Friday, April 3, 2009

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Danny Groner: Food Blogging Shows It's Cooking Top
Last night at a panel discussion on the subject of food blogs, Ed Levine spoke at some length about how blogs have given a voice to members of the public. For a long time, Levine said, news was delivered to people, putting them into the role of recipients. However, blogs offer interaction and interactivity with many people beyond only reporters. They place a value on the opinions and abilities of those who read, receive and process news and advances. The rest of the panel agreed with Levine's assessment that mainstream media sources have begun to adapt to this new model, especially in the field of food writing and culinary guidance. Levine's blog, probably better described as a communal project, is the clearest evidence that we're headed in that direction. His blog brings in over a million unique visitors each month. Levine may be the exception to the bloggers' rule, however, as he started his blog with the intent to make it a full-time business venture from the start. Beneath Levine's success and prominence in the culinary world are some questions about foodies - and bloggers in general - who write for reasons other than to find a means to support themselves. Panelist Lisa Fain started her blog several years ago but only recently began getting paid for it after she joined a bloggers' network to produce some revenue through advertisements on her site. Even now, she says that it's a small profit that pales in comparison to the amount of time she invests in her posts about cooking and photography. Fain began her blog when she recognized that there really wasn't anyone writing about or covering the foods that interested her. Moreover, she said that upon relocating to New York City, she couldn't find a restaurant that featured god cooking of her favorite, traditional Texan dishes. So, for Fain, the blog was an opportunity to educate her peers about a cooking style and tradition that otherwise wouldn't have been rightfully well represented in the culinary list of blogs. One piece of advice Fain imparted to her audience of mostly young, aspiring writers was to pick a topic to cover and to focus on that. She stressed that the topic should be something that you're passionate about, and your active pursuit to learn more should be reflected in your writing. As I listened to this advice, I realized that that is exactly what makes for a blog's success or failure.. The writer needs to be obsessed with the subject in a way that makes his or her readers want to keep reading. Blogs are as much about the content they present as they are about demonstrating a developing and existing relationship between the writer and his or her preferred beat. When bloggers are capable of conveying a convincing and engrossed voice, their readership and popularity will grow exponentially. It's interesting to contrast this current reality with where things were shaping up when blogs first started to emerge. As the word "blog" entered our cultural vocabulary, the medium was largely perceived as a chance for narcissists to write about themselves and their daily lives. As if people really cared to read about others' minutia. Sure, there are still some of those blogs around today, but a majority of the blogs that have thrived are centered around a core topic, not around a self-narrating figure. Personal stories do make a difference at times, but only in context and relevance to the central, featured topic that the blog covers. Once you have that in mind, it's not surprising that Fain's blog has achieved more success than even the writer imagined possible. Her blog covers only a minuscule portion of what Levine's does, yet she is considered part of the same high-level food blogging community. And that's a strength that old forms of media can never offer, even through allowing comments on their stories and citizen journalist reports. You see, the bloggers who participated on the panel last evening are in different stratospheres in the blogosophere, judging exclusively but their clicks per month and ad sales. Still, they are all united through their common interests and pursuits; they treat each other as equal members of the same community. For a long time, the Internet has offered a plethora of options to allow users to engage in conversations with their like-minded peers. Message boards, for instance, have long led to valuable discussion and helpful advice. Now we are taking that connectivity a step further. I see how those interested in niche topics are brought together through one communal voice fueled by respect, support and adoration. That's particularly amazing when you consider how many people are actually talking at once. More on Food
 
Michael Vick's Job: CONSTRUCTION Worker (BYE BYE MILLIONS) Top
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Suspended NFL star Michael Vick began to outline plans for life after prison Friday, telling a judge his time behind bars gave him a chance to reflect and that he hopes to play pro football for another 10 years. The ex-Atlanta Falcons quarterback, who is serving a 23-month prison sentence for bankrolling a dogfighting operation, said he knows he committed a "heinous" act that was very irresponsible. "I can't live like the old Mike Vick," he told a courtroom filled with his family, friends and fiancee. "I was very immature. I did a lot of things I wasn't supposed to do being a role model." In prison, he's filled his days by reading, writing, playing basketball and working a 12-cent-an-hour job as a janitor, he said. The experience has given him a chance to develop he called "an exit strategy." Vick is testifying as part of a hearing to evaluate his plan to emerge from financial ruin, and is expected to explain parts of his bankruptcy plan while on the stand. He was once one of the NFL's highest-paid players, but lavish spending and poor investments, coupled with the backlash from his dogfighting case, led to his downfall. Vick filed for bankruptcy in July claiming assets of $16 million and debts of more than $20 million. His plan to pay his creditors is based largely on the goal of returning to a professional football career. When Judge Frank Santoro asked Vick how many more years he thinks he could play in the NFL, he said he thinks he has another decade on the field if he's reinstated. "If I keep my body in shape, and do the right things, I think I have maybe 10 or 12 more years in my career," Vick said. Vick is expected to be released from custody in July, and traveled from a federal prison in Kansas to attend the hearing. He could be transferred to home confinement at his eastern Virginia home by late May, and his agent testified Thursday that he hopes Vick can return to the NFL by September. In order for that to happen, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell would have to reinstate Vick, who was suspended indefinitely after he was indicted on the dogfighting conspiracy charge in 2007. Goodell has said he would consider Vick's case after his release. Vick testifed that he's optimistic about his chances at being reinstated, "if I do the right things, if I keep showing I'm remorseful, show true remorse." Vick's agent, Joel Segal, said on the stand Thursday that he would try to negotiate a short-term contract filled with incentives for playing time and starts that could bring in millions. He also said Vick has agreed to plans for a television documentary that will pay him $600,000. Earlier this week, Vick and the Falcons agreed he would repay $6.5 million of his Atlanta contract, moving closer to cutting ties with a team that doesn't want him. Segal said he hasn't spoken to teams because Vick is still under contract with the Falcons, but that he is in shape and will be prepared for his return. "There will be determination like we've never seen before to be structured and disciplined," Segal said. A committee representing most of Vick's unsecured creditors has endorsed his Chapter 11 plan because the alternative _ a Chapter 7 liquidation of his assets _ would not provide them any portion of his future earnings. But some other parties, including a former agent who won a $4.6 million judgment against Vick, opposed the plan. One of his sources of income will come from a job he'll take when he is sent to home confinement. Vick will have a 40-hour-a-week, $10-an-hour job at one of W.M. Jordan Co.'s 40 commercial construction jobs, said John Robert Lawson, whose father helped start the Newport News company. Lawson, 57, said that he has known Vick for more than 10 years and that they have been involved in charitable work together. He said Vick's representatives approached him when the former hometown hero was turned away by other employers. "I believe all of us make mistakes, and once you've fulfilled your commitment and paid the price, you should be given a second chance," Lawson said in a telephone interview. "He's not a bad person. He made some bad choices." ___ Associated Press Writers Larry O'Dell and Steve Szkotak contributed to this report. More on Sports
 
Deborah Jiang Stein: Who The Self Am I? Top
Since when is race funny, or a topic for humor? Is now really the time to poke fun and play around with race, or with anything else, for that matter? After all, the world economy tanked in 2008. Who can laugh? I, for one. And you should, too. We all need it once in a while. Many onces, actually. Especially now. When Barack Obama announced his Mutt Club membership on November 7, 2008 in his first press conference since being elected, well...not to be arrogant or anything, but I didn't join his club, he joined my Mutt Squad. Little did he know I'd been concocting edgy micro-essays for my own personal muttness for years, where I took on my self-proclaimed role of Chief Mutt Correspondent. Where else is there as qualified a candidate as me? Oh, I know there are others out there, but I stand out from the rest - okay, I'm going to brag here - I have a few more mutt credits than most. More than anyone I've ever met. So, ignore any derogatory definitions that you've ever heard for the word "mutt." Think of it to mean a multi of anything, and a shift of the word from anything offensive. In fact, it's the opposite. Think Mutt Pride. This is the launch of the Mutt Pride Movement! It's about time we had our place in the world. Here's a nugget of proof about the Mutt Movement. Urbandictionary.com just accepted my creation of a mutt-ossary, with definitions for muttilicious, muttcellent, muttitude, muttificient, muttnormous, and muttsy as new words in their dictionary. We need this new etymology because we're everywhere. While Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Mariah Carey, Halle Berry, and others have brought multiracial awareness to the forefront, the surge in multiracial Americans crosses political, economic, and social lines. CNN cites the United States' number of racially blended families of all ethnicities as seven million. I doubt many out there are 100% anything. If you take a look back at your family history, I bet you'll find "muttness" throughout. Just by doing so, you can call yourself a mutt, and you'll be one degree closer to our President. As you look further, you may discover what Dr. Ira B. Berlin, a professor of American history at the University of Maryland states. He believes that if any branch of someone's family has been in America since the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, it's highly likely they "will find an African and an American Indian." Granted, you may not have my mutt ingredients, but then, do you really want them? I'm a Mutt of the First Order from the sovereignty of Muttdom. o One of seven million multiracial people in the United States. (I'm bits and pieces of plenty: Greek, Asian, Latina, and a document suggesting the "one drop of blood" rule...plus I'm Jewish, with an affinity toward Eastern philosophies.) o One of 3+ billion females in the world (the U.S. has around 4.8 million more females than males; no wonder it's hard to find a good man.) o One of millions of entrepreneurs. o One of who-knows-how-many billions of mothers in the world. That's the every day part of my muttness. Here's where it goes off the charts, and hang on. I'm also: o One of some: babies born in prison. o One of some: born heroin-addicted o One of millions of former foster kids o One of millions of adoptees, and millions of adoptive parents o One of many former drug addicts, and ... well, there's even more. But I'm the mother of little kids, so I'll save the rest for another time. My girls have enough to absorb about their mutty mother without adding any more. It's got to be challenging having a mutt for a mother! Speaking of motherhood, news anchor Solidad O'Brien, has a realistic take on the mama-role: "I embrace the chaos," she says. She's an authentic mutt, Her father is Australian (his parents are Irish, therefore the surname O'Brien) and her mother is of Cuban heritage. If you're white, though, and not a multiracial mutt like me, don't dishearten. There're all kinds of mutts. You could be a career mutt. What the mutt is that? Let's say you're an SEC Commissioner during the day (if so, I bet you wish you weren't these days), a stem cell research scientist at night, and a hip-hop hot dawg roller skater on weekends. Then every August, you're the shoe editor for Manolo Blahnik's fall line. You've got to pay for your $14,000 Manolo Blahnik alligator boots somehow! And I thought I was mutty. But this is not just about race. We're all hybrids, and no matter who or what we are, it's our attitude in life that really counts. What's attitude got to do with anything? It's personal and different for each individual, but it's simple. How aligned are you with your own truths? How do you treat others? What values do you hold high? No longer do bank accounts, stock portfolios, SUV's, or square footage of summer homes seem to make much difference in defining the American identity. If you're lucky, like me, you removed yourself from those definitions, by choice, or by force. It's often easy to discover our outsides, our race or ancestry. And if you don't know, there's always DNA testing. That's what I had to do. But most importantly, look inside yourself. That's where our truths rest. Whatever you are on the outside, defined by skin color, race or ethnicity, dig deep, and know yourself inside. Know what truly matters to you and understand yourself. Most of all, every once in a while, just to make sure you're connected to your true core, ask yourself, "Who the self am I?" Whatever you find inside when you explore there, make sure to keep the lamp of humor lit. A little humor goes a long ways in facing the bumps of life. More on Barack Obama
 
Carl Pope: Enemies of the People Top
Washington, D.C. -- When I first saw Henrik Ibsen's play about a town that ostracizes a doctor for publicizing the fact that the town's mineral baths are seriously contaminated, back in the 1960s, it seemed dated. According to how I had been taught American history, such a cover-up was once possible, but the Progressive era, the two Roosevelts, and the New Deal had transformed America into a modern, thoughtful public-health-committed country. How naive that reaction seems today. You could do a relevant modern production of that play this month with only a few changes. The issue, however, is a far more massive public health threat than any Ibsen ever imagined -- it's the threat of superbugs. These are diseases that no antibiotic can control and that result from using overcrowded, factory-feedlot livestock as four-legged germ-warfare laboratories. Seventy percent of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are fed to healthy animals -- well, animals that would be healthy if they weren't overcrowded and improperly fed. These antibiotics are used on animals that are not sick in order to prevent disease from erupting in these facilities. Such massive prophylactic use of antibiotics encourages bacteria to develop resistant strains, and now medicine is on the verge of running out of drugs that haven't been rendered useless for human health by being misused to allow animal abuse. So New York Congresswoman Louise Slaughter -- the only microbiologist in Congress -- has assumed the role played in Ibsen's drama by Dr. Stockmann. She's introduced a bill to ban the nontherapeutic use of antibiotics in livestock. And agribusiness rose in protest. Bob Stallman, president of the American Farm Bureau, claimed that since farmers used these drugs "carefully, judiciously and according to label instructions" there was no problem. "Antibiotic use in animals does not pose a serious public health threat" he asserted. Oh? Last year scientists tested pork being sold in Louisiana stores. Ten percent of the samples tested positive for a single antibiotic-resistant strain of staph called MRSA. Another study of retail meats in Washington was better -- only .3 percent -- but even that rate shows that feeding antibiotics to healthy pigs is, in fact, breeding superbugs. A peer reviewed study by Medical Clinics of North America concluded that feeding drugs to healthy animals was a "major component" in antibiotic resistance. The Infectious Diseases Society of America calls this a "public health crisis." Why do doctors and agribusiness disagree so vehemently? Well, if you read what the Farm Bureau says carefully, they argue that the superbugs in pigs don't survive cooking your pork chop -- which is technically true but fatally flawed. First, the bugs in uncooked meat end up on cooking surfaces and inadequately washed hands and can contaminate consumers indirectly in a host of ways. But more importantly, the issue is not whether we are exposed to superbugs through eating meat -- it's where we breed them. Because once these bacteria take hold down on the farm, they spread on their own, not just through the meat counter. But by defining their arguments to the question of whether superbugs survive cooking heat, the Farm Bureau avoids the real issue -- this debate should be a doozie as Slaughter's bill makes its way through Congress.
 
