Wednesday, April 29, 2009

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Robert S. McElvaine: A New Turn for the Magic Bullet Top
{ Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College & author of: The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941 (Random House) and Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the "Forgotten Man" (North Carolina). His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America (Crown). } More on Arlen Specter
 
Irene Rubaum-Keller: What We Can Learn From Jack LaLanne Top
Last weekend I had the pleasure of being at a ground breaking conference on food addiction and the obesity epidemic. I will be writing a series of blogs, over the next few months, to share what I learned with you. The legendary Jack LaLanne was there to speak and accept a lifetime achievement award for his visionary work in fitness, health and food addiction. Jack was a pioneer in both exercise and nutrition. He was telling us as early as the l950's to avoid white sugar, white flour and refined carbohydrates. He was one of the first to link alcohol addiction to sugar addiction. When Jack was 15 he heard a lecture on health and wellness and as a chubby, unhealthy teenager was inspired to turn his life around. He is now 94! He still works out 2 hours a day, drives a corvette and eats right. He doesn't eat white sugar or white flour and hasn't since he was 15. Neither does his wife, Elaine, and at 83 she is beautiful, vibrant and fit. So here are some of my favorite things Jack said last weekend: "Your waistline is your lifeline." "If it tastes good, spit it out." "Everyday is a good day if I wake up." "You are the most important person here." Elaine was talking about meeting Jack and how at the time she was smoking and eating doughnuts. Jack told her she needed to get rid of the cigs, eat fruits and vegetables, and exercise. He also told her that he wouldn't be telling her that if he didn't like her. So Elaine said, "You changed my life." Jack corrected her and said, "No, Elaine. You changed your life." Jack is saying what I have been saying for years. Take responsibility for your health and credit for your successes. So someone in the audience asked Jack to lead us in some exercise. He said, "OK, get up. Sit down. Get up. Sit down. Now raise your knee to your chest. Now the other knee. Now both at once..." Jack was doing all this with us and better than most of us who were half his age. This man practiced what he preached and is living proof of what eating right and exercising can do for you. I heard from Davey, who was the young man in charge of getting Jack to and from where he was supposed to be, that when he went to take his arm to help Jack walk, Jack pulled his arm away. Jack LaLanne does not need help. Neither will you if you choose to get healthy. Lastly, Jack said, "No one is putting bad food in your mouth." So thank you Jack for being a visionary and for being a living example of what taking good care of yourself can do. If Jack can do it, you can do it because you are the most important person here. Jack and I If you are interested in seeing what Jack is up to there days you can visit his website http://www.jacklalanne.com/ . More on Health
 
Leahy Calls On Bybee To Testify On Torture Top
Jay Bybee finds it "frustrating" that he hasn't been able to speak publicly about his role in authorizing torture when he was a top lawyer in the Bush administration, according to a recent account in the Washington Post . Patrick Leahy wants to help him out. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, a Democrat from Vermont, wrote to Bybee Wednesday to call him to testify before his panel. "The Post article concludes that you have allegedly found it 'frustrating' not to be able to explain your position with regard to these memos. By coming forward to testify, you will be able to explain your position with regard to these matters, including your involvement and your knowledge regarding how these memos were written and approved, what considerations went into that process, who was consulted in that process and the roles of various individuals," Leahy wrote. A subsequent New York Times article quoted Bybee saying he had no regrets. Bybee signed memos that broadly justified torture and also authorized specific torture techniques to be used on a particular detainee, Abu Zubaydah. Leahy has called on Bybee to resign his position as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which he was appointed to before his role in the torture program was revealed. April 29, 2009 The Honorable Jay S. Bybee Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals 333 Las Vegas Blvd S Las Vegas, NV 89101 Dear Judge Bybee: I write to invite you to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. I enclose a recent article from The Washington Post. It suggests that you have expressed regret at the content of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memoranda issued while you headed that office and that you feel that they were misused. The article reports that you were concerned about the exercise of the policies that the opinions authorized, that you were "disappointed by what was done to prisoners," and that you felt that "the spirit of liberty has left the republic." The article notes that your associates claim you do not feel ownership of these memos but, instead, describe your involvement this way: "He was head of the OLC, and it was written, and he was not pleased with it." By coming forward and testifying before the Committee, you will have the opportunity to amplify or correct these accounts, and explain your role and your views. The Post article concludes that you have allegedly found it "frustrating" not to be able to explain your position with regard to these memos. By coming forward to testify, you will be able to explain your position with regard to these matters, including your involvement and your knowledge regarding how these memos were written and approved, what considerations went into that process, who was consulted in that process and the roles of various individuals. According to the press account, you became the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legal Counsel after coming to interview with White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales because you were interested in being nominated to a judgeship on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Apparently he asked if you would be willing to head OLC first. I am sure you would like an opportunity to come forward and set the record straight with respect to whether and, if so, how your judicial ambitions related to your participation at OLC. You were nominated by President George W. Bush to serve as head of OLC on September 4, 2001. You were confirmed on October 23, 2001. While serving as the head of OLC you were then first nominated by President George W. Bush to be a Federal Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on May 22, 2002, and renominated on January 7, 2003. Along with others, I sought to explore your work at OLC but we were told by you that you would not answer those questions. You were confirmed to be a Federal Judge on March 13, 2003. Thereafter, in 2004, an OLC memo signed by you and dated August 1, 2002, became public. In that memo you signed, the Office of Legal Counsel concluded that to violate U.S. law against torture, conduct must cause pain equivalent to "the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." That memo was withdrawn in connection with the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be Attorney General of the United States. More recently, a second August 1, 2002, memorandum, also signed by you, has been publicly released by the Obama administration. This second memo specifically authorizes the use of coercive interrogation techniques on Abu Zubaydah, including sleep deprivation for 11 days at a time and waterboarding. I also enclose an article published today in The New York Times in which you state, in contrast to the recent Post report, that you "believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct." You also stated that the Office of Legal Counsel provided its "best, honest advice, based on our good-faith analysis of the law." The contrast between the recent articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post is striking. I am giving you the opportunity to come forward and clarify what you meant in your public discussion of these matters, and so that we can establish the facts and get to the truth. There is significant concern about the legal advice provided by OLC while you were in charge, how that advice came to be generated, the considerations that went into it, and the role played by the White House. I look forward to your cooperation and your testimony. Sincerely, PATRICK LEAHY Chairman Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!
 
Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry, Teresa Valdez Klein: Harper's Island: The Future of Social TV in Hollywood? Top
Want to know the future of Hollywood television? Look inside the Wilshire & Washington crystal-ball with special guests Miles Beckett & Greg Goodfried, the creators of the new CBS social TV event, Harper's Island , and founders of Eqal . These two online impresarios first came to the world's attention with the mega-Youtube hit, LonelyGirl15 , pulling in audiences in the millions when regular TV shows were being cancelled left and right. And now they're turning their attention to modernizing the studio TV system: How can TV make it in the internet era, and can new technology offer greater creator-control, and therefore better art? Can TV networks (and the news) modernize and take advantage of all the cost-cutting technology out there, hopefully abandoning their old (and expensive) way of doing business? It's a fascinating discussion with these new hotshots in the entertainment field, so don't miss this! Hosts Ted Johnson , Maegan Carberry , and Teresa Valdez-Klein also talk President Obama's First 100 Days in Office. Why is 100 days our big measuring stick? Isn't that metric (divisible by 10) and therefore communist? Has there ever been a more over-examined, and less important, event on the blogosphere? Most people are down with what Obama's doing and know to keep their expectations in check. The dude's practically a Vulcan in how even-keel he is, which does keep us all calm in this economic panic, but should he maybe show a little enthusiasm to get us more involved again, like during the election? Do things like Serve.gov and Organizing for America have too much of an Orwellian feel for people to really embrace? Finally, we've got the Arlen Specter switcheroo. Specter did go after Senator Jim Jeffords a couple years ago when Jeffords switched parties, so is this hypocrisy, even though it's not like the Republican Party has been friendly to politicians like Specter in the last couple of years? Was it courageous? Disloyal? Politically opportunistic? And does this reveal the real problem with our system: the constraints of political parties on intelligent politicians? Join us for all this in today's Wilshire & Washington! Listen to the show here , subscribe to the iTunes podcast , or use the Blog Talk Radio player: Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein ( www.teresacentric.com ), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry ( www.maegancarberry.com ). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com. More on Arlen Specter
 
Volcker: Economy 'Leveling Off,' No Need For More Stimulus Top
The U.S. economy is "leveling off at a low level" and doesn't need a second fiscal stimulus package, said former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, one of President Barack Obama's top economic advisers. More on Economy
 
Danielle Crittenden: Mary Ann Glendon's Failed "Hail Mary" Top
I am a longtime admirer of Mary Ann Glendon, a former Ambassador to the Holy See as well as a scholar and innovative thinker on women's issues. However, I was gobsmacked by her recent decision to refuse a prestigious award from Notre Dame because, as she discovered, she would have to share a podium with the President of the United States. I'm not Catholic, so I'm not going to enter into the internal religious politics of Glendon's decision. In declining the university's Laetare Medal, Glendon wrote an impassioned letter to Notre Dame's president, the Reverend John Jenkins, in which she said, in part: Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors. First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops' express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions "should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles" and that such persons "should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions." That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it. Glendon then went on to suggest that the university was using her as conservative "cover" for the President's visit. Notre Dame had defended its decision in a previous statement, in which it argued, "We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about." Glendon wrote in retort: A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame's decision -- in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops -- to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church's position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice. Many conservatives -- especially those at National Review Online's "The Corner" -- are praising Glendon for her "leadership." This isn't leadership but the opposite: it's burying one's head in the sand. Here we have yet another example of religious conservatives opting out of engagement with the larger political culture, even that within their own church. Even if you view President Obama's stance on abortion -- which this is about -- as wrong, or even appalling, wouldn't you want to take this opportunity to address the President directly -- or as the old saying goes, "Speak truth to power?" Notre Dame has not, after all, invited the head of Planned Parenthood, or a doctor who performs abortions, or even a pro-abortion activist, which the language of Glendon's letter suggests. Rather it has invited the President. Of the United States. For whom many Catholics and non-Catholics alike voted. Glendon's words suggest that Obama may be president but he is not HER President, or the Catholics' president -- a highly divisive and anti-democratic sentiment. Glendon should have accepted the award graciously, and seized this rare chance to articulate her principles directly to Obama. As the university rightly points out: it IS a "good thing" to advance your causes with political leaders. Maybe especially with the ones with whom you most disagree. Certainly, engagement with one's opponents and the passionate debate of ideas should be at the very core of every college education. Notre Dame realizes this. Unfortunately, Glendon doesn't. This essay originally appeared on NewMajority.Com .
 
Chicago State Introduces New President To Chorus Of Boos Top
To a nearly deafening chorus of boos and shouts, the Board of Trustees at Chicago State University this morning unanimously voted for longtime college administrator Wayne Watson to be the school's next president.
 
Philip Slater: Why The West Bank Settlers Are Not A Barrier To Middle East Peace Top
Jewish settlements continue to be built on the West Bank, and those who hope for a two-state solution in the Middle East can often be seen wringing their hands in despair over the question. The thought of trying to tear down the settlements and return all the settlers to Israel seems politically impossible, as well as a logistical nightmare. What's the problem here? The settlers elected--in violation of international agreements and Israeli promises--to live in what will become a Palestinian state. So let them. If they don't like it and want to return to Israel they can. Or they can stay where they are--after all, millions of Arabs live in Israel. The settlers may object that the Israeli government has at times colluded in their invasion of the West Bank, but they need to be reminded that state collusion in a criminal act is no protection under international law. I think Israelis should be encouraged to live wherever they want--with the clear understanding, however, that when the peace agreement is made, the West Bank is part of the Palestinian State. All of it. The settlers are, after all, outlaws and invaders. The West Bank is to Israel what the Sudetenland was to the Nazis. The settlers acted in the belief that Israel was an outlaw state that would support their covert aggression, and redraw the boundaries of Israel to include them. But why should law-abiding Israelis agree to such a corruption of their nation's ideals? Let the settlers go. They asked to live outside Israel. Let them have their wish. (In his inauguration speech, Obama talked of a whole new way of doing things. To understand the cultural paradigm shift that engendered this change--the shift that both Bush and the Taliban have resisted so fiercely, see my website for information on THE CHRYSALIS EFFECT: THE METAMORPHOSIS OF GLOBAL CULTURE).
 
