Friday, May 29, 2009

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Holly Robinson: Susan Boyle: The Poster Child for Late Bloomers Top
As I stumble through American Idol withdrawal and recover from the fact that vanilla is still the flavor of choice in the U.S. whether we're talking ice cream or singers, I've been increasingly thankful for Susan Boyle, the angel on Britain's Got Talent . Whether she wins or loses the chance to sing for the Queen, she is the inspirational poster child for late bloomers everywhere. Besides looking like that crazy spinster aunt in Wal-Mart clothes that your mother always invites to dinner because she lives alone with her cat, Boyle is a creaking forty-eight years old. That's right: she's more than twice the age of Kris Allen, our newly crowned American Idol. Yet, Boyle's age, church lady looks and lousy luck in love didn't deter our feisty lass from climbing up on stage and belting out "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables in a way that made even the only female judge, Botox beauty Amanda Holden, cast cow-eyed looks of awe at this unlikely Scottish songbird. Why did this performance become such an instant viral plague on YouTube that even my son sent it to me via his college email? It wasn't just for that OK tear-jerker of a song. It was because Susan Boyle gives all late bloomers hope that we still have a chance to realize our own dreams. Want to be a singer? Write the great American novel? Run a marathon? Be a millionaire? Take up painting? Invent a flying car? Sail around the world? Watching Susan Boyle, we know it's not too late! Even if I could wave a magic wand and somehow combine Kris Allen and Adam Lambert into one perfect manchild megastar, they could never do that. They're too beautiful. And way, way too young. As writer Malcolm Gladwell noted in his wonderful October 20, 2008 New Yorker essay, "Late Bloomers," "Doing something truly creative, we're inclined to think, requires the freshness and exuberance and energy of youth." He points out notable examples of that, from Orson Welles to Mozart. However, Gladwell goes on to note that many geniuses are late bloomers, not prodigies who burst out of the gates at age fifteen, talents and ambitions razor sharp. Late bloomers muddle ahead, experimenting and failing and trudging forward for decades before they're a success, or even noticed at all. Until then, many late bloomers are perceived as failures. They have to rely on mundane jobs (think of Einstein toiling away in his patent office) or kindly patrons as they inch forward toward their dreams. What's so inspiring about Susan Boyle? She dreamed her dream not for a mere seventeen years, like bluesy, confident American Idol finalist Allison Iraheta, so perfectly at home on stage next to veteran rocker Cyndi Lauper, but for almost half a century. Now that's star power. More on Susan Boyle
 
Steven Weber: My Ad Hominem Attack (or: Maybe They're Onto Something) Top
They are showing themselves, ladies and gentlemen. They are exposing the twitching, seething hate-mongers they always were. And these sorry, media goons are only the business end of the Republican party, whose heart is as virulent and detestable as any beating within the chest of the terrorists they so loudly decry. Their behavior is disgraceful and perhaps even sociopathic, devoid of any sense of responsibility or awareness. Every day, one or more of their representatives openly eschew wisdom, intelligence, history, culture, manners and sense. And never are these mad dogs reined in by the so-called party leadership, those tight-lipped, turbo-tanned oligarchs who have of late been consigned to the margins---finally---and yet still feel empowered to lob WMD's from their cushy congressional wank chambers (so that's where Saddam kept 'em!) into the town square, stalling---yet again---the massive clean-up effort which is at last under way. As they strip themselves of all pretensions of civility and strike out at anything or anyone which smacks of progress why not strip away all our civility as well when confronting these villainous relics from the dark ages? They are brats with golf clubs, lobbyists and guns. They are self-loathing stacks of repressed protoplasm. They are desperate and determined to disrupt, deceive and destroy. They are the dark, damnable id run amok, decaying, bloated and insane. How much more does the world need to see before the Republican party is condemned for being a terrorist organization on a par with Al Qaeda? How much more must we be subjected to those who would keep giving the kiss of life to racism, classism, ignorance, greed and an insatiable desire to consolidate power and wealth to the exclusion of all who don't fit their narrow-minded requirements of supposed patriotism? Those who, it seems, have learned about love of country from the patriots who brought you the glorious reign of national socialism over Europe in the last century? How much longer? (Pauses. Takes a sip of bile.) Boy that felt good. No wonder they like to do that!
 
Steve Parker: This weekend's LIVE motoring and motorsport talk shows! Top
Join us LIVE Saturday and Sunday at 5pm Pacific time on www.TalkRadioOne.com for our exclusive motoring and motorsports shows! Steve Parker's The Car Nut Show Saturday starting at 5pm Pacific www.TalkRadioOne.com No lack of topics this week on our general interest live call-in automotive talk show - General Motors approaches bankruptcy, or maybe is in it already. Chrysler leaves bankruptcy this weekend ... but will Fiat really buy all their assets? Fiat also wants to buy GM's Opel and the Italian people don't like it. Plus Steve test-drives the Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell electric car ---- which makes its own electricity! Call-in and be part of the show! Steve Parker's World Racing Roundup Sunday starting at 5pm ww.TalkRadioOne.com Tony George fired! After over a dozen years of spending tens of millions to create and shore-up the Indy racing League, overseeing the Indy 500's devaluation, making and breaking a deal with Formula 1, opening the Brickyard to NASCAR, a sacrilege in the eyes of many, and inviting motorcycles to race at Indy, Tony George, the CEO of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has been voted out of that position by his own board of directors --- a board made-up mostly of his own relatives. What do you think? Cal the show and join us! That's this Saturday and Sunday at 5pm USA Pacific on www.TalkRadioOne.com ! More on Cars
 
Matthew Zachary: Cancer Is About Surviving, Not About Athleticism Top
Life is about choice. Remission is not a cure. Survivorship is all the rage. Why we fight ... They say the meek shall inherit but apparently the fit get the gold. I've been a husky guy my entire post-pubescent life with the exception of the three years after my cancer treatment when I lost 110lbs between February and May of 1996. I may have looked great by all superficial standards, but I was a malnourished, spiritually un-cleansed, and toxic shell of a human being. Hell, my doctor once famously told me -- after receiving nearly 6000cg of craniospinal radiation to my entire head, neck and torso -- "You should be fine but you'll never run any marathons." He was, presumably, referring to the fact that my dosage of radiation treatment was enough to nuke a sperm whale could have potential acute and late effects on my heart. Little did he realize how anaerobic I was to begin with. I wasn't losing anything; I never had any ambitions or intentions of being a marathon runner in the first place. My brain tumor crippled the fine motor coordination in my left hand, rendering ten years of classical piano training utterly useless. All I wanted to do was perform again. I was, and still am, one of those famously genetic American endomorphs from Eastern European decent. That was and continues to be my excuse for lacking any remotely vaporous predisposition for swinging a bat, catching a football, swimming a lap or jogging in place. I reconciled at an early age that I was just not cut out to be an athlete in this world, except for a few stints with downhill skiing and racquetball. My family history, on both sides, is practically bathed in 'gribenes'. (Just Google it.) Someone once told me that losing all that weight from cancer gave me a 'second chance' to start over again. If you call two years of nausea and losing the ability to swallow and produce saliva an "opportunity to learn about sensible eating" when at the same time all you can stand to eat is water, pastina and soup, I question your positive attitude. It took me several months to even enjoy (and I use the term loosely) juice. Shove ten saltines in your mouth and chew. This was my every meal for months and months on end. You could imagine the sense of satisfaction I had when I healed enough to be able to eat a sweet potato. Don't ever take your saliva for granted. And don't ask me to tell you about how long it took for me to graduate to peanut butter. Once I healed enough to eat peanut butter man did I go to town. Same with chocolate, marshmallow fluff and cookie dough. What can I say? I am consciously not setting a good example for what we are inculcated to believe is the picture-perfect healthy lifestyle, replete with the American Heart Association seal and a Dr. Oz book under my arm. My history leaves me feeling confused and somewhat left out of what seems to be a ceaselessly omnipresent assault of athletic-themed cancer events. I'm just plain out of shape and I'm grossly aware of it. The thought of cycling to the corner -- let alone across Iowa -- is beyond insane to even consider aspiring to dream about. Not that I am aspiring to dream about it. I just have no interest. And what about the millions of Americans, survivors or not, who are limited by their own circumstances and are unable to participate in or contribute to all of those thousands of races, relays, runs, walks, saunters, trainings, etc? Do they feel left out too? I ask naively, can there be -- or is there already something -- for those who can't run, can't walk long distances, can't ride a bike and still give a damn about cancer? And what about all those fatigued people or survivor/amputees? Do we need some sort of piggyback race? Should we should have "Anaerobics and Lethargy For The Cure" or something? I guess I'm rambling. But the issue that inspired me to begin this conversation with myself stemmed from feeling "left out" of much of the cancer fundraiser event space by the sheer and obvious merit that I'm just not an active person. "Get off your ass and just do it!," sayeth the Nike. Easier said than done Is it possible -- just possible -- to not be athletic yet still care about cancer somehow? Of course, it is. Is there a perception of jockocracy out there where one of inferior stretchiness and flexibility might be made to feel discomfort and unintentioned inferiority amongst a sea of fit, form-fitting neoprened hard bodies? Yes. And reality is nine-tenths perception. The out-of-shapers clearly outweigh the athletes in this country. I don't think anyone is going to deny that. And for the record, I am not endorsing a sessile lifestyle. It's painfully evident that exercise, a healthy diet and Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies in moderation all contribute to a higher quality and quantity of life. Oh, and by and large it all reduces the risk of certain diseases, decreases depression, gives us a little more spunk in our step. Then again, there's the Lance Armstrong argument: "If Lance Armstrong could get cancer in peak condition, does it all really matter anyway or are we just victims of luck?" Personally, I think the issue is "risk reduction" solely based on the numbers -- but let's face it; some of us were simply not born athletes. In spite of how many times our parents sent us to soccer and little league or pushed us to try out for the track team in high school, it never took. Even the college peer pressure to join the Ultimate Frisbee team wasn't enough to encourage athleticism. Is it possible, you can simply not be wired for it? Is there a gene for it? There must be. The anaerobic gene. Problem solved. I just saved billions in genome research. I want to know I'm not alone in what I am feeling -- and this is in no way an attempt to discourage people to use a cycling race or 5K run as a motivating opportunity to not only get in somewhat better shape and support a cause at the same time. I'm not an athlete. I'm a musician and a nerd. And proud to be both, although the two are not mutually exclusive. The largest muscle I'm using to raise money and awareness is my brain and that's where my cancer was! (Is the brain a muscle?) Sidenote: Just went to Wikipedia and -- no -- the Brain is not a muscle. "The brain is composed of two things called gray matter and white matter, gray matter is made from the cell bodies of the nerve cells, and the white matter made from the bundles of their axons." So what do I know? I just write what I feel and hope to spark some dialogue. I know I need to get in shape. I'm one of the 66% of Americans who are overweight and care about cancer. Not an excuse. Just an observation. I just have always envied the ectomorphs and mesomorphs out there who were born genetically predisposed for body-hugging neoprene and iron man challenges. God bless you people. I feel like I'm talking to my therapist but this is awfully satisfying to get it down in a rant like this. I want to know what you think -- besides "Get thee to a Gym." Stupid cancer. More on Health
 
Michelle Obama At Bancroft Elementary School: FLOWER POWER (PHOTOS) Top
Michelle Obama paid a visit to Washington's Bancroft Elementary School, where she spoke to the students who have been helping her plant the White House Kitchen Garden. During the visit she hugged the students and helped them plant their own garden. The first lady wore a white shirt with floral pattern, a yellow cardigan, blue capri pants, and silver metallic flats. See below. More on Michelle Obama Style
 
MJ Rosenberg: Bibi On Obama and Clinton: "What The Hell Do They Want From Me?" Top
The Israeli government insists that a nuclear Iran is an "existential threat" and that, accordingly, it will decide for itself how to handle it. And yet, the same Israeli government that is determined to alert the world to the dangers it believes are posed by Iran is equally determined to preserve an occupation that would spell the end of Israel's existence as a democratic Jewish state. One can argue about whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons or would use them against Israel, knowing that doing so would be suicidal. The experts are divided on those questions. But there is no way to argue that a democratic State of Israel can survive once it has a decisive Palestinian majority, an eventuality that is just a few years away if Israel maintains its control over the occupied territories. Once a Palestinian majority is permanently in place, Israel would be faced with two, and only two, alternatives. It could grant the occupied Palestinians the ballot, affording them the opportunity to vote the Jewish state out of existence. Or more likely, Israel would deny Palestinians the vote, becoming like apartheid South Africa, a state where the minority rules. Such a state would not even be able to maintain a relationship with the United States, let alone the rest of the world. There is no third alternative. That was demonstrated this week when some leading right-wing Israelis announced that they had found one. Their alternative is that the Palestinians would be made citizens of Jordan, allowing Israel to keep the occupied land but not the people. That idea is preposterous, of course. The position of Jordan is precarious enough without adding a few million more non-Jordanians to the population mix. Nor would the Palestinians ever accept Jordanian nationality as a substitute for their Palestinian identity. They want their state in Palestine, not Jordan. Jews should understand that. After all, their dream of Eretz Yisrael was never about Amman either. The only reason to mention this third alternative is to demonstrate that there are really only two. That is, if Israel maintains the occupation. Both entail the end of the Zionist enterprise. Not surprisingly, a growing number of Palestinians are coming around to the position long held by the Israeli right: allowing the occupation to go on indefinitely. And that makes sense for anyone who wants to see the 1947 partition of Palestine rolled back. Rather than "Two States for Two Peoples" (the slogan of those like Tzipi Livni and Mahmoud Abbas), their slogan could be "One State for One People (Not the Jews)." The Obama administration understands that the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict harms not only U.S. interests in the region but, even more, Israel's prospects for survival. That is why the Obama administration has made it clear that it wants to stop the settlements now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could not have been more emphatic in a statement she made this week that was airtight in its opposition to settlements. She said that the United States "wants to see a stop to settlements--not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions." The administration's position on settlements has been endorsed by key pro-Israel legislators like Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry, Senator Carl Levin, House Foreign Affairs Chair Howard Berman, and the longest serving Jewish member of Congress, Henry Waxman. 
But Defense Minister Ehud Barak argues that nobody could seriously believe that a "natural growth" exception threatens peace. And he's right. No one believes that adding a bedroom in Ariel because twins are soon to arrive ("natural growth") endangers the peace process. But, unlike its predecessors, this administration understands that the "natural growth" excuse is just that. Whenever the United States asks Israeli governments to do anything to advance peace with the Palestinians, it comes up with excuses as to why it can't. Even when the Bush administration (which Israelis consider the friendliest ever) finally got Israel to accept its Roadmap, Israel added fourteen unilateral reservations. And then, when it failed to implement any part of the Roadmap, it pointed to its own reservations as justification. Of course, accepting an agreement with unilateral reservations is not acceptance at all but rather rejection. ("I accept your offer of $750,000 for my house but at $1.2 million.") In the past, the United States has accepted that approach. No more. Click here to continue reading
 
Heidi Kingstone: Africa's Forgotten Tragedy - A Cursed Woman Top
Imagine life ostracized from your community, returned to your family by your husband. Your crime? To have spent six days in labor delivering a stillborn child, the result of which has left you doubly incontinent so body fluids drip constantly, eating your flesh, causing boils and excruciating pain, making you a rotting, stinking outcast. Not only is this the fate of women who suffer from obstetric fistula in the developing world, an all but forgotten tragedy, but the women are also considered cursed. It only takes USD100 to go to one of the four fistula centers located around Ethiopia, a country the size of France and Spain combined, but it can take a farmer 7-10 years to save that much, and public transportation is not an option for a reeking female. Instead women live in hell for a condition that has all but been eliminated in the developed world. The last fistula hospital in the United States closed in 1895. (Yes, 1895). Ethiopia has the highest obstetric fistula rate in sub-Saharan Africa, a childbirth injury caused when the pressure of the baby's head crushes soft tissue leaving an opening between the birth canal, the bladder or rectum, often because the women is malnourished, too young and has lived a life of hardship. It was not surprising then that when Reginald and Catherine Hamlin arrived in Ethiopia 50 years ago, they were astounded by what they found. The Hamlins had never seen an obstetric fistula before. "To us they were an academic rarity," Catherine wrote in her book The Hospital by the River . In 1959 two obstetric gynecologists answered an ad in the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet to work at the Princess Tsehay Memorial Hospital in Addis Ababa as a husband and wife team to train physicians and midwives. The Hamlins soon changed direction and pioneered techniques for a condition that previously had no treatment. At 85, and 35,000 women later, Dr Hamlin still operates once a week at the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital which she and her husband, who died in 1993, established, an oasis of calm, beauty, hope and inspiration, run on international donations, including from Oprah Winfrey who has a center named after her. I met Dr Hamlin in Addis this week. She had just come from surgery and invited me into the reception, the tukul, rather than talk in the middle of the garden where we had met Mamietu Gashe just back from the US having received another honorary degree. More than 40 years ago she had been a patient, now she is a practical surgeon training gynecologists, having completed 1,300 successful operations. There are many of these stories. More than 98 percent of the women who come are cured. They return to their villages, find another husband, get pregnant and many return to the hospital to deliver their babies. While at the hospital the women receive training on micro-finance, mathematics, nutrition, legal affairs, all necessary skills in a subsistence economy where 99 percent of women are illiterate. About 1.3 percent of the women have a chronic condition and won't be sent back. Instead some train and become nursing aids. Nothing and no one goes to waste. The hospital believes in the holistic approach. The surprising thing is that the men here love their wives, and often have to divorce them for practical reasons - they need someone to raise the children, look after the house. "Men are sweet to their wives," says Dr Hamlin, thin and tall in her white doctor's coat in the temperate Addis morning. "They don't desert their wives because they want to but because they have to. I have had men come to me and say 'I want her to be cured because I love her.'" The picture I take of Dr Hamlin is of her standing beside a painting by and Ethiopian artist. The broken, leaking pots represent the women, some as young as 13, although child marriage is not a major issue in this part of the country. A couple of the eight dogs, who are 'on the staff' roamed around. And in the 50 years what had changed for the rural women, many of whom have to walk for two days just to get to a main road? "Only that there are more cases as the population has increased," she says.
 