Dallas Cowboys Band: "FREE REIGN": Players ROCK (VIDEO) Top
Yeah ... hard to know what to make of this one. It was suggested that I check out Dallas "metal" band Free Reign, so I dutifully Googled the group's MySpace page. Among the foursome's members, Dallas Cowboys linemen Marc Colombo (vocals/guitar), Cory Procter (drums) and Leonard Davis (bass). Wow. Free Reign is what I'd imagine it would be like if someone put the insanity of The Super Bowl Shuffle and an unhealthy love of sludgy, Slipknot/Papa Roach-style hard rock into a blender and hit puree. Musically, it's competent, but lyrically, Free Reign needs to head back to the drawing board. I will give the fellas this: All in Vain provided some of the heartiest chuckles I've had in a while. WATCH: More on Sports
 
Lisa Derrick: John Irving on Same Sex Marriage: Civil Unions Aren't Equal Enough! Top
This letter arrives via Rex Wockner , a San Diego- based syndicated journalist via author Edmund White. Author John Irving (The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules) wrote his thoughts on same sex marriage in Vermont and emailed them to author Edmund White, asking him to forward them on. Edmund White wrote: Dear Rex--Here is a letter to me from the famous (straight) novelist John Irving (The World According to Garp) about the marriage bill in Vermont. He would like you to make it widely available. Thanks, Edmund Whit e Dear Edmund It's interesting that, as you and I are comparing our calendars to see when we might get together in Vermont -- and while we are both engaged in overseeing the editing and copy-editing phase of our new books -- my fellow Vermonters are deciding the fate of a gay marriage bill, which I very much support, and which has been supported by the Vermont State Senate (by a wide margin)... don't need to tell you that there are many people outside Vermont who are watching to see what my home state does about the S.115 legislation; I believe that gays, and all Americans committed to equality, are looking hopefully at Vermont right now. As a country, don't we lag behind Europe and Canada on the acceptance of gay people? I am proud of the Vermont Senate for passing this bill by such a commanding margin. But wait a minute; I mustn't overlook our governor, Jim Douglas (R.). Around the state, I hear rumors that our governor has national ambitions of a conservative kind. Indeed, Gov. Douglas's threatened veto of this important and timely legislation puts him on the wrong side of history; people opposed to gay marriage will soon belong among such dinosaurs as those who stood in opposition to African-Americans in Martin Luther King's time, or those other dinosaurs who once denied equal rights for women... My question for Gov. Douglas is: Why should it matter to straight couples if gay couples want to be married? How insecure must heterosexuals be in order to feel threatened by gay marriage? Civil unions aren't good enough -- they're not equal enough!... The full text of John Irving's letter to Edmund White is here Lisa Deriick is La Figa at Firedoglake.com More on Gay Marriage
 
Murray Fromson: News From the Muddled East Top
When I first visited the Golan Heights as a reporter a few weeks after Israel captured it in 1967 and walked through the rubble of what remained of the Syrian army, I could not imagine that 42 years later, the territory would still be central to a solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. But to read the latest account by Seymour Hersh of conversations he had about the Golan in Damascus, Washington, Istanbul and even the Persian Gulf , it is impossible to escape the impression that while there's a glimmer of hope, the prospect for peace in the Middle East still is as muddled as ever. Writing in the latest issue (April 6) of The New Yorker , Hersh discloses serious conversations he has had with Bashir Assad, the president of Syria, and a shadowy world of diplomats, former diplomats, politicians, intelligence officers and government officials he quotes off the record. Hersh is a skilled investigative journalist. From what he reports, the path to a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian mess, easing America's prolonged tension with Syria and Iran and the prospect of an overall regional peace agreement may depend on the fate and future of the Golan Heights. The problem is complicated by the pain of the past. Neither Israelis or Syrians are able to forget what one side did to the other historically. For years before the 1967 war began, Israeli kibbutzniks lived beneath the shadow and terror of Syrian artillery and mortar barrages. The Syrians consider the continued occupation of the Golan Heights a humiliation that can only be ended by an Israeli withdrawal. According to Hersh, only then would Assad be willing to negotiate some agreement, perhaps enabling the Israelis to remain on the Golan Heights under the Syrian flag. Four hundred and fifty square miles of the territory is rich in Biblical history and, crucially, water," says Hersh. But in the wake of the '67 war, "Syria was left with no access to the Sea of Galilee or the upper Jordan River. Roughly twenty-thousand Israeli settlers live in the Golan now." They have built towns, vineyards, cattle ranches and boutique hotels in its valleys and ski resorts on its strategic heights. It would require a miracle to convince those people to leave the land they have developed for so long. Resolution of the Golan Heights problem could lead to a settlement of other thorny issues that are part of the Middle East process, according to Hersh. He confirms what other visitors to Damascus, including Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have said recently: Syria is anxious to engage with the West. That could have an impact on Damascus' support of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and even on Iran's hostility toward the United States and, just possibly, Israel. The process may be initiated by special envoy, George Mitchell. Ultimately, an agreement would have to be signed off by President Obama. But his power to negotiate will depend on the Israeli prime minister's willingness to compromise. Given Benjamin Netanyahu's history and language, it's difficult to imagine him fostering peaceful relations with the Syrians, the Palestinians or the mullahs in Iran. The inclusion of an Arab-hating politician in his cabinet as foreign minister most assuredly will be a red flag to any country in the world of Israel's enemies. The Golan Heights is far away, but the president's announcement this week of a new aid package for Pakistan, partially designed to foster better relations with India, and damp down their historic conflict over Kashmir reminded me of a summer day in 1965 when I was having lunch in Saigon with Frank Stanton, the retired president of CBS. Our bureau chief rushed up to me and said I had to fly to New Delhi immediately to coordinate coverage of the latest Indo-Pakistani war over Kashmir. I explained that I did not have enough cash available to make the trip, but Stanton reached into his pocket and quickly gave me ten crisp $100 bills. A month later, I received a message from the network's business manager asking me to explain a napkin he had received from Stanton that had my signature and a notation on it that said, "I owe Frank Stanton $1,000." The debt was settled quickly, but the war between India and Pakistan has dragged on into its 60th year. The lesson of these two disconnected stories about the Golan Heights and Kashmir is the need for patience. Americans rarely understand that disputes or wars over land are most often resolved over long periods of time and rarely are settled quickly. Barack Obama understands this. Patience and compromise are two of his strongest suits. Sometimes they work and sometimes they do not, but hardly ever with the snap of a finger. More on Barack Obama
 
Lisa Guest: The Outer Wrapper is Only the Outer Wrapper Top
There are miracles in everyday interactions. Often, when I least expect it, a person I come into contact with has incredibly special significance for me. When I'm paying attention, when I'm listening, when my feelers are up and out, wondrous unexpected moments unfold before my very eyes. After spinning, I met this incredible French woman named Monique in the 99¢ Store. I asked as we stood beside each other at the refrigerator door in the back where the eggs were located, "Do you think the eggs here are safe?" She was wearing a burgundy leather jacket that looked like it had seen better days. Under that she had a red sweatshirt that had fifty stains if it had one. She just happened to be the person standing there when I had that specific question on my mind. I was hoping to save myself a trip to another store and get home, if I could just get past the thought that these 99¢ eggs were really too old to be on better store's shelves. "Yes, I always buy my eggs here," the bright eyed, red haired woman said. Upon opening her mouth I saw that she had remarkably clean and perfectly capped teeth. She then asked me, "Do you think this margarine which says it's made with Olive Oil and which claims to have NO TRANS FATS... is really free of trans fats?" We moved my cart over to the bread shelves, out of the way from the masses moving up and down the aisle. We talked about how much hard work health necessitated, how much energy dieting consumes, whether trusting the AMA to care about our health when they care most about the relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. We moved on to the billions of dollars lost in Iraq, Kevin Trudeau's Natural Cures book and how the FBI showed up at the Trudeau's house toting weapons. Somehow in just a few minutes, this bright educated woman and I were discussion therapy, relationships with our mothers, and the importance of daily walking. All that in about fifteen minutes. Many years ago her mother had come to visit from France. After a few days together the older woman said, "Monique, I think there are some things you need to go to therapy to work out." I asked her how long she'd been in therapy and what she'd gotten out of the process. "I was in therapy for a couple of years. My therapist was amazed because I take notes and 'so few bothered to really listen much less follow advice given.' What I learned most was how to accept criticism. I learned that hatred of others only hurts myself, and self love is a most important quality to develop." We exchanged numbers, names and went on our way. I threw back my Crispy Rice and Toasty Oats cereals she pointed out how much sugar and salt they both had. I checked out. When putting my bags in the car I remembered I'd also wanted lemons, grapefruits, broccoli, and cauliflower. I went back in and while standing in line again I snagged a Hershey's Heath Milk Chocolate combo bar. After hearing this older woman in remarkable health, slim and trim, tell me to learn not to put the junk into me or I'd become junk, I still succumbed. But I came home nibbling on only three little bites, then broke the rest of the bar up into little rectangles and put them in the heart tin given to me the day before for Valentine's. I hid the tin behind the big leather reading chair, on the third shelf down of my dairy section. Maybe I'll forget they are there. Maybe I'll throw them out. So much of life is about awareness... Before meeting her I might have had the bad cereal and the whole bar of chocolate. Now I just might escape the whole incident with only a mere taste of temptation. This woman, having gone through therapy with her eyes open, knew the process backwards and forwards, and was able to elucidate for me some very basics in life. Had I judged her on her stained shirt or the fact that I thought red and burgundy don't look good together, I'd have missed a wonderful encounter. I'm really glad I have that characteristic in my personality, I give people a chance as long as they don't smell horribly offensive to me. Maybe even that limitation I should work on. Who knew the 99¢ Store offered such profound value? http://authenticantenna.blogspot.com/2009/03/outer-wrapper-is-only-outer-wrapper.html
 
Christopher Herbert and Victoria Kataoka Rebuffet: Weekly Foreign Affairs Roundup Top
The Week's Top Stories in Foreign Affairs: New Israeli Leadership Sounds the Drumbeat to War Facts: Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, assumed control as Prime Minister of Israel thanks to a strange coalition between far-right parties and the left. He named Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the right-wing Israel Beiteinu, as Foreign Minister who bluntly stated, " those who wish for peace should prepare for war ." And he named Ehud Barak, leader of the Labor Party, Defense Minister. Though the EU and the US continue to call for continued pursuit of a two-state solution, Netanyahu announced last week that he expects "no pressure" from the US over peacemaking activities. SI Analysis : Though not as belligerent towards the recent peace efforts as his new Foreign Minister, PM Netanyahu has tried to distance himself from the sclerotic peace negotiation process and has said that he will focus on boosting the economy of the West Bank, while reaching a regional peace agreement and curtailing Iran's nuclear program. He has not clearly stated whether he believes the Palestinians deserve a state of their own. Thought leaders as varied as Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and Quartet leader Tony Blair say that the prospect of peace is greatly diminished with the new Israeli administration. Arab leaders expressed deep concern over the new administration's statements and some analysts, including US CENTCOM Commander General Petraeus , speculate that another incursion into Gaza or an attack on Iran are highly likely. Summary of Summits SI Analysis : This week saw the application of a new US foreign policy of integration: one that seeks to engage deeply with traditional allies as well as emerging or "rising" powers such as China and India. Such a policy reflects new realities of a US forced to lead in the face of global crisis but deeply dependent on myriad players. US President Obama tried to make a palpable break with the previous US Administration and set a tone of engagement with the world. Global leaders were forced to make commitments to the common "good" to restore the global economy and curb Islamist militancy in South Asia, while also taking care not to compromise their national interests. Some valueless posturing was to be seen, but substantive gains were indeed made on many fronts. In any case, though the dearth of US leadership capital is palpable, it is clear that no other country is remotely positioned to take up the slack. G20: London, England. Leaders of the world's 20 largest economies were in attendance. SI Analysis Highlights : Leaders committed $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to developing countries and made commitments to improve global financial transparency . The world media focused on the apparent conflict between "old" European calls for regulation pitted against American, British and Japanese calls for a global stimulus package. These reported "conflicts" detract from the true issue that both stimulus and regulations are needed and all parties were willing to see some measures of both but perhaps not enough of either. German and French opposition to stimulus reflects more their inability to conjure funds out of nowhere and domestic political imperatives to place blame elsewhere (After rejoining the military wing of NATO, Sarkozy's threat to walk out of the Summit was just posturing to affirm that "French exceptionalism" still exists). Efforts to set out ways to curb protectionism were made at least in name as were negotiations to give developing economies -- especially China and Saudi Arabia -- more leverage in the use of development funds and in the administration of the IMF . Arab Summit: Doha, Qatar. Many Arab leaders were in attendance as were several Latin American leaders. SI Analysis Highlights : After all was said and done, the general view is that the Arab Summit was a big failure . Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak didn't even come. No progress was made on the Palestinian issue . A large divide appeared between Arabs with a more favorable view to Iran and those traditionally opposed to Tehran , such as Saudi Arabia. Gas-rich Qatar has good relations with Iran, and a rumored surprise visit by Iranian President Ahmadinejad (he never actually came) kept many leaders wary. Ironically, one bit of progress resulted: the notorious Libyan leader Mu'ammar al- Qadhafi had a surprising reconciliation with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at the summit. The summit amounted to nothing more than a show of nominal unity... after all, the event was officially (and inimitably) called the Second Summit of Arab-South American Countries . UN Afghan Conference: The Hague, Netherlands. Leaders from 80 countries were in attendance, most importantly US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhundzadeh, and US Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke. SI Analysis Highlights : The summit was intended to give world leaders a forum to create ideas to help stabilize Afghanistan and deal with the rising Taliban insurgency. Strategies on how to engage with some "moderate Taliban" as well as luring regional war lords and militants away from the Taliban were discussed. There was general enthusiasm for the new US strategy in Afghanistan though little commitment for real support from key allies. Meanwhile back in Washington, US lawmakers and Pentagon officials evoked the possibility of increasing both spending and troops to Afghanistan (above the 21,000 newly committed) while increasing aid to Pakistan and debating the reliability of the Pakistani Intelligence Service. The new risk of a joint Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militant campaign against NATO forces, as well as Baitullah Mashud 's recent threats for increased violence in Pakistan, were assessed as well. All this being said, most of the attention was paid to what happened at the sidelines . The summit was a chance for US and Iranian diplomats to meet. And just as obscured as US-Iran relations are in reality, so was the confusing interaction between Akhundzadeh and Holbrooke. Following the summit, Clinton announced that the two men had a " brief and cordial exchange ". Iran came out the next day denying that such a meeting took place . Turkey's AfPak Summit: Ankara, Turkey. Turkish PM Recep Erdogan hosted Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. SI Analysis Highlights : Turkey further cemented its role as an arbiter for international conflict both in the Middle East and Central Asia (on the edge of Russia's sphere of influence). Little else was truly accomplished other than that both Zardari and Karzai paid lip service to better military cooperation to thwart Islamist extremists. Palestinian Unity Summit: Cairo, Egypt. Representatives from Egypt, Fatah and Hamas attended. SI Analysis Highlights : In the third effort in as many months to form a unity government, talks were almost immediately suspended for three weeks so that parties could consult their leadership on new proposals. Many feel that the lack of support, attention and unity coming from the Arab Summit in Qatar did nothing to spur Palestinian talks along. Others say that the position of the new Israeli government may in fact encourage greater unity shortly. Meetings of Minds: Obama - Hu Jintao: China's emergent prominence in global economic affairs underscored this meeting. The US sought to reassure China as to its efforts to curb inflation and keep the dollar sound in the face of the global economic crisis. China discussed moving the main reserve currency away from the dollar, but that idea did not gain any real traction for now. Most importantly, the parties pledged to work together as equal partners through bolstering the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue . Obama-Singh : Both sides expressed a desire to strengthen their relationship. Indian PM Manmohan Singh stated his case against protectionism with regards to the global financial crisis but focused mainly on how to work with the US on fighting Islamist militancy in the region (which could include qualifying some US aid to Pakistan). Obama encouraged India to work with Pakistan on security and the resolution longstanding disputes. Obama - Medvedev: This was the first meeting between Medvedev and Obama. The two leaders pledged renewed cooperation and made a political commitment to reach a START-II treaty by the end of the year. Key issues were discussed such as NATO expansion, Missile Defense in Eastern Europe, Iran and Russia's sphere of influence in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Medvedev-Merkel: On Tuesday, Medvedev met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin to coordinate their agendas before going to the G20 summit. The two leaders called for a change to the global economic "architecture". Medvedev went so far as to reiterate his call for a new global currency system that rejects protectionism and promotes advances in international trade. Medvedev-Brown: While press reports on this meeting were scarce, the meeting between the British Prime Minister and the Russian President was expected to discuss energy transportation to Europe and improving bilateral ties that have soured in recent years. Medvedev-Hu Jintao: On Wednesday, the two leaders met in London. The two leaders agreed to carry out existing bilateral trade and energy deals while implimenting new ones. No specifics were determined for any new plans. Many analysts agree that Sino-Russian cooperation guarantees these two large economies a greater say in the global financial system. Ongoing or Upcoming Summits: NATO Summit in Baden-Baden, Germany and Strasbourg, France: On the occassion of NATO's 60th Anniversary, US President Obama will seek to secure more NATO member commitment to the new US Strategy in Afghanistan , while welcoming the latest members Croatia and Albania and pondering the raison d'etre of the international body. Most NATO nations are expected to disappoint US President Obama's expectations for more troops in Afghanistan . A growing number of analysts remark on how Obama's presidency presents a challenge to European leaders who are used to a unilateral American foreign policy. Obama has proven himself to be conciliatory with a priority on alliance building . US/EU Summit in Prague: The summit will be held on April 5 and 6. Obama is expected to give a speech reiterating his calls for trans-Atlantic unity. US-Turkey Summit in Ankara: The summit will be held on April 6 and 7. This meeting is possibly the most important for Obama in terms of promoting a new US foreign policy. Obama is expected to reaffirm bilateral ties with Turkey while courting an increasingly anti-American populace. Most significantly, Obama is expected to lay out a " fundamentally new US foreign policy in the region " with more nuance with regards to Israel and the Iraq War. Important to note, this trip will not include a much anticipated speech discussing American relations with the Muslim world. Curiously, Turkish press reports that Iranian opposition leader Mohammad Khatami will be in Turkey while Obama is there, leaving some to guess that Ankara is trying its hardest to continue in its self-made role as international arbiter. Hodge-Podge and Under the Radar: Deal of the Week: Russia and Azerbaijan on Gas Facts : On March 27, Russia's Gazprom and the State Oil Company of
 