Tina Dupuy: I Think I Owe Lynndie England an Apology Top
When the photos of Private Lynndie England of the 372nd Military Police Company at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad, abusing and humiliating prisoners came to light in 2003, I gleefully and instantly used her name as a punchline. As a writer and a comedian, I did my part in securing her name in pop culture. Willingly vilified her as a caricature of a sadist - I wrote she was the Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now of Iraqi prison guards. The horror, the horror... I said that she even made smokers look bad. I'll admit it. I suspected that the rogue individual defense made by the Bush Administration and more specifically Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was baloney. But I eagerly made jokes and quips at the expense of England anyway. I hopped on the 'lynching Lynndie' bandwagon with no hesitation. I even considered registering mockedbylynndie.com - where it would showcase the iconic picture of the soldier, cigarette hanging from her mouth pointing at whatever contributors didn't like at that moment. Lynndie England: disgraced Iraq War soldier and sad internet meme. ' A Monster-in-chief ' is what she was called by The Guardian in 2004, ' A Symbol of Shame ' by CBS, ' the face of the atrocities at Abu Ghraib' in Marie Claire. The whole time, England, herself, in so many words said that she was a scapegoat, said that Rumsfeld knew , said that she was just following orders from her superiors. She said this on her way to prison after she was convicted of conspiracy, maltreating Iraqi detainees. She said this when her 20-30 year sentence was reduced. She held fast to this when she was finally released from prison in 2007. In May of 2004 Rumsfeld told a Pentagon news conference , "We're taking and will continue to take whatever steps are necessary to hold accountable those that may have violated the code of military conduct and betrayed the trust placed in them by the American people I have no doubt that we will take these charges and allegations most seriously." He even went so far as to call the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib "totally unacceptable and un-American". England was locked up for 3 years and dishonorably discharged from the military. President Barack Obama released what is now known as the Torture Memos - the legal opinions that justified water boarding, sleep deprivation, isolation, physical violence and reality show staples like bugs and public humiliation. Basically, what we saw in the pictures of England, were justified for the CIA by the legal jerry-rigging of lawyers John C. Yoo, Jay S. Bybee and Steven G. Bradbury. A week later after these memos were released a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee drew the connection between the Torture Memos and the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. It's proof that England was telling the truth. She was just following orders. These memos skirted around and ensured acts otherwise known as torture somehow didn't violate the Geneva Convention, the US Constitution or our common sense of human rights. Bybee, of course is now a judge in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which has rightfully caused some outrage ...since his (ahem) judgment has now been called into question. These practices have been called 'harsh interrogation techniques' by their supporters, namely kneejerk Obama oppos...and/or former vice president Dick Cheney. Where were these 'harsh interrogation technique' peddlers when England was taking the fall? What were they saying then? Peddling the rogue individual defense, of course . The lone wolf. The bad apple: Lynndie England. Yes, they let - we let a woman that signed up for the military during war time when she was still in high school become a universal object of disdain. Support our troops? "We didn't kill them. We didn't cut their heads off." England said in an interview. "We didn't shoot them. We didn't cut them and let them bleed to death. We just did what we were told to soften them up for interrogation, and we were told to do anything short of killing them." Sure when she says it - it's grotesque. But when it's in a legal memo - it's up for debate. Now that the cat is out of the proverbial bag, it's becoming clear that she is less like Marlon Brando's character and more like the Kamikazi pilots during WWII. She was sacrificed - her livelihood, her future in the line of duty - for the sake of a war effort. Her country and more specifically her government abandoned her for doing exactly as she (it appears now) was told. She should be pardoned. Her record completely wiped clean. I never thought I would say this - but Lynndie England is a symbol of embarrassment. Not because she posed in pictures following orders - but because our government let her take the fall. And we/I completely fell for it. Sorry, Lynndie. More on Barack Obama
 
Ann Wright: Bybee and Peterson: Two Mormons, Two Different Ethics On Torture Top
Jay Bybee, as a Bush administration political appointee Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice, wrote one of four torture memos released last month. Bybee's August 1, 2002, 20-page memorandum laid out in excruciating detail the interrogation techniques he was authorizing the Central Intelligence Agency to use on al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. Bybee, a Mormon, authorized ten "enhanced interrogation techniques" to encourage Abu Zubaydah to disclose "crucial information regarding terrorist networks in the United States or in Saudi Arabia and information regarding plans to conduct attacks within the United States or against U.S. interests overseas." The torture techniques authorized were (1) attention grasp, (2) walling, (3) facial hold, (4) facial slap, (5) cramped confinement, (6) wall standing, (7) stress position, (8) sleep deprivation, (9) insects placed in a confinement box, and (10) waterboarding. Attorney General Eric Holder has stated that waterboarding is torture, while the previous Attorney General Judge Mukasey refused to comment on whether waterboarding is torture. From recently released CIA documents we know the CIA waterboarded Abu Zubayah 83 times and Khalid sSheik Mohammed 183 times. But we know that from March through June 2002, according to FBI interrogator Ali Soufan in an op-ed to the New York Times on April 23, 2009, FBI interrogators had already gotten "actionable intelligence" from Zubayah using traditional, non-torturing interrogation techniques, including that Khalid sheikh Mohmamed was the mastermind of 9/11 and that Jose Padilla, was planning to be the "dirty bomber." Ninety of the 92 interrogation videotapes the CIA admits it destroyed were interrogations of Abu Zubayah. We know that combinations of the other nine techniques authorized by Bybee can be classified as torture, as the Convening Authority of the Military Commissions at Guantanamo Susan Crawford declared when she dismissed the charges against Guantanamo prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani in January 2009, in the last days of the Bush Administration. Crawford said that for 160 days al-Qahtani's only contact was with the interrogators and that 48 of 54 consecutive days he was subjected to 18-to-20-hour interrogations. He was strip searched and had to stand naked in front of a female agent. Qahtani was forced to wear a woman's bra and had a thong placed on his head during the course of his interrogation and was told that his mother and sister were whores. With a leash tied to his chains, he was led around the room "and forced to perform a series of dog tricks. He was threatened with a military working dog named Zeus. The interrogations were so severe that twice Qahtani had to be hospitalized at Guantanamo with bradycardia, a condition in which the heart rate falls below 60 beats a minute and which in extreme cases can lead to heart failure and death. At one point Qahtani's heart rate dropped to 35 beats per minute, the interrogation records showed . The torture techniques Bybee authorized in 2002 migrated to Iraq in 2003. Major General Geoffrey Miller travelled to Iraq from Guantanamo to demonstrate to soldiers in Iraq the techniques the military and CIA were using in Guantanamo. In September 2003, another Mormon, a woman soldier U.S. Army Specialist Alyssa Peterson, said she refused to use the interrogation techniques Bybee had authorized on Iraqi prisoners. An Arabic linguist with the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division at Tal Afar base, Iraq, 27-year-old Peterson refused to take part in interrogations in the "cage" where Iraqis were stripped naked in front of female soldiers, mocked and their manhood degraded and burned with cigarettes, among other things. Three days later, on September 15, 2003, Peterson was found dead of a gunshot wound at Tal Afar base. The Army has classified her death as suicide. Jay Bybee, in thanks for his being the loyal soldier to the Bush administration's policies of torture, was nominated and confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where he sits to this day in his lifetime appointment. Jay Bybee, an author of torture, reportedly has a placard in his home for his children "We don't hurt each other." Alyssa Peterson, for saying no to torture, is dead, perhaps by her own hand. To help Alyssa Peterson rest in peace, I say we should demand accountability from our officials and impeach the torture judge, Jay Bybee. About the Author: Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel. She was a US diplomat who served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somali, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Mongolia and Afghanistan, where she helped reopen the US Embassy in December, 2001. She has travelled Gaza twice in the past three months and will make her third trip in May, 2009. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." (www.voicesofconscience.com) More on Eric Holder
 
Bill Mann: Media: 100 Days Top
As much as I like Jon Stewart, it's been good to see him proven wrong. When the Bushman left and the even-tempered, parody-resistant Barack Obama came in, Stewart solemnly called it "the death of comedy." He was wrong. The GOP/Fox News clown show has been very funny indeed, and it shows no sign of winding down. Many laughs remain. I mean, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Cong. Michelle Bachman, Bill O'Reilly, Gretchen Carlsen, Mitch "McChinless" McConnell, etc., etc., who needs Dubya for cheap laffs? All these years we've been laughing at Bush, hardly knowing that there were even bigger (if less powerful) doofuses than him in the GOP hierarchy. . Believe me, this clown show isn't over yet, even with The Dauphin gone. Just tune by C-SPAN some time and you'll see what I mean. You'll find yourself saying aloud, "You mean someone actually VOTED for this pinhead?" Someone once called C-SPAN "the network that dares to be dull." Not any more. The Republicans have got a real sideshow going these days -- and the best part is, they don't even know it! There'll be a lot more mouth-breathing, knuckle-walkin' GOP stars to emerge in the months ahead. I'm counting on it.
 
Jon Huntsman, Utah Governor, Barred By GOP Group For Supporting Gay Unions Top
Michigan Republicans scrambled to find other events for Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. to attend after a western Michigan GOP group withdrew its invitation. Huntsman had been scheduled to speak to Kent County Republicans at the invitation of GOP county chairwoman Joanne Vorhees. But Vorhees changed her mind, apparently over Huntman's support for civil unions for gay couples. Campaign for Michigan Families Chairman Gary Glenn said in statement that "Kent County's principled stand sends a strong message nationwide that grass roots conservatives will not embrace liberals who want to abandon the GOP platform's commitment to traditional family values." He urged Republicans in other counties to also cancel their events. But Huntsman apparently is welcome in other locations around Michigan, including heavily populated Oakland County northwest of Detroit. Michigan Republican Party spokeswoman Jennifer Hoff confirmed Huntsman will be attending an Oakland County event. Huntsman's spokeswoman, Lisa Roskelley, said the governor's office received notice Saturday that the Kent County invitation was being withdrawn. She said she'd have to double-check on the reason. "We've already filled in the time he has available," she told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "He has about four or five events while he's in Michigan. He's had a lot of requests to speak at a lot of different organizations." Huntsman has been mentioned as a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2012.
 
Scott Mendelson: Batman's garage sale... Top
Batman Garage Sale with Adam West from Adam West This is awfully funny, but it'll be especially poignant for Batman: The Animated Series fans who remember Adam West's voice work as Simon Trent aka The Grey Ghost. Scott Mendelson More on Bernard Madoff
 
Joe Peyronnin: Dream Big Dreams Top
America is on the move again because its new President has firmly asserted his leadership with an astonishingly ambitious agenda over the first 100 days of his Presidency. President Barack Obama has placed a lot of big bets on the economy, as well as in the international arena, but the next 100 days are likely to be equally as challenging. The White House remains in full campaign mode every minute. Events such as a swine flu epidemic are unpredictable. Distractions, such as an ill-advised fly-over photo shoot, can needlessly divert focus. It has been clear from the earliest days of his campaign that Barack Obama is all about focus and discipline. President Obama once noted, in a written greeting to a twelve-year-old admirer, "Dream big dreams." He was obviously speaking from personal experience. President Obama gives a lot of thought to everything he does, including enacting an unprecedented economic stimulus package, while at the same time connecting it to initiatives in health care, education, energy and the environment. He knows that these are the pain points for all Americans. And President Obama has promises to keep. It is no mystery why the President remains popular with the American people. His approval rating is above 60%, and more than 80% of all Americans say they like the President. The fact is, the President is likable, and even most of his opponents agree with that. President Obama is a cool operator who is seldom ruffled. More importantly, he is a great listener and he is willing to own up to his mistakes, such as the Daschle and Richardson nominations. President Obama knows that in the Internet era even one misstep can have disastrous consequences if it is not well managed. President Obama is also strengthened by the near collapse of the Republican Party. Today about 21% of all Americans identify themselves as Republicans. And, as the defection of long time Republican moderate Senator Arlen Specter indicates, the party consists mainly of conservatives. The old Reagan coalition is gone. Instead, Republicans have become the party of no ideas and brickbats from Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. What happened to "a kinder, gentler nation?" No wonder this country is so polarized. Meanwhile, the new American President has taken the world by storm. His trips to the G-20, France and Turkey were public relations successes, and signaled a new approach from Washington. The same can be said for his later visits to Mexico and the Caribbean. So it's 100 days down and about 1360 days to go to the end of President Barack Obama's first term. Between now and then his challenges are enormous. Can the banking problem be solved? Will the stimulus package succeed? Will these humongous deficits lead to inflation? When will unemployment go down? Can GM and Chrysler survive? Can our troops safely disengage from Iraq? Will the U.S. troop buildup in Afghanistan be successful and what is the end game? What about Iran? Senator Barack Obama ran as the candidate for change. And, just as President Obama has changed attitudes toward America throughout the world, today more African Americans are hopeful about their future than ever before. The twelve-year-old admirer I mentioned earlier is my daughter. I am hopeful that President Barack Obama is successful in restoring the American economy and preserving this nation's security. You see, I also want my daughter to dream big dreams. More on Barack Obama
 
