Monday, April 20, 2009

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Allison Silver: Making Torture Lawful? Top
The argument is being played out in front of us. Dark deeds were done at the leader's behest, to achieve desirable, even honorable, goals. The nation's security and stability depend on this, and terrorism and national upheaval averted. So, though unlawful, it all seems necessary. The leader clearly wants it -- and is asking agents to do it. Accepting public responsibility, however, is another matter. But this is not about torture and the Bush administration's use of "enhanced" interrogation methods that were outside of U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions. This is not about the wide array of unlawful actions that the Bush team asserted were vital to save the United States from another Al Qaeda attack. Instead, this a play, "Mary Stuart," written in 1800 by Friedrich Schiller, the German playwright and poet. This riveting drama, which just opened on Broadway to glowing reviews, presents a powerful tale: Queen Elizabeth I clearly wants her cousin, Mary Stuart killed, but doesn't want to be held responsible. She wants it done -- without having her fingerprints on it. Elizabeth knows that Mary has a strong claim for the British throne and, as a fervent Roman Catholic, sees herself as the rightful ruler to lead England away from Protestant apostasy. Though Mary has long been imprisoned, her followers are continually plotting. And Mary, a legendary beauty, also has a strong claim for the affections of Elizabeth's current favorite, the Earl of Leicester. Elizabeth, the Protestant on that throne, wants this trouble ended. Schiller understands that, for many, political is always personal. Elizabeth, a skillful politician as well as a jealous woman, knows how to achieve her ends. During one remarkable scene, rage at Mary has finally propelled the Tudor queen to sign her cousin's death warrant. But it still has to be carried out -- and Elizabeth has no John Yoo at the ready. In fact, the young courtier whose job this is won't even touch the death warrant without the queen's explicit instructions. True, she is holding the document out to him, but before he will take it, the courtier asks if this means she wants him to execute it now. He says he must hear her say it -- for he knows that killing a queen, even one held prisoner, is never done lightly. This document is too hot and he knows, in the end, he could get more than singed. Regicide is dangerous business. Does she want him to keep the signed warrant in reserve, awaiting further orders? Does she want him to execute it immediately? Does she want him to execute it at some future date? Elizabeth won't respond directly. She just keeps saying that she has signed it. Even in her rage, she is too much the political animal to say the words. Earlier in the play, Elizabeth had secretly commissioned someone she believed was a Protestant spy, her double agent in a nest of papist insurgents, to carry out this murder. She knew his actions would not lead back to her. But this courtier, whose official job is to carry out her warrants, is another matter entirely. Ultimately, the courtier does take the warrant, though he still is still unsure what to do. The queen's close adviser, Lord Burleigh, does know, however. He grabs the document and rushes through the orders of executions. Though Elizabeth later vacillates again, insisting she did not mean it to be carried out, even orders the courtier executed and Burleigh exiled -- Burleigh understood what his leader wanted. So he did it. That, in all too many cases, is how power has been executed. A president would say he wants something done, some goal attained, and his senior staffers go and do it. There was a name for this sort of maneuver -- plausible deniability. But sometimes the matter is so important -- or so illegal -- that it requires direct orders from those in charge. Plausible deniability will not cut it. Actual written permission must be obtained, perhaps in a presidential finding, to address any misinterpretation that this was the act of a freelancer, or a renegade -- or even a few bad apples. Schiller in 1800 knew why Bush administration officials would sign off on these infamous torture memos.
 
Lauren Hutton Details Gory Surfing Accident Top
Two weeks ago, Hutton was surfing in Hawaii when a teenage surfer ran into her knee with his board and she began getting dragged out with the tide. "I couldn't stand or swim. I was screaming, 'Save me! Save me!' And the kid that had hit me--thank God, after me screaming at him about five times--grabbed my hands." But, back at the beach, "My leg went sideways," she said.
 
New Dan Brown Novel Coming In September Top
NEW YORK — At last, a new Dan Brown novel is coming. Six years after the release of his mega-selling "The Da Vinci Code," the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced that Brown's "The Lost Symbol," a thriller set during a 12-hour period and featuring "Da Vinci Code" protagonist Robert Langdon, will come out in September. The first printing will be 5 million copies, Knopf Doubleday said Monday, a modest number considering that "The Da Vinci Code" has sold more than 80 million worldwide and inspired a spin-off community of travel books, diet books and religious works. Brown, 44, had kept his readers and the struggling book industry in suspense as year after year passed without a new novel. As far back as 2004, Doubleday had hinted that a follow up was coming, tentatively titled "The Solomon Key."
 
The Price Is Right: Green Edition With Ed Begley, Jr. Top
LOS ANGELES — Green prizes are coming on down at "The Price Is Right." In observance of Earth Day, Wednesday's episode of the CBS game show will feature environmentally friendly products including cell phones made of recycled materials, solar charging equipment and a recycling cabinet. Environmentalist and actor Ed Begley Jr. will introduce a showcase that includes an electric bike, golf cart and Toyota Prius hybrid car. Trips offered during the show will be paired with donations to offset carbon emissions. CBS soap operas "As the World Turns," "The Young and the Restless" and "Guiding Light" will recognize Earth Day within their sudsy plots, and Lesley-Anne Down of "The Bold and the Beautiful" will appear in a public service announcement. "More than ever there are things that we can do that are really simple to do," said Barbara Bloom, senior vice president of daytime for CBS. "We can do that as people who supply entertainment. We are a powerful tool for messaging. I just wanted to remind people that it's very easy to keep this in your consciousness as you go through your life." ___ CBS is owned by CBS Corp. ___ On the Net: http://www.cbs.com/ More on Earth Day
 
Ellen Sterling: Living Las Vegas Top
I am a journalist based in Las Vegas. Until four years ago I lived in New York and moving here was quite a culture shock. Although without quite realizing it, I've begun to refer to the world outside of Las Vegas as the "real world," that does not mean that I don't like my city of residence. Far from it. Las Vegas is endlessly fascinating. Take politics: Nevada took on national importance as one of the earliest caucus states and caucus voting was a real civics lesson. But no one is sure it will happen again. There were some glitches and Dina Titus, the state's newest Congress member said, "This notion of neighbors getting together with neighbors to talk about politics, that's just not Nevada," And, is there anyplace else where an election that is tied is decided not by a run-off, but by a cut of the cards? In the news about legislation -- and the state legislature meets for six months every other year -- we find among the laws being considered in Nevada a ban on sending text messages while driving. Maybe, at the same time, they'll begin to require hands-free use of cell phones while driving. Las Vegas is a city where the entrepreneurial spirit that is seemingly in the air is contagious. The belief that anything is possible is almost palpable but, on the other hand, I've lately been wanting to write a book called Schemers, Scammers and Schnorrers: People You Meet In Las Vegas. Living here has taught me I am not the cynical journalist I thought I was. I was an optimist and, while I continue to be so, I've learned not to believe anything until I see concrete evidence of its existence. Then there's Oscar Goodman, the self-titled "Happiest Mayor In the Universe." He's the guy who picked a fight with the President, who shills for Bombay Sapphire Gin, who literally has a throne in his office and who acted his real-life role as mob lawyer in Casino . He is an only-in-Las-Vegas kind of figure. Our governor is another story. Scandals -- and there are plenty -- are one thing. But a governor who has become a national laughingstock is quite another. He'd been in office barely five months when the New York Times wrote he "announced a plan to turn coal into jet fuel to raise money (problematic, as Nevada has no coal to speak of) and proposed paying for a $3.8 billion shortfall in highway construction money by selling water rights under state highways (it turns out the state did not actually own the rights). He told a local editorial board he could not pronounce the name of his energy adviser because she was 'Indian' -- she is Turkish..." And it hasn't gotten any better. The economy has caused the only public hospital in Las Vegas to cease providing dialysis, chemotherapy and neonatal intensive care, thus withdrawing the safety net for uninsured residents. Now, this is not to say public officials elsewhere don't make errors or are not characters or that the economy in your community, too, is not seriously imperiled. But, nowhere else does the health of the economy depend upon something -- gambling -- that many look upon as morally wrong if not downright sinful and I cannot think of anywhere else where a schoolchild, asked what mom or dad do for a living, may repy, "Daddy is Elvis" or "Mommy looks like Charo, so she's a dealer-tainer at a local casino." There are two distinct cultures here and two kinds of casinos-- Strip and non-Strip. There used to be a huge chasm in between the two but, in today's economy, the Strip is absolutely pandering to the locals with all sorts of offers to get them into casinos where gaming revenues have taken a double-digit fall. On the plus side, there's plenty to love about Las Vegas. Lots of people tout the weather. Others love the level of entertainment that sees the biggest acts in the world playing regularly. I'd challenge anyone to name a city where dining and shopping are better than in Las Vegas. The spas, attractions and amenities crammed into a relatively small sized area are jaw dropping. The city's history is intriguing. Today, if not a melting pot where disparate elements jell to form a cohesive whole, Las Vegas boasts a variety of cultures and when you look you can find a real sense of community. In short, Las Vegas is an absorbing, frustrating, happy and sad place -- all at once. I like living here. People from all over the world live here so no matter where you come from you can always find a "back-home" accent. (And, if you're wondering what happened to Robin Leach, his distinctive accent is among those you can hear in Las Vegas.) Whenever I ever miss New York, all I have to do is drive to the corner of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard and a good chunk of the Manhattan skyline is there for me to drink in. What place be better than this? (Photo: Las Vegas News Bureau)
 
Lee Camp: WATCH: The Dirty Secret About Susan Boyle Top
 
Margaret Thatcher's Former Hairdresser: "She Was A Bit Terrifying" Top
Galvin has tended to the tresses of some very interesting heads. "Unbelievable," he gasps. "From pop stars to royalty to film stars... so many film stars, I couldn't even begin to tell you." But nevertheless, he does. When he was 20 and working for Leonard, the famous Sixties hairdresser, he was charged with doing Lauren Bacall. "I went up to her and said 'Hello Ms Bacall, I'm Daniel, what can I do for you today?' and she said 'Get me a large vodka on the rocks... NOW!' " He admits she frightened the life out of him. As did "Mrs" Thatcher (he never calls a client by their first name -- too rude, he says). "She was a bit terrifying, I can tell you."
 
Pat Quinn Opening 2008 Income Tax Returns To Public Top
Gov. Pat Quinn announced Monday that he is making copies of his 2008 income tax returns available for public review. The results, according to figures released by Quinn's office, don't appear likely to damage the governor's reputation as a self-styled spendthrift . In addition to his $120,226.61 salary as Lieutenant Governor, Quinn reported interest income of $2,207.22 and a taxable refund of $770.15. He paid $32,505.19 in federal and state income tax and $2,834.02 in property taxes on his Northwest Side home.
 