Lester Sloan: Two by Earth, Three by Fire: Detroit Revisited Top
For once there is some good news when I arrive in Detroit: the city is hosting the Final Four and Michigan State University has high hopes of going to the big dance. The city's teams win big (The Red Wings Stanley Cup winners) or lose big (the Lions 0 and 16 for last season). It's a team town; when we play together, we win together. We often fall a great distance because we attempt to soar so high. Sound familiar? It's an American thing. We.... are you! It has only been a few months since my last visit, and it feels good to be back. Anderson Cooper had just finished his 360 around Detroit and never found the heart of the city. Hundred dollar houses. Yea! Once owned by people who worked and scraped hard to buy a piece of the American dream and then had the rug was ripped out from under them. If you're going to tell the story about Detroit, it needs more of a Clint Eastwood "Gran Torino" treatment than a 360 from a storyteller who parachutes in and Jet Blues out. One trip to Eastern Market on a Saturday morning would have told him more about the spirit of Detroit than all of his interviews in Warren, Michigan. An afternoon with fishermen who gather at the foot of Alter Road on the Detroit River would have provided him with a chorus of voices that believes anything is possible despite the odds. As promised, Rodney McDonald, my best friend and life-long buddy, is waiting outside of exit 3 at McNamara Terminal, the trunk of his 3-year-old Mercury popped open. Despite his fishing gear and golf shoes, there is plenty of room for my camera case and a small bag. In brief deference to my aversion to cigarette smoke, Rodney flips the last of his Pall Mall out the window as I get in. He will light up another before we reach I-94 heading into the city. "What's up Macs?" "One more payment and I'm finished with this sucker," he says, reaching for his cigarette lighter. Since his retirement from Ford several years ago, Rodney has continued to buy a new car every three years. He gets a great discount and believes in supporting the employer that afforded he and his family a solid middle class lifestyle. Like several of my friends, he became an automotive worker right out of high school. We were the children of the men and women who were a part of the "Great Migration" to the north -- black men who rode the rails to get to a place where lynchings weren't an everyday reality. They went ahead and later, like my father, brought their wives. Ford earned the allegiance of its workers, especially from African Americans, early on. Blacks from the south, fleeing Jim Crow laws and lynchings, found their way to the assembly lines of the company's River Rouge plant. Those who became members of Second Baptist Church in Greek Town were given preferential treatment and recruited through the church. Historically, Second Baptist was the last stop of the Underground Railroad before it crossed over to Canada. By the late 1920's and 30's it was also the pathway to economic freedom via the Ford Motor Company, from chattel to citizens. In time, these workers became Reuther's boys, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union headed up by the organizer and labor leader Walter Reuther. They came in when the assembly line was the method of production and by the time they retired, Robotics had thinned the ranks of the line workers. Rodney had made a transition long before that, moving from line worker to a supervisory position in shipping and receiving at the company's Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. "You not buying a new car this year?" I ask. "Nope! Uncertain times. For now, I'll put new tires on this sucker and keep the oil changed." Rodney is a realist with the heart of a dreamer. He keeps his nose in the wind and tries to anticipate what's around the corner. He also moves fast in emergencies. A few years back when the city was darkened by power outages, he went around to the local market and bought up all the bottled water. Candles he already had. He's also a movie buff who, as a kid, dressed and danced like Fred Astaire, and played baseball like Willie Mays. He was the first kid I knew who wore suits to events other than weddings and funerals. He took up fencing at 65 and watches most of the cooking shows. A few years ago, he started storing canned goods and other staples on newly installed shelves in his basement. He goes to the discount store every three months and stocks up on meats and dried goods. He calls it "circling the wagons." He has a state-of-the-art barbecue grill in his garage and during the spring,summer and fall he and his neighbor Harvey sit in the backyard cooking ribs, chicken and sausage. Friends make a habit of passing by and checking for smoke. If a plume is spotted, some hurry off to the local market and buy a six-pack and a slab of ribs to throw on his grill. Harvey, not a native Detroiter, is a driver for a local mortuary. "How is Harvey?" I wonder out loud. "The other day he was by the Hat Shop," Rodney says, referring to a local hang out in the neighborhood. "And I asked him how things were going." "We put away five today," Harvey told him. "Two by earth, three by fire." "The cost of a burial is getting to be too much for some people," Rodney explains, his version of an economic forecast. You can always count on him to come up with an observation that sheds a different light on a situation. I remember back in the day when Detroit was getting national attention because of the fires that occurred around Halloween, on what they called "Devil's Night." Wikipedia explains, "Devil's Night is a long-standing tradition predating World War II, with anecdotal incidents occurring as early as the 1930s. Traditionally, youths in Detroit engaged in a night of criminal behavior, which usually consisted of acts of vandalism (such as throwing eggs at the homes of neighbors, scribbling on windows with bar soap, or stringing toilet paper in trees). These were almost exclusively petty vandalism acts, causing little to no property damage other than perhaps a damaged mailbox or eggs hardening on windows." News organizations had the nation convinced that Detroiters went insane every year, but Rodney knew there was another side to the story. Absentee landlords, in an effort to cash in on their hard-to-sell insured properties in the city, were hiring arsonists to set fire to their buildings. Both Rodney and I grew up on the east side of the city where a lot of the fires occurred. Word got around that the fires were the handy work of a character called "the torch," an arsonist who worked for the highest bidder. Detroit has become the nation's poster child for despair: racial tension, declining property values, chronic unemployment, a school system that serves itself but not it students. Less than half of Detroit kids graduate from high school. The city is now defined by its failures, not its successes. But from the 50's to the late 80's Detroit was a place where people could still find a job, buy a home and live a relatively safe and comfortable existence. As early as 1958 a leading black publication picked it as one of the best places in the nation for African Americans to live. According to Rodney, the 70's and 80's were "quality times for auto workers. Chrysler and Ford gave big bonuses to workers who were willing to freeze their salaries. These bonuses were sometimes between six and eight thousand dollars." In 1967 there was a riot. That had less to do with racial tension than police aggression. But it hastened white flight to the suburbs, which depended on Detroit for their livelihood. A well designed freeway system allowed commuters in outlying areas to reach the city in less time that it takes residents of Santa Monica to drive the ten miles to downtown LA. A declining tax base, aggravated by industries fleeing to the suburbs and later the South, put an added burden on the city and its inhabitants. Detroiters pay more in property taxes than people in Los Angeles. And I'm not aware of any other city where the citizens, in addition to property taxes, pay seasonal taxes on their property. When we were making the cars that packed the nation's highways, and creating the music that had the entire world dancing, it was a different story. We were Motown! Ironically, it is still Detroit that gives the suburbs a sense of place and America a reason to hope. Long before there was a Silicon Valley, there was Detroit. We were an industrial model for the rest of the world. Americans should be the last ones to try and turn this great city into an icon of despair. Trample on our symbols and you trample on our dreams! We should neither let the Washington Mall nor this great city go to seed. In our part of the world, we have the greatest systems of lakes on the planet. The St. Lawrence Seaway could take wind turbines, solar panels and hybrid cars to the rest of the world. And the idle workers from this city's automotive plants will be key to the success of these new industries. Detroit will rise again from both dirt and the ashes. Get on board as we chart a course to a new tomorrow. Before dropping me off at my house, we take a ride down Woodward Avenue, past the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and the Main Library where I used to work. We end up at a bar and grill called the Northern Lights over behind the old GM building, which is now the Detroit office for the State of Michigan. This is my first time, but Rodney has been going there since the early 60's. In fact, he brought his daughter here the week before for lunch. We have a great hamburger with fried onions, lettuce and a slice of tomato. My diabetes tells me to skip the fries. He orders a beer and I a Diet Coke. We talk about old times and departed friends. He lights up a Pall Mall and blows out a halo of smoke that seems to frame the moment. More on Anderson Cooper
 
Nicholas Negroponte: Afghanis Desperately want to Learn and aren't Afraid to Do So: Washington can't be Afraid to Help Them Top
This is a guest post from my colleague Matt Keller, Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa for One Laptop per Child. He recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan. I was saddened to learn on Wednesday that Mohammad Anwar Khan, the Director of Education for Kandahar, was killed in a suicide attack. Mr. Anwar Khan, was one of the faces of Afghanistan that you likely haven't met. A member of a growing group of brave Afghanis, fighting to give education a chance, in the "land of the unruly." I recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan ( some photos here ), where I was taken aback by the members of this group, and their overwhelming desire to make education a top priority for their war-torn country. Prior to going to Kabul, I believed that I would be met with fear and archaic thinking. Fear that girls should never be given the tools to learn, because they may be attacked for them, and archaic thinking, because I was there to talk about the introduction of a fairly sophisticated technology in a land where many people live as though it is the 17th century. What stunned me was the exact opposite reaction of everyone I spoke with. The desire for knowledge and connection, the hunger for an end to isolation and the dream of education for all was tangible. The people I spoke with - including the Ministers of Education and Communications - were predominately young, and had come back to their homeland after years away during the wretched regime of the Taliban. And yet here they were, risking life and well-being to make their country rich in resources and most importantly knowledge. I was there to discuss the One Laptop per Child initiative with the Afghani Ministers, UN agencies, NGOs, and Afghani students - both young and old. What I heard from every government minister, UN Director and Afghani student was the need for new tools to assist with education reform - in what remains a dangerous and unforgiving place. In the south, where it is increasingly common for girls to be attacked on their way to school - and I use the term "school" only in the roughest sense - education officials are desperate for tools, which would give girls the ability to learn and connect from the safety of their home, empowering them to satiate their thirst for education, while ending their crushing isolation. Our non-profit's dream - like the Afghani people's - is to connect and help educate a world of children by giving them the power to take charge of their own learning. Imagine Afghanistan 20 years from now if every primary school child in the country - including every girl - had within his or her hands the ability to access a universe of knowledge and a world of ideas far beyond their most wild imaginings. It sounds far-fetched, but it really isn't. Only seven years ago, there were roughly 800,000 students in Afghanistan, and most if not all were forced to study the Koran and to memorize it. Now, there are roughly 6.2 million students in Afghanistan, most of whom make some sacrifice to even attend school. Because an entire generation was lost to education, the shortage of qualified teachers is epic, but the will of the people to learn is equally so. Clearly progress has been made, but it's not enough. I came away from my experience there with the firm conviction that with all its talk of "Smart Power," the new Administration in Washington must do more to reach this generation of Afghani students, especially girls. Just a short time ago, we rolled out 500 laptops in Jalalabad as the first step that will see 5,000 connected laptops in the hands of Afghani children over the next year. It's drop in the bucket, but it's a start, and the children who received them are already doing extraordinary things with their computers. But much, much more needs to be done to educate children in Afghanistan, and it must be done by this Administration, and it must be done now. If it's not, then stunningly brave public servants like Mohammad Anwar Khan, who work tirelessly to revitalize a broken educational system, will continue to die in vein and we will have missed an opportunity to create a real and lasting peace in their nation. On the final night of my visit, a young woman and her friends who attend university in Kabul hosted me for dinner. Against my great protestations, they insisted they pay for the meal on the condition of one promise: That I go back and tell people that Afghani girls desperately want to learn and are not afraid to do so. We shouldn't be afraid to help them. More on Afghanistan
 
Rev. Debra Haffner: Don't Call Yourself Progressive If You Don't Support Sexual Justice Top
You know when marriage equality comes to Iowa that lesbian and gay equality has become a mainstream American value. Yet the Iowa court decision recognizing marriage rights for same-sex couples arrived the very week that new articles appeared in Newsweek , the Washington Post and U.S. News and World Report about which religious leaders in America can claim the progressive mantle. Sexual justice, the area in which I focus my ministry , seems to be the clear dividing line. Let me be clear: You cannot call yourself a religious progressive if you don't support full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens, if you don't support women's moral agency regarding abortion, or if you don't support comprehensive sexuality education that gives our young people the life-saving information they need. But you won't hear certain self-described "progressive religious leaders" standing up or speaking out for these issues. The growing rift between the religious left and religious progressives, which Dan Gilgoff explores in U.S. News , has been brewing for a while, and sexuality is at the heart of it. Many religious leaders who call themselves progressive believe there is much common ground to be found with conservative evangelicals. I agree, when the issues are poverty, immigration, Iraq and climate change. But they also contend (naively, in my view) that there is common ground on sexuality issues, such as abortion and LGBT rights, that will bring about what Newsweek terms "a ceasefire in the culture wars." For instance, there are evangelical and Catholic leaders, and those who court them, who insist that the Obama Administration is promoting an "abortion reduction" strategy. This misrepresents the administration's commitment to reducing unintended pregnancies and the need for abortion, as clearly stated on the White House web site . This may sound like semantics, but there is a large, pragmatic gap between "abortion reduction" and "reducing the need for abortion," and therein lies the controversy. "Abortion reduction" is promoted by those who support restricting abortion access, through such measures as parental notification, waiting periods and mandatory sonogram laws, or by making it illegal outright. No true progressive would advocate any strategy to make abortion services more difficult to obtain. For progressives, reducing the need for abortion means comprehensive sexuality education, family planning and contraceptive services to reduce the rate of unintended pregnancy. Yet conservatives insist on abstinence-only-until-marriage programs and argue that many common means of contraception are abortifacients. Those advocating a centrist position are even more reticent on matters of LGBT equality, although that too is increasingly a mainstream position. A Newsweek poll last year found that 87% of Americans believe in equal rights for lesbian and gay Americans in terms of job opportunities. That same poll, and others, demonstrated majority support for legalized same-sex partnerships (marriage or civil unions), adoption rights and military service for openly lesbian and gay citizens. How can any self-described progressive religious leader not be a vocal advocate of such positions? I have fought for sexual justice my entire life. It is a progressive value I hold dear. So I say to my colleagues across the religious spectrum: Join me in supporting sexual justice, or stop calling yourself progressive.
 
