Sunday, May 10, 2009

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Andy Ostroy: How the Internet is Killing Our Economy Top
The United States is facing the most challenging economic crisis since The Great Depression of the 1930's. And if you ask me, the greatest technological invention ever, the Internet, is in no small part responsible. In fact, I believe the Internet is not only killing our economy, it's shredding our social fabric as well. To be sure, the Internet is an incredibly useful medium. It's been a genuine paradigm shifter, altering the way we communicate, research, travel, shop and organize, educate and entertain ourselves. It allows us to do all of these everyday tasks faster, more efficiently and more cost-effectively...often times even free. And therein lies the gargantuan problem of the Internet. As someone who's formed and runs a few businesses, I can tell you firsthand that free is not good. Free never shows up on a P&L or a balance sheet. Free doesn't fatten the company's coffers and allow for growth and expansion. And you can't pay bills with free . In short, and to use the vernacular of my 16-year-old son, free, in business, sucks . Yet, the Internet is all about free. We can get our newspapers and magazines for free. We can watch televisions programs free. We can download movies and music free. We can book our own travel, send free mail, make free phone calls, send free greeting cards. We can, thanks to MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to name a few, even socialize for free, never having to leave the house or spend one red-cent actually socializing the way truly sociable folks used to. Think about all the businesses, all the people, who've been slammed by this economic black hole called the Internet. Consider how much money has literally been sucked out of America's GDP by this rapacious beast which resides in our laptops, PC's, iPhones and Blackberries. Look how it's destroyed the music business, travel agencies, the publishing industry. It's killed the movie after-markets, like DVD. Look at the strikes it's caused in Hollywood, because somehow studios think that viewing content on a computer screen instead of a TV screen somehow gives license to screw writers out of their residuals. Think of all the money not spent in cafes, bars, lounges, restaurants, clubs, video stores, and book stores because of the proliferation of impersonal, intimacy-starved social-networking sites and free-content sites. Somehow, when it came to the Internet, businesses decided the only way to truly attract a scalable audience was to give them everything free. But now that the economic shit's hitting the fan, our corporate titans may be coming to the long-overdue realization that capitalism and free are about as successful a marriage as Karl Rove and Queer Eye's Carson Kressley. Just this week one of those corporate uber-moguls, Rupert Murdoch, announced that his News Corporation will begin charging for content on his newspaper websites within a year in a direct answer to what he calls the current "malfunctioning" business model. Citing the enviable success of the Wall Street Journal's growing online subscription revenues, Murdoch said that newspapers were experiencing an "epochal" debate over charging consumers for content. Murdoch's a guy who likes to make money. I'll bet he'll make it all work and have the last laugh. Hopefully, others will follow suit. I'll say it again: free sucks . Nobody can make money by giving their products an services away for nothing. There can be no profit without revenue. And without revenue all you have is expense, which leads to bleeding red ink. The more people like Murdoch who wake up and smell the cyber-coffee, the sooner our economy and our once-thriving capitalist society can get back on track. When companies and individuals make money, they spend money. Just because a business operates online doesn't mean all that good old fashioned Wharton Business School stuff doesn't apply. Let's keep all the speed, the ease, and the efficiency of the internet, but how about making people pay for it all, just like everywhere else? Duh... More on Twitter
 
Angella Nazarian: Voice of Hope Top
On Tues April 21st, at exactly 10 am, the entire nation of Israel stopped as sirens sounded from Haifa to the Golan Heights commemorating the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. As one might expect, these two minutes were very powerful -- nothing like this happens in the States. Cars and buses pulled to the side of the road and passengers got out and stood at attention. Workers everywhere put down their tools. Diners in restaurants paused, waiting in silence. It was a remarkable memorial. Two days earlier, halfway across the world, there was a memorial of a different sort. About 12,000 people in suburban Chicago attended the opening of the Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie, Illinois in spite of the pouring rain. While these two events were vastly different, they illustrate the ongoing efforts in our world to remember the unimaginable. "This was a high point in my life," explains Samuel Harris, a Holocaust survivor and the president of the newly built museum. For Harris, it was the culmination of nearly a decade of effort, persistence, and resilience to raise enough money to build the museum. These were the very same traits that Samuel needed in order to survive the holocaust in his native Poland. He was only 4 years old when he first saw dead bodies of the townspeople of Demblin lying in the streets after a German air raid. In the months that ensued, he saw his father and other Jewish neighbors beaten and humiliated by the Nazis who had invaded his town. By the time he was 5 and a half years old, the Jews of Demblin and neighboring cities were rounded up in ghettos and were summarily shipped off to the Treblinka death camp. His family was no exception. He joined his parents and his six siblings who were among the 1000 people rounded up in the city square and herded into cattle cars. "I hid in the middle of the pack and I felt so small," Samuel recalled, in a recent interview. "I kept lifting my head and all I could see was the sky. But I heard a voice that told me that I will be okay." The next thing Samuel remembers is his father urging him to run and hide behind a pile of bricks by the side of the square. Two of his older sisters had done the same and he watched his other four siblings and his parents walk to the cattle cars for the last time. The next few years were nothing less than a horror for the three siblings. Samuel recalls hiding and narrowly escaping death several times. He was almost 9 years old when the Russians liberated the concentration camp that he was in. Samuel and his older sister, Sara were sent to America, and each was adopted into separate Jewish families. His older sister, Rosa, whom he credits for his survival during the war, is living in Vienna. It was not until 1977, at the age of 42, that Samuel was able to talk about his childhood experience. At that time, there was a rise in Holocaust "deniers" and an increase in anti-Semitic sentiment. Indeed, it was in Skokie that neo-Nazis had threatened to march. In response to this protest, Samuel and his fellow survivors helped build a modest exhibition in Skokie to build awareness in the community. However, their big dream was to build a state-of-the-art museum and education center one day. Samuel, who became the chairman of this project, had his sights on enlisting the help of J. B. Pritzker, whose family are among the most prominent philanthropists in Chicago. At first, Pritzker was skeptical and asked that Samuel first find the land, an architect, and provide solid and detailed plans for the museum. Unabashed, Samuel came back to him months later with answers to all this questions. "Persistence did pay off. Eventually J. B. Pritzker not only became involved financially, but he gave his talent, time, and interest. Most importantly, he bonded with us and cared for the survivors in this town," Samuel explains. Many other Jews and non-Jews joined in raising funds for this $45 million project. Samuel is quick to credit the efforts of all who were involved that made this dream come true. The day that I spoke to Samuel, he had just come back from speaking to 350 8th graders about his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. "The best part of this journey is about changing lives. It has nothing to do with the Holocaust," he said. "Many of the kids that I speak to come from broken homes and often they tell me that if I made it through such tough times, they believe they can hang in there too." Perhaps, that voice of reassurance Samuel had heard as a child in the midst of chaos and pain is now at work in him. Samuel's message to these kids is: "Don't give up in the face of adversity. Things will be okay." So now, Skokie has a new memorial to commemorate one of the world's greatest tragedies. Israel too, has a Holocaust memorial, but its annual moment of remembrance is just as powerful. Two gestures, very different, but both designed for us to stop, teach, and remember. More on Israel
 
