guards March 17. The KCNA report said consular officials would be allowed contact with the reporters during the investigation. The suspects will be treated "according to the relevant international laws," it said. Washington, which does not have diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, relies on the Swedish Embassy in the North Korean capital to represent the U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid said in Washington that a Swedish diplomat met with the journalists individually over the weekend. Duguid provided no other details about the journalists or the weekend visit Monday, citing privacy concerns. In Stockholm, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecilia Julin confirmed that the meetings took place but declined to provide any details. The detentions come at a time of mounting tensions in the region as North Korea prepares to launch a rocket in coming days over the objections of its neighbors. Pyongyang has declared it will send a satellite into space sometime between April 4 and 8, but the U.S. and other nations suspect the launch will be a test of the country's long-range missile technology. The U.S., South Korea and Japan have warned Pyongyang it risks sanctions by carrying out a launch prohibited under a U.N. Security Council resolution that bans the North from ballistic activity. More on North Korea
 
Natasha Chen: The Job of Convincing: Organizing for America's Pledge Canvassing Top
The nationwide canvassing event to obtain pledge signatures in support of Obama's plans lasted only a few hours, but a group of Bay Area volunteers pledged to do much more. On March 21, a group of eight volunteers watched the YouTube training video from Organizing for America in the living room of a San Carlos volunteer. Afterward, participant Alex Kujushev made an impromptu speech about the importance of engaging neighbors in conversation and treating the day's work as the beginning of his own commitment to continue talking to others well after signatures were turned in. "I never voted for a Democrat until Obama," Kujushev said to the small gathering. "It's important to talk to our fellow citizens, and it's a moment of our country's revival. I don't think I can do it in 45 minutes; I want to do it over the next few days, weeks, months...I want to knock on doors after dinner. We have to change minds. We have to change hearts." The hostess, Linda Bailey, agreed with Kujushev's sentiments. "[Obama] is trying to build a foundation here. It's not just one bubble after another. There's a huge possibility for change." Bailey paused briefly and explained, "I get a little teary-eyed." In her San Carlos home were volunteers both young and old, veterans and newcomers. Brent Turner, a Half Moon Bay resident, works with a group called Election Reform Activists for Obama. As one of the most experienced Obama volunteers present, he gave the others a little pep talk before they dispersed to get signatures. "Say hello, be gracious, give information. It's really a pleasant ask," Turner said. To ask others to support the president's agenda may be pleasant, but a couple of the canvassers got off to a difficult start, and were literally climbing uphill from Bailey's house. Of the first ten houses they went to, Mr. Lau and Jim Welton got only one signature. "We should have a sign that says we're not asking for money," Lau said. One woman said she was giving her baby a bath and couldn't talk; another woman said she didn't always agree with Obama's direction - but hopes that he succeeds. This canvassing project was a new on-the-ground experience for both Welton and Lau. Neither had ever participated in door-to-door campaigning and found the task difficult at first, but felt strongly about getting involved. "I'm a retired computer programmer, so this is new for me. I usually sit in front of a machine," Welton said. Lau was an electronic technician before being laid off in January. He hasn't found a job yet, but has confidence in the president: "I believe in his words. What he says, I reflect in myself, and that's what inspired me to come out today." The one common passion among all the volunteers was a commitment to a smart energy plan that would promote renewable energy and address climate change. Linda Bailey said, "I think this is the most important thing that needs to happen right now. Everyone needs to get involved in getting this energy plan through. It's what needs to happen in the world right now today. Not just in the U.S. but in the world. It's a new direction." Bailey's husband Ken registered as a Republican years ago but "never bothered changing parties. It was just fun to be Republican in a Democratic area." But now he's made the decision to resign and become an independent. Although he may not have always been as enthusiastic as his wife Linda about Obama's plans, he said, "I feel it is really necessary." At 2:00pm when the organized event was officially over, Linda Bailey counted a total of 69 signatures from their small group. Brent Turner and his son obtained the most pledges outside of Hillsdale Shopping Mall (where Macy's was having a sale). "The American people are going to make the difference," Bailey said. "[Obama] can't do it alone. He's got to have a lot of public support, and it's so different and so new. And people are slow to change." At least after Saturday, eight more citizens have now started a long-term goal to get their fellow Americans on board.
 
The Real News: Noam Chomsky Discusses Giethner Top
The Real News Network 's Paul Jay spoke with Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to get his thoughts on the Obama-Geithner plans for bank reform. "They're simply recycling pretty much the Bush-Paulson measures, changing them a little, but essentially the same idea. Keep the institutional structure the same, try to kind of patch things up, bribe the banks and investors to help out, but avoid the measures that might get to the heart of the problem," says Chomsky. The plans create a "win-win situation" for investors, he argues: "It means that an investor can, if they want, purchase these valueless assets, and if they happen to go up they make money and if they go down the government insures it. So there might be a slight loss but there could be a big gain... if you're the investor. For the public, it's a lose-lose situation." Chomsky believes the system is built in a way that often penalizes the public: "Fact of the matter is, it's almost always public money... The public pays the cost and takes the risk and the profit is privatized." He believes the first steps towards democratization involve nationalization and public accountability. "For a start, corporations, banks and so on should be responsible, I think, to stakeholders [as opposed to shareholders]. That's not a huge change... It's a way to keep communities alive and industry here." Noam Chomsky has written and lectured widely on linguistics, philosophy, intellectual history, contemporary issues, international affairs and U.S. foreign policy. His works include: Aspects of the Theory of Syntax; Cartesian Linguistics; Sound Pattern of English (with Morris Halle); Language and Mind; American Power and the New Mandarins; At War with Asia; For Reasons of State; Peace in the Middle East?; Reflections on Language; The Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. I and II (with E.S. Herman); Rules and Representations; Towards a New Cold War; Radical Priorities; Fateful Triangle; Knowledge of Language; Turning the Tide; Pirates and Emperors; On Power and Ideology; Language and Problems of Knowledge; Necessary Illusions; Deterring Democracy; Year 501; Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War and US Political Culture; Letters from Lexington; World Orders, Old and New; The Minimalist Program; Powers and Prospects; The Common Good; Profit Over People; The New Military Humanism; New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind; Rogue States; A New Generation Draws the Line; 9-11; and Understanding Power. For further interviews or to contact Paul Jay, visit The Real News website . More on Economy
 
Laid-Off Car Dealership Employees Top
 
Fewer Ph.D Students Being Accepted Into Programs Top
If ever there was a year that colleges were anxious about enrolling new and continuing students, this is it. Whether dependent on tuition revenue or state appropriations formulas, colleges are doing everything they can think of in this economically challenging year to attract students -- and the dollars that follow them. But there is a notable exception: Several colleges have recently announced that, regardless of application quality, they plan to admit fewer Ph.D. students for this coming fall than were admitted a year ago. The economics of doctoral education are different enough from those of other programs that some universities' doctoral classes will be taking a significant hit, with potential ramifications down the road for the academic job market, the availability of teaching assistants, and the education of new professors. More on Economy
 