DNC Hits Cantor For "Overreacting" Remarks In Ad (VIDEO) Top
The DNC continues to needle House Whip Eric Cantor for remarks he made on Thursday , in which he said Washington D.C. and perhaps Democrats in particular, were "overreacting" to the economic crisis. The committee released a new web ad on Friday highlighting what spokesman Hari Sevugan described as Cantor's "belief that we are overreacting to the worst economic crisis in the last 75 years and his preference to just say 'No' to measures meant to set the economy back on track." Such an insinuation was vigorously disputed by Cantor's office, who said the remark was a general commentary on how the White House has tried to implement government spending proposals that can't be justified by their stimulative effect. But clearly, the DNC smells blood. Watch: Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter .
 
Afghanistan Threatens To Be NATO's Downfall: David Paul Kuhn Top
As Afghanistan goes, so goes Nato. Interviews across the US foreign policy establishment reveal a unified belief that the authority of the transatlantic alliance will be won or lost in the Afghan war. More on Afghanistan
 
Karen Stabiner: The Double-Tall, Extra-Hot, Skim Cappuccino Stimulus Plan Top
As world leaders ponder how to remedy the global economic mess, a shout-out to the team at the Starbucks at Third Avenue and 23rd Street in Manhattan, for acting as though life is good. As though they do not work for a company that has closed hundreds of stores and live in a city where Wall Street's woes have made it possible to get a restaurant reservation after 5:30 and before 10:30 on a weekend, where hotels are still proclaiming "winter sales" in a desperate attempt to draw customers, where landlords are slashing rents and offering places to people with less than sterling credit. On that last bit, actually, my search for a closet-sized apartment for the NYU daughter yielded primarily corporate landlords and realtors of questionable expertise who wanted me to prove that I earn 100 times the still-stiff rents. Please email me immediately if you know how to get in touch with the more benevolent landlords other people seem to be dealing with. But back to Starbucks, where the crew does all of the following: They greet customers with genuine good cheer, with the latte version of whatever it is that sushi chefs holler when you walk in the door. They make eye contact, they fill orders promptly, they rarely make mistakes, and if they do they correct them promptly, with an apology. They wipe down the counters and the tables and restock the milk and sugar before they need to, and when the undergrad who had imbibed something that was not coffee fell into a stupor than spanned three chairs at the counter, they gently woke him up, guided him out the door, and really cleaned the space he had inhabited before they let anybody else sit down. They remember regulars' regular drinks, even if these days it's likelier to be a cheaper drip. One afternoon I ordered a cold drink before I realized that I had grabbed my Metrocard instead of my Starbucks card and had no cash. They gave it to me anyhow and said I could pay for it the next time I came in. So this morning, when I went in to buy what would be the last cappuccino of the trip, I felt sad. I realized that I had probably gone in for coffee more often than I otherwise might have -- the hotel had free joe on the tenth floor -- because it was such a pleasant experience. On the southwest corner of Third Avenue and 23rd Street, I witnessed two performances daily of life as it once was, when we all felt pretty okay. Go visit if you're in the neighborhood. There has been a lot of talk lately about the psychology of economics, and about President Obama's optimism -- not the silly Pollyanna kind, but an informed, determined alternative to gloom and doom. Attitude is supposed to matter. If it does, the gang at this particular Starbucks could be the start of something big. And if you're a regular, please let them know what the dark-haired woman with the ponytail and the glasses had to say. After you send me the contact info about the kindly landlords, that is. Studio. Somewhere in the general vicinity of NYU. Please. More on Stimulus Package
 
Senate Guru: MN-Sen: What is Norm Coleman's End Game? Top
{ Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru . } People who live in the world of logic and reason might wonder what Republican Norm Coleman's end game is, as - logically and reasonably speaking - it is not clear. The three-judge panel is making it abundantly clear that their ruling will not result in Norm Coleman being a U.S. Senator. Further, the flimsy "equal protection" arguments that Coleman's lawyers are making seem suited for a federal appeal rather than an appeal to the state Supreme Court, which would be the first appeal to come after Coleman loses at the hands of the three-judge panel. Clearly, Coleman's handlers are looking at dragging this out for as long as possible, an impression supported by NRSC Chair John Cornyn's comment that seating Minnesota's second Senator could take "years." Maybe Norm Coleman's goal is not winning back his U.S. Senate seat. Elsewhere, those who follow Minnesota politics closely suggest that Coleman dragging out the appeal could damage his reputation and ruin any chances at a future political run, particularly a gubernatorial bid if current GOP Gov. Tim Pawlenty passes on a run for another term so that he can focus on a Presidential bid. Maybe Norm Coleman's goal is not setting himself up for a guberntorial bid (or any other future political campaign). A U.S. Senator's salary is $169,300 and the Minnesota Governor's salary is $120,303 . At the same time, we know that, over the years, Coleman treated his home like an ATM , refinancing or otherwise altering the terms of his mortgage a dozen times in thirteen years, culminating in a $775,000 mortgage two years ago. Add to it Coleman's massive legal fees, including legal fees that can't legally (at this point) be paid for by campaign funds , and we see that Norm Coleman has a mountain of personal debt. Sure, Coleman did not pay for a lot of things himself over the years, but he still has this enormous pile of debt. And Coleman is not a millionaire . My very simple theory is this. Norm Coleman he has personal debts (and will continue to grow that debt through additional legal bills) that may very well approach one million dollars. Coleman turns 60 years old this August. There is no way that Coleman can pay off his debts (including that 30-year mortgage for $775,000 that Coleman took out just two years ago) on a Senator's or Governor's salary. And I don't think Coleman plans on paying that mortgage every month until he is 88 years old. Simply put, Coleman needs a very high-paying salary. I'm not an accountant, but, if Coleman wants to enjoy his retirement years and not worry about that massive debt he has accrued, he'll need to start making salary of around half a million dollars a year - which means having conservative power brokers (who are pleased with his efforts to keep another Democrat out of the Senate) hook him up with a lucrative lobbying gig. There you have Coleman's real end game. It's not to win back his Senate seat or serve the public in any way. Norm Coleman's end game is to intentionally force Minnesotans to be underrepresented in the U.S. Senate for as long as possible through endless appeals of the election result and subsequently secure a high paying lobbyist job for a special interest that could care less what the average Minnesota family needs. However cynical this may sound, it is, quite frankly, the most logical conclusion based on Coleman's actions. We'll see.
 
Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin: Dog Ears Music: Volume Sixty-Six Top
Bobby Womack R&B singer, guitarist, and golden-egg songwriter Bobby Womack was born in Cleveland in 1944, "the third brother of five." As a child Bobby earned his chops in church, and as a teen he and his siblings formed gospel quintet The Womack Brothers. The legendary Sam Cooke discovered the young men and convinced them to record secular music as The Valentinos. Bobby thrived under Cooke's tutelage and went on to write the group's biggest hit, "It's All Over Now," in 1964. A few months later, the violent death of Sam Cooke devastated Womack, leading to the break-up of the brother act. In 1966, Womack embarked on a solo career, and has most recently returned to his gospel roots. April will find this luminary inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Womack's collaborations run for miles and include The Rolling Stones, Wilson Pickett, Sly & The Family Stone, Ray Charles, and Stevie Wonder. His songs have been recorded by countless greats including Janis Joplin, and Aretha Franklin. Bobby Womack is the original original and the realest of deals. Download his funk trance title "Simple Man," from his 1972 release Understanding . Buy : iTunes Genre : Soul/R&B Artist : Bobby Womack Song : Simple Man Album : Understanding John Parish Artist and producer John Parish was born in southwest England in the '60s. After a Bowie-inspired youth and some finger bleeding, John went on to record his first album in 1980. Parish, a longtime collaborator/producer of artist extraordinaire PJ Harvey, has acquired a roster of fabulousness. Discography includes the Eels, Tracy Chapman, Flood, Giant Sand, Sparklehorse, and Goldfrapp. His work also comprises television, film, and stage. This deeply intriguing artist's songs take unexpected and alluring turns from exquisite pain into beauty and wonder. Download "The Last Thing I Heard Her Say," from Parish's 2005 release Once Upon a Little Time . Currently touring. Buy : iTunes Genre : Rock Artist : John Parish Song : The Last Thing I Heard Her Say Album : Once Upon a Little Time Tour : Visit R.D. Burman Bollywood legend Rahul Dev Burman, born in Calcutta in 1939, was one of the most notable Hindi film composers of the '60s and '70s. The son of distinguished singer/composer Sachin Dev Burman, Rahul wrote his first song before the age of 9, and grew up to score over 330 films. Burman's compositions fuse jazz, Motown funk, and rock 'n' roll. Collaborations include Asha Bhosle (his wife), Kishore Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Kajal Kiran, Seenat Aman, and Tariq. Accolades include countless Filmfare nominations and three Filmfare awards. Burman passed away in 1994, but his treasure chest of music is mammoth. Start with "Dum Maro Dum," from the collection Bollywood Legend (The Best of the EMI Years) . Buy : iTunes Genre : World/Jazz Artist : R.D. Burman Song : Dum Maro Dum Album : Bollywood Legend (The Best of the EMI Years) The Ruby Suns The Ruby Suns were founded in New Zealand in 2004 by California native Ryan McPhun, a part-time member of The Brunettes. Amee Robinson rounds out the permanent lineup of the Auckland-based outfit, whose robust roster of alumni include Imogen Taylor, Gareth Shute, Eddie Castelow, Mark Stebben, Harry Cundy, James Milne, James Dansey, Olivia Kember, Scott Mannion, Jonathan Bree, Jamie Power, Gus Franklin, Andy Hazel, and Innes Nisbet. The Ruby Suns' world/trip/folk title "Morning Sun," from the imagination-filled 2007 release Sea Lion , makes you see and hear colors. Buy : iTunes Genre : World Artist : The Ruby Suns Song : Morning Sun Album : Sea Lion The Natural History The Natural History is the New York City trio of Derek Vockins (drums) and brothers Max (vocals, guitar) and Julian (bass) Tepper, founded in 2001. Their second album, The People That I Meet , includes the infectiously listenable and melodic track "Don't You Ever." Although The Natural History broke up shortly after the project's 2005 release, "Don't You Ever" found new life on the soundtrack of Choke , the 2008 film starring Sam Rockwell. Buy : iTunes Genre : Rock Artist : The Natural History Song : Don't You Ever Album : The People That I Meet Kurt Weill Avant-theater composer Kurt Weill was born in Dessau, Germany, in 1900, the son of a cantor. He began composing in his teens, later supporting himself playing piano and teaching. Nearing 20, he set his tight focus on musical theater. Weill thrived artistically in Weimar Germany, but quickly chose exile when the Cabaret era gave way to the Nazi boot heel. He fled to Paris in 1933, settling in New York in 1935. Weill's credits include The Threepenny Opera, The Eternal Road, Lady in the Dark, Street Scene, Lost in the Stars, and Raft on the River . His collaborations include George Balanchine, Jacques Deval, Georg Kaiser, Max Reinhardt, Maxwell Anderson, and his chanteuse-wife Lotte Lenya. Weill passed away in 1950 and leaves behind a sublime catalog. The instrumental "Alabama Song," from O Moon of Alabama - Songs (Historic Original Recordings 1928-44) , has an ominous beauty with stunning orchestrations. Buy : iTunes Genre : Musical Theater Artist : Kurt Weill Song : Alabama Song Album : O Moon of Alabama - Songs (Historic Original Recordings 1928-44)
 
G-20 Reactions Roundup: Op-Eds Around The World Top
There have been mixed reviews around the world following the G-20 economic summit in London Thursday. While op-eds and editorials in some papers laud the increased IMF funding and the symbolic impact of the summit, others are viewing it as an abject failure. Kenya's Business Daily , for example, is not impressed. From the Daily : The G20 has met but in terms of expectation, we are still in the woods with the global capitalist system stuck. The thinking is still archaic and there is no radical effort on the table to explore and perhaps overhaul the cracked system. As one commentator said in these pages, the crew manning global trade doesn't have a clue on how to re-inflate sinking economies and whether Keynesian principles will hold. The talk on debt cancellation as part of a global stimulus package has been lost. ... The G20 has a responsibility and a duty to push for reforms that can lead to a new economic order. At the moment they are pushing for protective measures with little regard to what happens to the developing nations. Such protectionism will surely lead to failure. Similarly, the New York Times editorial board expresses dissatisfaction at what it views as a missed opportunity, especially given the gravity of the current crisis. From the Times : In normal times we don't expect a lot from summit meetings. But with the global economy imploding, leaders at Thursday's meeting of the world's top 20 economic powers had an urgent responsibility to come up with concrete policies to fix the global financial system and restore growth. They fell short. However, the UK's Daily Telegraph adopts a more sanguine outlook, noting the short-comings but lauding what it views as a valuable first step. From the Telegraph : They came, they saw, they communiqued. Simply by turning up, leaders had already achieved more than a similar crisis summit in London in 1933. Franklin Roosevelt, then American president, stayed away and not long after the world was at war. ... At least, though, these topics are being discussed. Arguably, the biggest problem of all was not addressed - the restructuring of economies, such as China's and Germany's, that have been too reliant on exports to over-consuming nations. So, the G20 in London produced no grand plan for recovery. But if the jamboree has a legacy, it may be that the optimistic tenor of the leaders' exchanges goes some way to restoring battered global confidence. It is good to talk. Likewise, the Korea Times acknowledges progress at the summit, but insists that ameliorating the crisis cannot be left to the superpowers' hands alone. From the Times : It is certainly good news that leaders of the Group of 20 nations narrowed their differences and reached a consensus on how to tackle the unprecedented global financial and economic crisis. At the G20 summit in London Thursday, the leaders agreed on a six-point plan to restore growth, repair the financial system, strengthen financial regulations, promote global trade and reject protectionism. ... The global crisis cannot be overcome without closer cooperation between countries ― both advanced and developing nations. It is hard to find a solution at a single stroke. The world economy is expected to draw a new landscape in the crisis containment process. China has emerged as a major player at the G20 summit with its growing economic power and military clout. Pundits talk about a ``G2'' relationship between the U.S. and China. What's important is that economic superpowers cannot get over the crisis without the help of other countries. And as a foil to Kenya's Business Daily , Canada's Globe & Mail applauds the G-20's proposals as a huge accomplishment, especially the huge injection to the International Monetary Fund. From the Globe & Mail : Rather than trying to insist that national governments meet high spending or deficit targets, the G20's members agreed to triple the IMF's lending power to $750-billion (U.S.), to expand the IMF's 40-year-old currency, known as Special Drawing Rights, by $250-billion and to agree upon sales of IMF gold to help finance the world's poorest countries. The fledgling group of economic powers is wise to work with, and reinforce, the 63-year-old IMF. More on G-20 Summit
 
