Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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Dr. Michael J. Breus: Not Fit to Fly Top
It's hard to legislate sleep. As an employer you can certainly set rules and guidelines, hoping your employees show up refreshed and ready to perform, but you can't really enforce or police it--even when lives depend on it. Hearing about the fatigue factor involved in Continental's February plane crash on a cold, icy night near Buffalo, New York has been horrifying. According to the latest reports from the NTSB, the main cause of the crash is being blamed on the crew's lack of experience and lack of sleep (lack of proper conduct in the cockpit, too, which certainly stems from a lack of experience and sleep). Have you ever wondered: When you step on to a plane, how alert are your pilots? Have they just gotten off a transcontinental flight and haven't slept in a day--or two? Have they been working the graveyard shift and catching some Zs on a couch in the terminal before taking control of your plane? Are they feeling fuzzy and spacey as they continue to fight a nagging cold bug (which really prefers them to be sleeping more)? How much does sleep factor into performance...even when an emergency happens suddenly? To quickly answer that last question, sleep plays a huge role in the ability to perform, even when it comes to basic skills we've done over and over again. And thinking about our pilots' alertness is probably not something that enters our minds as we're boarding planes and getting organized in our seats, but the thoughts are crossing millions of grounded minds this week as more news emerges about the fate of that February ride. The history books are loaded with similar stories: The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster, and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role. The NRMA (National Roads and Motorists Association) estimates fatigue is involved in one in 6 fatal road accidents . In fact, 17 hours of sustained wakefulness leads to a decrease in performance equivalent to a blood alcohol-level of 0.05%. Too bad "sleepy driving" doesn't have the same buzz to it as "drunk driving." Sorry, but sleep deprivation--regardless of your job--is not a badge of honor . Pilots aside, think of all the jobs that rely on alertness in critical, potentially life-threatening scenarios: ER doctors, surgeons, ground transportation drivers, air-traffic controllers, freight train engineers, etc. The sad part is the challenge of ensuring our pilots, drivers, controllers, and so forth are indeed fit to be at the helm. What can we do? Have them keep journals of their sleep/wake cycles? Invent a test they can take to measure their alertness prior to clocking in? Enforce stricter guidelines for when, say, a pilot, can be in the cockpit after a certain stretch of wakefulness?   It's all a hotly contested debate. No one is perfect. But we demand perfection in certain situations when the lives of people are at stake. May this recent incident and ongoing investigation shed a brighter light on the importance of sleep hygiene and the value of ensuring our public servants get all the sleep they need. Sweet Dreams, Michael J. Breus, PhD, FAASM The Sleep Doctor This article on sleep is also available at Dr. Breus's official blog, The Insomnia Blog .
 
Patti Blagojevich Bound For LA To Shoot Reality Show Promos: AP Top
CHICAGO (AP) -- Ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's wife is expected to accept a role on an NBC reality television show based in the Costa Rican jungle. Defense attorney Sheldon Sorosky said Tuesday morning that he believes she will. By Tuesday afternoon, another person close to the case said he understood Patti Blagojevich was planning to leave for the West Coast on Wednesday to make promotional footage for "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here." The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the situation. Sorosky was not reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. Rod Blagojevich was offered a role on the show, but U.S. District Judge James B. Zagel wouldn't let him leave the country pending his trial on corruption charges. -ASSOCIATED PRESS More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Deepak Chopra: Is it morning in the world? Top
This is a column about optimism and why there's reason to feel it. Over the weekend one of the news shows referred to "morning in America." That was Ronald Reagan's call to optimism thirty years ago. The country was demoralized and just beginning to come out of a long recession. The point of bringing up Reagan's slogan is that in many ways he promised a false dawn while Barack Obama is promising a real one. Reagan's morning didn't shine on AIDS patients; he thought they deserved what they got. It didn't shine on anyone outside the right-wing agenda, so civil rights, unions, and feminists were out. So was environmentalism (what else to expect from a man who said that if you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all?) There was no light for progressivism in general. Half the reason that Obama's election felt so liberating is that the Reagan legacy of reactionary politics and exclusion was over. That's a huge reason for optimism, but if you look globally, there are others. The right-wing agenda abroad called for free markets, unfettered capitalism, anti-Communism, and a strong military. That part of the Reagan vision is still with us, and some of it must be counted a success. There are no monolithic totalitarian governments in Russia and China anymore, whatever you think of the present regimes. The Cold War is definitively over. The mood of the world is against bullying superpowers and for nuclear disarmament. These trends may be new and fragile, but the tide seems to have turned. It has also turned against deniers of climate change and opponents of environmentalism. An even greater cause for optimism is the rise of the dispossessed. When historians look back, this may be the dominant feature of our time. Billions of poor people with little hope for advancement now are getting a place at the table where only the wealthy once sat. I'm thinking of the so-called BRIC -- Brazil, Russia, India, and China -- whose economies have surged and will continue to after the great recession is over. Just a decade ago, some of these positive trends weren't visible. Even now they are obscured by bad news. The bad news about AIDS in Africa, for example, obscures major economic surges in East Africa. Terrorism and the Iraq war obscure the fact that deaths in war have declined dramatically since 1980. On too many fronts there is no morning, though. Sri Lanka, North Korea, Sudan, Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan -- the list of trouble spots always seems to replenish itself. Yet taken all together, these places of strife and oppression don't equal the enmity and danger of the Cold War. Our worst problem as a planet, sudden climate change, may serve to pull the nations together. Old systems are being shaken, and even though nationalism and militarism hold on tight, decade after decade, at least the idea of global cooperation is alive and well. All told, I think the image of morning in the world is realistic. The good and the bad will always be tangled with one another. But compared to the false dawns that never fulfilled their promise, this dawn could transform the world far more positively than we realize. Our eyes are glued on the economic crisis, but our souls have a higher vision. Published in the San Francisco Chronicle More on Poverty
 
Patricia Ferrone: Caution: Stress Can Be Habit Forming. Top
Did you ever think of stress as being habit forming? Well, it is. In fact, the habitual qualities of stress are why some people thrive on stress to the point of abusing it while others find it difficult to prevent it or eliminate it from their lives. However, whether you misuse it or can't seem to lose it, stress begets stress, and developing a stress habit is definitely not a good thing. How It Begins. A stress habit starts as a conscious reaction to some outside stimulus. For example, the stress you feel while you are stuck in traffic when on your way to an important meeting. While you sit in your car and fume, your brain is busy tagging that experience as a stressor and establishing an associated memory in which it equates traffic with stress. Then, whenever you are caught in traffic (even if you are not in a hurry), your brain recalls the associated memory and you register a stress response. Unless you aware this is happening, and unless you tell your brain to stop, the process will repeat. On each repetition, it finds a shorter route through your brain circuitry, allowing it to occur faster each time. Within a short while, the process has transformed your original conscious stress reaction into an automatic unconscious reaction -- and you have yourself a stress habit. Continuing with our example, this is why you might stress out so easily whenever you sit in traffic, or get stressed just thinking about traffic. Does Any of This Sound Familiar? The type of people most likely to develop stress habits fall into two basic groups. Let us refer to them as Group A, the people who seem to feed off stress; and Group B, the people who seem to fall victim to it. Each group has a specific set of habits, although it is possible for a person to exhibit symptoms of both groups. The stress habits of the people in Group A include, believing they work best when under pressure or in a crisis mode; being impatient; disliking situations in which they are not in control; and becoming easily annoyed by situations other people usually take in stride. They will often talk about how busy they are and yet they will seldom turn down an opportunity to take on more work or responsibility. However, their eagerness does not necessarily result in positive outcomes. The stress habits of people in Group B include, using stress as a way of compensating for feelings of fear or inadequacy; becoming easily distressed or overwhelmed; being reluctant to initiate solutions to their problems; and having a tendency to employ unhealthy coping strategies, such as over-eating or self-medicating, on a regular basis. They also develop mindsets that become increasingly constrictive making them prone to focus on obstacles or difficulties as opposed to opportunities and benefits. Such a Bad Habit As with most habits, the longer you have a stress habit it the harder it is to break and the worse it becomes. As your stress level increases, so does the threat it poses to your physical health and well-being. A high stress level also adversely affects on your emotional and behavioral functioning. It diverts your attention, skews your perspective, restricts your thinking, and promotes regressive, passive aggressive, or avoidance behaviors. You can never derive any real benefit from a stress habit since both its short-term and long-term effects are either self-destructive or self-defeating. Nothing good can come from relinquishing your self-control over to the effects of stress or making stress a staple of your life. But Here is a Good Idea It is very difficult to notice when your brain initiates a stress habit. However, now, you at least know what signs to look for so you can tell your brain to stop! If you have a stress habit, I urge you to get the help you need to get rid of it. Think about how foolish it is to have this habit and how it is actually making you miserable. Stop being your own worst enemy! Besides, with all the stress that exists in our environment or naturally occurs in your life, why in the world would you want any more? More on Wellness
 
Brian Dickie: Thank You, Mrs. Coyle! Top
I am grateful to Rebecca Caine for this excellent explanation of the Owen Wingrave "plot," which is the work of a brilliant Canadian forensic scientist called Jen Andrew. The things they get up to....
 