Breathe Easy: The Perfect Running Pace Revealed Top
For years, it has been thought that humans have a constant metabolic energy rate. It was assumed that you would require the same total energy to run one mile, no matter if you ran it in 5 minutes or 10 minutes. Even though your energy burn rate would be higher at faster speeds, you would get there in half the time. Turns out, however, that each person has an optimal running pace that uses the least amount of oxygen to cover a given distance. The findings, by Karen Steudel, a zoology professor at Wisconsin, and Cara Wall-Scheffler of Seattle Pacific University, are detailed in latest online edition of the Journal of Human Evolution. More on Health
 
Cuba Launches Anti-Homophobia Campaign Top
HAVANA, Mar 30 (IPS) - You could hear a pin drop and uncomfortable glances went round the room when the moderator of the debate invited contributions from the floor. A law student finally broke the silence, appealing for education to be a two-way street, so that homosexuals can "help us to accept them." Perhaps unintentionally, the law student, Bárbara García, really broke the ice. The men and women who had spoken up to defend their sexual orientation against prejudice and misunderstanding had shown those present a reality that perhaps many considered alien to their experience, had no knowledge of, or knew of only in a distorted way. "There are people who commit suicide because of their sexual orientation. We are not even going to talk about lesbians, who are doubly oppressed, as women and as homosexuals," said Alberto Roque, who introduced himself as a gay doctor and member of Cuba's ruling Communist Party. Minutes later, Ema confided that she belonged to a Protestant church, and had tried to kill herself when she discovered that she was attracted to other women. Eventually she came to terms with her lesbian identity and no longer hides it. "I think that a wider sense of respect is needed. I don't mean tolerance or acceptance, I mean respect for diversity," Roque said. The 2009 campaign for respect for freedom of sexual orientation, under the slogan "Diversity is Natural", will try to contribute to "the education of society in general, with an emphasis on university students, about respect for people's free and responsible sexual orientation and gender identity, as an exercise in equity and social justice." The National Centre for Sex Education (CENESEX) "cannot do this work on its own, which is why we have called on the youth of the country, who will become the future professionals and leaders of society," said Mariela Castro, the head of CENESEX, which has developed a wide-ranging programme in support of the right to sexual diversity since 2004. Castro addressed the opening event of the campaign, a forum and debate held on Mar. 26 at the headquarters of the University Students Federation (FEU) at the University of Havana. There was standing room only at the forum, which was attended by students, university professors, CENESEX staff and representatives of the gay community. Biology Professor María Fuentes said promoting this debate, which will continue at the university on a fortnightly basis, was an excellent initiative, because young people are agents of change. "It is a strategy that looks to the future," she said, regretting that none of the students from the biology department had attended. According to CENESEX's Sexual Diversity Project, the campaign includes educational activities under the National Sex Education Programme, small group meetings, workshops, video-debates, talks and exchanges "to stimulate and promote reflection and debate among university students." "This year we want to focus on audiences capable of being multiplier agents and extending the work, like the university population," said Castro. With this goal in mind, CENESEX initially worked on the campaign design with members of the Young Communist League and the FEU in Havana, and will later branch out into the provinces. In an interview with IPS, the head of CENESEX and daughter of Cuban President Raúl Castro said the International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) will be celebrated in Havana this year on May 16 and will be devoted to young people, and also to families, so that "parents may better understand" their homosexual or transsexual children. She added that a date has still not been set for the Cuban parliament to debate a draft law to reform the Family Code, in force since 1975. The reform bill includes proposals on gender identity and the rights of sexual minorities. "The work that we are doing will help to ease the prejudices behind these processes," she said. Castro also said that the Catholic Church had communicated its negative views on the proposed reforms to the authorities. "There have been conversations. They were concerned about homosexual marriage, and were told that this is not being proposed," nor the adoption of children by homosexual couples, she said. The reform bill would allow legal recognition of same-sex unions, and grant them the same rights as civil unions between heterosexual couples. As for sex change operations for transsexual persons, approved in June 2008 by a Health Ministry resolution, which is another matter of concern to the Catholic Church and other religious denominations, Castro indicated that the decision remains in force. Resolution 126 signed by Health Minister José Ramón Balaguer established a facility for comprehensive health care for transsexual persons as the only institution in the country authorised to carry out total or partial sex change operations. Read more from Inter Press Service. More on Cuba
 
Michael Roth: How the Economy of 2009 Impacts the Class of 2013 Top
This is the time of year when high school seniors across the country (and around the world) are opening their mail hoping for what, back in the day, was the thick envelope from one's top choice school. Many will do the opening electronically, but the feelings of hope, anxiety and anticipation will be the same. In the next weeks students invited to join the class of 2013 will be comparing notes, preparing to revisit campuses, and trying to imagine themselves thriving on a campus often far away from home. Of course, just being in a position to make a decision about which school to attend is a luxury, and for a select group of high school seniors an enormously valuable college experience is being made available without charge. The highly selective schools (like Wesleyan where I work), which remain "need blind" (accepting students regardless of their ability to pay) devote a considerable part of our operating budgets to financial aid. For those paying full fare, tuition and fees for an academic year are north of $50k, but at the most selective schools somewhere between 40-60 percent of the students receive significant financial support. At Wesleyan, our average grant is around $30k, and there are schools that can afford to be even more generous to those students who are fortunate enough to get in. For many of those heading off to college it is the public university that will seem the economically sensible choice. Large state schools have reported record numbers of applicants, even while in many parts of the country state legislators are cutting the budgets of their flagship campuses. In my home state of Connecticut, we recently saw students at the main state campus asking for higher tuition increases to make up for the inadequate funding from the state. Students asking for higher tuition? These are strange times. Today's New York Times reported that many of the Ivy League Schools continue to experience an increase in applications. Some of the highly selective liberal arts colleges in rural New England, by contrast, have seen declines in their applicant pools. At Wesleyan University, where our entering class will number under 750, we have experienced our largest surge in applicants ever -- more than 22%. Like many of our peer institutions, we have expanded our financial aid budget in order to make it possible for qualified students to attend. And we are also trying to cut discretionary spending to focus our resources on core academic programs. Like all universities, we are juggling selectivity, affordability, costs and access in an effort to sculpt an entering class ready to learn from the faculty as well as from one another. The "class sculpting" that goes on at liberal arts oriented colleges and universities is from the administrative perspective a luxury of its own in these days of cutbacks and underfunded state campuses. Many, many qualified students are rejected at a place like Wesleyan, but I take some solace in the fact that the US higher education system offers an extraordinary number of access points to a high quality experience -- from fine community colleges to sophisticated public research universities to distinctive private institutions offering an array of learning opportunities in and outside of the classroom. Higher Ed, of course, is just one part of the entire array of teaching institutions. It has been clear for some time that we need to do a better job of preparing our high school graduates to get the most out of the range of choices available to them. Too many of our colleges are re-teaching high school rather than expanding the horizons for our undergraduates. In the coming weeks thousands of students across the country will be looking at the equivalent of those thick envelopes and asking: Which school can I afford, and which school will be the place where I will really thrive for the next four years? Many of us will be asked to offer advice to friends and relatives. Where will I (or where will my son or daughter) be happy? Which school will better prepare me for life after college? Our higher education sector recognizes that young people learn in a wide variety of ways. Some people want a very structured environment in which their education will be institutionally directed. Others want a homogeneous climate in which they can find other people like themselves working toward similar goals. Some will want large campuses that function like mini-cities, while others will want small residential communities. In this economic climate, students (and their families) will want to know how the years in college will enable them to enter the work force. Weighing the relative advantages of the schools that sent those thick envelopes may be a luxury, but it is a momentous one. It's my hope that students choose schools at which they can learn how to be more effective in whatever field they decide to apply themselves, and in this process also discover core things that they really love to do. That's the best way for them to gain the ability to continue doing those things about which they are most passionate long after they receive their diplomas. Graduates who have become effective in doing what they find personally satisfying are the ones we may expect to add the most value to the economy and the culture of the future.
 