Stuart Whatley: It's Like Trusting A Drug Addict To Arrange His Own Intervention Top
Markets this week expressed approval for the European Central Bank finally lowering interest rates a quarter point, down to 1.25 percent, with perhaps another quarter point to follow next month. But more importantly, there was celebration for the loosening of asset valuation rules by the Financial Accounting Standards Board , whereby it will be easier for bankers to avoid "mark-to-market" appraisals on their troubled assets. As bankers have argued, "mark-to-market" accounting -- valuing one's assets by their actual worth in the current market, as opposed to what they were once worth or could someday be worth given convenient assumptions -- should be forgone when markets "stop functioning properly." Simplified, the rule changes this week will give bankers and holders of troubled assets more leeway to avoid finally biting the bullet and writing an asset off as a loss. As Patrick Finnegan told the Wall Street Journal , the new rule will now make companies' financial statements reflect the "management's assumptions", rather than something far less arbitrary or biased, such as the market . Or in other words, it is as if we are leaving it up to a drug addict to arrange his own intervention. As long as banks are allowed to continue denying the true toxicity of their toxic assets, the longer the current financial impasse will continue. But if these banks are all of a sudden forced to eat huge losses, their balance sheets will resemble Swiss cheese, and Timothy Geithner will be forced into the highly unfashionable position of groveling before an ever-more populist Congress for more funds. Welcome to the Catch-22 of the financial crisis. Geithner's recently unveiled plan for toxic assets, the PPIP approach, calls for private investors to buy up toxic assets with government backing. Originally, the fear was that banks would not be willing to sell of these assets at market prices because that would mean finally accepting the loss. But now, with more lax rules for asset valuation, leaving it in the hands of the bankers, the Geithner plan's problems are reversed. It is now the investors who will have to be cajoled into action to buy assets that they will presumably consider overpriced. And so, in the tradition of the financial industry during years past, short-term gains are trumping long-term sustainability. Investors relished the retreat from "mark-to-market" this week, and the market enjoyed moderate gains. But now, it has already begun to drop again. And the more long-term demand for finally biting the bullet and ridding the banks of their toxic waste could be shunted aside yet again. Geithner's plan surely wasn't perfect to begin with, but it had its merits. The government's power to manage the PPIP asset sell-off has been handed back to the bankers, whose argument foments fear of more bail out funds and further financial collapse. As it stands now, this argument is prevailing. The junky in the room is calling the shots with the claim that rehab will hurt more than continued dysfunction. And the prospects for finally breaking the impasse are kicked ever further down the road. More on Financial Crisis
 
Madeleine M. Kunin: Women, Hugs, and the Power of Grassroots Top
The moment that Dee and Regina greeted us at the Indianapolis airport in Indiana, I knew by their big smiles that this would be a good event. I had been invited to speak to the Democratic Women's Caucus in Bloomington, Indiana in celebration of Women's History Month. I found out they organized themselves in 2004 after George Bush was re-elected, and after they realized that there were no women on the city council. They decided to swing into action--they asked women to run, raised money for them, and provided a cheering section. I asked one woman, who had recently been elected county treasurer (never did get straight all the layers of government in Indiana) what was the greatest help that the women provided to her? "Hugs," she announced, without missing a beat. Hugs are helpful, especially when women step out into a mostly male political world. Emotional support, at critical moments, enables women to stay in the race. But the Bloomington women's caucus does much more. They meet once a month for a 7:30 a.m. breakfast. Some 50 women regularly show up. Once they find a candidate willing to run they swing into action. "We tell them the 'must do' events, we help them develop a 'message box', do fund raising, media and teach them how to talk," one member of the steering committee explained over breakfast the following morning. As a small indicator of their commitment, the breakfast was at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning to enable me to get my flight back. The key to their success in helping women get elected at the local, county and state level? I believe it is that they are "there" for one another, they are local, they are friends, and they meet regularly. A small group had gone to a training session sponsored by Emily's List, and that was how jump started the organization. But since then, they have built their own Democratic Women's Caucus with some 200 members. If we are to elect more women to public office and to have them in appointed positions, it is grassroots organizations like this which will make it happen. How can we do this everywhere? This was originally posted at Chelsea Green . Madeleine M. Kunin is the former Governor of Vermont and was the state's first woman governor. She served as Ambassador to Switzerland for President Clinton, and was on the three-person panel that chose Al Gore to be Clinton's VP. She is the author of Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead from Chelsea Green Publishing .
 
The Uptake: Minnesota's US Senate Election - What a Long Strange Trip It's Been Top
It's the longest election in Minnesota's history, and it's still not over. But a ruling from Minnesota's election contest court may have signaled the beginning of the end of Minnesota's US Senate race. Former Senator Norm Coleman's chances of winning the election were severely dimmed when the court ruled that only 400 additional ballots will be counted. Democrat Al Franken leads Coleman by 225 votes. The election contest has been a soap opera, drawing thousands of viewers from all over the country every day. In the above video, The UpTake 's Mike McIntee takes us through the major plot lines and moments of the trial, which has been educational as well as entertaining. More on Al Franken
 
NYC Fried Chicken Joints Under Fire For Using Obama's Name Top
NEW YORK — Two New York City fried chicken restaurants in predominantly black neighborhoods are under fire for putting President Barack Obama's name on their signs. City Councilman Charles Barron said Friday that he will organize a demonstration next week outside the Obama Fried Chicken in his Brooklyn district if the sign doesn't change. Opponents also say they may target Obama Fried Chicken & Pizza in Harlem. Barron said he has been getting calls from outraged residents in his district. More on Barack Obama
 
Sarah Newman: ADL Sets Another Roadblock to Mid-East Peace Top
I'm feeling a bit gleeful and sad right now. I'm happy because my theory about the disconnect between mainstream Jewish groups political positions and the opinions of the majority of American Jews, has been proven correct. At the same time, I'm a bit glum because of what is happening right now in Israel. While the rest of the world is focused on the uber-cool Obamas first foray into the world scene, beyond the shores of the Union Jack, there's some serious stuff happening, including the return of Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. Under his previous term, Netanyahu's extreme right-wing domestic and international policies left Israel starving for alternatives. Literally. Under his watch, poverty sky rocketed in the country and the peace process was a failure. Netanyahu has been in office for one day but is already quickly putting in place an Administration with an unequivocal right wing stamp. His Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman (same name as another right-wing hawkish US politician), is an extreme hawk and nationalist whose off-the-cuff comments are already making waves. According to the New York Times, Lieberman brazenly declared that "'those who wish for peace should prepare for war' and that Israel was not obligated by understandings on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reached at an American-sponsored peace conference in late 2007." As I wrote in a hotly debated blog last month, "ABC and the ADL Don't Represent Me," US politicians, media and mainstream Jewish groups lock-in-step support for Israeli policies are out of touch with the majority of US Jews positions on Israel. While there been little traction on the peace front in Israel in the past several years, this will make the situation more dire. There needs to be resounding condemnation of Lieberman's views from the US government, international peace brokers and major Jewish groups that his beliefs will create more instability and insecurity for Israel (Lieberman also said "if you want peace, prepare for war.") However, the Anti-Defamation League , the so-called civil rights group led by Abraham Foxman, decided that rather than condemning Lieberman, it would be better to support his extremist position. In fact, the organization issued a press release defending the political hawk's commitment to peace. Shocking? Not really. Wrong? Yes. The ADL is out of touch with the majority of American Jews. Tell the ADL to reverse it's unequivocal support for Lieberman. And, stay informed with J Street , a progressive voice for Israel. Sarah's Social Action Snapshot originally appeared on Takepart.com More on Israel
 
Ukrainians Protest Their Pro-Western Leaders, Nation's Economic Policies Top
Tens of thousands of people have rallied in Ukraine against the pro-western government and their handling of the economic crisis. More on Ukraine
 
Deborah Burger: Tell the Insurers and Congress We Need Real Reform Top
With the final White House Forum on healthcare scheduled Monday, April 6 in downtown Los Angeles, advocates of single payer/guaranteed healthcare have one more opportunity to shake up what has become a dreary conventional wisdom about the presumed acceptable parameters of the debate. Hundreds of nurses, doctors, healthcare and labor activists will rally at 9 a.m. outside the California Endowment , 1000 North Alameda St., Los Angeles. It will mark the fifth time, at all five White House regional forums, that the single payer/Medicare for all message will come to the stage, outside and inside the forum. You can extend that to the town hall meeting at the White House last week where the President was asked why we can't have a national healthcare system like they have in other industrialized nations. But the scene is very different in the committee rooms where the top legislators, with their handpicked insiders, either from the healthcare industry or conventional players who won't upset the status quo, have determined the general framework of a legislative approach they deem acceptable -- and dismissed as out of bounds the one reform most likely to work, a single payer approach. While single payer is not on the table, accommodating the insurance industry and healthcare proposals by the party that was trounced in the polls in November apparently is. That's why two of the biggest debates now are not over whether to adopt a national healthcare system, that has guaranteed access to care in every other industrialized nation, but whether to force people to buy private insurance and to tax their employer-funded health benefits. Start with requiring everyone not covered to buy insurance, which amounts to a massive bailout for the insurance industry. The Democratic chairs of the key committees that are running the show on healthcare have all agreed that individual mandate, putting us all in hock to the insurance giants, will be part of the bill, the New York Times ' Robert Pear reported this morning. Their alleged premise, says Pear, is "that if everyone had health insurance, it would be easier to control health costs." Not to mention that it is the top priority for the insurance industry, which is salivating at the prospect of tens of millions of new customers marched into their offices under threat of federal penalties. But it's not so popular with everyone else -- a major reason why the individual mandate plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, host of the LA forum, crashed and burned last year. And it hasn't worked so well in its prime model, Massachusetts, either. Listen to the comments of Massachusetts State Sen. Jamie Eldridge, who voted for the law, but recently gave this assessment to a Congressional committee, as reported by healthcare writer extraordinaire, Trudy Lieberman at the Columbia Journalism Review : The assumption was that, as more people -- and, in particular, more young and relatively healthy people -- joined the system, premiums would go down across the board. There was also the assumption that as more people became insured, the number of people going to the emergency room would drop dramatically, saving the Commonwealth money. Neither of those things have happened -- at least not enough to produce the cost savings we were told we would see. In fact, health care reform has cost the Commonwealth much more than expected -- up to a record $1.3 billion this year. It is maddening that so many of our public health care dollars are diverted to HMOs and health insurance companies, under the current employer-based Massachusetts health care system. As to taxing benefits, turn the page back to the fall campaign when that idea, the centerpiece of Sen. John McCain's healthcare plan, was widely denounced by soon-to-be President Obama and virtually every other Democrat running for office in stump speeches, election mail, and numerous TV ads. It was considered so distasteful Sen. Joe Biden even found it to be a handy zinger to Gov. Palin in the vice-presidential debate, saying: "Taxing your healthcare benefit. I call that the ultimate Bridge to Nowhere." But, apparently that was then and this is now, as the Los Angeles Times affirmed this week: Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing increasing openness to an idea that once seemed unthinkable: putting taxes on some healthcare benefits. And Peter Orzag, the Obama administration's budget director, told the Washington Post that taxing benefits "should most definitely remain on the table." Unlike real reform, apparently. What changed? Lieberman has one idea: What happened to Obama's budget proposal of a $634 billion down payment (for health care reform) that was to be funded in part by making wealthier people pay higher income taxes? Or the $175 billion that was to be saved by cutting the excess payments to Medicare Advantage plans over ten years? ... The Senate draft budget doesn't contain any actual money for health care. Instead...there will be "space" for a health reform reserve fund. No taxing the rich -- members of Congress beat up on that one. No trimming Medicare Advantage plans -- insurers don't like that. The $634 billion figure was always too small to provide all the subsidies people will need if they are required to buy health insurance, which seems to be the direction the pols are going. But if Obama's revenue source doesn't survive the budget process, then where does the money come from? ... Bingo! The money might just come from taxing the health insurance benefits of ... everyone else who gets insurance from their boss. Ironically, the main reason President Obama says single payer reform is not under consideration is because it would "scrap (the employer based system) everybody is accustomed to," as he said in the town hall meeting last week in response to the question of why we can't have the system that works for everyone else: But demolishing what we have now is almost exactly what would happen when you tax health care benefits. Many, if not most, of the youngest and healthiest employees, especially in a recession, would drop their employer coverage to shop for cheaper, barebones plans in the private individual market. Employers, left with the more expensive employees to cover and an unsustainable risk pool, would see their premium costs skyrocket even more, prompting many to sharply reduce coverage or eliminate benefits entirely. As Texas employers and healthcare analysis succinctly told the Dallas Morning News ' Jason Roberson during the campaign, "this could eventually lead to the death of company-provided health plans." Some seem to have forgotten that consequence. On April 6, come help us remind them.
 