Christopher Devine: Of No Fixed Address: Red Tape Top
red tape , n . The collection or sequence of procedures required to gain bureaucratic approval for something, esp. when oppressively complex and time-consuming. This is the tenth in a series of excerpts from my oral history, Of No Fixed Address: A Collection of Voices from the Streets of Chicago . Read more about the project here . I am sitting on the sidewalk outside a KFC talking with Martin when Fast Eddie and his friend Kenneth come stumbling up. Eddie is pushing a red shopping cart -- known on the street as a "buggy." The cart is empty save three or four aluminum cans. Eddie has been homeless off-and-on for 25 years. "You wanna know what life on the streets is like?" he says. "Get in the buggy! We'll show you!" You know what? Let me tell you something. Let me tell you something, check this out. You know how children start on alcoholism? 'Cause you got all the yuppies leavin' beers on top of their porches. And when these kids get up in the morning, they see these beers sittin' around, and these kids start drinkin' early in the morning. That's how they get started. I don't have to spend a dime to get drunk. All you have to do is search and find . You got beers everywhere you go. Then the kids go through the alleys, comin' home from school, and they find all the motherfuckin' beers. And now you got kids out here. You know what I'm sayin'? Because of you guys. Because of you motherfuckin' upper-class motherfuckin' white boys. Y'all leave beers every-motherfuckin'-where. Everywhere. ( He turns to Kenneth .) Am I tellin' the truth? Y'all turn over garbage cans, and you blame it on homeless people. Y'all turn over garbage cans, and you create problems, and you break into cars, and bust windows. Homeless people don't do that shit. We ain't got nowhere to go already as it is. Why are we gonna tear up the neighborhood when we ain't got nowhere to go already as it is? ( To Kenneth .) Am I lyin'? I ain't lyin'. "What do you think causes homelessness?" I ask. Red tape. You have to go through the red tape. First of all, they take our IDs when they -- when you do a check on us, you steal our IDs from us. Now we ain't got no IDs. Now we gotta go back downtown and buy IDs. Where the hell we gonna get $20 from? As I mentioned in a post last October , during his first term as governor, Rod Blagojevich signed legislation raising the price of state-issued ID cards from $4 to $20. And although the state waives this fee for seniors and disabled individuals, there is currently no assistance available for homeless or economically disadvantaged applicants. Overpriced ID cards may not be at the root of homelessness, but they do make for one hell of a stumbling block. Without proof of identity, homeless men and women cannot apply for food stamps, they are ineligible for most jobs and their access to public aid is greatly limited. Even some homeless shelters will not admit guests who do not have a valid ID. Now we gotta come up with $20 and go back downtown and buy an ID, 'cause you take our IDs when you drive off. And the police, they harass us, and they harassin' the wrong people. Fuck you. I'm neighborhood watch. I see everything. I'm the eyes. I see everything movin', everything comin'. That's what the truth is, man. We are organization by ourselves. We don't have to belong to a gang. Street people is a network. Is a network . We don't have to take nothin' from nobody, 'cause we got enough people that gives us enough. We don't want for nothin'. We eat good, we sleep good. Everywhere we go, we got everything we need. And it's a good life. A few weeks later, I run into Eddie again. He greets me with a warm smile. It is Super Bowl Sunday. He and a few of his friends have just come from the liquor store. They have two large grocery bags filled with booze, but no place to watch the game. "We gotta figure that out real soon," Eddie says, and then gestures to a red fire hydrant on the corner: Step into my office. I panhandle right here at this fire hydrant. This is where everything happens. On a Friday, Saturday, Thursday night. You got to be in the mainstream. That's how we make our livin', you know what I'm sayin'? It's the only way we can do it. We survive the best we can. Another man's garbage is another man's riches. What you throw away in the garbage, believe it or not, either if I can't sell it, I can use it. And that's how I survive. And that's what we do. The buggies keeps us out of trouble. But see, we're not thieves or anything like that. Our buggies is our house, man. That's our livelihood, you know what I'm sayin'? This is how we live. We got to carry, everywhere we go, we got to carry our blankets, we got to carry -- because everybody out here is homeless, damn near seems like it. If we lose our blankets, we're an asshole out. So we got to keep our buggies with us. Let me tell you something. If we're caught with a buggy with a logo comin' from maybe, perhaps, Osco or Jewel or anything like that, that's a theft charge. We get charged for theft for just havin' a buggy. This is how they treatin' us. We can't afford to get on the bus anymore. Now the buses are costin' us $2 one way. That means we have to get off and walk back. There ain't no round trips no more. We can't stay on the Els. They makin' it really tight on us. You know, make it tight on us like that then you create anger. Because then what else do we have to do? We have to defend ourselves. Where do we have to sleep no more? It's gettin' really tight out here. Then they're buildin' fences out here. We can't sleep anywhere, we can't go anywhere. They make it tight, so where are we supposed to go now? We have nowhere to go. So now what? So now it's a standoff. And this is where we're at. Addendum: Last Wednesday, the Illinois Senate voted unanimously in favor of a bill to amend the Illinois Identification Card Act , which will eliminate the $20 fee for all homeless applicants. This bill, which passed the House nearly two months ago, is now sitting on Gov. Pat Quinn's desk awaiting his signature. Should the Governor sign the bill, the fee waiver will take effect on July 1, 2010. One roll of tape at a time.
 
The Parking Ticket Geek: New, Improved City Stickers Debut Despite Puppy Interruptus Top
The City Clerk's office press conference Monday morning immediately went to the dogs. The theme of the 2009-10 Chicago city sticker is "Dog Friendly Chicago," and this year's winning design, courtesy of Corliss High School senior Denise Ferguson certainly reflects that. In fact, the city had a 12-week-old dog, Bert, on hand to further emphasize this point. But as City Clerk Miguel del Valle began his press conference, the Doberman/German Shepherd mix puppy, unfamiliar with press-conference protocol and, of course, still not house broken, decided to do his business right on floor of City Hall. The Clerk, to his credit, hardly skipped a beat as the offending interruption was quickly cleaned up to polite laughter, and he went on to officially introduce the city's new and vastly improved city sticker for 2009-10. The biggest and most impressive improvement is that the new city sticker also includes your residential parking permit (if applicable to your residence). So instead of having two decals on your windshield, now you have one. In addition, the new sticker is bad news for counterfeiters, as the Clerk's office has introduced three main improvements. First, like in the above graphic, your license plate number will be listed on the sticker. In addition, if you are in a residential permit parking zone, that number will be listed, too. The sticker also has some reflective printing and bar coding to make sure it's legit. So you may want to think again if some squirrelly dude in a dark alley has a few "extra" city stickers to sell you for cheap. The only problem with a city sticker with your license plate printed on it will be if your license plate gets stolen. The police recommend, in the instance of a stolen plate, you replace the plate with a new plate number, so the former plate won't get you in trouble once it's reported stolen. However, the Clerk's office will replace the sticker with the old plate number at no cost to the driver, according to information coordinator Kristine Williams. "The person must bring in proof of originally purchasing a sticker (receipt) as well as police report documenting the stolen plates and bring in their new license plate information," explained Williams. "We can then replace the sticker at no cost." The Clerk's office has made some investments in technology that will allow for faster printing and delivery of city stickers and guest passes. Starting this year, your city sticker will come in a self-mailer. The 2009-10 city stickers will be available for purchase online via the City Clerk's Web site , Wednesday, May 20. Del Valle is hoping to double the number of sticker purchases online from last year's "sticker season." Next week, nearly 1.3 million renewal letters will go out to current city sticker owners in the largest renewal mailing in city history, according to del Valle. Another new improvement for this year is that drivers living in residential parking zones will be able to purchase daily guest passes online. Or, if you're old school, you can still purchase your sticker in person starting in the beginning of June by coming to City Hall or to any of the city's payment centers . In addition, for an additional $5.50 fee, you can obtain your city sticker at your local Currency Exchange or at participating Dominick's and banks . Aldermanic ward offices will also host city sticker sale dates. Check the schedule here to buy your city sticker at your alderman's office . Ultimately, the goal of the Clerk's office is to offer staggered expiration dates on city stickers like license plate stickers, so as to not be as stressful or chaotic as a one-date deadline every year. "We want to move away from a one time annual sticker purchase," said Williams. "Depending on how this year goes our goal is to have [staggered expiration dates] out in the next two years. This (improvement in printing and purchasing technology) is the first step to get us to that point." Check out The Expired Meter for even more information and advice about parking, fighting parking tickets and red light tickets in Chicago.
 