Nepal Mob Beats, Strips And Parades Woman Around Top
Reports emerged this week of a heinous act of mob savagery in Kathmandu, Nepal, that occurred last week against a lone woman. According to the Times of India : Watched by fearful children and passersby, a mob of nearly 50 young men beat up a woman and paraded her naked in the heart of capital city Kathmandu with no one daring to protest even as Nepal's political parties said they were writing a new constitution that would empower women and other disadvantaged people. The incident reportedly occurred on May 20, 2009 but was not brought to wider attention until photographs (below) were sent to the blog Mysansar. Nepal has been plagued by political turmoil, with the resignation of Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal earlier this month following the reinstatement of fired army general Rookmangud Katuwa. And on May 23, Maoist Madhav Kumar Nepal became the next Prime Minister of the country, but he now faces a hopelessly divided government, the Economist reports. From the Economist : ON MAY 23rd Madhav Kumar Nepal, the communist son of a Hindu priest, became Nepal's new prime minister. He succeeds Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the country's former Maoist leader--the main protagonist in a decade-long guerrilla war--who resigned on May 4th, leaving the government in limbo. Mr Nepal has the support of 21 of the 24 political parties in Nepal's assembly; but this is scarcely democratic progress. The Maoists, who won 38% of the assembly's seats in the country's first post-conflict election last year, do not support him. Nor did Mr Nepal win either of the two seats he contested in the poll. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on Women's Rights
 
Hendrie Weisinger: The Genius of Instinct... Your Natural Tools for Success! Top
Why are we so often unhappy and unfulfilled? Why do we get into the wrong relationships, take the wrong jobs, and make the wrong choices? Why is outstanding leadership, managing change, and success so elusive? The answers and the solutions to these everyday plights are revealed by today's "scientists of the mind," evolutionary psychologists who have discovered stunning new lessons about the power of instincts and their capacity to transform lives from merely surviving to actually thriving in every area of life. Indeed, I am sure that you have heard the familiar saying, "Animals are ruled by instinct and man is ruled by reason," and that is why man is more evolved than animals. Well, forget it! My studies over the last decade indicate the exact opposite: man is more evolved than animals because we have more instincts, not less. The fact is, your instincts, or to be more exact, your instinctual tools only exist because they have been working for millions of years otherwise -- according to the scientific irrefutable process of natural selection -- they would not exist. Mother Nature has provided you with these tools to help you solve adaptive problems -- problems that every member of every generation must solve if it is going to survive, let alone thrive. For example, just as your ancestors had to find an empowering environment so they could grow, so do you and so will your grandchildren's grandchildren. Unfortunately, in these modern times, most of us are disconnected from our basic instincts and all too often cautiously rely on our rational mind to cope with life's challenges. We make all the wrong moves, all the wrong choices and the results are self defeating. We've foolishly numbed ourselves to the more essential human trait. Instinctual disconnection spells disaster at home and at work. What are these instinctual tools that help us thrive? Here is a list of your natural tools for success and the function of each: 1. Shelter Seeking instincts ...helps you find an empowering environment/relationship/job so you can grow 2. Care Soliciting instincts ...helps you protect your vulnerabilities 3. Care Giving instincts ... helps you develop the future 4. Beauty instincts ...helps you make yourself desirable to others 5. Cooperative instincts ...helps you get people to work together 6. Curiosity instincts ... helps you stay ahead of the pack These six instincts are your natural tools for success, and there is no doubt -- as will be evidenced by your own observations and experiences -- that those individuals who can use these instinctual tools in broad ways will clearly be the most successful individuals. In the next few weeks, I will be doing a series of articles that will explain exactly how you can reconnect with these hard-wired behaviors and how to strategically use the genius of your instinctual tools so you can thrive personally and professionally. Here is a preview: Personal : The genius of your instincts will help you lose weight, accelerate your learning, become more appealing to others, protect your vulnerabilities, empower your relationships, break free from destructive relationships and dead end jobs, get others to be more interested in you, empower your relationships, find the right job and the right partner. Work : The genius of your instincts will help you become a more effective manger, retain key talent, attract new clients and customers, create an inspirational learning environment, resolve and reduce interdepartmental conflicts, enhance performance appraisal effectiveness, develop more effective leaders Marriage : The genius of your instincts will help you reduce marital discord, make yourself a more attractive mate, add spark to your sex life, enhance your partner"s health, and have more fun. Parenting: The genius of your instincts will help you enable your son or daughter select the right college, stimulate your children's interest and creativity, and create stronger bonds with your children. With these and many other examples, you will be enlightened to see that your instincts are from dark and uncivilized. Quite the contrary--they are the ultimate life enhancers. Reconnect with them, listen to them, let their natural forces guide you to a more authentic and vibrant life. www.drhendrieweisinger.com More on Wellness
 
Mary Liz Thomson: Cheney's Tattered Torture Threads Top
Some people accept the premise that even if the Iraq war was misguided and mismanaged, the Bush regime was basically motivated to protect Americans. They say the events of 911 were so traumatic, and the terrorists were so crazy, that this justified what was done in our defense. The argument is the same for torture, and any other extreme policy of that era - it was all done to fight those "extremists" who were out to get us. So we shouldn't be too hard on them. Really? Because now we hear from administration insider Lawrence Wilkerson , chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, that Vice President Cheney pushed for using torture tactics in 2002, not necessarily to protect Americans from some kind of ticking time bomb attack, but in order to obtain information from an Iraqi prisoner that would link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to Al Qaeda -- information that would facilitate the selling of the pre-emptive war. As a former Secretary of Defense, Cheney had to know that torture tactics have been historically used by authoritarian regimes to get false confessions. Exactly like the false confession of spying given to Iran by the recently released American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who lied because she was afraid for her life. It's a pretty simple leap to assume that falsity was exactly what Cheney wanted. That's what the tortured Iraqi prisoner, Al-Libi, gave authorities. After nearly a month of torture, including water boarding, he finally made up a story of how Iraq trained Al Qaeda. So off we went to the United Nations with information now known to be false. But why would Cheney and the Bush regime do this? Why would these guys push so hard to get us into a war in Iraq if they weren't genuinely worried about our safety? Why would they turn themselves into pretzels of illogic for eight years, trying to explain something that never rang true - never made sense? We need to look deeper into other areas of Vice President Cheney's legendary secret dark side to try and unravel this thread. Remember Cheney's Energy Task Force? The Bush Administration fought and won multiple lawsuits to keep the records of these meetings secret. Because of the Enron scandal and Kenneth Lay's involvement in the task force, a few documents did come out. Judicial Watch did a great story at the time, in 2003, noting that plans of occupation and exploitation of oil in Iraq predated September 11. They said, "Documents turned over contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as two charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts." Just exactly what the machinations were behind those closed doors is still unknown, but who benefited is pretty obvious. The invasion of Iraq slowed Middle Eastern oil production and drove up prices; creating record profits for oil companies. Maybe they thought that the war would be just a quick geo-economic power move. Clearly it got out of hand. One of saddest aspects of the whole torture debacle is that it went viral like a YouTube video. The pictures of widespread abuse at Abu Ghraib show us that. The tone was set from the top. Cheney and Bush, the U.S. Justice Department, the CIA, and private interrogators, all created an environment that condoned many forms of torture, including rape. This despicable program was not necessary for our security. It was an illegal, deliberate attempt to distort the real intentions of the war in Iraq. It also made us less safe. The perpetrators of the torture policy, at the top, need to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished for breaking our laws. As for the oilmen, we should implement anti-trust laws, and force them to invest a big part of their profits from the last eight years in alternative energy. We could have had a lot more affordable choices by now if we'd had a real competitive market instead of a rigged one. The oil companies should also be made to cover the roofs of Baghdad with solar panels and find some decent electricians to get the place up and running again. You know the oil guys deserve it. ... So do the Iraqis. ... And so do we. More on Harsh Interrogations
 
Arthur H. Rosenfeld: Cool Roofs Protect the Environment and Save Money Top
Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu recently made headlines by calling for the widespread use of "cool roofs" as a smart way to combat climate change. The idea was oversimplified in the news media as simply "painting the world white," but that is not what Secretary Chu suggested. In fact, it is a caricature of what could be an important way to offset our carbon emissions. Secretary Chu is correct in suggesting we pursue cool roofs, and I hope more people will learn about this new strategy and consider adopting it for their homes and businesses. If nothing else, a white or cool roof will save you up to 20 percent on your air conditioning bill and it's hard to argue with that. Over its lifecycle, a new white roof costs no more than a traditional roof. The basic idea behind cool roofs is simple and recognized for centuries by the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. Dark colors absorb more heat than light colors. It's for this reason that people living in the tropics wear light-colored clothes and the same reason you don't lean on a black car on a hot day. Similarly, darker colored roofs retain more of the heat from sunlight within our atmosphere. But light roofs reflect more of that light straight back into space. Therefore, making roofs lighter in color increases their solar reflectivity and directly offsets CO2 emissions. The potential savings are both huge and surprising. My colleagues and I have estimated that replacing urban roofs with solar-reflective materials in tropical and temperate regions of the world would offset 24 billion tons of CO2. Let me explain. The average US roof is approximately 1,000 square feet and lasts for about 20 years. A white roof produces a one-time offset of 10 tons of CO2 and would eliminate emissions from one car for more than 2.5 years. Considered on a national scale, the equivalent would be eliminating two billion tons of CO2 emissions or removing 20 million cars off the road for 20 years. From a global perspective, replacing dark roofs with cool ones would be equivalent to taking half the world's cars - 300 million vehicles -- off the road for 20 years or reducing 24 billion tons of CO2 emissions for the same period. That may sound too good to be true, but it is possible. Because most large, modern cities have dark roofs, roads, and parking lots, they tend to run 5-10% hotter and create the "urban heat island" effect. Cool roofs mitigate the "urban heat island" effect and improve outdoor air quality and comfort. Light-colored roofs have other benefits. Most importantly, they lower temperatures inside of homes and businesses, thereby reducing the need for air-conditioning during the hot summer months. That translates to additional savings in CO2 emissions. Since 2005, California building standards have required that any flat roof on a new building be a white roof. The California will soon also require new residential roofs to have cool colors as a way to reduce cooling costs. In an effort to cut its power costs, the city of Phoenix recently invested $28,600 of its $4.3 million in housing funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to apply reflective white paint on the roof of a public housing complex. Simply put, a cool roof will save money for homeowners and businesses through reduced air conditioning costs. The real question is not whether we should move toward cool roof technology: it's why we haven't done it sooner. Kudos to Dr. Chu for examining the science and embracing this sensible approach in combating climate change. Dr. Art Rosenfeld is a member of the California Energy Commission. More on Energy
 
Dem Lawmakers Ask Fed To Curb Overdraft Abuses Top
Three Democratic lawmakers want the Federal Reserve to curb charges that banks levy on customers when they make a purchase with a debit card and overdraw an account. The fees can mount up quickly and cost consumers more than their actual purchases. The practice is known as "overdraft protection," and consumers often don't even know that they have the unasked-for convenience until the charges appear on their accounts. House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), along with Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke asking the Fed to strengthen planned regulation of overdrafts. "Overdraft abuses related to debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals are particularly egregious for at least two reasons," the lawmakers wrote. "First, overdraft fees triggered by these transactions, which could easily be denied at the terminal, often take consumers completely by surprise. Second, an overdraft fee charged on a typical debit card purchase is vastly disproportionate to the amount of the overdraft itself." The lawmakers asked the Fed to require institutions to obtain consumers' explicit consent before enrolling them in overdraft protection. Overdraft charges bring in big-time revenue for banks and represent one of the biggest slices of the short-term unsecured credit market -- bigger than credit card over-the-limit penalties and much bigger than payday loans. Indeed, overdraft penalties are short-term loans, and they can be even costlier than their payday cousins. Michael Flores, CEO of Bretton Woods, a consulting firm that works for both payday lenders and banks, estimates that overdraft fees brough in $34.7 billion in revenue for banks and credit unions in 2008, compared with $7.3 billion for payday lenders. Payday loans are often vilified for their high costs, and they're illegal in 15 states. The annualized percentage rate (APR) of interest on a typical payday loan is 400 percent or more, according to the Consumer Federation of America. But that's nothing compared with the overdrafts the lawmakers are targeting. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation released a survey in January 2008 that broke down the average cost of overdraft fees to consumers: A typical $27 overdraft repaid in two weeks incurred an APR of 3,520 percent, a $60 ATM overdraft would incur an APR of 1,173 percent, and a $66 check overdraft would incur an APR of 1,067 percent. Bank overdraft fees could make even a payday lender blush. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!
 
Prince Harry PHOTOS In New York Friday (PICTURES) Top
Prince Harry's long-awaited visit to New York began Friday. He visited Ground Zero, met Governor Paterson, planted a tree and spoke at the British Garden, and was followed around by a huge media scrum. Read details of his visit here or see pictures below. PHOTOS: More on Photo Galleries
 
Wilkerson: Cheney "Lonely, Paranoid, Frightened" Top
The night after Colin Powell delivered his infamous argument to the United Nations justifying the invasion of Iraq, Lawrence Wilkerson, his chief of staff, sat down and wrote a letter of resignation. It was, said Wilkerson Friday, " the lowest point in my professional and my personal life." He stuffed the letter in his desk drawer. And left it there. "If I have a regret when I go to my grave, it is that I did not resign," said Wilkerson, because of course Powell's speech turned out to be almost entirely false. Wilkerson told the story during a Friday taping of an Al Jazeera Town Hall debate on torture, filmed for the Newseum's "Fault Line" show in Washington, D.C.. The debate was hosted by Josh Rushing, former military flak and now a top Al Jazeera reporter. It also featured Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), human rights attorney Jumana Musa and outspoken former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer, who formerly ran the unit in charge of capturing Osama bin Laden. Six years after the UN speech, the group also debated Dick Cheney and his legacy -- and whether he should be prosecuted. Wilkerson told the Qatar-based news network than he thought it was impractical to charge former vice president with a crime, regardless of his own preference. He would rather, he said, see the administration's lawyers disbarred before going after "lonely, paranoid, frightened Dick Cheney." Scheuer had sharp words for Cheney, too. "I think Mr. Cheney is a despicable, reptilian person," he said, drawing laughter from the crowd. Moran apportion the blame for torture on the Bush administration generally, but Rushing pressed him to "name names." "Dick Cheney," said Moran in response. "Bybee (and) the poor lawyer who can't get a job so I'm not going to mention his name." He was referring to Judge Jay Bybee, a chief architect of the legal rationale for the Bush administration's program of torture who is now on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit; and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, still unemployed. Scheuer disagreed, rejecting Moran's effort to blame Bush and his attorneys. "He's talking about nonsense," said Scheuer of "Ultimately who's responsible for everything that goes on in the foreign policy realm is Congress. They can cut off money tomorrow." Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!
 