David Sirota: Clinton & Webb Tackle The Biggest Taboo of All Top
My new weekly newspaper column this week gives huge kudos to Hillary Clinton and Jim Webb - the two of them are trying (in their own separate ways) to begin a national conversation about one of the most taboo topics in American politics: drug policy. In the same week President Obama childishly laughed off a question about drug policy reform, Secretary of State Clinton gave a speech acknowledging that America's demand for drugs makes us at least partially culpable for the drug-related violence in Mexico. Clinton was stating a truism - but it's nonetheless controversial for a public official to say such truths in our immature political debate. That she went ahead and gave the speech anyway shows a lot of courage - and hopefully previews a conventional wisdom-challenging term atop the State Department. This week, Webb followed up Clinton's speech with the introduction of prison/criminal justice reform legislation that would examine legalizing marijuana - the drug cartels' biggest cash crop. As Glenn Greenwald has ably noted, there's little - if any - personal political upside for Webb in doing this. He's doing it because he believes in it (I know - wow! A politician actually doing something on principle!). There will undoubtedly be a lot of opposition to changing our drug laws. The Right has been selling the "law and order" nonsense for the last half century, and many Democrats in Congress are therefore too afraid to touch the issue. But public consensus has shifted, and now at least a few leaders are starting to soften up the political terrain for a real discussion about legalization and drug policy reform. Read the whole column here The column relies on grassroots support - and because of that support, it is getting wider and wider circulation (a big thank you to all who have helped with that). So if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site . Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help. More on Jim Webb
 
Jamie Woolf: Working Hard to Relax Top
I looked at my calendar this morning and all I saw was blank space. At long last -- a meeting-free day. Not even a conference call. I sank into my couch and began to construct my "to-do" list. Before 5 seconds passed, I had accelerated from 1 to 40 "must do" items, driving at me like a pack of demanding two year-olds. A leader I recently met with referred me to a Harvard Business Review article by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership in Hard Times. In her analysis of what makes for a great leader, she has this to say: "As a leader you need to know how to relax so that you can replenish your energies for the struggles facing you tomorrow." If I abandoned my to do list for a brisk hike in the hills near my house, I would be strengthening my leadership and my quads all at the same time. Goodwin goes on to say that Lincoln went to the theatre about a hundred times while in Washington. Franklin Roosevelt had cocktail hour every evening during World War II when you couldn't talk about the war. "This ability to recharge your batteries in the midst of great stress and crisis is crucial for successful leadership," writes Goodwin. I tied my hiking boots and filled my camelback, ready to take on Goodwin's leadership challenge. No twittering first, no checking in with my publicist, no finishing touches on a report due out by 5:00 that day. I made a commitment to recharge and replenish and nothing would deter me. On the three minute drive to the trail, I grabbed a pen and jotted down three more "urgent" items on the back of an envelope -- #41, 42, 43. My red oil light started to blink again on the dashboard. Item #44, oil change. Breathe. On the trail, I felt my stress lift as I breathed in the clean redwood scented air. I leaned down to examine a patch of hot pink wildflowers -- exotic or local? I watched a large bird soar overhead. Is that a hawk? Awesome wing span! Zero footprint thoughts wandered in... floated out. I really want to try the pizza at that new restaurant down the street. Will I ever finish The Brief Life of Oscar Wao? By the end of my walk, my ever-growing to do list didn't seem as daunting. I'm not delusional. Once I dive in, the stress will return. It always does. But I felt stronger and lighter, and more eager to dig in to the day's tasks. What about those more typical days when the calendar is packed with one meeting after another, report deadlines looming? Stress researcher Dr. Kathleen Hall says one out of four Americans say they experience great stress at least one full day a week. Dr. Hall suggests relaxation and play needs to be an important part of an established health routine."It is actually a discipline. Every two hours, every four hours, a certain time of day, set your Blackberry, send yourself a note -- 'five minutes to play,'" said Dr. Hall. And we need reform in those pressure cookers we call the workplace. While you probably can't imagine your boss allowing recess breaks, studies show that play increases productivity in the office up to 127 percent. Seventy percent of Americans surveyed wish they could have a recess break sometime during their workday. Relaxation is not just good for our mental health, it's also essential to our physical health. Scientific research indicates that the benefits of relaxation include: * lower blood pressure and reduction of stress hormones. * increases in our immune cells which combat disease. What will you do to relax each day? How will you make relaxation a routine part of your day?
 
Gabrielle Reece: HoneyLine: Everything You Need to Know About Vitamins Top
I have friends that look at me sideways when my one-year-old drops some sort of food on the floor, picks it up and then eats it. If I'm at home I just let that move roll (we're not at the public train station or gas stop bathroom). These are the same friends that don't think twice about going to a drive-through window for a burger (that may or may not have been dropped on the floor or better yet - sneezed on by some hormonal seventeen year old). I compare this kind of thinking to the individuals who won't blink when some white coat gives them a pill for some ailment or a little extra stress but would NEVER take a vitamin. Too risky. I mean after all your meds could lead to three other pills to deal with your new side effects or your impulse to gamble or bloody urine. Makes sense to me. I can see how vitamins are confusing, an added expense, and a pain in the butt. However, none of us are getting the 39 essential vitamins and minerals we need in our food so, in my mind, they're something we should rotate in and out of our diets. You can run down to Costco or to GNC when they are having a sale and go grab a bottle. Sorry, it's not quite that easy. What are the things you should consider when buying and taking vitamins? First of all, keep it simple. If you are taking twenty-three pills three times a day, eighteen minutes after you eat, but not forty five minutes before bed it is not going to happening. On the functional side, you have to get a quick understanding about the differences between the kinds of vitamins, how they absorb in your body, and who is making them. 1. Vitamin Absorption Better to buy a whole food vitamin since it's a food already. There are tons of studies showing that the body can absorb these vitamins 20x greater then synthesized vitamins. So yes, the buy in bulk vitamin is cheaper, but you may be only get 1% of the nutrients if any at all. Talk about a waste of dough! 2. Vitamin Quality Not that it would matter to me but the FDA does not regulate the vitamin supplement industry (probably not enough money in it). You want to buy from a company that self regulates and holds it's products to high standards. Check to see if they display USP-DSVP stamp (US Pharmacopoeia Dietary Supplement Verification Program). 3. Natural Vitamins Given that the vitamin is produced by a solid company, a natural vitamin is easier to absorb. Be mindful that they don't often taste great, won't be cheap, and will have an expiration date. 4. Liquid Vitamins The good news about the liquid supplement is they have about a 98% absorption rate. The inconvenient part is that they need to be refrigerated so not good for on-the-go or traveling supplementation. 5. Don't Take a Vitamin Instead of Food It's not a good idea to rely on vitamins as a source of nutrition, hence the word "supplement". Take a strong multivitamin that contains all 39 essential vitamins and minerals. A few solid brands are Rainbow Light, Solgar, KAL, and Nutrilite. Look to sites like Dr. Mercola's website, Dr. Al Sears website, Drugnatural.com, and naturalhealthconcepts.com. These are great places to start. Like anything we ingest, it is smart to do one or two months on and then take a week off. Our bodies get use to anything so, in order to continue to get the benefits, it's imperative to bring them in and out of your diet. I realize it seems a little voodoo voodoo, but I am a real believer in vitamins helping us defend our health, sleep better, process stress, and just better over all body function. If you want to get crazy I'm all for natural Chinese herbs and teas. Whoa, easy there, are you sure you don't just want a Prozac? I mean tea can seem pretty scary, and it has been around for thousands of years. What do they know? In all seriousness, here is to your good health. More on Health
 
Beth Arnold: Letter From Paris: Obama Nails It Top
Political fallout of the world financial crisis rocked France this week. Another French executive, this the head of Caterpillar, was held hostage by his workers, and billionaire François-Henri Pinault, chief executive of luxury-goods PPR, was trapped in his car by a group of his own employees. Word was the billionaire was shaken. Why wouldn't he be? People are mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore. Not lying down. Not going down without a fight. Not to be screwed by the high and mighty while the band plays on. That was then, and this is now. The French Old World Everyman is demonstrating how he's going to deal with his personal interests in this financial crisis. He's taking it to the grassroots. Vive La Marseillaise ! This army of Everymen have become their own heroes, and they're not waiting for Superman to come down and save them. After all, it was the SuperMen of banking who said, "Let them eat cake," and I mean this worldwide. So as G20 was starting in London, "some 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others clogged London's financial district for what demonstrators branded "Financial Fool's Day." The Obamas arrived in London with their usual 21st Century panache, elegance, and energy. Even the queen was so moved by Michelle Obama that she put her arm around our First Lady . Did the Earth stand still? The royal watchers did. Ohmygod, Michelle touched the queen, and in an instant, our First Lady brought Queen Elizabeth into the 21st Century. Not to mention that the Obamas gave her an iPod full of photos, music, and video of her 2007 United States visit to Richmond, Jamestown and Williamsburg, Virginia. Cool. Next time maybe an iPhone with Buckingham Palace apps. The G20 was a resounding success. Barack Obama again proved his leadership skills with his partners in world governance and with their global audience. Our president was the center of attention, of course. But how can the leaders of 20 nations all look happy, relaxed, and some even like they're goofing around after dealing with the heavy issues on which they actually made progress? Can you imagine this under the dark cloud/the evil empire of George W. Bush? Not at all. And this must be the first time in Carla Bruni Sarkozy's life that she hasn't been the female center of attention anywhere she went. Mrs. Bruni Sarkozy was lovely , of course, and she has donned a more diplomatic and gracious personae than Rock and Roll model/maneater, who left her panties in Mick Jagger's bathroom so Jerry Hall would find them. (That was the rumor.) Not that Ms. Bruni Sarkozy didn't get her own limelight, but Michelle Obama towers over everyone, and I don't mean just because she's tall. In this first big foreign outing of President Obama, he has shown Europe that he is delivering what he promised. He's working hard to get the U.S. back on track. Obama reached out his hand to the other nations. He told them the United States wants to work with them instead of sticking his thumbs in his ears and waving and taunting, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah, like our last administration. The world is sighing with relief that the USA is back in town. Then onto Strasbourg where Obama again dazzled the masses as well as international politicos. I twittered the Obama/Sarkozy press conference. Well, let's call it what it was, the Obama/Sarkozy Lovefest. These world leaders genuinely like each other, which was apparent when Senator Obama was in Paris last summer before his election. President Sarkozy couldn't hide his delight at the thought of the senator getting elected. They have double whammy charisma together. Among the topics the men discussed: 1. The great history of French and American relations. Obama reminded the press that France was our first ally as a new nation, and our two nations have been strong allies ever since. 2. Support of NATO. "NATO is the most successful alliance in modern history," said Obama. Afghanistan was a big topic. Sarkozy hinted France may take Gitmo detainees once the prison is closed. At the Town Hall meeting, Obama connected with the 3500 German and French students who had been invited. The energy was electric as our president admitted some American blame for the current world crisis and our arrogance, but he also spoke of anti-Americanism and how it wasn't right to blame the U.S. for everything. It was a new era of responsibility, and that is something we should be proud of. Our president told them that America is changing but it can't be America alone that changes. The G20 summit was a success, and all nations have made agreements to move forward. As usual, he inspired with advising the students that it was better to jump in and get involved. He told them that sometimes they would get criticized. Sometimes they would fail, but that they would lead a full life. It will be an adventure. The question to ask is, What Can I Do For Others? The world has so many challenges now, and there are so many ways to make a difference. The thing is Obama lifts people up instead of whipping them down. It's a lesson for all of us, whether personally or in our relationships with others. Obama nailed it in France. More on Barack Obama
 
America's 'Long War' Will Be As Pointless And Bloody As Europe's: William Pfaff Top
PARIS -- The Thirty Years' War occupies little space in the school texts of the English-speaking world, but its futility comes to mind when Richard Holbrooke, a civilian closer than most foreign policy appointees to realism, indicates that the war he is supposed to manage, now the Af-Pak war, is the entry passageway into another stage in the war. More on Afghanistan
 
Carol Felsenthal: I Ask Again: Did Burris' Lobbying Partner Help Patti Blagojevich Land a Job? Top
Twice in early January-- see here and here -- I wrote about what, exactly, our now entrenched Senator Roland Burris did for former Gov. Rod Blagojevich to win the jackpot of being appointed to Barack Obama's vacant U.S. Senate seat. I suggested that one of the favors Burris might have proffered to Blagojevich was the important one of helping his wife, Patti, land a full-time job. That position, as development director of the Chicago Christian Industrial League (CCIL), for which she held no apparent experience, was worth $80,000 to $100,000. (After the arrest of her husband last December, Patti and the CCIL parted company .) Burris' partner in the lobbying firm Burris & Lebed Consulting, LLC --which reportedly reaped nearly $300,000 in state business under the Blagojevich administration--was Fred Lebed, who served on the CCIL's Board of Directors and also on Blagojevich's transition team. On their firm's website Burris and Lebed used to boast that, "their vast network of relationships are unmatched and stretch within every corner of Illinois and many of the major metropolitan areas in the country." The website also claimed that, "Burris & Lebed Consulting represents numerous clients in front of the Chicago City Council, Cook County Board of Commissioners, suburban local governments, other governmental units across Illinois, Illinois General Assembly, the Governor's Office and other local elected and appointed officials." The Feds did not indict Patti Thursday, although that does not mean she won't be indicted later. And there is much in the 75-page indictment about Patti's significant real estate fees--allegedly more than $150,000 and $54,396 from the infamous Tony Rezko, now imprisoned and cooperating with the feds --the latter at least for no or little apparent work. David Kidwell and John Chase report in the Chicago Tribune that while Patti was not indicted, the feds "say she took thousands in payoffs for real estate work she never did." The Tribune reporters also note attempts to push Patti into jobs as a securities dealer and when those didn't materialize, her husband directing his chief of staff, John Harris, now reportedly cooperating with the feds, to withhold work for the firms that would not hire Patti. I looked for mention in the morning news reports of how Patti might have landed that cushy job at the financially struggling CCIL. She snagged the job at about the time the feds had begun to scrutinize her real estate dealings and she needed work in a completely different field. There was no mention of this lucky break for the former first family of Illinois in the rush of reporting about the indictment. Roland Burris, for all of his fuzzy, goofy performances since landing Obama's seat, had it figured exactly right. The spotlight would shift and new headlines would push him off the stage and who would care about apparent ties among CCIL, a nonprofit that helps the homeless, and Patti, Rod and Burris' partner, Fred Lebed. More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Stefan Aschan: How to Succeed in Weighing Less Top
How about 25 lbs less? Recently, a client started working with my program and has lost that amount already. What is the secret? First, it wasn't the workout but rather the amount of calories consumed and the choice of where those calories came from that contributed to this loss. Yes, it is true that from a mathematical point of view a calorie is a calorie. Eating fewer or more calories makes you lose or gain weight. But from a scientific perspective, that is not the case. The calories from a chocolate bar compared to those from an apple are not the same. The ingredients make the difference. The chocolate bar is a processed food, without the enzymes, vitamins and minerals that your metabolism needs to work efficiently. These same enzymes, vitamins and minerals are also the ones required for weight loss and for maintaining a youthful appearance. An apple has those ingredients -- and even more vital components, as of yet undiscovered -- that are crucial for your optimum health. Calories from sweets also affect your hormone levels, such as your cortisone production. High cortisone levels contribute to weight gain and fatigue. Stress -- whether it's due to the current economic situation, your relationship, or from work -- has the same effect. Managing your stress won't make you lose fat (sorry!) but the quality and quantity of calories as well as choosing foods that support your fat metabolism can make you a winner at the losing game. Here are a few quick tips: Latch onto a lemon. On a daily basis, squeeze into sparkling or still water, use the juice to make salad dressing or to perk up the flavor of vegetables or fruits. The juice from this citrus fruit aids in your body's production of hydrochloric acid and bile. Hydrochloric acid helps to break down nutrients making for better nutrient utilization by the body. Bile helps your body emulsify fat (and that's a good thing!). Another food to eat regularly: Eggs. Sulfur-containing foods, such as our beloved old eggs, are fat emulsifiers. Eating two whole eggs per day not only aids in losing fat but also will help you reduce your LDL levels, as studies have found. So you see, the strategies for losing 25 lbs can be simple and straightforward. For starters, choose your foods wisely. Even on the Biggest Loser you can see that it can be done. Is it different for someone weighing 150 lbs to lose 25 lbs. vs. someone at 290 lbs. to lose 25 lbs.? Sure, but the underlying strategies stay the same. More on Food
 