CROSS TIMBERS COMMUNITY CHURCH, OFFERING PLATE: Needy take from the collection plate Top
A North Texas pastor still passes the collection plate at Cross Timbers Community Church, but now he tells struggling members of his congregation to take what they need, KDAF-TV reports. Toby Slough, pastor of the non-denominational church in Argyle, Texas, says the church has given away half a million dollars in the past two months. Some has gone to single moms and widows in trouble, some to a local mission, some to people behind on their utility bills.
 
Barney Frank, Michele Bachmann Face Off Over ACORN Funding (VIDEO) Top
Via Talking Points Memo comes this video of Barney Frank and Michele Bachmann going head-to-head over ACORN. Bachmann wants to deny ACORN federal funding by disbarring groups in which a member has been indicted from being eligible to receive money from the government. Frank pointed out that this was absurdly broad and that it provided all types of opportunities for punitive action from prosecutors with an axe to grind since they could shut off funding for a group simply by indicting someone. Frank also pointed out that ACORN received significant federal funding from the Bush administration. TPM has more details here . Watch the exchange below. More on Michele Bachmann
 
Associated Press Quitely Offering Buyouts Top
The Associated Press is quietly offering buyouts that include $500 for each year of service and increased pension benefits to several hundred veteran employees, according to AP and a News Media Guild statement. Although the buyouts were offered three weeks ago, AP did not publicize them outside of the news cooperative and the guild offered only a notice on its Web site.
 
Patrick Sauer: Donald Rumsfeld Re-Mixes Christian Hymns for George W. Bush Top
This week, GQ's Robert Draper broke the story that Donald Rumsfeld used cover sheets juxtaposing Bible quotes and war imagery for the top-secret intelligence briefings he hand-delivered to the White House. The "Crusades-like messaging" is one of many revelations in his exhaustive insiders account of the Rumsfeld era, "And He Shall be Judged." Piggybacking upon Draper's fine work, we here at the Huffington Post have done our own investigative reporting into Donald Rumsfeld's use of religious iconography to sell the Iraq War. We've uncovered exclusive classified documents--seen only by Rumsfeld, a handful of Pentagon officials and Vice President Dick Cheney--detailing a plan to utilize the music of Bush's beloved church. To curry favor and mollify the President, Rumsfeld changed the lyrics of his five favorite Christian songs. MEMO: April 11, 2003 FROM: Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense TOP SECRET TO: ECRET/HCS/COMINT/ORCON RE: The Rummy Re-Mix of Religious Recordings At 2 p.m. every afternoon, President George W. Bush works out, takes a nap, then arises for a short prayer, and a half hour of meditation to the following hymns. On my authority, the Pentagon choir will be re-recording the songs with a more positive pro-God message of freedom. Upon completion of the project, the recording studio will be broken down and shipped to Abu Gharib prison, where I am told we are getting slam-dunk confirmation on the Al Qadea-Saddam Hussein link. We'll definitely want that on tape. Be advised, do not, I repeat DO NOT tell President Bush that the lyrics have been altered. He is a man of deep and abiding faith in both Jesus Christ and Operation Iraqi Freedom, so we're simply following the Almighty's example in helping the President attain a spiritual awakening through the power of God's love and music. Lord hear our prayer. Amen. AMAZING GRACE: Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, Of the beating of a wretched I-raqi. He'll start a-talkin', if he thinks he's drowned, After which, we'll burn his eyes with lye, so he can't see. T'was Grace that taught my heart to fear, both Sunnis and Shiites because they all look a-likes, How precious did that Grace appear, to give me strength to take 'em all out with targeted air strikes. Through the Iraq War dangers, toils and snares I've questioned if our mission is righteous and true, 'Tis prayer that brought me peace thus far By letting me know this is exactly what Big J.C. himself would do. PASS IT ON: It only takes a smoking gun to get a mushroom cloud going, And soon all the innocent American citizens around, will melt as it's glowing That's why you need to follow God's wrath, he wants us to bring the pain; You'll spread bunker-busters throughout Iraq; passing them on until we kill Saddam Hussein. What a wondrous time is spring when all the trees are blooming The birds begin to sing, and the cluster bombs start their booming, That's how it is with God's wrath, he's asked you, President Bush to lead the way; To show Iraq the road to Christianity, or watch it choke on the holy fury of the U.S.A. ON EAGLE'S WINGS: Those who dwell in the shelter of Hussein, Should be forced to make God's introduction, Then Say to the Lord and W.: "My refuge, Let me show you the weapons of mass destruction!" The snare of the liberal cheese-eaters will never capture you, And the enemy will bring you no fear: You're on a Crusade from God, As these pictures of American soldiers accompanied by Bible quotes makes clear. You need not fear the terror of the night, Nor the IEDs that explode by day; Though thousands of civilians fall is plain to see, There's little to no chance of an insurgency. So the Iraqis will raise you up on eagle's wings, Because if you commit to the Lord your plans will succeed, So don't call it a Holy War, Just know God blesses the good guys, even when civilians die and bleed. BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC: Your eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He called you to trample out the Al Qaeda camps where the WMDs are stored; So go on and loose the fateful lightning of His terrible swift Defense Department sword; Our truth is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our truth is marching on. You can't forget 'twas Saddam who tried to kill your Daddy He also masterminded 9/11, that Hussein he is a baddie; Saddam's best friends with bin Laden and he's buying yellowcake; Your calling W. is to take him out and send to Hell to swim in a fiery lake; God's will is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! God's will is marching on. President Bush sounds forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; Be the USA wrapped it up in Afghanistan so to Baghdad we'll bring the heat; You will bring Saddam to death upon his judgment seat; And the folks back home will say "Ole' W. won the war on terror, Hallelujah he's in command, now let's get something to eat;" Thank our Lord and Savior President Bush is marching on. Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Thank our Lord and Savior President Bush is marching on. ROCK OF AGES : Gunter glieben glauchen globen America, pray for me, I know in my heart it's the work of the Lord That's why this morning I knelt down and kissed the holy waterboard If the Iraq War isn't right, then why do prayers make me so calm? God spoke to me in a vision; he said, "Go ahead son, go get Saddam." America, let me be honest with thee; Them Islamuslims don't make much sense to me They don't make the sign of the cross, They don't celebrate Easter, And who wants goat when they sit down at a family feaster? Some say the Iraq War is wrong that invading a sovereign nation is chilling, But if that's the case, Then why do I have such a coalition of the willing? It is only through war that we can attain any peace, If I'm wrong tell me God and I'll cease. Nothing. Hah. I knew you were with me Jesus; you're my kind of guy Wash over me with your love dear Savior, or I die. Rock of ages, rock of ages Still rollin', keep a-rollin' Rock of ages, rock of ages Still rollin', rock'n'rollin' We're gonna burn this damn place down Down to the ground Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh heh..... More on Barack Obama
 
JET BLUE, REFUND PROGRAM, LAID OFF: Company extends refund plan for laid-off customers Top
JetBlue Airways Corp. said Monday it is extending its refund program for customers who lose their jobs after buying tickets. The Forest Hills, N.Y.-based carrier said a "positive" customer response led to a continuation of the program that originally lasted through June. Similar programs have been launched by car companies including Hyundai Motor America.
 