Jeff Norman: Obama's Master Plan Top
Although nothing about our nation's legal obligation to prosecute (or extradite) torturers was mentioned, last night's exchange between President Obama and reporter Jake Tapper suggests a criminal investigation is inevitable. Obama flatly stated that waterboarding is torture and referred to the Bush administration's sanctioning of the interrogation technique as "a mistake." On his blog, Marc Cooper shares the thoughts of two friends who believe Obama "is playing this like a virtuoso, that he remains two steps ahead of the rest of us, and that he is masterfully engineering this to wind up in the hands of a klieg-lit congressional drama..." Cooper links to Jonathan Taplin's theory that the reason Dick Cheney has been aggressively defending the Bush administration's use of torture, is the former VP realizes his day of reckoning is on the horizon. All of this means it would probably be helpful if Obama loyalists were to overcome their misguided reluctance to pressure him in any way. Indeed, it could be plausibly argued that the president wants the public to demand that the Bush gang be held accountable, so the current administration and Democrats in general are not perceived as acting overzealously for partisan reasons. More on Barack Obama
 
Roseanne Colletti: First-Time Buyer Top
Nicole and Bryan are buying a house. I hear about this a lot since I work with Nicole and I've bought three times and refinanced six. The other day, Nicole mentioned that she thought the bank liked them because they were first-time buyers. And guess what she's right. Not having anything to sell in this real estate market makes you a very desirable credit risk to lenders. This means first-time buyers have a leg up over those who may have a leg caught in the door of a house they can't sell. Sellers are also more likely to look on your offer favorably to another buyer who has property to unload in order to make the purchase. That being said, you can still fall victim to some first-timer mistakes if you're not careful. Prime among them is to ignore or be unaware of any blemishes on your credit. It needs to be as clean as an operating room. The Federal Reserve says half of the banks have tightened their lending standards in the first quarter of the year. Get a copy of your credit report ASAP if you haven't already done so. You're entitled to a free one from each of the three credit reporting agencies annually. If your score is below 760 you'll have less negotiating power over mortgage terms and fees. Add that up to a more expensive loan. The second big way to sabotage your house-buying efforts these days is to come up short on a down payment. More and more lenders are demanding 20% down. Anything less and you'll probably get hit with expensive mortgage insurance. This means you pay more to protect against bank losses in case you default. Ironic isn't it? Think of all those buyers who were approved for big mortgages with nothing down and then defaulted and the bank is now getting even through you. The third big mistake is not obtaining pre-approval before making an offer or even looking at homes. A good real estate agent will counsel you to fill out a mortgage application for pre-approval right away. Otherwise you're not considered a qualified buyer and any smart agent or seller will run the other way. In addition, pre-qualification will tell you exactly how much mortgage you can get. Now here's the fourth big mistake-believing the amount. What the lender tells you you can afford to pay for a house is not what that house will actually cost you. You have to factor in taxes, monthly maintenance, and improvements. In fact, many buyers only recognize this after they sign the papers and move in. They soon discover they are house poor and there's nothing left to buy that cute den furniture or redo the bathroom. The fifth land mine you're likely to encounter is closing costs. This depends a lot on what state you live in and what fees are attached. Nicole and Bryan are paying tens of thousands of dollars in closing costs, but then they're buying in pricey Westchester County New York. Hopefully you're closing costs won't be anywhere close, but you need to see them in writing long before you do the deal and it does you in. (If you'd like to see more of my stories go to www. nbcnewyork.com )
 