Abby Toll Shibu Inu Case: WOMAN TAPED DOG TO FRIDGE Top
Police say Abby Toll of Colorado wrapped her boyfriend's dog Rex, a Shibu Inu, in packing tape and stuck the canine upside down to a refrigerator because he wouldn't kick the pooch out. More on Animals
 
WATCH LIVE: Obama Speaks To CIA Employees Top
President Obama speaks to employees at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. Expected Start Time: 3:30 PM ET WATCH IT LIVE: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Cindy McCain
 
CNN To Treat Obama's 100th Day Like Election Night Top
More on CNN
 
Mike Lux: Historical, Hysterical Conservatives Top
Conservatives have been in a historical state of mind lately, and as the author of a new book on the history of the American political debate ( The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be ), it has been pretty entertaining to watch. First came the teabaggers, the faux spontaneous uprising backed by corporate contributors, carefully planned Astroturf consultants, and Fox News sponsorship and promotion night and day. Then we saw the right-wing Governor of Texas casually throw out the idea of secession from the union. Now we see conservatives debating amongst themselves whether to call Obama a socialist or a fascist. (My favorite quote from the story on this is from former Michigan GOP party chair Saul Anuzis: "You've got to be careful using the term 'economic fascism' in the right way, so it doesn't come as extreme.") Conservatives know this country is at a historical crossroads, and I suspect that what they fear most is that they are just as much on the wrong side of history as their ideological ancestors were in the 1860s when the end of slavery was being debated, in the early 1900s when women's suffrage was being debated, in the 1930s when social security and the minimum wage were being debated, and in the 1960s when the civil rights were being debated. In every single one of those historical debates, conservatives: -labeled their opposition socialists (and worse) -called for states' rights instead of a federal solution -said that they were the true heirs of the founding fathers, and were the keepers of America's traditions and values -warned that the charges being proposed were frighteningly radical, and would destroy the economy -that big government would lead to a destruction of all of our most basic liberties These conservative arguments have always been tinged with more than a little hysteria, just like today. And no matter what, conservatives always insisted they owned the moral high ground. Defenders of slavery argued that slavery was not an evil but in John Calhoun's words, "a positive good," and that Southern society was based on the institution. Those opposing women's suffrage said giving women the right to vote would destroy the American family. Conservatives in the 1930s argued about social security that "never in the history of the world has any measure brought here so incisively designed as to prevent business recovery, to enslave workers, and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people." Southerners violently opposed the end of Jim Crow, arguing that it "encroached upon the reserved rights of the states and the people." Conservatives have always hysterically opposed progressive change. They have used the same arguments-for tradition and states rights, against "big government socialism"- in every era. In those past eras, history was not on their side. It is not in our time, either.
 
1 In 5 Americans Are Postponing Health Care Top
Twenty percent of Americans say they have delayed or postponed medical care, mostly doctor visits, and many said cost was the main reason, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters released on Monday. That figure is up since 2006, the last time the question was asked on the survey, when 15.9 percent of people said they had postponed or canceled medical care in the past year.
 
Banks' Quarterly Earnings And Why They Are Misleading (SLIDESHOW) Top
Banks are reporting shockingly positive earnings in the first quarter. But there is reason for skepticism that these numbers are more accounting gimmickry than actual profits. The Huffington Post takes a look at Bank of America, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo, and why their first quarter numbers are better digested with a large dose of salt. Bank of America posted a profit of $4.2 billion, $3 billion of which came from its acquisition of Merrill Lynch. It was also helped by the change in mark to market accounting, which allowed it to add another $2.2 billion in gains. A look deeper inside the earnings shows a number of reasons for skepticism : credit card losses jumped to 8.62%, up from 5.19% a year ago, and nonperforming assets rose 41% from the end of December to $25.7 billion. It was forced to set aside $13.4 billion for additional credit losses, and it earned just $4.25 billion in net income for the entire quarter. As for Citigroup, it posted a profit of $1.6 billion, accounting rules played a major role. Banks are required to take a gain when the price of their debt falls. While this sounds counterintuitive, it is because when debt declines in value , it is assumed the bank will buy back the debt at the lower price and retire it. So, because investors have such little faith in Citigroup, the price of its debt has dropped. As such, it was able to take a $2.7 billion boost in revenue. As for JP Morgan, it posted $2.1 billion in net income this quarter, startling analysts with a strong number. But like the other banks, it was misleading. The increase was almost entirely due to a jump in investment banking from a loss of $7.9 billion to a gain of $2 billion. Revenue in every other category was either flat or down. This boost is a one-time event. "For JPMorgan to reproduce these results quarter after quarter, it would have to have unprecedented, exceptional, super-duper" banking revenues, James Kwak of RGE Monitor said. A major drag was credit risk, which is likely to persist. The bank's credit costs surged 97% from a year ago to $10 billion, and it had to add another $4 billion to its loan loss reserves. Wells Fargo kicked off bank earnings on April 9, when it released a three-page press release scant on details, which said the San Francisco-based bank expected to report first quarter income of $3 billion. To help it achieve this figure, Wells took advantage of a rule that has since been banned, to carry over $7.5 billion in Wachovia loan loss provisions that helped boost its net income. It closed on its acquisition of Wachovia Dec. 31. The rule was banned the following day. The bank also maintains it has tangible common equity, a measure of bank capital of $36 billion, although Jonathan Weil of Bloomberg puts it at just $13.5 billion . Lastly, it has taken advantage of the repeal of mark to market accounting. While it won't say what the earnings would have been without the change, Bloomberg puts its losses on securities, which don't have to be reported under the mark to market changes, of $4.2 billion. More on Financial Crisis
 
Kim Morgan: Bloody Beautiful Ballard: "Crash" Top
With the passing of the great J.G. Ballard, I'm returning to my favorite adaptation of his work, David Cronenberg's auto-erotic Crash. " Crash is an autobiographical novel in the sense that it is about my inner life, my imaginative life. It is true to that interior life, not the life I have actually lived." --J.G. Ballard A survived car accident can be one of the most exciting, disturbing and hallucinatory events in a person's life, and not simply because of life endangerment and pain. Time is sped up, then suspended; physical and mental sensations are heightened, blurring reality. Life feels strangely, in the moment but dazzlingly surreal. And yet, a car accident is such a common occurrence that when we drive by one we frequently do so with a titillated, detached interest. Inside cars, those speeding microcosmic shelters, we see distinct personalities -- aggressive, meek, and distracted -- the potential of which Godard envisioned in his maddeningly extraordinary car wreck loop Week End . To enter these personal realms, we act in mildly subversive ways -- honking at a trucker, making an enraged cutoff, flirting on the freeway. Arranging this entry erotically so as to combine man with machine with sex is less familiar. But perversions often rear up in mundane environments, especially ones surrounded by seat belts, door locks and steel. David Cronenberg, the auteur known for turning "safe" environments (apartment complexes, hospitals, the gynecologist) into terrifying, erotic and reality shaking locales, penetrated the world of the automobile and stretches its "normalcy" tenfold. Adapted from J.G. Ballard's brilliant novel, Crash is a rare picture with unconventional plotting. Cronenberg constructs the exposition, action and conclusion (as well as its subtext) through sex scenes, scenes that open and flower -- or, depending on your viewpoint; grow increasingly perverse -- throughout the film's rather short running time. James Spader plays TV-commercial producer James Ballard, who is introduced to the auto-erotic world of the peculiar scientist Vaughan (Elias Koteas) by Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter) a woman he meets via a near-fatal car accident, and with whom he first experiences the automobile's turn on potential. James, his wife Catherine (the strikingly icy Deborah Kara Unger) and Remington join Vaughan and his subculture of dazed crash survivors, including Gabrielle (Rosanna Arquette), a walking Helmut Newton-esque fetish doll of scars, leg braces and support suits (she is, in her own way, a glorious vision). They swap partners not only to satisfy their craving for dangerous, pulse-quickening sex, but also for an exploration of what J.G. Ballard calls "psyhic fulfillment." From its opening shot -- Catherine laying her breast on the cold wing of an airplane -- Crash immediately expresses its alignment of technology and the human body, a physical relationship that occurs daily, though we don't often notice it. Vaughan leads James and Catherine to a sexual awakening with their mechanical connections, infusing their human relationship with the charge its lost through deadened senses and alienation. There are negative ramifications to these people's sometimes repulsive acts, but there is also a broadened knowledge of the world around them and the creation of a strange beauty through their meticulously visual orchestrations. Like the conventional contact between two cars, the movie's sex is rarely face-to-face, revealing the couple's disconnections, but also the idea that they're stretching toward something. As the picture unfolds, James' desire builds into perversion yet somehow also becomes more personal: After Catherine's rough coupling with Vaughan in a car wash (the scene's commingling of cleaning fluids, sperm, car seats and human skin is the movie's best visualization of J.G. Ballard's language), James kisses her bruises with a tenderness previously unexpressed. At this moment, when we see that the couple is truly in love, we grapple with both the benefit of their experience and its implications; questions that we cannot immediately answer bubble to the surface. There were obvious questions that came to me: Is Crash a cautionary tale about people so numbed by the modern world that they must seek excitement in dangerous measures? Is it commenting on our dissatisfied consumer society? Is it simply a turn-on? I think the answers are yes and no. Though the novel's relentless descriptions of bodily fluids and organs coalescing with twisted steel ("his semen emptying across the luminescent dials that registered forever the last temperature and fuel levels of the engine") are rendered less graphic by Cronenberg, J.G. Ballard's vision of the "liberation of human and machine libido" remains potently intact. In both novel and film form, Crash takes a non-moral and non-celebratory approach to its subject matter, creating an alternative perception of the physical world that is as beautiful as its is horrific. And that amalgamation is, unlike many movies and true to Cronenberg, disturbingly, unnervingly sexy -- enough to make you check yourself. Or at least check yourself in the rear-view mirror. Read more Kim Morgan at Sunset Gun and her photo and video page, Pretty Poison .
 
