The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Jesse Jenkins: The Sherrod Brown Test: Finding Consensus on Climate Policy
- PBS Releases Its Programming Online
- Pia Sawhney: In a Week of Genocide Remembrances, Right Wing Leaders Play Up Rhetoric
- James S. Marks: Why Your Zip Code May Be More Important to Your Health Than Your Genetic Code
- Pete Wentz: Stand in Solidarity with Child Soldiers
- McClatchy Reports Massive Losses
- Gates Backed Releasing Torture Memos
- Thom Hartmann: Will Obama Reboot Capitalism Anew?
- Robert Reames: Healthy Eating On A Budget
- Berlusconi Stacks Parliament, Cabinet With Beauty Queens, Actresses
- Christopher Mahoney: California's Third-World Public Schools Threaten All of Us
- Seth Greenland: Mindful In The Chaos
- Michael Steele Attends "Tyson" Movie Premiere
- ALLIGATOR ALLEY CLOSED Due To Fires
- Diane Francis: Bernanke, Paulson should be charged with securities violations
- Meghan McCain Slams Cheney, Rove: "You Had Your Eight Years--Go Away" (VIDEO)
- Wednesday's Late Night Round-Up: Joe Biden's Hair, Eliot Spitzer's Hookers, And Colbert's Earth Day Hate (VIDEO)
- Do-Gooder Flash Mobs Encourage Green Choices By Businesses (VIDEO)
- Tamar Abrams: Mentoring Kids From Foster Care to Success
- Secret Tally Shows 87,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed Since 2005: AP
- Blagojevich Confidante Lon Monk Pleads Not Guilty-- For Now
- Save Water By Watering Plants In The Morning
- The Progress Report: The Tortured Past
- Ensign Repeats Attack On Obama For Smiling With Chavez
- Joan Garry: Remembering the Days of Remembrance
- Alex Remington: A Modern Classic: Cynic's Traced in Air, A Reunion Album As Good As the Classic Debut
- Philip Markoff Put On Suicide Watch: ABC News
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Eerie Similarities Between President Obama and Bush's First 100 Days
| Jesse Jenkins: The Sherrod Brown Test: Finding Consensus on Climate Policy | Top |
| Originally posted at the Breakthrough Institute For advocates of immediate and strong climate and clean energy legislation, there's one man we should all be paying close attention to: Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Senator Brown is one of several Democratic Senators from America's 'Heartland' states that form the critical swing block of legislators that will need to support any climate and clean energy bill that hopes to cross the critical 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Along with a small handful of potential Republican swing votes, these Heartland Democrats have to get behind strong climate policy if we want to see it enacted anytime soon. Senator Brown has spoken eloquently on multiple occasions about the power of clean energy technologies to revitalize the hard-hit industrial communities of Ohio and other Heartland states. Just this week, the Ohio Senator penned an op ed in the Capitol Hill paper Roll Call declaring that the time is now to enact strong climate policy: "If we care about the world in which we live and the generations that will follow us, then we must no longer dismiss the lethal risks global warming poses to our planet. We must craft an aggressive strategy to combat global warming, and we must do it now. ... Inaction is not an option." And yet, the Senator has not pledged support for a specific climate policy. He was among 10 Democratic Senators who signed a letter (pdf) last June, saying they couldn't support climate legislation that resembled the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which had just been defeated on the Senate floor . That group now includes five more Democratic Senators , and other Democrats have joined a group led by Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana to stake their claim on climate policy as well. Senator Brown is still on the fence, and as the old saying goes, 'the devil is truly in the details:' if the details of climate and clean energy legislation make it something Senator Brown can support and even champion, then there's a decent shot of seeing the remaining swing Senators jump on board, putting 60 votes within reach. On the other hand, if Senator Brown can't support the proposal because he's not convinced it's in the best interests of Ohio or the nation, then kiss hopes of climate action this year good bye. It's simple: if we want to pass policies that will truly catapult the United States into a clean and prosperous energy economy, slash global warming pollution, and make clean energy cheap and abundant, we need to pass the "Sherrod Brown Test." So what are the keys to passing this test? Here are three factors to watch closely... First, passing the Sherrod Brown Test requires minimizing the economic costs of higher energy prices and maximizing the economic benefits of the legislation, particularly for the manufacturing sector. Senator Brown is a progressive champion of the manufacturing industries and union jobs that employ so many of his state's residents in good-paying middle-class jobs. Energy-intensive manufacturing industries are sensitive to the price of energy inputs and these industries, already hard hit by the recession, are even more at risk if energy prices rise too much. Climate legislation premised on a significant increase in dirty energy prices will therefore have a very hard time passing the Sherrod Brown Test. Measures to keep the costs of carbon - and therefore Ohio electricity rates - from rising too high are likely a necessity, and the more transparent they are, the more likely they will be to assure Senator Brown that the worst-case scenarios drummed up by fossil fuel lobbyists, right wing think tanks, and other forces of the status quo aren't going to materialize. While states like Ohio have a lot to lose if climate policy is done poorly, Senator Brown also knows his state has a lot to gain if it's done right. Investing in clean energy will spark a burgeoning growth industry that can fill factory floors with work orders (and good jobs) again. As the Senator wrote in Roll Call : "Across my state, manufacturing towns such as Toledo, Cleveland, Dayton, Youngstown and Columbus are leading the way in advanced manufacturing for new clean energy technologies. Our state and our nation need this boost in manufacturing, because in important ways, manufacturing jobs anchor our nation's middle class." To pass this part of the test, the revenues raised by climate legislation should be reinvested to spur the birth of a prosperous clean energy economy, including new manufacturing jobs in revitalized industrial sectors. In particular, we should focus on investments to accelerate the development and deployment of new clean energy technologies and ensure the industries and jobs of tomorrow take root here in America. Second, passing the Sherrod Brown Test requires major public investments in clean energy R&D and the deployment of emerging clean technologies - both designed to make clean energy cheap and affordable. Senator Brown and the rest of the Heartland Democrats who were unable to support last summer's Lieberman-Warner bill say they need to see more direct investments in the portfolio of clean and affordable energy technologies necessary to meet the emissions reduction targets set by climate legislation. As they wrote in June (pdf) : "[Climate Legislation Must] Invest Aggressively in New Technologies and Deployment of Existing Technologies. There is no doubt that we need a technological revolution to enter into a low carbon economy. It is critical that we design effective mechanisms to augment and accelerate government-sponsored R&D programs and incentives that will motivate rapid deployment of those technologies..." Yes, they clearly have in mind carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology that could enable these coal-reliant states to continue burning the fossil fuel without damaging the climate. But they also envision low-cost solar panel technologies built in Akron or Youngstown, a new generation of biofuels made from agricultural residues and forestry wastes in rural Arkansas and Missouri, and affordable and efficient plug-in hybrid cars rolling off assembly lines in Ann Arbor and Detroit. Not only are investments in these new clean energy technologies welcome boons to the economies of Heartland states, they are also essential to make clean energy cheap and affordable . Both a step-change increase in the scale of federal energy R&D and the accelerated deployment of emerging technologies to capture economies of scale are critical to lowering the real, unsubsidized costs of clean energy technologies. Making clean energy cheap is a necessary objective of any climate policy in order to secure an affordable and reliable supply of energy to power a prosperous American clean energy economy. Third, passing the Sherrod Brown Test requires reassuring the Senator that climate policies will not disproportionately impact Ohio and similar states. Senator Brown has repeatedly warned that climate policies that raise the price of dirty fossil fuels - including the coal that powers almost 90% of Ohio's electricity needs - may end up disproportionately impacting Ohio and other coal-dependent states. "We need to make climate change work in a way in which ratepayers in Ohio don't get overwhelmed by price increases and manufacturing in our state doesn't go to China," Brown told the Columbus Dispatch last month. That means President Obama's plan to use 80% of cap and trade to fund his middle-class tax cuts will fail the Sherrod Brown Test. The same is clearly true of the Cap and Dividend proposal , which calls for equal per capita dividends for every American and would transfer wealth from carbon intensive states like Ohio to states like California, Vermont and New York. "I support the (overall) Obama budget, but I am concerned about this cap-and-trade money because the burden will come to Ohio and the benefits are spread to 300 million Americans," Brown told the Dispatch . "That part of the budget is not acceptable." As I told Bill Scher in an op ed that just appeared in the Omaha World-Herald (and at Grist online ), passing this part of the test will mean that the bulk of carbon revenues must be proportionally returned to the states or regions from which they are generated - both because coal-dependent, Rust Belt states like Ohio have the most to lose from climate policy and because they need the most help. If we want to get the best bang for the carbon buck and want to maximize the economic gains (to pass part one of this test), we should avoid taxpayer rebates or free giveaways to entrenched industries and instead focus on investments that create clean-energy jobs, lower the cost of clean energy, and help make our bottom-line energy bills manageable and stable. So while the House and Senate debate and draft climate and clean energy policy and countless advocates and organizations weigh in, we'd better keep Sherrod Brown in mind and remember this: done wrong, climate policy will be heading nowhere but a collision course with a Senate filibuster. But as Senator Brown writes: "Done right, climate change legislation will improve our nation's competitiveness by creating new jobs and developing new technologies. We must confront the twin challenges of our economy and environment with a robust and thoughtful response. And we must recognize that climate change legislation is an opportunity to rebuild our nation's manufacturing base." Done right, climate policy can actually pass. Jesse Jenkins is the director of energy and climate policy at the Breakthrough Institute. He is also the founder and chief editor of WattHead - Energy News and Commentary and writes frequently at several other sites. More on Climate Change | |