Palin Reveals Colbert Iraq Trip Top
Via Lindsay at Videogum comes the news that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin bleated out a tweet on her Twitter that seems to have revealed the heavily, and comedically, guarded actual destination of Stephen Colbert's upcoming trip to the Persian Gulf. So, SPOILER ALERT : Getting ready to tape shout-out for our awesome US troops serving overseas! Will be on 'Colbert Report' next month, broadcast from Iraq... Yes, so Colbert is going to...uhm...Iraq! Which is really great for the troops stationed there! But it still seems, well...a bit anti-climactic for the rest of us, doesn't it? Which is probably why the show was working so hard to drag the whole thing out, for the sake of laughs. At any rate, Videogum reports that the Report is maintaining its official stance that the trip is to "the Persian Gulf." So, let's agree to play along, and act surprised and happy when Iraq is officially revealed as Colbert's destination, okay? Besides, this being a "Sarah Palin controversy," I'm sure that we'll eventually hear about how this is all really Katie Couric's fault! RELATED: Sarah Palin Blows Stephen Colbert's Persian Gulf Trip Cover On Twitter [Videogum] [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 Stephen Colbert
 
Jon Soltz: Petraeus Says U.S. Violated Geneva Conventions - What Will Cheney and Rush Say? Top
A couple of days ago, I chronicled the quickening departure of some big military names from the Republican party, those concerned about the party moving even farther to the right a number of issues, including torture. What struck me at the time is that General David Petraeus came out against torture and for closing Guantanamo. I was stunned, however, when he admitted today that the United States has violated the Geneva Conventions . Without saying specifically how we did (though it doesn't take much imagination to figure it out), Petraeus said on FOX News: Question : So is sending this signal that we're not going to use these kind of techniques anymore, what kind of impact does this have on people who do us harm in the field that you operate in? Gen. Petraeus : Well, actually what I would ask is, "Does that not take away from our enemies a tool which again have beaten us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion?" When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it's important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those. This fits in very well with an explosive new video put out by VoteVets.org today, in which Jay Bagwell, who worked in counterintelligence in Afghanistan not only argues against torture, but says that detainees were brought in who had pamphlets portraying Guantanamo in them. One has to wonder what Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, and their crowd will say to this? In the past, General Petraeus could do and say no wrong. Now, he is not only saying torture does not work, but is saying that what the right fringe believes are only "enhanced techniques" violated international law. As Jay Bagwell in our video says so well, "The Unites States can't be a beacon of freedom and human rights and the value of law while we ignore international law." Now, we can say without a doubt that General David Petraeus agrees. Mr. Cheney? Rush? What do you say to that? More on Dick Cheney
 
Melissa Bartick: Peaceful Revolution: Why Breastfeeding Needs To Be Part of Health Care Reform Top
Lack of policy and infrastructure to support breastfeeding in the US means that breastfeeding is made unnecessarily difficult. Breastfeeding is an important public health issue, both for women and children. Growing evidence shows that longer durations of breastfeeding are linked with a lower risk of many costly chronic diseases, including obesity, a national epidemic. It therefore makes sense to incorporate the creation of an infrastructure around breastfeeding as part of health care reform. Such investment in breastfeeding is likely to have significant cost-containment benefits and may greatly help stem the spread of many costly chronic diseases. All major medical organizations in the world recommend 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding, with continued breastfeeding for at least the first 1 to 2 years of life. Growing research shows that the earlier a woman stops breastfeeding, the higher her risk of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. A 2007 government report finds that early weaning is linked to higher rates of many diseases in children besides obesity, including acute infections, type 1 diabetes, and leukemia. The California Department of Health notes that 2 to 4 billion health care dollars could be saved annually in the United States if all women breastfed their infants for as little as 12 weeks, and this does not include costs of time missed from work, or cost of management of expensive chronic diseases in children and women. Research shows that formula feeding has been shown to increase time missed from work to care for sick children, and conversely, those companies who have invested in their lactating employees have enjoyed significant returns on their investments. A 2001 study from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that the US could save $3.6 billion a year if breastfeeding rates rose to the levels recommended by the federal government, based on an assessment of just a small fraction of disease in infants. If this analysis were adjusted using the more accurate breastfeeding data now available, adjusted for inflation and raised to the medically recommended rates, the true figure would be over $14 billion per year. If the costs of childhood obesity, maternal diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease were factored in, the true cost would likely be several times that figure. There is a staggering gap between the medical recommendations and actual breastfeeding rates. The CDC shows that only 12% of US children are exclusively breastfeed for 6 months, and only 21% are still breastfeeding at one year. In addition, the government notes there are alarming disparities in breastfeeding rates across racial and socioeconomic lines, and that 60% of women cannot even meet their own breastfeeding goals. The countries that have managed to promote breastfeeding most successfully, such as Sweden, have strong central leadership and widespread implementation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative, a WHO/UNICEF certification shown to promote breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. Unlike the US, where fewer than 3% of all hospitals are Baby-Friendly, these countries have created a functional, well-funded infrastructure around breastfeeding. Often these countries have single payer health care, and recognize the intrinsic value of breastfeeding as a strategy to promote health and reduce health care expenses. There is a chasm between what our breastfeeding goals are, and any appreciable funding and infrastructure to meet those goals. The United States Breastfeeding Committee, a coalition of representatives from national organizations and government agencies, has been given the federal mandate to write a national agenda on breastfeeding. Yet, it gets very little funding and contracts with only one individual to provide administrative and support services. The federal budget has only one line item pertaining specifically to breastfeeding, which is the $20 million for peer counselors of the federal Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program (WIC). The ideal infrastructure around breastfeeding in the US would involve a central lead government agency for breastfeeding, with adequate line-item funding to sustain it, starting with at least $10-$20 million. In addition, paid maternity leave and/or worksite measures could possibly be rolled into health care reform legislation. Areas for policy improvement in Health Care Reform Maternity practice challenges: Few incentives currently exist to promote and implement the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in the US. A national infrastructure led by a lead government agency can help with widespread implementation. Access to lactation care and services: Health Care reform can mandate coverage of lactation care and services on a national level. Insurance companies vary widely as to what kinds of lactation services they will pay for, if any. Such problems with access further compounds the disparities already seen across racial and economic lines with respect to breastfeeding. WIC has a significant breastfeeding component, including some peer counselors. However, breastfeeding rates among WIC recipients are even lower than in the general population, for a variety of reasons, including worksite issues and lack of social support. A federal infrastructure could evaluate expanding successful WIC strategies to the general population. Worksite issues: Research from California, which has worksite protection legislation, shows that even the WIC mothers there have impressive records of breastfeeding duration. This demonstrates that worksite legislation is an effective way to improve breastfeeding duration. National legislation modeled on California's can be rolled into health care reform or passed separately. In addition, health insurance plans proposed around health care reform can consider discounts to those employers who have lactation programs, on-site daycare, and babies-at-work programs. Paid maternity leave would help all families, regardless of how their babies are fed. The US joins only Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, and Lesotho as the world's only countries without any form of paid maternity leave. Paid family leave has been shown to reduce infant mortality by as much as 20%. As noted by MomsRising, having a baby is a leading cause of "poverty spells" in the U.S. -- when income dips below what's needed for basic living expenses. In countries with national health insurance, such as Costa Rica, such leave may be paid for out of a general disability fund paid into by the citizenry, along with employer contributions. Thus, the opportunity exists to roll in at least a limited form of paid leave with health care reform. In conclusion, it is in the best interest of the United States to fund and build an infrastructure to support breastfeeding. Our nation faces epidemics of obesity, breast cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Funding an infrastructure around breastfeeding should be a priority that likely will reap significant returns on investment in the form of reduced health expenditures and reduced health disparities. A Peaceful Revolution is a blog about innovative ideas to strengthen America's families through public policies, business practices, and cultural change. Done in collaboration with MomsRising.org , read a new post here each week. More on Health
 
Bruce Nilles: Coal Industry Loophole One Step Closer to Being Closed Top
This post is co-written by Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign, and Lyndsay Moseley, Washington Representative for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign. Recently the Sierra Club, along with a coalition of more than 100 organizations signed a letter calling on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to move quickly to develop strong regulations for the handling and disposal of coal combustion waste to prevent a repeat event like the December 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster in Kingston, Tenn. This disaster demonstrated first hand how the coal industry has enjoyed a giant loophole for far too long. Under this loophole, they get to store billions of gallons of highly hazardous waste in a less responsible manner than household waste has to be treated. Our letter outlined 12 key principles including the phase-out of wet storage facilities all together. The coal ash storage sites like the one that breached in Kingston are a tremendous threat, as demonstrated in an extensive EPA report unveiled by the Environmental Integrity Project: "An EPA risk assessment documents excess cancer risks of up to 1 in 50 for residents living near unlined ash ponds." This week, we received a response from Administrator Jackson that outlines some of the steps EPA has already begun to take regarding coal combustion waste, including a survey of structural integrity of existing impoundments. Jackson reiterated her intent that EPA is committed to developing regulations by the end of the year, and indicated that she will consider our input in developing those regulations.  Jackson's response is encouraging, but we will need to continue to provide positive pressure to encourage EPA to develop strong regulations that will adequately protect human health and the environment.  Many of the key decisions about the regulation will be made in the coming months, and we will continue to meet with EPA officials as well as key members of Congress to enlist their support in encouraging the development strong regulations. To add insult to injury, the coal ash waste cleaned up from the Harriman site is being sent to low income communities in Georgia and Alabama .Low income communities and people of color too often bear the burden of hazardous waste and polluting industrial plants. EPA needs to stop this practice immediately.Environmental organizations and citizens alike must remain vigilant during these cleanup processes and hold the companies and government accountable for the disposal and storage of hazardous waste like coal ash. The Sierra Club will not stop pushing until this giant loophole is closed and the coal industry has to manage its waste responsibly. ( In some late-breaking great news - Ohio State University President Gordon Gee has bowed to pressure from Sierra Club and many other groups who'd sent him a letter asking him to resign from the board of coal company Massey Energy. Citizens are paying attention and holding people accountable - read more at http://www.ohiocitizen.org/campaigns/coal/gee.html . You can also see the letter that we sent to Dr. Gee here .)
 
BOX OFFICE: Workplace To Be Built From Recycled Shipping Containers Top
We've profiled homes made out of recycled shipping containers before, but Providence, Rhode Island's upcoming Box Office project is a more ambitious attempt at making use of the corrugated steel boxes.
 
Deane Waldman: The Lottery Philosophy in Medical Malpractice Top
This started when I read an online solicitation from a personal injury (PI) lawyer. He wrote that injured patients should use his firm because they get the highest awards. Is that the sole measure of success in medical malpractice cases? Does your injury during health care become your lottery ticket? • I'm going to get even with that doctor who hurt me. • SOMEONE should pay me for my woes. • My PI lawyer is the greatest: he got me a million dollars! These sentiments are understandable. We are all human. Humans need closure and a sense of equity or balance. Humans behave like homo economicus [Behavioral Economics] and seek to maximize our personal utility [Utilitarianism]. Translation: we want to get as much as we can for ourselves. In our society and with our tort system, that means fighting for dollars. When someone is injured during health care, people see an opportunity to cash in: The Lottery Philosophy. The more disfiguring the injury; the younger the patient; or the deeper the pocket, the greater chance exists for a big award. Such cases appeal strongly to the jury's sympathy. Most patients and all PI lawyers measure success not on any principle of equity or improvement but solely - like their business confreres - by the size of the award. If you think everything written above is just fine and appropriate, then stop reading. If you can get beyond the vengeance impulse and the expectation of winning the Lottery , read on. Human-ness If you accept that we are all human and that humans are by nature imperfect, what about nurses and doctors? Are they allowed to be human? No, society demands that they produce perfect results every single time time. As Chassin wrote over ten years ago, "We have created systems that depend upon idealized standards of performance that require individual physicians, nurses, and pharmacists to perform tasks at levels of perfection that cannot be achieved by human beings." The system has zero tolerance for providers' human-ness. A mistake - even if it is one wrong decision out of a million right ones - must be punished. Ordinary people are allowed to be human: health care providers are not. People are not held responsible for their personal health decisions but health care providers ARE (held responsible for patients' decisions). Causes of Medical Injuries Please do not immediately dismiss what I write because you think I may be a doctor protecting his own . Every assertion is backed by hard evidence. FACT: The most common cause of injuries during health care is ignorance, not of the provider but of MEDICINE . Medicine cannot predict individual outcomes; people respond differently to the exact same treatment regimen; and for many medical conditions, there are no good answers. FACT: Medical mistakes are common. Most cause no harm. FACT: If there is a bad medical outcome, it is assumed that the reason is a mistake. Since the doctor is the Captain of the Ship, she is responsible and therefore, she caused the injury. Most providers are automatically guilty until proven innocent , and since healthcare only rarely establishes a clear cause-effect connection, the provider can never be proven innocent. FACT: The vast majority of patients injured during health care receive whatever additional medical care they need but no compensation. FACT: The medical malpractice system was never intended to weed out the truly incompetent. It is very inefficient at "quality assurance." Even worse, medical malpractice discourages learning and thereby prevents improvement. Success in Medical Malpractice What we seem to want in medical malpractice is an-eye-for-an-eye and winning the Lottery. What SHOULD we want? Success should not be measured by who gets the most money. Success should not be dependent on winning an adversarial (tort system) contest. Success in medical malpractice should be what the public needs: 1) help and compensation for all who are injured during health care; 2) a system - not dependent on imperfect humans - that protects patients from preventable adverse impacts; and 3) better outcomes tomorrow than are possible today. THAT is what we should make the system deliver to us and that is exactly what the current medical malpractice system cannot do. The Lottery Philosophy has no place in healthcare. We cannot change people's desire to win big. We can change the system so it will get us the outcomes we need and should want.
 
Prince Harry: When Will WTC Be Ready? Top
Prince Harry bowed his head in prayer at ground zero Friday, then toured the Sept. 11 attack site and shook New Yorkers' hands in his first official visit to the United States. "Big question -- when is this supposed to be finished?" the 24-year-old prince asked two officials showing him rebuilding plans of the World Trade Center site. The prince laid a wreath of peonies, yellow and white roses at a spot on the site overlooking the Sept. 11 memorial under construction, then bowed his head for several minutes. Attached to the wreath was his handwritten note, reading "In respectful memory of those who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001, and in admiration of the courage shown by the people of this great city on that day." It was signed, "Harry." Harry spoke for about 15 minutes with relatives of four 9/11 victims in his first New York City stop. He was to visit a garden memorializing Sept. 11 victims and a veterans center in Manhattan later Friday. "It's a very kind gesture on his part," said Chip Callori, whose brother, Joseph Amatuccio, was killed at the trade center on Sept. 11, 2001. "For him to realize that this is a sad but important part of our history." The prince then visited a firehouse across from ground zero, while hundreds of New Yorkers strained for a glimpse of him behind police barricades. He broke away from his security detail to a street around the corner to look at a bronze memorial to 343 firefighters killed at ground zero. He then chatted with some tourists and shook several hands before going to his next stop. Gov. David Paterson and Christopher Ward, executive director of the agency that owns the trade center site, attended the prince's visit. "It's a very special visit," Ward said. "Obviously, the history of the United States and our partnership in fighting wars around the world makes it even more special." The prince was to formally name the British Garden in downtown's Hanover Square to honor the 67 British victims of the terrorist attack, then visit the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Manhattan to tour the prosthetics facilities and a clinic that treats people with post-traumatic stress disorder. A British soldier who lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan was to attend the ceremony in New York. Harry, the younger son of Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, is third in line to the British throne.
 