Are Online Publications Really Greener Than Newspapers? Top
As several of our readers pointed out, weighing the environmental and climate impacts of a physical newspaper against the impacts of its online manifestation is profoundly complex. Life-cycle analyses for both forms of distribution -- that is, the detailed accounting of impacts at every stage of a product's life, from creation to use to disposal -- remain few and far between. One study, published in 2004, compared the cradle-to-grave environmental implications of reading The New York Times the old-fashioned way with reading it on a personal digital assistant, or PDA. The conclusion: Receiving the news on a PDA results in big reductions in the release of carbon dioxide, water and nitrogen and sulfur oxides. More on Newspapers
 
Miles Klee: The 4/20 Quiz Top
 
Dinara Safina Number 1 Tennis Seed, Brother Marat Safin Once Also Number 1 Top
LONDON — Dinara Safina officially took over the top ranking on the WTA Tour on Monday, making her and older sibling Marat Safin the only brother-sister duo to have been No. 1 in professional tennis. Safina, who has yet to win a Grand Slam title but twice reached a major final, is the 19th woman to top the rankings since they were introduced in 1975. She is also only the second Russian woman after Maria Sharapova to reach No. 1. Safina replaced Serena Williams at the top, even though the American beat her in the Australian Open final this year. Last year, Safina lost to Ana Ivanovic in the French Open final. Marat Safin was ranked No. 1 on the men's tour in 2000, the same year he won the first of two Grand Slam singles titles. "He has two Grand Slams," Safina said of her brother in a video posted on the WTA's Web site. "He's still much better than me, so I have to catch him." Safina won four titles last year. More on Sports
 
Michealene Cristini Risley: Lyme disease-where is "House" when you need him? Top
It is 3 am Pacific Standard time and I am wide awake. One of my doctor calls this time of insomnia in patients as "Lyme-time". This is usually in the middle of the night when you are desperate for rest, to get through another day. Unfortunately those little critters have different plans. Lyme time is when those nasty bugs wake up and create more havoc-after a year of this, I don't need more havoc! I want to scream at them to "GET OUT", but they are great at camouflage-and besides some doctor, somewhere will state that my problems are psychological in origin. Ha! To help me get through the insomnia, I have become an avid watcher of the Television show, "House". http://www.fox.com/house/ "House" is an entertaining and well written show about a group of hospital doctors that tackle complicated diseases and discover the underlying cause of the patient's illness. Gregory House, the obnoxious infections disease doctor, is played by the British actor, Hugh Laurie. I ache for a doctor like house in the Lyme disease community. House we need you! As an information junkie, (at least enough to make me dangerous), I have been doing research on Lyme disease. All of the research, the internet sites, the books, are somewhat contradictory. It is very confusing to get some clear answers and figure out the right treatment protocol, particularly when I have brain fog from the disease. What is clear to me from the research is that our country has a major Lyme disease problem. The disease has developed in every state. If I look at the emails, the twitters, the phone calls I have received in the last few weeks-Lyme exists everywhere. The problem is not being taken seriously by the medical establishment. Fellow "Lymie" and successful author Amy Tann says: ""I now know what is the greatest damage that Borrelia has caused: It is ignorance." http://www.canlyme.com/amy.html When surfing the net I found some information on Dr. Kinderleher, a New Mexico based doctor who appeared on the Today Show. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/ Based on his comments during the show, a paper was developed by Dr. Ralph Stricker, a San Francisco based Lyme specialist. http://lyme.kaiserpapers.org/drdan.html Some stats from Dr. Kinderlehrers comments on the Today Show: • Lyme disease is an epidemic, already the fastest growing in the US with new cases surpassing AIDS. • The epidemic proportions of the illnesses are staggering, but are being minimized by the government and insurance industries because of financial obligations. IF this doesn't scare you, the fact that these comments were made in 2002-should! And still the disease is largely ignored close to a decade later. Testing for Lyme: Let me explain a little bit about the testing procedures that diagnosis Lyme disease. Even in 2009, we are far from getting proper testing in place that addresses the many issues surrounding a LYME diagnosis. The ELISA test. This is the least expensive and easiest to perform. This test detects the antibodies made in response to being exposed to Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb). This test misses 50% of patients later found to be positive for the disease. The Western Blot test. This is a map of the different antibodies that the immune system makes to specific proteins that are tested, some specific to Bb and other specific to the Spirochetes. There is a disagreement regarding how the Western Blot is interpreted. The CDC developed criteria that exclude 70% of symptomatic children that had confirmed a bull's eye rash. Recently a few labs that specialized in the diagnosis of Lyme disease developed better criteria. I went to one of these labs after my initial two false negatives. Other forms of testing include the Polymerase Chain Reaction, Lyme Blot essay, blood examination and bacterial culture. All have varying degrees of success or failure depending on what stage the disease is in. To read more on this: http://columbia-lyme.org/patients/ld_lab_test.html Still will all these tests up to 30% of patients still have negative results! Controversial Treatment: One of the controversies surrounding treatment for Lyme is the extended length of time one is prescribed anti-biotic for treatment. The reason I am told and Lyme doctors concur, that long term antibiotic use should be considered when Lyme disease is suspected is because of the following: • Bb divides very slowly and often has periods of dormancy during which antibiotics will not kill the bacteria. • Bb can invade the immune system and hid within the cells. • Bb can actually coat itself with host membranes to avoid detection by the immune system. • Bb can also exist in three forms, Spicochetal, L-Form and Cystic form, two of which are relatively resistant to antibiotics. INSURANCE COMPANIES DENIAL of Lyme disease is staggering. I am old enough to remember the days when insurance companies actually paid your medical bills and cared enough to not make the process work. WHAT HAPPENED? Currently, Insurance companies have adopted guidelines reflecting short term treatment approaches, which are governed by cost-containing considerations. However the legal standard of care for treating a condition is determined by the consensus for physicians who actually treat patients-not by treatment guidelines. This has not happened with Lyme disease. One survey found that 57% of responding physicians that treated Lyme disease did so for 3 months or longer. Brian Fallon, MD and director of the Lyme and Tick borne disease center at Columbia University: http://www.columbia-lyme.org/about/director_message.html notes that for over 3400 patients screened at Columbia University study of persistent Lyme disease, the mean duration of IV treatments was 2.3 months and the mean duration of oral antibitiotics was 7.5 months. http://www.columbia-lyme.org/ Insurance companies have placed their full weight of their economic clout behind the less expensive short term protocols. The longer term options are discredited as experimental or "Not evidence Based". I am trying to go back to sleep now, hoping for a wonderful dream. In my dream, I am finally able to get admitted and cared for in a hospital. As I lay in bed, Hugh Laurie walks into my hospital room. (Of course, you know this is a dream, since I can't find a hospital that will take a "Lymie"). He walks over to the bed, says something obnoxious, rattles off instructions to his team, and moves towards the door. Before he leaves, he actually gives me a brief smile and I thank him. I am not sure he has constipation or he actually is responding to my gratitude. Then he says, over his shoulder as he walks away. "I am always right". Perhaps he took some instruction from the American Medical Association after all. *Special thanks to Dr. Metzger and Harmony Women's Health for providing access to their research for this blog. http://www.harmonywomenshealth.com/
 
C. Nicole Mason: Obama Gets Gender Right in First 100 Days: Women in Top Spots, Policies Signal Shift toward Equality Top
As the 100th day approaches, it is time to take stock of what the Obama Presidency has meant so far for women. Dating back to FDR, the first 100 days of a new Administration have been a kind of preview of what is to come over the next four years. In George W. Bush's first 100 days, he blocked funding for international family planning clinics, signed an order stating that women receiving Medicaid benefits could not use funds to pay for the emergency contraceptive, RU-486 and shut down the White House Office on Women's Issues-- a friend to progressive women's issue he was not. What about Obama? Is he friend or foe to women? If the first 100 days are any indication, Obama is off to a great start and the next four years will bring great strides toward women's equality and progress in the United States. In the throws of a deepening financial crisis and just six days into his Presidency, Obama lifted the global gag rule, a promise he made to women's groups on the campaign trail. This was as much about delivering on a promise as it was an ideological statement of the importance of overturning harmful and short-sided public policies instituted over the last eight years. Another sure signal of what is to come for women in the Obama Administration is that the first piece of legislation he signed into to law as President was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act. The Act gives women the ability to challenge unequal pay, which will have direct and meaningful impact on working women from coast to coast and across occupations. And in his recent Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, over $100 billion dollars are dedicated to providing support to women and families. Obama's Cabinet is also chalk full of extremely accomplished stateswomen and issue advocates. With two cabinet positions still open, Obama has appointed or nominated a total of eight women to his cabinet or to high-level positions. They include Janet Napolitano as the Secretary of Homeland Security, Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Hilda Solis as the Secretary of Labor, Lisa Jackson as the Head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Melody Barnes as the Director of Domestic Policy. These appointments are more than just symbolic. They come at a time when the country is facing huge challenges both domestically and globally with regard to the economy, the environment, immigration, and mending our international reputation. Women at the table will have the opportunity to influence the future direction and policies of the country. What is also significant is about Obama's appointments is that more than half are women of color. This is more than any other President in the history of the country. There is great diversity of opinion and background in the Obama White House. Less than a month shy of his 100 days, lest he forget something, Obama created the White House Council for Women and Girls, an interagency office designed to ensure that the policies and programs take into account the needs of women and girls. The first 100 days of Obama's Administration have given women much to celebrate. Although there is still much work to be done in terms of achieving fully equality for women and girls, we are well on our way. And with the possibility of two Supreme Court nominations over the next few years, it is good to know that we have a man like Obama in the White House. C. Nicole Mason, Ph.D., is a political scientist and the executive director of the Women of Color Policy Network at the Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the National Council for Research on Women. More on Women's Rights
 
Study: Almost 1 In 10 Young Video Game Users 'Addicted' Top
A sizable number of young video game players -- fully 8.5 percent -- exhibit signs of addiction to gaming, a new study has found. These kids aren't just playing a lot. Their gaming interferes with school performance, disrupts interaction with family and friends and poses health problems, the study reveals.
 
Man Calls 911 To Woo Drunk Woman Top
James A. Rush was so smitten with a woman he met last week in a Naperville bar that he called in a phony 911 report of gunfire on the city's far northwest side, according to a written Naperville police report. Rush, 33, now faces trial on a charge of placing a false 911 call. The three-page police report indicated he did so in the hope officers who were checking on the welfare of a drunken woman would race off to investigate the "gunshots," giving Rush the opportunity to take the woman home. More on Stupid Criminals
 
Barbara Walters Joins Twitter, Tweets On "The View" (VIDEO) Top
Barbara Walters has lost her "Twitter virginity." On "The View" Monday, Walters announced that she's the latest media personality to embrace the service, tweeting at twitter.com/barbarajwalters . Walters had tweeted before the show, saying, "This is my first day on twitter All exited. Getting ready to do The View Must get my hair done." Then, on-air, she demonstrated using Twitter on her BlackBerry (through an application called TwitterBerry) and announced , "I am losing my twitter virginity." Whoopi Goldberg is now the only co-host of "The View" who does not use Twitter, and she ended Monday's segment by begging Twitter founders to shut down a fake @whoopigoldberg account. "People at Twitter, I've written you, I've begged you," Whoopi pleaded, "someone's signing me up and I didn't want it done. Please take it down 'cause it's not me!" Oprah Winfrey joined Twitter last week and tweeted live from her show Friday as well . WATCH: Follow HuffPost Media on Twitter here. More on Twitter
 
21 Polo Horses Die Suddenly, Possibly Poisoned Top
At least 21 horses have died after coming down with a mysterious ailment moments before they were scheduled to compete in the prestigious U.S. Open polo tournament. Though the Florida Department of Agriculture was conducting lab tests to determine the cause of death, veterinarians said they suspected the horses were probably killed by some sort of poison. More on Animals
 