| PBS Releases Its Programming Online | Top |
| NEW YORK — PBS may be cooler than you think. Though long-form video on the Web has become all the rage in the last year or two thanks to sites like Hulu.com, PBS has been hosting full episodes online for years. On Wednesday, the Public Broadcasting Service staked its Internet claim by launching a new video portal at . PBS says that by the summer, it will eventually host thousands of hours of programming. http://www.pbs.org/video The portal brings together programming that previously had been scattered across numerous Web sites. The site gathers full-length episodes of shows that many would say are among the best on television, including "American Experience," "Frontline," "American Masters," "Nature" and "Masterpiece" (formerly known as "Masterpiece Theater"). PBS already has a channel on Hulu, a joint venture of News Corp. and General Electric's NBC Universal, and it posts shorter clips on YouTube. But the new player, which will eventually include material from its 357 affiliates, offers an online destination for PBS viewers. PBS says it's finding younger viewers online. "It's a new audience for us," said Jason Seiken, senior vice president of interactive at PBS. "It's not our television audience watching things online. It's a new and younger and more diverse audience." The portal is a component of a larger online strategy for the network. Last fall, it launched a video player for children's programming: . PBS is also premiering the first episode of a new archaeological show, "Time Team America," on the Web site before its broadcast premiere this summer. http://www.pbskidsgo.org/video PBS hopes the new player will help tie together its large, disparate network of public broadcasters, and it expects the player will boost viewers to local affiliate programs. The player can also be embedded, so affiliates can host national programming on their sites. Oregon Public Broadcasting President and CEO Steve Bass said in a statement that the new PBS.org "expands our mission in a way we could not do otherwise." Though most other networks have stopped short of putting all of their programming and library online, PBS says its mission is different as a broadcaster meant to serve the public. Depending on appetite and rights issues, some programs will have their entire back catalog added _ such as Julia Child's cooking shows. In the network's ongoing efforts to shed an old and stodgy image, PBS _ which turns 40 this year _ is also present in social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The network is also planning to open up PBS.org to user-generated content and online festivals, Seiken said. "We're going to shock a lot of people when they come and look at this video portal," said Seiken. "We're not your grandfather's PBS." ___ EDITOR'S NOTE _ What do you think about PBS's new video player? E-mail AP Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle at jcoyle(at)ap.org | |
| Pia Sawhney: In a Week of Genocide Remembrances, Right Wing Leaders Play Up Rhetoric | Top |
| This Tuesday, an Israeli reporter described her experience attending a Holocaust Remembrance day ceremony in Tel Aviv, where she and others were frisked a number of times before being permitted to enter. The writer outlines her growing discomfort with the affair as she finds the Prime Minister's opening remarks appear less focused on the children who passed during the Second World War (though there is certainly mention), and more on the rising tide of anti-Semitism globally. Rather than sharing the author's ambivalence, this is one instance where Israel's Prime Minister and I likely agree. On a trip to Italy a few months ago, I came upon a tiny, isolated mining town, mostly overridden by tourists in the summer, but where over half the residents otherwise attain at best only seasonal employment. I noticed that on the streets and inner walls of town, anti-Semitic epithets and symbols plastered nearly every beautiful old block; all dealt with the bombardment of Gaza. The town was otherwise weirdly quiet. It was February, though, and still winter. But it felt alarming, partly because perhaps one doesn't expect this in a popular vacation destination (where were the carbinieri , after all -- and don't people wash the graffiti off their buildings?). Research released this week, however, now reflects the phenomenon was far from unique. The December and early January Israeli invasion of Gaza was followed closely by a precipitous rise in hate speech against Israel . The conflict between Muslims and Jews is age-old, and this contributes to some of the outrage, I suspect. As I belong to neither side, nor to Christianity, I can honestly claim I have little idea of all the back-and-forth though I have read about it from time to time. In terms of this year, it seems anti-Semitic incidents jumped markedly as compared with 2008 and preceding years. Professor Dina Porat, head of the Stephen Roth Institute in Israel, reported this past Monday that there has finally been a "sharp decline" in recent months from peaks that surfaced in earlier months of the year. As part of what the institute uncovered, Porat notes that the United Kingdom alone saw 250 anti-Semitic incidents in the month of January (as compared with 35 that same month, a year earlier). All this has happened despite polls reflecting that 75 percent of both Palestinians and Israelis favor a two-state solution. In fact, it now appears that spiraling vitriol is spurring Muslim/Jewish divisiveness. The sacrificial lambs in these debates have been Palestinians in Gaza, but also moderates in both groups. Muslims on the ground continue not to receive the urgent attention they deserve, and, in particular, a raging genocide remains underway in Darfur. Little has been done by political leaders, although 300,000 are estimated to have been killed and over 2 million displaced. I, like many others, would argue that the radicalization of the Jewish/Muslim divide has, in part at least, contributed in stealing attention away from the genocide today that endures. In Darfur, which truly is today's largest, most harrowing ethnic conflict (and in which the victims are millions of Muslims), residents face challenges similar to Palestinians daily, as they are routinely forced from their land. Rather than being a romantically tragic, religiously-driven war, however, this conflict is modern and concerns a grab by the Sudan government for greater resources. And so Darfuris continue to be part of a community that lives in constant fear of its government. Few non-Western allies have shown the strength or political will to reconcile or even discuss today's genocide with Sudan's ruling classes, even though it is these allies that wield the greatest influence over local Sudanese officials. In fact, rather than rallying other countries over the conflict in Darfur, the Arab League has colluded with Sudan's president for the six years and continues to do so. Last month, the League even invited President Omar al-Bashir to Qatar for a summit. Read here about how Arab nations said they would intervene in 2006, but have since shirked this responsibility. Yesterday, while the international news media drowned its sorrows in a near-pointless offensive at Israel launched by the Iranian premier, one slimy Mr. B (and no, I don't mean B Netanyahu) made a nonchalant state visit to Ethiopia where he received a relatively warm reception. There's an international arrest warrant out for al-Bashir, but so far, to little avail. Mia Farrow plans to go on a hunger strike to protest political inaction in the region starting this Monday. She has already made several trips to Darfur since 2003 when the region's genocide first began -- here's hoping this works out, this time, somehow. Apparently, she plans to continue for as long as she can survive without food. In the meanwhile, neither Jewish nor Muslim politicians, it seems, are close to doing their own folk any favors; bet that we'll still be seeing hate-speech from Jewish and Muslim politicians alike and more less-than-sincere collective action. Furthermore, Porat's research, in particular, has shown how political mobilization around genocide is becoming increasingly marginalized as Holocaust survivors age , and younger Jews ideologically begin distance themselves from it. But this may already be having repercussions for some. In a UN conference on racism earlier this week, Rwandan genocide survivors who had been invited apparently received little deliberate attention. Reason was they were sandwiched within a Mid-East conflict, in which one self-proclaimed "humble" former mayor of Tehran, the dashing Mr. A, spent considerable time lamenting the Jewish state. The survivors, in comparison, couldn't stir up nearly as much enthusiasm in the midst of the deeply polarized audience, many of whom appeared to have rather ardently already taken a side. One moderate Muslim-American on the same panel who tried to voice nuanced views , alongside Rwandans, Iranians and others, received a startling response post-discussion, when, in a rather misplaced interaction afterwards, he was spat on by two Israelis. More on Gaza War | |
| James S. Marks: Why Your Zip Code May Be More Important to Your Health Than Your Genetic Code | Top |