Dr. Josh Dines and Dr. Rock Positano: Oblique strains can effect the kinetic chain of throwing Top
Just as Cardinal fans were rejoicing the return of a healthy Chris Carpenter after two years, he has returned to the DL with an external oblique strain. Atlanta's third baseman Chipper Jones was plagued by this injury during Spring Training as well. These are unfortunately not uncommon injuries in pitchers and throwing athletes, and usually affect the side opposite of the throwing arm. During the motion of throwing, the muscle can be overstretched beyond its normal resting length and result in tearing of the muscle fibers with secondary injury. Most muscle strain injuries are typically treated with conservative measures, including a period of rest, ice, and anti-inflammatory medications. When the discomfort is completely resolved, rehabilitation can then focus on strengthening of the core and abdominal musculature to improve mechanics and prevent future injury. Abdominal muscle strains, however, are particularly difficult to manage as there is no way to splint the abdomen and fully rest these muscles. Furthermore, almost all daily activities are aided by contraction of the abdominal musculature, and consequently any movement involving flexion or rotation of the trunk can increase pain and discomfort. Even sitting up from a chair, leaning over to pick up an object, or reaching overhead can aggravate an abdominal strain. Despite these inherent difficulties, however, the mainstay of rehabilitation remains the same for oblique strains. The cornerstone of treatment is to rest until the pain and inflammation have resolved, followed by a closely supervised rehabilitation program of core strengthening. The athlete would then start a structured throwing program to build up arm strength. For this reason, an oblique injury can be a six-week injury for a pitcher. There should be no rush to a quick return to play, however, as each case must be guided by individual symptoms and progress. Furthermore, pitchers are particularly reliant on their obliques to generate torque and velocity when throwing, and it is critical to achieve complete healing to avoid a recurrent injury. Complete healing before returning to throwing is imperative, as pitching relies heavily on what has been described as the kinetic chain of throwing. This means that the entire body, starting with the feet and legs up through the abdominal muscles to the shoulder and elbow, all play a role in generating the power needed to pitch. It also implies that each link in the chain needs to be strong to prevent injury further down the line. It is not uncommon for baseball players with problems their hip or abdominal muscles to develop shoulder or elbow problems as a result of trying to overcompensate. This is of particular concern in a pitcher like Chris Carpenter who is coming off Tommy John Surgery to reconstruct his elbow ulnar collateral ligament. So Cardinal fans shouldn't be too dismayed. We expect Carpenter to be out for a couple of months, but he should come back strong and ready for the rest of the season.
 
4 Ways To Get Fit -- While Having Fun! Top
I want to be fit, but I never maintain motivation. Gyms end up costing £250 a session as memberships lie unused, aerobics DVDs gather dust, and just one more HobNob gets eaten with that cup of tea. Yet I can cycle for miles in the French countryside, I can swim over an hour to an inaccessible waterfall in an Australian valley, and I can ski almost non-stop for eight hours at a time. For exercise to work for me, it needs to be seriously fun. Since I can't ski to work, I set out to find an activity I enjoy enough to do more than once. Unbelievably, I found four ... More on Wellness
 
12 Foods Every Healthy Pantry Should Have Top
In her online series for The New York Times, "Recipes for Health" author Martha Rose Shulman offers delicious foods that also reflect scientific thinking about health. Last week she responded to dozens of reader questions about healthy eating, "Recipes for Health: Talk to the Chef." Several readers asked about the best foods to stock the pantry. Today, Ms. Shulman offers 12 foods she always tries to keep on hand. "With these ingredients, I know I will always be able to throw together a healthy, good meal," she says. More on Wellness
 
Taylor Marsh: 100 Days and Obama's Achille's Heel Top
by Taylor Marsh This is going to be gratifying for Democrats, while only adding to Republican depression . The one real issue in question being Obama's resolve and his willingness to confront. One review says the window is the auto crisis . I think it's another, one that doesn't lead to something so sure. Among what Obama has done is an Af-Pak strategy; strong Administration push on an early Middle East presence; engaging with leaders Bush wouldn't (Chavez, etc.); while promising more with Ahmadinejad, which is where we'll pause for just a moment. The Iranian president has an election coming up on June 12th, so he's campaigning. So you need a slogan, right? He's evidently found one : Obama's signature campaign slogan, Yes We Can, has been replicated by the Iranian president in a promotional video issued for Iran's presidential poll on 12 June, when Ahmadinejad is seeking re-election. The video features a cover picture of Ahmadinejad wearing his trademark white jacket and pointing to the Farsi phrase Ma Mitavanim (We Can) on a blackboard. The film is aimed at students and capitalises on his former status as a university lecturer. It leaves you speechless. Obama has also gotten his stimulus passed, expanded SCHIP, reversed the Gag Rule, stem cells, budget done, ethics, Lily Ledbetter, announced yesterday that officials will once again have to consult agencies on rulings that might impact endangered species, among other things, and planted a White House garden to boot. But if you look back on other presidents, the first 100 days doesn't tell you how it will all end. So while the review is obligatory, it's going to tell us nothing, unless you use a different criteria than the usual laundry list, which everyone is trying to do. Find a new way to judge the first 100 days. For instance, danger signs. WJC got to work on the deficit, aid to Russia, and more, but who could know that in 1994 a simple move to reactivate the special counsel statute would change the first paragraph of his presidential biography forever? You decide if there was a hint it would in the first 100 days. In George W. Bush's presidency, something happened at the beginning of his administration that would actually reveal a lot, as far as I'm concerned. Bush demoted the terrorism czar position from cabinet level to staff position, ignoring Bill Clinton's warnings about al Qaeda. Now this wasn't an item on Bush's 100 day list, but looking back it's one of the most consequential. However, nothing in the first 100 days prepared us for the type of president Bush would be after 9/11, except if you weigh Richard Clarke not being able to get anyone's attention on the threat until it was too late. So after weighing Barack Obama's accomplishments, one of which is turning the right track numbers on their heads from where they were with George W. Bush. Does anything stand out that has the potential to rock his presidency, even as today we evaluate Mr. Obama with superlatives, minus the "state secret" privilege claims, which is a window, but not the nut of what could end up dogging Pres. Obama, much like his predecessors had their own moment when something shifted. In life, it's often your strengths that can be your blindside, because that's where the ego resides, especially for politicians. Not that doing what's right isn't laudable, but Obama's core message, his theme, has always been bringing people together, not confronting them. Once again I go back to that interview with George Stephanopoulos: "I think that I have the capacity to get people to recognize themselves in each other. I think that I have the ability to make people get beyond some of the divisions that plague our society and to focus on common sense and reason and that's been in short supply over the last several years. ...that you make progress by sitting down listening to people, recognizing everybody's concerns, seeing other people's points of views and then making decisions." - Barack Obama (on ABC's "This Week" - May 2005) The release of the OLC memos has changed this dynamic. It's unleashed a fury on the right, leaving Obama in a seemingly confrontational position, which is not his natural comfort zone, as has been witnessed by his "no one will be prosecuted" stance that shifted to Justice, while letting it be known that he doesn't want an accountability or truth commission on torture. He's besieged on the right, but also on the left, for diametrically opposed reasons. He's gotten himself caught between his promise for transparency and his penchant for bringing people together in consensus. Looking back, Bush releasing the terror czar, even after warnings about Al Qaeda, is a hint to his asleep at the wheel reality we faced after "Bin Laden determined to attack inside US." But it didn't tell us we'd walk down the torture lane. So, after all the publicity and stories about Obama's first 100 days, most of them laudable, and after looking at other presidents, I've come to the conclusion that what we should look at is the signal that something might lead us down a path that would change the presidency of Barack Obama. That one moment is the release of the OLC memos, which has twisted the Obama administration into knots. It has exposed Obama's discomfort with confrontation, something that at his core Mr. Obama is not exactly good at navigating. But it is this confrontational nature that Pres. Obama will need going forward as he addresses the most important foreign policy area, the Middle East. It's his stretch moment, to which if he cannot rise he could see a myriad of other issues unable to solve. Because if he doesn't stand firmly and decidedly in front of PM Netanyahu on the two-state solution, getting something concrete implemented, the Saudis and other important Arab allies, as well as the EU, are less likely to listen to him as readily on Central Asia. Then the next sound you'll hear is kaboom, with Obama's presidency changed forever, because bringing people together on the issues he faces today takes skillful confrontation, the bookend of successful leadership. So the first 100 days tells us something, but only if you look at it through the lens of what the 100 days exposes might be President Obama's Achille's heel and the early signs of how well he navigates this personal challenge to his presidency. We all know he can bring people together, but can he confront on issues and push forward implementing what's needed? His behavior after the OLC memos were released is the window. You decide what you see. ____________________ "Delivering Change" photos compliments of the White House, available on flikr. You can also follow Taylor on Twitter, where she reports on foreign policy topics in D.C. More on Barack Obama
 
Tuesday's Late Night Round-Up: Swine Flu, Arlen Specter, And More! (VIDEO) Top
Epidemics were the big draw last night for the late shows. David Letterman said that he was thankful for our tight border with Mexico considering that's where swine flu is emanating from. Colbert, on the other hand, addressed a more urgent disease: DONKEY FLU, recently contracted by now Democratic Senator Arlen Specter. Colbert says Olympia Snowe is in danger of contracting the disease next considering it is spreading wildly. More from Stewart on the first 100 days media circus, and Jimmy Kimmel on unintentional jokes below. WATCH: More on Late Night Shows
 
Gavin Newsom: The Race to an EV Future: Being First to an Electric Vehicle Grid Top
As car companies lined up in Washington, DC last November for the first round of federal bailout money - in San Francisco we announced another way - our comprehensive plan to make the San Francisco Bay Area the "Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the US." Our efforts to advance electric vehicles are not limited to San Francisco. We've engaged the entire Bay Area - a region of 7.3 million people - to make our region the cornerstone of the coming market for EVs. Not just governments, but key companies, business associations, policy advocates, and international car and EV infrastructure companies are all working together to make the San Francisco Bay Area the EV Capital of the U.S. Now our neighbors to the north, Portland are challenging us for EV supremacy . This type of competition symbolizes what is best about our region and our country. If we were able to put a man on the moon, we most certainly can create a new generation of cars that do not run on fossil fuels. We've done it before. I owned one of the EV1's from Saturn in the 1990s. Now EV companies are sprouting up all over the country from Fisker Automotive to Better Place to Bright Automotive. Portland and San Francisco have been battling for the title of the most sustainable city for years. We welcome Portland's latest challenge and hope that this EV competition will spread across the country, creating thousands of new jobs and helping establish the United States as an EV leader. In turn this will transform our automotive industry and combat climate change by reducing green house gas emissions. Since our EV announcement in November we have been working tirelessly on our regional collaborative. Our approach has three different aspects: 1. Government: This effort is comprised of city and county staff from throughout the region (fleet managers, transportation policy directors, etc). This group is sharing information on the current permitting requirements in each jurisdiction, as well as current EV incentives, with an eye toward standardized permitting and incentives for EVs by early 2010. This group, under San Francisco's leadership, is submitting a regional proposal to the federal government for stimulus funding to implement EV infrastructure throughout the region. We are hopeful that this funding will allows us to break ground on thousands of new EV charging stations throughout the Bay Area. 2. Businesses: Led by the Bay Area Council and Silicon Valley Leadership Group, this group is focused on sharing best practices from companies like Google and making the case to large regional employers to embrace EVs in company fleets and EV chargers for employees. 3. Advocacy: Led by Richard Schorske of the Marin Climate and Energy Partnership this working group will lead an effort this spring to invest over $100M in available state funds annually for alternative vehicles in electric vehicles and not only biofuels. Through our shared EV goals with Portland and other cities, we'll bring electric vehicles into the mainstream of American life. In the process, we'll greatly advance efforts to fight climate change and reinvent our ailing car industry. We welcome the race to an EV future . Listen to Mayor Newsom's Green 960 radio show online or subscribe to his weekly policy discussions on iTunes . This week Mayor Newsom continues the conversation about the future of EVs with the CEO of Better Place, Shai Agassi. Join Mayor Newsom on Facebook . You can also follow him on Twitter . More on Cars
 