Deepak Chopra: Obama: Our plumber-in-chief Top
Although the Presidency is about issues, challenges, and complex negotiations, there's another side. With every new President we get the pleasure of watching a human being adapt to the office. Very quickly an image emerges. Barack Obama entered the White House at a time of crisis, amid frayed nerves and anxiety. The image we wanted to see was pictured in advance by constant references to Lincoln and FDR, the two Presidents who overcame the deepest crises in our history. Amid the dog show and the Easter egg roll, the whirlwind foreign visits and being the man who accompanied Michelle Obama to Europe (a wink-and-a-nod reference to JFK, another dapper celebrity politician), what do we feel about this new President as a human being? Personally, Obama seems to me to be a man of virtue. This is something of an irony, because George W. Bush and the right wing co-opted virtue back in 2001. They trumpeted their desire to bring decency back to the White House after the shocking (how very shocked they were) immorality of Bill Clinton. As the party of "values," the Republicans took out a patent on virtue, so it must be galling for them to witness in Obama someone who actually is decent, truthful, candid, and strong. The Bush smirk wasn't the only giveaway that our last President wasn't going to live up to his billing. He always seemed like an expensive suit wrapped around a show of qualities he didn't possess. The private Bush was stubborn, capricious, sulky, and immature. He was born to privilege and the recklessness of privilege. He cried at the sight of wounded vets but couldn't grasp the wrong of the unjust war he foisted upon them. The country could afford to tolerate Bush's shallowness when we felt rich and safe. but after the debacle of the Iraq war, the rising tide of hatred from the Islamic world, the abandonment of our traditional alliances, and finally the catastrophe of the financial collapse, we couldn't afford someone who pretended to qualities he didn't have. Great leaders have an uncanny way of matching the need of the time. Obama isn't a carbon copy of Lincoln and FDR. So far, he hasn't displayed the former's immense moral courage or the latter's larger-than-life optimism. The particular virtues that are being called upon from this President are calmness, astuteness, and organization. Taken altogether, they aren't a glamorous package. Obama ran for the office on inspiration, but he may wind up being remembered as the fix-it President. He's the plumber-in-chief assigned to repair a hundred leaks that cannot be ignored any longer. Still, it's comforting to know that Obama can rise to inspiration if that's what is needed. It's also comforting to see that he is normal. His wife reminds him not to scare the kids when he growls too loud reading "Where the Wild Things Are." He bowls a terrible game and becomes endearing for it. He makes clunky attempts to unbend from his natural dignity, and that endears him, too. Virtue was dragged into the White House eight years ago as a semi-sleazy political gambit. How amazing that when we least expected it, the real thing arrived. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle More on Barack Obama
 
Josh Sugarmann: Mass Shooting Template--Repeat as Necessary Top
Washington Post , April 19, 2009 More on Nancy Pelosi
 
VA: 3 patients HIV-positive after clinic mistakes Top
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Three patients exposed to contaminated medical equipment at Veterans Affairs hospitals have tested positive for HIV, the agency said Friday. Initial tests show one patient each from VA medical facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Miami has the virus that causes AIDS, according to a VA statement. The three cases included one positive HIV test reported earlier this month, but the VA didn't identify the facility involved at the time. The patients are among more than 10,000 getting tested because they were treated with endoscopic equipment that wasn't properly sterilized and exposed them to other people's body fluids. Vietnam veteran Samuel Mendes, 60, said he was surprised to learn of an HIV case linked to the Miami facility, where he had a colonoscopy. He was told he wasn't among those at risk. "I was hoping and expecting to not get anyone contaminated like that," he said. "It's probably a little worse than we thought." The VA also said there have been six positive tests for the hepatitis B virus and 19 positive tests for hepatitis C at the three locations. There's no way to prove patients were exposed to the viruses at its facilities, the agency said. "These are not necessarily linked to any endoscopy issues and the evaluation continues," the statement said. The VA has said it does not yet know if veterans treated with the same kind of equipment at its other 150 hospitals may have been exposed to the same mistake before the department had a nationwide safety training campaign. An agency spokeswoman has said the mistake with the equipment was corrected nationwide by the time the campaign ended March 14. The problems discovered in December date back more than five years at the Murfreesboro and Miami hospitals. The VA's disclosure Friday was the department's first comment since April 3, when the VA reported the one positive HIV test. VA spokeswoman Katie Roberts has declined to provide any details on how widespread the problems might have been other than saying a review of the situation continues. She said in an e-mail Friday that "there is a very small risk of harm to patients from the procedures at each site." She said the HIV results "still need to be verified" in additional tests. The VA statement shows the number of "potentially affected" patients totals 10,797, including 6,387 who had colonoscopies at Murfreesboro, 3,341 who had colonoscopies at Miami and 1,069 who were treated at the ear, nose and throat clinic at Augusta. More than 5,400 patients, about half of those at risk, have been notified of their follow-up test results, the VA said. The Friday statement said the VA is "continuing to notify individuals whose letters have been returned as undeliverable, and working with homeless coordinators to reach veterans with no known home address." The statement also said the VA has assigned more than 100 employees at the three locations to "ensure that affected veterans receive prompt testing and appropriate counseling." All three sites used endoscopic equipment made by Olympus American Inc., which has said in a statement it is helping the VA address problems with "inadvertently neglecting to appropriately reprocess a specific auxiliary water tube." Charles Rollins, 62, who served three tours in Vietnam with the Navy from 1966 to 1969, said the news concerns him because he's used the Augusta ear, nose and throat clinic several times. "That's terrible," he said by phone as he socialized at an American Legion post in Augusta. ___ Associated Press writers Lisa Orkin in Miami and Dorie Turner in Atlanta contributed to this report.
 
Abby Toll: Shibu Inu Dog TAPED TO FRIDGE Top
BOULDER, Colo. — Police say a Colorado woman wrapped her boyfriend's dog in packing tape and stuck the animal upside down to a refrigerator because he wouldn't get rid of it. Abby Toll was arrested Tuesday after police say she got into a fight with her boyfriend. She was charged with felony cruelty, drug possession and other counts and is free on $12,500 bond. She has declined to comment. Toll's 21-year-old boyfriend, Bryan Beck, faces lesser charges including a misdemeanor cruelty count. Police say Toll, 20, used packing tape to bind the legs, snout and tail of Beck's dog, Rex, a Japanese breed called a Shiba Inu. She told police she stuck the dog to the refrigerator because she was angry Beck wanted to keep it. Rex was taken to a shelter and will be put up for adoption. ___ Information from: Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/
 
Stephen H. Dinan: Obama Needs a National Alternative Economic Council Top
President Obama has been, on so many levels, a great boon for America's confidence, psychology, and relations with other countries. I feel proud of the dignified and focused way he has engaged the enormous challenges our nation faces. His main Achilles heel so far is that he has not created an "economic team of rivals," as pointed out by Arianna Huffington's column on April 11th , but rather assembled an economic brain trust that agrees upon a bank-centric approach to solving our economic problems. This group may be well intentioned but they are denizens of Wall Street and that is where they seek their solutions. Alternative economists instead point to the power of distributed systems of credit and local living economies to create enduring wealth. They note that America's millions of small businesses are a more powerful engine for growth than those on the S & P 500. Large, centralized banks will not be the engine that grows a healthy new green economy, which is instead powered by green investors and millions of small-scale entrepreneurs. Finally, many deeply needed reforms of our entire financial system --such as eliminating damaging forms of speculation or taking back the government's right to create money -- will never be proposed by Wall Street or central bankers since they have learned to accumulate massive profits from the game as it is played. True reform always arises first from outside a system and is only gradually accepted by beneficiaries of the old ways. Wall Street has caused some of the most fundamental problems, so we cannot turn to Wall Street to create the solutions. That is why I believe that President Obama needs a National Alternative Economic Council that operates with fundamentally different assumptions than the current group. It can be a chorus of respected alternative leaders that develops policy recommendations that can create an enduring shift in our economy. At the very least, a cohesive National Alternative Economic Council will provide a counterbalance to the worldview shared by Geithner, Summers and the others. If the Council's recommendations are well thought out, they will triumph; if not, they will strengthen the opposing ideas through debate. Such a Council could become an engine for policy recommendations and reforms that are unthinkable by the banker's club. This week, in my Voice America radio show with leading evolutionary economist Hazel Henderson ( download here ), I was struck by how valuable it would be to have a clear, cogent, and compelling voice like hers with direct access to the President. Hazel has published hundreds of articles in over 250 journals in 27 languages. She's the producer of the Ethical Markets TV series and written 9 respected books. She's been involved in pioneering work with social investment funds, quality-of-life indicators and the boards of many new economy groups. She offers brilliant solutions to things such as reducing currency speculation, creating private stock exchanges for mid-size companies, and encouraging local investment. Why shouldn't a national treasure like Hazel have a direct pipeline to Obama to correct the imbalances of the current team and offer new innovations? Recently, I've also been reading Ellen Brown's Web of Debt , which illuminates the deep, structural problems with our economy in a fascinating tour of American financial history. Her Open Letter to Obama this week urges him to apply the solution that Lincoln used to turn the country from financial ruin and win the Civil War: create Greenbacks that are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and without interest paid to central bankers. Ellen is a thoughtful scholar of U.S. history and shows how private financiers have often operated against the best interests of the American people through vehicles such as the Federal Reserve. She offers many clear-eyed reforms that would be unthinkable from within the bankers' world. These voices are only two of the many that Obama needs to forge a truly evolutionary path out of our economic quagmire. I believe that his current team is fundamentally incapable of offering a long-term transformation of our economy because they are embedded in the old systems and more invested in bandaging them up than in reinventing the system. To chart a new path forward, as I believe President Obama sincerely intends to do, he will need to seriously listen to the alternative economic experts who offer bold new solutions to create a healthy, green economy with strong local networks of entrepreneurs. Once such a Council is created, it will be up to him to discern whether it indeed offers greater wisdom. I encourage you to share this idea to create a National Alternative Economic Council. If we share it widely enough, it will likely reach President Obama himself, which could bring about a change we can all believe in. Hazel Henderson's website: www.hazelhenderson.com Ellen Brown's website: www.webofdebt.com More on Economy
 