Ariston Anderson: Give good karma, get great swag Top
Celebrities get tons of gift bags. And while they don't need 10 iPods or another gym membership, one New York event is doing something good with all that extra swag. The third annual Gift Bags for Good Auction, presented by Fiji Water, takes place tomorrow night to benefit the Clothes Off Our Back Foundation and Water Partners International , which helps provide clean drinking water to the people of Tigray, Ethiopia. For a mere $20 you can sip cocktails at the W, dance to the music of DJ Josh Madden (yes, that Madden) and bid on low-priced celebrity goods. Last year I made off with three bags full of fun goods. Just think of it like this. You could spend hundreds on a seat at a charity dinner and leave with a candle and tote bag, or you could set your own price and make off with bags full of amazing stuff you actually want. Among this years goodies are bags from the SAG Awards, MTV, The View, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, donations from Kelly Bensimon and Khloe Kardashian, as well as brands like Stuart Weitzman, Bliss, Pop Beauty, Lacoste and much more. The event takes place Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 from 7:00pm-9:00pm at the W Union Square, 201 Park Avenue South. Admission is $20, and you must RSVP to giftbagsforgood@thinkpublicrelations.com. And if you can't make it, you can still bid online for some of the choicer options at ClothesOffOurBack.org . More on Ellen Degeneres
 
Joe Biden, Bunker: VP Reveals Secret Location Of Bunker Top
Joe Biden, the gaffe prone Vice President, has revealed the secret location of the Vice Presidential bunker. The Vice Presidential bunker has been revealed to be located under the Naval Observatory where Vice Presidents reside. The gaffe was reported by Newsweek's liberal correspondent Eleanor Cliff. Vice President Joe Biden apparently gave a detailed account of being taken on a tour of the Vice Presidential bunker by a Naval officer to his dinner companions at the Gridiron Dinner, a Washington soiree attended by print journalists. More on Joe Biden
 
Reese Schonfeld: "It's A Fine Mess We're In, Obie." Top
Four months and one week ago, just before the Inauguration, I wrote in this space that President Bush was leaving a toxic present -- Somalia -- on Barack Obama's doorstep. I suggested that soon-to-be President Obama get in front of the story and, at a press conference, highlight the situation in Somalia and make it clear that the Bush Administration had left him with a ticking time bomb. He didn't do it. Now, four months later, that time bomb seems likely to explode. This week, two major towns in central Somalia (one a provincial capital), were seized by Islamic militants who, according to the State Department, are closely linked to al Qaeda. Cnn.com quotes a UN report that fighting in Somalia's capital city, Mogadishu, has "uprooted...nearly 34,000 people in less than a week" and, according to relief workers, "left Somalia civilians with the choice of facing bloody battles or fleeing to squalid camps." Two groups of government soldiers have defected to the Islamists and are attacking Somali forces. And the AP reports that the Islamic offensive has "raised fears that al-Qaida-linked insurgents could overthrow the U.N.-backed government, giving terrorists a safe haven on the Horn of Africa..." Obviously, things are not going well, and it seems to me a little late in the day for Obama to blame it all on George W. Bush, even if it was George W. who permitted the Ethiopians who had been safeguarding Mogadishu to pull their troops out of the city. Now BBC.com reports that Somali citizens have told them that Ethiopian forces "have crossed the border late last night and they are here now. They look to be stationing here... We recognize them because of their military uniform and the language they were speaking." They reportedly arrived in twelve vehicles and "some of them were digging trenches while others were guarding the whole area." Analysts belief that it is likely that the Ethiopians are seeking to strengthen their own border defenses against attacks from Islamic militants. Even in the capital city of Mogadishu, according again to the BBC, "Analysts say [the 4300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers] are only ineffective control of the presidential palace, airport and seaport in Mogadishu, while the Islamist guerillas control chunks of the capital, along with swaths of central and southern Somalia." I hesitate to say that Somalia is lost, but it is unlikely that it can be saved without major intervention from the West, and given our own lack of troops, and NATO's reluctance to help us out even in Afghanistan, it sure seems likely. Remembering how many elections Democrats lost when Republicans used to run on "Who Lost China," I can easily hear, as one of the major talking points of the 2010 election, "Who Lost Somalia." Who left al Qaeda in control of the Horn of Africa, sitting on one of the world's major oil life lines? I know it's late for President Obama to mention the dangerous situation in Somalia, but better late than never. Otherwise, to paraphrase Laurel and Hardy, "It's a fine mess we're in, Obie." More on Somalia
 