| How you see a problem drives how you create the solution. We are not a healthy country. And while health reform focuses on coverage, cost, access and care, this is simply triage to a system that fails to ask the question "Why aren't we healthier in the first place?" Our health reform debate is focusing on where health ends (with medical care) and not on where our health begins (where we live, learn, work and play). This month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America released a report about all of those other things. This report comes out of a bi-partisan commission created to look at the factors that affect Americans' health in our homes, our work environments, and our communities. In wonky terms, we call these factors "social determinants of health." In plain English, the Commission's purpose was to look for ways beyond medical care that could improve our health. What do we mean by "beyond medical care?" There is a ton of evidence that shows where and how people live, learn, work and play has a tremendous impact on our health. And while this link may seem intuitive to most, the extent of the relationship is not reflected in either the way we consider our own health or the way we go about creating solutions to make us a healthier nation as a whole. Let us consider just a few facts: • Evidence now suggests that medical care accounts for only 10 to 15 percent of preventable early deaths. • Some Americans will die 20 years earlier than others who live just a few miles away because of differences in education, income, race, ethnicity and where and how they live. • College graduates can expect to live five years longer than those who do not complete high school. • Middle-income people can expect to live shorter lives than higher income people, even if they are insured. • And people who are poor are three times more like to suffer physical limitations from a chronic illness. In other words, as it relates to our health, our zip code may be more important than our genetic code, our school files may be more telling than our medical files, the time spent in our office at work may be more relevant than the time spent at our doctor's office and the places we play may be more crucial than those where we get treated. Even when we do consider these social factors, we too often place an unfair burden on personal responsibility and ignore the obstacles that stand in the way for some to make healthier choices. Consider that Detroit, an area of 139 square miles and over 900,000 citizens has just five grocery stores. An apple a day may help keep the doctor away but that assumes you can find an apple in your neighborhood. As we begin to explore new ways to improve this country's health, we should look for inspiration from innovative programs around the country that are finding sensible, sustainable solutions at the intersection of health and daily life. Take for example a program like Bonnie CLAC (Car Loans and Counseling), which is built on the premise that how you get around affects your ability to live a healthier lifestyle. Reliable transportation can mean the difference between keeping and losing your job, being able to take your kids to the doctor and make it to a grocery store that sells healthier food. Bonnie CLAC is helping the working poor purchase fuel-efficient cars at great prices and low interest rates, while providing them with crucial financial counseling. This counseling not only helps them make the payments but also show how changes, like quitting smoking, can help their financial bottom line and be good for their health. If only our banks had taken a similarly responsible approach to home lending, we could have avoided the sub-prime mess that has had a devastating domino effect in creating more Americans who are vulnerable to financial difficulties and subsequent poor health. As we consider health reform in 2009, let's think about the neighborhoods and towns in which we all live, and ask ourselves: What are the barriers standing in the way to better health and how can health reform change the places we spend our lives to make them healthier places in which to live? Take a look around you and ask yourself "where does health really start?" Is it in the hospital or the home? Is it with insurance company or your employer? Is it with an ambulance driver or an urban planner? Only when we answer these questions honestly and see our health problems more clearly in this broader context, will we begin the real work to create and invest in solutions that help us all live as long and as healthy as we can. Dr. James Marks is currently the Senior Vice-President, Director of the Health Group at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is former Assistant Surgeon General, Director of the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. More on Health | |
| Pete Wentz: Stand in Solidarity with Child Soldiers | Top |
| Since becoming a dad, I've been thinking about the kind of world my kid is going to grow up in. What kind of man is he going to become? I'm lucky enough to spend my life in front of kids who honestly care what I have to say, and I think this generation has a bad rap. You can be a hipster, a scenester, a goth or a prep -- and someone's got something to say about you. But I never lost hope in us, because we're still standing on the shoulders of great leaders, we've got the resources, the knowledge, and the iPhone to do anything. The only generation to ever change America's course -- I mean really break the chain, were the youth. Every decade saw it: the radicals, the revolutionaries, the punk rock kids, the kids who lit shit on fire, (seriously, watch the Weather Underground). They were the only ones with the balls to think they could change things. And they did. So you'd think we're all apathetic and lazy, twittering the world our laments on last night's episode of Lost . Maybe we are. But in our hyper-connected world, the group of radicals have gone global. We're your neighbors and your co-workers. And maybe you don't know our names, but soon you will: I'd like to tell you about a few friends of mine, who, in a few days are about to make history, and they want you with them. They're called Invisible Children. They're a movement of people who literally gave up everything because they believed in humanity. They put their money where their mouth is. I watched the film Invisible Children: Rough Cut a while back, about kids sleeping in the streets in Northern Uganda -- hundreds of them -- because they feared being abducted by rebel leader Joseph Kony and forced to fight in his rebel militia, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). They're kids. Except no one told them they were, so they carry AK-47s, kill their parents and murder, rape and terrorize their own people on command. In the past two decades, 30,000 of them have been abducted. This is a reality neither you nor I could ever begin to understand. It was one of those times in my life where I was given a choice -- continue ignoring the issue because it wasn't in front of me, or forget about myself and do something. I was losing sleep, I had to go to Africa. My band Fall Out Boy traveled to Northern Uganda to film our music video "Me and You" to see it for ourselves and my experiences have forever changed me. Everyone I met, everywhere I walked, with every step, the hardwiring in my brain began to change. I was quiet. Every time I wanted to complain, I made sure to bite my tongue instead. One day, we were stopped by some local men holding machetes; they wouldn't let us pass. The fear I felt was paralyzing, but I looked into the eyes of these men and all could see was desperation. A pervasive hopelessness. These men stood at the mercy of a twenty-three year war. That night, the lights went out in the village, and in those moments of pure darkness, no one could differentiate if you were a rock star or an orphan, more importantly, it didn't matter. Coming home was surreal, I couldn't rationalize anything and nothing really made sense. My friends at Invisible Children know these stories, they know the names of the people. They are the culture-changers and paradigm shifters. They are the millions of kids who don't care if you think they're cool or not. They refuse to idly allow a modern-day holocaust to continue just because there's nothing in it for anyone to end this war. No oil, no resources, nothing to gain. Here's where you come in. On April 25th, Invisible Children is staging an event called the RESCUE, in 100 cities across 10 countries worldwide. Thousands of people are going to symbolically 'abduct' themselves and stand in solidarity with all the abducted children forced to fight as soldiers. In turn, every group will be 'rescued' by a celebrity, politician, local luminary -- someone who will make noise and bring the media out. I will be there, in Washington, D.C. standing in solidarity with thousands of other people so that these kids in Uganda will be noticed. And if no cultural leader shows up in one particular city, then everyone in the surrounding cites that were rescued, will take a bus to join them. This will continue until every participating city is rescued. Now, this could take days, or even weeks, but it's going to happen. The RESCUE is going to make history. It's going to make a positive impact. We will be at the frontlines. And I want YOU to be with us. I thoroughly believe that after April 25th, the world will see a shift in consciousness, and things will be different. You will be changed, or at least you'll have a hell of a story to tell. Go to therescue.invisiblechildren.com and watch their new film called The Rescue of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers to learn more about the specifics of why this is the next step. Then sign up. This is your chance to be a part of something great, not for the glory, but for the courage it takes to stand up for justice. Just don't light shit on fire, I don't want to get in trouble. | |
| McClatchy Reports Massive Losses | Top |