Margaret Ruth: How Can I Stop Thinking (and Dreaming!) About the Ex? Find Your Inner Sumo Wrestler Top
This is a question from a reader: I just read your article "Hoping You Will Get Back Together after the Breakup?" I love your theory; I think all the advice you have to give is wonderful. So as someone who has recently gotten her heart crushed, I find the part I struggle with the most is the continuing thinking of the ex and wondering what he's doing, how he's feeling...etc., etc. Even though I have no desire to get back together with him, but after a two year relationship find that it's hard to just not ever think about him. (and he comes in to way too many of my dreams!) So what I am wondering is if you know a good way to disconnect the energy between two people's chakras? What is the best way to disconnect any remaining feelings (especially the negative) And just expel the emotions that are still trying to hang on?? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you! There might be several reasons why people find themselves thinking about exes. * Still trying to get over the loss -- a proper type of grieving for many * Wishful/Imaginative -- thinking of ways to get together, revenge, what you would say to him if you ran into him? * Sheer Intellectual, Emotional and Physical Habit: This takes retraining to replace with a New Habit (like thinking of redecorating your living room, or new photography ideas, or...) And sometimes dreaming about that person is a reflection of what is going on with you. Some dreams are a translation of the inner you -- your mulling over the situation and him continues in the dream. But, sometimes, as you mention here, the dreams reflect a continued energetic connection. Thinking and dreaming that result from still feeling the connection between the two, -- or as I wrote about when there is still "energy" between you -- those can be hard to stop without doing the disconnecting on All levels. This is what I think you are asking about. We can rarely make ourselves stop thinking and dreaming while the energetic, or psychic, connection is alive. Several methods to do this were once suggested to me by a Energy expert and Reiki Practitioner. I paraphrase her below. Method One -- Visualization Start by picturing the connection between you as a chord between your third chakra and his, and then do/visualize the following: a) gently removing it from your third chakra and placing the chord into your heart chakra (the fourth). You then keep the loving feelings and lose the connection. She explained that people liked this gentle method of canceling the connection. If that doesn't work then -- b) taking a nice pair of scissors and cutting the connection cord and take the remnants and put in a nice lovely box -- decorate the holder box however (Gold? Ribbons? Pokemon Stickers?) If that doesn't work then -- c) And I added this one once I got the hang of this energy thing: Take your Inner Sumo Wrestlers and Inner Dock Workers Local Members and grab that connection sucker and yank it off, rip it to sheds and pile into handy waste bags to put into the Universe's Garbage Hauling Truck as it drives away into the ether. That last (c) can be very effective. Method Two: Emotional Freedom Technique This is a technique perfected by many energy workers and body workers that helps people literally jab at the knots in their energy fields till they are gone. I know a few people who have found that this is an effective way to get rid of leftover connections that really do need to go away. Ask your friends that are active in the massage and Reiki fields of study whether they know how to do it or can recommend someone. Or you can go to www.emofree.com/, the website for this technique for more information. And let me know how these work for you. What are your struggles? Let me know and please comment here with your thoughts. You can also visit Psychic Margaret Ruth at www.margaretruth.com or on Facebook too. More on Happiness
 
Reports: 4 shot, hostages taken in Binghamton, NY Top
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — A gunman entered an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, shot at least four people and took as many as 41 hostage, according to media reports. Mayor Matthew Ryan told the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin that there was a hostage situation involving a gunman with a high-powered rifle. The condition of the victims wasn't immediately clear. A Binghamton police dispatcher who spoke to The Associated Press wouldn't confirm a number of people shot or injured. The newspaper reported 41 hostages in the building of the American Civic Association and said apartments were being evacuated. Emergency dispatchers were in contact with some people inside by phone, WBNG-TV reported. The gunman might still be in the building, the newspaper reported. Four people were removed from the building on stretchers and taken to hospitals, and 10 more ambulances were called, the newspaper reported. The Binghamton SWAT team responded. Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, confirmed that a student from Binghamton University was being treated at the emergency room. Miller said she didn't know the nature of the injuries. "We're on full alert anticipating we're going to get additional casualties," Miller said. The area is a commercial stretch on the west side of the Chenango River. Police have locked down a nearby high school and advised local business owners to stay inside. People escaped to the basement of the building and more than a dozen people hid in a closet, WBNG reported. The American Civic Association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators. It also intervenes with emergencies, including fighting, hunger and homelessness, according to information from the association's Web site.
 
Michael Markarian: NRA Has No Dog in This Hunt Top
The National Rifle Association says it's about defense of the Second Amendment. But more and more, it's about doing harm to man's best friend. It started late last year, when Ohio state Sen. Gary Cates (R-West Chester) and state Rep. Shawn Webster (R-Millville), a veterinarian, made a final end-of-session push for their bill that would have increased dog-license fees and required county dog shelters to keep dogs with microchips for a longer period so the owner might be found. The NRA came in at the last minute and gunned down the legislation. Sen. Cates told the Columbus Dispatch : "The NRA got brought in by the breeders and their lobbyists. I did not have my first conversation with the NRA until yesterday. At no time did they testify on the bill. But the well got poisoned, and I couldn't get enough votes to pass it." In the 2009 legislation session, the gun group has been going state to state setting its sights on public policies that would crack down on abusive puppy mills. They actively lobbied against an Arizona bill requiring that puppy mill producers are subject to inspections by county enforcement agents at any time during regular business hours. They are working hard in Indiana and Minnesota to derail bills that would limit the number of dogs confined in puppy mill cages and set basic standards of care for exercise, flooring, and veterinary treatment. The Arizona and Minnesota bills have been shelved, and an NRA-backed amendment would gut Indiana's legislation. It's a mystery why the NRA cares so much about defending the status quo when it comes to puppy mills . It can't be a core issue for gun owners. The NRA claims that the puppy mill bills would impact hunting dogs, but surely most sportsmen would want their dogs raised humanely by responsible breeders, not treated like a cash crop. A dog who lives in a filthy wire cage with no exercise, socialization, or human interaction might not end up being a very good hunting partner out in the field, after all. It may just be that the NRA has a knee-jerk opposition to any animal protection issue, no matter how modest or common-sense. Or the group may be fighting to be relevant again, as it fired blanks in the last election cycle. One thing is for certain: The NRA's extreme obduracy will weaken the organization in the minds of mainstream voters. Gun-owning Americans do not favor animal cruelty and other reckless behavior toward animals. When the group reflexively defends practices such as puppy mills, the use of toxic lead ammo, and the black market trade in bear parts, it is way out-of-step with middle America -- and with its own gun-owning constituents. The NRA will shoot itself in the foot by chasing its supporters, lawmakers, and core voting blocs in the opposite direction. And that puts the NRA exactly where it deserves to be -- lumbering backwards to the past.  
 
Dana Joy Altman: Real Food Rehab: Ideas for Creating a Real Food Fridge and Larder Top
Purge : Processed Food :: Jettison : Baggage (Remember analogies? Well, I've thrown a few in here this week to playfully and lovingly hammer my points home. Using the standard SAT format of ":" means "is to" and "::" means "as")* What is a larder? It's another word for pantry -- a storage space where you keep non-perishable foodstuffs. You might call it your cupboards or a food closet depending on your space. Very important: having a well-stocked larder will enable you to create incredible meals on the fly, any time. And seeing that it's spring, it's the perfect time to purge and prepare for new. So, go through your fridge, pantry and spice rack. Purge any foods, condiments, herbs and spices that you haven't used in six month's time. If you have products that contain labels with long lists of ingredients you can't discern or pronounce, I encourage you to be brave in your elimination; remember, you're making room for the real thing. A good idea is to donate any processed or canned goods to a food bank or homeless shelter. If you don't feel good about these foods, simply discard them and recycle as much of the packaging as you can. Purge : Clutter :: Oust : Freeloaders Clutter is an energy sucker. I don't enjoy opening my cupboards only to feel overwhelmed or unable to clearly see what I have. You and your food deserve a clean fridge and organized cupboards with beautiful canisters or containers that reflect your style. For me, it needs to be simple, functional and yes, also beautiful to the eye. Don't fool yourself into thinking that's not important. It is. Making your kitchen a place you want to be is half the battle. So take your food out of the half-open packaging, bulk bags and boxes and place as much of it as you can in containers. Organize them in a way that's visually pleasing and makes sense. Keep the items you use most front and center. I prefer glass to plastic; it's better for the environment and plastic starts to look crappy after it's been scratched. Invest in a set of Ball Jars or hit Ikea , Container Store , Cost Plus World Market , Crate & Barrel Outlet -- the possibilities are endless. Beautiful storage is cheap and plentiful. Real Food : Processed Food :: Honor : Corruption (A little heavy-handed maybe, but I like it .) I find when my fridge and larder are well stocked with real foods that make me happy, it gives me a sense of comfort and ease, not to mention trust in my own self-care. If it looks too sparse on a regular basis, I become unsettled -- less grounded and I find myself hightailing it to the local taqueria in a pinch or to the store to buy some quick fix impulse purchase I'll inevitably regret. Not that dining at the local taqueria isn't great on occasion -- it is -- but I'd prefer not to make a habit of it. Let's not forget that satisfaction is your new benchmark and mediocrity is no longer acceptable. Keep only beautiful food in the house -- whatever that means to you as long as it's real. The food you buy should inspire, excite and energize you, not bore, repel or deplete you. If you have to question the integrity of anything you're bringing home or its effects on your well-being, then perhaps that's something to think about and change. The staples I keep in my fridge and larder change seasonally as I desire different things in different seasons. But right now, for example, I keep pasta, olives, and always some kind of salty, crunchy, snacky number. My current favorites are these roasted, salted fava beans I buy at the Middle East Bakery in Andersonville. I have a few beautiful cheeses in the house, crackers, capers, real butter, farm fresh eggs and bacon from the farmer's market, garlic, Brown Basmati and Arborio rice, white wine, nuts and pickled vegetables. Olive oil goes without saying and I always have lemons in the house to brighten up everything from my drinking water to soups, salads and roast chicken. If you have some of these basics in your larder, then at the very least you know you can have a good nosh or throw together a quick meal; you know your satisfaction's guaranteed. I have taken the liberty of creating my own Real Food Rehab List of Essential Kitchen and Pantry Staples , which I would love to share with you. Simply email me at info@realfoodrehab.com with the words, Pantry List Please , in the subject heading and I'll send you my list for free. Print out and take this list to the store and stock up on as many of these essentials as you can. Consciously choose where to splurge and where to save depending on what's right for you. I leave you with my final and favorite analogy: Real Food : Processed Food :: Stevie Wonder : Someone much less good than Stevie Wonder *I want to thank my good friend and former SAT analogy writer David Stuart in Adelaide, Australia for his quick help and brilliant work in writing these. Love you, David! Upcoming Columns: Where To Find The Best Tasting Food on Earth, The Kitchen -- A Blank Canvas For Your Perfect Form of Self-Expression More on Food
 
Fern Siegel: Stage Door: Irena's Vow Top
The word "hero" is abused in our culture. It is applied so casually, it ceases to have real meaning. So when a legitimate example of heroism emerges, it humbles us all. Such is the power of Irena's Vow , the true story of Irena Gut Opdyke and the 12 Jews she hid in occupied Poland during World War II. Now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre, the 90-minute production is awe-inspiring, with enough dramatic moments to keep you on the edge of your seat. Irena (Tovah Feldshuh), a young Polish-Catholic woman, suffered terribly in occupied Poland. Separated from her family, she is sent to a forced labor camp to supervise 12 Jews in a makeshift tailor shop. By sheer luck, thanks as much to her good looks as her facility with German, she meets a powerful Nazi major (Thomas Ryan), who insists she become his housekeeper. That assignment will allow Irena, who has watched the Nazis slaughter innocent men, women and children, a rare opportunity. Learning that Poland's Jews are to be exterminated, she decides to hide her 12 friends. Where she chooses is ingenious; the actual hiding place doubles as a quick history lesson in Eastern European Jewish life. The 12 Jews are represented by three: Lazar Hallar (Gene Silvers), his wife Ida (Maja C. Wampuszyc) and Fanka Silberman (Tracee Chimo). They are a collective portrait of dignity in debased, terrifying circumstances. They cling to Judaism, even as their lives are imperiled. They make decisions democratically; one of particular import. Ironically, they are secondary characters in the drama; the story is Irena's: her sacrifices, her compromised personal circumstances. Inevitably, the town begins to suspect the major is secretly harboring Jews, an accusation investigated by the fierce Sturmbannfuhrer Rokita (John Stanisci). Those moments are among the most gut-wrenching. For a young woman, Irena is remarkably quick-witted, as are her hidden friends. Together, they form an effective resistance against a cruel world. The ensemble is uniformly excellent. Feldshuh, who is astounding, has a tough task: telling Irena's tale as both the elderly Irena and the younger woman. Yet she manages with a quiet, understated strength. She looks nothing like the exquisite Irena, shown in projections, but to her credit, she captures her essence. (Irena Gut Opdyke died in 2003. Her name is placed next to Oskar Schindler's on the wall honoring the Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem.) Dan Gordon's script is effective at gleaning the drama and ethical imperatives in Irena's tale, yet he punctuates them with occasional comic moments to cut the unending terror. The story has many twists and turns, particularly the ending. His play is mounted with sensitivity by Michael Parva, who directs this production with care. Holocaust survivors of every description - camp survivors, partisans, those who risked their lives to save Jews - are dying; we are the last generation to hear their stories first-hand. In future, their stories will be told, as Irena's is, by others. To bear witness to her experience is both an obligation and a privilege. Irena is motivated by her moral beliefs and her trust in God. But for the hidden Jews, she fulfills the Torah's dictum: "He who saves a life, saves the world entire." There are several stellar dramas on Broadway; this one is a must.
 