Dr. Michael J. Breus: Secrets from Sound Sleepers Top
Just because I'm a sleep doc doesn't mean I only encounter insomniacs and narcoleptics. Much to the contrary, I meet sound sleepers all the time and love engaging them in conversation. Have they always been good sleepers? What's their "secret"? Well, sorry, but there isn't just one secret. But a pattern emerges when you begin to collect such words of wisdom: I set clear boundaries, like never working past 7 pm and I don't bring work to bed with me. I read to my kids and it helps me wind down. I don't have a television or computer in my room. I drink a warm cup of tea about an hour before bedtime. I practice some deep breathing once I tuck myself in. I have the coziest bed in the world!] I don't see midnight anymore. I'm pretty good about bedtimes.  I avoid coffee in the afternoons and switch to tea if I need a boost. If we eat late, I make my husband do the dishes and clean the kitchen so I can relax. Sex. We do it just before bed and I drift off quite easily. As long as I exercise, I sleep great. And my personal favorites: I love sleep! I don't fear it like some people. It's my micro-vacation every day.  What do you mean? I work so hard all day long that there's nothing left in me BUT sleep by the time I crawl into bed! Do you see the pattern? They all practice good sleep hygiene (maybe not the person in the last comment, thought there's something to be said for physically tiring yourself out during the day and having no problem transitioning at bedtime). Every one of these secrets is based on preparing for bed throughout the day, and having a positive mindset toward sleep . The person with the coziest bed probably invested in a great mattress and doesn't take her bedroom's setting for granted. Okay, so you want just one thing to do differently this week and see if it has an impact on your sleep? How about this: Avoid the Internet within 30 minutes of bedtime. It should come as no surprise that staring at a computer screen and enthusiastically typing or surfing not only can steal precious time you should be banking in deep sleep, but the actual light emanating from the screen can also disrupt your body's ability to prepare for sleep and literally wind down. Your taxes should already be done. Finito. So you don't need to be scrambling for last-minute tips. Quit hopping online just to check one more thing, news brief, e-mail, or blog (ahem, okay, except maybe this one). See how many of the above statements you can make in the coming weeks. It's more about choosing restful sleep than expecting it. Got some secrets of your own? Send them to me. Sweet Dreams, Michael J. Breus, PhD, FAASM The Sleep Doctor This article of sleep tips is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog . More on Health
 
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: President Obama Repeats Bush Folly on UN Racism Conference Top
President Obama got it right and terribly wrong on the UN Racism Conference in Geneva. He rightly demanded that the conference convenors drop the stock Zionism is racism plank from the draft resolution of the conference. The Israel knock was the same sticking point that former President Bush used to dodge going to the anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa in 2001. The convenors complied and sanitized the objectionable language from the resolution. That should have been enough to get a U.S. delegation on a plane to Geneva. For a brief moment it looked like it would be enough. An Obama spokesperson went so far as too publicly praise the move and say that the administration was deeply grateful for the change. The Obama administration wasn't grateful enough though to attend. This is where President Obama gets it terribly wrong. The 20 nations that initially put the anti-Israel language in the resolution as well as certain other rhetorical points that the U.S. can't stomach can't be challenged in absentia. There is still too much bitter racial and ethnic hate and turmoil in too many places in the world that have nothing to do with Israel and Middle East problems that scream for attention. Attention that President Obama can't duck. The United States has the money, muscle, and political clout to take the lead in the continuing fight against racism, repression, genocide, state sponsored ethnic war and cleansing in every part of the globe. That's all state or group sponsored racial and human rights abuses and that includes abuses by some of the nations that ritually target Israel for its human rights abuses. Obama seems to welcome that chance to confront those nations on their abuses saying repeatedly that he will engage them whenever and wherever he can. He's shown signs of keeping that promise on Cuba and Iran. But they are relatively soft targets since there is broad international consensus that the US must dump its archaic, outdated, and failed policy on Cuba, a policy that's out of step with all of Latin America. In the case of Iran, US outreach is a matter of international security since Iran is a looming regional and international nuclear threat. Diplomatic détente with Cuba and Iran, though, doesn't do much to spotlight caste oppression in India, the plight of the Kurds in Turkey and other Mid East countries, skinhead violence in Germany and Britain, the continuing theft of Indian lands in Brazil, Mexico, and Guatemala, and the genocidal ethnic attacks in Darfur and the Congo. Nor does it prod Canada and Australia to do even more to right the historic wrongs against Indians and Aborigines. The US must also call on the carpet those corrupt African and Asian dictatorial regimes that elevate violence and terror to state policy against dissidents, many of whom are invariably of different ethnic groups. In 2001, a clearly conflicted Secretary of State Colin Powell understood this. He thought the decision to bail out of the Durban conference was a grave mistake, and that the U.S. should and could do more good by being there to prove that it did take the fight against global racism seriously. Powell understood that the racism conference was supposed to draw up a battle plan to combat racism wherever it reared its ugly head in the world. In the provisional agenda the UN Racism conference drew up in 1997 it called for nations to identify victims of discrimination, develop prevention, education, and protection measures, and provide long term strategies to bolster national and international efforts to combat discrimination. The obsessive focus on Israel just kept getting in the way of making any real headway on that agenda. The disputed resolution equating Zionism with racism passed in 1975 by a deeply divided U.N. was vague and ill-defined and had no force of law. It did nothing to alleviate Palestinian suffering. Instead, it made Israel dig its heels in deeper and refuse more concessions on Palestinian rights. The U.N., with the consent of Arab nations and the Palestinians, wised up to the blunder and overwhelmingly voted to dump the resolution in 1991. However, it still keeps cropping up as a barrier to getting the US to the conference table. The big danger in a one track focus on Israel is that the conference will again give short shrift to the ethnic warfare that still rages in these countries. The Congressional Black Caucus has been one of the Obama administration's loudest cheerleaders. Yet it flatly called the Obama administration's decision to skip Geneva disappointing. It's more than disappointing. It's yet another opportunity the US blew to struggle against global racism. Bush didn't do that, and that was no real surprise. But Obama is not Bush and for him to blow the opportunity to engage against global racism at Geneva repeats Bush's folly. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com More on Israel
 
Man Bites PYTHON! Top
A Kenyan man bit a python who wrapped him in its coils and hauled him up a tree in a struggle that lasted hours, local media said today. Farm manager Ben Nyaumbe was working at the weekend when the serpent, apparently hunting for livestock, struck in the Malindi area of Kenya's Indian Ocean coast. "I stepped on a spongy thing on the ground and suddenly my leg was entangled with the body of a huge python," he told the Daily Nation newspaper. When the snake coiled itself round his upper body, Nyaumbe resorted to desperate measures: "I had to bite it." The python dragged him up a tree, but when it eased its grip, Nyaumbe said he was able to take a mobile phone out of his pocket and phone for help.
 
Tom Joyner Returning To Chicago Radio Top
Nearly a month after Clear Channel dropped Tom Joyner's syndicated morning from the Chicago airwaves, the Dallas-based radio host has struck a deal to return to the city where he got his start. Crawford Broadcasting's Soul 106.3 will begin running the "Tom Joyner Morning Show" Wednesday. Joyner's show has been without a Chicago broadcast outlet since Clear Channel's WGCI 107.5 dropped it on March 23 in favor of Steve Harvey's syndicated show. "Chicago - and our friends and family from all over the country - you have spoken," Joyner wrote on his blog on blackamericaweb.com . "You have written. You have tweeted -- and once again your activism has made a difference in a big way! We are going back on the air, and if I could hug each and everyone of you individually, I would." The full release from Black PR Wire: ( BLACK PR WIRE) Dallas, TX - April 20, 2009 - Tom Joyner's, weekday morning radio show, themed, "The Party with the Purpose," will once again be heard in Chicago on SOUL 106.3FM, WSRB/WYRB. REACH Media, parent company of the Tom Joyner Morning Show, has reached an agreement with Crawford Broadcasting that allows a more customized morning program that will be specific to his "radio hometown." The Tom Joyner Morning Show will begin airing on SOUL 106.3FM Wednesday, April 22nd, 5am - 9am weekdays and the weekend program, Right Back At Cha," will be heard on Saturdays from 9am -11am. Joyner is elated with his new Chicago radio station home stating, "Thank you Chicago , and all our friends and family from all over the country. You have spoken, you have written, you have tweeted--and your activism has made a difference in a big way! We are going back on the air and if I could hug and thank each and every one of you individually, I would. Our new home in Chicago is SOUL 106.3FM." While the outcry from Chicago listeners about his sudden absence from his previous home station of 13 years has flooded emails, websites, texts and phone messages, Joyner always maintained that he would be back home in "the mothership market" before long. Chicago was the first radio market that signed on to the Tom Joyner Morning Show when the program and its message started, eventually growing to 115 markets it serves today, reaching approximately one in four African-Americans. The Chicago listener following continues to be strong, highlighted by the Arbitron PPM ratings*, released just days after his show was taken off the air March 24th, that showed Joyner ranked #4 mornings in the key demographic of 25-54 year-olds with a 4.6 share for the entire market, and as the top Urban morning show. In stressing the importance of the message to his listeners," he stated, "Thousands upon thousands of you let the media know that you wanted us back. And it touched my heart to know you cared as much as you did. I felt the love and the sentiment everywhere I went over the last few weeks. But more importantly, what you did reinforced how much power we have and what we can to do when we mobilize behind a cause we care about--the voice of Black Radio!" Taft Harris, General Manager of Crawford Broadcasting, shared Tom's enthusiasm, "Tom is a cornerstone and a true light for the people in Chicago , which is very much in line with our goals and commitment from WSRB/WYRB. We're confident that Tom will continue to empower, inform and entertain in a way that celebrates Black radio." Tom's return will also reignite his active involvement with Chicago that in the past has included annual participation in the Taste of Chicago in June, Bud Billiken Parade in August and his "Take a Loved One to the Doctor Day," health awareness initiative originally planned for April 7th, but was postponed for the market due to the station change. Also, numerous students have been beneficiaries of The Tom Joyner Foundation, with the mission to keep students in school. In addition, Joyner was most recently credited with initiating voter registration drive drawing response of over 200,000 people with his efforts related to the NAACP Voter Fund/Tom Joyner Morning Show Voter Empowerment Hotline, with the region itself logging tens of thousands of calls. For listeners wanting to know what they can do to ensure the Tom Joyner Morning Show stays in Chicago, Joyner sends this message, "The best way for you and all of us to claim a victory is for you and everyone you know to make sure all of your radios are tuned in to SOUL 106.3FM weekday morning from 5am-9am. When you do this, we all are helping black radio thrive. Let's show the world, we're not only here but we are strong, we are empowered and we are able to make things happen." About the Tom Joyner Morning Show The nation's # 1 syndicated urban morning show, which airs in over 115 markets reaching nearly 8 million listeners, has distinguished itself over the years as continuously giving back to its audience with quality programming, highly popular promotions, special events and philanthropy. Since 2004, Joyner has awarded millions to nearly 2,000 contest winners and his Foundation has raised more than $55 million to help keep students in historically black colleges and universities. The Morning Show with co-hosts Sybil Wilkes and J. Anthony Brown also features news analysis with Roland Martin and special issues reporting from Jacque Reid ; political commentary Stephanie Robinson and Jeff Johnson; and celebrity news with Jawn Murray, as well as comedic observations and lifestyle tips from Sheryl Underwood , D.L. Hughley, and the Celebrity Snitch Huggy Lowdown. Joyner's website, BlackAmericaWeb.com, has more than 1.5 million registered users and delivers news with special reports by award winning journalists and exclusive political coverage as well as interactive elements with on demand audio. More on Video
 