| NEW YORK — Newspaper publisher The McClatchy Co. reported a sharper, larger-than-expected loss and a 25 percent decline in revenue for the first quarter, as the recession hit advertising revenues for both newspapers and Web sites. McClatchy, which publishes The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and other newspapers, said Thursday it lost $37.5 million, or 45 cents per share, in the January-March period. That's much larger than the loss of $849,000, or 1 cent per share, a year ago. Excluding one-time charges, McClatchy said it lost $22.9 million, or 28 cents a share. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected a loss of 11 cents a share on that basis. Revenue fell to $365.6 million from $431.5 million a year ago, coming in below analyst expectations of $391 million. McClatchy also said it remained in compliance with debt obligations. Five other newspaper publishers already have filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors. Its shares were unchanged at 56 cents in morning trading Thursday. The Sacramento, Calif.-based company has received notice from the New York Stock Exchange that it faces delisting if its market capitalization doesn't recover. Like other newspaper publishers, McClatchy is facing a one-two punch of a recession-related decline in advertising just as some advertisers are moving their spending to the Internet, where revenue gains have yet to offset declines in print. In fact, digital advertising has been slowing down industrywide. At McClatchy, it declined 4.7 percent in the quarter because of a falloff in help wanted ads, even as traffic to McClatchy's Web sites rose. "The impact of the downturn had largely been limited to print advertising in 2008, but in the first quarter of 2009 it began to have a greater effect on digital advertising as well," said Gary Pruitt, chairman and chief executive. McClatchy said it was in compliance on two key debt measures. Last fall, the company reached a new agreement with lenders giving it more flexibility to meet those targets for two years, at a cost of higher interest rates. But advertising revenue has further declined since then, putting additional pressure on the targets because cash flow is a key part of those equations. The measures McClatchy reported Thursday appeared well within the requirements. The leverage ratio _ the company's debt divided by its cash flow _ stood at 5.9 for the quarter, below the permitted ceiling of 7.0. Its interest coverage ratio _ the ratio of cash flow to its interest payments _ was at 2.8, above the minimum requirement of 2.0. The company said it doesn't have any debt maturing until June 2011, though it plans to continue paying down debt. Debt, net of cash on hand, stood at $2.02 billion at the end of the quarter, compared with $2.03 billion at the end of 2008. Much of the debt came from McClatchy's 2006 purchase of the Knight Ridder chain. The fall in print and online advertising revenue accelerated at McClatchy, to 29.5 percent in the first quarter compared with the previous year. It had been 21 percent in the fourth quarter and 19 percent in the third. McClatchy has responded to the revenue declines with deep staff cuts. In March, it said it would eliminate 1,600 positions. Along with earlier layoffs, the latest cuts will bring McClatchy's work force down by a third in less than a year. Pruitt didn't announce any specific new cost-cutting initiatives, but said the company would "remain focused on realigning our cost structure." The company has also raised cover prices, resulting in a 0.9 percent increase in circulation revenue, and expects that to help offset further declines in advertising revenues. | |
| Gates Backed Releasing Torture Memos | Top |
| Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates indicated Thursday that he supported the release of sensitive memos on detainee interrogation methods last week because he viewed their ultimate disclosure as inevitable. | |
| Thom Hartmann: Will Obama Reboot Capitalism Anew? | Top |
| Over six million people are now out of work, and unemployment figures released today show that now-record number is continuing to climb. Meanwhile, still-profitable American corporations manufacture goods for American consumption using Chinese labor and pay virtually no income tax by keeping their profits offshore. A hundred years ago, Republican President Theodore Roosevelt tried to reign in some of the most toxic behaviors of capitalists that he found incompatible with modern democracy by pushing through congress a law that banned the practice of corporations giving money to politicians. He slowed down the robber barons a bit, but three consecutive Republican presidents in the 1920s led us straight into the Republican Great Depression. Franklin Roosevelt, his distant cousin, rebooted capitalism in the 1930s, ushering in an era of regulated capitalism - embraced by Republicans like Eisenhower and Democrats like JFK - that brought us the largest, strongest, and most stable middle class ever seen. We also became the world's economic superpower, as the world's largest importer of raw materials, exporter of finished goods, and banker to the world. We imported iron ore and exported televisions and cars and washing machines. The rest of the world was in debt to us. A worker with a high school diploma could find a job that paid enough to raise a family and have a safe and comfortable retirement. The Reagan Revolution of the 1980s was the third "rebooting" of capitalism in the 20th Century, and continues to this day. Scorning the "regulated" part of "regulated capitalism," economic Reaganites from the Gipper himself to GHW Bush to Bill Clinton to GW Bush flipped our economy upside down. Today, after just thirty years of "free trade" and "right to work" and other oxymoronic nostrums applied as policy, we've become the world's largest importer of finished goods and the world's largest debtor. We now export minerals to Asia, and import back from them televisions, cars, and washing machines. So now the big question: Will Obama reboot capitalism anew? Will he move us into a new realm of capitalism, back toward regulated capitalism, or continue the slide toward a poverty-ridden Dickensian economy that Reagan started? At the moment, nobody knows. Reagan began the war on working people when he busted PATCO in the first year of his administration, and then began the process - largely uninterrupted right up to a few months ago - of dismantling the protections organized labor had enjoyed since the New Deal. When Bill Clinton totally abandoned the national industrial policy that Alexander Hamilton had put into place in 1791 with NAFTA, GATT, and the WTO, we made the shift from a "Made in the USA" to a "Do you want fries with that?" economy. And the near-total deregulation of the commodities (including energy) and financial sectors begun in the last years of the Clinton administration and put on steroids by Republicans during the GW Bush administration led to a shift from a "Do you want fries with that?" economy to a "How much would you like to borrow from us?" economy. Now the manufacturing jobs are shipped overseas, and we're left with lousy jobs and maxed out of credit cards. Many of the few manufacturing jobs that will be created by the Obama stimulus plan will be done in American factories, but the profits will go back to Denmark, Japan, Norway, and other countries whose "green" companies are buying or building our manufacturing facilities. All of this seems just fine with the Summers and Geithners of the world, and many of the Democrats who rolled over in the face of Republican opposition to the "Buy American" provision that was thus and then removed from the Stimulus bill. "Cheap credit" seems like a goal rather than a warning. And, tragically, several democratic senators have already signaled their fealty to the Robber Barons by refusing to endorse the Employee Free Choice Act. One can only hope that - like the Obama reversal on the possibility of prosecution of Bush war criminals - our new president will change course and take us back to a "Made in the USA" economy. Like Franklin Roosevelt famously (and perhaps apocryphally) said, perhaps Obama is waiting for us to pressure him to "Make me do it." Thom can be heard daily on his radio show 12pm - 3pm ET. Visit www.thomhartmann.com to stream live or find a station near you. More on Barack Obama | |
| Robert Reames: Healthy Eating On A Budget | Top |
| Folks across America are under the misconception that you need to have mega bucks to eat healthy. This is totally not the case. Fact: If you follow the guidelines and implement the choices below....you will save an incredible amount of money! And...keep this in mind: If you're eating healthy, nutritious meals, getting your workouts in and making your best effort to get your proper rest....you'll BE running at peak levels! You'll be at the top of your game! Overall General Tips: * Buy in bulk. Separate then freeze and or refrigerate portions for you and your family. Utilize Tupperware type containers and plastic bags, foil etc. for bulk storage. This concept is in essence your own "convenience" "healthy fast food" menu that you'll always have on hand. Also saves on gas....less trips to the store or your favorite overpriced restaurant. * Don't eat out. Eat and or prepare ALL meals at home from scratch. You'll over pay anywhere from 5 to 20-30 times the cost by eating out. Profit margins are huge in the restaurant industry overall....and that's money OUT of your pocket. Plan, plan and plan again so you aren't stuck over paying for a meal you really don't want. * Don't over eat! This is pretty self explanatory. Portions sizes in America overall...are just too large. * Don't eat take out or delivery. Big time mark ups on these choices. * Don't buy deli concoctions. Take the idea that you see in the deli show case....and make your own homemade version. * Use a crock pot type of thing to prepare many different kinds of soups, stews and sauces for your family. Bake a casserole. Again here....divide into portions and store. * Take lunches to work and or pack lunches for the kids. Use coolers and ice packs. * Buy fresh foods at farms or farmers markets. We're coming into summer here to this is a great time to get awesome deals on fresh fruits and vegetables. * Grow your own vegetables and fresh herbs. * Make your own salad dressings using, olive oil, vinegar and or nonfat yogurt and your favorite herbs and spices. (fresh garlic, ginger, dill, basil, onion etc.) * Eliminate juices, sodas and any other form of processed hydration. You'll waste tons of cash on these. STAY WITH FRESH WATER as your drink of choice. Flavor with a squeeze of fresh lemon, lime or orange for variation. * Buy thermos or container that you can constantly re-use for water, soup, tea etc. * Eliminate junk and processed foods. Excess sodium and sugar encourage over consumption. Not only are these foods bad value and a waste of money....but they are void of healthy nutrition. * Plan your grocery trips out. This will eliminate impulse buying. Also; don't