Fritz Henderson May Not Last Long At GM Top
The departure of Rick Wagoner as chief executive of General Motors was inevitable once Barack Obama's auto taskforce had concluded that it did not believe the restructuring plan GM had submitted in an effort to gain billions more in government support. The question is whether Fritz Henderson, who is a GM lifer like Mr Wagoner, has enough credibility to retain his post as Mr Wagoner's successor for long.
 
Leeat Granek, PhD: "Fuck The Guests": How I Learned to Have my Cake and Eat it Too Top
I recently sat in on a therapy workshop. It was one of those "lunch and learns" where health care professionals sit around with stale sandwiches to learn about the latest "evidence-based research" in the field. We were asked to talk about our family motto's. This was meant to demonstrate how clients often bring their family baggage onto "the couch" with them in therapy. I started to panic as we went around the circle. When my turn came, I turned bright red, and despite my embarrassment, I simply came out with it... "Fuck The Guests is my family's motto." It's surprising, given that growing up, our house was a social hub around which people gravitated. We always had guests over. My mother's friends dropped by daily for coffee and a bit of gossip. My dad taught Wing Chung to my brother and his friends in the basement. My playmates would come over after school and stay for impromptu dinners eating happily on the back deck. We were, all in all, a reasonably social family at a time before email, facebook, and texting became the prime forms of communication. It was before "playdates" and "social outings" were planned way in advance and punched into blackberry's and icalanders. It was a cheesecake that brought on our downfall. My mother didn't cook very often and she certainly never baked. One day, however, she decided to honor a guest from Montreal with a three course Shabbat meal that included a rich cheesecake. The said dessert required three days preparation. The first step was assembling, the second step was baking, and the third step involved an overnight stay in the fridge. This drove me and my brother's crazy! We begged my mother to allow us just a little taste, a bite, just one, tiny, little nibble. No matter how much we nagged, she wouldn't let us near the 8 x 10 tray seducing us in all its chutzpah from a transparent pan that sat front and center in the fridge which we flung open 100 times a day. The following day was worse. The suffering this cheesecake inflicted on our young souls is indescribable. "Please mom? Please?!" We begged, to absolutely no avail. I should add that my father, being a health-loving, lettuce-eating, yoga- practicing kind of guy (twenty years before this became the norm), rarely allowed sweets into the house. Thus, this cheesecake, by virtue of its rarity in the Granek household, held special appeal for us. Thursday night, my brother and I sat at our usual places at the big, wooden kitchen table doing our homework. My mom sat with us too, feeding our baby brother, who sat perched in his high chair gurgling, and mashing up his food. I don't know how the conversation got onto the blasted cheesecake again, but before we knew it, the homework was strewn aside, and we were at it again, negotiating for just a small piece of cake. I will never forget what my mom did next. She got up -- partly mad, partly frustrated, party smiling -- stomped off to the fridge, pulled out the tray, ripped off the cellophane, and dropped the cake and a pile of forks on the center of the table. "Fuck the guests! Let's enjoy this now!" she proclaimed happily, her blue eyes, twinkling with glee. And, oh, how we did! The five of us -- my parents, myself and my brothers -- sat around the table and polished off the entire cake in minutes. We ate straight from the pan and nearly chocked with laughter in between mouthfuls. "Fuck the guests" became our family motto from that day forward. While this is one of my fondest family memories, it is also mired with sadness. My mother, 33 years old at the time, had been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier that year. While she lived with the disease for eighteen years, the lesson about learning to enjoy, indulge, and appreciate the here and now with those you love was borne out of fear and uncertainty about how much time she had left to do things like sit around the kitchen table with her three young kids, have her cake, and eat it too. It's one of the best lessons she ever taught me.
 
Daniel Lubetzky: Mapping Your Life's Journey Top
Often in life I am sure you wonder if you had met a person before. Have our lives crossed paths before a more recent episode? When was the first time we met? Were we together in a particular place -- whether at school, or at a conference, or talk, or during our childhoods? Could you even rewind a part of your brain and see what you said to that person when you first met them? I daydreamed about a sci-fi future where the "grid" could keep all your information about every place you've been, and what your thoughts and experiences and interactions were like. Then I realized that a lot of this could already be done rather easily NOW. All you need is a GPS mapping device with a time-mapping database. Your iPhone or Blackberry could have an application that every 5 minutes or every hour or every day (depending on your preferred settings and subscription/storage capacity) could store your GPS location at that particular time. Three or thirty years later, you could wonder openly with your date, or an employee or a colleague if you had met before, or where your lives had intersected before, and you'd just sync your databases to find the crossing points, if any, that exist. You could make some pieces private or public, open or closed. But you'd have the ability to trace back steps at important points, quite simply. At a formative moment, you could even connect a blog journal or video entry to your geo-time-map. This would not only be fun and functional, but also existentially transforming. We always are "surprised" at how small this world is, and how enormous a coincidence it is that you find a friend in a far away random place. In fact, I have always thought that the laws of numbers make these encounters quite probable, and most likely there are many more opportunities for interactions among people you know, whose paths you cross by milliseconds without knowing it. If you could look at your grid and compare it with a friend's, or with all your universe of friends, how many amazing "coincidences" wouldn't you find - when you opted to? Perhaps Doppler or Google Maps or Facebook - or a new web/business platform you have or will now create - could take advantage of this idea. More on iPhone
 
Obama Signs Wilderness Bill Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has signed legislation that sets aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness. Obama said Monday the most valuable things in life are those already possessed as he signed a massive public lands management act at the White House. The law protects land from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, as well as expands wilderness protection efforts. The president says the legislation protects the land, lakes and shorelines for future generation. The law _ a collection of nearly 170 separate measures _ represents one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a quarter-century. It confers the government's highest level of protection on land in nine states. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Barack Obama has signed legislation that sets aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness. Obama said Monday the most valuable things in life are those already possessed as he signed a massive public lands management act at the White House. The law protects land from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, as well as expands wilderness protection efforts. The president says the legislation protects the land, lakes and shorelines for future generation. The law _ a collection of nearly 170 separate measures _ represents one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a quarter-century. It confers the government's highest level of protection on land in nine states.
 