Stacey Radin: Career Couch: Pink Slip Prevention Top
By Stacey Radin and Karen Rosenthal News flash: Don't wait until it's broken to fix it. Keep it well oiled, in pristine working condition to prevent being dumped. We're talking about your job -- the most precious commodity, next to your family. The internal marketplace for retention is as intense as the external marketplace for jobs. Talking to senior executives across the country, there is unanimity around one central conclusion: Excellence is the new norm. Mediocrity will no longer be tolerated. Average doesn't even enter into the equation This is the first of a series of tips to prevent the pink slip. Read them. Heed them. Apply them immediately. This is your survival guide. 1. Expand your responsibilities - surprise superiors by being proactive. • Identify organizational "vacuums" that are critical to business sustainability and growth and tell management that you want to work on those issues. Write a new job description and make an appointment with your boss to discuss it. 2. Acquire new and relevant skills and deploy them strategically • Identify the areas of expertise the business requires going forward and determine whether you possess some of those skills. If you do, tell your boss that you want to work on relevant projects. If not, find a course to develop the relevant expertise. • Look at your life and see where these two selves "work" and "life" can be combined. • Be proactive versus reactive. Anticipating crises and developing preventative solutions are critical right now. • Consider long term and short term goals. 3. Take the "working lunch" literally • Use the lunch break to network and problem-solve with colleagues. Engage in productive business discussions, learning activities and the like. Volunteer to help a colleague solve a problem; the payback will be enormous. Multitasking and flexibility are prerequisites to thriving and surviving. • Volunteer for a not for profit organization and build skills that will enhance your career. Volunteering is a great way to add or strengthen your talent portfolio. When you master a skill, transfer the learning to work. 4. Articulate your value to your boss by showcasing your accomplishments and gaining recognition • Know your value proposition (what you are worth to the company) • Increase your visibility to key stakeholders in the company. Decision makers need to clearly understand what you do, how you benefit the company and what would be difficult to replicate without you. • Market yourself internally as someone who wants to learn and develop. This may mean participating in workshops or seminars offered by the company or finding your own learning opportunities. In either case, make sure others know you are taking the initiative to develop. 5. Take accountability • Take ownership in retaining your position or advancing -do not wait for your boss or HR to identify your path for you • If you do receive corrective feedback, accept it graciously as a gift and take action to change • If you make a mistake, admit it, rectify it, make sure the new solution is more powerful than the error made We will be regularly contributing tips, ideas and discussions to navigate readers through the career labyrinth. America is embarking on a new age -- "the career revolution". Just like any other cultural shift, the career revolution is a time for opportunity, but requires managing constantly moving pieces, being flexible in thinking and behavior, and resiliency. The career couch will be a place for you to refuel. Stacey and Karen provide full and half-day programs for companies to develop practical approaches to employee innovation, cross divisional employee networks and high potential employee retention. Karen Rosenthal, Founder and CEO of Retaining Human Capital, has been a career and leadership coach to executives for over 25 years. She has served in various capacities as a strategic business consultant, developing and implementing organizational development plans and conducting executive searches for Fortune 100 companies. Ms. Rosenthal has worked with hundreds of executives, building their unique brands over the years, enabling them to successfully differentiate themselves from their peers.
 
Alexandra Levit: The Corporate Freshman: Your Rep is More Important Than Ever Top
In life, we get many chances to reinvent ourselves. Remember when you first arrived on campus for your freshman year of college? The most exciting thing about it was that no one knew what a (insert negative adjective of choice here) you were in high school. You taught yourself new habits and hobbies, and you bought yourself a new wardrobe. Maybe you even picked a new nickname. You had the chance to start over, as if your previous life had never been. Your twenty and even thirty-something years present a similar opportunity, and, understandably, you probably want to spend them figuring out who you are and what you want out of life. Should you decide to pursue a career in business, however, developing a corporate persona will unquestionably serve you well. By corporate persona, I mean the mature, professional, and competent face you project to the work world. It doesn't matter what type of person you are in real life, just think of yourself as an actor playing a role while you are at work. So what if you still play drinking games on Friday nights or prefer a book to human company? You can still have a corporate persona. How will this help you? Quite simply, a marketable persona positively influences people's perceptions of you so that you can ultimately succeed in the corporate world. I'm sure you've heard of big-time publicists who get paid megabucks to promote celebrities and make them look like the coolest people on earth. You can be just like those PR folks, only you have just one client to promote -- you. It's pretty easy, but there is a catch: You must first learn to toot your own horn. Although there is a fine line between confidence and arrogance, learning to capitalize on your skills and assert your achievements is a must for career success. If you don't do it, no one else will, and you'll be out-promoted by people who know how to leverage their own contributions. Trust me on this. In the end it will pay off almost as handsomely for you as it does for the wealthiest of publicists. Growing and maintaining a corporate persona is hard work because everything you say and do affects it one way or the other. The best way to make your persona stick is to clearly establish it at the beginning of your relationship with a company and consistently sustain it during the early phases of a new job. You can start online. The first step is to do a Google search of your name - and alternate spellings of your name - and see what comes up. A lot of factors influence which pages appear first in a particular search engine, but you can help your cause by purchasing your name from a web domain company such as GoDaddy.com and housing a professional biography, other credentials, and current contact information on a simple and clean website. If you find yourself competing with other people who have the same name, you might also increase your share of online real estate by writing industry articles for third-party association websites or community blogs. Your social media presence should enhance, rather than detract from your corporate persona. You are hopefully aware that social networks and blogs are not the private havens for friends that they used to be. You can pretty much count on the fact that your boss, senior managers, colleagues, and potential employers are looking at your online sites - privacy controls or no privacy controls. That's not to say that you can't have a little fun by including content that demonstrates you're a human being, but don't go too crazy with the applications (ala "Katie was just bitch-slapped by Jason), and beware of getting too personal. If you'd like some more tips on developing an effective corporate persona, feel free to check out the new edition of my book, They Don't Teach Corporate in College: A Twenty-Something's Guide to the Business World , or e-mail me anytime. More on Careers
 