Alana Peterson: Al Franken Picks His First Senate Staffer Top
Democrat Al Franken may not yet be a senator, but that did not stop him from naming his first Senate staffer Monday--a Minnesota state director "to ensure that we hit the ground running on Day One" when he officially takes office, Franken said. More on Al Franken
 
Terry Curtis Fox: Impeach Bybee Top
When reading the torture memos , keep in mind that Jay Bybee sits, right now, on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This means that the man who deliberately and unashamedly created the legal cover for American torture deals with significant Constitutional issues on a daily basis. The 9th Circuit hears far more cases than the Supreme Court and its decisions govern all federal law (and all law in which federal law prevails) in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. Simply put, if you live in any of those states and are placed in a box where you couldn't stand, forced to stand in a positions where your muscles failed, or waterboarded, Jay Bybee could well rule this conduct was legal. For as long as he remains on the bench, a man whose legal connivance authorized torture is in a position to do so again. There is only one way to stop this: Congress needs to immediately begin an impeachment proceeding against Bybee for his criminal behavior. If torture is not a high crime and misbehavior, nothing is. It is immaterial whether or not the Obama Administration (whose statement against prosecution only applies to the immediate torturers themselves) has the gumption to go after criminal prosecutions. When Congress has clear and convincing evidence that a federal appellate judge violated the law, it has its own independent obligation to investigate and determine whether an individual must be removed from office. Bybee's signed memo is pretty convincing evidence against him. It makes the crimes of Watergate (whose perpetrators were prosecuted and did end behind bars) pale in comparison. Bybee needs to be impeached. Now. More on Crime
 
Susan Boyle Rejects Makeover, Botox: "I'm Happy The Way I Am" Top
Boyle is aware that some of the cynicism that greeted her arrival on stage at the Britain's Got Talent audition stemmed from her frumpy appearance. She wore a gold lace dress that she'd bought for her nephew's wedding but left her unruly hair uncombed and her face free of make-up. "I know what they were thinking but why should it matter as long as I can sing? It's not a beauty contest," she says. At the superficial end of the entertainment industry, however, appearance is paramount. Is she afraid she might come under pressure to have a makeover? "Maybe I'll consider a makeover later on," she laughs. "For now I'm happy the way I am -- short and plump. I would not go in for Botox or anything like that. I'm content with the way I look. What's wrong with looking like Susan Boyle? What's the matter with that?"
 
Armando Iannucci: Making In the Loop and The Exclusive Poster Debut Top
In The Loop is my comedy film set in the bowels of the British and American governments, due to be shown in next week's Tribeca Festival before going on general release in the US in July. The film was inspired by how over-excited Tony Blair got whenever he set foot in the Oval Office. In fact, it's based on practically every British politician who comes to America and meets famous folk like Vice Presidents and Five-Star Generals and who can't help but get star-struck, turning into nervously giggling 12-year olds at a Justin Timberlake concert who've just found themselves standing next to one of his roadies. In the Loop is about a lead-up to a war, with a non-specified country in the Middle East, driven by a partnership between a non-specified President and UK Prime Minister. We never see them. Instead we see the little people who work hidden away in all the fringe departments, especially the State Department: believe me, during the preparations for the invasion of Iraq, the State Dept was a very fringe department. I managed to break into it when I was out in DC researching the movie. I had a terrible, amateur BBC identity pass, with basically my face printed off Google and my name under it. A child could have produced it in twenty seconds. Receiving a tip-off from a journalist I wandered up to the front reception of the Sate Dept and said 'BBC. I'm here for the 12.30.' They showed me in. I spend an hour wandering round the building with my camera taking photos for our designer. Part of me thought it was fun; another part thought it was probably international espionage. But that's how I found Washington: outwardly imposing, inwardly, a bit of a let-down. That's where the comedy comes in In The Loop. I wanted to show how massive international catastrophes can be the product of tiny little games of office politics, when those offices are at the heart of power. Everywhere, people are prevaricating, trying not to get noticed, worrying they've done something wrong, and hoping not to be found out. It happens in the highest offices in the world. An Ex-State Dept staffer told me that one former Secretary of State ( I can't say which one, but here's a clue: he bombed Cambodia) spent his first two years wondering whether he was doing a good job and asking people 'D'you think the President likes me? He never says anything.' Maybe in the end he bombed Cambodia just to impress his boss. Anyone who's studied what happened six years ago, with all it's power-plays and factionalism, will recognize elements of that time bleeding through into our fiction. In The Loop is really a comedy about a war that starts because the office politics got in the way in the conventional international variety.
 
Jim Luce: Global China Connection: From Columbia to Stanford and McGill Top
The previous century was the American Century. The next 100 years belong to the Chinese. Amid this rapidly changing order, hundreds of Chinese students and Chinese studies majors at top universities in North America have recently formed a network dedicated to forging new economic, cultural, and political links between East and West. From Harvard and Yale across to Chicago and Michigan, down to Emory and Rice, and out to UC-Berkeley -- with Toronto and McGill hovering above -- this emerging community called Global China Connection (GCC) previews the Who's-Who of world leadership in the next few decades. Founded this past September by two Columbia University undergraduates, Gavin Newton-Tanzer and Derrick Fu, GCC has a simple motto: Build friendships, Spread awareness, Honor culture, Become a leader, Change the world forever. Derrick Fu, president of Columbia's freshman class and Gavin Newton-Tanzer, Global China Connection founders. The Huffington Post recently spoke with Gavin, the organization's president, about his vision at a cafe off Columbia University's campus on Manhattan's Upper West Side. At 20, Gavin is the youngest thought leader I have ever interviewed. While born in the United States, Gavin has spent much time studying abroad in both France and China. Fluent in English, French, Spanish, and Chinese, son of a Tyco International V.P., he represents the creme de la creme of American youth. America needs to know who he is - and why he has built this Sino-global network. "While living in Beijing last year, it became clear to me that many outsiders -- even top American businessmen -- have difficulties penetrating the Chinese language and culture," said Gavin, an international relations major. Yunan Jin (GCC Harvard), Gavin Newton-Tanzer (GCC Founder), and Yu Xiao (GCC China). "There are misunderstandings on both ends. Relations end up turning sour between guests and hosts. That is why I wanted to create an organization run by both Chinese and Westerners to avoid these problems, and ensure the best experience to anyone interested in spending time in China to study, intern, teach, or volunteer," says Gavin. The idea for GCC took root as Gavin spent an eventful year in Beijing. After a tumultuous experience with what was supposed to be the top study abroad company in China, he left his proscribed program and began learning Mandarin Chinese on his own to better understand the region and people. So disillusioned by the study-abroad situation in China, Gavin, who graduated from high school in Connecticut, also decided to create a network that could provide safety and high-quality services to foreign students. After consulting with local companies in Beijing, he conceived the idea of Global China Connection. Gavin Newton-Tanzer making Jiaozi in Shandong on Spring Festival (ChunJie). As he entered his first year at Columbia soon after returning to the U.S. in August 2008, Gavin continued a friendship with Derrick Fu, now the student body president of Columbia's freshman class, that had formed during their final weeks in Beijing. Together, they soon established GCC's first chapter. As this flagship branch grew, Gavin and Derrick met a number of individuals that would transform not just the nature of the organization itself, but the original dream. Classmates Keith Miao, Timothy Liu, and Alice Zhang all became involved and were all fundamental in getting GCC off the ground and engineering its subsequent growth. Derrick, who was raised in New Jersey, is chiefly responsible for the surge in growth GCC's network has experienced during the past several months. "I'm just doing my part and expanding the vision," said Derrick, the company's director of Network Management. "The network is what makes GCC so unique. There are other organizations with similar missions and goals, but no one before had really taken the idea and brought it to the limelight of the global stage. We're looking to be the connection to China, not only within North America or even the West, but throughout the world," Derrick says. He is looking to expand the network outwards into both Europe and Australia this summer. Gavin Newton-Tanzer helps prepare a meal in Shandong Country Village. Gavin and his young associates are ambitious. They hope GCC can provide study abroad programs to a growing audience of Americans interested in China, collaborate with companies capitalizing on China's economic boom, as well as social organizations focused on alleviating poverty in Asia. As director of Program Management, Keith Miao, who grew up in Beijing but now lives in Vancouver, is spearheading GCC's social and educational work in China. "GCC is certainly a business," the aspiring anthropology major explains, "but the reason I joined with Gavin is to help give back." "There are young people like me in China who haven't enjoyed the opportunities that have brought me to where I am now. I am confident that we will be able to deliver on the charitable goals we've established for ourselves," Keith says. Timothy Liu, GCC's Business Development director, is leading the organization's constant quest for new partnerships with similar organizations, sponsorships with socially minded corporations, and media coverage for GCC. "Recruiting, bonding with, and leading such a talented team of like-minded college students has been a tremendous experience," said Timothy, an avid debate team participant from the suburbs of Detroit. "Together, we're going to grow GCC into the largest student-run international-China organization - and we're going to do it now." The driving force behind Gavin's group is belief in the power of networking. "The collective energy that can be harnessed by multiple groups of people can be so powerful," said Gavin. "I created GCC as a means to develop a network to allow all those that share the similar interest of global-China relations to meet each other and work together. These friendships are meaningful, long-lasting, and life changing." GCC has already become the world's largest student-run network involved with strengthening global links to China. On April 25, GCC will stage a conference entitled "A Glimpse of China's Future" at Columbia University, a symposium that will bring together hundreds of students from the U.S. and China as well as leaders in politics, business, the media, and academia. Nobel Prize-winning economist and Columbia professor Joseph Stiglitz will keynote the event. Later this summer, GCC will host a forum in Beijing. "GCC fundamentally is a means to bring together the future leaders of tomorrow," said Gavin, "to give those students that recognize that we live in a global world as many opportunities as possible to develop their own abilities, experiences, and friendships." Global China Connection is the world's largest U.S.-China student organization, devoted to building connections, bridges, and friendships between China and the international community. Through our international network of chapters at top universities across North America and China, we strive to establish relationships and partnerships that will define the 21 century. Edited by Laura Tyson Li. I, Jim Luce, contribute the above article to the public domain. More on China
 