Obama Signs Public Lands Bill (LIVE VIDEO) Top
President Obama is signing a massive public lands bill aimed at protecting wilderness, restore rivers and expand national parks. Watch live:
 
Henry Henderson: Can't Stand the Light of Day: Ohio liquid coal drops application for federal loans Top
I saw a fascinating press release from Baard Energy today. They are a company attempting to build the first large-scale liquid coal refinery in the U.S. Oddly, the press release announces that the company is dropping its pursuit of $2 billion in loan guarantees from the Department of Energy to help finance the project. Interestingly, the company blames NRDC and Sierra Club for forcing them to pull the plug on its request for public support. From the release: According to Mr. Baardson, the company learned that recent NRDC and Sierra Club legal challenges against permits issued by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will likely delay for years any funding from a DOE guarantee. "This is upside down," Mr. Baardson explained, "Under the DOE guidelines, lawsuits will likely have to be settled before we can be assured that the loan guarantee funds would be made available.  The DOE will also require a full environmental impact statement and this would give groups such as the NRDC and Sierra Club even more opportunities to challenge and delay the issuance of any loan guarantee." To me, this case is an example of how the law and the economy are supposed to work: our legal challenge to the Baard proposal has illuminated the real risks, economic uncertainties and implicit inequities of the proposed plant. Far from being "upside down," the legal process is doing exactly what it is intended to do---ensuring that the environmental and public health needs are appropriately addressed before huge sums of taxpayer money are needlessly squandered on projects like this one. There is no place in the coming clean energy economy for a filthy refinery such as this and the economics will likely bear this out.  The legal process is demonstrating that Mr. Baardson's dream proposal cannot survive the light of day, as my co-worker Shannon Fisk deftly summarized: If the project cannot get money from the Department of Energy program designed to support advanced coal technology, then the State of Ohio and banks who have been asked to front the money in this economic crisis should really do some serious risk assessment. Baard blames environmentalists for their financial problems, but an environmental review is no threat to a viable project.  That last bit is central. There is a huge disparity between what Baard Energy and their liquid coal cronies claim about this facility and what they ask for in the regulatory process. Despite the repeated label of "clean coal," Baard has not committed to using carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology or otherwise limiting the facility's high CO2 emissions. In addition, in contrast to Baard's public claims that they will use cleaner biomass in the facility, their permits potentially authorize fueling the facility entirely with high sulfur coal, which emits large amounts of sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and other pollutants that endanger public health and the environment in the communities around the refinery. There is nothing clean about this facility and that will continue to hinder them with investors who bother to look under the hood and kick the tires... And cleanliness of the refinery aside, does it make any sense to invest vast sums into a fuel source that emits twice the CO2 of typical gasoline? As we have covered elsewhere on Switchboard, the intelligence and defense communities have already recognized that climate change offers the biggest security risks to our national interest since the Cold War---why on Earth would we embrace a fuel source that speeds this? The short answer is that we won't. Baard Energy's whining aside, their money problem is not the result of our legal efforts to protect the public interest. Their money problems are the result of bad timing and a bad technology that is counter to the public interest. We are at a point where our economy is clearly tied to our moving into a clean energy economy. Public investment, in terms of loan guarantees, tax breaks, and out-right investment in research, development and infrastructure, must be clearly tethered to clean energy, not tethered to dirty, uneconomic risks like Baard. This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog .
 
Human Rights Watch: Yemeni Detainees Pose Biggest Obstacle to Closing Guantanamo (AUDIO) Top
Listen: Human Rights Watch interviewed former Guantanamo detainees in Yemen. These men say they're struggling to rebuild their lives -- and they're looking for help from the United States. Jessie Graham reports. (New York) - The United States and Yemen should quickly move to develop a humane repatriation plan for the nearly 100 Yemeni prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Unless the impasse in repatriation negotiations is swiftly resolved, the Yemenis will remain the biggest obstacle to President Barack Obama's plan to close the detention facility. "Many Yemenis are entering their eighth year without charge at Guantanamo," said Letta Tayler, terrorism and counterterrorism researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of the report. "The United States can't simply hold these men because it fears they might become dangerous in the future." The 52-page report, "No Direction Home: Returns from Guantanamo to Yemen," criticizes US and Yemeni proposals to transfer the detainees to a detention center in Yemen where they could continue to be held indefinitely, ostensibly for rehabilitation. Based on two weeks of field research in Yemen and more than three dozen interviews, including with former Yemeni prisoners and US and Yemeni officials, the report also warns of the potential for mistreatment in other plans being considered for the detainees. Human Rights Watch obtained a summary of the Yemeni government's rehabilitation plan for future Guantanamo returnees, which says the men would receive counseling, medical care and job training. However, the plan provides scant detail on how authorities would decide when the men were "rehabilitated." During meetings with Human Rights Watch, senior Yemeni officials said some returned men could be detained in rehabilitation for a year or more. Yemeni officials also said they may restrict the men's movements upon release from the center. While insisting they would not seek unlawful detention, US officials expressed security concerns arising from returned detainees. One US Embassy official in Yemen said the proposed center should be "basically a prison facility with a programmatic aspect." "The Yemenis' rehabilitation needs to be genuine, not a guise for continued detention without charge," said Tayler. "Moving them from one form of arbitrary detention to another is not a solution to Guantanamo." About two-fifths of the estimated 241 detainees currently at Guantanamo are Yemeni, making them the largest national group remaining at the prison. While the United States will likely prosecute a handful of them, talks with Yemen on repatriating the rest have stalled on several issues, including US fears they might "return to the fight," because al- Qaeda's presence in Yemen has been growing. In September 2008, al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at the US Embassy in the capital Sana'a that killed 18 people. If Washington does not work to create a repatriation plan for the Yemeni detainees, it may try to transfer them to the United States and continue to detain them without charge, Human Rights Watch said. Another option, sending some Yemenis to a locked rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia, could also pose potential risks. The report also details the mistreatment and neglect of the 14 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo who have already been repatriated. Yemeni authorities jailed most of the men for a few months without charge. In the worst case, one man was held for two years and said interrogators tried to beat him into confessing he was a spy. Some of the returnees said they suffer from both psychological and physical problems emanating from years in US custody, yet despite their unlawful detention, none has received assistance from the United States or Yemen. Stigmatized as former "terror suspects," many cannot find jobs. The men are under constant surveillance, are banned from leaving Yemen, and must report monthly to authorities. The report recommends that the United States fund a genuine rehabilitation effort for returned detainees that includes counseling, medical care, and job training. It also calls on Yemen to let detainees challenge any restrictions and allow independent, nongovernmental organizations to monitor the repatriation process. "Yemeni authorities should not assume these men are terrorists simply because the United States held them at Guantanamo," Tayler said. "If they feel they must monitor the detainees or restrict their movement, they have to provide the men with a meaningful legal process to contest the measures." Human Rights Watch said that any accord between the United States and Yemen should also resolve the cases of two Yemenis whom the United States is holding without charge at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. "The best way to prevent the returned Yemenis from becoming a threat is to help them reintegrate into their society and repair their lives," Tayler said. Accounts from former detainees (pseudonyms used to protect them from possible reprisal): "They [the Yemeni authorities] beat me with shoes. There were insults, bad words and threats. I told them, 'If you're going to torture me, it won't be anything new. The Americans already put me through torture.'" - "Fahmi Muhammad," on being held for two years after his return in 2004. "It's a catastrophe. I have lost a lot of things - my health, my kids' childhoods, my career, and many years of my life." - "Malek al-Dhabi," on life since his return to Yemen in 2006. "No one will hire me because I was at Guantanamo. ... There is a girl I am interested in, but I can't ask her father for her hand because I don't have bride money or a way to support her. Her father wouldn't dismiss me if I had a job." - "Omar Fawza," on life since his return to Yemen in 2006.
 