Aubrey Sarvis: Obama Caving on Gays in the Military Top
"We've begun to change the culture of Washington," President Obama said in his boffo remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner Saturday night. Sounds good. But the next morning on ABC's This Week , George Stephanopoulos asked the president's National Security Advisor retired Marine General James L. Jones if he thought DADT will be overturned. Jones replied, "I don't know," and then what is clearly one of the main talking points, "We have a lot on our plate right now." Sounds like the same old Beltway blab to me. There was more of it, just the usual stuff: "preliminary discussions with the leadership of the Pentagon . . . [this] is not going to be a light switch but more of a rheostat in terms of discussing . . . a very sensitive issue and it has to be discussed over time . . . all sides have to be heard . . . We will have long discussions about this. It will be thoughtful. It will be deliberative. The president I know will reach out to fully understand both sides or all sides of the issue before he makes a decision . . . ." Surely this doesn't represent the vision and the work plan we've been hearing about from the White House and some of our allies. In Washington we know about commissions and study groups and promise-them-anything when you're trolling for votes but after the election . . . well, memories fade. What candidate Obama said then is not what President Obama is doing now - at least in regard to "don't ask, don't tell." In October 2007, candidate Obama, responding to a question on DADT, said, "Anybody who is willing to serve our country and die on a battlefield . . . that's the criteria for whether or not they should be able to serve in our military. England doesn't have this policy. Israel doesn't have this policy. It's an outdated policy." That same autumn he said, "America is ready to get rid of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. That work should have started long ago. It will start when I take office. America is ready to get rid of the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. All that is required is leadership." Ringing words from candidate Obama. But that was then; this is now. President Obama has said almost nothing. Where is the leadership today? It's not coming from the president. President Obama is caving. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen, General Jones, and Chief of the U.S. Central Command General David Petraeus seem to be calling the shots for their Commander-in-Chief. What's the evidence? The president's defense team presented their department's budget to President Obama, and the president sent it to the Hill last week. This Wednesday hearings begin in the House Armed Forces Committee. Nothing in the Obama defense budget provides for the elimination of "don't ask, don't tell." More evidence? Karen De Young wrote in the Washington Post last week, "When Obama was under pressure to review the military's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy on gay service members, Jones said he went 'to see him personally on it' and advised him not to add another controversy to his already-full plate. The president, Jones said, took his advice." Apparently so. "Calling the shots" is not the metaphor the Defense Secretary and the officers mentioned earlier would use because in truth it is the president who calls the shots. While the president is playing basketball, a game he is pretty good at, his senior advisors are playing kick ball, as in "let's kick this ball down the road." Unfortunately, they're pretty good at kickball. The metaphors are flying all over the place. Mixing them up a bit more, "we've got a lot on our plates right now." We hear that a lot. No one could deny it. Has there even been a president who hasn't had a full to overflowing plate? In the meantime one or two men and women are being discharged every day for who they are. This has nothing to do with national security or unit cohesion or any of the other buzz words like "full plate." Those words just cover up a crass political calculation made at the expense of the at least 13,000 men and women already discharged because of who they are. Who they are is gay. On March 19th, Lieutenant Daniel Choi told an audience of millions on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show , "I am an infantry platoon leader in the New York Army National Guard, and by saying three words to you today--I am gay--those three words are a violation of Title X of the U.S. Code." Indeed they were. Last week the Army wrote Iraq veteran Lieutenant Choi, West Point Class of 2003, Arabic major and fluent in the language, that he was being dismissed. The letter says, in part, "this is to inform you that sufficient basis exists to initiate action for withdrawal of federal recognition in the Army National Guard for moral or professional dereliction. Specifically, you admitted publicly that you are a homosexual, which constitutes homosexual conduct. Your actions negatively affected the good order and discipline of the New York Army National Guard." Not exactly a friendly note. President Obama may not have signed it, but what is now his policy dictated it. In fact, more than sixty translators have been discharged under "don't ask, don't tell." One of them even made headlines Saturday in Israel, where of course being gay in the military is no big deal. The big deal was that the Army fired an Arabic linguist. A few days ago Second Lieutenant Sandy Tsao got a note quite different in tone. In January, on the Chinese New Year, she wrote President Obama, explaining that "today is also the day I inform my chain of command of who I am." Who she is, is gay. She went on to say, "I have fought and overcome many barriers to arrive at the point I am today. This is the only battle I fear I may lose." Well, she did lose. She will be out of the Army May 19th because she told her superiors that she is a lesbian. It took just four months. But last Tuesday, in the same week she was informed she'd been fired, she received a handwritten note on White House letterhead from the President: "Sandy -- Thanks for the wonderful and thoughtful letter. It is because of outstanding Americans like you that I committed to changing our current policy. Although it will take some time to complete (partly because it needs Congressional action) I intend to fulfill my commitment." Nice words, a nice souvenir for Lieutenant Tsao, and it's encouraging to know that President Obama intends to fulfill his commitment. The question is, "When? How?" More on Rachel Maddow
 
Rabbi Abraham Cooper: A Tale of Two Popes Top
By late Fall of 2004, it was apparent that the Pope did not have long to live. It was understandable then that Vatican officials pressed us as to why the Simon Wiesenthal Center wanted a second audience with John Paul II. "Judaism has a mandate of 'Hakarat Hatov' -- recognizing someone when they do act righteously. We have no agenda this time. We simply want to say thank you", replied my colleague and mentor Rabbi Marvin Hier. So after His Holiness rallied, we flew to Rome and on December 1st our small delegation had a private audience in the Pope's personal chapel. A shadow of the strapping, muscular, larger than-life figure we first met in 1983, here was a man, ravaged by illness, physically bent , but spiritually intact. He even retained his sense of humor, laughing when Rabbi Hier reminded him that he had played goalie for a Jewish soccer team in his youth. We thanked the Pope for transforming relations between Catholics and The Jewish people; for descending from the throne of St. Peter to attend Services at Rome's Synagogue (a first); for making the pilgrimage to Auschwitz (a first); for praying and placing a 'kvital' in the cracks of Jerusalem's Western Wall; for labeling anti-Semitism a sin... for recognizing the intrinsic value of Judaism...for being a mensch... In 2005, we returned to the Vatican to meet Benedict XVI. Much has been made of the differences in constitution, temperament, and personal background of Benedict and his predecessor. In fact, as then Cardinal Ratzinger, he served as a key theological advisor and ally for Pope John Paul II who declared that Jews-were no longer to be condemned for not recognizing Jesus' divinity but to be seen as Christians' "elder brothers in faith". Though raised in Nazi Germany, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote this about the Nazi Holocaust: "it cannot be denied that a certain insufficient resistance to this atrocity on the part of Christians can be explained by an inherited anti-Judaism present in the hearts of not a few Christians." And he backed John Paul II's ultimate reversal of Church anti-Jewish doctrine when he established full diplomatic relations with Israel. Pope Benedict XVI's arrival in the Holy Land can't change the past, or ensure that there won't be future controversies or disagreements. But his pilgrimage presents an opportunity for Jews to acknowledge that today, this Church, once a main source of anti-Semitism, openly recognizes our people's right to pursue its unique historic and spiritual destiny. More on The Pope
 