Sarah Palin American Chopper Appearance Coming Top
Turns out the hockey mom is also a motorcycle maven. Alaska Governor Sarah Palin recently welcomed the crew from Orange County Choppers -- whose custom motorcycle business is featured on TLC's American Chopper -- to Anchorage where show star Paul Teutul Sr. researched building a bike to honor Alaska's 50-year anniversary of being a state. More on Sarah Palin
 
Donna Fish: Spring Healthy Eating Top
I was just asked to do this piece for Just Ask Marlene; the website that Wilhemina Models' head of the Junior Division has for girls and young women. It is not focused on girls who are or want to be models, but rather focused on healthy eating for all tweens on up; feel free to share it with any kids in your lives. http://www.justaskmarlene.com/fit-peek.html SPRING HEALTHY EATING TIPS Here we are the sun is out and we are finally getting to shed our layers! Yeah! Here are some tips to feel fabulous and enjoy the beautiful warmer weather while eating sensibly and feeling good in your body. 1 Balance what you eat; Feed your body all the things it needs. Fruits, veggies, protein, calcium, carbs. Yes, carbs! Make sure to get some protein in your body at breakfast or lunch, so that you aren't starving by the end of school and more likely to eat junk food. If you hate breakfast, grab a cheese stick to eat on the way, or some peanut butter on a cracker. Eggs are great if you like them and they will 'hold' you all morning. 2.Try to eat oranges or grapefruit before you have to do your after school activities. This is what dancers do before class or a performance and will give you the energy your body needs, without leaving you feeling overly tired or starving.If you don't like oranges, try some other fruits like strawberries, peaches and plums. Then you will get the spurt of energy you need for your high energy activities. 3. Don't avoid foods you love. Don't deprive yourself of the treats you enjoy. Overly restricting food will boomerang by overeating or slowing your metabolism. Simply ask yourself this question: "Do I want it now, or later?" Remind yourself that you can have it, but only have it if you really want it. 4.Sometimes you can get in the habit of eating certain things,or enjoying eating with friends while hanging out together, even if you aren't that hungry, or even in the mood to eat that food. You can always eat it later, or enjoy your time with your friends laughing, talking and hanging out. Don't feel pressured to eat if they are. 5. Eat till you are DONE AND COMFORTABLE, not necessarily full. EAT WHEN YOU ARE HUNGRY AND STOP WHEN YOU ARE COMFORTABLE. You will feel lighter and it will help flip the 'off swtich' which is hard to do with some foods like chips, peanuts, cookies. 6. Play a 'waiting game' if you want to cut down on any portion sizes. Remind yourself that you can have more later if you are still hungry. 7. Your body is hungrier some days than others. Don't sweat it if you have some days when you eat a lot more than usual. Try to eat more fruits, veggies and protein and you will naturally fill in the rest with less high calorie food that won't help your body much. Most importantly, enjoy your food and get outside and move your body! You will feel great inside and out, and be ready for summertime. Happy Springtime! Much thanks to our friend Donna Fish for her great article on Spring Healthy Eating Tips. Donna is psychotherapist and author of a great book "Take the Fight out of Food", she coaches people of all age on eating well for life. Visit her at: www.donnafish.com
 
Hillary Newman : Popomomo Hits the Eco Fashion Scene Top
Eco fashion desginers are pushing stereotypical bland desings. In the U.S. alone, we have seen respected designers, like Phillip Lim and John Patrick, show the runway that using less damaging and toxic fabrics can still be sexy. Today, a new generation of eco-designers are emerging. Lizz Wasserman is one of them. I met Lizz Wasserman at Mandrakes , an unassuming bar in Culver City. Lizz was introducing and celebrating her new Fall/Winter 09 collection from popomomo - something not to be missed! Locally produced with eco-friendly materials, popomomo is certainly one of the up-and-coming eco-clothing lines. Check out my interview with the one and only: Lizz Wasserman. Did you always want to be a fashion designer? I've been doing the popomomo line for about 2 years now. I didn't have a background in design. I studied sociological theory at Madison (UW), but as I was writing my senior honors thesis about semiotics and alternative cultures: I realized, while the semiotics interested me, it was the clothing signifiers that I was paying the most attention to...but it took time to realize I wanted to be a designer. Popomomo is designed to be the antithesis of disposable fashion, the pieces are not trend or season based, they are idea based, and so you can wear them for seasons to come. Popomomo started when I was living in Brooklyn, but we moved to LA about a year and a half ago. The move to LA really changed my understanding of the eco movement, as well as providing so much inspiration for designing popomomo. Popomomo is a mouthful! How did you come up with the name and does it have any significance? The idea comes from being in college and being really over the idea of post modernism, which I was learning about from a political or sociological standpoint, but could see only bad examples of in design: like pulling grecian architectural elements together with spanish doorways, or all new clothing referencing past historical periods. I wanted to move beyond the idea of relative style perspectives, and make something new and true... post post modernism...or popomomo . Describe your style. I dress pretty eclectically: I wear a lot of patterned vintage, mixed with popomomo , tons of layers, and occasionally other young designers. Anything I buy like jeans or bags or shoes have to be very unbranded, no labels or markings or special stitching. I think most designers are like this, but anything I have (other than popomomo) I pretty much have to alter or change until its 'right', taking it in, cutting it, overdying, wearing it differently, etc. I only buy things to last...no disposable fashion. The pieces I make for popomomo are meant to be mixed in with other favorites, to kind of fill in your perfect wardrobe. I'm amazed at the different ways people style the line. Why design sustainably? The number one way the line is sustainable is that I only create pieces that I feel like are new, unique on the market, and not trend-based: I created popomomo to act as the antithesis of disposable fashion. If H&M went completely organic, it would be good in some ways, but the culture of disposable fashion that H&M is a part of would remain harmful and wasteful. All of the fabrics we use are sustainable: I use organic cottons, bamboos, tencels, soy, hemp (all of which are better for the earth than commercial cotton), and then I'm really excited to get more into recycled fabrics: like for Fall 09 I have a great denim fabric that is made of hemp and recycled polyester. It looks and feels amazing. I'm always on the hunt for great eco-finds in LA. Any suggestions? We just moved to Highland Park from Silverlake, I'm really excited to live so close to the train, and on bus routes. My boyfriend has an opening in Chinatown this weekend and we are psyched that we can just hop on the train. I'm really excited for The Good Girl Dinette to open at 56th and Figueroa to open up soon, because that's where we'll be eating yummy Vietnamese comfort food often and picking up our Waste Veggie Oil for my old Mercedes. And still, my favorite eco store in LA is Kelly Green at Sunset Junction in Silverlake...I go in there and fall in love with everything...which sucks, because I'm usual there to get other people gifts . We all have 'em! What is your biggest eco-sin? We just got a puppy two days ago and he's the cutest thing! But, obviously he goes to bathroom often and we've been using the random plastic bags we have from grocery stores when we don't bring our own (that are usually our garbage bags). I have to research disposable bags or something...but I havent yet. From Popomomo If you could give President Obama one piece of advice, what would you say? I was driving home the other day when he was giving his recent town hall speech and I totally started crying because we finally have an intelligent president who knows that growth and technology can be helpful to the economy and the environment at the same time. I think he's doing great...everyone else should just get of his way. Oh, but he should legalize gay marriage asap. - Ecowarrior More on Fashion
 
Pandas Don't Know How To Use Slides Top
Apparently, pandas need slide lessons. More on Animals
 