Bill Sweetland: Education in Chicago: Wayne D. Watson is the Wrong Man at the Wrong Time for Chicago State University. Top
Chancellor Wayne D. Watson is the wrong man in the wrong place at the wrong time, and a bad pick as the next president of Chicago State University. Yes, I know he's never been indicted for corruption, or cited for nepotism or even cronyism. There's never been a hint that he spent public money to, say, remodel the den in his home. But what Chicago State University needs now is radical reform, if not revolution, and the thought of Dr. Watson stepping on the toes of important local politicians, community dignitaries and the educational establishment to make Chicago State a haven and a fortress of excellence is simply ludicrous. It will never happen. At a public meeting the morning of Wednesday, April 29, the Chicago State University Board of Trustees picked Watson to be the next president of their school. The students and faculty at the meeting, all but unanimous in their dislike for Watson and his only rival for the job, Carol Adams, secretary of the Illinois Department of Human Services, booed and hooted the Broad of Trustees until chairman Leon Finney threatened to have them removed. Curiously, the new president had planned to retire as an "educator" this year. He is 63. For the last 11 years, he has been chancellor of the Chicago City Colleges, the head of a system that enrolls 115,000 students each year. He took a 24-percent pay cut to come to Chicago State from City Colleges, where he had made $300,000 a year. (He'll be making $229,000 at CSU.) He agreed to be president of CSU for at least the next five years. What do I know about Wayne Watson? I know this: He's not a man fitted by temperament or education or vocation to be a revolutionist or even a radical in educational reform. He has a Ph.D. from Northwestern in education administration, a common enough degree in a branch of educationist non-science usually used to justify paying some stunningly average, or incompetent, white man in the suburbs upwards of $200,000 a year to be a district superintendent, while young women working for that same district get $30,000 a year or less as beginning teachers in the primary grades. As chancellor, Watson gets credit in the Tribune for having "overseen the development of the new Kennedy-King College, and expanded athletics and vocational training." Wow. Those are heady credentials. What cannot be denied is that Mr. Watson is a skilled self-promoter and a man experienced at political maneuvering. If you don't believe me, just go to his Web site at www.waynedwatson.com for a quick lesson. What you'll find there is a facile, glib list of meager accomplishments which Mr. Watson has accumulated over the last decade by dint of ignoring the enormous real problems plaguing City Colleges. Problems such as the thousands of students who swarm into the City Colleges every year unprepared for even the modest intellectual demands that will made on them there. Problems such as how to overcome huge academic deficiencies of these thousands and how to make them literate and numerate in a matter of a few months, how to teach them to study for tests, take notes, pay attention in class and turn in assignments on time. Far too often, City College professors are asked to do the teaching work that should have been done in the third, fourth or fifth grade. It understandably makes them testy to be teaching the alphabet in freshman English or the times table in Math l0l. If you look on Dr. Watson's Web site for evidence of his seizing the bull by the horns, and vowing to get Chicago's high schools to turn out many more graduates who are decently schooled, you will search in vain. And this is part of Dr. Watson's political genius: In his circumscribed education administrator's world, faculty members are to blame if students flunk out of the university. How convenient -- for Dr. Watson's career. After all, it would be political suicide, would it not, if Dr. Watson were to admit that hundreds and thousands of Chicago high school graduates enter Chicago State University each year woefully lacking in the fundamentals? Mayor Daley would be offended -- after all, these are the students who graduated , who got the diploma -- and now you're telling me they're reading below a ninth-grade level and the badness of their writing simply beggars description? That they need at least two years of intensive remedial boot camp in a junior college before they can even think about applying to Chicago State University? Who do you think you are? And this accounts for the fact that Wayne Watson's plan for Chicago State calls for an upgrade in every academic pursuit, department, discipline, group and employee at the university -- except for incoming students. Yep, he's full of ideas for improving teaching -- and some of these ideas are actually good, and their being put into effect even at the august and mighty University of Chicago would be a good thing for that proud institution. But when it comes to improving what comes in through the doors at CSU to be educated, well -- here are some of Dr. Watson's ideas: He wants to expand the number of undergraduates in the Honors Program from 50 to 600. That's a 1200-percent increase. Is Dr. Watson out of his mind? This is rank inflation. This is devaluation of the very thing he's trying to make more valuable. This is the self-esteem movement gone wild. This is perverting the very ideal, excellence, he claims to want to serve. Consider this. Let's say that every year 2,500 students enter CSU as regular freshmen, i.e., freshmen who intend to graduate in four years. How many of those will actually graduate on time? Exactly one in twenty-five. That's 100 out of the original 2,500. Which leads to the question: Where will you get those 600 students who can do and profit from true honors work, Dr. Watson? If you enroll 2,500 freshmen, and you lose 2,400 of them between freshmen and senior year, how likely is it that you'll find 600 who are truly capable of doing honors work? Watson wants to "add a Great Books curriculum." A noble goal, yes. But who will sign up for it? How many will want to study a canon written mainly by Dead White Men? Do you have the faculty to teach the Great Books? Would the dislocation involved in setting up the program be too great to justify the effort? I am certain that some such idea as the following is the force compelling Dr. Watson's thinking: "All that the high school graduates of today need is to find an outstanding teacher who will inspire them to work hard. That was all I myself needed in the Sixties in college. I got bad grades in high school, but the potential was there. You can't tell me kids have changed that much." This thinking is plausible and persuasive, Dr. Watson, but it won't do. There IS a fundamental difference between you and them. First, you were well-schooled but badly educated. When you entered college, you knew how to read and write fluently, and you knew that you knew. Yes, some very few in the modern crop of Chicago high school graduates are in your situation. But unlike you, today's great majority is not only inadequately educated, but badly schooled. They lack instruction in the fundamentals. And until they get those fundamentals, there is no possible chance of their ever being "educated." You make the mistake that everyone who has never attempted to teach a teenage illiterate makes: You assume too easily that college will readily and quickly repair the rooted intellectual mistakes and deficiencies of ANY 18-year-old. And how do you plan to fight your own Board of Trustees' determination to water down the milk of college instruction even further? These misguided guardians of mediocrity want to admit high school graduates who score as low as 15 on the ACT. This is folly. The Trustees are bent on swamping student body and faculty with a flood of half-literates who will make themselves, their literate school mates and the faculty miserable while wasting huge sums of the nation's money and patience. That "system" has produced the present crisis. Only one in six freshmen at Chicago State graduates in six years right now. Yes, many of these non-graduates undoubtedly faced family emergencies, lack of money, etc. But thousands more simply recognized facts: That 20-plus years of fooling around and being systematically lied to about their unlimited "potential" had crippled them and left them unfit for intellectual work. The Rev. Leon Finney, in a May 14th Tribune story , said some silly things about a university education. He seems to think that the function of a modern university is to make its students happy, to induce them to think well of themselves. The truth is just the reverse. A good college education makes the apt student intensely dissatisfied with himself, and determined to change his ways. That is the very definition of the beginnings of a true education: to be ashamed of one's ignorance. And to realize that the more one knows, the greater the mountain of one's ignorance looms. Good luck, Dr. Watson. With a Board of Trustees like yours, and an attitude like yours, one that holds everybody but the students responsible for the students' academic shortcomings, you'll need it.
 
Gen. Petraeus: US Violated Geneva Convention Top
Gen. Petraeus joined FOX News and Martha MacCallum today and gave a blockbuster interview, but not one Fox expected. Once again, he called for the responsible closing of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay. More on Guantánamo Bay
 
11 Bizarre, Sometimes Disturbing Beauty Rituals Top
1. England: Bull-Sperm Hair Treatment Hari's Salon in London offers a bull-sperm conditioning treatment for troubled tresses. Mixed with katera root, an Iranian plant, the protein-packed concoction is believed to reinvigorate colored, overprocessed, and/or frizzy hair types.
 
Dan Froomkin: 'Playing it Safe' Is Killing the American Newspaper Top
We're all in a state of despair these days over our inability to monetize our journalism online the way we've been used to doing in print. A big part of the problem is that we're doing a really poor job of connecting buyers and sellers on our newspaper Web sites. Solving that problem should be the top priority for the folks on the business and technology sides of our business. But some of our shortcomings are purely journalistic. We need to come to terms with the fact that one reason we're having such a tough time is that we are still fundamentally failing to deliver the value of our newsroom to Internet users. Our reporters and editors are curious, passionate, and voracious discoverers and devourers of information; talented storytellers; and smart people with excellent bullshit detectors. As long as human beings are curious about each other and clamor for trusted information, there's a place for us out there. The Internet hasn't changed that; in fact it's increased the market for what we've got: The Internet highly values people who know things, who can find things out, who can distinguish between what's important and what's not, who can distinguish between what's true and what's not, and who can communicate succinctly and effectively. But we're hiding much of our newsrooms' value behind a terribly anachronistic format: voiceless, incremental news stories that neither get much traffic nor make our sites compelling destinations. While the dispassionate, what-happened-yesterday, inverted-pyramid daily news story still has some marginal utility, it is mostly a throwback at this point -- a relic of a daily product delivered on paper to a geographically limited community. (For instance, it's the daily delivery cycle of our print product that led us to focus on yesterday's news. And it's the focus on maximizing newspaper circulation that drove us to create the notion of "objectivity" - thereby removing opinion and voice from news stories -- for fear of alienating any segment of potential subscribers.) The Internet doesn't work on a daily schedule. But even more importantly, it abhors the absence of voice. There's a reason why opinion writing tends to dominate the most-read lists on our "news" sites. Indeed, what we've seen is that Internet communities tend to form around voices - informed, passionate, authoritative voices in particular. (No one wants to read a bored blogger, I always say.) If we were to start an online newspaper from scratch today, we'd recognize that toneless, small-bore news stories are not the way to build a large audience - not even with "interactive" bells and whistles cobbled on top. One option might be to imitate cable TV , and engage in a furious volume of he-said/she-said reporting, voyeurism, contrarianism, gossip, triviality and gotcha journalism. But that would come at the cost of our souls. The right way to reinvent ourselves online would be to do precisely what journalists were put on this green earth to do: Seek the truth, hold the powerful accountable, expose the B.S. , explain how things really work, introduce people to each other, and tell compelling stories. And we should do all those things passionately and courageously - not hiding who we are, but rather engaging in a very public expression of our journalistic values. Obviously, we do some of that already. But I would argue that even then, we do so in a much too understated way. We stifle some of our best stories with a wet blanket of pseudo-neutrality. We edit out tone. We banish anything smacking of activism. We don't telegraph our own enthusiasm for what it is we're doing. We vaguely assume the readers will understand how valuable a service we're providing for them - but evidently, many of them don't. Shout it From the Rooftops While we legitimately want to keep partisanship and polemics out of our news coverage, we need to stop banishing our humanity and the passions that made us become journalists in the first place. When we find a great story, why shouldn't we shout it from the rooftops? Web sites like the Huffington Post and Drudge succeed not just because they so intelligently aggregate the most eye-catching items from others, but because of the palpable joy they take in plastering a big headline across their homepages. That they prosper largely by linking to our work is not lost on us, but is too often leading to the wrong conclusions . It's not that we shouldn't let them link to us, it's that we shouldn't cede our passion to anyone. And rather than play it safe, we should be brave enough to call things as we see them, and not be limited by the conventional wisdom or political triangulation. Indeed, playing it safe is often transparently bogus - and boring, too boot. I would also argue that the notion that by hiding our voices we are maintaining political neutrality is a fig leaf. Much of what we do is inevitably political; choosing what we write about, who we quote, what ideas we take seriously and which we disdain and ignore. Making political decisions through triangulation - trying to stake out a safe middle ground between the two political parties - is still making a political decision. It's just often a not very good one. Those who argue that truth-telling has become too political for us to engage in need to reexamine why they are in this business. Our job is to expose and combat lies and propaganda, not pass them along for fear of appearing partisan. That seven in 10 Americans at one point believed that Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks is a profound indictment of our reluctance to champion the truth when it is under attack. We should consider it a key part of our job to differentiate for our readers between things that are true and untrue, arguable and inarguable. The high priests of the church-state separation may take offense, but the fact is that there's long been a confusing continuum in journalism ranging from straight news to opinion. And I suspect our hairsplitting distinctions have been lost on our readers. In the Internet age, the answer is not censoring ourselves in the name of obscure in-house rules, or trying to put inscrutable labels on everything. The answer is for us to call things as we seen them, and be up front about it. So let's keep a stable of true "opinion" writers -- whose job is explicitly to take sides and polemicize on controversial issues. But let's allow the folks on the "news" side to give members of the public the kind of analysis they're craving. That means putting things in their proper context. It means not being afraid to explain that one position on an issue is better supported by the facts than the other, when that's the case. It also allows for the advocating of basic human and journalistic values. I don't think that conveying outrage over nondisclosure of public records -- or children going hungry, or torture -- disqualifies someone from calling themselves a news reporter. In fact, it's what people expect from us -- and are probably disappointed that they don't get. The Extraordinary Value of Beat Reporters If we believe our newsrooms have value, then the greatest prizes are the reporters who know and care about their beats. In 2004, not long after I stepped down as editor of washingtonpost.com, I wrote two essays in the Online Journalism Review about my hopes for online newspapers, my frustration at the pace of change and my belief that beat reporters could be our secret weapon online. I argued then - and I still believe now - that if we can better exploit and market the deep, full-bodied understanding that beat reporters have of their areas of expertise, we hugely increase our value proposition to our readers. So we should celebrate our beat reporters, and take advantage of online opportunities to demonstrate their knowledge. Knowledgeable beat reporters aren't just stenographers, they are translators, educators, referees and analysts. If we've got people in our newsroom who really understand how a certain city or county works, or who are experts in certain policy areas, they should be sharing and showcasing their expertise in live discussions and blogs; should be answering reader questions and composing FAQs, should be on Facebook and Twitter, should be publishing and allowing readers to contribute to their beat notes, and should be writing and updating primers on key players and key issues. And much of the material they create for online should end up in the paper as well -- quite possibly instead of the dry incremental news stories they currently produce. They should essentially become the anchor for a community of people who share an interest in that beat. And by making it clear that our beat reporters are not faceless drones, but knowledgeable and accessible figures, we can reconnect with readers who may otherwise decide they may as well go somewhere else for their news. A renewed emphasis on beat reporting would be good for our newsgathering efforts overall, as well. It would remind us of the value of keeping experienced, knowledgeable, well-sourced journalists covering the same communities or topics over time; and it might encourage us to revisit our beat structures for the new era, as well as create mini-beats for urgent topics that we otherwise only cover reactively. My Five-Point Plan for Reconnecting With Readers So much of what we do, we do because it's always been done that way. But here are a few examples of how writing for a new medium can encourage us to rethink things we do that make us seem boring and aloof. • Embrace transparency. Daily newspapers are notoriously non-transparent, an old habit that at least in part stems from our lack of space. We historically haven't had the column inches to "waste" on an explanation of how we got a story, or what the problems were in reporting it, or to defend it once it's attacked. We just "let the story speak for itself." Space seems to have been at a particular premium in the corrections box. But the Internet both demands and facilitates transparency. We should be much more willing to admit errors and explain ourselves - with a guiding principle being that the more people understand how we operate, the more they will trust us. • Raise unanswered questions. The daily newspaper paradigm is all about reporting what we know. But sometimes, the most important things are the things we don't know. I would like to see reporters routinely append a list of important unanswered questions to their stories. Not only would that engage readers, but it might put more pressure on sources to divulge what they know. • Stop the stenography. Part of effectively calling the B.S. is not covering non-events. Some press conferences and public meetings don't generate anything worth writing about. Conversely, sometimes the news is not what it initially appears to be. If a source tries to sell us some outrageous spin, perhaps that's the story right there. Readers will thank us for our honestly. • More accountability journalism. Reporters should be doing watchdog stories on every beat, not just ones that have "investigative" in the title. Accountability journalism differentiates us and reminds readers online and off of why journalism deserves some of their attention every day. • Unleash our readers' voices. In addition to collecting readers around our voices, we should make sure our readers can find theirs, too. And when they are saying something worthwhile, we should make sure our readers are heard, as well. To that end, we should move aggressively to adopt best practices in mass Internet participation. Our goal should be a system that allows good ideas, relevant personal stories, informed opinions and perhaps even consensus on some issues to bubble up to the surface - and even into our reportage. In conclusion, if our newsrooms don't change, our future is pretty bleak. It's my hope that the answer is not smaller newsrooms, or reinvented newsrooms, but newsrooms where our dedicated and hard-working editors and reporters don't hold back in the name of anachronism and inertia, but deliver their full value to the next generation of readers. (This essay originally appeared, in four parts, on the Nieman Journalism Lab Web site.) More on Newspapers
 
Bristol Hotel: Body Found At Paris' Luxury Hotel Top
PARIS — French authorities are searching for the British boyfriend of a Polish woman whose battered and naked body was found in a bathtub at the French capital's chic Bristol Hotel, officials said Friday. A maid at the Bristol discovered the woman's naked body in her room's bathtub on Tuesday, a judicial official said. Her boyfriend had suddenly left the hotel in his Porsche earlier that day, the official said. The search is continuing for the 40-year-old British businessman, said a police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. An autopsy showed the woman, the 36-year-old director of a British-based Polish agricultural exporter, died from internal hemorrhaging. She had been hit on the head and back, said the judicial official, who was also speaking on condition of anonymity. The couple appeared to be having problems and had previously separated and got back together in the past, the judicial official said. They checked into the Bristol on Saturday. A hotel spokeswoman confirmed the death but declined to provide her name or further details. The Bristol, located in Paris' chic 8th district, attracts wealthy guests and celebrities. Rooms there start at euro750 ($1,057) a night. More on Crime
 
