Saturday, April 11, 2009

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Christopher Meyer: Open Architecture: The Devil in The Policy Details Top
"If the government's money goes to cement the current technology in place, we will have a very hard time innovating...." Kenneth D. Mandl, and Isaac S. Kohane, "No Small Change for the Health Information Economy", www.nejm.org 3/28/2009 In the early 1990s, when "convergence" was becoming the buzzword of the telecommunications industry, I and some colleagues visited the editors of the Economist to discuss the industry's future. They had a hard time understanding that the digitalization of voice, data, and media was a change in economic infrastructure, like electrification, rather than an industry-specific phenomenon. Five years later, our point of view had become a kind of mantra--"The Internet Changes Everything." The dot-bust--a bursting of the e-commerce bubble--discredited the idea, but in fact we've been building this new infrastructure steadily. Open standards are an essential enabler in the development of any shared infrastructure--sixty-cycle alternating current and common plugs for electricity, a limited number of track gauges for railroads. But the habits of mind that lead to open platforms are not yet widespread with respect to software, and the interests of those with proprietary solutions to sell are very strong. I saw two items last week that suggest that the efficacy of tens of billions of Federal spending hinges on the way this issue plays out in two big ticket policy areas: Health Care and Energy. Health Care A New York Times article headlined "Doctors Raise Doubts on Digital Health Data," pointed to "No Small Change for the Health Information Economy" in the New England Journal of Medicine . The Times said that the authors "portray the current health record suppliers as offering pre-internet era software--costly and wedded to proprietary technology standards that make it difficult for customers to switch vendors and for outside programmers to make upgrades and improvements. Instead...the government should be a rule-setting referee to encourage the development of an open software platform on which innovators could write electronic health record applications." The NEJM authors themselves state: "Medicine is increasingly becoming a knowledge and information industry, but it did not invent information technology or the Web. It makes sense to draw on other sectors' successes in making this type of transition, and they teach us that if we are to use information technology to improve health care, the variety of practice sizes and styles needs to be complemented by collections of information functions that are packaged on a consistent platform. The applications enabling these functions should be as substitutable as different stethoscopes in a doctor's office. " In effect, the health care industry is mirroring what IT managers and consumers have debated for the last decade: proprietary enterprise systems vs. web-based applications. I worry that the providers of the proprietary systems have too much influence, and the hospital and other decision makers too little understanding of the stakes, to get this right. (Though the recently appointed National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Dr. David Blumenthal, certainly understands this issue.) Energy The same issue is affecting legislation aimed at increasing energy efficiency. Robin Chase is the founder of ZipCar and GoLoco, and she is working passionately to reduce energy use in transportation. She recently posted to a closed list (quoted with permission): Last Wednesday I happened to be in Congress meeting with Ed Markey. It turns out that the incredibly important words that required the $6.6b in smart grid demonstration projects use "open standards and internet protocol" was his amendment! (Modified in the ensuing two days by industry lobbyists to include "where available and appropriate.) He [asked me to draft a rationale] for his website about why this amendment was important. Here is [part of] what I wrote for him: "Requiring that the smart grid use open standards and internet protocols is important. It expands the reach and value of these taxpayer dollars. It means that our other technology investments -- cellphones, personal computers, even plug-in hybrids -- will one day be able to connect to the smart grid. It means that innovators and business will be able to improve what happens on the grid and put this new infrastructure to work in other areas of the economy." On Thursday, I bumped into another state's Deputy Secretary for Energy, and she said she totally didn't get why this was important. And I could easily see her falling to some company's explanation that for her millions of smart grid dollars, open standards and internet protocol weren't available or appropriate...Last week I was also in Oregon, talking to officials high and low within the State Department of Transportation. For them too, the gain of openness and internet protocols was a complete revelation. Ditto New York officials. Apple's inability to compete with the Wintel ecology for the corporate PC market of the 1990's was often explained as a result of the company's insistence on keeping it's systems proprietary and closed. Apple appears to have learned from this experience: now the success of the iPhone is widely attributed to the inclusiveness and accessibility of the App Store, which harnesses the energies and skills of a diverse, worldwide group of developers. When the Japanese built industrial economy 2.0 following World War II they were wise enough to incorporate the improvements of the first fifty years of industrialization; in this rare chance to rebuild infrastructure, we should do no less with the lessons of the first "informationalized" decades. Robin's post closed like this: This reality, of billions and billions of dollars about to be spent, with advice being given by those who have every incentive to say that closed proprietary systems, networks, devices are the best way to go, is filling me with anxiety. How do we educate en masse?" If you have any suggestions for Robin (or for Dr. Blumenthal) that could help the cause of open architectures in publicly funded infrastructures, please post them here. More on Energy
 