Jacob Dickerman: Vaccine Denial = Scientific Illiteracy Top
Last time I wrote about this subject , I made it too subtle. I thought that deliberately tagging both David Kirby and Jenny McCarthy, titling it "to David and Jenny, with Love", and then writing about how a woman's "mommy instinct" got her to kill an unarmed black man with no evidence of harm was a funny, but subtle way to point out that really, folks like David Kirby and Jenny McCarthy are just scientific illiterates, pointing fingers at whatever they can, even though thimerosal was removed from the childhood vaccination schedule in 2001 and rates of autism diagnosis have not slowed at all. This time, as you may have noticed, I have abandoned subtlety. Here's the cusp of the matter. These guys scream, "You're giving mercury to my kids!!! ARRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!" but when scientists stop giving vaccines with thimerosal to children, the anti-vaccination crowd goes "You're giving aluminum to my kids!!! AAARRRRRRRRRAAAARRRRRRRAGHHHH!!!!" And it doesn't matter that the aluminum is part of the chemistry that makes the vaccine work better, and it doesn't matter that their kid gets less aluminum from vaccines than they do from that hippy-dippy soy baby formula shit they put into their stomachs because Mommy's afraid of making cows cry. These guys will not be happy until the syringe is filled with water. Because for them, it will always be the fault of the vaccines. It doesn't matter what the science says, because these people don't care about science. Their argument is purely ideological, and does not belong in any discussion of scientific, medical, or political policy. Let's take a hypothetical look at the anti-vaccination mindset. Imagine now that I live in Harlem for years, and am robbed multiple times, and every time I am I say, "It's the blacks." Now, most of my neighbors are black, it's not an entirely improbable thing that the people who are robbing me again and again are black, I'm probably saying that because I'm a racist, but you can't really be sure and I'm not necessarily wrong. So then I move to Greenpoint. And in Greenpoint, I am repeatedly robbed, day after day and every time I am, I say, "it's the Polish." Once again, most of my neighbors are Polish, so it's not entirely unreasonable to assume that when I am getting robbed multiple times every week, it's the Polish people around me that are doing it. So I move to Washington Heights, where I am robbed repeatedly and of course whenever I am, I tell people, "It's the Dominicans." But a pattern is starting to emerge and my friends point it out to me, and so I tell them "It's the minorities." And so eventually, when I move to Riverdale, surround myself with Orthodox Jews, and am repeatedly robbed day in and out, I tell people "It's the minorities." And it makes sense to me. And by sticking to these guns, I get to ignore the facts that my roommate is a crack addict and that in all my time living in New York City, I've never learned that I should lock my door. There has been ONE doctor - ONE REAL DOCTOR - on their side. He was the guy who started it, Andrew Wakefield. And recently, it's been shown that he was full of shit . Kirby's last blog post took a crack at Brian Deer's article on Wakefield, but here's the thing. If Brian Deer is right on this thing in any way at all, then at the very least Wakefield is a crummy scientist, and given how little anything that Wakefield's done has been verified by anyone else, Brian Deer probably has his facts straight. I don't think it's easy to be the parent of an autistic kid. Honestly, I have nothing against these parents. They're in an awful situation and I'm sorry for what happened to their kid. But to think that the solution is to boycott vaccines, to the point that we have horrible, brain altering diseases like Hib coming back , to the point where there's still fucking Polio in the world - if these anti-vaccine activists had been around fifty years ago, we'd still have Smallpox (it hadn't yet been fully taken out by 1960). Do you know how badly we got fucked by Smallpox ? This shit was legendary. Incredibly infectious, 25-30 percent who got it died, the rest were scarred, often blinded, and disabled by it for the rest of their lives. Look up the history of this country during the revolutionary war, body-count given to the Brits is insignificant compared to how many of us were dying from a disease which today, we don't have to worry about, because of the advance of medicine. Are vaccines harmless? Well, for most of us -- yes. There is a small (TINY) percentage of the population that can't have vaccines, immune-compromised kids, and a very small number of people for whom the vaccines will in fact have a detrimental effect. And by pushing forward their campaign to throw an ideological penny onto science's tracks, these parents and advocates are hurting those kids too. See, those kids... they can't have immunizations, and so the only thing keeping them from getting sick is that enough of their little friends have gotten those shots, making it statistically unlikely that the non-immunized kids will get these illnesses. Viruses don't thrive in a vacuum, it's called herd immunity, and without it those little kids - you know, the ones who's immune systems are screwed up and can't get the benefit of childhood vaccines - they'd probably be dead. In the UK, the original home of Wakefield and still a bigger part of the anti-vaccine movement than the states (don't worry! We can still catch up! USA! USA!), many of these childhood ailments are already making a comeback, and we have small spots in the states where it's happening too. Thank you, vaccine denialists, for saving our kids. The science is in. Children are exposed to more new pathogens on a daily basis than the entirety of what they're given in their vaccination schedule, you get more formaldehyde into your body from the paint on your walls, and even if it was still in the childhood vaccination schedule (which it's not), the amount of mercury in thimerosal is orders of magnitude below what it would take to actually damage your brain. Vaccines do not cause autism. Measles, Mumps, and Rubella are not diseases we should let come back. Allowing these "green our vaccines" Evidence of Harm "Mercury Militia" people to have their pre-scientific crap pollute our public discourse is retarding our nation's health, and we can't stand for it anymore. More on Autism
 