Wendy Diamond: Lucky's Summer Lovin' BBQ Do's and Don'ts! Top
Lucky and I hope you had a fantastic Memorial Day that was full of festive company and yummy BBQ food (veggie for me and non-veggie for Lucky) to kick the summer season 2009 off right! We have put together some great tips for your next BBQ extravaganza! Gathering your family, friends, and canine pals for a summer cookouts can be one of the best ways to celebrate the summer, but it is good to know some of the "Dos and Don'ts" to have a safe BBQ experience without any mishaps. Here are Lucky's top ten tips featuring her favorite summer BBQ Dos & Don'ts that she just had to share with you! BBQ Dos 1. Hamburgers and Hot Dogs: Giving in to those begging puppy dog eyes with grilled meat treats is fine -- just as long as it's in small amounts. Be careful not to upset your pup's sensitive tummy with overfeeding or too many scraps! And absolutely no baked beans with those dogs (referring to hot dogs) -- for so many reasons -- I don't know where to begin. BBQ Don'ts 2. Onions/Garlic: Definitely hold off on this veggie and herb (Lucky might shed a tear over the entire concept)! Onions and garlic would not just give Lucky bad breath, but on burgers, hot dogs, or kabobs, are toxic to both dogs and cats and can cause Heinz (not talking the ketchup condiment here) body anemia. 3. Tomatoes: A big - No! This veggie contains Atropine that causes dilated pupils, tremors and an irregular heartbeat. The highest concentration of atropine is found in the leaves and stems of tomato plants. 4. Chocolate: This might be truly my one scrumptious weakness but this treat is not a dog's best friend. Chocolate contains Theobromine, a stimulant found in the cocoa bean that is harmful to your dog and causes unpleasant, and dangerous, side effects. 5. Salt: Hold off on the salt and spice! Giving your dog too many salty snacks (i.e.: potato chips or pickles) can lead to some dogs drinking too much water. Overdrinking can lead a to a dangerous, and sometimes fatal, condition called bloat in which the dog's stomach gets too full and can twist or rupture. So hold off on the snacks and keep an eye on how much your mutt drinks throughout the day. 6. Macadamia Nuts: You'd be nutty to slip your dog a nut or two! Aloha, Macadamia nuts have been known to cause muscular weakness, tremors, bladder stones, and severe illness in dogs. In fact, most nuts are a no-go for dogs so best to keep all types away from your pup. 7. Grapes: Healthy for you, highly dangerous for your pup! This innocent snack, believe it or not, can lead to kidney failure in your pet! 8. Sweeteners/Sugar: Don't give into your dog's sweet tooth, because sugar can release insulin and lead to liver failure! 9. BBQ Chicken: Avoid giving your dog bones of any kind, because if eaten they can splinter and harm a pet's internal organs! When you just can't help but give in, simply pull the meat off the bone and only give a small amount at a time! 10. Keep the alcohol away from your dog! Though a Bloodhound Mary or a Dachsund Daiquiri might sound nice, alcohol and dogs do not mix! This seems like an obvious summer "BBQ Don't", but I have caught Lucky trying to sneak a sip poolside! Keep your drinks above paws' reach, no need to see exactly how much trouble your stumbling pup might find. Not to mention the severe health risks associated with alcohol consumption in animals. Ensuring your pup avoids foods such as the above-mentioned will help ensure a fun, safe, and satiating summer for the both of you! We're not trying to say that there are no safe ways for your pup to welcome the summer with a little indulgence. For a variety of safe and delicious (for your pup anyway) summertime treats, check out petsmart.com and go to the "Treats and Biscuits" section. Trust me, your dog will thank you! For more information about your pet's health and safety, please visit www.animalfair.com . Lucky and I spent some time chatting it up with the famous red carpet talk show queen, Joan Rivers, who was host to Randy Jones' book party for the release of his new book, The Richest Man In Town: The Twelve Commandments to Wealth ! Our conversation included talk about Joan's much loved pets, her Boston Terrier: Spike and two Norwich Terriers; Veronica, and LuLu. Rivers' claimed her pets are and always will be her biggest fans. And Lucky and I think that Rivers might return the adulation. Maybe Rivers' dogs and her Celebrity Apprentice rival Annie Duke's four dogs might get along better than their owners do? (But then again pets and owners usually share similar personalities.) The world witnessed the weekly on-air feud between the poker-playing (sing it Lady Gaga - "My poker face...") champion and the red carpet talk show queen! It was hard to miss (even Lucky barked at the tension in the air)! Things only got more heated when they were the last two standing and battled for Trump's top spot on this season's Celebrity Apprentice ! When we asked the newly winning apprentice, Joan Rivers, if Annie Duke were a dog what kind of dog she would be, Joan responded, "A Nazi hound! I call her Annie Deutsch." Lucky even ran into the man of the hour, Randy Jones, and they talked about his new book. Jones claims that he has the "richest Shitzu in town"! So, maybe his pup can hang at the dog run with Lucky and share some pointers on how to tough out this ruff economic storm. Everyone could use some tips from the big guy himself who was interviewed in the book, multi-billionaire Carl Icahn. Icahn is known for being a hard seller in business (but gets results) and often said, "You want a friend, get a dog." Hopefully, Lucky will befriend this tycoon as we can always benefit from a proven money making tip or two!
 
South Carolina Legislature Labels Former Black Speakers As 'Negro,' 'Scalawag' Top
COLUMBIA, S.C. — The official manual of South Carolina's Legislature continues to label some of the state's former politicians as "Negro" or "scalawag" _ apparent remnants of disgruntlement over Reconstruction that nobody has bothered to change. A spokesman for the state's lieutenant governor, who is eyeing a run for the top office, has sent a letter asking for an update. But civil rights leaders don't seem too bothered by the listings, which even led to portraits of the state's two black speakers being hung in the house chamber. The lists of former governors, lieutenant governors and speakers included in the nearly 700-page manual are taken from historical documents maintained by the state, said House Clerk Charles Reid, who is in charge of compiling the book. The reason why "Negro" and "scalawag" are included _ when the first woman to be lieutenant governor or a recent officeholder convicted of a felony isn't noted _ is lost to history. Historians have long noted the people who took power after Reconstruction took great steps to discredit those who ran South Carolina immediately after the South lost the Civil War. For example, the term "scalawag" was used to refer to white Southerners who supported the federal government's actions in the region. "It's a historical document. We didn't create it. It's just there," Reid said. "I don't want to impose my judgment on something that is a historical record." Staffers in Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer's office said they first became aware of the racial notation when they were contacted by a reporter from the Aiken Standard. Spokesman Frank Adams sent a letter to Reid saying the office "felt that racial designations were irrelevant" and should be deleted from future editions. Bauer wouldn't elaborate Friday and said the letter speaks for itself. The leader of the state NAACP said the listings shed light on the people who made the entries and the people who keep them there, but said the organization has more important issues to deal with, like disparities in education. "It's a not a reflection on the people who served. I'm not going to waste any time on it," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Rep. Leon Howard, the past chairman of the Black Legislative Caucus, said he would take the issue up with the caucus the next time they met. "I hope it's there for historical purposes," the Columbia Democrat said. "I don't think anyone would purposely demean African Americans openly like that." The lists served the state well about 10 years ago when a black lawmaker found out there had been two black House speakers, Reid said. "Nobody knew who they were. We actually went to that list, and because that list listed 'Negro' we were able to discover who these two African-American speakers were and have portraits made of them and hung in the House chamber," said Reid who added whether to leave the terms in the book is always up for debate. The lieutenant governors and speakers with "Negro" beside them are the only blacks to ever hold those offices in the state. Reconstruction was by far the peak of black officeholders in South Carolina, where at one point more than 60 percent of the Legislature was made up of black lawmakers. ___ On the Net: List of former South Carolina House speakers from Legislative manual: http://www.scstatehouse.gov/man09/56_FormerSpeakers.pdf
 
Employees Steal From Child Abuse Nonprofit Top
WASHINGTON — A national nonprofit that helps victims of child sexual abuse across the country was ripped off in a scam orchestrated by three of its own employees, according to federal court documents. Prosecutors say the Washington-based National Children's Alliance lost more than $50,000 in a payroll scheme run by the organization's former chief financial officer and two of his subordinates. As described in court documents, each person's take in the scheme appears based on their position in the organization. On Friday, Michael Young, a staff accountant from Washington, pleaded guilty to taking nearly $10,000 in five extra paychecks. Young showed no emotion as he acknowledged he stole the money, and he told the judge, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alan Kay, he now has a new job at another nonprofit. Last month, former finance director Sharon Martin of Upper Marlboro, Md., who pleaded guilty earlier this month to stealing eight payroll paychecks totaling more than $15,000. Young and Martin each face up to six months in prison at sentencing in August. The former CFO, Marvin Perry, is scheduled to plead guilty on June 11. He has been charged with stealing $27,114.43 in additional paychecks. The alliance's executive director, Teresa Huizar, said the theft was discovered after she took over in February 2008 and asked an outside auditing firm to review the finances. Huizar said she had no indication that employees were stealing until auditors came to her with their suspicions. "It was a very unpleasant surprise," she said. "Obviously it's a terrible thing whenever an employee betrays their employer's trust," Huizar said. "What's particularly horrible about this situation is they stole from an organization that helps victims of child sexual abuse." The alliance, based in Washington, has more than 700 Children's Advocacy Centers across the country devoted to helping children who have suffered sexual or severe physical abuse. When there are reports of abuse, the centers intervene with teams of legal, medical, social service and clinical experts. They work to stop the abuse, provide counseling and try to help prevent the continued cycle of violence of victims from becoming perpetrators themselves one day. Their work is funded mostly by grants from the Justice Department _ more than $76 million since 1995 _ with other revenue coming from membership fees. Huizar said the theft hasn't affected programing _ the former employees are being ordered to pay back what they took as part of their plea agreements _ but damaged the organization's reputation. She said the alliance has added controls to prevent future employee theft and hasn't lost any members because of it.
 
Marianne Williamson: Sexual Orientation and the Pursuit of Happiness Top
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.... These values are enshrined in our Declaration of Independence as inalienable rights of every American. Generation after generation, people have fought to get rid of the "....except for"s: except for blacks, except for women, etc. Today, we challenge the latest prejudice to raise its ugly head and seek to repudiate the fundamental American dedication to freedom and equality for all. The idea that there should be God-given life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness "except for gays" is unworthy of our national character. If someone thinks homosexuality is immoral, they have a right to believe that. But they do not have the right to change our fundamental freedoms. For many, many people, getting married is one of the most important things they will ever do in the pursuit of happiness. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the Constitution of the United States that suggests any group of people has the right to limit another, no matter how many referendums or propositions they put onto a ballot. The U.S. Constitution reigns supreme. I do not feel the upset I would have expected to feel about the recent ruling by California's Supreme Court. I don't feel the upset because it seems so clear to me that this issue is already decided in the hearts and minds of Americans. We have a new generation of citizens who can't even believe we're having this argument; for whom the inalienable rights of all people - yes, all people - is such a no-brainer that they are stymied by the fact we're even discussing this. They don't see gays as second-class people, and they don't think they should be treated as second-class citizens. In my heart, I believe that the Supreme Court of the United States is going to agree with them. God loves gay people every bit as much as He loves the rest of us, and the idea that "God shall not be mocked" means that He isn't. God is limitless in His love, and asks that we at least make the effort to be limitless in ours.
 
Savio's Family Controls Her Estate, Not Drew Peterson: Illinois Supreme Court Top
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled against Drew Peterson in a fight over the estate of his late third wife, Kathleen Savio. The high court on Thursday let stand a lower-court decision that takes away the former Bolingbrook police sergeant's control of Savio's estate and gives it to her father, Henry Savio, and sister, Anna Doman. The 3rd District Appellate Court ruled in the Savio family's favor in January. Peterson appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court in March. Peterson is charged with first-degree murder in Savio's 2004 death. He has pleaded not guilty and is held on $20 million bond at the Will County jail. Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, has been missing since 2007. Peterson has been named a suspect in her disappearance. He denies any wrongdoing. -ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Richard Stuebi: Auto-psy Top
Lately, I've been listening a lot on my iPod to a number of pop songs from the late 1960's: "Wichita Lineman", "Love Is Blue", "Everybody's Talkin'", "To Sir With Love", "Classical Gas" and so on. These are some of the AM radio songs of my youth, sitting in the back seat of the car while watching the scenery go by. My parents' cars were always big and always American - Detroit steel. Although we did own a few Ford cars, my dad generally favored General Motors products: typically Chevy Impalas in my earliest memories, escalating to Cadillacs by the end of his too-short life. In addition to the music from forty years ago, I remember most of those long-ago cars very well. For some reason, circa 1968, I vividly recall the first time I saw a seat belt, whose buckle was ornamented with the blue rectagonal GM logo, and its motto "Mark of Excellence". At the time, partly because of my dad's loyalty to their cars (how could he be wrong?), I assumed that GM indeed did make superior automobiles. But as the 1960's gave way to the 1970's, as I grew from child to adolescence, it became clear to me that Detroit autos - and GM cars in particular - were generally of very poor quality and design. During that lamentable decade (remember leisure suits, everyone?), between the cars my family owned and the cars we rented on trips, we experienced innumerable lemons during the 1970's. These cars sometimes didn't start, they would often sputter and stall, their bodies would rust through, trim pieces would be mismatched or fall off, and electronics wouldn't work. My brother's 1971 Chevy Vega was particularly laughable: it died an early death after but a couple of years and maybe 30,000 miles - the cylinder head blowing up one morning when he tried to start the engine. As a senior in high school in 1979, my parents gifted me with a rust-colored 1975 Toyota Corolla with 75,000 miles on it (a lot of miles for a car in those days). It was butt ugly, and had no carpeting. It couldn't outrun a tortoise off the line, nor outcorner a garbage truck. It was by no means a chick-magnet (or perhaps that was my problem?). But, that car didn't pretend to be anything it wasn't. It had no stupid gimmicks or features. It got pretty good gas mileage (~25 mpg), was cheap to keep running, and it was damned reliable - as hard as I tried to make it unreliable, with misguided attempts to do my own maintenance (why did I even think about rebuilding the carburetor?) As utterly unexciting as even that old beater Toyota Corolla was, I much preferred driving it to my parents' 1979 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, which had the most god-awful bordello velour bench seats and a hideous vinyl roof that started peeling off within months. That awful land yacht clinched it: I had come to intensely dislike GM products, and vowed never to own one. And, I never have, and probably never will. I even avoid renting cars from Avis and National, because their fleets are heavily populated by GM vehicles. I speak of my personal experience, but I think it is the experience of a significant segment of my generation: we walked away -- no, ran away -- from Detroit, by our choice. And even though American cars have improved dramatically, imported cars seized the opportunity of the 1970's and have consistently stolen market share for decades. The brands were broken; Detroit couldn't win us back. A radical rethink is happening now across the U.S. auto industry, pushed in large part by the Obama Administration's policy proposals, but it seems to be all too late for GM. The day of reckoning is now at hand. The talk today is of the imminent bankruptcy of GM, with outpourings of grief throughout the Midwest, as if the company were dying just now. But, in my view, the company became terminal long ago, when a whole chunk of the U.S. population turned away from American to imported cars. And, the autopsy offers interesting lessons for the future industrial economy of the U.S. Management was at fault, for designing and offering lousy products in which style trumped substance, and for dragging their feet on advancements in safety and efficiency. Labor was at fault too, for setting unreasonable wage rates, benefits packages and work rules, and for being so inattentive to the quality of the product coming off the line. It's impossible to date exactly when both management and labor started travelling down the slippery slopes, and when the decline became irreversible. However, something tells me that the late 1960's represents something of a turning point -- when U.S. industrial hegemony was seemingly permanent, and big American beasts powered by thirsty V-8's roamed the newly-opened highways across our seemingly endless landscapes. And while it's embarrassing to reflect on the outright arrogance of thinking and feeling as if we ruled the world, it's nevertheless still seductive to remember those sepia-toned days. Today's economic difficulties, and the possible death (and certain major restructuring) of GM, intensify the bittersweetness of those 1960's tunes, as we look backward in the rearview mirror to naively happier - though patently unsustainable - days. In life, I have learned to find more satisfaction when looking through the windshield, to the future. In moving forward - rebuilding the U.S. auto industry, and growing the cleantech and green energy industry at large - we need to bear in mind the sobering lessons of the demise of GM, so as not to plant the seeds of future collapse. Management teams cannot consistently insult the intelligence of their customers by offering crappy products with poor value. Labor must also keep the customer in mind, by not demanding unreasonable agreements that inflate prices or by producing inferior products. Management and labor must work together in much better harmony - and the unifying theme must be technological leadership to produce customer satisfaction. If we want to build a sustainable economy, it means we need both economic and environmental sustainability. We need sustainable businesses, producing environmentally sustainable products with an economically sustainable business model - and economic sustainability only comes when management and labor work together to serve the customer well by superior product innovation. Interestingly, many of today's behemoth energy corporations - electric utilities and oil companies - are in a situation similar to GM's 40 years ago. With little competition from alternative supply sources, token efforts to portray their meager technological diversification as leadership, and sometimes haughty disdain for their customers, their brands are weak: customers can't wait to leave once a compelling option is presented to them. When that day comes, many of today's gargantuan energy companies may follow the same fate as we're seeing now with GM. Will the U.S. public care then? Will Houston follow Detroit? Will today's kids be yearning for the songs of "American Idol"?
 