go to the grocery store hungry. * Find one or maybe two places close by that you shop at regularly to avoid spending excess $$ gas on over driving around. The overall message here: PLAN, PLAN AND THEN PLAN AGAIN. You'll see the results with the extra cash you'll have at the end of each month. We've become so accustomed to "convenience" by the food industry....and in the process we've been programmed to excessively over spend on our nutrition. With proper and thought out planning....we are fully and easily able to create "our own version of convenience" by following the tips above. AND...we'll become healthier versions of ourselves along with built in weight control in the process. Foods That are Excellent Value for Money and Nutrition: * Chicken, turkey and or ground versions of these as well as lean ground beef. Buy frozen in bulk or bake a large chicken or turkey then divide portions and freeze. Use for sandwiches, soups and casseroles. * Eggs. Can be cooked many different ways and used along with other foods. * Farmers market or frozen veggies. Find the deals on these...they're out there. Any concern for spoilage due to not eating your veggies soon after purchase...work in the frozen veggies. (plain...no highly processed sauces) * Beans and brown rice. Add in a frozen or fresh vegetable. Use your own fresh herbs spices and homemade sauces. Nutritionally and financially this is the best meal out there. If there was one food left on earth....and it had to be the perfect food...it would be beans. Any kind...black, pinto, red, white....all work well. And brown rice is loaded with B vitamins and is a good source of fiber. * Quinoa, couscous or even high protein/fiber whole wheat pastas in bulk. ...in addition to brown and wild rice choices. * Homemade soups, casseroles and stews. * Look for deals on large bag spinach and lettuce. * Iced Green tea. (homemade) Pack of 100 tea bags will cost you between 10 and $12 which will make gallons and gallons of tea. * If you drink coffee....don't buy at a Starbucks type place. This will save you big money. Prepare at home and travel with a thermos. * Go out to the country and pick your own fresh fruit. (again...we're coming up on a great time of year for this) Or...buy from the grocery in large bags...vs. individually. * Tuna. This can be used in many different ways. * High fiber oatmeal. You can incorporate some whey protein powder (which can also be purchased in bulk) to add in your protein. * Use a Brita type thing for fresh filtered water vs. buying in plastic bottles. Most all of the meals recommended in The Robert Reames Lifestyle Transformation, Permanent Weight Loss System done in the recommended portions can easily be done by following the above tips for well under $1. Compare this to a fast food, boxed pre-packaged food or a convenience food trip that is nutritionally inferior -- and the cost savings are astronomical. (And you get fit...not fat!) Combine all of the above choices in balanced meal planning using your own herbs, spices and sauce combos....sky's the limit here! Look for the good deals out there on herbs and spices and maintain this collection in your kitchen. www.robertreames.com *** Robert Reames is a personal/group trainer, nutritionist, motivational speaker and the creator of The Robert Reames Lifestyle Transformation; Permanent Weight Loss System. He is the author of Make Over Your Metabolism, currently working in his sixth season as the head trainer/nutritionist for Dr. Phil's Ultimate Weight Loss Race/Challenge and is a spokesperson for Gold's Gym International. For more info, log on to: www.robertreames.com . More on Wellness | |
| Berlusconi Stacks Parliament, Cabinet With Beauty Queens, Actresses | Top |
| Silvio Berlusconi has an eye for pretty girls with a background in showbusiness and has brought some of them into parliament and even his Cabinet to brighten up politics. More on Italy | |
| Christopher Mahoney: California's Third-World Public Schools Threaten All of Us | Top |
| Shin splints throbbing and so sweat-soaked I could have been swimming instead of jogging, I've just finished another training run. When I resumed jogging after a several-year lapse, I didn't realize it would be so humbling. But it's get back in shape by mid-May or watch passively as California's public schools continue their collapse into third-world status. The sight scares me, because this educational catastrophe threatens to cost California and America much of our next generation of leadership. On May 19, Propositions 1A, 1B, and 1C go before Californians in a referendum. Voting yes on the three prevents state lawmakers from further pillaging the public education budget. The weekend before the vote, teachers, students, parents and administrators from California's founding public charter school, the San Carlos Charter Learning Center, will run a 140-mile relay to Sacramento to capture attention to the compelling need to vote "yes." As the school director, I'll be among the runners in what we're calling the Run for Funds, no matter how much my shins hurt. Because what's happening to public schools is a lot more painful. And since the San Carlos Charter Learning Center is the state's original charter, a form of public school in California, we believe we have a mission to literally lead a charge on behalf of all public education. California ranks at the bottom of all states in its investment per student per year; cost-adjusted annual spending is about $2,000 below the national average. Unless dramatic action is taken, including voting yes on the three propositions, there's no hope this disaster will ease. Of course, numbers don't mean much unless you see their impact up close. We do. At our school, we've cut back on Spanish classes, we're eliminating library programs, and more of the curriculum is at risk. For this reason, we've made the run to Sacramento a fundraiser for our school as well as a call for action on public education. But our woes illustrate what public schools face statewide. Across California, language, phys-ed, music, art, and after-school programs are gone, to name just some of what's been cut. Class sizes are swelling to as much as 40 kids. Sure, schools still teach the basics of reading, writing, and math. But having visited educational systems around the globe, I can tell you that merely offering the basics puts us on par with second-world societies and we're quickly sliding lower. It's frightening, because besides the sad implications for the individual children in our charge, it means America is losing many of its next inventors, visionaries and leaders. A large number of the axed programs are in the category of "enrichment," often sneered at as frills. But it's exactly these classes that transform youth into the kind of people our nation needs to guide its future. When children are only instructed in the basics, they become functional workers, capable of executing directed tasks, but unable to imagine and bring to life new possibilities. Enrichment programs, on the other hand, evoke passion, creativity, and drive to succeed, no matter how difficult. Think of the child who loves softball so much she'll throw the ball a thousand times, even in the worst weather, to master her pitch, or the youngster who discovers a passion for guitar and practices for hours to get his fingering right. This fire, this drive, this desire to succeed are the traits they'll use as adults to invent new technologies regardless of setbacks, to solve the most challenging of dilemmas, and to lead others to achieve, despite the difficulty. Large class sizes also snuff out vital creative passion. Put one teacher in a room of three-dozen-plus youngsters, and the priority becomes keeping the class under control, with teaching by rote a central tool in this process. While rote instruction is the easiest way to impart information to a large group, it's the worst way to foster imagination and problem-solving. Why should the rest of America care about public education funding in California? At $1.5 trillion annually, California is by far the nation's most dominant economy. Past investment in public schools yielded the brainpower, creativity, and leadership skills that created this largesse. California's sinking educational commitment will whack a large hole in America's entire fortunes, one that will be irreparable for at least a generation. When a problem arises, you can run towards it to try to fix it, or you can turn your back and walk away. Californians, please vote yes on Propositions 1A, 1B, and 1C. And if you'd like to become involved with this effort to make public education a priority, please e-mail: getinvolved@scclc.net . | |
| Seth Greenland: Mindful In The Chaos | Top |
| Anyone can be mindful when the sky is blue and soft breezes are blowing. But just try to maintain that posture when storm clouds gather. It can be a challenge for some, an impossibility for others. Oh! The excitable person may exclaim -- and who among us never fits that description? -- Here comes a storm! What shall I do? I'll get wet, or worse. My house could float away! My whole world will become irretrievably soggy! I could drown! This is not the mindful reaction. The mindful reaction to a graying sky would be more along the lines of: Well, things aren't looking so good right now. It may rain and I could get wet, but I don't want to think about that because mindfulness is about being in the moment and right now the moment is dry. But wait a minute, you may point out, does being mindfully in the moment mean we can reasonably ignore the future and eschew the option of planning? If a storm is coming shouldn't we mindfully batten down the hatches and make sure what could be bad (a hurricane) doesn't become worse (a flooded basement)? Of course. The mindfully aware person should never ignore rumbles in the distance, but these rumbles must be assessed with the cool detachment mindfulness allows, not with the Henny Penny attitude of someone who thinks the sky is unmistakably falling. When what we may think of as doom seems lurking on the horizon, it is important to try and view it with an objective eye, to see it from the outside of the situation, with perspective. After love, food, and shelter, there are fewer more important things than perspective because without it you will not attain the emotional equilibrium necessary to the feigning of not being crazy. But what about when a storm does hit, what then Mr. Mindful? To that I would say this: When a storm hits, do everything you can to