Somali Pirates Captured After Mistakenly Firing On German Navy Vessel Top
A group of pirates got a nasty surprise when they attacked a merchant ship - that turned out to be a German naval vessel. More on Pirates
 
Michael Pertnoy and Michael Kleiman: The Last Survivor: Family Trees Top
The Last Survivor Extended Trailer from Genocide Prevention Month on Vimeo . This blog picks up where the last one left off - in the Swedish countryside with Hédi. At the end of the "welcoming" tour she offered upon our arrival at her quaint home - a charming yellow cottage nestled against the Baltic Sea - Hédi lead us to the living room. She put on her favorite radio station and affirmed their selection of a lulling classical violin piece with a nod, "Nice." With that, she lead us to the corner of the room, behind her favorite reading chair, where she had framed a family tree her son had made her for an earlier birthday. Hédi introduced us to the family. It began at the top with her parents, splitting out into two branches - one leading down to Hédi, her husband, their three boys and their wives and the other to Livi, her husband, and their children. Hédi read off the cast of characters that made up her family tree and paused for a moment as she admired it. "This is our victory," she told us with a smile. We have found such fondness for family trees common among Survivors. After three months adjusting to life in St. Louis, Justin was honored to have Sasha in his home. To simply hear Justin welcome Sasha to his house was enough to convey the profound gratitude he will forever hold for all Sasha has done for him. After giving Sasha a tour of his apartment, Justin took him to the neighborhood park where the two sat among children who were enjoying the final dusks of summer. There, Sasha told Justin of his family's own story of survival: that his great grandmother had fled the Soviet Union nearly a century ago, escaping the deadly pogroms that were targeted at the Jews. That she too had once arrived in America as a refugee and, lost in an unknown land, she dedicated herself to the promise etched in the progression of her family tree. Sasha's life - his work, his family, his happiness - are linked directly back to his great grandmother - her work, her dedication, and her hope. Sasha stressed this connection to Justin - "and one day you'll have children, and grandchildren, and great grandchildren and they'll go on to do wonderful things. And you're the start." Justin smiled quietly at this, distantly staring out at the children across the park as if he could see the line that moved from him - a family line that carried his own legacy and gave life to the memory of his missing family. A line that insisted on moving forward. It's certainly not surprising that those who have lost so much of their history, would find not only satisfaction, but great pride in the generations that spawn forward from them. If genocide is an attempt at destroying an entire people, then a people's true triumph over genocide is marked by their ability to endure - to pass on not only their genes, but their values and their stories, ensuring that a piece of their family is woven securely into posterity. In our eyes, such a notion illuminates our role in life as one of continuation - an all important link between what was and what will be - in a manner that saturates each life with meaning. But perhaps even more moving is the realization that such a perspective on life is one that insists we look forward. That no matter what we are given in this life - whether it be great gain or great loss - we accept that our role remains consistent and simple: to continue. And in doing so, we pass on the many lessons we have acquired - both those born out of our own experience and those bequeathed to us by our ancestors. It is the sum of these collective experiences that make up the future. This has been, in many ways, a remarkable month. Most days were spent going through the hours of footage we have taken across the span of the last two years. Such a task was a daily exercise in reflection - allowing us to revisit all that we have been through over the course of the past two years - the places, the experiences, and mostly the people. From the start, we set out to make a film about connection - the links that bind our subjects as Survivors and those that bind all of us as human beings. Certainly, we have found many. And as we move on from this 20-minute cut and begin work on the final film, we are certain we will be struck by deeper and more meaningful connections that bind those we film together with one another and with ourselves. For now, at the end of this month, the most profound connection we have discovered is this: that while we are each born out of distinct pasts, we share a common future. And as that future is the sum of all that has come before, it will be measured by the totality of its inclusiveness - made richer by the inclusion of each of our histories. Our role, then, is to move from one generation to the next, passing on a sense of who we are and from where we have come. In this manner, we all move forward. A 20-minute sneak preview of our film, The Last Survivor , will be available via webcast on April 2nd as part of the Genocide Prevention Month kick-off event. We encourage you to hold screenings at your home or at a community center on April 2nd or any time there after. Watch the film and subsequent panel discussion and host your own conversation on genocide awareness and prevention. For more information, please visit the Month's official website, www.genocidepreventionmonth.org and sign the pledge to honor the six genocides commemorated in April by working to prevent future atrocities. This blog is part six of a multi-part series on survivors of genocides. This blog is posted every Monday and Thursday on Huffington Post and Change.org While there is no new video clip available with today's posting - stay tuned for footage from the Genocide Prevention Month Kickoff Event with Thursday's posting. More on Genocide
 