Frank Schaeffer: Republican Disaster -- The (Unspoken) Anatomy of The Meltdown Top
I was a Republican insider. For instance, the late Jack Kemp was a friend who I often advised on "connecting" with the Religious Right, until I left the Republican Party and the evangelical subculture and slammed the door behind me. During my last call with Jack he hung up on me. (I was backing McCain in 2000 and he was for W.) I want you to understand this context of my "insider's" comments here because they are going to strike you as shocking. So please let me recap some personal history. My parents and I were the guests of the Reagans, Fords and Bush's in the White House and/or in other private meetings. Jack Kemp was so good a friend that he once interrupted a speech at a fund-raising banquet in Washington that I'd walked into late and walked from the podium to the back of the hall shook my hand introduced me to the assembled Republican leaders, then walked back to the podium and continued his speech. He did this because -- in those days -- I was an important link to the (then) powerful evangelical movement. I was often in Jack's house with Jack and his wife Joanne who, at that time, was conducting a weekly Bible study group with other congressional wives called the "Schaeffer group," based on my father's books. In those days -- the 1970s and early 80s -- as both a staunch Republican and pro-life leader and the son of the famous evangelist, I was right in the middle of the Republican machine. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy of doom -- in the 1970s my family was an integral part of bringing the Republican Party under the sway of the emerging Religious Right, particularly because of our support of the antiabortion movement. It was my father who talked Jerry Falwell into "taking a stand" on the "moral issues" of the day, which then morphed into the Moral Majority. Back in the 70s and early 80s Dad and I both appeared on the 700 Club many times, I preached from Jerry Falwell's pulpit and was the keynote speaker at the Religious Broadcasters and Christian Booksellers Association annual events several years running. There came a day in 1985 (my dad had died in 1984) that I began to take another look at my commitment to the both the far right of Republican Party and the Religious Right. I came to realize that I was in bed with a group of people who were profoundly anti-American. They were professional haters. They wrapped themselves in the flag and "loved America," but it was an America in their imaginations only and cast in their image: white, middle-class, straight, born-again, homophobic and tinged with racism, not to mention misogyny. The America most Americans lived in; diverse, open, tolerant and multi-ethnic was the America that the right would hardly even acknowledge. They "loved" an America that didn't exist, and hated the real country we live in. (I go into this in detail in two books; Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All -- or Almost All -- of It Back and also in my forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion -- Or Atheism where I lay out an alternative to some very bad choices between the extremes.) So what went wrong with the Republican Party? Believe me, it's all about religion! Two religions (in the broadest sense of the term) have destroyed the Republican Party: evangelical Christianity and Christian/Jewish Zionism. Evangelical Christianity created the Religious Right which forever linked the Republican Party to the antiabortion, anti-sex education, anti-evolution and anti-gay crusades. And both Christian and Jewish Zionism linked the Republican Party to what became the neoconservative movement with its roots in such publications as Commentary magazine and their shrill Israel-can-do-no-wrong anti-Arab agenda. (I knew the late editor of Commentary Norman Podhoretz quite well, and we met several times to build alliances between evangelicals and the far American Zionist far right. When it came to Arabs, I believe he was a real racist.) I would not call Zionism per se a religion, but I'm talking about secular goals pursued with religious fervor. I would call Zionism, American-style a politicized version of a religion. I also argue that the neo-con side got traction when religious Jews became Zionists and when religious Christians (evangelicals) hopped aboard to hasten the "Rapture." And I'd like to point out that American Zionists ally themselves with the Israeli hardliners, but that opinion in Israel is much more diverse and often tolerant than that, as is opinion among Jewish Americans, who do not by and large accept the AIPAC point of view uncritically. The result of the Republican Party being taken over by these religious groups was that we got George W. Bush. His idea of governance was a hands-off, all-government-is-bad-government neglect, combined with an unnecessary war in Iraq inspired by a form of Zionism that sees all Arabs as a threat, Islam as evil, America as an exceptional place duty-bound "by God" to keep the world safe for evangelical Christian "values," on the one hand, and militant Christian and Jewish Zionism on the other. It is a poisonous blend. (It's not just Zionism, or a form of Zionism, that makes Americans hate Arabs. Anti-Arab, anti-Muslim images in America go way back and some right wing evangelicals and Jews merely tap into that racism.) Evangelical/Christian Zionism has been bad for the State of Israel too. It has helped put that country into a permanent defensive crouch in which there is now perhaps no way out from destruction that comes to all people who see everyone else (from the EU to the UN to the Arabs and Iran) as a threat. The building of the illegal West Bank settlements and turning the Gaza Strip into what amounts to a concentration camp, combined with demographic reality will doom the State of Israel if a two state peace agreement is not reached and reached fast. But Christian Zionists have done all they can to undermine peace in the name of fulfilling "biblical prophecy" as have the far right of the Jewish Zionists, people like my old friend Norman Podhoretz. With "friends" like the Christian Zionists -- exemplified by the Reverend John Hagee and many others who "support" Israel while eagerly waiting for the "return of Christ" and the destruction of all "unbelieving Jews" -- Israel needs no enemies. Given that the hard-line American Christian Zionists encouraged the Republican Party to become the party of permanent war to keep the State of Israel "safe" they have actually helped set the stage for its destruction. And therefore the Republicans also opened the door to our national economic ruin as well. The two are linked; eternal war and ruin, because our permanent wars (thinly veiled excuses to "keep Israel safe") are never paid for by increased taxes or a draft. (Disclosure: my son served in the Marines and was deployed.) But attitudes are changing: The results of a new Zogby poll are interesting. They suggest that Obama would have strong support for a US diplomatic effort to forge an Israel-Palestine deal, even if it means tough pressure on Israel. According to the poll, when asked if the United States should "get tough" with Israel in order to back up its call for an end to settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, fully 50 percent of Americans said yes, with just 19 percent saying "do nothing," and 32 percent not sure. Asked whether the interests of Israel and the US are identical, only 28 percent of Obama voters agreed, while 59 percent disagreed. Among McCain voters, it was the reverse: 78 percent of McCain voters said US and Israel interests were identical (!) and 15 percent said they are not. So what did the Republicans become? They are the party of unnecessary wars both actual and cultural and the party of the rich -- those who never serve in the military, just put up flags to "support the troops." The actual war in Iraq was (as everyone knew with a wink and a nod, but few dared say) really about our commitment to Christian and Jewish Zionism as it was "understood" by the born-again fool Bush. The culture war is also an unnecessary and unmitigated war that pitted the "real America" (in other words white mostly uneducated, lower-middle-class evangelical/Catholic working Americans) against everyone else. If you're not a gay-hating, "pro-life," born-again evangelical and/or an ardent Israel-can-do-no-wrong-all-Arabs-are-evil-Jesus-is-coming-back-soon evangelical on the one hand or a neoconservative I-never-met-a-war-I-didn't-like "intellectual" on the other hand, these days you're probably not a Republican. Throw in a college degree or the habit of getting information from any source other than right wing blogs, radio "personalities" like Rush Limbaugh or "authors" like Ann Coulter and you won't be voting Republican again in this lifetime. What's caused the Republican Party's real meltdown? It's that it has ceased to exist as a political party and is instead a dwindling weirdly eclectic collection of uneducated rubes led by a few fearful angry far right thinkers who talk in media sound bites geared to the types of people who watch Fox News. Jack Kemp was not part of this horrible little "party." He was a smart compassionate man. There used to be more Republicans like Kemp. Today the Republican core constituency is the national village idiot. With the election of President Obama America has turned the page on the village idiots. We now have a president who is a religious believer himself, who supports Israel (as I do, by the way), but who well understands -- and articulates beautifully as he just did at Notre Dame talking about abortion -- the fact that authentic faith should be a unifying force instead of a divisive one. That's bad news for religious nuts, be they Christians or Jews. That's good news for America and the world, and maybe for our overstretched military too. The choice for America has always been between inclusive pluralism and exclusion. The kind of religion and Evangelical/Zionist/neoconservative cabal used to take over the interests of the Republican Party is just too small for this big diverse, tolerant and open country of ours. So the Republicans have a choice: become an American political party again serving American interests or continue to serve the narrowly defined religious interests of two angry and fearful Jewish/Evangelical minorities who are themselves bastardized offshoots of their Christian and Jewish traditions. Frank Schaeffer is a writer. He is author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and also author of the forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (Or Atheism). More on GOP
 
House Splits Credit Cards From Gun Amendment Top
The House Rules Committee decided by voice vote Tuesday evening to split apart the credit card bill passed by the Senate Tuesday, slicing out an amendment added by Senate Republicans that would allow possession of firearms in National Parks. That gun amendment will be voted on separately and then will be recombined with the bill before it goes to the White House. Both votes are scheduled for Wednesday. By splitting the bill in two, Democrats can vote for the credit card reform portion without also voting for the gun language. The gun amendment is still likely to pass, backed by Republicans and swing-district Democrats. The only thing stranger than the parliamentary maze the bill will have to wend through is, perhaps, the question of what credit card reform has to do with packing heat in a National Park anyway. Sen. Tom Coburn, a Republican from Oklahoma, has been trying to slap his guns-in-the-parks amendment on anything that would move and the credit card bill had a head of steam going. Twenty-seven Democrats voted to support the gun amendment in the Senate. Because the Senate took up the House bill, rather than originating its own, there will be no conference committee and the bill will go directly to the White House. The bill blocks credit card companies from abusive and deceptive practices and, incidentally, was popular in the congressional press galleries. "Wow," said one pleased Hill reporter. "This'll have an actual impact on my life."
 