keep safe and dry. And keep clearly in mind that the storm will exhaust itself, pass on, and blue skies will literally return. When in the middle of a giant upset, this is the thing to focus on. I am currently involved in a challenging business situation. I won't bore you with the details other than to say it is the kind of thing that inspires increasingly baroque revenge fantasies. In some people. Not me, of course, because I try to be mindful in the chaos. How to remain mindful in a situation where someone in a similar situation, someone less mindfully aware than I, someone from somewhere like the New Jersey we know from The Sopranos, may be tempted to hire a hit man? Like the storm laden horizon, this situation presents a behavioral challenge. What shall it be then? Chicken Little or Winston Churchill? The first thing I do is look at the situation in a cool and rational fashion. Then I let out an earsplitting scream, internally, of course, so no one hears - because then, god forbid, someone might conclude that I am not mindful. Once the inner primal scream is exhausted, I step back, take a hard look at the facts, and recognize that while the situation may be annoying today, and - I don't kid myself - could get worse before it gets better, I know that I have to remain calm in order to deal with it and to get on with the other things that make up my life. And how do I do that? By being mindful. Things arise, they depart. Just like us. What abides is chaos. That waxes and wanes each day. We deal with it by observing it. And by not forgetting to wear a slicker and galoshes. [Crossposted on www.mindfulmom.com ] More on The Inner Life | |
| Michael Steele Attends "Tyson" Movie Premiere | Top |
| On Monday night, Michael Steele made what for him has become an increasingly rare public appearance. Neither political nor news media focused, the RNC Chairman attended the premiere of the new documentary film "Tyson" -- about the infamously foul-mouthed, ear-biting boxer -- at the Union Square Loews in New York City. Steele's appearance, reported by the New York Post's Page Six and confirmed by the RNC, would seem like a relatively peculiar choice of venue for the high-profiled politico. Except that his relationship with Tyson is fairly deep. Steele's younger sister, Monica, was the boxer's second wife and Tyson took to the role of campaign surrogate during Steele's run for Maryland's Senate seat in 2006. "I would do anything to help Michael," Tyson said at the time . "I would box an exhibition for him. I would even fight again to help Mike. I would do anything." The day after the movie premiere, Steele was slated to give a morning speech before the Religious Action Committee's national convention, a gathering of reform Jews from across the nation. But the RNC Chair had abruptly canceled that appearance by Monday. An official at the RNC said that the cancellation was not due to another event. Become a fan of HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter . More on Michael Steele | |
| ALLIGATOR ALLEY CLOSED Due To Fires | Top |
| A long stretch of Interstate 75 closed since Wednesday evening because of heavy smoke billowing from a fire in the Big Cypress National Preserve will likely be reopened Thursday, a park spokesman said. | |
| Diane Francis: Bernanke, Paulson should be charged with securities violations | Top |
| The Wall Street Journal story today reveals that the Bank of America's CEO claims he was told by Bernanke and Paulson to remain silent about the disaster unfolding after it agreed to acquire Merrill Lynch & Co. The story is based on testimony under oath made by the Bank's CEO Kenneth Lewis before New York's Attorney General in February and shown to the Journal. If true, this constitutes a breach of the fundamentals of securities laws which require "material facts" to be fully disclosed in a timely manner to regulators and to public stock markets. Instead, Bernanke and Paulson told Lewis not to disclose the dire consequences unfolding at Merrill within his bank which meant that millions of shares of the Bank of America and other stocks worth tens of billions traded for prices they would not have fetched if these U.S. government officials had not allegedly imposed a cover-up. Martha Stewart went to jail for months for withholding information from regulators about trading $50,000 worth of shares. In this case, the two most powerful regulators in the history of the world financially damaged markets, widows and orphans, pension funds, mutual funds and other investors by not telling them a bank, and indirectly the financial system as whole, was in worse shape than previously disclosed. The argument in favor of such a breach? It was in the national interest to do so and that by disclosing what a basketcase Merrill Lynch was, Bank of America shareholders could have stopped the acquisition and the fallout would have been catastrophic. Instead, the deal went ahead and the Bank of America stock cratered and it had to be bailed out by taxpayers and Merrill's brass got multi-million dollar bonuses. There were other choices such as shutting down the stock pending further developments or stock markets themselves for a cooling off period until information could be properly disseminated. There are plenty of precedents for this in extraordinary circumstances. Even a heart attack or assassination can bring about a shutdown. But not this fall. Rather than face the music and take decisive action, Bernanke and Paulson ordered a CEO to disobey the law of the land. This makes them accessories, not leaders. More on Merrill Lynch | |
| Meghan McCain Slams Cheney, Rove: "You Had Your Eight Years--Go Away" (VIDEO) | Top |
| Meghan McCain is co-hosting ABC's "The View" today and tomorrow, and is wasting no time delivering soundbytes. Within the opening 10 minutes of today's program McCain managed to get in a shot at former Vice President Dick Cheney and Karl Rove. McCain, who had previously written about how she found Karl Rove following her on Twitter "creepy," complained that Cheney and Rove are still trying to be seen as the face of the Republican Party. Last week McCain observed that the GOP leadership is "scared shitless" of the changing political landscape. McCain mentioned disapprovingly Cheney's repeated public criticisms of Obama--which he voiced again on Fox News this week--and referred to the DNC ad released this week portraying Cheney, Rove and Gingrich as the 'new face of the GOP.' Her advice to those three: "Go away." WATCH: | |
| Wednesday's Late Night Round-Up: Joe Biden's Hair, Eliot Spitzer's Hookers, And Colbert's Earth Day Hate (VIDEO) | Top |
| Yesterday was Earth Day and all the late night hosts celebrated in their own special ways. Jay Leno used the occasion to mock Joe Biden, Jimmy Kimmel mocked President Obama, and David Letterman mocked Eliot Spitzer. Ok, fine, they all celebrated in exactly the same way. Except for Stephen Colbert. Colbert has long hated Earth Day, but until it infiltrated his favorite day-time game show, he wasn't at war with it. The "Price Is Right" went green yesterday and the Comedy Central frontman was not happy, my friends. He guessed all the eco-friendly prizes were one dollar. For yesterday's round-up click here , for he funniest jokes form past Earth Days click here . WATCH: More on Late Night Shows | |
| Do-Gooder Flash Mobs Encourage Green Choices By Businesses (VIDEO) | Top |
| We first heard about Carrotmob almost a year ago -- they organize huge numbers of consumers ready to show up and buy things at a business that commits to doing something good. They also play businesses against one another -- whichever business promises to do something better (say, donate a higher percentage of revenue to a certain cause) gets ALL of Carrotmob's socially-conscious consumers! WATCH: Carrotmob isn't the only such rowdy group of do-gooders, as Treehugger's Graham Hill blogged for us in December: Carrotmob begat a number of other initiatives. A 'podmob' in Vancouver raised a few thousand dollars at a local sushi restaurant in return for the owners agreement to spend on new menus that would highlight 'best, go slow, avoid' fish choices for sushi as well as other greening. Inspired, a group of Dutch enthusiasts started Strawberry Earth online magazine and started planning events at local cafes to get the greening going. The Carrotmob concept has even been spotted in Finland, where "Porkkanamafia" already had its first two events in Finnish restaurants - 3,250 Euros ($4,170) of extra profit at Helsinki's Juttutupa restaurant, of which 51 percent will go toward energy efficient lighting and kitchen appliances, and nearly 2,500 Euros ($3,207) for lighting at Cafe Europassa in Tampere. More on Green Living | |
| Tamar Abrams: Mentoring Kids From Foster Care to Success | Top |
| The more than half a million children being raised in foster care belong to all of us and deserve at least as much support, guidance and love as our biological kids. But the sad truth is that less than a third of the 25,000 young people who age out of the foster care system each year will obtain either a high school diploma or a GED. They are also much more likely than our biological children to suffer from depression as a result of childhood trauma, to become victims of crime or be incarcerated. Fully 30% of them will become homeless at some point after leaving foster care. This is not an indictment of foster care; in fact I am a foster parent myself. Rather it is a plea for more people to care about the needs and welfare of children who are in the foster care system. A big step in the right direction was taken this week when Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and President Obama added programs for mentoring foster youth to the list of national service programs through the Serve America Act. Mentoring is a critical component in the success of teenagers, particularly for those who didn't have good role models in their childhood. The Orphan Foundation of America (OFA) is an amazing nonprofit organization with documented success in helping young people make the transition from foster care to success. OFA shared with me some letters from young people in their mentor program: A young woman named Tina wrote to her mentor, "I never had a female role model to look up to. But then I got you and technically that's all I need. Over the last several years since you've been my mentor, life has had its purpose." Antonio wrote, "Having a mentor meant a lot of me. He not only acted as a big brother, but like a cane to help me walk through school. He gave me a better feel of how to be successful." And finally, Maria said of her mentor, "When things have gotten hard, my mentor has given me the strength to move forward. Even if other people were giving me negative responses, she would remind me that I can do it. She helped me make smart life choices. She's someone I will have in my life forever." As a foster parent, I know the concept of "forever" can be a difficult one for children who are shuffled from one living situation to another. Impermanence can become the theme of their young lives and can shadow them as they become adults. That's why a mentor can be so critical -- offering advice, providing friendship and modeling a stable, successful life. Kudos to Senator Landrieu, President Obama, the Orphan Foundation of America, our nation's foster parents and mentors and all of those who hold our foster children close. You don't need to be a foster parent to have a positive impact on these children. You only need to care enough to mentor. | |