John Rosenthal: Water is Life Top
Millions of people have lived without justice but not one without WATER. The Earth is a water planet and largely why life is sustainable here versus other planets. In fact the planet Earth is 78% water and humans are 60% water. Of the 6 billion people on earth, 1.1 billion do not have access to safe, clean drinking water. Throughout most of history water, like air, has been considered a human birth right. As water has become more scarce due to environmental contamination, territorial conflicts, greed and corruption, an international water crisis has developed which literally threatens every living creature on Earth. As a result, water has rapidly become a precious commodity more valuable than oil or gold. The international water industry is now $400 billion a year in sales and the third largest in the world behind only oil and electricity. This year Americans will spend $40 billion on bottled water yet tap water has significantly more government regulation than bottled water. Twenty five percent of bottled water is repackaged tap water sold at 900 times the price. The average cost of an ounce of bottled water is approximately 5 cents, 86% more than oil. It takes 2000 times more energy to create a liter of bottled water than a liter of tap water. In fact, the amount of oil required to put one bottle of water in your hand would fill one quarter of that same bottle. Oil is of course a valuable energy resource, which competes with many other clean and dirty alternatives and is subject to supply and demand pricing. Unlike oil, water has no such alternative and, like air, we can't live without it. Similar to oil, the bottled water industry is controlled by a relatively small international "cartel", the lion's share of which is dominated by household brand names Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Nestle. All have a vested interest in securing water sources and all have a history of deceptive marketing and business practices. For example, Nestle (Poland Spring, Perrier, San Pellegrino, Calistoga, Ice Mountain, Arrowhead, Acqua Panna Ozark, Zephyrhills) is the world's leading bottled water company, and was sued by residents in Michigan, after they located a Poland Springs bottling plant, drilled numerous wells and dramatically diminished a neighborhoods well water. Coca Cola (Dasani, Glaceau, Smart Water, Spring! Natural Water) has a highly questionable track record when it comes to water farming and water pollution. PepsiCo (Aquafina, Propel Fitness Water, SoBe, Ethos Water) was forced to admit that Acquafina is nothing more than tap water and originates from a public water source. Opposition to the bottled water industry is just beginning to gain momentum. In December 2008 the City of Toronto became the largest city in the world to pass a comprehensive policy banning bottled water in City buildings and aggressively reinvesting in the City's public water supply delivery system. Other major urban centers, like Seattle and New York are promoting their own tap water over bottled water. According to the Container Recycling Institute, just supplying Americans with plastic water bottles for one year consumes more than 47 million gallons of oil, enough to take 100,000 cars off the road and 1 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere. Ninety percent of used water bottles are not recycled. In California alone, more than 1 billion plastic bottles end up in California's landfills each year, leaking toxic additives, such as phthalates, into the groundwater and taking 1,000 years to biodegrade. Privatization of the water also remains an issue with dire consequences in the developing world. Suez, is one of the world's largest "privatizers" of water services and has created scenarios where poor people living in slums often pay 5-10 times more per liter of water than wealthy people living in the same city. In Bolivia, where nearly one out of every ten children will die before the age of five, most from illness related to a lack of clean drinking water, the government sold it's country's water rights to European conglomerate, Vivinedi. As a result poor villagers and small farmers have been prevented from using wells that they've used for generations for drinking water and irrigation. Serious issues are also arising in regions of the developed world including in the water-scarce Western United States where it's estimated that California could run out of water within 20 years. Like the air we breathe, water was once a human birth right, not a commodity owned by big business and made available only to those able to afford the highest price. I'm a business person and believe strongly in the free market system but not at the expense of human life. There is something seriously wrong when PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Nestle, Vivendi, Suez and others are allowed to control domestic water supplies and ultimately dictate who lives or dies based upon how much they can pay for access to what was once OUR public water resource. Looking to the future, how much do you think international corporations will charge for scarce water or for that matter, the air we breathe, once they figure out how to bottle it?
 
He's Back! Giuliani Robocalls For N.Y. GOP Congressional Candidate Top
Rudy Giuliani is not done with national politics quite yet. The former New York City mayor, whose presidential campaign flamed out under a disastrous late-primary strategy, has recorded a robocall for New York congressional candidate Jim Tedisco. In it, Giuliani underscores the closeness of the race to replace Kirsten Gillibrand and touts the Republican as the one pol who could "stand up to Nancy Pelosi, and all her plans to hike taxes and spending by trillions of dollars." "I'm calling to ask you to join me in supporting Jim Tedisco for congress this Tuesday March 31," reads the script . "This congressional race could come down to a few hundred votes and yours could be the difference between victory and defeat. Jim Tedisco's victory will ensure that we have a voice in Congress that will stand up to Nancy Pelosi, and all her plans to hike taxes and spending by trillions of dollars. Please join me, Rudy Giuliani, in support Jim Tedisco this Tuesday." Giuliani's appeal in upstate New York is not, it would seem, what it once was, owing to the years since he's been in office, the diminishing role of terrorism as an electoral issue, and the general political tilt of the state. But the 20th congressional district does lean conservative, and there are few other nationally known Republicans who could serve as a boost for Tedisco's candidacy. That Giuliani and the NY GOP would vilify Pelosi rather than, say, Barack Obama, has everything to do with how popular the president is at this juncture and how well he did in that district in 2008. On the Democratic side, Gillibrand has recorded a robocall of her own for candidate Chris Murphy, touting him as most capable of getting the economy working once more. "Scott Murphy will work with me and President Obama to get our economy moving again," she says in her call . UPDATE : Looks like former President Bill Clinton is getting in on the act, releasing ( according to one twitter account ) a robocall on behalf of Murphy as well. More on Rudy Giuliani
 
Shaena Henry: Michelle Obama: The Accidental Fashionista Top
Even though I've been blogging about Michelle Obama's style for the past four months, the extensive coverage of her wardrobe in the media never ceases to amaze me. Every journalist, blog commentator, and politician feels entitled to tell the First Lady of the free world what dress to wear when, how much it should cost, and how long the sleeves should be. They badgered her election night dress deeming it unflattering, but a dress that compliments her hard-earned biceps is inappropriate. She widely supports American fashion designers, but said designers are not African American much to the Black Artists Association's dissatisfaction. The First Lady is damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. She can never win, and what I adore the most about Michelle Obama's wardrobe choices is that she is not trying to. Yet, I have found through many discussions that there is a misunderstanding about Michelle Obama's sartorial intentions. The public fails to separate her style from her agenda as the First Lady. Somehow we have managed to become more fixated on her outfits than she seems to be. I'm only guessing, but I find it highly unlikely that Michelle Obama is aiming to be defined by or specifically remembered for her style. What I see is a positive and dynamic wife and mother who just happens to look good simultaneously. Perhaps the media and bloggers like me are to blame for the confusion. Maybe we have misguided the public into thinking that the First Lady sought out her fashion icon status when in actuality we bestowed this label upon her. Here is a woman whose goal was to support her husband's presidential campaign. She ditches panty-hose, throws a belt around her waist and suddenly she's a fashionista. I'm not saying she doesn't deserve the attention, but what we have to understand is that there is danger in this title. A minor misstep leads to extreme disappointment and to call her critics harsh is an understatement. The most recent example that comes to mind is the backlash against her photo on the cover of Vogue . The comments I have read and heard are far from what I expected. "Awkward", "boring", "disappointing" were the most popular reactions. One reader of my blog even went as far to comment that the First Lady did not look astute. Ouch. I asked critics to ask themselves the following questions. How comfortable would you look posing for a high fashion magazine if you were a self-proclaimed "tomboy jock at heart"? What cover girl doesn't look bemused? And why on earth would you expect glamour from Michelle Obama? True, it is Vogue, but we are also in a recession, and we don't want our First Lady to be the next Marie Antoinette. I'm not asking that we lower our expectations of Michelle Obama rather that we ease up on the disparagement. Being named a fashion icon is an enormous responsibility, especially when it happens accidentally, and I believe that the First Lady is handling the pressure quite well. The elements of her style are immeasurable. It is sometimes whimsical, but always effortless. Like the little black dress she wore to Ted Kennedy's birthday celebration with a bold Tom Binns statement necklace. Her look is ever approachable. Whether visiting a federal department or reading to school children, a belted cardigan is chic, yet welcoming. And my favorite accessories on Michelle Obama: her sense of self and inner strength that give her the ability to wear what hell she wants. More on Michelle Obama
 