Han Shan: Shell on Trial: After 13 Years, Justice for Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni? Top
In 1990, a popular nonviolent movement for human rights and environmental justice burst forth from the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta. The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People -- 'MOSOP' -- demanded an end to the exploitation and degradation of the Ogoni land and people by the Nigerian dictatorship in partnership with the multinational oil companies, particularly Anglo-Dutch giant Royal Dutch Shell. Few people outside of Nigeria noticed at first. But MOSOP had a secret weapon and his name was Ken Saro-Wiwa . A charismatic renaissance man, Ken was a former civil servant, a businessman, and even writer and producer of a hugely popular sitcom in Nigeria called Basi & Company . Best known as a brilliant novelist, playwright, and columnist, he was nonetheless relatively unknown outside Nigeria in 1990. In a few short years however, Saro-Wiwa's name and the cause inextricably and forever linked to it, were known around the world. Unfortunately, his was a martyr's fame. Early on a Friday morning in the Fall of 1995, Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight of his colleagues were led to the gallows in the prison yard of the jail in the Niger Delta town of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The 'Ogoni Nine' were hanged on November 10, 1995. The nine men were sentenced to death by a special military tribunal set up to try them for the murder of four prominent Ogoni men who were killed during a mob riot. To this day, many believe the murder of these men -- who included former MOSOP leaders and close associates of Saro-Wiwa's -- was orchestrated by the military to provide an excuse for exactly the kind of crackdown that ensued. At the military tribunal, Ken made an extraordinary closing statement in which he singled out one guilty party above all others: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial... its day will surely come and the lessons learned here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war that the company has waged in the Delta will be called to question sooner than later, and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished." At the time, few dared to believe Ken's prophecy. And yet... Next Wednesday, May 27th, a landmark trial will open in U.S. federal court in Manhattan at which Shell must finally answer to charges that it conspired with the Nigerian military to bring about the execution of the Ogoni Nine. It also faces charges of arming, financing, and transporting the Nigerian military, which conducted brutal raids that resulted in countless killings, beatings, arrests, and the wholesale destruction of villages throughout the Ogoni region. For decades, Shell had been the major operator in the Niger Delta, and mountains of evidence point to a shameful collaboration with the military to brutally stamp out the Ogoni resistance. More than thirteen years later, the families of those murdered by the Nigerian military in conspiracy with Shell will finally get their day in court. And Shell, Europe's largest oil company and one of the most profitable multinationals on the planet will, in United States Federal Court, answer to charges including arbitrary arrest and detention, inhumane treatment, torture, summary execution, and crimes against humanity . From the beginning, this effort to hold Shell accountable has been a true David & Goliath struggle, with impoverished Nigerian villagers and their scrappy human rights attorneys facing down a multinational oil giant with seemingly endless reserves of money to pay high-powered corporate attorneys and public relations firms. That this trial is finally making it to court is truly historic, and a finding against Shell would send shockwaves -- of the very best kind -- through corporate boardrooms around the world. However, even if justice is found in the courtroom, too many people of the Niger Delta continue to suffer the terrible legacy of fifty years of Shell's operations on their land. That's why a handful of organizations working in North America, Europe, and Nigeria have organized an effort called ShellGuilty -- to highlight Shell's crimes and to push for an end to one of Shell's abuses that Ken Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues ultimately died fighting against, and yet still continues today. It's called gas flaring , the destructive and wasteful practice of burning off the gas released in oil extraction activities in massive fires that send toxic plumes of smoke and soot into the air. It's a practice that is devastating to local ecosystems and poisonous to local communities, and Shell would never get away with it in the U.S. or Europe. And in fact, it's a practice that puts us all at risk by emitting dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases that are fueling our climate crisis. Despite court rulings and multiple promises by Shell over many years to stop the practice, Shell continues to make excuses , apparently unwilling to do the right thing if it cuts into its massive profits. With this landmark trial around the corner, Ken Saro-Wiwa's famous last words become a more urgent appeal than ever before to all of us who care about corporate accountability, human rights, environmental justice, and peace: "Lord take my soul, but the struggle continues..." Please, take action now to send a letter to Shell's CEO Jeroen van der Veer and demand an end to gas flaring. Then visit www.ShellGuilty.com , where you can learn more about our campaign, and help us turn up the heat on Shell while they're on trial -- and in the spotlight. Watch this space for more commentary on the efforts to demand an end to the monstrosity of gas flaring once and for all, the historic Wiwa v. Shell trial, and the momentous implications of this case. More on Crime
 
WSJ Study: Local Banks Face Big Losses Top
Commercial real-estate loans could generate losses of $100 billion by the end of next year at more than 900 small and midsize U.S. banks if the economy's woes deepen, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. Such loans, which fund the construction of shopping malls, office buildings, apartment complexes and hotels, could account for nearly half the losses at the banks analyzed by the Journal, consuming capital that is an essential cushion against bad loans.
 
Jeff Cohen: Will Obama Move Supreme Court Rightward? Top
I learned long ago, while working at the media watch group FAIR, to be wary of New York Times headlines. Hearing news that President Obama has a shortlist of candidates to replace David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, I dug up a front-page New York Times Week in Review piece written soon after Obama's inauguration about his possible impact on the Court. It was headlined: "To Nudge, Shift or Shove the Supreme Court Left." I'd like to see Obama shift or shove the Court leftward. But after reading the article , I realized that it could just as easily have been headlined: " Will Obama Move Supreme Court Rightward? " The centerpiece of the Times article was a fascinating study conducted by two University of Chicago law professors (one of whom is a conservative federal appeals judge) analyzing the judicial records of the 43 justices who've served on the Supreme Court since 1937. Four of the five most conservative judges of the last seven decades (Thomas, Scalia, Roberts, Alito) now sit on the Court. With Anthony Kennedy at number ten, five of the ten most right-wing judges are currently on the Court. The current majority, in other words, is almost a conservative all-star team. By contrast, among the ten most liberal judges since 1937, the only sitting justice is Ruth Bader Ginsburg - she's number nine. Today's other three "liberal" justices (Stevens, Breyer, Souter) are in the top 15, but outside the top ten. All in all, that's a right-wing-dominated Supreme Court. The study gives credence to the claim of Justice John Paul Stevens (age 89) that he hasn't moved left since being appointed by President Ford in 1975, but that the Court has moved right. And it backs Stevens' assertion that "every judge who's been appointed to the Court" since 1971 "has been more conservative than his or her predecessor" - with the exception of Ginsburg (who recently underwent surgery related to pancreatic cancer). The question facing Obama: Will he continue this trend of shifting the Court rightward? Unfortunately, from what we've seen of Obama's general penchant for "moderate" appointees who don't inflame Republicans, it's quite possible the Court will continue trending rightward - if liberals get replaced with less liberal appointees. After Souter, the seats Obama is most likely to fill are those of the two most liberal justices: Ginsburg and Stevens. One of the most depressing aspects of the Obama era is how he has gotten away with so many centrist/corporatist appointees with such muted criticism from the left. That better change when it comes to crucial life-long judicial appointees. Whom Obama chooses for these posts is arguably more important than his choices of Biden or Gates or Hillary Clinton. On this topic (like others), Obama speaks eloquently. . . out of both sides of his mouth. In revealing comments to the Detroit Free Press last October about his models for Supreme Court picks, Obama praised liberal lions Thurgood Marshall and William Brennan of the Warren Court as "real heroes of mine." Then he added: "But that doesn't necessarily mean that I think their judicial philosophy is appropriate for today." After noting the Warren Court's powerful role in taking on racial segregation, Obama added a typically frustrating caveat: "I'm not sure you need that. In fact, I would be troubled if you had that same kind of activism in circumstances today. . . So when I think about the kinds of judges who are needed today, it goes back to the point I was making about common sense and pragmatism as opposed to ideology." Obama is a smart guy. He knows that even the most "common-sense/pragmatic" nominee will bring (often-feigned) outrage from conservatives. Right-wing groups are gearing up to raise funds and build their mailing lists by pouncing on whomever he chooses. They'd yell even if he selected 79-year-old recently Republican Arlen Specter. After Souter announced his retirement, right-wingers jumped on Obama's sensible statement that he would look for "that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles." That's code, claimed conservatives, for a liberal activist judge. And Obama is looking to replace Souter with a woman, person of color or both. Right-wing theatrics aside, the reality is that unless Obama restrains his compulsion toward centrist consensus and appoints real progressives to replace not only Souter but Ginsburg and Stevens, our right-wing court may get even more conservative. George W. Bush appointed mostly right-wing ideologues to the federal courts, and put Alito and Roberts on the Supremes. Republican-appointees and rightists now dominate the federal judiciary. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton prided himself on choosing mostly moderate judges - praised by the same elite pundit chorus that now praises Obama's "pragmatic" choices. A tepid replacement for Souter (and Stevens and Ginsburg) would maintain a right-wing status quo on the Supreme Court; as University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone told the Times : "The right side is very bold and very conservative. The liberal side is not bold. They are incrementalists. They don't set the agenda." But if Obama were to break his habit and replace retiring liberals with a bold progressive or two, Professor Stone argues it would seriously change things: "A really powerful, articulate, moral, passionate voice on the left would really change the dynamic on the Court. It would pull the other justices who are inclined to be sympathetic to that voice in that direction. It would shift the center of the discussion -- about what's the middle." With a Democratic-dominated Senate, President Obama is free to make a bold choice. I'm not holding my breath. Especially after seeing this clueless comment from Senate Judiciary chair Pat Leahy, who's gone over possible Souter replacements with Obama: "I don't like to see an ideologue of either the right or the left. I don't think we're going to have one." Jeff Cohen , who heads the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founded FAIR in 1986. More on Barack Obama
 
GM Bankruptcy: Quick Sale Of Assets To New, Healthy Gov-Owned Company Top
NEW YORK, May 19 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp's (GM.N) plan for a bankruptcy filing involves a quick sale of the company's healthy assets to a new company initially owned by the U.S. government, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
 