Buddy Winston: Obamanomics Top
More on Obama's Budget
 
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: An Arizona State University Honorary Degree for Erma Bombeck but Not President Obama Top
Erma Bombeck Hugh Downs, Howard Pyle, Jerry Colangelo, Art Buchwald, and Steve Allen to name a few from the check list of entertainers, sports owners, gossip columnists, and satirists that Arizona State University claims had lofty enough credentials to merit an honorary degree. In fact, since ASU ladled out its first honorary degree to Federick M. Irish and John Matthews on May 28, 1940 the cast of second tier politicians, writers, entertainers, artists, business tycoons, oil and gas magnets, and sports notables the school has dished out the award to flows off the pages. Some years ASU just couldn't seem to shelve out enough of the paper symbols. In 1987 it gave out seven honorary degrees. In 1994 it gave out seven more. And in five other years the school handed out three or more honorary degrees. The recipients were the usual suspects and they were spread all over the map, artists, writers, entertainers, politicians, and business moguls. The only thing consistent about who ASU officials chooses to toss the paper too is there is no consistency. The ASU honors committee mission statement is a study in brevity. It simply reads that faculty, the six person honors committee, and the president will "single out people who have made contributions to society." This purposely vague criteria for an honorary degree says everything and nothing. It pretty much makes the degree a subjective judgment call which comes down to money, politics, celebrity, or merely the like or dislike of a person. That's a far cry from the lofty, sanctimonious and smug academic nonsensical reason ASU officials gave for snubbing President Obama with the degree. ASU president Michael Crow though has the final say so over whether President Obama will get the degree or not is. That could be another problem. Crow has been called insensitive, pig headed, and an unapologetic bigot for his alleged treatment of students, faculty, and especially women and minorities. The bill of particulars against Crow is that he fired 1/3 of the minority faculty at ASU west without justifiable cause, and that he has not hired an African American to serve as dean or a vice-president. He's also alleged to have fired a tenured African American professor even though a faculty committee that he appointed recommended that the professor be retained. Crow supposedly has turned a tin ear toward demands that he tell who and how many African-Americans the school has granted tenure to during his watch. This is not the first time that Crow has been sledge hammered by charges that he's a closet bigot. Before taking the top spot at ASU, he served a stint as vice provost at Columbia University. Crow supposedly played hard ball in a gender discrimination lawsuit brought by a Latina professor. Columbia eventually was forced to shell out millions to settle the claim. This is mostly hearsay and does not tag Crow as a president with a vendetta against women and minorities. So when the news broke that President Obama wouldn't get the honorary degree, all eyes quickly turned to Crow to do quick damage control and weigh in in favor of granting the degree to Obama. But that didn't happen. Crow gave a cryptic promise to a reporter that ASU would "honor him in every way possible." No mention was made of the honorary degree being that honor. Crow and red faced ASU officials eventually will back down and grant the President the honorary degree. After all, Erma Bombeck certainly wouldn't object. 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
 