Grant Whitney Harvey: Moonshadows: Part 1 Top
I Never in his twenty three years of life had Billy Gladsten made so much money. It afforded him a roomy one-bedroom apartment in Westwood, of all places, on the edge of Beverly Hills, and on top of paying way through his final year at the University of Southern California, it repaid - despite a full-ride academic scholarship - the loans he took out in his first three. His comfortable income also brandished him a shining new coupe - a quick German thing, all silver glitters in the California sun, like a silver pond speeding down the PCH. It seemed, having never been in the grips of a grandeur beyond that which made up his current life, that he might be of the modest and grateful sort, finding it incomprehensible to want anything more. But he was only a bartender. He was a bartender at a lounge called Moonshadows, built on a sea-cliff in Malibu - the city's outermost lantern, glowing in range from the luminescent orbs hanging in rows over its patio to the soft ambiance of its reverberating candles within. Looking at the multitude of various glows from the sea, its focal points were three bursting searchlights perched just below its line of French windows and then just below the floor line of the adjacent patio aimed at the rocks and foam and crushing white down at the base of the sea cliff, lighting for guests the sea's fingertips as vibrantly as could be, vivid in the acute contrasts of the darknesses of the Pacific and the night. The lounge was on a stretch of Pacific Coast Highway all to its own, hidden from the other lights of the lengthy Malibu Coast by a nonchalant cove, framed by hardly aggressive peninsulas on either its sides. At night, when all the world vanished in the dark and the ocean expanded only as far as it trembled the moon's reflection, it seemed as though the place was some kind of beacon, a blooming civilization upon some unknown beach. This desolation offered a sort of escape which, perhaps, was why the place was so sensationally popular. It was an hour from anywhere of any importance if the traffic was right. Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Burbank were to its East; Santa Monica and Venice were a straight shot south down the PCH and Ventura sat just above it. Fashionable people came from all these places night after night, and in utterly visible demographic waves. Billy was usually still miles inland, on campus in Downtown Los Angeles, while Moonshadows opened daily for late lunch and happy hour. This time was filled with the lounge's regulars - locals, mostly the couples of the young family's of Malibu; tasteful and cheery with the dignified and lingering sexiness of the thirty-somethings, casually dressed in beach attire and flip flops, the men in hats, the women's hair up. Also came a handful of Malibu's privileged youth, blissfully easy-going in the tender leisure of the fleeting teens. They would take up the popular lounge chairs on the patio, smoking their own cigarettes and buying only lemonade and iced tea until the older stock arrived and cordially moved them aside, only to replicate the instinctive human preference of oceanside patios with black American Express cards, good six month tabs and regular tips upwards of 100 percent. The older stock consisted mostly of retired golf buddies, making the best of their hard-worked fortunes from generations before in leisurely beachside late-afternoons, smoking their cigars against the patio railing, remembering out to that impossible spot in the distance of the infinite Pacific, drink after drink until the twilight sent them home to their wives and their mistresses. Upon their exit was Billy Gladsten's entrance. His shift always began in the fragile hour between light and dark when the fireapple sun fell behind the world and turned the sky above Moonshadows a bashful pink, fleeting moment by moment as the restaurant lounge came alive light by light. It wasn't uncommon that the older stock would see him in passing as he walked away from his car and they walked toward theirs in the lengthy parking lot, stretching a fairly long way down from the lounge. "Ah, Billy, you missed us again," they'd say. "Don't you know it," he'd say back, joking. "You missed a beautiful evening, Bill" "I saw it. I saw some of it on the drive over." "It was a beautiful day too. It's just now starting to get too hot to be on the course anytime midday." "Get out on the water with Bob." "It's funny you mention it, Bill. You should help us talk Bob into playing with us again. He doesn't golf enough anymore." "I'll mention it." In the collection of hundreds of in-passing, brief encounters with the older stock over the past two years, Billy knew much of what there was to know about them. The small words they'd passed, the notions, the winks, grins and sputters had all intricately contributed to the vast puzzle of their existence, and yet Billy often humored himself - usually after having just conversed with them - about how little they actually knew about him. Surely it wasn't because he refrained from telling them about himself, but mostly because, quite frankly, they didn't care to ask. It was an un-interest he attributed to an acquirement which comes with age. He knew that they knew that there was very little about him, or most other young men and women for that matter, which would be of any surprise. To surprise them, rather, would be to unveil everything Billy knew about them; that their lack of faith in his generation yielded to a sincere exception. Dissected, however, their near-daily greetings to him were irreverent, lost in an air of nostalgia and melancholy sighs as they went to their cars. So Billy was always quite cordial to these men. In fact, he often arrived to work a bit early in case they took him up in lengthy, vodka fueled lecture, however light hearted it may have been. After all, these were the men who contributed largely to Billy's rather high income. For Moonshadows only employed four bartenders to its six waiters and waitresses. They were required to tip-out the bartenders, but the bartenders paid-out only the state and the unnecessary sole bar-back, the seventeen year old nephew of the lounge's owner, a widowed sailing addict named Bob Paxell. These tips were kept in a safe in the dry storage area in the basement of the lounge until every Sunday when the four bartenders split the lump-sum equally, regardless of hours worked. On average, they each walked with about 2500 dollars a week, not including Bob Paxell's generous paychecks, of course. This rate put Billy at a level of income significantly higher than most anyone his age whom he knew or, in fact, knew of. Moreover, unlike most bartending jobs, the tip money Moonshadows generated was consistent, dependable. Because of its location, reputation and the clientele for which it catered, the lounge's revenue stream showed not the slightest reflection of the economy. Simply, like the metallic warmth of its cluster of golden lamps which signed its very own, quiet, serene stretch of night, so did Mr. Paxell sign the checks in an undisturbed vacuum of prosperity. Such evenings came substantial with the day's second wave of patrons: The dinner date crowd. It arrived just behind Billy as the flushed horizon slept and the salt-crisped air fell black and either freckled itself with glittering stars like chilled salt on a wintery asphalt road or dusted itself out with its chalky moon. With the sun sunk for the day, the tide would rise and Moonshadows' atmosphere would calm and become softer to the trickle of a piano at the far end of the dining room. Couples sat looking across at each other over fluttering candles at tables near the windows and small groups sat in the booths more near the interior of the room. All, though, were dressed in elegant eveningwear, the women shining like silk and much as tempting to touch in all the right places, ruffling in synchronic reflection of the surging evening until lost to the sun kissed day, the Malibu light, and disheveled into the third wave of things, the barroom night. The final wave of patrons came in rows of beaming crystal blue lamps down the winding PCH, maneuvering to and fro like the eyes of things creeping in the night determinably en route to their glowing refuge. They would nestle themselves into the long parking lot and shut their bright eyes, pouring out the fashionable and social and rich from all the envied cities into the barroom and the patio and the booths and tables by the windows, which became free for the taking at ten when the kitchen closed. Those who occupied them a bit earlier usually accompanied the new crowd in tasteful mingle, or simply slipped out the door. This marked the start of Moonshadow's most lucrative time of day - when it turned a seaside lounge. *** It's an extraordinary quality bartenders have; a bar or, in this case, a lounge, can be quite adverse and hectic and easily become chaotic, yet bartenders - good bartenders, that is, go about the storm of hands and impatient glares and fidgets with a frightful calm, riding a teetering wire between cordiality of social obligation and quickness and precision of hand with the balance of a world-class funambulist. Billy was no outlandish showman. He, nor the three other bartenders, could ever be seen throwing a glass in the air, spinning a bottle around the neck or pouring a drink from a handful of feet above a glass. No, their showmanship took form in a sophistication and class which stood about face, eye to eye to the charming image of the lounge. And those swaying about on the receiving side of the gold trimmed, finished oak bar gladly paid them handsomely for it. It was in this great, money making final wave of business on a particular night in the blooming summer that Billy Gladsten almost left the floor to the drop of his fluttering heart. When he saw her she was but a hazy mannequin of crimson and bits of something a bit darker than white in his peripheral having just come into the room. The fortitude mentioned a paragraph back was suddenly replaced by the flushing weight of weakness and panic settling into his stomach. At that, she appeared as just another well-dressed figure of the crowded lounge. But she wasn't. The sight of her wasn't what first paralyzed Billy and flashed his blood in the whip of an instant. That vague notion in the corner of his eye was everything that which made him tick over the past four years, caressing him with the familiar feelings of loud basketball games and that majestic nostalgia identical to the pang he felt upon first laying eyes on her. Her presence resonated in the chill of Billy's spine as does the vivid shutter of a camera in an actor's. II It was in those first electric days of the fall of his freshmen year that he first saw her. She was laid-out with a few of her pledge sisters upon the pearl-polished bow of the Abigail-May, the streamlined, glistening, absolutely top-notch sailer which belonged to her father, Luke Harding. He was a USC alumni, as well as an old Sigma Nu, so for the previous fifteen years he'd appeared out of nowhere to offer his small fleet of fifty footers to the fraternity during rush for the purpose of socials. This year, however, was quite more significant than those previous, for it was rumored that the name-sake of the heavenly-white ship was included in the group upon the bow. It was her sun-browned body fit sparsely by a white bikini that Billy Gladsten gazed dizzily at from atop the short railing at the starboard center of the ship amidst a number of other potential Sigma Nu pledges. Surely the ship was hers'. It seemed as though she had taken the place of even the most meticulously and delicately cut figureheads of ships and turned it a resilient, viral symbol of thriving beauty and youth. Her sandy hair was done-up so that it not blow in the Catalina breeze, yet strands of it fell long just past her chin, tossing like streamers and illustrated by the sun with shades like blonde and faint glares of gold. Even from half a deck away, Billy could see the cool, frosty hue of her eyes squinting beneath the twisting streamers. Unconsciously squinting himself, he saw her skin the shade of a summer spent in the same spot upon the bow, lavishly contrasted by the paper-whiteness of her two piece bikini, gently indenting the firm flesh of her lower hips, her arced shoulders and suspended breasts. She was long, yet composed of a physique of total control, gliding in design from part to part like a Ferrari speeding some long back-street stretch in Bel-Air. But all this aside, her face was what put her in a realm which could never be darkened by the shadow of another girl. It was so rare - the result of brilliant refinement through generation upon generation of beautiful marriage, a physical proof of that ever-dying American charisma. Her cheeks were as drawn as Abigail's sails, but thick and they were flushed faintly rosy in the centers. When they wrinkled it was like folds of silk drawn tight with witty character, and when she smiled, complete and balanced, a deep dimple appeared on each side of her precious grin. Her lips were always lips, never disappearing with the contortions of expression, and her nose was small and pointy, unnoticeable under her surging blue versions of deer-like eyes. But if asked, to this day, what Billy found beautiful about this face, he couldn't exactly say. He could just look off, or rather straight through he who asked in a kind-of blank stare as he did on the wide rail on the side of the deck that day, answering only to himself with a feeling he could never quite grasp. "And it's Gladsten, Correct?" Mr. Harding asked suddenly, ripping Billy clean out of his day dreaming. He asked deeply, with a hint of arrogance. He had been engrossing a handful of the potential Sigma Nu's and a few Pi Phi girls sitting about near and around his helm as to how he came to possess such an impressive fleet and of USC in the seventies with a stubborn, implanted demeanor for more than a half hour now. Of course, most his audience was captivated by such a well to do man, not to mention one hell of an impressive father. But Billy had not heard a word from him the entire time until Mr. Harding inquired out of oblivion his name, making obsolete the moist breeze, the spouting mist from the starboard hull and the smacking of the sails. Billy sat up and placed his elbows onto his knees, looking over at Mr. Harding through sad, oval-shaped charcoal-grey eyes. With a rare confidence, transformed from the conscious state of it that which we all know into a permanent implantation of unwavering, blistering character over his span of life, it was fitting for the round-bellied, thick armed, abrasive-eyed captain of the ship to bring attention to the quiet, handsome young man sitting on the side of it. Such reckless yet kind certitude conjures a beaming presence which has a tendency to raise itself out of a crowd. "Yes," he answered. "William Gladsten." "Where you from, William?" He asked, in turn shifting each young head of blowing hair in his audience at Billy. "You can just call me Billy, though," he said back with nonchalant kindness and an intentional tone of reproach that he had already told Mr. Harding his name was William. He continued quickly. "But I'm from Mammoth, up North East here in California." "I know it well. Snowboarder, huh?" "Actually I ski." "That-a-boy," he said, much calmer than the typical use of the phrase. "I tried snowboarding out once. Didn't like it. Too awkward. It doesn't work with the natural way of things. It's not flush with physics." "I never looked at it that way." "Why didn't you start snowboarding?" "Well I was already good at skiing. I liked skiing. I never even considered snowboarding." "Skiing's a lot like sailing. You're yielding to nature and using everything it offers to propel you," he began, then paused
 
Rick Smith: What Would You Do if You Were Going to Die Tomorrow? Or Not. Top
We have all played out this drill in our heads - the doctor informs us we are ill, and gives us six months to live. What would we do? For most of us, this exercise conjures up images of traveling to places we always wanted to see, spending more time with friends and family, and perhaps even adding in some daring stunts like skydiving or rock climbing. For me, this seems a logical response - try to cram as much activity into our remaining months as possible. But what if the doctor told you there was a good chance you would die as soon as tomorrow. But there was an equal chance that you would live another 5 years, or 20 years. Or 50... This is the exact scenario that Tom, a close friend of mine, was recently presented with. In a completely unexpected tragedy, a month ago Tom's brother died of a heart attack. He had just turned 40 and was in perfect health. He didn't drink, exercised regularly, and had very low cholesterol levels. And yet, one day, on his way to the gym, he grabbed his chest. Within 15 minutes he was in the emergency room. Within the hour he was pronounced dead. His aorta had simply split open, and there was nothing anyone could do. The doctors later informed Tom that his brother had suffered from had a very rare disorder, one that could not have been predicted or prevented. One day, the disorder presents itself, and you are gone. The doctor also told Tom that, because they were brothers, there was a reasonable chance that he too carried the same disorder. And there was no way to ever know. You may die when you are 90. Or any day prior to that. What would you do differently? How would you view the world if presented with this scenario? I won't speak for Tom, but having watched this all play out in his life, it is something I have been thinking quite a lot about. Sure, you would likely identify the things, both in the short and long term, that you wanted to experience in your life. Activities. Relationships. Contributions. But I think this scenario would also lead you to think about the things that you want to give up. Like stress and worry, for example. Sure, my boss at times is a pain in the rear, but where does that concern rank in comparison to my health and longevity? Pretty low. As does frustration over my commute, and the car or the house that I may never be able to afford. Or the pettiness that exists in my family relationships. Or whatever is being said about whomever. None of that really matters in comparison, does it? Regarding your health, sure its unpleasant that life has dealt you this circumstance, but in the end whatever happens is entirely out of your control. And you clearly shouldn't stress and worry over that which you have absolutely no control. And so it is that from this tragedy, over time a gift may be revealed. For Tom, this may lead to an increased sense of urgency to live life to its fullest. And also a heightened sense of perspective as to what truly matters and what does not. What should be cherished and what should be ignored. What should be celebrated and what should be forgiven. Thinking about life in this way leads us to summon the courage to follow our own hearts and intuition. To live life on our own terms and not be directed or judged by other people's opinions or artificial definitions of success. None of us really know when we will die. But we are all in control of the moment when we choose to start living. Like it? DIGG IT! This post was originally published at RickSmith.me Subscribe to Rick's Blog . Friend Rick Smith on Facebook . Follow Rick Smith on Twitter .
 