Michael Giltz: Theater: "Joe Turner's Come..." To Broadway And Will Stay For A While Top
Director Bartlett Sher's revival of August Wilson's magnificent play Joe Turner's Come and Gone has just opened on Broadway courtesy of Lincoln Center to rave reviews that just might turn the late Wilson's favorite play into a hit during a season hit by an economic downturn and crowded with acclaimed new shows. Ben Brantley of The New York Times said it "feels positive airborne. Much of Bartlett Sher's splendid production, which opened Thursday night at the Belasco Theater, moves with the engaging ease of lively, casual conversation." Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News called it an "eloquent revival" and said, "Director Bartlett Sher seamlessly integrates realistic elements and the metaphoric, including the evocative set - fanciful floating windows with a so-real-you'd-pick-it vegetable garden. Sher has staged scenes that are dizzyingly powerful or beautiful (or both) - an ecstatic dance, a furious fit and a shimmering conclusion." Variety's David Rooney concurs, saying, "August Wilson's gift for storytelling has rarely been more beguiling than in this lyrical 1986 drama, and in his searing revival, director Bartlett Sher makes every note strong and true." The New York Post and USA Today agreed. Even the more reserved John Simon of Bloomberg added that "Bartlett Sher"s staging adds some unscripted but welcome touches, often visually stunning." It just received Outer Critics Circle nominations for Outstanding Revival of a Play and Outstanding Director of a Play. But two days before opening, Sher is sitting in his office at Lincoln Center -- where he is the director in residence -- looking rather tired. This might have as much to do with the birth weeks ago of his second child, another daughter, but Sher insists he isn't worn out and eagerly pulls out sketches of costumes for his staging of Tales Of Hoffman at the Met ("It's a cross between Fellini and Chaplin and Kafka," says Sher enthusiasticallly) while praising his wife who gave birth only to see Sher unavoidably plunge into rehearsals for Joe Turner. Little remarked in Sher's triumph with Wilson's play (the fourth Wilson work to open in New York City since his death -- Radio Golf opened and closed on Broadway quickly while three marvelous revivals at Signature Theater Company played to packed houses and extended again and again) is the fact that Sher is white and August Wilson famously pushed for black directors only to helm his work and spoke fervently about the need to support black theater companies. Sher is scrupulously politic in talking about this, beginning with "back when August Wilson was working..." and offering a long, detailed response that in many ways he would agree with Wilson's position back in the day (which makes it sound like Wilson was writing in the 1950s rather than producing work right up to his death in 2005) but that times had changed and so on. I offer a simpler explanation: Aren't the plays just too good? Wouldn't any director bridle at NOT being allowed to tackle one of America's greatest playwrights? "Exactly," he says. Calling Wilson just one of America's greatest playwrights might be faint praise. He's certainly the equal of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill. But while they all have three or four towering works to their credit, do any of them have six or seven equal to Wilson's best: Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Fences, The Piano Lesson, Two Trains Running, Seven Guitars, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Jitney and King Hedley II? (Only Gem of The Ocean and Radio Golf are less than great and Golf was solid and Gem will probably raise in stature with a strong revival the way King Hedley II has.) And calling Sher one of America's greatest directors is starting to seem merely obvious. has any director ever debuted on Broadway with four critically acclaimed shows in a row, each one in a hit in its own right? Sher began with The Light in the Piazza in 2005, a delicate, beautiful work by Craig Lucas and Adam Guettel that won five Tony Awards and ran for more than a year. That was followed by Awake and Sing in 2006, a revival of the seemingly musty Clifford Odets play that sprang to vibrant life with an all-star cast. It was wildly popular during a limited run and won the Tony for Best Revival of a play. That was followed by 2008's South Pacific, which won every award in sight (including Best Director for Sher) and has been a blockbuster hit from the first preview till today. And now Joe Turner's Come and Gone. And that string of success doesn't even include his acclaimed operas, his Cymbeline (the first American production of Shakespeare to be staged at the RSC in London) and his ongoing relationship with Seattle's Intiman Theatre. Getting Sher to discuss this success isn't easy. Asking him what it was like to have such an overwhelming hit show with South Pacific brings out a string of generalized responses. Talk about his work on Joe Turner and Sher would rather talk about others: how he was unfamiliar with the work of Roger Robinson -- who holds the stage so magnificently as Bynum Walker that a Tony nomination if not a win seems almost a foregone conclusion -- and how if he could combine the cast of Joe Turner and Awake and Sing (which included Zoe Wanamaker, Mark Ruffalo, Lauren Ambrose, Pablo Schreiber and Ben Gazzara) he'd have the finest repertory company in the world. Even turning 50 recently hasn't fazed him, even though he admits "the significance of that number is hard to ignore." The only time the affable Sher is caught short comes when I mention that I was going to see Craig Lucas's The Singing Forest in a few days. He drops his head into his hands for a moment, abashed. "Craig Lucas is one of my best friends," says Sher, who helmed the world premiere of the show in Seattle and in fact staged it twice. "I think maybe I did everything I could with it and it needed a pair of fresh eyes." But the truth is that his obligations -- and opportunities -- are mushrooming -- and Sher simply couldn't fit in The Singing Forest and it's obviously a painful topic. "I'm sure it will be a huge success," he says, but not being a part of it is clearly difficult for him -- most importantly, it seems, on a personal level. That is indeed Sher's biggest problem at the moment: everyone wants to work with him. he made his name at Seattle's Intiman Theatre, where he is the artistic director. Sher would clearly love to maintain that relationship, but is it fair to them when so many other places like Broadway are offering ripe opportunities? He wants to stay with them without shortchanging them and the result in recent times has been a year to year renewal of his commitment to them. "I'm sure we'll work something out," Sher says about the latest negotiations to do what is best for a company he loves. Then of course there's Bruce Lee: Journey To The West, a new musical by the two Davids (Yazbeck and Henry Hwang) he's working on that uses the Chinese myth of the Monkey King to mirror Bruce Lee's rise in the West from a joke to a pop culture phenomenon to a force to be reckoned with. Sher is off and running when he can discuss an upcoming project or the books that influenced his research into Joe Turner's Come and Gone. Politics -- even less a personal topic -- energizes him even further. "I think Paul Krugman is purposefully leaning towards the far left so that Obama can seem more centrist," says Sher. And Obama even influenced in a way Sher's decision to tackle this particular August Wilson play at this point in history. "Every show I do has to speak to the times," says Sher. The finale is bloody and wrenching but somehow hopeful, with the characters stepping out of the darkness of slavery (it's set in 1911) into an unknown future filled with danger but at least the possibility of something better. After eight years of Bush, that's where Sher sees America: shaking off a terrible period and facing East.
 
Robert Gellately: Is Another Hitler Possible? Top
Adolf Hitler was born 120 years ago on April 20, 1889. Is another Hitler possible? I was recently asked that question in connection with research into the social catastrophe that swept Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. I started to think about Hitler's improbable rise from complete obscurity. A late bloomer, he gave no hint of political ambitions until he was into his thirties. The context was a country shaken to its foundations by the First World War, revolution, and a dictated peace. By 1923 Germany had experienced years of social upheaval capped by a massive inflation that wiped out the savings of solid citizens. To Hitler and his small following, the moment seemed right to take power, but their coup late that year was easily suppressed. The Weimar Republic then found a precarious normality. When Hitler was released from prison, he saw that the only hope of getting into power was via the ballot box. Yet despite tireless efforts, the Nazis mustered less than three percent of the vote in 1928, the last elections before the Great Depression hit. They were energetic, demonstrative and violent, but politically inconsequential and would have stayed that way had the stock market not crashed. In Germany a succession of weak governments mishandled the recovery and made things worse. In the 1930 elections the Nazis shocked everyone when they became the second strongest party in the Reichstag. Two years later no less than 230 Nazi deputies won seats and almost 38 percent of the vote. Hitler was now Germany's dominant political personality, growing still stronger as the economy unraveled and banks failed. Unemployment soared to almost 40 percent on the eve of his appointment as Chancellor in January 1933. Electoral support for Communism also grew, and for good citizens that "Red threat" was almost as alarming as the jobless figures. Voters bet on Hitler to get their country out of the depression. The political elite thought he would be manageable and become more moderate, but soon Hitler carried out a "legal revolution," and roared out of control. If there had been no major crisis, Hitler would have remained an eccentric and politically marginal misfit. No depression, no Führer. Is another such figure possible? We should not delude ourselves into thinking that the Nazi phenomenon could only have happened in Germany, and that, as we are not Germans, it could not befall us. The most significant factor underlying the spread of Hitler's brand of extremism was political gridlock, along with persistent and seemingly insoluble economic problems. In our own day, it could be that our economy, rather than bottoming out, is still, as in 1929, at the beginning of a greater downturn to come. Today people in government and business are struggling to understand how best to cope. Globalization and the evaporation of our manufacturing base make it arguably even more difficult to find solutions. If unemployment, real shortages, and desperation were to grow, then extremist movements almost certainly would form. This scenario is not far-fetched. Moreover, other crises from abroad could intrude. Our neighbor to the south (Mexico) is being pressured by the drug cartels, and that country's collapse into anarchy could have disastrous consequences for the United States. Social anxiety has broken into lawlessness in Europe and even in China. To the combustible mix we must add the real possibility of the failure of a nuclear state (Pakistan) under attack by the Taliban. I'll leave rogue states like Iran and North Korea out of this picture lest it be thought I am unduly negative. But we cannot overlook the threat posed by international terrorism. Even as we try to cure what's wrong with our economy by pouring more of the present and future generations' wealth into overcoming it, we make ourselves vulnerable to the fallout from a terrorist attack such as took place on 9/11. The stimulus packages that are already straining our resources would then be found utterly inadequate. It is true that much has changed since the 1930s, so that the responses would necessarily be different but also unpredictable. Nonetheless, one could plausibly argue that new political figures would emerge. Authoritarian regimes or highly invasive systems that might arise in our future need not take the form of strongmen like Lenin, Stalin and Hitler. Instead we might face "softer" versions, such as in the form of creeping "statism" or a bureaucracy that encroaches ever more into our lives in the name of fixing capitalism, redistributing the wealth, and ironing out social conflict. It is important to read about how nations in the past dealt with severe social crises and reflect on what paths, in our present circumstances, we should take and avoid. Our duty as citizens today is to become more active and watchful. Our freedoms are precious and we must protect them as the heritage our forefathers passed on to us. Robert Gellately's most recent book is Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe , published by Alfred A. Knopf and Vintage Books. He teaches history at Florida State University.
 