Johann Hari: Children Who Kill Never Had A Chance Top
I have met children who became killers several times in my life: in the warzones of the Congo and the Central African Republic, and in the grey Young Offenders' Institutes of Britain. When I read about the events that are alleged to have happened last weekend in South Yorkshire, England, I kept thinking about their small, paranoid eyes. Two brothers - aged ten and eleven - have been charged with torturing two other, younger kids. The victims had been hit with bricks, burned with cigarettes, and slashed with knives in a wild field. We are a long way from knowing what happened in that field that afternoon, or who carried out these acts. But the visceral temptation when any children face accusations like this is to brand them as inherently evil demons who should be locked far from us for life. But the most famous case of child-on-child killing in British history - that of Mary Bell - shows us how flawed this initial reaction is. In 1968, in the sagging streets of the poorest part of Newcastle, a ten year old girl strangled two toddlers - Martin Brown, and Brian Howe - to death. She then cut their bodies, and with her best friend, a mentally disabled thirteen year old, she left notes in a nursery saying: "We did murder Martain brown, fuckof you BAstArd." She was reflexively described in the press as a child who had been "born evil", a "monster" and "demon." Now we know what happened to her to make her into such a child. Mary's mother, Betty Bell, was a severely disturbed alcoholic who had been sectioned at least once. She worked as a prostitute specialising in sado-masochism - whippings and stranglings. The first thing she said when Mary was placed into her arms after giving birth was: "Take the thing away from me!" She rejected her daughter and repeatedly tried to kill her by feeding her an overdose of sleeping tablets. But eventually, she did find a use for Mary. Once she turned four, she began to pimp her to paedophiles. Mary never knew who her father was, but she suspected her mother had been inseminated by her own dad. Later in life, she asked her mother point blank if this was the case. She didn't deny it. Betty simply said quietly: "You are the devil's spawn." When she was ten, Mary made friends with another girl who was being raped by a local paedophile. All they had known in their lives was violent abuse - and they began to act it out. Mary tried to cut off one of the boy's penises with a razor - a plain, crazed act of revenge for what she had experienced since she was a toddler. Yet it is strangely comforting to see evil as a primordial external force, something alien that can be hunted down and confined to cages. It dodges the colder truth that I have learned from all the child-killers I have met: we all have the capacity for terrible cruelty and sadism, especially if we are subjected to horror ourselves. Which of us can be confident that, given such Mary Bell's childhood, we wouldn't have done something depraved? Yet the trial of the two children who killed the toddler Jamie Bulger a decade ago - and the websites trying to figure out where they are now post-release, so they can be lynched - suggests we have barely progressed since then. Excellent works of investigative journalism like Blake Morrison's book 'As If' have uncovered evidence that these children were subjected to violent and probably sexual abuse. We don't want to hear it. We want devils and demons and a black-and-white world that tells us: no, it couldn't have been you; this crime belongs to a different species. These killings are not political parables. However much right-wingers want to make this a story about welfare dependency and left-wingers want to make it a story of brutal neoliberal economics, these rare murders have happened in Britain and across the Western world at the same rate for over a century. They have to be understood at the personal, human level. To understand and explain these cases is not to excuse, or justify. We are talking about the most terrible thing that can happen to a person: torture, and murder. The children who do this need to be humanely detained for as long as they are a danger. But everything we know about children who kill tells us they are invariably victims of extreme abuse themselves, deserving of compassion, not hysterical condemnation. I have watched my friend Camilla Batmangelidh - the director of the wonderful charity Kid's Company - work with children in South London who have bricked, bottled and tortured other children. She explains: "Since the Bell and Bulger cases, we've learned a lot about how a developing brain reacts to abuse, but the judicial system hasn't caught up. We now know from brain scans that if you have really poor quality care in childhood, your pre-frontal lobes don't develop properly. Those are the parts of the brain that think rationally, empathise, and exercise self-control. It is physically impossible for these children to calm down and think a situation through. Their brains haven't developed that way." So to treat them like morally responsible mini-adults who just made a bad decision - as the British courts do today - doesn't make sense. It is a neurological fiction. When this impaired brain chemistry combines with violent abuse and rape, the children can become time-bombs. "They have been taught to see the world through one template: you're a victim, or you're an abuser. That's how they think human relationships work," Batmangelidh puts it. "At first, they are abused, and at some point they become determined to be a perpetrator, because then at least they have power and control. If you think those are your only two options in life, it seems preferable." As she said this, I remembered the child soldiers in Central Africa who pointed guns into my face and smirked. Their families had been bayoneted in front of them, and they had buried the bodies themselves. In the warzones of the Congo, I met eleven and twelve year old boys who had seen their mothers and sisters snatched away, and were then picked up by the militiamen and trained to rape and kill. Like Mary, they were re-enacting the violence they had experienced in a desperate attempt to switch roles: this time, they were the Big Men. Children who kill are a question of mental health, not morality. They are internally destroyed children, not devils. Given the love and support that they deserve, such children can develop their frontal lobes and their capacity for empathy over time, and be released. As Gita Sereny's reportorial masterpiece 'Cries Unheard' shows, Mary Bell eventually developed into a morally responsible adult and "a very, very loving mother" - albeit one perpetually haunted by the knowledge of what she had done. Haven't we progressed enough since the Middle Ages to see these truths, and reject the barbaric theology of "evil" children? When accusations like this bleed into the news, we need to stand at the front of the looming lynch mob and say: Stop. Think. In 1861, a leader in The Times of London commented on the trial of two eight year old boys in Stockport who had tortured and killed a toddler. It said: "Children of that age cannot be held legally accountable in the same way as adults. It is absurd and monstrous that these two children have been treated like murderers." Isn't it time we progressed to 1862? Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent newspaper. To read more of his articles, click here or here .
 