Margaret Ruth: Four Symptoms of Wonderful Relationships Top
This week, I met with a wonderful young man who wanted to talk about falling in love one day. It was a tough subject for him. He was brought up in very typical circumstances and had therefore developed a belief that relationships are difficult, imperfect, full of compromises and require a bit of work to maintain. His past experiences had verified these beliefs and he was very good at criticizing himself over what appeared to be mistakes. It surprised him to hear me admonish him and emphatically state that great, warm, perfect relationships exist and are available for anyone who wants them. He was surprised. He was relieved. There had been too many trips to the bars with buddies full of advice on how to pick up women: how he needed to act, what to look like, and how to talk. How miraculous it was to hear that some people have fulfilling, enriching, satisfying and authentic relationships. You have a decision, I declared. You can decide to have the usual type of marriage, or you can decide to join the happy, healthy, whole segment of the population, who are all running around dating and mating with each other. They are not the majority, but they exist. And they enjoy healthy, satisfying long term relationships. He decided, I believe, to go with the minority on this. But, how to unlearn all the previous assumptions about how difficult and painful relationships are? One of the first things we can do when aiming for better relationships, with everyone, is to realize that excellent relationships do exist. And, as I've written before, it takes two healthy, joyful, whole people to make one healthy, joyful, whole relationship (there are no exceptions to this law). It is helpful to know what these look like, what they feel like, so we can retrain our expectations. Here are my observations of some symptoms of really satisfying relationships. 1. Authenticity Each person in the relationship feels they can be authentic and express exactly who they are. It takes two fairly secure people to allow each other to just be , but people in these great relationships often report the wonderful ease of getting to be exactly who they are. 2. Expansion The relationship is not drudgery or wearing on anyone. It exhibits even energy exchange and good individual boundaries. The symptoms are that no one feels overly exhausted or worn from participating. Often, two people in this type of relationship say they feel uplifted, or have more energy, from the experience of being together, rather than the opposite. 3. Appreciation Appreciation for the relationship and the other person seems to be a hallmark of some very happy ones. Sometimes I have clients who are on their second (or third) marriage but their previous not-good experience has taught them to really appreciate the qualities of the new partner. When two people sit around and appreciate each other, what are the odds they are going to have a bad experience with each other? 4. Harmony What I mean by this is not necessarily always agreeing, but almost always being out of high drama. Around these excellent relationships, there is a sense of calm, peace, ease as far as the relationship is concerned. Even in tough times, people with great connections seem not to make their relationship bear the brunt of their troubles. In other words, one symptom of a not great relationship is sense of constant negative drama. Other words and ideas that relate to the above that I have noticed are joy, fulfilled, satisfied, fun. Contact Margaret Ruth at mr@margaretruth.com or go to www.margaretruth.com . More on Marriage
 
Gordon Adams: National Security: is Obama Making Progress??? Top
From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Evaluating the Obama administration's national security budget and planning process By Gordon Adams | 28 April 2009 In its first 100 days, the Obama administration has had to confront a series of pressing foreign policy and national security issues--North Korean missile launches, a revamping of the war strategy in Afghanistan, the Taliban's continued rise in Pakistan, and, of course, the Iranian nuclear program. As with all new administrations, the issues have come faster than the Obama administration can cope with them. Thus, improvisation has been a major feature of the administration's response--especially with only part of the team in place. As I've written before, my main concern has always been whether or not the administration is putting in place the budgets, structures, and processes that will allow them to escape the siren song of improvisation and begin to set a course toward longer-term strategic planning for foreign policy and national security. The first 100 days of the Obama administration have been promising, but to paraphrase Death of a Salesman, 'Attention must [continue to] be paid.'" Clearly, 100 days aren't enough to answer every question or quell every doubt. And while the most appropriate grade at the moment is probably an incomplete, some of the administration's action do deserve a clear passing grade. What are the success stories? The foreign policy and assistance budget. As a candidate, Barack Obama promised to double U.S. foreign assistance, and while he may not reach this goal as quickly as he'd like, the International Affairs budget request of $53.8 billion--an increase of about 11 percent--is a giant step forward. The details of the foreign policy budget won't appear until early May, but there are signs that it will include at least a couple of important steps in strengthening the civilian toolkit. First, it will seek a major increase in personnel for both the State Department and USAID, beefing up an overstressed staff in both organizations. Second, it will fully fund major programs at State and USAID, particularly food aid and humanitarian assistance. For the past few years, both have been underfunded, with the difference being made up through emergency supplemental budget requests. But it seems honest budgeting has returned to the International Affairs budget requests, and State is asking for what it will realistically need at the start of the budget process, not scrambling for additional funding later. The defense budget. Last September, the military services and Joint Chiefs conducted a budget drill that led to a "blue sky wish list" of a base budget for Defense (outside of war supplementals). The wish list would have expanded the Defense budget by 14 percent over fiscal year 2009. But the White House decided to hang tough, arguing that "current services" (fiscal year 2009 plus inflation, or roughly 3 percent growth) was enough. Any further increases, they reasoned, could await a full strategic review at Defense. To the surprise of many, Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn't fight the administration's edict; he did seek and obtain an additional $10 billion, but those funds covered programs that had previously been funded through supplemental budgets. While some in Congress argued that Defense could have been constrained even further, this was a clear signal to the armed services that a new sheriff was in town. Even more unexpected was the series of military hardware decisions that Gates announced in April. For years Defense's modus operandi has been to continue buying hardware that was outmoded, underperforming, or unnecessary. Gates began to end that practice by terminating hardy perennials such as the F-22 fighter, the vehicle portion of the Army's Future Combat System, an underperforming Transformation Satellite Program, the new navy destroyer, and the new White House helicopter program. Sure, Congress may reverse some of these decisions; but they were clear and decisive and based on strategy and future requirements, not made randomly. The forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review will tell us whether the long-term defense plan continues this trend. In which areas does the administration deserve an incomplete grade? Supplementals. For eight years, both Defense and State abused the supplemental process to request funding for things that clearly weren't war related--e.g., military hardware that wasn't being lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. It's unclear whether or not the administration will continue to allow this backdoor funding, which undermines planning and budget discipline, to happen. The intention of transmitting narrow, war-focused supplemental has been announced, though it applied incompletely to the fiscal year 2009 supplemental submitted by the Obama administration a couple of months ago. War funding for fiscal year 2010, however, will come to Congress with the overall budget--a good precedent. Reforming State's budget planning process. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began to integrate budget planning for all of State's and USAID's foreign assistance programs, but those changes need to be strengthened and supported by additional capacity-building. That means developing a civilian capability to respond quickly to the needs of fragile and failing states and states recovering from civil war and military operations. It also means reforming the department's staff by recruiting, training, incentivizing, and promoting a new breed of State official who can plan and administer programs, as well as negotiate them. Developing development policy. Here the grade is seriously incomplete. A new USAID administrator hasn't been named, and the agency is somewhat adrift. Its future relationship with State also is in question and needs to be resolved. Similarly, staffing increases should be accompanied by a vigorous reform of USAID processes and contracting. The agency needs to become the first responder when tending to fragile and failing states. At the moment, all of these issues are still in limbo. Balancing the military and civilian instruments of statecraft. As I've noted several times in this column, Defense has built up a substantial portfolio of foreign and security assistance programs that duplicate programs and activities at State. They were developed, however, because Defense lacked the faith that State could run these programs in an agile or responsive way, or that State could raise the money for them from the Congress. These doubts weren't incorrect, but they've created a serious imbalance. Today, the United States faces a major problem in civil military relations. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael Mullen noted at Princeton University on February 5, "You've hear . . . me talk about our foreign policy being too militarized. I believe that. And it's got to change." Gates has sent the first signal, announcing that he does not intend to seek to put these authorities into Defense's permanent legal authorities, pending congressional action on State's budget and capabilities. And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given voice to the need to return State to the position of preeminence in foreign and security assistance policy. But it isn't yet clear what State needs to do to become a more credible steward of these programs. And until it does, Congress won't agree to give it the flexibility and funding it needs to do the job. Nor is the first step promising. In the new fiscal year 2009 supplemental budget request for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, State agreed that Defense should request $400 million in funding to train Pakistani security forces in counterinsurgency operations. If State is to become the policy steward of these programs, this was a step in the wrong direction. So, in sum, the first 100 days of the Obama administration have been promising, but to paraphrase Death of a Salesman, "Attention must [continue to] be paid." Copyright © 2009 Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. All Rights Reserved. Source URL (retrieved on 04/29/2009 - 11:48): http://www.thebulletin.org/node/6948 More on Foreign Policy
 
Bernard Madoff Celebrates His Birthday In Jail Top
Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff will celebrate his 71st birthday today in jail and disgrace.
 
Shmuckler Group: Another Mortgage Rescue Firm Accused Of Scam Top
In early April the government announced a crackdown on companies running mortgage modification scams. "Scammers are taking advantage of people in a difficult situation -- people who are trying to modify their home mortgages or those who are trying to avoid foreclosure," said Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz at a joint press conference with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Attorney General Eric Holder. The FTC said several such operations, which guarantee they can get lenders to reduce monthly payments and prevent foreclosure in return for an upfront fee, advertised their services under names designed to suggest government affiliation -- names like Federal Loan Modification Law Center and Bailout.hud-gov.us. One company that has not hidden behind such a title is The Shmuckler Group. Days before the Federal Trade Commission announced its crackdown, dozens of Shmuckler clients protested outside the company headquarters in Vienna, Va., saying the firm never came through on promises to modify loans after collecting thousands in upfront fees. "I think it's a scam," said Kristi Cahoon, director of a foreclosure assistance program at Legal Services of Northern Virginia , a non-profit law firm that provides legal help to low-income Northern Virginia residents. "Based on what I've seen it doesn't appear that they've done anything for the clients" after taking their money. Howard Shmuckler, president of the Shmuckler Group, did not respond to requests for comment from the Huffington Post. He has previously defended his business as legitimate and wrote in a letter on the company website ( PDF ) that salespeople with a company hired to market The Shmuckler Group's services made unauthorized claims to potential clients. Kristi Cahoon told the Huffington Post she has over 20 cases with Shmuckler clients and that she has filed complaints with the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions over Shmuckler's licensing. In March the Washington Post reported that Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation is investigating the Shmuckler Group and that Shmuckler is up for disbarment in D.C. Shmuckler wrote in his letter that on March 30 the government raided his office, taking computers and files. The FTC said 71 companies had been sent letters putting them on notice, but a spokesman told the Huffington Post that the FTC won't confirm or deny whether a particular firm was sent a letter. Shmuckler clients themselves received an eyebrow-raising letter, with Shmuckler letterhead, urging them never to speak to their mortgage lender: The less contact you have with your financial institution the better we can serve you. We cannot stress that enough!!! We prefer that you DO NOT speak to your financial institution at all. Most financial institution use abusive collection techniques designed to elicit fear, shame or guilt when communicating directly with you. The best way to undermine the efforts of your Settlement Team to settle your debts is to start talking with your financial institution... Mourad Zramdini, 32, told the Huffington Post he received this letter. He said he met with Shmuckler's people last July and paid $2,500 for help with the mortgage on his home in Alexandria, Va. Zramdini said he was promised his $4,000 monthly payment could be reduced to $2,300 and that he should stop paying his mortgage in order to qualify for their program. "I trusted them," Zramdini said. "They did nothing." Zramdini says his lender foreclosed on his home in December. On its website, www.tsgsaveshomes.com , Shmuckler wrote that his company has taken advantage of President Obama's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan, which is supposed to be free for eligible borrowers. On April 15, 2009, the president's plan was implemented by several of the lending institutions. TSG, having direct insight into the president's program, wasted no time or effort in contacting the 97 financial institutions TSG deals with in representing its clients. The results were astounding. In the three day period, no less than 14 modifications were approved for troubled homeowners who had fallen behind on their mortgage payments. TSG's highly qualified staff of bank trained professionals used their understanding of the administration's program, the bank's underwriting requirements and our clients' needs to obtain modifications never before heard of. The White House website notes that borrowers "should beware of any organization that attempts to charge a fee for housing counseling or modification of a delinquent loan, especially if they require a fee in advance." Have you been taken advantage of by an organization asking for advanced payment to renegotiate your mortgage? If so, email your story to submissions+fraud@huffingtonpost.com . Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Economy
 
EPA Raids Offices Of Town That Knowingly Supplied Contaminated Water Top
About 14 agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency raided government offices in south suburban Crestwood this morning, 10 days after a Tribune investigation found that the village cut corners and knowingly supplied its residents with contaminated well water for two decades.
 
Obama Takes Swipe At Fox News, Tea Baggers Top
Barack Obama has largely left the partisan shots at his conservative opponents to his aides and the DNC, except when directly asked for a response. But during his town hall appearance on Wednesday in Arnold, Missouri, the president took an unprompted swipe at the cable news networks (presumably, Fox News) and Tea Party protesters ("folks waving tea bags around") whose complaints about government spending, he said, were the equivalent of political gamesmanship. "When you see, you know, those of you that are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular, and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we are going to stabilize Social Security," he said. "[Sen.] Claire [McCaskill] and I are working diligently to basically do a thorough audit of federal spending," Obama told the crowd, at one point mimicking the waving of a tea bag with his left hand. "But let's not play games and pretend that the reason is because of the Recovery Act, because that is just a fraction of the overall problem that we've got. We are going to have to tighten our belts but we are going to have to do it intelligently. And we got to make sure that the people helped are working American families and we are not suddenly saying that the way to do this is to eliminate programs that help ordinary people and give more tax cuts to the wealthy. We tried that formula for eight years and it did not work. And I don't intend to go back to it." The shot across the bow at the Tea Party demonstrators follows prior administration efforts to paint those protests as decidedly non-reality based affairs. Usually, the argument entails reminding these individuals that the White House has passed the largest middle class tax cut in the nation's history. But the notion that the Recovery Act is "just a fraction of the overall problem" seems like a hard pill to swallow, not least because of its $787 billion price tag. Two weeks ago, the president and his aides announced plans for $100 million cuts in agency budgets as a step forward in fiscal prudence. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Fox News
 
Mack, Lewis Blame Pay Limits For Executive Departures Top
John Mack and Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive officers of Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp., said pay limits tied to federal rescue funds have prompted some top employees to leave the companies.
 