| Secret Tally Shows 87,000 Iraqis Have Been Killed Since 2005: AP | Top |
| BAGHDAD — A previously undisclosed Iraqi government tally obtained by The Associated Press shows that at least 87,215 Iraqis have been killed in violence since 2005. An in-depth AP review shows the total for the entire war exceeds 110,000 Iraqis. That figure is based on the government tally and counts of casualties from earlier years from hospital sources and media reports. A government official shared the Iraqi death tally on condition of anonymity, providing the most authoritative accounting to date of the war's toll. It still excludes thousands of people who are missing and civilians who were buried in the chaos of war without official notice. Meanwhile, the numbers continued to rise Thursday, as two separate suicide attacks killed at least 54 people. More on Iraq | |
| Blagojevich Confidante Lon Monk Pleads Not Guilty-- For Now | Top |
| CHICAGO (AP) -- A former chief of staff who served under ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich has pleaded not guilty to federal corruption charges. Alonzo Monk was silent for most of the five-minute arraignment Thursday before Judge James B. Zagel. The 50-year-old did acknowledge he was pleading not guilty. Prosecutors have said publicly, though, that they expect Monk to make a deal and take the stand as a government witness if the case goes to trial. Monk is charged in just one fraud count in the sweeping 19-count corruption case. Blagojevich and four other defendants were arraigned earlier . -ASSOCIATED PRESS More on Rod Blagojevich | |
| Save Water By Watering Plants In The Morning | Top |
| The best time to water plants is usually in the morning, both to maximize the efficiency of H2O used and to promote healthy flora. More on Green Living | |
| The Progress Report: The Tortured Past | Top |
| by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Pat Garofalo To receive The Progress Report in your email inbox everyday, click here . On Tuesday night, the Senate Armed Services Committee released an unclassified version of its November 2008 report, "Inquiry into the Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody." The report revealed that top Bush administration officials ignored warnings from military advisers before approving torture methods, skipped a thorough legal review process, and failed to fully investigate the origins of the dangerous techniques they prescribed. The report also states that the consequences of their actions trickled down to lower-ranking officers, leading directly to the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Furthermore, according to a detailed timeline declassified by Attorney General Eric Holder at the request of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bush administration officials "reviewed and approved as early as the summer of 2002 the CIA's use of harsh interrogation methods on detainees...including waterboarding." In another startling revelation, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, "persistent" and "extreme" interrogations were used because Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld demanded that intelligence agencies "find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration." These various reports have led some in Congress "to push for a full inquiry" into the Bush administration's actions regarding torture. "Our country is turning away from this dark moment. But we cannot afford to leave it behind until we fully understand what went wrong, and do what we can to ensure that America never again loses sight of its most sacred principles," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). OBAMA OPEN TO PROSECUTIONS: As the Washington Post's Dan Balz wrote, "[T]ry as he might, the president is finding it difficult to close the books on Bush's presidency." Indeed, the White House has sent a variety of signals regarding investigations into the Bush administration's authorization of torture. But when asked directly, President Obama said that he would not rule out prosecuting the Bush lawyers who created the legal underpinnings for torture, instead leaving the question up to Holder. "With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that is going to be more of a decision for the Attorney General within the parameters of various laws, and I don't want to prejudge that," Obama said. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has written to Obama asking him to keep the door open to prosecutions, a view that was echoed by former Intelligence Committee chairman Bob Graham. Others, like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), are building momentum for the creation of a "truth commission" to investigate the Bush administration, an idea that Obama has said he would be open to. The Center for American Progress's Ken Gude wrote that "the Obama administration's previous insistence on turning the page on this dark chapter is no longer sustainable. Our only chance to ensure that this does not happen again is to reach a recognized consensus that torture is illegal, immoral, and ineffective and has done great harm to the United States." TORTURING AN IRAQ-AL QAEDA CONNECTION: As McClatchy reported, "[T]he Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime." Such information -- which doesn't exist -- "would've provided a foundation" for Bush's arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. According to the Armed Services Committee report, former U.S. Army psychiatrist Maj. Charles Burney told Army investigators in 2006 that "the more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link...there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results." As The Wonk Room's Matt Duss explained, "[T]he time spent and assets used in attempting to torture out a justification for what we now know was a predetermined Iraq invasion could have been better spent actually protecting America. In other words, the Iraq war was damaging U.S. national security even before it began." THE RIGHT RUNS TO BLAIR: Of course, conservatives and former members of the Bush administration have rushed to defend the torture methods it authorized. "I think it's all how it's conducted and to what extent things go," former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. Yesterday, conservatives seized on a statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, who said that harsh interrogations of suspected al-Qaeda officials produced "valuable" information. "Barack Obama's top man in the intelligence community sent the President a memo defending the use of enhanced interrogation techniques," wrote conservative blogger Ed Morrissey. However, Blair also said that it is impossible to tell whether the same intelligence could have been obtained without torture, and in any case, "the bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world." "The damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security," Blair said. Furthermore, there remains no evidence that torture produced any actionable intelligence. Such intel was reportedly gleaned before "enhanced interrogation" began, using methods approved in the Army Field Manual, the standards Obama has stated will now govern interrogations. In fact, former FBI interrogator Ali Soufan wrote in the New York Times today that "there was no actionable intelligence gained from using enhanced interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah that wasn't, or couldn't have been, gained from regular tactics." "I questioned [Zubaydah] from March to June 2002, before the harsh techniques were introduced later in August. Under traditional interrogation methods, he provided us with important actionable intelligence," Soufan wrote. More on Barack Obama | |
| Ensign Repeats Attack On Obama For Smiling With Chavez | Top |
| John Ensign wants to make one thing very clear: he's not sorry for saying it was "irresponsible" of President Obama to be seen laughing with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at last week's Summit of the Americas. More on GOP | |
| Joan Garry: Remembering the Days of Remembrance | Top |