Hammad Hammad: Gaza: Stripped of Opportunity Top
I moved to the US from the West Bank in 2001, but sometimes I wonder: What would my life have been like if my family had not left? As I stressed about what to wear to senior prom, my Palestinian friends worried about what remained of Ramallah after an Israeli invasion of the city. When I was hearing back from American colleges about where I could go to school, many Palestinian students were unsure whether they would be able to attend college, whether roads or the Allenby Bridge would be open, and what the next stage in their lives would be. While my younger brother was going on play-dates, swimming at the community pool, and reading Harry Potter , children in Gaza were witnessing the death of a close family member due to the conflict, being tear-gassed, or having their homes searched. Today, I live a life of relative freedom, security, prosperity and opportunity, while most other Palestinians are living in confinement, peril, and utter poverty. How do I reconcile the many opportunities and experiences I am able to enjoy with the reality most Palestinians live with? If I had lived my entire life in Gaza, chances are I would not have been able to study at Georgetown, spend afternoons at a park, complain about long work hours and meet amazing people from all over the world. These opportunities have enhanced my ability to learn, develop and become a contributing member of society. For Palestinians, unfortunately these opportunities are not widely available. If I were living in Gaza today, instead of traveling freely in the US and around the world, I would be locked in an area that is about twice the size of Washington DC. Although Israel evacuated its illegal settlements in Gaza and the army is longer present inside, it is still the occupying power that controls airspace, entry and exit, and all trade and commerce. Gaza today is an open-air prison. Can you imagine having family members living 25 miles away but not being able to visit them? That's the reality for Palestinians separated between the West Bank and Gaza. Further, imagine that you don't even want to live in Gaza, but have been there for over 60 years as a refugee. Many of the most promising Palestinian students from Gaza are accepted to colleges and universities around the world, including in the United States. However, because there is no American consular presence in Gaza, and Gazans are not allowed to travel to Israel or the West Bank, students are automatically prevented by Israel from interviewing for their visa. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said in his meeting with President Obama earlier this week: "we don't want to govern the Palestinians." Unfortunately, talk is cheap. Concrete actions count. Today in Gaza, many Palestinian students must study under sporadically functioning streetlights to do homework at night. Israel controls what is allowed in and out of Gaza, as determined by The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). An official list of items not allowed in is only available by phone, and is not written. Israel has barely allowed anything to enter the coastal strip. 4000 buildings that were destroyed by Israel in January are still rubble. Since no building materials are allowed in, no reconstruction can occur. Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass (an Israeli journalist who was recently arrested [and later released on bail] for being in Gaza) recently reported: The few items merchants are allowed to trade in are divided into three categories: food, medicine and detergent. Everything else is forbidden -- including building materials (which are necessary to rehabilitate Gaza's ruins and rebuild its infrastructure), electric appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, spare machine and car parts, fabrics, threads, needles, light bulbs, candles, matches, books, musical instruments, crayons, clothing, shoes, mattresses, sheets, blankets, cutlery, crockery, cups, glasses and animals. Tea, coffee, sausages, semolina, milk products in large packages and most baking products are forbidden. So are industrial commodities for manufacturing food products, chocolate, sesame seeds and nuts. The ban on toilet paper, diapers and sanitary napkins was lifted three months ago. A little more than a month ago, following a long ban, Israel permitted the import of detergents and soaps into Gaza. Even shampoo was allowed. But one merchant discovered that the bottles of shampoo he had ordered were sent back because they included conditioner, which was not on the list. Hamas and Fatah are locked in a power struggle over Gaza, and have allowed their selfish motives and egos to trump their care for the Palestinian people. If you are a Fatah member in Gaza, above worrying about your life because of the Israeli closure, you must also worry about being attacked or targeted by Hamas because of your political beliefs or background. I can't solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, I can say that through my experience, what has empowered me the most has been my education and the opportunities that have come from living in a place where I don't have to worry about whether pasta is banned, whether there is any more gas, and where I can be secure in knowing that that i will not be held in an open air prison. I am able to reach my potential and seek opportunities for the future. For the majority of Palestinians -- especially refugees -- this is not the case. It is crucial to empower the voices that beckon change and that wish to use education as a method of empowering the next generation of Palestinians to live in a secure and stable state. As the "only real democracy in the Middle East," it sure is ironic that Israel locks 1.5 million people in an area twice the size of Washington DC and does not allow books or toys in. While this is done under the guise of security, it is difficult to believe that feeding a starving population and fulfilling their thirst for knowledge is an existential threat to the State of Israel. Then again, maybe the Gazan refugee with a college degree from an American university is what Israel fears the most. More on Barack Obama
 
Sarah Newman: Guerrilla Gardening Top
Can a radical social agenda really take root in Los Angeles? Living in this city, I sometimes think that the stereotypes (and complaints) about the city might be accurate. On the down side, it's a sprawling, overheated metropolis of concrete rivers billowing out to the far reaches of the region's somewhat in-hospitable desert landscape. It's streets are lined with sinewy palms that offer little shade or respite from Southern California's severe sun. The city's architectural gems are frequently overshadowed by the bland neon strip malls that are often the central focus of neighborhoods. All of this non-interactive city design can leave one whimpering for a sense of connection to fellow Angelenos. Despite this rather grim description of my current town, there's some amazing things happening below the surface. It might not be apparent to the naked eye when you're cruising the concrete on Pico Boulevard or inching along on the 405 freeway. This incredibly diverse city (someone once described it as the "Ellis Island of the 21st century") is filled with creative activists using renegade tools to push new social agendas that foster a sense of community in a city that often lacks such a physical and emotional space and literally build communities. I had the extreme fortune of stumbling upon one such group last night while driving with my friend, Jenna. We were at Highland and Wilshire Boulevards (a fairly prominent intersection) and noticed a group of people in orange work clothes, gardening. They looked vaguely official in their work outfits and "slow down" signs, but I was suspicious. I quickly did a U-Turn and asked if they were "guerrilla gardeners." They gleefully replied that yes, they were and told us to join in. Jenna and I, inappropriately dressed in sundresses and sandals (this is LA, of course), joined the group to plant an array of succulents and cacti in this little plot of previously brown, lonely dirt. It was a transformative experience. A random group of Angelenos were immersed in dirt, digging, planting, watering and nurturing beautiful donated plants. It was an instant community of people who all are committed to a greener, healthier city (and some said this was their only opportunity to garden) and transforming it in a somewhat radical, but harmless way. Guerrilla gardening isn't going to solve all of Los Angeles' problems, but it's one tool that can be used to connect people, build communities (literally and figuratively), say no to our concrete landscape and bring touches of beauty to otherwise forlorn stretches of the city. Fortunately, guerrilla gardening isn't unique to Los Angeles . It's sprouting up across the country and around globe . Since it's a somewhat anarchist-style of gardening, if there's not a group in your community, simply start your own! All you need are some friends, garden tools and plants (which can be donated) to start a green revolution on a street corner near you! Sarah's Social Action Snapshot originally appeared on Takepart.com More on Green Living
 
Lisbeth Koelster, Danish TV Reporter, Convicted For Killing Fish With Shampoo Top
COPENHAGEN — A Danish TV reporter has been convicted of animal cruelty for killing 12 aquarium fish with shampoo for a consumer affairs show. The Glostrup City Court says Lisbeth Koelster poured 0.3 fluid ounces (10 milliliter) of a shampoo containing an anti-dandruff substance into a fish tank for a TV program in 2004. The show on public service broadcaster DR was aimed to expose the toxicity of chemicals used in some hair products. Three days later, 12 of the 13 guppies in the tank had died. A veterinarian reported her to the police two days after the show aired, but the case apparently didn't get any priority treatment and was only brought to court last week. Tuesday's ruling said Koelster knew the fish would die because the experiment was based on a similar laboratory test. The court didn't fine her, however, saying her rights to a speedy trial had been violated. More on Animals
 