Swine Flu Counter: US Cases, Sorted By State Top
The outbreak of disease in people caused by a new influenza virus of swine origin continues to grow in the United States and internationally. Today, CDC reports additional confirmed human infections, hospitalizations and the nation's first fatality from this outbreak. More on Swine Flu
 
Mike Malloy: Goodbye! And thanks for all the fish! Top
Around lunch time today in Washington the faint smell of urine could be detected wafting from Republican Party headquarters. The entire Party leadership had just peed its pants on hearing the news that Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter had switched caucuses and joined the Democrats. Oh, my! That means several things, of course, to the Death Party - formerly known as the Limbot Party and before that, the Republican Party. First, the Death Party's persistent attempts to continue its destruction of America will now abate a bit. (Not completely. Not as long as the Pigman, Hannity, Scarborough, Beck and the rest of the Media Brown Shirts continue to shred and mock whatever is left of the truly patriotic cohesion that at one time identified this society.) Second, The Death Party now comes even closer to being what its leaders want it to be: A regional ( i.e. the States of the Old Confederacy) collection of Yahoos and gun freaks, Christers, racists, women-haters and half-wits. Third, the impending collapse of the Death Party as the obstructionist, violently anti-Constitution, war-loving, torture obsessed, freak show now moves one giant step closer to oblivion. Can I get an amen on that? Thank you. The most fun part of Specter's switcheroo was the reaction from the Death Party's leadership - especially the pretend head of the Republican Party, the chairman his own Limbaugh shufflin' self, "Uncle" Michael Steele. It was almost embarrassing watching Uncle Mike jivin' and dissin' ol' Arlen, talkin' 'bout how when the next primary season comes around the Pennsylvania Death Party is gonna "take former Republican Senator Specter out." Uh-hunh. Take him "out." "Out. " Like what, Uncle Mike? Kill him? 'Zat what you mean by "take him out?" Or are you just trying to be all manly and tough and talk like NRA dude Wayne ("The Peter") LaPierre? C'mon, Uncle Mike. Shuckin' and jivin' for a living is one thing, but, really, do you have to pretend you enjoy it??? The white folks are laughing, you know. After the warm-up act of "Uncle" Michael Steele, the headliners all lined up in what appeared to be the hallway outside the nearest Senate urinal (See first sentence above.) There they were, standing in expressionless silence like a bunch of 19th century Southern plantation owners waiting for the auction to begin. Ol' Mitch McConnell spoke first, lamenting (or hoping for?) the apparent political death of Specter The Traitor. Half swallowing - as he always does when he talks - his epiglottis, he gurped and slobbered his profound shock at Specter's audacity, Specter's betrayal, and probably in his mint julep-y mind, Specter's cancer remission. It was a deeply disturbing performance, all the more so for those who know of McConnell's, um, history . (Don't even go there. It's way weird.) Standing behind McConnell was ol' Wyatt Earp his own damn self, Texas (soon to be "Republic of . . ."?) Senator John Cornyn. His demeanor while Mitch slobbered and gurped was that of a Field Boss who's just found out his prize breeding slave has run off. Also in the frame one could make out Arizona Senator John Kyl, another sour-looking member of the Death Party whose whole life appeared to be flashing before his darting eyes. What a collection of ghouls. Hey, boys, here's a news flash for you. America hates your phony Party and your phony politics of destruction. Seriously. After decades of so-called "Reaganomics" and the racist, divisive megalomania of Dick Nixon, and the country-club Republican disdain of normal Americans so aptly tossed off by GHW Bush, and the idiot-son warmongering of, well, his idiot son, and all the various and sundry politicians and advisors and counselors and corrupt attorneys your smelly Party has pushed off onto this country, and your fascist policies and your lies and wars and fraud and corruption, and on and on and on, you know what? Most of America really doesn't like any of you. The only region left that is still willing to be spiritually and economically beaten and pillaged by you thugs is . . . the Olde Confederacy, that section of the country being eaten alive by misogyny, racism, violence, and that Old Time Religion. Honestly, boys, you're all zombies at this point; the walking dead. Led on by wired-up torture fetishists like Dick Cheney. Your own mamas have kicked you out. If you can't hear the clock ticking down on your diminishing existence, can you at least stop pretending you give a shit about what happens to your once great country? Once great, that is, until you miscreants polluted it with your lies, your greed, and your absolute disrespect . . . Maybe it is time for you boys to take another stab at secession. And, maybe this time the rest of the country would consider it a blessing and slam the goddam door in your faces as you left. - MDM Mike Malloy can be heard daily on his radio show 9pm - 12pm ET. Visit www.mikemalloy.com to stream live or find a station near you. More on Arlen Specter
 
Vivian Norris de Montaigu: Trust Is the Answer: Yunus and the Future of Everything Top
One thing I learned very early on during these past few years of meetings with Muhammad Yunus is that he TRUSTS people, and because of that, people trust him. He trusted poor women with no collateral and gave them microloans, and they proved to him that they could pay back. What is wonderful about this relationship, is that he knew they would pay back. He believed in them. Who today believes in people? Where is Trust still a major component of banking? What has happened to the human element in the economy? How many of us can say that we have not betrayed bonds of Trust? Muhammad Yunus is not a perfect man, but he has brought to the forefront the fact that nothing replaces human Trust. I remember when I lived in Italy as a single mom, and rented an apartment in the center of the city, my landlord tried to get me to pay more than what we had agreed on...when I confronted him he responded, "You are a single American woman living in Italy. You are a single American woman living in Rome. You are a single American woman living in Trastevere. Of course I am going to try to take from you the most that I can". "Ahh...but that is not what we agreed to," I said. I had trusted the landlord to respect his word. I may have been "an American woman" living in his country, and he may have thought I was naive to have trusted him, but I decided to go ahead and do so. And in the end, who backed down? My Italian landlord, and he did so smiling, as he knew I had been right. After that we got along great. But I would never have signed another agreement with him. I learned, but I kept Trust intact. Because if you give up on Trusting your fellow human beings, then the Bastards win. They make you mistrustful like they are. And I don't want to live like that. And I don't want to pay hard-earned money to someone I don't trust. Grameen borrowers pay back because they are proud to be part of Grameen, they Trust Yunus, and they benefit from the over 98% payback rate! When you abuse humans, see them only as vectors of pure profit, and manipulate them financially, especially the poor, the human side will come back to haunt you. Sub-prime loans were made to people who were often completely unaware of what they were signing, had no idea what an ARM was, and were seen simply as ways to make yet another fee. If Trust had been involved, and at the heart of these agreements, either the loans would not have been made, or would have been made in a sustainable way which worked for all. Trust was missing. We need to bring it back.. The flip side of this is that you would never want to betray or cross those who have placed their trust in you. This holds true for relationships of all kinds, be they personal, financial, creative or spiritual. Once you betray the person who has placed their trust in you, you start to create a false reality, one based on a lack of, not abundance, a non-sustainable situation which simply will not hold up. Forgiveness can take place, but the strong Trust which exists at the beginning has been damaged. Because people eventually see through those who break bonds of trust, it is always best to deeply respect what ties us to one another. Without these bonds, which help us create lasting relationships, economies, and include the human element, we are in fact, less than human. Without Trust, we are less than the best we can be. So, remember to include Trust in all aspects of your relationships. Muhammad Yunus is not only trusting, when he discovers that people (or companies) have been less than upfront, he decides simply to move forward and do more, and do it better and bigger. He turns the other cheek. And in doing so, in keeping his mind focused on the bigger picture, he becomes part of the answer, not mired down in what often holds us back as human beings And that is why he, and the women of the Grameen Bank, won the Nobel Peace Prize. I am proud to be helping to produce a feature film on the uplifting way Yunus and the women of Grameen are making the future of our world more sustainable, and bringing an end to poverty. More on Economy
 
Brian Whetten: Why Most Small Businesses Fail and What to Do About It Top
Small business is big business. In the United States, more than half of all jobs are in companies of 100 people or less and more than 10% of all people are self-employed. Yet most small businesses fail. Why is this? And what can you do about it? The biggest problem is that most small business owners don't really own their businesses . They act like employees rather than entrepreneurs. They love providing their services, but desperately wish they didn't have to do all that "business stuff" that goes with it. They assume that 80% of their success will come from the quality of their services . In reality, 80% of success comes from the quality of your business systems . It comes from the quality of your recipe for success. Building a business is like baking a cake. It requires a set of ingredients and a recipe. If an ingredient is missing, or a step is left out, it doesn't work. Yet most small business owners and practice builders focus all their energy on just two or three of the ingredients, and don't even realize they need a recipe. Then they wonder why business always seems so tough. Small business guru Michael Gerber says that the fatal assumption most service providers make is: " if you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work. " In other words, we assume that all we really need to do is offer a great service and have great intentions, and clients will beat a path to our door. But this simply isn't true. An employee asks "what do I need to do today?" A business owner asks "how's my recipe for success doing today?" Employees get caught up in doing what's urgent , and measure success according to how busy their day was. A business owner focuses on doing what's important , and measures success according to the goals and key metrics of the business. Employees build a business through trial and error -- by making all the mistakes themselves. A business owner constantly seeks to learn from others' mistakes -- by learning which recipes have worked for others, and which ones haven't. This challenge is particularly critical for coaches, counselors, healers and other service professionals. In fact, most practice builders have a hard time even admitting that they are a business owner. And when push comes to shove, they find they'd rather do just about anything other than actually sell their services. If this resonates with you, here are three key questions to ask yourself. 1) Do I really want to be a business owner or an employee? 2) What challenges are standing between me and the business I want to own? 3) How can I get support with those challenges? During the boom times, many people with employee mindsets managed to keep their small businesses and service practices afloat, without having to really learn how to own their businesses. That's no longer working. The good news is that there are tremendous resources available for small businesses and practice builders, to help you take this challenge and turn it into an opportunity. Here are two. The E-Myth Revisited , by Michael Gerber : Required reading for small business owners. Selling By Giving : Conscious practice-building for service professionals. More on Small Business
 
Buddy Winston: smart? Top
More on Gas & Oil
 
Kimberly Caldwell: Kimberly Caldwell's Lowdown On Last Night's "American Idol" Top
The top five contestants faced off performing some classics for this weeks Rat Pack theme. They lucked out and got Jamie Foxx as their mentor this time around. He is so vibrant and commands the room at all times, so I knew his advice would really stick. Kris Allen stepped up as contestant number one and scored before he even stepped on stage. Jamie Foxx said he would do a record with him if "Idol" didn't work out!! Wow! He's set up! He didn't disappoint, that's for sure, with his own twist on one of the sweetest songs of all time. The judges gushed with love towards him, but Simon said he doesn't know if Kris can win this thing. The resident rocker chick, Allison, was up next with a gorgeous rendition of "Someone To Watch Over Me." She impresses me every week. Kara even said she thinks we should see Allison in the finals. Simon, of course, chimed in with his negativity but Kara jumped to her defense. Matt Giraud was the audiences' "Funny Valentine." Randy gave it a 6 out of 10 and Kara didn't think he was emotionally connected, but Paula and Simon teamed up and called him brilliant! Go Matt! Bet that felt good. With some comforting words from Mr. Foxx, Danny delivered a soulful and powerful performance. He really raised the bar this week. He had "Rat Pack swagger" according to Kara, and Simon agreed. Simon is definitely on Danny's side. Adam was last but not least. A white satin suit had him dressed for the part. As always, the crowd went wild and the judges think he is in the zone. Adam got major support from the panel and deserved it. We are getting so close to the finale and I really feel like this year that these artists are prepared to fight for what they want! I can't wait to see what happens next. More on American Idol
 
Lewis: Bank of America's Merrill Deal Had To Be Completed Amid Crisis Top
Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Lewis said shareholders weren't told about losses at Merrill Lynch & Co. because aborting the deal might have destabilized the financial system, and the decision was "not about selfish desire" to keep management jobs. More on Merrill Lynch
 