Rising Credit Card Losses Are Next Challenge For Banks Top
It used to be easy to guess how many Americans would have problems paying their credit card bills. Banks just looked at unemployment: Fewer jobs meant more trouble ahead. The unemployment rate has long mirrored banks' loss rates on card balances. But Eddie Ward, 32 and jobless, may be one more reason that rule of thumb no longer holds. For many lenders, losses are now outpacing layoffs.
 
Chantal Sicile-Kira: Where Would We Be Without Our Mothers? Top
When my parents moved to America from France in the early 1950's, maman was eight months pregnant. She left behind her large, boisterous and close-knit family in France and followed papa because he wanted to start a new life in the New World. In those days, French people didn't just pick up and leave and cross the ocean, especially not with a baby on the way. But Maman followed her heart. Maman raised six children in a country where she had no relatives, and at first no friends to help her, and where she didn't speak the language or know the customs. But she learned them. Maman must have deeply loved papa to leave all that was familiar behind, and papa was no ordinary man. Take camping. Camping for my dad meant spending the three summer months in a cow field in Kentucky, sleeping in tiny pup tents, using a stinky wooden outhouse, and cooking over a campfire. We cleaned ourselves by bathing in the river below, and my mom had to trek into town to a Laundromat while papa went to work during the day. Some of us tykes were still in diapers, and it wasn't easy taking care of us with no running water (other than the river below). At night, papa would take us frogging in an old rowboat on the river, and we would eat froglegs for breakfast cooked over the open campfire. It wasn't till I moved to France as a young adult that I realized that the French did in fact eat frog legs, but not for breakfast, and usually not cooked over an open fire. My family moved often, about every three years because that was how long it usually took for papa's construction projects to be completed, and then it was on to the next one. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Rosebank on Staten Island, Portsmouth, Stapleton Heights on Staen Island, Altadena in California, and so on - maman took it all in stride. Think of all the moving and organizing that meant maman had to do; the number of boxes to pack and unpack, all the stuff six children and a few pets can accumulate. The new school enrollments, finding new doctors and dentists, and acclimating to a new small town or a new big city, trying to find babysitters and make friends. My mother's French accent was so think, that everywhere we moved people thought maman had just moved from France, and would comment, "So, you're from France; how do you like America?" Once maman had obtained her American citizenship, she would respond "I am an American, what do you think?! I have six children they are all born here!" When people see what life with my son, Jeremy, entails in terms of energy, and organization, advocating, resource-finding, they often ask, "How do you do it? How do you handle raising a child so impacted by autism, besides having Rebecca?" I think of maman, raising the six of us (ok, none of us have autism but we had our share of neurodiversity in the family) in different cities every three years, and I realize where my resourcefulness came from. "I had a great role model," I reply. Happy Mother's Day, Maman! More on Mother's Day
 
Dan Dubno: Auto Industry Teammates Top
Dear Chrysler, Ford, and General Motors, United Auto Workers Union Members, It has come to my attention that, as taxpayers, we have all recently become auto company executives. I've long been dismayed at the dismal condition of American cars, but I realize that, as a result of the responsibility the government has asked me to assume, I am now in a position to change everything. This will not be an easy task, and there will be considerable pain involved but, if I have learned any lessons from the corporate world about being an executive, I trust that I will be able to assign the most painful sacrifices to people other than myself. The purpose of this memo, however, is not to wallow in the blunders of the past but to offer a roadmap for the future. We are at a crossroads. We have an opportunity and the responsibility to save the U.S. auto industry and to preserve our historic leadership role in automotive innovation. We all know that the car occupies a central position in our way of life, yet aside from adding DVD players and coffee cup holders, we've done little to integrate ideas and inventions from the rest of our society into the designs of our cars. This must change. To that end, I offer the following improvements: Cars should regulate themselves rather than relying on us - or on mechanics. It just doesn't make sense that we still need to trust grease-monkeys in garages who tell us we need a new "spinal column" or "replacement bushings." Now that we're the boss, I want the car to tell us exactly what's wrong, how much it will cost to fix it, and if the thing the garage says it replaced was actually replaced. Also, when driving, advanced artificial intelligence will disengage the parking brake before the car burns it up. We must use smart technologies to deter auto theft and damage. For example, all GPS navigation devices will be designed so that, when the car or GPS is stolen, it will keep giving the thief directions only to the nearest police station. Technology has developed to the point where cars themselves should assume many of the functions of passengers. Secondary in-car navigation systems would inform "backseat drivers" why their "brilliant alternative routes" are idiotic. Instead of arguing with the actual driver, wisenheimers can debate any issue with a soothing voice recognition module incorporated into these auxiliary navigation systems. Additionally, in-car radar could equitably divide space between the kids in back seat. This monitoring system will count points as children hit each other and measure who pushed who first. Disputes could be reviewed and adjudicated by analysis of a video playback system. Display screens on the roof of the car would convey clear messages to other drivers. Right now, bumper sticker technology offers the presentation of only short, limited humorous or political messages that are not easily changed. But computer display technology could allow drivers to tailor their messages to the communities they're driving in and even to other individual motorists. In addition to engaging in sophisticated political debate, drivers could politely advise each other about safe driving techniques, as well as reveal intimate details about their own personal lives. Such messages, offered in eye-catching 12-inch lettering to total strangers, could help to break down the perennially impersonal barriers that our automotive culture has created. Let's call this new "Twitter-like" message system something like "In-Your-Facester!" GPS systems are good for a whole lot more than getting directions. Just recently, a Scarsdale mom, exasperated by her two daughters, aged ten and twelve, dropped them off by the side of the road and drove away. Unfortunately, this non-traditional approach to good parenting was foiled when one of her daughters got lost, resulting in child endangerment charges and a few hours in jail for the mother. But why dismiss such unconventional yet effective parenting techniques? Let's enhance them with automotive technology! Simple tracking units will assist parents to recover children intentionally left by the side of the road. Larger families, who accidentally forget stray kids at the shopping mall, would find this feature useful too. Why should radar detectors be the only technology that allows drivers to shortcut the law, public safety or common good? A dash-mounted flat screen can display a wide variety of fraudulent parking permits (police, fire, handicapped, teacher, post office parking) as needed. This would even the parking field for the few suckers who don't already have such counterfeit permits in their windows. Or, to fulfill HOV-lane requirements, a holographic projection system can display additional simulated passengers. This can also come in handy to dissuade people asking to join carpools; they'll believe you when you tell them the car's full. Let's face it: we're just not likely to produce a truly fuel efficient vehicle anytime soon. It's clear that we just don't have the national will for that. On the other hand, we do have extensive experience in developing useless and deceptive options that we can charge a lot more for. So, rather than cry over spilled gas, why not use our marketing skills for the stuff we're really good at? Our existing technology should make driving appear more efficient. For instance, we need a fuel gauge that indicates not only how much gas you have left but gives wildly optimistic assessments about how many miles to the gallon you're getting and reassuringly underestimates the cost of gas so you don't feel so bad. Thank you for your attention. I regret I won't be available next week for more automotive suggestions, because I have to take on my new responsibilities as owner and manager of our failed banking, insurance, and mortgage and healthcare industries. More on Barack Obama
 