| This week marks the Days of Remembrance, an annual program of the US Holocaust Museum . It is of course in the service of ensuring that we never forget. President Obama, the first president to ever host a White House seder, is not forgetting. He was at the Capitol Rotunda at 11am eastern this morning. He is helping us all to remember. We never forget at our house. All we have to do is think about the names of our three children, each a gift from relatives we've never met. Or seen. There is not a single photograph. All we have to do is think about Eileen's mom and dad. Both gone now but survivors. More than that. Neither simply survived. They made a life for themselves here - by all measures a successful one. And of course they brought us my partner Eileen. Our fourteen year old twins just returned from a school trip to DC . It was a great trip and President Obama was even nice enough to be home when we visited his home. Our trip included several hours at the Holocaust Museum. While a few parents waited out front for the kids to arrive from the hostel, we were moved out of the way briefly by a security guard and his bomb sniffing dog. Turns out it was only a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the unmarked bag. My friend Kristen loves dogs and started a conversation about the dogs. Turns out, much to Kristen's surprise, that there are 5 of them at the Holocaust Museum. All the time. And that the Holocaust Museum handles more threats than any other museum in the district. It was at that moment that 24 kids arrived. The spell of that moment was momentarily lost. But the operative word is momentary. I often joke that Ben and Kit look like they could have just walked off the set of "Fiddler on the Roof." They are beautiful with dark hair with the most beautiful big brown eyes. Unlike their older sister who is lighter and could "'pass" for a " shiksa ," there is no "passing" for Ben and Kit. They are Jewish adolescents. I had been to the Museum before. With their older sister Scout . I don't think we talked for hours afterwards (this quite an accomplishment from the two of us). We lingered at any photo of the Lodz ghetto, looking for someone who might have been Nana at age 17. We scoured lists for Nana's hometown of Zdunska Wola on walls listing the decimated communities throughout Poland. And what Scout and I took away was no sighting of Nana. Just hundreds and hundreds of photos of young Jewish adolescents - in ghettos, in camps, at liberation - each one bearing an uncanny and disturbing resemblance to Ben and Kit. At the end of the tour, Kit (I know you are thinking that Kit doesn't sound Jewish. Bingo. She is named after my Irish grandmother Kitty Conlon. Her middle name honors one of her many aunts and uncles lost to us) and I lit candles in the Hall of Remembrance . We asked the guard if we could light more than one. For Mania and Ben, for Sarah and Zelig, for Pola, for Ruchle, for Alta and Hesh. As we lit the candles, I said the names out loud. To remember. Before we left the room, I lit two more. One for the nameless young boys and one for the nameless young girls - each one beautiful. With dark hair and the most beautiful brown eyes. | |
| Alex Remington: A Modern Classic: Cynic's Traced in Air, A Reunion Album As Good As the Classic Debut | Top |
| One of the best metal albums of the decade quietly came out last November, Traced in Air by Cynic, their first album in a decade and a half. The band Cynic was something like a progressive metal NWA: one classic album, a supergroup lineup that went on to do great work in a lot of different genres, and then an early-'90s breakup that seemed to shut the door on any possible reunion. Until now. 15 years after their incredible, weird, serious, transcendent, brooding debut, Focus , the band reunited for Traced in Air . Only 34 minutes long, if anything, it's even more focused. Their one major sonic change is welcome, as they ditched the dated vocoder vocals of the debut. The songs flow seamlessly into one another, with the guitar washes and doubled death and sung vocals filling the sonic space like a wall of sound from opener "Nunc Fluens" to closer "Nunc Stans." (The titles translate as philosophical concepts of eternity, no great surprise for a band that named itself after an ancient Greek philosophical school and titled its most famous song "Veil of Maya.") After the breakup, bassist Sean Malone formed Gordian Knot, another progressive metal band, while lead singer Paul Masvidal sang and played guitar with drummer Sean Reinert in a band called Aeon Spoke, which took their sound in an emo singer-songwriter direction. (Wikipedia notes some have called Aeon Spoke's sound "progressive ethereal rock," but never mind that. It's basically acoustic emo, albeit quite good acoustic emo.) Elements from their solo projects, acoustic and prog, can be heard in the work here, as the songs stretch out from verse to bridge to break. New guitarist Tymon Kruidenier of Exivious takes over for Jason Gobel, and he and Masvidal don't do as many dueling leads as Masvidal and Gobel had on the earlier album. Instead, the guitars tend to track on top of one another, behind the vocals, along with the drums, in the general wall of sound. Pealing harplike guitar tones and jazzy arpeggios give way to death metal distortion, along with cymbal washes and high-register sung vocals harmonized with persistent death growls. The album ends almost suddenly, with the barely distorted song-length album fadeout of "Nunc Stans," whose lyric is nearly as antistereotypical for metal as the music. The last line of the song: It was not death It was not life It was love Though Cynic was legendary in its day in progressive metal circles, they were unheard of in most others -- go ahead, ask an indie hipster if they've heard of them -- which means that we can cross "selling out" off the list of likely reasons a band might reunite. Some of the album's material apparently dates back to the band's first breakup in 1994, which isn't surprising, considering how similar the two records sound. Still, I think I like Traced in Air slightly better. Focus was a bit more sprawling, while Traced in Air is a bit more modest, self-contained. The runtime is no drawback. The songs are all constructed from the same sonic palette, and many tend to begin and end in a similar place. The album's movement occurs within the tracks, not between them, which is not surprising for an album bookended by eternity. I listened to this CD last night as I walked home, and though I'd heard it before, I listened to it as if for the first time, my mouth open in awe. It's majestic, masterful, beautiful. It was worth the wait. | |
| Philip Markoff Put On Suicide Watch: ABC News | Top |
| Accused "Craigslist killer" Philip Markoff was put on a suicide watch today after correction officers found shoelace marks on his neck, law enforcement sources told ABC News. | |
| Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Eerie Similarities Between President Obama and Bush's First 100 Days | Top |
| President Obama will get the ritual grade for his first 100 days in office on April 29. His first days will be compared to FDR's first 100 days. And to a lesser extent JFK's first 100 days. But comparing him to these two presidents is not a fair comparison. FDR faced the worst economic crisis in American history. JFK faced no immediate foreign or domestic crisis. President Obama falls somewhere in between the two. The better comparison is with his predecessor President Bush. He is the president whose towering White House failures helped pave the way for Obama's win. And there's some eerie similarities in the way Bush handled his first 100 days and the way Obama is handling his. Bush got the same intense look in his first 100 days as President Obama will get in his; and for good reason. Bush's win was deeply tainted but also historic. Millions thought then and now that he bagged the White House through fraud, deceit, manipulation, and a huge helping hand from a politically compliant High Court. Obama's win was historic and tinged with racial and ideological fears. Though the Bush legacy is truly dreadful, it wasn't that way at the start. He got the same first 100 days pass from voters that Obama and every other president has gotten. His April 2001 poll numbers topped sixty percent. This matches Obama's April numbers. A Washington Post/ABC Poll even gave Bush high marks on his handling of the economy. Bush did what every other new president did during his first hundred days. He used the early public goodwill to make politically favorable appointments, ink executive orders and shove through Congress programs that likely would draw fire later on, clamp a vise like grip on executive power, and cast an eye on cementing his historic legacy. Obama has done the same. Bush introduced a $1.6 trillion tax cutting program to Congress, launched a "Faith-Based" Initiative to help local charitable groups, and a catchy named "New Freedom" Initiative to help disabled Americans. In his first address to Congress, he cast himself as the education president, talked about health care reform, and made a vague promise to tackle paying off the national debt. Obama has followed pretty much the same script. Bush worked hard to dispel the notion that he was a foreign policy boob, topped by his widely ridiculed gaffe in not knowing the name of Pakistan's president. He quickly met or talked with dozens of foreign leaders and diplomats. That included all of the Latin American leaders. The one exception was Fidel Castro. Obama also took big campaign hits for being a foreign policy novice and has moved just as quickly to meet and talk with foreign leaders. The exception again is Fidel and brother Raul. Bush took a stab at bipartisanship when he let stand a Clinton administration rule that would expand acres of wetlands across the United States, and ended a long running trade dispute over bananas with the European Union. He hinted that he would take seriously the Kyoto accords on climate warming, reduce the use of coal burning plants, and tighten regulation on toxic chemicals in water supplies. He reneged on every one of them. But he still paid pay lip service to them. Obama has made these issues priorities too. Obama made one of Bush's more controversial executive orders a quick casualty. That was Bush's reinstatement of the Mexico City policy denying US aid to countries that advocate abortion as a method of family planning. Anti-abortion advocates hailed him for it. Abortion advocates hailed Obama for overturning the order. Bush's most controversial cabinet appointment was the Bible spouting, fundamentalist John Ashcroft as Attorney General. Obama picked Eric Holder as Attorney General. This also stirred some controversy over partisanship and ideology. Bush staunchly backed a national missile defense system in Europe. So has Obama to an extent. He called a missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland the most cost-effective and proven defense system. He tied the decision to go ahead with it directly to Iran's nuclear threat and international security concerns. Critics hotly disputed the need for the system when Bush backed it. They still dispute the need for it. Near the close of his first 100 days Bush told an audience at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association dinner that the world was a dangerous place; it was us versus them. Then he paused and admitted that he wasn't really sure who the "them" was. Bush was wildly chaired at the dinner. America's love fest with him was still in full bloom. It didn't last. FDR, JFK's and every other president's didn't last either. President Obama will do better after his first 100 days. At least that is better than Bush did after his. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com | |
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