Neil Hicks: Resetting Human Rights in Russia Top
President Barack Obama's first meeting with his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev on April 1, offered the world some insight into what shape the promised reset of U.S.-Russia relations will actually take. The apparent willingness to cooperate on areas of mutual concern was matched with a stated willingness to speak frankly about differences, "even bringing up issues of human rights," according to unnamed senior administration officials. Perhaps the new Obama administration's quest to rehabilitate the United States' reputation internationally as a leader on human rights dovetails with Russia's own new president's stated desire to put an end to the culture of "legal nihilism" in Russia, presenting an opportunity for constructive engagement in promoting human rights to the benefit of both countries, but it is far too early to claim any progress. The meeting took place the day after the prominent human rights leader Lev Ponomarov , who is 67-years old, was brutally beaten by three unidentified men in Moscow. Such attacks on non-violent government critics in Russia are becoming so commonplace that President Obama cannot avoid realizing that the deteriorating human rights situation in Russia will be an unavoidable part of any new relationship with Moscow he might be able to forge. There is no doubt that there are many pressing issues for the two countries to cooperate on, from Afghanistan to the financial crisis. It will therefore be tempting for President Obama to set aside the troubling and probably discordant subject of human rights in Russia. Yet President Obama should resist the false hope that he can have less stormy relations with Moscow by soft-pedaling or avoiding completely human rights. The quality of US-Russian relations is unavoidably and rightly affected to a significant degree by human rights conditions inside Russia. Simply put, an increasingly authoritarian Russia that menaces its own people and foments discord with its neighbors cannot be a reliable strategic partner for the United States. There are few countries where U.S. global leadership on human rights is more needed than in Russia. With the Kremlin's foot on the neck of its neighbors in Central and Eastern Europe through its increasingly monopolistic control of vital natural gas supplies, the United States is one of the few countries in a position to speak plainly about violations that are legitimate issues of international concern. Russia's steady slide towards authoritarianism over the past ten years has coincided with a global pushback against human rights and democracy from entrenched autocratic ruling elites in many countries. Setting a positive tone on human rights in Russia would do much to reverse this negative global trend. Some in Russia will quickly label criticism of Russia's human rights record as unwarranted foreign interference, but in doing so they will simply be parroting the hackneyed response of autocrats everywhere when called to account for their misdeeds. The Obama administration has already set a new tone that holds some promise for more constructive engagement on human rights with Russia. The introduction to the State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, issued in February , states: "We do not consider views about our performance voiced by others in the international community to be interference in our internal affairs ... nor should other governments regard expressions about their performance as such." The recent experience of the United States with its highly publicized departures from respect for international human rights standards means that the United States is in no position to deliver moralistic lectures on human rights. Chastened by recent experience, President Obama can now look President Medvedev in the eye and acknowledge that the United States has made some serious mistakes, but that it has recognized them and is moving forward. President Obama can say that in correcting these mistakes it has welcomed and will need the advice and support of its friends. President Obama should take the opportunity of the reset to call on President Medvedev to reverse the "negative trajectory" in Russia's domestic human rights record reported by the State Department last month and propose cooperation on issues of shared concern. Both Russia and the United States are members of multilateral organizations committed to human rights promotion through cooperation. As members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia and the United States are mutually bound by a wide range of commitments in the human rights field arrived at through consensus over many years of negotiations. There are many opportunities for the two countries to cooperate in protecting and promoting human rights at home and abroad. President Medvedev has himself already acknowledged the need for legal reform with regard to human rights and has, for example, publicly recognized the growing problem posed by violent hate crimes, committed largely against Russia's migrant communities by loosely organized neo-Nazi groups. In the United States, thousands of bias-motivated incidents are registered annually by the FBI. This is just one practical example of the opportunities that exist for the two countries to build strong working alliances driven by mutual issues to protect and promote human rights at home and abroad. The reset of U.S.- Russia relations will not automatically resolve old problems, but it does offer some promise of finding new ways to deal with them that could produce better outcomes.
 
Fern Siegel: Stage Door: Irena's Vow Top
The word "hero" is abused in our culture. It is applied so casually, it ceases to have real meaning. So when a legitimate example of heroism emerges, it humbles us all. Such is the power of Irena's Vow , the true story of Irena Gut Opdyke and the 12 Jews she hid in occupied Poland during World War II. Now playing at the Walter Kerr Theatre, the 90-minute production is awe-inspiring, with enough dramatic moments to keep you on the edge of your seat. Irena (Tovah Feldshuh), a young Polish-Catholic woman, suffered terribly in occupied Poland. Separated from her family, she is sent to a forced labor camp to supervise 12 Jews in a makeshift tailor shop. By sheer luck, thanks as much to her good looks as her facility with German, she meets a powerful Nazi major (Thomas Ryan), who insists she become his housekeeper. That assignment will allow Irena, who has watched the Nazis slaughter innocent men, women and children, a rare opportunity. Learning that Poland's Jews are to be exterminated, she decides to hide her 12 friends. Where she chooses is ingenious; the actual hiding place doubles as a quick history lesson in Eastern European Jewish life. The 12 Jews are represented by three: Lazar Hallar (Gene Silvers), his wife Ida (Maja C. Wampuszyc) and Fanka Silberman (Tracee Chimo). They are a collective portrait of dignity in debased, terrifying circumstances. They cling to Judaism, even as their lives are imperiled. They make decisions democratically; one of particular import. Ironically, they are secondary characters in the drama; the story is Irena's: her sacrifices, her compromised personal circumstances. Inevitably, the town begins to suspect the major is secretly harboring Jews, an accusation investigated by the fierce Sturmbannfuhrer Rokita (John Stanisci). Those moments are among the most gut-wrenching. For a young woman, Irena is remarkably quick-witted, as are her hidden friends. Together, they form an effective resistance against a cruel world. The ensemble is uniformly excellent. Feldshuh, who is astounding, has a tough task: telling Irena's tale as both the elderly Irena and the younger woman. Yet she manages with a quiet, understated strength. She looks nothing like the exquisite Irena, shown in projections, but to her credit, she captures her essence. (Irena Gut Opdyke died in 2003. Her name is placed next to Oskar Schindler's on the wall honoring the Righteous Among the Nations in Jerusalem.) Dan Gordon's script is effective at gleaning the drama and ethical imperatives in Irena's tale, yet he punctuates them with occasional comic moments to cut the unending terror. The story has many twists and turns, particularly the ending. His play is mounted with sensitivity by Michael Parva, who directs this production with care. Holocaust survivors of every description - camp survivors, partisans, those who risked their lives to save Jews - are dying; we are the last generation to hear their stories first-hand. In future, their stories will be told, as Irena's is, by others. To bear witness to her experience is both an obligation and a privilege. Irena is motivated by her moral beliefs and her trust in God. But for the hidden Jews, she fulfills the Torah's dictum: "He who saves a life, saves the world entire." There are several stellar dramas on Broadway, this one is a must.
 
Reggie Love, White House's Hottest, As Seen In London (PHOTO) Top
We're just going to share new photos of Reggie Love, personal assistant to President Barack Obama and your choice for White House's Hottest, as we come across them. Here he is in London on Wednesday, as he walks past the President's limo outside Buckingham Palace. Need more Love? See more Reggie photos here . *Follow Huffington Post Style on Twitter and become a fan of Huffington Post Style on Facebook *
 
Steven Crandell: Nuclear Weapons Breakthrough -- Obama & Medvedev Make Fresh START Top
There is history being made in London this week and it has nothing to do with the G-20's response to our economic difficulties. The key players are U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. The issues are security, international relations and the most immediate catastrophic threat of all, nuclear weapons. The main development is diplomatic: negotiations will begin immediately for a new treaty to verifiably reduce nuclear weapons held by Russia and the United States. Why does this matter? Well, there are 26,000 nuclear weapons in the world. Russia and the U.S. control about 95 percent of them. The April 1 meeting was the first for U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Their joint statement was clear, emphasizing a new relationship: "We, the leaders of Russia and the United States, are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries." So what does that mean? Here are some bullet points from the joint statement: • They don't see each other as "enemies." Rather, they have "many common interests" and are "resolved to work together" on stability, security and global challenges, "while also addressing disagreements openly and honestly in a spirit of mutual respect." • As mentioned, they agreed to seek a new version of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) with negotiations for the new treaty to begin immediately . A report on "results achieved" is due by July. • They committed their countries "to achieving a nuclear free world," meaning they will "fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world." (The NPT commits all signatories to work towards eventual nuclear disarmament.) • They promised to work together to fight nuclear terrorism and to "support international negotiations for a verifiable treaty to end the production of fissile materials for nuclear weapons." The joint statement also addressed issues including: Iran, Afghanistan, missile defense (they acknowledged differences and discussed possible cooperation) and, oh yes, the economy. But the big news was the Big Thaw. Here's how one Obama administration official spun it after the meeting: "I think what you'll hear when we get to Prague [where Pres. Obama will give a speech later this month] is a President who's very focused on the threat posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, particularly nuclear weapons. The reason to have a verifiable, legally binding agreement to continue on from START is to not only have an agreement with Russia, which is obviously the biggest holder of -- well, along with us, is the biggest holder of such weapons, it's also to send a very clear message to the world -- places like Iran, where we continue to have very serious concerns about their illicit nuclear program, and other countries throughout the world -- that this is a United States that's very serious about the challenge posed by nuclear weapons and the proliferation of such technology." Now, nuclear nonproliferation is not the same as nuclear disarmament. And it must be clear that any reductions in the nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia should not be seen as ends in themselves, but rather steps in the phased, multi-lateral and verifiable elimination of all nuclear weapons. But it's hard to see the joint statement by the U.S. and Russia as anything but a positive development. The idea of countries working together to solve global problems is no longer some 20th century dream. It's a 21st century necessity. Climate change proves this point. We must talk, we must negotiate, we must cooperate -- if we want to make the world a safer place. If we want to survive. Administration officials pointed out that much effort had gone into forging the joint statement and much more effort would be expended trying to achieve its aims. "This is a document of work; this is not a document of principles or flowery language," said one official. I applaud such work. Every nuclear weapon that is dismantled through such diplomacy is a victory for reason and compassion. More on Russia
 
Avigdor Lieberman: Already A Problem For Obama Top
WASHINGTON, Apr 3 (IPS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government was sworn in Tuesday - just one day later his foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, set off a firestorm by saying he judged Israel was no longer bound by agreements reached at the late-2007 peace conference convened by the U.S. in Annapolis, Maryland. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit was one of the first to react. He said he would not shake hands with Lieberman until Lieberman reversed his position on Annapolis - and also retracted some public slights he had earlier voiced against Egypt. Given Egypt's close alliance with the United States, the verbal battle between the two allies spelled big trouble for Washingon's posture in the Middle East. Lieberman's words also increased the numbers of voices in the region calling for the U.S. to distance itself from the Netanyahu government. In Ramallah, leaders of the Palestinian Authority (PA) continued to insist they would not return to the peace talks that were interrupted during Israel's recent war on Gaza unless Israel followed through on promises - made at Annapolis and elsewhere - that they would halt all new construction in the settlements in the occupied West Bank. Lieberman also made several other diplomatically inflammatory statements in his first two days in office. He publicly questioned whether Israel had gotten anything of any value from the landmark agreement it concluded in 1993 in Oslo with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). And he said that Israel should base its stance toward Syria on a formula of trading "peace for peace" rather than the traditional formula of "land for peace." On those issues, too, the new foreign minister was openly challenging policies long pursued by Washington. Pres. Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and their top aides have all been in Europe this week, conducting urgent business on the world economy and the hard-pressed relationship with NATO allies. Perhaps for that reason, there has not yet been any official reaction from the administration to Lieberman's frank and defiant declarations. On Thursday morning, Lieberman's office told journalists Clinton had called to congratulate him on his assumption of his new post, and that the two had agreed to meet "as soon as possible." State Department spokesman Robert Wood refused to say whether Clinton said anything during the call about the statements Lieberman had made the day before. It is possible that some in the Obama administration may simply be hoping the "Lieberman problem" will quickly go away. On Thursday, Israeli anti-fraud detectives questioned Lieberman for more than seven hours about aspects of his own and his party's business dealings, the latest in a series of probes that have continued for two years now. However, many longtime analysts of Israeli affairs doubt whether these police probes, on their own, will cause Lieberman to leave office. They recall that Israel's last two prime ministers, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, and the last president, Moshe Katsav, were all dogged throughout their terms in office by police probes into alleged improprieties, and none of those probes, on their own, forced any of the men to resign. When Netanyahu was prime minister in the 1990s, he too was investigated for corruption. The charges damaged him politically at the time. But later they were dropped; and the memory of them did not prevent him emerging as a strong prime minister from the Feb. 10 election. Indeed, Netanyahu has now assembled such a large and ideologically diverse ruling coalition that he looks easily able to play any one or two parties in it off against the others, if necessary. This makes him captive to none of his individual coalition partners. But of the many parties in his coalition, Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu is one of the strongest. In the hard, inter-party negotiations that follow any Israeli election, Yisrael Beitenu won five seats in Netanyahu's unprecedentedly large, 33-person cabinet. To what extent did Lieberman's undiplomatic words represent the actual preferences on peace-process questions of his boss, Netanyahu? There is considerable suspicion that they very much did. The two men are close. Indeed, before Lieberman formed his own, now-powerful party, he was in Netanyahu's Likud. He was even Netanyahu's chief of staff during Netanyahu's earlier term in office. After his swearing-in Tuesday, Netanyahu expressed his commitment to re-engaging in "peace negotiations" with the Palestinians, but he has refused to express any support for the goal of the fully independent Palestinian state - alongside Israel - that was defined at Annapolis. He has spoken a lot about trying to conclude an "economic peace" with the Palestinians that would fall far short of full national independence. Regarding Syria, early on his previous term as prime minister, Netanyahu also said - as Lieberman does today - that his goal was "peace for peace." Later in that term, Lieberman engaged in secret negotiations with Syria in which, in return for full peace, he offered Syria a large portion of the Golan Heights, which were occupied by Israel in 1967. But that offer fell short of the complete Israeli withdrawal that Syria has always required, and led nowhere. Amman-based political analyst Mouin Rabbani told Reuters that Lieberman's latest comments may well have represented Netanyahu's real preferences - but that "Netanyahu would have very much liked to fudge things." Lieberman's plain speaking - and the policy stance of the Netanyahu government in general - pose many challenges for the Obama administration as it tries to win the linked goals of revitalising Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts and assembling a strong coalition of Middle East governments with which to confront and contain Iran's growing power in the region. The prospects for revitalising talks on the Palestinian track do not look good, anyway. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, a long-time pillar of the negotiation effort, lost a considerable amount of his already weak political support from Palestinians when his last Israeli "peace partner", Ehud Olmert, acted with such brutality towards Gaza during the recent war. His U.S.-chosen prime minister, Salam Fayyad, has resigned. Back in February, Fayyad told IPS categorically that the PA should not return to the negotiations unless Israel halted all new construction in the settlements completely. Under Netanyahu, that is not likely to happen. The State Department's Wood has said that peace envoy Sen. George Mitchell will be heading back to the Middle East for his third tour in the coming days. Many in Washington are mystified that Mitchell has been so quiet in recent weeks - and also, that he has not yet appointed a functioning staff for his office. After Mitchell achieved a hard-won success in his earlier peace mediation effort in Northern Ireland, some people started to talk of the role "the Mitchell Magic" had played in bringing the warring sides together. This time around, increasing numbers of pro-peace policymakers and analysts in the Middle East say they cannot wait for magic to happen any more. They say they need Washington to define, and start working wholeheartedly for, its own solution to the problem. *Helena Cobban is a veteran Middle East analyst and author. She blogs at www.JustWorldNews.org Read more from Inter Press Service. More on Israel
 

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