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Put Donald T. Sterling's NAACP Award on Hold Top
The first page of the Constitution of the nation's oldest, most venerable and respected civil right's organization boldly states that it will wage a relentless fight to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of all citizens. During much of its century of existence, the NAACP has proudly and unambiguously done just that. It waged breath taking battles against economic and housing discrimination, racial slurs and defamation, and against poverty. Now we come to Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald T. Sterling; or rather Donald T. Sterling and the NAACP's cornerstone issues of economic and housing discrimination, racial slurs and defamation, and poverty. The much maligned Sterling has been sued, verbally lambasted, reprimanded, hit with reams of bad press, and threatened with pickets for these racial wrongs. Yet, the Los Angeles NAACP Chapter will give Sterling its highest honor, a lifetime achievement award. The shame, absurdity, and contradiction of the award to a man who in word, deed, and symbol is the diametric opposite of everything the nation's premier civil rights group stands for and has fought for is enough to draw a gag. A Google search with the name Donald Sterling and racial discrimination found nearly 12,000 results. Not one of them even remotely had Sterling doing anything to further racial goodwill. The checklist of reported Sterling racial escapades include a Justice Department housing discrimination lawsuit and forced settlement, slurs and gaffes against Hispanics and African-Americans, and that includes two high profile Clipper players, the shooing of minorities away from his pricey Beverly Hills condos and rentals, and an overblown and failed promise to build a Homeless shelter on L.A.s skid row. Then there's the allegations and lawsuit by former Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor that Sterling runs his operations like a Southern plantation. The NAACP airbrushed this away and simply said that Sterling has been a gem in giving oodles of tickets away to needy inner city kids and ladling out some cash to charities and sports camps for them. How any of this ranks as a take the lead, storm the barriers battle against racial injustice is a mystery. Dozens of sporting organizations, corporations, and high profile athletes routinely shove cash out to sports camps, and charities, and do ticket giveaways mostly to image massage, as tax write offs, or a PR, press or goodwill gesture. The issue is not what, whether or even if Sterling did anything to further the cause of racial justice and civil rights. He hasn't. The issue is what the NAACP is doing to further it. NAACP President Benjamin T. Jealous to his credit has tried to define and carve out a new, even more aggressive role for the organization in that battle. He had too. In years past, the knock against the nation's oldest civil rights organization was that it was too staid, and tradition bound. That the NAACP's embrace of showy, symbolic fights did little to solve the mountainous problems of drugs, crime, and gangs, soaring joblessness among young blacks, and the astronomical rate of prison incarceration of blacks. And that it had badly slipped in fighting its trademark fights against job, and housing discrimination, the gaping racial disparities in education, and for criminal justice reforms. The oft heard criticism that the NAACP retreated from visible activism on thorny racial and economic problems can be directly traced to the fight against legal segregation in the 1960s, the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., the class divisions within black America, and the greening of the black middle-class. By the close of the 1960s the civil rights movement had spent itself. The torrent of demonstrations, sit-ins, marches and civil rights legislation annihilated the legal wall of segregation. With the barriers erased, the black middle-class grew by leaps and bounds. These battles did not have the remotest bearing on the lives of the black poor. A tilt by them toward a hard-edged activist agenda ran the risk of alienating the corporate donors and the Democratic politicians that the NAACP leaders have carefully cultivated. They depend on them to gain even more jobs, promotions, and contracts for black professionals and businesspeople, to bag contributions for their fundraising campaigns, dinners, banquets, scholarship funds and programs and increased political patronage. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, money is the life blood of any organization, even an activist organization. But it's wrong if the organization pursues cash from any and every source with little regard to the damage the benefactor does or may do to the fight for civil rights and racial justice. The same rule applies when it comes to who and for what a civil rights organization gives awards, let alone its most prestigious award. The award must go for real achievement and belief in the fight for civil rights and racial justice. If not then it's just a tainted and cheap piece of paper or slab of glass handed out to anyone with a name, fat checkbook, grants political favors, or who's adept at media grabbing PR gestures. The NAACP should hold off on its lifetime achievement award to Sterling. He still has much to do to show he really deserves one. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His weekly radio show, "The Hutchinson Report" can be heard on weekly in Los Angeles at 9:30 AM PST on KTYM Radio 1460 AM and nationally on blogtalkradio.com
 
Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi: To Gain a True Affinity for Arab Jerusalem, Visit It Top
This year Jerusalem was chosen as the Unesco Arab capital of culture. What Unesco doesn't understand is that Arabs only honour Jerusalem in their minds and with their rhetoric, and that there is no real support for the Holy City. Recently the Egyptian minister of religious endowments, Mohammed Hamdi Zaqzouq, called upon Arabs and Muslims to visit Jerusalem, that mythical place that exists in the minds of hundreds of millions of my people. I say mythical because as far as we in the region are concerned, it exists only on television and from stories we hear from travelers and visitors. In our minds Jerusalem is no different from El Dorado, Shangri La or Atlantis. In the last few decades there has been an encroachment by Jewish Israeli settlers around the city's Arab districts. Jerusalem is losing its identity as an Arab and Islamic capital. We must finally admit that a large part of the blame rests on our shoulders. For how can Arabs have an affinity for a place that they have never visited or seen for themselves? This ancient city is second only to Mecca in terms of its religious significance to Muslims. For it was the Muslims first Qibla (direction of prayer) during the early years of Islam until the Prophet was directed to face Mecca during prayers. Is it possible for Arabs to visit Jerusalem? Yes it is. Fly to Amman and take a taxi to the Israeli border, put up with the Israeli check points and hassle - and if you have been to the US recently it shouldn't be too different - and ask them to stamp outside your passport. On the other side call Gilo Taxis, wholly owned by an Arab, and then head to Jerusalem. In the Holy City stay in The Golden Walls Hotel, also Arab-owned and located just outside the city walls next to the Damascus Gate. After checking in walk to Pasha's Restaurant, one of the many Arab and Muslim owned eateries and visit the Al Wasiti Art Gallery nearby to buy one of the paintings drawn by Arabs. Walk through the bustling Arab souq, admire the history that the Arabs - among other cultures - have imprinted on the city's limestone houses, mosques and churches and on every street corner. Finally, if you are Muslim then pray in the Al Aqsa mosque and visit the Haram Esh Sharif - the Noble Compound. If you are a Christian Arab then make your way to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, arguably the holiest Christian site in the world, found inside the walled Old City of Jerusalem. I have previously written about the importance of supporting our brethren inside Israel - the descendants of the brave 120,000 Palestinians who stayed behind when Israel was created in 1948 and now make up over one million people. They have marched and died for our causes and yet we abandon them. We are indeed the worst of friends, for with friends like us who needs enemies? We claim it is holy and yet the Coptic Pope Shenouda III and the Grand Sheikh of al Azhar, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, both refused calls to visit Jerusalem while it is under occupation. But in the same breath they say it will "always remain Arab". This logic escapes me. Thanks to this narrow policy only a few tens of thousands of Arabs were able to visit the city in the past few decades while millions of Jews and non-Arab Christians are able to do so annually. How then can it "always remain Arab"? If your brother is imprisoned unjustly for many years by a foreigner and you clearly cannot free him physically, do you abandon him under the pretext that visiting him will legitimise his imprisonment? Or will you instead visit him over and over again? By doing so, you show support within your family and you show how important your brother is to you, your family and to the rest of the world. Or do you wait until he is free to visit? Don't heed the calls of the generation that had Jerusalem, then lost it and now wants to keep us away from visiting it. Go and visit your Arab brethren. Stay in their hotels or homes. Eat in their restaurants and cafes. Shop in their stores and galleries. Bring them souvenirs from your home country. Speak to them in your native Arabic accent. Teach them your local words and customs. Extend an arm of friendship and support. Ultimately, put yourself in their shoes. Wouldn't you want the support of your Arab brethren if your city was occupied? Don't abandon them any longer. We have done enough damage already. You claim Jerusalem is the number one Arab cause. Prove it.
 