Burris Subpoenaed By Funeral Directors Top
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - A group of funeral directors who say they have lost millions of dollars from mismanagement of a pre-need funeral trust fund have filed a subpoena against U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, seeking documents dating back as far as 1980. Burris was Illinois Comptroller in that year and allowed the Illinois Funeral Directors Association to manage the trust. He later served as a lobbyist for the IFDA. The plaintiffs, who are suing the IFDA for alleged mismanagement, say they want to know why Burris allowed the group to manage the trust, and they want records of his lobbying activities. The (Springfield) State Journal-Register could not reach Burris for comment Friday, and Edward Wallace, an attorney for the plaintiffs, declined comment. Information from: The State Journal-Register, http://www.sj-r.com
 
States Slashing Social Safety Nets Top
Battered by the recession and the deepest and most widespread budget deficits in several decades, a large majority of states are slicing into their social safety nets -- often crippling preventive efforts that officials say would save money over time. President Obama's $787 billion stimulus package is helping to alleviate some of the pain, providing large amounts of money to pay for education and unemployment insurance, bolster food stamp programs and expand tax credits for low earners. But the money will offset only 40 percent of the losses in state revenues, and programs for vulnerable groups have been cut in at least 34 states, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a private research group in Washington.
 
'Fast And Furious 5' Already Revving Up Production Top
"Fast and Furious" star Paul Walker has revealed that the fifth "F&F" is already revving up production. "Furious 4" cranked out a heart-stopping $72.5 million last weekend. Which could help explain why a fifth one is getting the green light.
 