U.S. Rep. Gutierrez Profited Through Indicted Developer Top
CHICAGO (CBS) ― U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-4th) actively fronted for now-indicted real estate developer Calvin Boender, and the relationship led to personal profit for Gutierrez sources tell CBS 2.
 
Boy Chases Giant New York Pigeons, May Live To Regret It (PHOTO) Top
A small boy chases pigeons on a section of Broadway closed to cars in Times Square on May 26, 2009 in New York. Sections of Broadway from 47th to 42nd streets and 35th to 33rd streets were temporarily closed to cars in a city effort to reduce traffic and pollution and cut down on pedestrian accidents. AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) Get HuffPost Green updates on Facebook and Twitter ! More on Animals
 
Maria Hinojosa: A Supreme Sotomayor: How My Country Has Caught Up to Me Top
The phone call came just minutes after Sonia Sotomayor was nominated by President Barack Obama to the Supreme Court. Rose Arce, my former producer at CNN and a Peruvian-American told me the news. I let out an excited shout: WHAT?! Though Sonia Sotomayor had all of the qualifications, I was truly not expecting to hear the news and could scarcely believe it. Do we really have a Puerto Rican woman from the South Bronx nominated to serve on SCOTUS? Like they say on "Saturday Night Live" -- Really? No! REALLY? My friends -- accomplished lawyers, a newspaper publisher, reporters of the highest caliber -- were all asking, "Are we dreaming?" We all needed reassurance. My high-powered Latina friends are not just Puerto Rican. They are Mexican, Colombian, Cuban, Dominican and more. And now a woman just like us is being nominated for the highest court of the land. I ask again: Really? I cannot begin to imagine all the tears shed by Latinas across this country on Tuesday. This nomination, like nothing before it, has made it clear that we finally exist as intellectual arbiters in our America. We exist as powerbrokers. It is a dynamic we are working hard to grasp and own and make real. Sotomayor has made it real for all of us. All this unity notwithstanding, this nomination has the deepest and most profound meaning for my Puerto Rican sisters. Stereotypes of Puerto Rican women from NYC run so deep in our popular culture. I can still hear Mick Jagger singing , "We're gonna come around at 12 with some Puerto Rican girls that are just dyin to meet you. We're gonna bring a case of wine. Hey, let's go mess and fool around. You know, like we used to." My Puerto Rican hermanas know that on some level they have always been fighting against a pervasive image. They are brilliant and accomplished but oftentimes minimized to a mere stereotype that is disconnected from reality. What President Obama has done for men of color, Sonia Sotomayor will do for Puerto Rican women. She will forever and profoundly change the image of what a "Puerto Rican girl" really is. I myself was used to being the "first" -- the first Latina hired at NPR in Washington, DC; the first Latina correspondent for CNN; the first Latina anchor and correspondent for PBS. The new paradigm is that we are now going beyond "firsts." Just look at Sotomayor -- she's got that wavy-hair-with-the-big-earrings thing. She wears bright colors. She smiles broadly and she means it! She could be me! My 11-year-old daughter sees her on TV and remarks that Sotomayor looks "a lot like Mami's friends." I want my daughter to avoid this image popular culture has maintained about Puerto Rican women and Latinas in general. This is why I take my daughter to maligned and misunderstood barrios, and why she hangs out with me and my high-powered Latina sisters. She can see what is real and what is not; she is living it. Sotomayor's stomping ground of the South Bronx -- no stranger to vicious stereotyping -- also produced MacArthur Genius Award-winning environmentalist Majora Carter and Emmy-nominated musician Bobby Sanabria (only the beginning of a long list of erudite South Bronxers). In the true South Bronx, the sounds of conga playing in the middle of the night are welcomed as a sign of joy and passion, not bothersome noise. The true South Bronx is populated by bustling families and kids on their way to work and school who for decades bravely endured and pushed through the drug dealers and users who flooded the neighborhood. That is the essence of who Sonia Sotomayor is. She pushed through. She stayed focused. She worked hard. She never closed the doors on herself, like so many strong women of color sometimes do. And now her opposition will try and paint Sotomayor as a radical, in part because of the neighborhood in which she grew up. But the Republicans will be in a real pickle if they alienate Latino voters. Sotomayor will also hopefully break down stereotypes Mexicanos and other Latinos have about Puerto Ricans. Those groups listen to The Rolling Stones too. This Friday night I will go to a Cuban playwright's brownstone in Spanish Harlem, where we will listen to El Gran Combo and toast a Latina who has "made it." My daughter will be with me. And while I remain stunned by the shocking reality of my country so quickly changing to reflect me and my reality, I am sure my daughter won't have it. My America was always, at best, a place of hopeful change. In her America, a black man can and does become president; a Latina can and does end up on the Supreme Court. And so this is how it feels to be living in a time of change -- feeling the bumps of transformation like sudden conga beats in the night, beats that surprise at first, but ones I ultimately welcome with joy and hope. Maria Hinojosa, an award-winning journalist and author, joined NOW on PBS as Senior Correspondent in 2005. A former CNN reporter, Hinojosa also serves as anchor and managing editor of National Public Radio's Latino USA, a weekly national program reporting on news and culture in the Latino community. Among her many awards and honors, Maria won a 2009 Gracie Award for "Outstanding Reporter/Correspondent." More on Sonia Sotomayor
 
John Marshall: North Korea Fires Another Missile No One Cares About Top
YEONPYEONG, South Korea - North Korea test-fired another missile Friday, but couldn't get anyone in the U.S. government to get upset, make a speech or even call it a "crisis." "What the hell is this?" said North Korean President Kim Jong-Il. "The Cuban Missile Crisis generated fear, books, movies and Bob Dylan songs. We don't even get the same coverage as Jon and Kate." Military analysts say the weapon is a new type of ground-to-air missile that has a range of up to 160 miles, but is unable to penetrate Western media. North Korea claimed that the U.S. has plans to launch a pre-emptive strike to overthrow its communist government, to which the U.S. replied, "Yeah, right," before losing interest and doing something else. Talks at the U.N. Security Council over possible sanctions were moving slowly. "That's because we don't give five shits," said a member. "We're working on everything from terrorism to global warming. Kim Jong-Il's cries for attention are as out-of-date as his Roy Orbison hair and John Denver glasses." China's reaction was strongest, as, for the first time ever, it strongly, forcefully, pulled some crabbing boats out of the area. The latest missile was the sixth since Monday's nuclear test, but despite North Korea's best intentions, it might have to be its last, for a while. "We're not made of missiles," said Kim Jong-Il. "There's only so much sabre-rattling we can do. Can't we get mentioned somewhere ? Since when are nuclear weapons not on the same radar as Susan Boyle? Any more of this treatment and we're not firing anything." Graphic: Rick Majestic, for www.tyrannosaurusrocks.com More on North Korea
 
Jim Luce: Traveling as Press vs. NGO Head: Same Adventure Top
Chennai, India. For ten years, as the founder and C.E.O. of Orphans International Worldwide , I have flown from Haiti to Peru to Guyana in the Americas, Hong Kong to Indonesia to Sri Lanka in Asia, and Togo to Ghana in Africa. Associated with the U.N. Department of Public Information, Orphans International Worldwide work took me away about one week each month for a decade. Sixteen trips to Port-au-Prince, eight to Jakarta. Bucharest. Lome. San Salvador. Santo Domingo. Mexico City. I traveled on a business visa, doing the 'business' of international development. Helping orphaned children. Having had several brushes with death along the way, most frequently in Haiti, I have been careful to wear my United Nations' NGO identity tag at all times. The most eventful trips were to Aceh, Indonesia and Galle, Sri Lanka after the Tsunami, and Haiti after Hurricane Jeanne wiped out the city -- and people of -- Gonaives. For the first time, writing for The Huffington Post , I am traveling as a journalist. I have a press visa from the Sri Lankan government. I have my laptop and trusty Nikon in hand. So far, however, traveling as a writer is exactly the same as traveling as an NGO founder. Travel restrictions on this trip are slightly easier than they have been post 9/11. I was able to carry cough syrup onto flights through JFK, Paris, and Bangalore. Swine Flu is the new bogey man, and I have had to sign health affidavit after health affidavit that I am 'clean.' It is maddening that in the U.S. and Europe we have no access to free Wi-Fi in airports, which is taken for granted in Asia. In Bangalore, one needs to text for a one-hour pass code. In Singapore and Tokyo, it is simply free. Air France has been corporate sponsor to Orphans International travel. Air France has supported my trips, and I have flown as their guest for years, building my network of orphanages. As a journalist, I am on my own, accepting a business-class upgrade in India for $20. Dubai is an incredible airport, built across the dessert. Dubai is surprisingly central to my world, with Europe above, Africa below, and Asia just beyond. Dubai's airport offers carpeting and hundreds of people simply sleep on the floor waiting for their next flight. Singapore offers beautiful koi ponds and wonderful and inexpensive transit hotels. Amsterdam and Frankfurt offer transit points as nice as Paris, and I have passed many times through Narita on my way to Indonesia. My travels in South and Central America have been less fulfilling, perhaps because I have so little appreciation for Miami and Dallas. Haiti and the Dominican are just a hop and skip away from JFK, but Mexico, Colombia, and Peru are hardier destinations from New York. The airport in Guatemala City is always a unique cultural experience. I am happily sitting in Chennai's new airport as I write this. My last trip to Chennai was far more exciting. I spent the night in police custody. Long story short: intern tasked with booking my trip missed that I needed transit visa to pass through India to arrive in Sri Lanka. Indian Immigrations officials, however, did not miss that fact. The lock-up was luckily nicer than one would have guessed. When I travel with Orphans International, I am focused on how to provide the best possible services to orphaned children with as little funding as possible. Orphans International probably does more with a dollar than any other international orphanage network. On this trip I am focused on how I will best witness and communicate the needs of a quarter million Tamils forced from their homes in the north of Sri Lanka by the decades-long conflict, now living in refugee camps. What do they need urgently, and who can get it to them? The author holds ID's from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the U.N. In both roles -- NGO head and journalist -- I am focused on how humanity can best be served. In my position with Orphans International, I see how best my organization can help the world. As a writer for The Huffington Post , I shall aspire to see how best the world can help its own people. More on Swine Flu
 
Craig and Marc Kielburger: Fighting Drugs by Focusing on Demand Top
It seemed strange so many people finished their meals together with Colombia's former-president César Gaviria. We sat next to him at a dinner in the Latin American nation when he invited us outside to continue our conversation. We pushed aside our plates and slowly rose. So did another third of the room. We walked out discussing Gaviria's role in the War on Drugs. He had fought the powerful Medellin Cartel led by the infamous Pablo Escobar. During his presidential campaign, candidates had a better chance of being assassinated than elected. Gaviria felt that sting personally. His sister was murdered in 2006. That's when it became clear the people walking among us weren't a coincidence - they were a security escort. That's also when Gaviria explained the drug trade might be Latin America's issue, but it's North America's problem. From cocaine in Colombia to opium in Afghanistan to marijuana in West Africa, the drug trade is a dangerous world. Since mid-January, we felt this violence in British Columbia's 20 gang-related murders. These incidents are rightly appalling but only a taste of what Latin America and other war-torn nations have experienced for decades. Gaviria now advises Mexico on dealing with its 10,000 drug-related murders since 2006. That's how he's come to the conclusion the only stability offered in this violent business comes from North American demand. Our strategy in the War on Drugs has traditionally been to cut off supply. Aircrafts locate coca farms and drop a powerful herbicide on the plants. This successfully kills it and everything else including legal crops like bananas, coffee and other livelihoods of poor, rural farmers. Despite treating over 130,000 hectares in 2005 alone, the CIA says that growers began to aggressively replant new terrain virtually canceling out earlier efforts. It's the steady North American demand that makes this replanting so lucrative. The annual profit for a hectare of coffee, one of Colombia's main exports, is estimated at about $500 while coca will bring in $5000. For one young woman, that price difference makes the decision of what to plant a no-brainer. "The farmers are thinking, 'My kids are starving,'" says Carolina Arcila, a 26-year-old Colombian refugee. "If someone tells you to plant a legal crop and get paid nothing, why would you?" Unlike students in Canada or the United States, Arcila explained that growing up in Colombia she never saw cocaine in her high school. She did, however, see its effects. As a teenager, she met returned child soldiers who told her about the brainwashing tactics of the guerrilla armies. She also spoke with individuals who had been kidnapped. One man was tied to a tree for seven months and guarded by a group of soldiers her own age. Two weeks before her family fled to Canada as refugees, three of Arcila's school-aged friends were kidnapped. All atrocities in the name of the drug trade. But, it wasn't until Arcila got to Canada that she actually saw the narcotic. That's when the bubbly young woman with a seemingly permanent smile got mad. "Do you understand that when you buy cocaine here, you're giving money to war?" she asked. "It's the same as just handing them a gun." But guns are exactly the strategy we've taken in the past - and it's the strategy we're currently working with. In April, President Barack Obama's requested $80 million for Black Hawk helicopters to help Mexico fight its growing drug cartels. As Gaviria stepped into his bullet-proof SUV, that's where his exasperation came out. The man is understandably tired. Tired of watching his people die. Tired of the negative portrayals of his country. Tired of no one taking responsibility for our demand. That's where the long-term solution lies. He's just tired of waiting. More on Colombia
 
Jim Jaffe: Joblock-- America's New Epidemic Top
American workers are apparently a very restless bunch. There could be a political upheaval if Washington doesn't act quickly to guarantee health insurance to all, regardless of who employs them. That's the gist of a hysterical (in two senses) Reuters story this week concluding that "healthcare costs handcuff entrepreneurs." The bottom line is that as more than three of four insured workers are chained to their cubicles, the victims of job lock that keeps them unhappily employed because they fear the loss of insurance coverage. At minimum, the figure is only one in three, depending on which uncited study you choose to rely on. This could be big news for forces that want to cut the tie between employment and health coverage - a disparate group including those on the right who thinks families should view the selection of insurance as not unlike a jaunt to Best Buy to select a new television and those on the left who think the government should provide coverage to all. Perhaps this is yet another harmonic convergence of the political extremes. The story didn't get the play it deserves because it is somewhat subtle. It summarizes studies indicating that 20% -50% of workers are inhibited by job lock. These numbers strike me as astoundingly high, but they understate the magnitude of the purported problem. That's because less than two-thirds of workers are covered by employer-purchased insurance (the government estimated that 64% of those working for big firms get it and figures are likely lower at smaller firms). When you mash those figures together (multiplying after assuming that only those with coverage worry about job lock inasmuch as the others have nothing to lose), it appears that the minimum number the incarcerated is 31% of the covered population and the maximum is 78%. That's a whole lot of handcuffs subverting a potential entrepreneurial explosion. Things may have moderated a bit as unemployment rises. On the other hand, if health reform permitted these people to leave their current positions, it could create enough new openings to eliminate unemployment entirely. Perhaps we could even use the money now wasted on unemployment checks to subsidize health insurance instead. It is also worth mentioning that nearly all of these incipient entrepreneurs could quit and continue their current coverage for more than a year - seemingly an optimal outcome - if they simply elected to pay the premiums as the COBRA program permits them to do. Of course, that doesn't guarantee the ability to continue coverage five years out, but there's an equal risk that they won't still have their job by then in any event. The average time spent on the job hovers around five years. If you believe these numbers, we're on the cusp of a political revolution if Congress fails to enact legislation that will quickly provide non-job-related coverage to every American. But few politicians believe these numbers. I don't either.
 
Chrysler Bankruptcy: Lee Iacocca Losing Pension, Car Top
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Lee Iacocca, the car executive credited with saving Chrysler from bankruptcy in the 1980s, is to lose a big chunk of his pension and a guaranteed life-long company car due to the U.S. automaker's bankruptcy filing two decades later. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli told a U.S. bankruptcy court on Thursday that Iacocca's pension would be among the obligations Chrysler will no longer have to pay if it gets bankruptcy court approval to sell itself to a "New Chrysler" to be owned by its union, the U.S. and Canadian governments and Fiat SpA (FIA.MI).
 