Top Health Care Industry Reps To Offer $2 Trillion In Savings In Bid To Help Pass Obama's Overhaul: AP Top
WASHINGTON — Top representatives of the health care industry plan to offer $2 trillion in cost reductions over 10 years in a bid to help pass President Barack Obama's health overhaul, a source familiar with the negotiations said Sunday. Industry officials representing health insurers, hospitals, doctors, drug makers and a major labor union plan to be at White House on Monday to present the offer. Costs have emerged as the biggest obstacle to Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody. The upfront tab for the federal government from Obama's proposed expansion of health coverage will be due right away while the savings he expects from wringing waste and inefficiency from the health care system will take longer to show up. A source outside the administration told The Associated Press that the savings would come from slowing projected cost increases by a small percentage each year for 10 years. The result over time would be an estimated $2 trillion in savings on health care costs. The source requested anonymity in order to speak before the public announcement. In a rare move before the administration has unveiled all the details of its proposal, the industry groups are trying to strike a deal now with Obama officials to help get coverage for all Americans in the hopes they can stave off legislation that would restrict their profitability in future years. Obama has courted industry and provider groups; he invited representatives to a health care summit discussion at the White House. There is a sense among some of the groups that this may be the best opportunity to strike a deal before public opinion turns against them, fueled by anger over costs. Insurers, for example, want to avoid creation of a government health plan that would directly compete with them to enroll middle-class workers and their families. Drug makers worry that in the future, new medications might have to pass a cost-benefit test before they can win approval. And hospitals and doctors are concerned the government could dictate what they get paid to care for any patient, not only the elderly and the poor. It's unclear whether the proposed savings will prove decisive in pushing a health care overhaul through Congress this summer, as Democratic leaders have vowed to do. Covering the estimated 50 million uninsured Americans could cost from $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years. To pay for that, lawmakers would have to identify specific savings in government programs like Medicare, or come up with new revenues. But the industry offer shows a willingness to help find the money. That's far different from the situation in the 1990s, when insurers and other key groups successfully opposed the Clinton administration's plan to cover all Americans. "This is intended to get all the groups to share responsibility about bending the cost growth curve downward," said Ron Pollack, president of Families USA, a liberal group that advocates for expanding coverage. Pollack said he was aware of intense negotiation in the last few weeks between the groups and the administration, but not the specifics. The AP source said the groups include America's Health Insurance Plans, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and the Service Employees International Union. The insurance industry group has said previously that it was working on a plan to "bend the cost curve" by shaving a small percentage a year from annual increases that now run far ahead of general inflation. "It's still going to cost more each year, but hopefully not as much as has been projected," said John Rother, a top health policy strategist for AARP, the seniors' lobby. Obama's health care plan not a detailed legislative proposal, but a set of goals. Obama is going to rely on Congress to write the detailed version. The president wants to build on the current system, in which employers, government and individuals share the responsibility of paying for coverage. Most Americans would still have private insurance, but the government would play an even bigger role than it does now, by subsidizing premiums for some middle-class families and by setting national consumer protections. People working for big companies would probably not see big changes in how they get health insurance. But self-employed people and those working for small businesses would be able to get their coverage through a new kind of insurance purchasing pool, called an "exchange." Plans in the exchange would have to follow new consumer protection rules. For example, they could not deny a person coverage because of existing health problems. And they would not be able to charge sick people more. Lawmakers in Congress are generally following the Obama outlines, with some exceptions. In the Senate, for example, the plan is likely to include a requirement that all Americans carry health insurance, much as states now require motorists to carry auto coverage. Obama had proposed to require parents to get their kids covered, but said a mandate for all would not be affordable for many individuals and families. More on Barack Obama
 
David M. Abromowitz: A Mother's Day for a Mom Who Never Liked Mother's Day Top
My mother never particularly liked Mother's Day. The sentiment always struck her as unctuous, akin to the scriptural passages frequently read at women's funerals: "A woman of valor who can find? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, and he hath no lack of gain. She doeth him good and not evil all the days of her life." Mom made us swear no one would read it at her funeral. Not that she ever would have identified herself as unhappy with motherhood or honoring mothers. Born in 1919 and predisposed to voting Republican, she was uncomfortable with early feminism of the 1960s. But had she known of Julia Ward Howe's early effort at establishing a Mother's Day through her 1870 "Appeal to Womanhood Throughout the World", my Nixon-supporting-turned-Another-Mother-For-Peace mother would have signed up. These words of Howe's would have been right up her alley: "Arise, all women who have hearts whether your baptism be that of water or of tears! Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country, to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." A child of the Depression, Mom must have thought the 1934 sentiments of Franklin Roosevelt's Mother's Day Proclamation made sense as well: "Whereas [Congress has declared that] there are throughout our land today an unprecedentedly large number of mothers and dependent children who, because of unemployment or loss of their bread-earners, are lacking many of the necessities of life," President Roosevelt called on Americans to show love and reverence for motherhood by "doing all that we can through our churches, fraternal and welfare agencies for the relief and welfare of mothers and children who may be in need of the necessities of life." Since my mother passed away in the early 1990's, there is no way to know what she would make of Barack Obama. But this year's presidential Mother's Day proclamation would have resonated with a woman who co-owned a department store, helped build a synagogue, organized newspaper recycling drives before there was Earth Day, and yet was still expected to deal with all things related to children and food in the household. "Women often work long hours at demanding jobs and then return home to a household with myriad demands," proclaimed President Obama. "Balancing work and family is no easy task, but mothers across our Nation meet this challenge each day, often without recognition for their hard work and dedication. The strength and conviction of all mothers--including those who work inside and outside the home--are inspiring. They deserve our deepest respect, admiration, and appreciation." I wish my mother had lived to hear this sort of unsentimental but real respect and acknowledgment of what she (and millions of women for decades) endured and accomplished as a mother, and what so many other mothers accomplish every day. That's a Mother's Day that Mom would have liked. David Abromowitz is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. On Mother's Day his thoughts turn to Rosalind Samotin Abromowitz, 1919-1992. More on Mother's Day
 
Susanna Speier: Politiku for Mother's Day Top
Mothers Day wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for Anna M. Jarvis' tireless solicitations to legislators and businessmen. In 1914, when her efforts finally paid off, the holiday dedicated to honoring mothers was officiated as a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson. It is now observed on the second Sunday of May in countries all around the world. Thought rarely associated with Anna M. Jarvis, it is not difficult to associate this holiday with tireless advocacy. A mother on a mission is a force to be reckoned with. The impact that our mothers' political thoughts, feelings, ideas, knowledge, ideals, choices, opportunities, experiences and activities have on us is difficult to grasp. What is clear, however, is that our mothers' politics influence our political identity. In honor of our moms; Matt, Don, Aaron , Phil, Irene, Martha and I present: Politiku for Mother's Day Martha Danly's Politku One true Democrat. Marries a Republican. Brings him to her side. Don Goede's Politiku happy mom's day mom and yes, we are still at war the living say, "hi." Aaron Landsman's Politiku Mom? What do you mean The Weather Underground may Have stayed at our house? In the Midwest, where Activism's more polite, You fought hard enough to win. Phil Rose 's Politiku "Nice young black man," this "Jesus was a rabbi," that Liberal white guilt. Irene Gravina's Politiku "I chose Obama From the start of the campaign," my Mom says proudly Matt Cohen's Politiku Mom's a liberal She's also conservative Mostly she just cares Mom's view is open Picks her issues one by one Then changes her mind. Susanna Speier 's Politiku Mom tells me about Her Zayde's Roosevelt Clock "Wheel for a New Deal" More on Mother's Day
 

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