Arthur Rosenfeld: The Peaceful Sword Top
I am such a passionate advocate of the benefits and beauty of tai chi practice, and so insistent on the ancient art's relevance to modern American culture, that people are often surprised to find that I emphasize the role of traditional weapons in the practice. "You're a peaceful guy who likes to work in his garden and feed his tortoises," I hear. "You're not about cutting people up. Besides, swords are fun to watch in the movies, but if you want self-defense you'd better buy a gun." I do indeed live a peaceful life, and I have no delusions either about bringing a knife to a gunfight (although knives can be as effective as guns at close range) or about the practicality of swords and spears and halberds in a world of Predator drones, tactical nukes, laser-guided missiles and the ubiquitous 9mm autopistol. All the same I see great value in working with edged weapons. It's about personal growth. Tai chi trains you the magnificent skill of keeping your physical, emotional and intellectual cool no matter what life throws your way, and the sword is one tool the art uses to do it. In truth there is an assemblage of weapons in tai chi, a veritable armory that includes a straight sword, a curved sword, a 7-foot long stick with a sword at one end, a spear, a 10-foot pole, and more. At one time they were part of a combat system designed to keep you alive on the dusty, bandit-ridden road. Nowadays they are instruments to measure your equilibrium. They test your ability to handle things that challenge your peace, your self-control and your happiness. Rather than being exotic irrelevancies, in the context of tai chi training these old weapons taunt your equilibrium by substituting for the guy who cuts you off in traffic, the boss who keeps trying to peek down your blouse, the teenager who won't come out of his room, the boyfriend who can't be torn away from the ball game, the mother-in-law who looks for nothing but ugliness, the schoolteacher who thinks your kid is the anti-Christ, or the co-worker who is willing to sacrifice his own career just to see you go down in flames. That's right, working with a sword helps you handle situations in real life. It does that by forcing your attention inward, by demanding your watch your own moves, each and every one of them, lest you slice off an ear or your nose or your kneecap. Okay, most teachers use wooden facsmiles in the beginning, but you do understand how three feet of sharp steel, or its blunt doppelganger, could really keep your mind from wandering whether it's because you can't stop thinking about how cool it is to have a sword in your hand or because you're worried you'll rend your own flesh. In short, the sword makes you mindful. Mindfulness is a term much bandied about these days but perhaps not so well understood. Consider it that certain je ne sais quois that turns sex into lovemaking, that makes an event one you'll always remember. Mindfulness can be marked by a specific sense of quiet presence or a response to a certain piece of music or art that allows you to transcend who you are and get in touch with something deeper and bigger. Tai chi demands mindfulness. If you wave your sword around and think about what's for dinner, you're not doing tai chi. In fact, by definition, tai chi departs the moment your attention does, and returns only when you rein that wily, flighty thing back in. Weapons have traditionally been used as magnifiers of force. Earliest man picked up a rock or a stick and used it to strengthen himself, to increase his deadliness, and to put himself on more equal footing with a lion, hyena or snake. Throughout the course of history, weapons have provided leverage against inequitable situations, including, of course, combat inside the species. These days, working with a tai chi sword has more to do with helping you understand yourself than it has to do with whacking the caveman who stole your barbecued mammoth ribs. We don't carry blades at our sides and wield them against opponents, but we do fight wars every day, verbal skirmishes, financial campaigns, emotional confrontations, and energetic battles. Symbolically, the sharp edge of the sword signifies severing yourself from attachments that drag you down. It represents a tool to free you from your prejudices, your misunderstandings, insecurities and phobias. I teach a lot of guys who love the idea of hacking things up. Entranced by the power a sharp sword in hand imbues, they lose their balance completely. Rather than having the sword become them, a conscious, intelligent carbon-based life form, they want to become the sword. When the human being drops to the level of an inert, silent, dumb piece of steel, it doesn't look to good, which might be why some of my best sword students are women. I'm not saying men can't learn to wield a sword well, they can and they do, but while many of my female students seem to have an easier time accepting the sword as teacher, as glowing arrow pointing in the direction of those weak places that need focus. Whatever your gender or age, tai chi can help you find the peace and balance you want in your life. Swords or no swords, the benefits of the practice are many and the beauty, history, philosophy and culture behind it sublime. Perhaps it's time to celebrate spring by getting out to a local park or YMCA or recreation center and finding a tai chi class. Watch those gorgeous peaceful swords sing in the sunlight and see if you don't feel healthy and inspired! There is more about swords and tai chi in my books. Please find them all here and my latest novel here . You can discover more about me at http://www.arthurrosenfeld.com . Contact me at aero@aya.yale.edu
 
Supreme Court Audio Will Be Released Immediately, Same-Day For Voting Rights Case Top
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will release audio tapes soon after the April 29 argument over a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act. The C-SPAN cable network said Monday the court granted a request for the quick release of audio. The court had previously refused to make same-day audio available in seven cases this term, C-SPAN said. C-SPAN said it expects to air the audio recording soon after the argument concludes, shortly after 11 a.m. EDT. The immediate, same-day release of audio tapes following arguments in major cases started in the 2000 presidential election, when the justices decided appeals of the Florida recount controversy in favor of George W. Bush. The court records arguments and ordinarily releases them at the end of each term. With television cameras barred from the court and reporters prohibited from using tape recorders in the courtroom, the availability of audio provides the public with a chance to hear the justices at work. The case is Northwest Austin Municipal Utility District v. Holder, 08-322. ___ On the Net: Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ More on Supreme Court
 
Taliban Not Likely To Host Terrorist Groups: Analysis Top
George W. Bush led the United States into war in Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein might give his country's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. Now, Bush's successor is perpetuating the war in Afghanistan with comparably dubious arguments about the danger posed by the Taliban and al Qaeda. More on Afghanistan
 
Palin v. Sebelius? "Team Sarah" Organizes Against Obama Pick Top
An online community of female supporters of Gov. Sarah Palin is launching a last minute campaign to derail the candidacy of Kathleen Sebelius for the secretary post at the Department of Health and Human Services. Team Sarah, which was founded to support and mobilize for the McCain-Palin ticket and claims tens-of-thousands of members, blasted out a petition on Monday morning urging members to "flood the phone lines" in opposition to Sebelius' candidacy. Hi Team! Today's the day! Our Not on Our Watch! Phone Bank Blast is set for TODAY from 2pm - 4pm ET. Write a note & stick it on your forehead, set your cell phone alarm - do what you have to do to remember to make your calls TODAY! Our goal is to flood the phone lines of the Senate Finance Committee and make our message heard loud and clear - NO SEBELIUS! Not on Our Watch! For the complete project information, including the phone numbers of the members of the Senate Finance Committee, visit: http://www.teamsarah.org/profiles/blogs/team-sarah-announces-the-not or "gather around the Water Cooler. Also, if you haven't sent out your postcards or letters yet, it's not too late! Send them out as soon as you can so that they reach the Senate Finance Committee this week. Sebelius's nomination is set to come to a vote before the Senate Finance Committee this Tuesday, April 21. The nomination is expected to pass through the committee and ultimately the Senate, though on Friday the terrain got a bit rougher, when ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley criticized the Kansas Governor for understating the amount of money she raised from doctor who performs abortions -- likely the same revelation offending the Team Sarah members. Progressive groups have been pushing for an expeditious confirmation of Sebelius for weeks, arguing that the administration is being disadvantaged by lacking a cabinet figure to tackle a subject of such key political and economy importance (health care). Here, for instance, is the SEIU's petition : Earlier this month, a Republican Senator put a mysterious hold on the confirmation of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as Health and Human Services Secretary. It's hard to believe that while the clock ticks on fixing health care, the top leadership position in the government's health agency is left vacant. This is simply unacceptable. Become a fan of HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter . More on Sarah Palin
 
McCain On Mohammed Waterboarding: 'It's Unacceptable...It's Unacceptable' (VIDEO) Top
Via ThinkProgress comes this video of John McCain on Fox News discussing the release of the torture memos. McCain makes it clear that he is not in favor of these memos having been released, telling Fox, "The release of these memos helps no one, doesn't help America's image, does not help us address the issue." Note the contention he does NOT make, however . At no time does McCain suggest that the memos have tipped off the enemy, or any such nonsense. McCain's batting down a critical meme, here, continually pointing out that al Qaeda is cognizant of the torture practices and specifically exploiting them for their own ends. So while McCain can be frustrating in terms of prescribing a policy solution to end the practice of torture in a way that eliminates loopholes , he nevertheless remains one of the better advocates against the practice of torture itself. Reacting to the news that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times, McCain responds thusly: It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable. One is too much. Waterboarding is torture, period. I can ensure you that once enough physical pain is inflicted on someone, they will tell that interrogator whatever they think they want to hear. And most importantly, it serves as a great propaganda tool for those who recruit people to fight against us. And I've seen concrete examples of that talking to former high-ranking al-Qaeda individuals in Iraq. Asked to respond to reports from pro-torture officials who claim the practice yielded good intelligence, McCain didn't budge: According to the FBI, they did not. According to the CIA, they did. With all due respect, my view is, whether they did or not, the image of the United States of America throughout the world is a recruiting tool for Islamic extremists. And I got that from a former high-ranking al Qaeda in Iraq. [WATCH.] MORE: McCain Reacts To KSM Being Waterboarded 183 Times: 'One Is Too Much. Waterboarding Is Torture' [Think Progress] [Would you like to follow me on Twitter ? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here .] More on Video
 
Nadler: Impeach Torture Memo Author Top
Rep. Jerry Nadler, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, called Monday for the impeachment of federal judge Jay Bybee, one of the principal authors of the torture memos released last week by the Obama administration. "He ought to be impeached," Nadler said in an interview with the Huffington Post. "It was not an honest legal memo. It was an instruction manual on how to break the law." Nadler, a New York congressman, is chairman of Judiciary's Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee. Bybee is currently serving a lifetime term on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, appointed in 2003 and confirmed before it was publicly known that he had authorized the torture of detainees. Nadler is meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday to argue that the release of the torture memos further buttresses a call he had made earlier for a special prosecutor on torture. "Any special prosecutor on torture would have to look at the authors of those torture memos," said Nadler. "And certainly you have real grounds to impeach him once the special prosecutor took a good look at that. I think there ought to be an impeachment inquiry looked at in any event. Which should happen first, I'm not sure." On Sunday, the New York Times called for Bybee's impeachment in an editorial. Impeachment hearings would begin in the judiciary committee. Bybee authorized various forms of torture, including waterboarding, slamming detainees into a wall, hitting them in the face and abdomen, confining them in small boxes with crawling bugs and depriving them of sleep for up to 11 days. "He should be a target. Yoo should be a target. There are a number of targets," said Nadler, referring to for Bush administration counsel John Yoo, who also authorized torture and is now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Bybee, noted Nadler, "is the only one who's a federal court judge now." Nadler dismissed Obama's call to look forward rather than backward, arguing that the United States is obligated to investigate whether crimes were committed. "This whole call of looking forward rather than backwards -- you can't say that. The fact is, if crimes were committed, we are duty-bound under our law, we must -- the United States must investigate torture if it happened in America. That's the law. And the fact is, the law specifically says that instructions from higher officials is not an excuse. And we are obligated to investigate and, if indicated, to prosecute. The failure to at least investigate would be a violation of law," he said. Get HuffPost Politics on Facebook , or follow us on Twitter .
 

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