Lose The Dryer, Save The Money Top
Guest post by Chelsea Green's Makenna Goodman: Behold the classic domestic duos of the past: Ricki and Lucy. Ozzie and Harriet. Bennifer. Tom and Jerry. Bush and Cheney. And most important of all, not to mention the most seriously detrimental to human society—um, make that second most serious—the washer and the dryer. Readers may doubt the importance of separating the latter, but a divorce must be arranged. The dryer, as it were, is an energy-sucking, money-vaporizing, obsolete object that has served its last purpose. Feel free to recycle it, make better use of it, or fill it with water and use as a pleasant place for baby ducks to frolic in your yard. But seriously, if you want to save money this summer, you may have to part with your Maytag and those handy Bounce TM sheets, and embrace other ways to dry your clothes. According to Stephen and Rebekah Hren, authors of The Carbon-Free Home: 36 Remodeling Projects to Help Kick the Fossil-Fuel Habit , throwing out your dryer is a wicked way to save money this summer. Electric clothes dryers are a colossal waste of energy. They often draw around 6,000 watts. Six thousand! This is more than a typical heat pump or electric water heater, usually thought of as the hogs of the household. Simply put, you should not use this appliance. Gas dryers are more efficient because they use no electric-resistant heat, but they can still draw around 720 watts. That's a lot, equivalent to about 60 compact fluorescents (not to mention the energy of the gas). You should plan on getting rid of electric heat dryers and hopefully gas-fired dryers as well if your climate allows. Solar clothes drying shows this energy source at its finest. It's a great example of simplicity combined with effectiveness. Hang up something wet in the sun, come back in a few hours, and voilà, it's dry, clean, and fresh smelling. Like everything, having the proper tools to access this resource goes a very long way in making sure it's effective and easy to do. Some of this depends on your climate and your own personal habits. We realize some parts of the country have very little sun in the winter, but if you set aside a bit of room, even in a closet or a spare bedroom, clothes hung on racks will dry fairly quickly in a heated house. Just for the record, I am not an eco-psycho. I am a recent convert to the drying rack, and I choose to keep it covered in wet clothes, by a breezy window facing the sun. Actually, to be honest, I was sort of forced to shun the electric dryer—my boyfriend won't let me turn the damn thing on. He's a better man than I, with weightier morals. So yesterday while he was out of town, I cheated. I gathered together a bundle of cut-offs, sweatpants, and dirty socks and thought, Oh yes. Now's my time. I'm gonna get my clothes real warm and dry. But as I began to open our dryer (which I'm about to get rid of), I caught sight of the indoor drying rack, waiting in the sun. I remembered the last batch of laundry, and how it smelled like clean grass. I thought of my electric bill. About my rapidly depleting checking account. The choice, in the end, is actually pretty obvious, and after a couple times using solar drying techniques (clotheslines included), my lazy reflex wore off. I now see it as meditating and investing in my solvent future. Out it goes! Here are some tips on solar drying from the Hrens. Try these at home! Retractable clothesline: An excellent tool for the space-constrained. These come in a variety of lengths and are very simple to install indoors or out. Consider putting these inside near a passive solar wall. The sun will dry the clothes and raise the humidity of the room in wintertime, making it more comfortable inside. Indoor drying rack: Avoid the cheaper models, as they can fall apart rather quickly. These are generally collapsible and can stand alone or be wall-mounted. I recommend having at least two. Being able to place these in sun or near a woodstove will greatly speed up drying time in the winter. Outdoor drying rack: If you've got the room outdoors, a permanent outdoor rack is a very effective method for drying clothes, even when the temperatures barely get above freezing. It requires some time to mount properly, but it should function well for decades. Clothespins: These are a necessity and come in two varieties: split or spring. Determine your preference and make sure you have plenty. Hanging clothes from pins rather than folding them over the line greatly speeds drying time and greatly reduces the odds that any clothing will fall off and get dirty. Folding clothes generally means two sides of the clothing are not exposed to the air at all. This more than doubles drying times. Makenna Goodman works and blogs for Chelsea Green Publishing , a leading community providing books and dialogue on the politics and practice of sustainable living. More on Green Living
 
Obama In Cairo: Send Us Your Photos Top
President Obama will travel to Cairo, Egypt, to give his first speech in the Middle East on June 4 . This highly anticipated event has been billed as an attempt by Obama to repair U.S. relations with the Muslim world. Will it work? Help the HuffPost cover this historic trip. Are you in Egypt? Grab your camera and take photographs of how people are preparing for the visit. Send us photos of security preparations, Obama paraphernalia and rallies. Show us how people are celebrating or protesting Obama's trip. Send your photos to worldsubmissions@huffingtonpost.com with OBAMA CAIRO in the subject line. Include your name and where you are from. Be sure to crop all photos to 550 x 400,150 resolution. Include captions explaining the photographic content. Sign up here to participate in other HuffPost World projects. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on Egypt
 
Jim Luce: In Sri Lanka: On the Streets of Colombo Top
Colombo, Sri Lanka. The euphoria remains on the balmy streets of Colombo. One week ago the Tamil Tigers were at last defeated -- on the beaches of the north -- after 26 years of terrorism. Their human hostages have escaped. The Sri Lankan flag flies now from virtually every tuk-tuk (three-wheeled taxi) and every building. Children grin broadly as they come home from school, and on this Friday afternoon, the small Muslim community heads for the city's mosques. The tuk-tuk taxis all display Sri Lanka's long flag. I can easily identify the Muslim community here. I cannot tell Sinhalese from Tamil, to me they are all -- Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist -- Sri Lankan. Last week, in his speech announcing the end of the conflict, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksha announced that from now on one should differentiate between Tamil and non-Tamil - all were Sri Lankan. That is not to say that Tamil culture is not respected here. In fact, all signs in this nation are posted in three languages: Sinhalese, Tamil, and English. Sri Lanka announced its independence from Britain in 1948 and became a republic in 1972. Signs in Sri Lanka are written in Sinhalese, Tamil, and English. I have been coming to Sri Lanka for several years, working to help children whose families were washed away by the Tsunami in the south, outside Galle. The fear that I have felt on past trips -- dripping along with sweat from Sri Lankans on the street --- seems to have disappeared. I had been warned never to ride the train south because of the frequent bombings. I look forward to my first ride. The train from Colombo to Galle is now safe from bombs. As I pass the national revenue building here in the capital, swathed in blue plastic sheeting from a recent suicide airplane attack, the people on the sidewalk seem now unafraid. The defeat of the Tamil Tigers was almost unthinkable. One of the strongest terrorist organizations in the world, it was able to create its own army, navy, and even air force. Colombo was bombed repeatedly not by missiles, but by low-flying Tiger pilots. Even disabled vendors on the street proudly fly the flag. I have arrived at Colombo's airport they day after it was bombed by the Tamil Tigers. Our own FBI ranks the Tigers along with Al Qaeda. Security runs tight still. An estimated 5,000 Tamil Tiger fighters were active last month. Perhaps 1,500 died in the fighting. Stores large and small fly the national flag as well. Although their leader was killed, an estimated 3,500 other terrorists remain either in refugee camps to the north - or mixed in to the general Sri Lankan population. In the 24 hours that I have been here with my Sri Lanka colleagues, we have been pulled over for identity checks by the police about six times. So much for profiling Tamils - my colleagues are Sinhalese. I have many Tamil friends as well, here in Sri Lanka and around the world. Most of them are relieved that the fighting that they have known their entire lives is now over. A sadness that a Tamil state does not exist lingers with my friends here, in India, and Malaysia. But none of my friends supported the violence. There are tens of thousands of Tamils from Sri Lanka who have moved overseas with refugee status - in Europe and North America. A Tamil Hindu temple with Sri Lankan flags flying on the street. As Sri Lanka is a nation in development, most of these refugees have enjoyed greater prosperity in London or Toronto. They have been particularly vocal against ending the conflict, as their status could change. What impresses me is the national effort of the average Sri Lankans to provide water, clothes, food for the estimated 250,000 people in the refugee camps. An unprecedented effort has taken place in the last week as the people of Sri Lanka have reached out to their northern neighbors, so many now displaced. The speed of the Sri Lankan government in bringing electricity, water, sewage facilities into the camps - even banks and schools - has been impressive. In less than a week the basic needs of so many have been met. Flags are draped across the intersections of Colombo. There is so much more to do. The international community must focus on helping Sri Lanka stabilize, adequately provide for all those displaced until they can be reunited in their home towns. In fact, their home towns often need to be rebuilt. As founder of Orphans International Worldwide , I would be willing to create a family-care center in the north with adequate international funding. Orphans International is an interfaith, international effort to raise orphaned children in culturally-appropriate environments with adequate nutrition, education, and love. More than anything else now, the international community must now come together and support Sri Lanka and its openness and commitment to diversity and prosperity. I am willing to commit my organization for the sake of Sri Lanka's children - Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem, and Christian. Who's with me? Who will stand for the united people of Sri Lanka? Photos by Indika Bandera. More on Sri Lanka
 
Joel Brokaw: Bill Cosby's "Bar Mitzvah" in Cleveland Top
I didn't need to go to Cleveland, Bill Cosby told me on the phone. He was going there to speak at a conference for parents put on by the local school district to deal with the high school dropout crisis. As I have done over the past several years, I helped put together the logistics for the event on his behalf. The phone conversation was wrapping up. I thanked Mr. Cosby. As a personal aside, I told him I was grateful not to go to Cleveland because the date coincided with the Bar Mitzvah of my best friend's son. Instead of ending with "That's fine, glad it worked out," Mr. Cosby said something rather unexpected. "That's quite fitting that you'll be doing that at the same time as I'm speaking," he told me with a heartfelt intensity. "Because I'm going to Cleveland for the very same purpose." Earlier in the conversation, he asked me to fact check a few things in preparation for the conference. He wanted to know, among other questions, whether African American youth were being seriously taught the history of their ancestors in school. A few days later, I called him back and told him what I learned. The answer I got back was "not much." The schools were bound to the state-approved curriculum. African American History was offered as an elective. There were some extra-curricular enrichment events from time to time, the administrator told me. As I had done on many previous occasions, I read off the local statistics the school district and city had provided. Crime rates remained high and steady from last year to this. What stood out, too, was the markedly pronounced rate of sexually transmitted disease among the youth. "Where is the accountability?" Mr. Cosby wanted to know. He said he would be very interested to hear the answers to that question from city officials, school leadership, and the parents and young people themselves. There are probably no simple solutions to this question or any of the other problems that face young people today of all racial, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. But at this Bar Mitzvah, the first one I had ever attended despite my Jewish ancestry, I suddenly saw Mr. Cosby's dots connecting more profoundly than after our phone conversation. As I watched and heard my friend give blessings to his son, I got it loud and clear what Mr. Cosby meant. I knew that the message in the temple was one and the same as what the parents and children heard in Cleveland. With his hand on his son's shoulder, my friend Alan Schwartz told thirteen-year-old Adam, "Wherever you journey, may your steps be firm, and may you walk in just paths and not be afraid. May your hands build and your heart preserve what is good and beautiful in our world. May the voices of the generations of our people move through you. May you know there is a rich heritage to which you belong and from that sacred place you are connected to all who dwell upon the earth. What I wish for you, my son, I wish for all the children."
 
Bank Of America's Luxury Hotel Top
As Bank of America prepares to start repaying TARP dollars, it's also gearing up to open a new hotel across the street from its corporate headquarters. And it's not a Holiday Inn. Five months from now, the nation's largest bank is scheduled to open a new, eco-friendly Ritz-Carlton in a sleek 18-story building. More on Bank Of America
 
Modiba: Cuban Musicians Help Thaw US-Cuba Relations Top
This is HuffPost World's regular feature that highlights interesting musicians and musical trends around the world. Know of a great musician doing ground-breaking work outside the United States? Send us your ideas for bands to profile or up-and-coming musicians to follow. Please fill out this survey form. By Marlon Bishop As President Obama begins a new, more diplomatic chapter in American foreign policy with plans to talk to troublesome regimes in Iran and Syria, pundits are keeping busy speculating on how the President will handle the fifty-year old family feud with nearby Cuba, one of the touchiest subjects in American politics. Cubans in Havana and Miami alike are watching for signs of a thaw in the months to come. One such sign perhaps came in February, March, and April of this year, as Cuban music guru Juan de Marcos led his Afro-Cuban All-Stars on a breakneck tour through 18 U.S. states, playing vintage Cuban sounds and setting bodies into motion from college auditoriums to hallowed city concert halls. The All-Stars were the first Cuban band to perform in the United States in six years, since George W. Bush tightened the U.S. embargo of the communist island nation, further restricting travel for Cuban-Americans and cutting off the issue of artistic visas for Cuban performers. Other cultural exchanges, such as study abroad programs in Havana, were canceled as well. Before the 1959 Cuban Revolution turned the island into a Cold War battleground, there a rich musical relationship between the U.S. and Cuba. Cuban musicians absorbed ideas from jazz and swing, and Cuban mambo was at the top of American pop charts. The Afro-Cuban All Stars are a nod to that time. More of a collective than a band, they are made up of a revolving cast of virtuosos and dedicated to reproducing the blaring big-band sound of son montuno and guarija from 1950s, often considered the Golden Age of Cuban music, when listeners from Paris to Tokyo waited for the newest cuts out of Havana. Their leader, Juan de Marcos Gonzales, is an impressive figure in Cuba's roots music renaissance. Beginning in 1976, he led Sierra Maestra, one of the first bands of his generation to play old-school Cuban music. However, De Marcos is best known for being the mastermind behind the Buena Vista Social Club sessions, which united veteran musicians of the older generation and propelled Cuban music once again into the international spotlight with the biggest selling record in the island's history. On stage with the Afro-Cuban All Stars at New York City's Town Hall, De Marcos is at ease and enjoying himself, effortlessly conducting a sea of brass and percussion while keeping time on guiro, or wooden scraper. With a head full of grey dreadlocks tucked behind a black beret, he presents another image of Latin bandleader far from the smoldering hair gel-heavy look long adorned by the salsa romantica stars that have dominated Latin pop in recent decades. more Paris Left Bank than Copacabana. "Guys who make it through our conservatories have a really high intellectual consciousness," says Marcos, who has a degree in hydraulic engineering and designs in a few damns in Eastern Cuba on top of his music training. Although the Cuban economy has steadily unraveled since the fall of the Soviet Bloc, its famed education system continues to be the finest in Latin America. "Cuban conservatories are the highest class. We had the Russian style of teaching, symphonic. The level of playing is really high - you can find guys 17 years-old who are on the level of the great players of the world, they just don't have anywhere to play." Cuban has long been a sort of mecca of Latin American music, the holy homeland of rhythms that were later exported around the continent. In the 19th century, the homegrown habanera was the sound of the Spanish Americas. More recently, Cuban styled interpreted by largely Puerto Rican bands in New York gave birth to salsa, the pan-Latin pop style par excellence. "Cuba is at the center of Latin American music because the spirit of Africa is absolutely alive here," says De Marcos, who points a rich mixture of different African and European cultures that came together on the island. "All of these guys got together and there was a kind of magic, a syncretism. Cuba is country with 12 million people and over 100 different styles of popular music. The diversity is amazing." According to De Marcos, roots music in Cuba was disappearing in the early 1990s until the success of the Buena Vista Social Club restored a sense of pride in Cuba's musical heritage. "In musical terms, its nothing outstanding, it's the same music we've always played," says De Marcos. "There have been hundreds of albums at the same quality or better. But Buena Vista came out in the right moment." With American blues guitarist Ry Cooder as one of the musicians and producers on the album, Buena Vista was a rare and very public moment of cooperation between Cubans and Americans, breaking the taboo between them. De Marcos believes this was part of the album's appeal. "But I think, what made the Buena Vista," says Marcos, "was the touch of the hand of God. It was something unbelievable." Buena Vista was one of the first ways that Americans began to re-encounter Cuban culture. Following the album's tremendous success in 1997, De Marcos toured in the U.S. as both director of the Afro-Cuban All-Stars and the Buena Vista Social Club, regularly packing houses until he new Bush rules brought the new era of Cuban-American cultural exchange to a screeching halt. With new leadership in both Washington and Havana, The All-Stars' 2009 tour comes at a time of optimism for improved relations between the two nations, though with Bush's visa restrictions still in place during the tour, De Marcos had to assemble a band entirely out of Cuban musicians who hold non-Cuban passports. On April 14, just days after the end of the All-Star's tour, President Obama issued an order that loosened policy on Cuba, allowing Cuban-Americans to travel as often as they want between the U.S. and Cuba and lifting restrictions on remittances and gifts sent to the island. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama thwarted conventional wisdom by showing that it was possible to win Florida's electoral votes without taking a strong anti-Castro stance to appease conservative Cuban exiles. Many expect further reforms as his term progresses. "I think the new president is a great guy, really smart, and he's going to fix all this bullshit," says De Marcos. "Step by step, he has to get approval from Congress, but in the end I think he is going to end the embargo, and America and Cuba can come to a normal relationship, of mutual respect." He points out that after 50 years of embargo, Castro remains in power. Many people suffered as a consequence, yet the embargo never produced enough pressure to force the regime out of power. "Of course, Cuba will change too, it must change, because we really can't continue under the conditions that we are in right now," says De Marcos. "But I think the music is going to keep alive. My biggest concern is that after certain economic changes in Cuba, that the music will turn too commercial. But I think we have the power to keep the roots. I am confident in that." De Marcos envisions a Cuba opened up to free enterprise, with a high tax burden and Scandinavian-style socialism, but where you can still get find a son montuno dance party in the street. With Cuban education and talent, he believes Cuba can become the Singapore of the Americas. "My hope is that the change should go step by step," says De Marcos, "because a drastic change could be a nightmare. And it will change. I don't think I'm going to see it, but maybe my granddaughter will." Read other Global Music Corner stories. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on Cuba
 
Police Seize 2,500 Pounds, $18.5M Worth Of Marijuana Top
Marijuana with an estimated street value of roughly $18.5 million was seized by Chicago police during a month-long investigation that also led to four arrests.
 