Sheldon Filger: Is the United States too Big to Fail? Top
In 1970 Soviet dissident Andrei Amalrik wrote a highly controversial book entitled, Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984? The book was vociferously criticized by Kremlinologists, who maintained that the mighty USSR, superpower rival to the United States, was simply "too big to fail." Back in 1970, it was considered the height of lunacy to envision the demise of the Soviet colossus. Well, Amalrik was off by seven years, but otherwise he was remarkably prescient. How was it possible for him to be correct and the legions of Soviet experts so wrong? The primary reason is that Andrei Amalrik understood what the so-called experts did not: there is no such thing as "too big to fail." That applies to countries and empires as well as companies. The United States of America included. The Global Economic Crisis has savaged the economy of the U.S. along with much of the rest of the world. In response to the most severe economic contraction America has experienced since the Great Depression, the Obama administration is going into debt to fund massive economic stimulus programs. Yet, as extravagant as those stimulus programs may appear on the surface, they are marginal in comparison with the trillions of taxpayer dollars both the Bush and Obama administrations have made available to subsidize Wall Street and the major actors in the financial industry, to in effect save them from the consequences of their own follies. The mantra of both the current and previous administrations is that these Wall Street entities are "too big to fail," meaning if they are not provided with whatever taxpayer-funded credit they demand, a systemic financial collapse would ensue. The price being demanded -- and obtained -- by the oligarchs of Wall Street, combined with the economic destruction unleashed by their reckless greed, is expanding the national debt of the United States at a frightening pace. An example of this disastrous fiscal trend is the recent announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that for the second quarter of 2009 the United States government will need to borrow $361 billion to pay its bills, compared with $13 billion for the same period in 2008. For all of 2008, the U.S. budget deficit was approximately $455 billion; in the third quarter alone of 2009 it is projected to be $515 billion, and that is probably an overly optimistic estimate. In addition to the $750 billion TARP program to bail out banks and Wall Street, approved last October by Congress, untold trillions of dollars have been provided or promised to the financial industry by Treasury and the Federal Reserve, off the books of the official budget. A most recent estimate puts this figure up to $13 trillion, nearly equal the entire GDP of the United States. The official national debt of the U.S. now tops $11 trillion, and may surpass the GDP within two years. In addition, state, county and local governments across the country are sinking into an ocean of red ink. In effect, the entire credit worthiness of the United States has become the "lender of last resort" for the "too big to fail" entities. The financial elites of America are no doubt uncorking their champagne bottles, as their privileged excesses are held whole through the ultimate backstop -- the indebtedness of not only the current generation of Americans, but also their children and perhaps even their grandchildren. It appears that the oligarchs are so devoid of historical understanding, they fail to recognize that this subsidization of their Wall Street empire of credit default swaps and gargantuan compensation packages can only be sustained if the United States can forever go into debt. And in order to believe that the U.S. is ultimately "too big to fail," they have to be equally ignorant of basic mathematics, the ultimate irony for the supposed magicians of high finance. But what if a point is reached when the rest of the world is no longer willing to lend its scarce capital to the United States, and subsidize its Wall Street bailouts and extravagant military industrial complex? No doubt, the oligarchs would then use their political muscle to enact higher taxation on middle income Americans. This may come in the form of higher consumption taxes; however, a growing possibility is the hidden tax of inflation. A dirty secret that is increasingly being discussed by economists in quiet corners is that there is no way the United States can possibly pay for the servicing of its massive, expanding national debt without resorting to inflation. What the financial and political elites have not analyzed are the consequences for America's social cohesion and viability should the nation's exploding debt burst beyond the point of containment. For unlike AIG, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs, the United States does not have the option of calling upon others to rescue it from its own excesses, with the justification being that it is "too big to fail." It strikes me that most Americans, not only the financial elites but across the nation's social fabric, have a distorted image of how their country fits in with the rest of the world amid the global economic crisis. In a chilling parallel to our times, Amalrik writes about the paralysis of isolation as a factor that would eventually bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1970 he wrote, "This isolation has created for all -- from the bureaucratic elite to the lowest social levels -- an almost surrealistic picture of the world and of their place in it. Yet the longer this state of affairs helps to perpetuate the status quo, the more rapid and decisive will be its collapse when confrontation with reality becomes inevitable." More on Global Financial Crisis
 
Jeffrey Levi: The Swine Flu Response Top
As the first swine flu cases were diagnosed in Mexico, health officials all over the United States leapt into action. This is the test that they are always preparing for. As the disease spread, public health professionals have been actively tracking the cases, working to contain the disease by treating areas where the disease is most concentrated, dispensing antiviral medications from the Strategic National Stockpile, and letting the public know how to protect themselves and when to seek treatment. The Administration has displayed strong, coordinated leadership, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and the White House conveying guidance and strategies based on the best expert advice for how to respond. State and local health departments are monitoring and responding to cases as they emerge. We are fortunate that the country has taken many measures to prepare for a potential pandemic flu outbreak. In November 2005, then President Bush issued a National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza that called for plan that spanned every department of the federal government, every state, and the private sector. Congress provided nearly $7 billion to help prepare. Most of this funding went to stockpile existing antiviral medications and give scientists resources to research and develop vaccines and other pharmaceutical interventions. Since then, due to the tireless work of public health professionals, the country has made significant strides in improving surveillance, coordination, communications, treatment capabilities, and vaccine manufacturing capacity. In addition, all 50 states and the District of Columbia have developed pandemic plans. Overall, our ability to respond to a pandemic is light years ahead of where we were just a few short years ago. But, our public health system has been under-funded for decades and there are many existing gaps that leave us vulnerable, particularly if the swine flu becomes more severe and lethal. If large numbers of Americans start getting very sick and start flooding into hospitals and health care facilities, our system will really be in for a test. Our health system could be overrun in a very short period of time. Figuring out how to plan for a massive influx of patients is one of the hardest parts of preparing for health emergencies, and it has yet to be adequately dealt with. "Surge capacity" management is one of our biggest weaknesses, particularly at a time when we have shortages of emergency and public health workers. That problem is getting worse as state and local governments are cutting budgets. An estimated 11,000 public health workers have been laid off in just the past year. The problem of managing massive numbers of patients is even more complicated under the current health care system, where there is serious concern that people who are uninsured or underinsured may not seek treatment or may not have trouble accessing care. If people who are contagious do not seek treatment during the limited time period when antiviral medications might be effective, they are at serious risk. And they also risk spreading the disease to others. During an infectious disease outbreak, ensuring that care is in place for all Americans is more vital than ever. Not only is the patient at risk, they risk further spreading the disease unless they receive proper care. The swine flu is a clear demonstration of how public health issues are an integral part of our overall health care system - and the importance of considering these issues as part of the health reform debates. Congress should incorporate preparedness planning support into health care reimbursement streams, so hospitals and health facilities can actually meet the needs of all patients when emergencies arise. In particular, a "State of Emergency" health benefit would ensure that the uninsured and underinsured receive the care they need on a temporary basis during crisis. Hospitals and health providers shouldn't have to worry whether they'll be compensated for providing care to individuals in need in an emergency. And more importantly, no patient should have to worry that they'll be turned away when the need care. We also need to ensure that the right medications will be available to people when they need them. The investment the country has made in buying antiviral medications for the Strategic National Stockpile is now paying off. However, even now, some states have more antiviral medications available than others, leaving some Americans unnecessarily vulnerable. We also need to make sure we continue to replenish the Strategic National Stockpile, so if there are additional cases and waves of swine flu - or even another new strain of flu develops, we will be able to treat people. Vaccine development and production is also imperative. We need to give scientists the resources they need to develop a vaccine for this new swine flu, and once a vaccine is ready we need to be able to produce enough vaccine to cover all Americans. At the same time, scientists must continue development of bird flu and other flu vaccines. The swine flu outbreak is a very real reminder of why we need a strong and stable public health system in the United States. This requires an ongoing and sustained investment in our federal, state, and local health departments. Unfortunately, in the past, we have not provided sufficient resources to this system. As we look to reform the health system in coming months, we also have the opportunity to build a reliable funding stream for public health as part of that system. Until we do, we are leaving Americans unnecessarily vulnerable to potential health threats, and our hospitals and health care providers at risk for emergency situations they do not have the capacity to handle. More on Swine Flu
 
WHO Alert Level May Raise Again, To Phase 5 Top
The World Health Organization is moving closer to raising the pandemic alert level once again as the swine flu outbreak continues to hop from one country to the next and has claimed its first life outside of Mexico, the epicentre of the disease. More on Swine Flu
 
Specter's Defection Likely Doesn't Change EFCA Calculus, Dems Acknowledge Top
The first wave of speculation over the implications of Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic Party surrounded one of the day's most hotly contested legislative issues: the Employee Free Choice Act. Starting with the belief that Specter was driven to opposing the bill by the pressures of a close-to-impossible Republican primary, the thinking went that as the electoral threat faded, so too would his EFCA opposition. Adding a bit of kindling to the fire, the early rumor from Capitol Hill was that Democratic leadership in the Senate had struck a deal with Specter on EFCA as a precondition for him joining their ranks. After slight alterations to the bill, the Pennsylvanian would offer his support. In turn, the party would be spared the embarrassing sight of having the labor community cold on both candidates in the 2010 Senate race. "I hear that Reid worked something out with Specter so that with a few minor changes he will support EFCA," emailed one well-connected Democrat. "Reid needed that to avoid labor being furious at Specter taking the Dem seat." Alas, the rumor seems to be just that. In conversations with key labor and Democratic Party figures, the EFCA-related news was fairly clear: The legislation is no closer to getting the 60 votes it needs to cut off a Republican filibuster than when Specter was a member of the GOP. As one senior Democratic aide noted, "[Specter] made it clear he still opposed the Employee Free Choice Act in his statement." Moreover, even if Democrats were able to bring him on board, "you still have to deal with [Blanche] Lincoln, Diane [Feinstein] and Jim [Webb]." All of which is not to say that the day's developments don't carry significance. Removed from Republican caucus pressure, Specter may very well revert to his 2003 and 2007 EFCA stance, when he co-sponsored and supported cloture respectively. "This is a new day for the Employee Free Choice Act and labor law reform," AFL-CIO legislative director Bill Samuel told Politico. That said, officials in the labor community and on the Hill were quick to downplay talk that, behind the scenes, the groundwork had suddenly been put in place for Specter to back an altered version of the bill. "All of that would have been happening even if he hadn't switched parties," said one high-ranking labor official. "We've been trying to win back his support since he came out against [EFCA]." Specter himself has stressed that his stance on EFCA would not change -- but as multiple people have pointed out, he also insisted he would remain in the GOP. "My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans," he said in his statement. "Unlike Senator Jeffords' switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change." And, apparently, the senator's close aides are making similar assurances to EFCA opponents in private. "In his statement said he is not switching," Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform, told the Huffington Post. "And his Chief of Staff reiterated this to me over the phone." Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Arlen Specter
 
Kenyan Women, Tired Of Fighting, Vow Sex Strike Top
NAIROBI, Kenya — Thousands of Kenyan women vowed Wednesday to begin a weeklong sex strike to try to protest their country's bickering leadership, which they say threatens to revive the bloody chaos that convulsed the African country last year. Leaders from Kenya's largest and oldest group dedicated to women's rights, the Women's Development Organization, said they hope the boycott will persuade men to pressure the government to make peace. Eleven women's groups are participating in the strike. The groups have also called on the wives of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga to abstain. It was not clear how either wife responded to the request. "We have looked at all issues which can bring people to talk and we have seen that sex is the answer," said Rukia Subow, chairman of the Women's Development Organization. "It does not know tribe, it does not have a (political) party and it happens in the lowest households." Sex strikes are rare worldwide. Many men in Kenya are polygamous, as is allowed by law. Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua said he was unaware of the strike. The disputed election between Kibaki and then-challenger Odinga led to violence that killed more than 1,000 people and left more than 600,000 homeless. The two were installed after a month of mediation, but infighting has threatened to break apart the fragile coalition. More on Kenya
 
Pew Study: Obama Got More Positive Coverage During First Months In Office Than Bush And Clinton Top
As he marks his 100th day in office, President Barack Obama has enjoyed substantially more positive media coverage than either Bill Clinton or George Bush during their first months in the White House, according to a new study of press coverage. More on Barack Obama
 

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