ASU Renaming Scholarship Program After Obama Top
After a day of withering criticism over its decision not to award President Barack Obama an honorary degree, Arizona State University announced on Saturday that it would expand a scholarship program in the president's name. In a press release sent out by ASU spokeswoman Sharon Keeler, the university "apologized" for the "confusion" over the past few days. Its president Michael Crow, meanwhile, framed the "President Barack Obama Scholars" program as a higher honor than the honorary degree, one that would "affect the lives of thousands of students" and be "an honor befitting, not only the president's exceptional achievements, but also his values as an individual." Crow also suggested that the school had never ruled out the degree for Obama - something that earlier statements suggested - but merely had yet to make a determination as to what honor would suit the president best. "It has always been our intention to recognize and honor President Obama's accomplishments during his visit," said Crow, "but we had not yet determined the best or most appropriate way to do so." ASU undoubtedly faced an intense amount of media and political scrutiny for its decision to not offer Obama an honorary degree. In particular, the message from many alumni of the university, as gathered by dozens of emails to the Huffington Post, was one of disappointment and anger. The expansion of the scholarship program is an effort to temper these emotions. But for the cynics, the fact that the announcement came only after a day of vocal complaints - and didn't include giving the degree from the president - is not likely to go unnoticed. HERE IS THE RELEASE FROM ASU ASU to name and expand most important scholarship program to honor President Obama University apologizes for honorary degree confusion TEMPE, Ariz. - Arizona State University invited President Barack Obama to speak at its graduation ceremony out of the greatest respect for him as an individual and world leader. "I apologize for the confusion surrounding our invitation to President Obama to address ASU students at commencement," said ASU President Michael M. Crow. "The entire ASU community has been electrified with excitement since we learned of his participation in our commencement ceremony. We hope that the recent discussion of honorary degrees will not detract from the honor and thrill that ASU - and indeed all of Arizona - is experiencing in anticipation of his visit. I am honored, as are our faculty, staff and students, that President Obama will give his first commencement speech as president of the United States at ASU." In recognition of President Obama's commitment to educational access and to an entire career dedicated to public service, ASU is naming and expanding its most important scholarship program in his honor. Going forward, this program will be called the President Barack Obama Scholars and will offer thousands of students with the greatest financial need the opportunity to go to college. "It has always been our intention to recognize and honor President Obama's accomplishments during his visit," said Crow, "but we had not yet determined the best or most appropriate way to do so. Although the focus and attention of the media and others has been on an honorary degree, we never felt that was the only--or even the best--means of honoring his tremendous service to our country. Naming this scholarship program after President Obama that will affect the lives of thousands of students is an honor befitting, not only the president's exceptional achievements, but also his values as an individual. The President Barack Obama Scholars program will be a legacy that will endure and inspire others for generations to come." Arizona State University Tempe, Arizona USA More on Barack Obama
 
"Girls Gone Wild" Ad Interrupts Good Friday Service Broadcast Top
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia cable network's early morning broadcast of a Good Friday service at the Vatican abruptly changed to something wildly different _ a 30-second "Girls Gone Wild" ad. Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander says the 2 a.m. Friday programming glitch was due to a required test of the Emergency Alert System. He says such tests are usually done in the overnight hours. The test automatically tunes viewers to a preselected channel that would provide information in the event of an emergency. But during tests, the channel airs regular programming, which in this case included a paid advertisement for the racy videos. Alexander says the problem affected the network's entire local area, but only one person called to complain. ___ Information from: Philadelphia Daily News, http://www.philly.com (This version CORRECTS to say program was Good Friday service, sted Mass.)
 
Dawn Teo: ASU Apologizes, Establishes "Barack Obama Scholars" Program Top
TEMPE, ARIZONA - Arizona State University President Michael Crow apologized today for the "confusion" surrounding the customary honorary degree typically awarded to commencement speakers but originally denied to President Barack Obama who will be delivering the ASU commencement speech in May. Still no official word on whether Obama will have the honorary degree conferred on him. With worldwide media attention focused on ASU, university officials are suddenly being atypically tight-lipped. Yesterday, though, the grapevine within the upper echelons of the ASU administration was surmising that the political snub was really a bureaucratic snafu. Crow said this morning, in an official statement, It has always been our intention to recognize and honor President Obama's accomplishments during his visit, but we had not yet determined the best or most appropriate way to do so. Although the focus and attention of the media and others has been on an honorary degree, we never felt that was the only or even the best means of honoring his tremendous service to our country. Crow went on to apologize and said that ASU invited Obama to speak at the commencement "out of the greatest respect for him as an individual and world leader" and that "the entire ASU community has been electrified with excitement" since Obama accepted the invitation. We hope that the recent discussion of honorary degrees will not detract from the honor and thrill that ASU and indeed all of Arizona is experiencing in anticipation of his visit. I am honored, as are our faculty, staff and students, that President Obama will give his first commencement speech as president of the United States at ASU. ASU is naming and expanding the ASU Advantage program -- what it calls "its most important scholarship program" in honor of Obama. The program is part of the Sun Devil Promise that supports low-income students. Going forward, the program will be called the "President Barack Obama Scholars" and will expand to offer thousands of students with the greatest financial need the opportunity to go to college. [The program] is an honor befitting not only the president's exceptional achievements but also his values as an individual. The President Barack Obama Scholars program will be a legacy that will endure and inspire others for generations to come. ASU expects to enroll more than 1,000 Arizona students in the President Barack Obama Scholars program. The program will cover the full cost of tuition, fees, books, room, and board for students who come from families with the greatest financial need, typically those unable to attend a university.
 