Verena von Pfetten: Brow-O-Wow: Bushy Eyebrows Make A Comeback (PHOTOS, POLL) Top
Eyebrows. They're the most under-appreciated feature on your face with arguably the most impact -- a good brow can make eye makeup a moot point or take an ordinary look extra-ordinary places. While there's no right or wrong way to shape your eyebrows -- every face is different! -- there is absolutely nothing worse than an over-plucked arch (something most of us have learned the hard way.) And in light of that fact, we hereby proclaim that the bushy brow is back! First off, we're huge advocates of anything that supports our case against make-up and what better way to lighten the cosmetic load than to let your luscious brows be front and center? Toss the eyeliner, drop a coat of mascara, boldly bare your lips and let your eyebrows do the talking. But secondly (and arguably more evidentiary), we're not alone! It started last week, when W.'s niece, Lauren, debuted her not-quite-eponymous fashion line . She may have dropped the "Bush" in her name, but her eyebrows were nothing if not full. And from there we started brainstorming...Ashley Olsen! Hilary Rhoda! Beyonce at the Oscars! And there it was: a case in point; if there's one thing these ladies have in common, its a bountiful brow bush paired with an au naturel visage . Even the red carpet-ready looks made liberal use of earthy tones with a minimalist lip. And for you lazy, er, low-maintenance ladies -- the unplucked brow is a veritable gift! You'll save yourself oodles of time not plucking, painting, and puckering -- because in this case, bigger really is better! [Which reminds us...we hate to say it (and, to be honest, we never thought we would!), but this is the one case where Michelle Obama's pluck is not a good thing. Ah, well -- the woman had to have some fault.] See? What do you think? Lastly, advice! If you're like me and have been cursed with a barely-there and/or blonde brow, I recommend taking the seconds you saved in your morning routine to fill them in. (I'm also gonna go ahead and take the liberty of recommending Benefit's Bow-Zings kit -- the wax lets you get some color on every last spindly hair you've been blessed with in ways that no ordinary pencil ever could. Look at me! I'm nothing if not service-y.) Join the revolution, ladies! Let your (eyebrow) bushes be free! More on Photo Galleries
 
Madonna Tours Impoverished Malawi School In $2800 Chanel Sweatsuit (PHOTOS) Top
Madonna arrived in Malawi Sunday morning on her Gulfstream V in her bid to adopt a toddler girl named Mercy. After arriving she toured an impoverished school but refused to talk to reporters. She was, in the words of the AP , "dressed casually" in a black velour tracksuit and white fedora. But that casual look costs about $2,800. A look at the photos shows her dressed-down attire is a Chanel tracksuit, tone-on-tone labels blazing from her shoulder and the stripes down her leg. Huffington Post placed a call to the 57th Street store in New York Monday with a casual inquiry, and a helpful saleswoman priced a similar ensemble at $2,800. A zip front jacket is $1,600 and the pants about $1,200. A cheaper alternative to the one Madonna wore in Malawi is the $1,200 pullover jacket. Currently the store is stocking the velour in gray. They also have the tracksuit in cashmere for several hundred dollars more. Chanel clothing is not available online. Madonna appears to have recycled the white fedora from 2006. SCROLL FOR PHOTOS: Madonna as she toured the school: Madonna's fedora: Madonna's plane lands in Malawi Sunday morning: More on Madonna
 
Northern Ireland Strife Continues: IRA Dissidents Burn Cars, Block Roads Top
DUBLIN — Suspected IRA dissidents and their supporters hijacked cars Monday in working-class Catholic areas of Northern Ireland in a coordinated effort to block roads and threaten police stations, police said. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was receiving a wave of reports of vehicles being hijacked by masked gunmen in several parts of Belfast and in the Kilwilkie district of Lurgan, a power base for Irish Republican Army dissidents southwest of Belfast. Some vehicles were being set on fire in roads to disrupt traffic at rush hour, while others were abandoned near four Belfast police stations and on Northern Ireland's major motorway near Lurgan. Police said they were treating all the abandoned vehicles as potential car bombs, although they cautioned this was unlikely. Monday's upheaval came at the end of a month in which IRA dissidents shot to death two soldiers and a policeman _ the first killings of British security forces since 1998, the year of Northern Ireland's peace accord. Police said at least two cars were hijacked in Lurgan's Kilwilkie district, the power base of suspected IRA dissident Colin Duffy. Duffy, 41, was charged last week with murdering the two soldiers. One of the hijacked cars was abandoned on the M1 motorway, which connects Belfast to Dublin, 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the south. Authorities shut part of the motorway as a precaution. One abandoned vehicle _ which police said did not contain a bomb _ was left near the Stormont Parliamentary Building, the center of Northern Ireland's Catholic-Protestant government that the dissidents hope to break up. The hijackings and security alerts also coincided with a widespread breakdown of Belfast's traffic lights system. Police in a statement called that an "unfortunate coincidence." More on Ireland
 
Liz Neumark: Farm Visit - Early Spring 2009 Top
The first of spring and tell tale signs of the new season are not poking out. The landscape at Katchkie Farm is solidly brown and barren. But there is birdsong in the air. And all the streams are rushing off somewhere, creating an exquisite sound. The skeletons of late fall still stand - tall headless sunflower stalks and shriveled brussels sprout plants - frozen in place since the sudden onset of winter. Next week, they will be plowed under as Farmer Bob prepares the fields for spring planting. He is out on the tractor spreading chicken manure to fertilize the fields. But life is abundant when you come into the greenhouses. My glasses fog up instantly and the moist air is a welcome relief. The center greenhouse was planted last week with arugala and Bordeaux spinach. Upon closer inspection, tiny green tops are beginning to show, so easy to miss, but in a weeks time will be a soft almost moss-like cover and a tender shade of green. (I return a week later to see the change. It is gradual and the rows of small greens are now distinguishable. In the neighboring greenhouse, small heads of lettuce are beginning to emerge.) The nursery is bursting with activity and is aptly named for the very young inhabitants it nurtures. Ours has ample room and 3 other farmers are sharing the space. Roxbury Farm, our good neighbor across the street has some overflow seedlings, a local flower grower, Wild and Cultivated, occupies a few tables and a new small group from the community, St Joseph's Center, is launching their inaugural crops here. Farmer Bob enjoys the camaraderie, as must do the plants. The tables are brand new - Bob has built each one by hand. They have radiant heating and are very efficient. They are the envy of the county and reflective of how Bob has thoughtfully grown the infrastructure of the farm as well as its produce. Each top slides over allowing access to all sides, maximizing the use of the greenhouse space. Tray after tray, table after table - everything carefully labeled: spring onions, cilantro, lettuces, broccoli, kohlrabi, tomatoes, faro, and more - an amazing ritual of springtime - the painstaking process of starting every vegetable plant from seed. It is so stunning and artful to imagine how in several weeks, row after row, these little seedlings will populate field after field. One asks - where does our food come from? From little seeds! All that information - how to grow, what to look like, how to taste - all secreted in a single tiny seed.
 

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