Eric Alterman: Think Again: Dick Cheney's Post Presidency Top
Crossposted with the Center for American Progress Eric Alterman, Danielle Ivory Former President George W. Bush recently mused with the press about scooping up his dog's droppings. Meanwhile, former Vice President Dick Cheney has taken on the role of attack dog. Some conservatives have suggested that President Barack Obama somehow goaded Cheney into this role when he attacked the VP during the campaign. Alas, it was no secret to anyone that much of what we call the "Bush administration" was really the "Cheney administration" beginning with Cheney's choice of himself as VP. Cheney's profile in the Bush administration was hardly that of the proverbial "warm bucket of spit." Rather, as de jure vice president, Cheney acted as de facto president, sometimes behind the curtain, sometimes in front of it. In his excellent book, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency, Barton Gellman wrote, "Cheney's influence in the Bush administration is widely presumed but hard to illustrate. Many of the men and women who know him best said an explanation begins with the way he defined his role." He continued: Other recent vice presidents have enjoyed a standing invitation to join the president at "policy time." But Cheney's interventions have also come in the president's absence, at Cabinet and sub-Cabinet levels where his predecessors were seldom seen. He found pressure points and changed the course of events by "reaching down," a phrase that recurs often in interviews with current and former aides. Mary Matalin, who was counselor to the vice president until 2003 and remains an informal adviser, described Cheney's portfolio as "the iron issues"--a list that, as she defined it, comprises most of the core concerns of every recent president. Cheney took on "the economic issues, the security issues . . . the energy issues"--and the White House legislative agenda, Matalin said, because he became "the go-to guy on the Hill." Other close aides noted, as well, a major role for Cheney in nominations and appointments. This was unprecedented. As Robert Kuttner has pointed out Cheney's role actually created a kind of constitutional crisis.... You can read the rest of Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory's analysis in their recent article, " Think Again: Dick Cheney's Post Presidency ." Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation . Danielle Ivory is a reporter and producer for the American News Project. She lives in Washington, D.C. This column was recently named as a finalist in the category of "Best Commentary--Digital" for the Mirror Awards. More on Vice President
 
Sen. Fritz Hollings: Lesson Learned Top
The one lesson I learned in fifty-two years of public service was as de Tocqueville said: "America is good." All elements of our society support the nation's economy, except Wall Street and its entities, such as the big banks, brokerage houses, etc.; a/k/a the financial leadership. It is not interested in the U. S. economy. Its interest is in the investment economies; China, India, and Mexico. As the financial leadership continues to wreck our economy with protection for itself, it shouts "protectionism," "free trade," against the U. S. protecting its economy from offshoring. Let me first qualify as a friend of business. I've won every Chamber of Commerce recognition imaginable. In 1979, I won the New York Board of Trade award and in 1981 I was the speaker when it was given to Sam Walton of Wal-Mart. As Governor I instituted technical training, attracting so much industry as to change South Carolina from an agricultural to an industrial state. In the United States Senate, I worked with Corporate America for protection of their investment and production - passing five trade bills, all blocked or vetoed by the President. In 1992, the National Chamber of Commerce's president, Bob Thompson, publicly endorsed my reelection to the United States Senate; but by 1998 the National Chamber of Commerce put out thousands of flyers against my reelection. I understood. NAFTA with Mexico and Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China forced Corporate America to offshore. I had voted for NAFTA with Canada because Canada had a free market. Mexico didn't - so I opposed it. The European Union taxed themselves $5 billion over five years to develop a free market in Greece and Portugal before admitting them to the EU. I recommended the European Union approach of building a free market in a country before its admission to the EU. Today, Corporate America is still concerned about the U. S. economy, but remains quiet because of the stranglehold that the financial leadership has on both business and Congress. No one said it better than Senator Dick Durban of Illinois the other day when he lamented on the floor of the United States Senate: "The banks own this place." The financial hierarchy, Henry Paulson, Larry Summers, Timothy Geithner, put on a grand charade of stimulus to save the economy but oppose reciprocal trading in globalization to save the economy. They stimulate AIG, Citicorp, and the insurance companies that should have been put in receivership under the Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989. President George W. Bush had just stimulated the economy $5 trillion in his time. Now eight months after Paulson told the Congress that he was appropriating $700 billion to stimulate, another $737 billion by Congress isn't working. We're still losing jobs like gangbusters. No mystery. We're bailing out the economy boat desperately with stimulation, but the financial leadership opposes plugging the hole in the hull from offshoring. AIG and the financial entities are given the ultimate protection of financing and government takeover. But it's a "no-no" to compete in globalization. It's a "no-no" to enforce your trade laws. It's a "no-no" to trade. McKinsey, Peterson and other "experts" keep grinding out warnings against protectionism, against "Buy America," shouting "free trade. And as fast as we give money to GM to invest, GM invests in China. The reason Congress is quiet about trade is money - and the financial leadership furnishes the money. In my last race for reelection to the United States Senate for the seventh time in 1998, I had to raise $8 ½ million. That's $30 thousand a week, each week, every week, for the six-year Senate term. A Senate race today in South Carolina would cost between $13 million and $15 million. This means that every working hour, the Senator has his or her mind on fundraising; no time for constituents; no time for the needs of the country; only time for the needs of the campaign. Mike Mansfield used to require a vote every Monday morning at 9 o'clock to be sure we had a quorum. And we stayed in session until 5 o'clock on Friday. Today we finesse a vote after 6 o'clock on Monday to get back from New York or California from fundraisers and adjourn on Thursday so that we can get to California for a Friday fundraising lunch. We don't care about Washington and Lincoln. We've merged their birthdays for a ten-day break called Presidents' Day for fundraising. We have fundraising breaks every month with the month of August gone for fundraising; Columbus Day break; and we give thanks for a fundraiser at Thanksgiving. Even with all this effort, you still have to rely on the national party for help. There is no way for a Democrat in Republican South Carolina to raise $8 ½ million by himself. This explains the confrontational party politics in Washington. In 1971 and 1973, in a bipartisan vote, we limited spending in campaigns to so much per registered voter so neither the candidate nor the contributor could buy the office. But a five to four decision by the Supreme Court in Buckley vs. Valeo permitted the candidate but not the contributor to buy the office. James Madison never thought that his First Amendment right of free speech would be limited by money. I tried for years with a bipartisan Constitutional amendment permitting Congress to limit or control spending in Federal elections so that we could return as Congress intended in 1971 and 1973. If Congress and the States enact this Constitutional amendment, members of the Congress will be freed from the stranglehold of the financial leadership and have time to save the economy. Two things are bound to happen. Sooner or later Congress will take care of health care and enact a VAT tax to pay for the government we provide. President Obama is on course for health care, and while he is still popular he needs to get "the foot in the door" on a VAT. Today, 150 nations have a VAT at an average of 15.5%. The Internal Revenue Service advises that it will take a year for business and the I.R.S. to gear up for a VAT. No need now to determine the amount needed. Just get it enacted at 2% and adjust it up or down as it replaces the income or corporate tax.
 
Abdul Malik Mujahid: My Memorial Day Reflections Top
It is 3 p.m. this Memorial Day. And I am in a moment of remembrance. I don't know much about the World Wars except through history books and can only relate to them in a distant way. But I know of soldiers in Afghanistan, and other places. I am thinking right now of the professional football player who was killed in combat in Afghanistan, about how honest and truthful he was. He heard the call, that the country needed him and he silently left the ball game to respond to the call of his nation. An honest, straight person, he did what he thought he must do. Patrick Tillman is my hero. I always think of him. This memorial day he has been on my mind since morning. Thank you President Obama for this moment of reflection on this Memorial Day. I have shut down my TV and am thinking about him. No, not the way his death came about, not the way it was reported or misreported. None of that. I am thinking of his character. An honest person who scarified his career, his life. Tillman, a 28-year-old young man with a bright future ahead of him, turned down a contract offer of $3.6 million from the Cardinals to enlist in the U.S. Army. That is a sense of duty. The sense of responsibility this Tillman had was unique. How many of us can turn down money for a higher cause? How many of us will leave a life of comfort and go for some thing which has substantial risks and dangers? Although I am neither a soldier nor a politician, somehow I always think of Tillman. I am against war, but this soldier remains in my heart. I guess I feel a connection to him. I just wish some brave talented people sacrifice their millions and take bold decisions to become honorable politicians who are willing to sacrifice for peace, strive to save lives instead of killing around just because we can. Peace. More on Afghanistan
 
Eric Lurio: Auschwitz: the Musical, or the problem of North Korea. Top
Yeah, I know, the title sounds totally outrageous and disgusting, but recently, I saw a film called Yodok Stories , about a concentration camp in North Korea, and it's pretty amazing. There really isn't a difference between Yadok and Auschwitz except that the camps up there are open up now and one percent of the prisoners are let go... From the press blurb: Yodok: site of North Korea's most notorious political concentration camp, a word that registers barely a blip on the radar for most of the world. The limited access to North Korea by outsiders gives little, if any, glimpse into the ongoing horrors of this closed ­off country's labor camps. but for those living here, dissent and disobedience of even the slightest degree are grounds for offenders to be relocated to the camps, from which few emerge alive to tell their story. Multiple-award-winning director Andrzej Fidyk ( North Korea: The Parade ) finds a few such escapees living in exile in South Korea. Among them is Jung Sung San, former director of some of North Korea's most ambitious propagandistic musical theater displays. Fidyk convinces him to turn his talents toward a work revealing the true North Korea, using the traditional musical theater style. Exposing subject matter notoriously shrouded in secrecy, this uplifting and sobering doc blends testimonials from survivors and scenes from the controversial stage show, exploring in detail the atrocities these men faced as prisoners--and the challenges they face while trying to express them through art. This film is at once one of the most heartbreaking and weirdest films I've seen in quite a while. Findyk's idea, on the face of it, is completely insane, but very well may have been the only way to do it. But it seems that most people in South Korea are guilty of Holocaust denial, and I don't mean the Jewish one, I mean the one going on in their own back yard. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, have died in the Yodok Concentration Camp , which is unique in that it has a small "revolutionizing" section which about 4% of the inmates have been let out, mostly children. The other concentration camps are just like the Nazis': death! Now I know that some of you out there may object to my comparing anything to HItler or the Nazis, ( Godwin's law and all that) but when there's something that really deserves it, what does one do? Well, the answer is a Korean "Lez Miz." It sound weird and a bit gross. The film goes back and forth between interviews with escapees and rehersals and performances of the musical itself. We hear talk of Darfur, and we must never forget, and we must always remember that Kim Jong Il isn't just a short, smarmy buffoon. Millions have been murdered in various ways in North Korea, and more must know about what happens there. It's all reminiscent of what was going on in the once and future Cambodia (then called "Democratic Kampuchea") back in the 1970s, just before it was invaded by Vietnam in 1979. and it was a charnel house. Almost two million people were killed. The two Kims have been ruling North Korea for over half a century, and no one knows how many millions were killed. Something has to be done, and now! But nothing will happen unless they shoot first. Nobody wants another Iraq or Afghanistan. So the people there will suffer. That is unless Kim and his cronies decide to shoot first...but no one expects that either. Hoping for war is horrible, but what is the alternative? More on North Korea
 
Sara Davidson: Sexual Chemistry -- Is it a Trap? Top
Part 4 of a serial, "Sex Love Enlightenment." Previously: First date with Billy is hot, but a ski wreck keeps me from the second. His anger while I'm recovering makes me dismiss him. Click here to read past installments. Billy showed up at my house the day before Valentine's Day. It had been a month since my ski wreck, I was still strapped in a brace and unable to sit up for more than 30 minutes without pain. There'd been no communication for weeks and Billy was completely off my radar when a strange email arrived: "Dear Sara. The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, and I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more. If I do not return, never forget how much I loved you. Nor that when my last breath escapes me, it will whisper your name." What the...?! It turned out to be a letter written by a soldier during the Civil War, who was going into battle and writing his wife Sara to say goodbye. At the end of the letter, Billy wrote, "I'll pick you up at 6 p.m. on February 13 and have you back home no later than midnight. Just send directions." I emailed back: "I must say I got scared till I figured out this letter was from someone else to someone else. You're the romantic, that's for sure." I said I was still in a lot of pain. "I see the doc again tomorrow for more xrays and prognosis. Let's talk after that, if you'd like." He shot back an email saying: "Can't you just say yes or no to a date without talking to a doctor? I'm offering you six hours of thinking about something other than yourself. I really don't know if you can do that! You are not in the worst physical condition of anyone with a broken collarbone. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. I wanted to see you, I wanted to know you, before I heard your tepid, vague, inconclusive response. Do you always have to control with procrastination? Are you capable of answering a single question? Do you want to see me? Yes or No?" I was surprised at how enraged this email made me. I didn't care about the man, I thought he was nuts, and presumptuous, and in need of anger management. There's no way, I thought, any human could respond to such an email other than saying "No," which I did. Then came the final email. "I'm sorry to learn of your decision but pleased you've made things clear. My email that offended you was not hostile, as you suggested. It was blunt and provocative. I would rather push you to hot or cold than linger forever in tepid. Since last November, you've been constantly making excuses, telling me: Wait till I finish this article Wait till after Christmas Wait till my "friend" and ex-lover leaves Wait till I am healed. I didn't like being left dangling as a remote possibility for you and didn't want that any more. I would have quit dating anyone else to explore our possibilities. I would have cared for you after your injury. I would have introduced you to my children. Without any hostility, only disappointment and best wishes and a prayer for your healing and happiness, with love, Goodbye. Billy. I should have left it at that. But I re-read his emails and thought, he does have a point. I did put him off for months before meeting him. I told my friend, Claire, I was thinking of calling him. "Why?" she asked. Something was making me unsettled. "Some small doubt... like, maybe I shut the door on something that might have had a glimmer of possibility?" Claire looked dubious. I called Billy and said, "I hate to end things by email. If you're going to be in Boulder, why don't we talk in person?" A few days later, he called and said he was driving up for the Boulder Film Festival and would be staying with his sister. When he arrived, driving a Lexus hybrid, I'd forgotten how attractive he is: tall, lean, with large blue eyes and a playful, teasing manner. Most surprising -- and disquieting - I felt the same jolt of energy pass through me that I'd experienced that first night at the Grisly Rose . My entire body wanted to connect with his. We eyed each other, cautiously, like two animals. After lunch, we talked about what had happened since the accident. He'd felt rejected and dismissed, and I'd felt he was unreasonably angry and quick to lash out. He didn't understand why I had to be so inactive with a broken collar bone. "If the bones are in the same area code, they'll connect," he said. I told him my doctor had said it wasn't certain that the bones would connect without surgery, which I wanted to avoid because I have phlebitis, which makes any surgery dangerous. As he left, he gave me a full body hug, and the chemistry was mighty. He said with some surprise. "I thought you wanted to break up with me in person." "I think we should keep the door open," I said. To Be Continued... Please leave a comment. How would you have responded to Billy's emails? Have you had a relationship that started badly and ended well? (what I was hoping for) Did chemistry ever lead you astray? To Automatically Receive Future Installments, Click here . More on Sex
 

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