Brandon Friedman: McKiernan Raises Effort to Win Afghan Hearts and Minds to a New Level Top
As the violence in Afghanistan continues to intensify, the top American general in the country, Gen. David McKiernan, is ratcheting up his efforts to counter the burgeoning insurgency . But for McKiernan, there are some things his new approach does not include: Notably, it doesn't include a renewed emphasis on air strikes. Nor does it place value on more raids of suspected terrorist hideouts. Instead, McKiernan has sharpened his focus on the long-neglected practice of winning hearts and minds. But rather than simply paying the technique lip service--as has often been done in the past--McKiernan, in a concerted shift, is now placing more importance on effective communication with tribal leaders than on killing militants. The top U.S. general in Afghanistan reached out to influential Afghan tribesmen in regions where U.S. troops will soon deploy, apologizing for past mistakes and saying he is now studying the Quran, the Muslim holy book. Gen. David McKiernan met with villagers in Helmand and Kandahar -- two of Afghanistan's most violent provinces -- in an attempt to foster good will ahead of the U.S. troop surge that will send 21,000 more forces here this summer to stem an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency. McKiernan said he wanted to show respect to tribal elders by traveling to Kandahar on Wednesday to explain some of the mistakes U.S. forces have made in the past -- such as arresting people based on information taken from one side in a tribal fight, or killing civilians during operations. "I'm trying to connect to the local population in a bottom-up way and try to explain what the new U.S. strategy means and why they're going to see an increased force presence where they live," McKiernan said during the trip to Kandahar aboard the seven passenger jet he flies in. This is a long-overdue move, but a seismic shift in the approach, nonetheless. The key to understanding any insurgency is to put yourself in the insurgents' shoes; to find out what motivates them. And that's what this is all about. While blowhards and chickenhawks on the Right will presumably accuse McKiernan of emulating President Obama's actions as "Apologizer-in-Chief," this is, in fact, a real step toward pacifying the insurgency in Afghanistan. McKiernan told the Afghans that President Barack Obama's new strategy is to combat instability in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region as a whole. He said that in the future, Afghan forces will enter villagers' homes if necessary, a pledge that brought another round of applause. He then said he was studying the Muslim holy book. "I'm reading a very good book now about this part of the world. It's written in English, but it's all about you -- it's the Quran," McKiernan said to applause. Moments later an Afghan man stood up and gave McKiernan a bright purple, red and green cloth in which to wrap the translated version of holy book. I'm sure the heads of the no-negotiation crowd will explode on hearing such an anecdote, but this is how effective counterinsurgency is done. Of course, we're hearing rumblings of discontent already. And I'm sure it'll only be a matter of hours before Gingrich, Malkin, and Glenn Beck begin calling for the removal of McKiernan the "appeaser" and McKiernan the "Obama lackey." In fact, I have a clip of how they'll argue about what consequences an American commander reading the Quran could bring: But I'm sure it won't be that bad. Sarcasm aside, however, those who've served on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan understand that U.S. troops will never end an insurgency through the use of firepower and rigidity. And those who would suggest otherwise are uninformed, inexperienced, and dangerous. If we're ever going to leave Afghanistan in a relative peace, this type of approach is what it's going to take. Now, if Petraeus and McKiernan can push this mentality down to the platoon level, there might be hope for success in the region. Also available at VetVoice More on Barack Obama
 