Dean Sluyter: It's Official: Nobody's Cool. (Kerouac Posthumously Blows It) Top
So now we know. In case you missed the news , literary archaeologists have unearthed the evidence, more earthshaking and culture-shocking than any suppressed scroll Dan Brown could dream up. Jack Kerouac -- Mr. On the Road, the King of the Beats, who begat the beatniks who begat the hippies who begat the hipsters -- Jack Kerouac, the fountainhead of cool -- that Jack Kerouac was obsessed with -- guess what. Freedom? Alienation? Restless, rootless wandering? Mad pursuit of the beatific vision? Nope. Jack Kerouac's deepest-rooted, longest-lasting obsession was ... fantasy baseball. How obsessed was he? So obsessed that, years before fantasy baseball existed, he invented his own version of the game, with whole teams and leagues named for colors and makes of cars, and series and seasons played out with marbles for balls and toothpicks and matchsticks for bats. So obsessed that he filled notebooks with meticulously recorded stats, made illustrated team rosters, and wrote letters back and forth between his various team-managerial personae, haggling over trades. So obsessed that he persisted in this childhood hobby through all his on-the-roading and dharma-bumming, through obscurity and fame and alcoholic decay, almost till his death. So obsessed that he concealed his decidedly uncool secret from all but one or two of his aspiringly cool fellow Beats. I guess we should have known when we found out that Marlon Brando was a ham radio operator. What next? Any day now we'll probably learn that James Dean collected stamps, that Lou Reed and Andy Warhol traded Matchbox Cars, that Miles Davis's real passion was his model trains, which he ran while wearing an engineer's cap. Mr. Cool, the guy who started it all, was a geek. And if Kerouac's not cool, nobody's cool. What a relief! We can just relax and be ourselves. (That would be ... cool?) Of course, Kerouac didn't really start it all. He got the cool thing from jazz musicians, hanging around the 52nd Street nightclubs during his brief stint as a benched football player at Columbia, transforming the laid-back-even-when-frantic rhythm of bebop -- the beat -- into Beat Generation prose, writing lovely poetic tributes to Charlie Parker's Buddha-eyes. If anyone started it, it was Prez, Lester Young, half a generation before Parker. Somehow lightening and purifying the gutbucket sound of the tenor sax till it sang like an alto, Prez used that cooled-out voice to slice through the overheated busyness of early jazz, unhurriedly hanging behind the beat or somehow mysteriously hovering above it, in an ever-cool, rarefied realm not touchable by the mundane world of 4/4. And just incidentally, Prez appears to have been the first person to wear sunglasses as a cool fashion statement; he may even have coined the word "cool" as a term of approval. Interesting word, actually. In physics, that which is cool is that which exhibits less random molecular activity -- that which is more settled. Maybe real cool, the essence of cool, is inner cool, settled awareness, buddha mind, the nirvanic state. In that case, we can amend our statement. Nobody's cool but those who have stopped shaking and stirring this jar of muddy water called the mind long enough so that the mud can settle and the water's natural clarity can shine forth. That is, nobody's cool but buddhas. Note that I didn't say Buddh ists : buddhas can be Christians, atheists, Hindus, or Venusians. (And Buddhists can be buddhas or knuckleheads like anyone else.) But cool as an outer pose -- as a book or an outfit you can buy, as an attitude you can cop -- is dead. Long live cool. When the truly cool people show up in your life, you won't recognize them -- they'll be too cool for that. More on Fashion
 
Judge: Tucson Citizen Closing OK Top
TUCSON, Ariz. — The Tucson Citizen won't be forced to resume publication. A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Arizona attorney general's office failed to show that the Citizen's owner, Gannett Co., violated antitrust laws by ending the 138-year-old newspaper with last Saturday's issue. "While regrettable that the Citizen's illustrious legacy must come to end, it can not be said at this time, the decision to close the Citizen involves an anti-trust violation," U.S. District Judge Raner Collins wrote. The state had contended that the move eliminated competition and fostered a monopoly situation for Gannett and Lee Enterprises Inc., publisher of the city's larger newspaper, the Arizona Daily Star. The state contended the decision was made simply to make more money. A partnership jointly owned by Gannett and Lee handled printing and other non-editorial functions for both Tucson newspapers until Saturday. Under that joint operating agreement, the two companies shared costs, profits and losses. Collins said that while "it is true the closing of the Citizen is an irreparable harm," the state didn't prove there was a violation of the 1970 Newspaper Preservation Act, which created such JOAs as an exemption to federal antitrust law. JOAs have given newspapers competing in the same market a way to survive _ by sharing business operations, such as advertising, publishing and distribution costs, while keeping newsrooms separate. But they became less profitable as newspaper readership and advertising revenues began to decline, and costs to report and publish the news went up. Nancy Bonnell, chief of the state attorney general's antitrust unit, argued in court Monday that because the Citizen was losing money, Gannett and Lee determined their joint business entity, Tucson Newspapers Inc., "would make more money if they closed one of the papers" and operated only the profitable Star. "Even in recession last year, the parties made $16 million _ but that wasn't enough," Bonnell said at the hearing. Collins' ruling denied the state a temporary restraining order, but the state is entitled to continue with its lawsuit alleging antitrust violations. The attorney general's office hasn't decided whether to file an appeal. The ruling means the Citizen can proceed with plans to turn the brand into an opinion-and-commentary Web site and a printed Tucson Citizen editorial weekly to be distributed inside the Star. Although the Tucson JOA was terminated with Saturday's final edition, Gannett and Lee are continuing to share costs and profits equally from those lingering Tucson Citizen operations and the Star's. Kate Marymont, vice president for news with Gannett's community publishing division, said that even though the company won't be printing its own newspaper, it is allowed to earn money from the partnership because it will help pay the costs of producing the rival newspaper. She said Gannett and Lee both come out ahead by eliminating the costs of producing the money-losing Citizen. It isn't the first time a company keeps making money from a JOA after closing its money-losing newspaper, said Rick Edmonds, a media analyst at the Poynter Institute. He pointed to the 1988 demise of The Miami News, whose owner, Cox Enterprises Inc., continued to share profits from The Miami Herald, now owned by McClatchy Co. The afternoon Citizen has struggled for years against the Star, a 102,000-circulation morning newspaper. During the Citizen's heyday in the 1960s, circulation was about 61,000, but it had fallen to about 19,000. Don Kaplan, a lawyer representing Lee Enterprises, has said that if partners in a JOA can't help out a healthy newspaper by shutting down the one that is failing, "then this industry is in very serious trouble." The Citizen, he said, was losing more than $10,000 a day. Bonnell argued Monday that Santa Monica Media Co. LLC offered to buy the Citizen for $250,000 immediately or $400,000 over time for Citizen assets. Gannett said the newspaper's assets were assessed at $760,000, and its asking price was $800,000, according to court documents. In Tuesday's ruling, Collins determined that the state didn't prove there was a buyer ready to pay a fair market value for the Citizen's assets. At one time, there were 28 JOAs in the U.S., but only six remain: Detroit; Charleston, W.Va.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Las Vegas; York, Pa.; and Salt Lake City. Seattle's JOA dissolved with Hearst Corp.'s March decision to turn the Seattle Post-Intelligencer into a Web-only operation. ___ On the Net: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com ___ Associated Press Business Writer Andrew Vanacore in New York contributed to this story. More on Newspapers
 
Sarah Jessica Parker Concerned For Safety Of Surrogate Top
LOS ANGELES — Sarah Jessica Parker says she's concerned for the safety and well-being of the surrogate through whom she and husband Matthew Broderick are expecting twins. The "Sex and the City" star tells "Access Hollywood" that the attention has led to an invasion of the woman's privacy. Parker says the stress has taken its toll on her, and she worries about her "and the safe delivery of our children." The 44-year-old says in an interview airing Tuesday on NBC that the surrogate's telephone and computer have been hacked into, and she's received threats. Parker says it hasn't ended there: "She's had friends threatened and family threatened and she's had family of friends threatened." "I care deeply about her and I am incredibly outraged by the sort of extraordinary and unprecedented invasion of her privacy," says Parker. "I think even given the unfortunate way we live now in this unending appetite for the more salacious information, it has still shocked me, and it has still really disappointed me." Parker said a pregnant friend of the surrogate was also chased by the paparazzi. "She's had a friend who was thought to be her chased down a highway ... This friend is nine months pregnant _ chased down a highway by photographers and dare I call them 'reporters.' I guess that's how they identify themselves," she said. "It's crossed lines _ Pretty much all the lines have been crossed." The couple has a 6-year-old son, James Wilkie Broderick. ___ On the Net: http://www.accesshollywood.com/
 

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