Chicago Olympic Bid: Leaders Optimistic, Community Groups Angry Top
Leaders of Chicago's Olympic bid were quite pleased with the results of the IOC's recent evaluation visit, the AP reports. But just as Chicago 2016 chairman Pat Ryan was expressing his satisfaction with the review, a community group "pretty much ripped those plans to shreds," according to Crain's Chicago Business political columnist Greg Hinz : In a downtown speech, Erma Tranter, president of Friends of the Parks, said that while her group backs a Chicago Olympics, current plans would misuse parks, leave little good legacy and potentially burden the Chicago Park District with facilities it can't afford and doesn't know how to operate. The central issue is the size of the proposed amphitheater in historic Washington Park. In a Thursday meeting with Friends of the Parks and other grassroots organizations, bid organizers said that the structure left behind in the park after dismantling the Olympic Stadium would be far smaller than originally planned, down to 2,500 to 3,500 seat from the proposed 7,500 permanent seats, the Tribune reports . Bid officials acknowledge they are trying to strike a balance between respecting the traditional character of the site, which was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted as an "open meadow," and the Olympic movement's vision of leaving behind facilities that offer tangible improvement to host cities after the games. Hinz lays out the specific objections of Friends of the Parks on his blog. However the concerns of local residents have little bearing on whether Chicago lands the Games. That decision rests in the hands of the International Olympic Committee and Chicago bid officials have reason for optimism after the IOC's recent visit, the AP's Don Babwin reports: At the end of a long day touring potential venues for the 2016 Summer Games, the head of the International Olympic Committee's inspection team walked into the United Center and right into a hug from gymnastics legend Nadia Comaneci. If it looked like a reunion of old friends, it was. But it also underlined a key strategy by organizers who hope the IOC will select Chicago for the games: Show and let somebody else tell. The IOC members had spent more than 10 hours seeing for themselves that most of the events would be in the heart of the city, minutes not only from each other but also from parks, museums and the aquarium. They'd been driven down Lake Shore Drive and saw right outside their windows many venue sites, including the Olympic Village and Lake Michigan itself. Now came one of the world's most famous gymnasts adding her voice to a chorus that included President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and two Chicagoans whose first names - Michael and Oprah - are quite enough, thank you. Whether it all worked remains to be seen. The IOC commission's chairwoman, Nawal El Moutawakel, offered a glowing assessment of Chicago, the support the bid enjoys in the community and some components of the plan itself. But with Chicago's competitors - Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro - left to visit, she ultimately said little more than that Chicago remains in the running. Bid organizers and others agreed that Chicago succeeded in presenting its case to the IOC, which will select the bid city during a vote in October. "I think we were very pleased with their reaction," Chicago 2016 leader Patrick Ryan said. Ryan was satisfied the IOC saw that visitors could walk to many of Chicago's venues, while the remaining sites are within short drives of each other and attractions such as Millennium Park. "The IOC has had enough bad experiences with bus schedules, buses that never worked right," said A.D. Frazier, chief operating officer for the 1996 Atlanta Games. "When (commission members ) have got to defend their choices to their colleagues, they like to say 'It's a two-minute walk.'" Ed Hula, editor of Around The Rings, a Web site devoted to Olympics coverage, said he suspects the venue locations were not lost on the IOC team. "Some of these cities you're going to it's 30, 45 minutes to get to this place or that place," Hula said. Of course, he added, they didn't take them to the site of the equestrian events near the Wisconsin border "or put them on a Greyhound to Wisconsin (the site of the cycling venue). "They're wise," he said of the IOC. "They know what they haven't seen." Organizers also placed great emphasis on the voices supporting the bid. By the time Comaneci and her husband, Olympic gymnastics gold medalist Bart Conner, were chatting with El Moutawakel, commissioners had seen videos from Obama and Clinton and talked in person with top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Together, their message was clear: The federal government, not to mention a popular president who talks wistfully about a games blocks from his Chicago house, is behind the bid and will do whatever it takes to make sure they're successful. Clinton's words, in particular, about streamlining the process of getting "the Olympic family" in and out of the country may have resonated with the IOC. "That was a message they needed to hear and they heard it from a person at the highest level of government," Hula said. El Moutawakel admitted to being impressed. She should be, said Frazier, who noted American bids simply don't get this kind of federal support at this stage. Atlanta, he said, never got it. But it's a good sign of how things would go in Chicago. "When the time comes when somebody's got to step up and provide extra fencing, guards, FBI help, security, they will have it," he said. "This intergovernmental cooperation is just music to (the IOC's) ears." Hula suggested another reason it all may have sounded good to the IOC. "There is this preconception on the part of the IOC and other people involved in Olympic sports that the U.S. government is fairly dismissive of the Olympic movement," he said. Organizers hope the IOC was equally impressed by other voices, including Comaneci, Conner and Bryan Clay, who won gold in the decathlon at the Beijing Games. "In the last few days we had 70 Olympic and paralympic athletes working with us and I think that really resonated with the evaluation commission, to see how involved (they) have been in the design on our bid and particularly focused on the design of the venues," Ryan said. Comaneci praised Chicago's vision for a compact games, agreeing with Conner that it can only help athletes' performance. She provided a perspective that organizers wanted commissioners to hear - starting with El Moutawakel, an Olympic hurdling champion from Morocco. "From athletes' point of view, when you come to a place where people speak your language ... it's very convenient for the athlete," Comaneci said before talking with IOC commissioners. She noted Chicago is home to many Romanians, making it more comfortable for her and her mother when she visits. Organizers hammered on that message time and again. Mayor Richard Daley spoke of a city built and rebuilt by immigrants. Ryan noted the dozens of languages spoken in Chicago. On the IOC's final day here, the IOC viewed a video about the city's ethnic diversity in which the narrator said every Olympic team that comes to Chicago "will feel like the home team." And Obama, in his video, painted Chicago as "a city where races, religions and nationalities all live and work and play and reach for the American dream that brought them here." If it sounds like overkill, Frazier said it was necessary. "Chicago's biggest advantage is it is the only one of the bid cities that the Poles should be cheering for, the Romanians should be cheering for," he said. "Show me a Greektown in Tokyo." More on Olympics
 
Damian McBride, Senior Adviser To Gordon Brown, Forced To Quit Over Emails Smearing Opposition Top
Gordon Brown is today engulfed in crisis after a key aide resigned and the Tories threatened legal action over explosive leaked emails discussing how to smear senior Conservatives, including David Cameron's wife, Samantha, with rumours about their private lives. Damian McBride, one of the prime minister's closest advisers, quit over his exchange with the Labour blogger Derek Draper, in which the two discussed setting up a website to air scurrilous allegations about opponents, including unfounded allegations about affairs between leading opposition MPs. The idea was still being actively discussed until a fortnight ago, the Observer has learned.
 
Paula Duffy: Agent Scott Boras reveals human side in wake of Adenhart's death Top
In my opinion, one of the most amazing things to emerge in the aftermath of the sudden and crushingly sad death of the young Angels pitcher, Nick Adenhart is the open way his agent has mourned him. If you haven't seen the video of Scott Boras speaking at the Angels' team press conference on Thursday morning, check out the clip here . What's stunning is the the way he openly weeped without feeling the need to excuse himself as he said a few words about the tragedy he learned of in the middle of the night. It is a natural thing to do but I never thought I'd see Scott Boras allow himself to appear vulnerable in quite that manner. All we ever see of the man is his steely gaze and his intransigence during negotiations. Boras made himself available for radio interviews in Southern California throughout Thursday and Friday. It wasn't self promotion. It was his duty he said. Some might say it was self-aggrandizement. I see it differently. There are a lot of hours to fill on talk radio and when something occurs for which there is a huge demand for reactions, shows reach out everywhere to give their listeners a reason not to turn the dial. Even on Friday morning, Boras still had a difficult time speaking about Nick. His words were excruciatingly slow and measured. He rarely was able to get to the point of the actual question posed by the radio host. You might wonder why Boras appeared at the table along with the Angels brass during that press conference. It was at the request of Jim Adenhart, Nick's father. In a way, Boras was the surrogate for the family and along with Jim had experienced the heights of happiness only hours prior to the dreaded phone call. That is the good side of the agent-as-surrogate parent role. We've all seen the bad side enough to make his honest grief seem at odds with everything we think we know of him. I for one am happy I witnessed it.
 

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