Wednesday, May 27, 2009

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Obama Names Ambassadors To Britain, France, India Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has picked a major Democratic fundraiser as ambassador to Britain, a theology professor to represent the United States at the Vatican and a former member of the 9/11 Commission to be the top U.S. diplomat in India. The White House on Wednesday announced a slate of top diplomats in capitals from Tokyo to Paris. The group fills many of the highest profile jobs in the foreign service and will be crucial representatives of Obama and his State Department with U.S. allies. "I am grateful that these distinguished Americans have agreed to help represent the United States and strengthen our partnerships abroad at this critical time for our nation and the world," Obama said in a statement. "I am confident they will advance American diplomacy as we work to meet the challenges of the 21st century." For the plum London appointment, Obama turned to Louis Susman, a retired vice chairman of Citigroup Corporate and Investment Banking. A former Salomon Brothers employee, he won a commission appointment from President Ronald Reagan and was a director for the St. Louis Cardinals for more than a decade. He also has raised hundreds of millions in campaign donations for Democrats. The White House also announced it plans to nominate Miguel H. Diaz, an associate professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minn., for the top job at the Vatican. A Roman Catholic theologian, the Cuban-American advised Barack Obama's presidential campaign. He also was among 26 Catholics who signed a statement supporting the nomination of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, a Catholic whose support for abortion rights was criticized by conservative Catholics. And Obama nominated former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer of Indiana to be his ambassador to New Delhi. The former Sept. 11 commissioner endorsed Obama during his primary campaign and was a strong advocate of Obama's foreign policy approach. He now faces a tough challenges in New Dehli, where U.S. and Indian interests are deeply linked. "I believe that many of things we want to get done in the world cannot be done without India, and many things India would like to get done cannot get done without the United States," said Frank Wisner, who was President Bill Clinton's ambassador to New Dehli. For instance, the stalled trade talks that began in Doha need India's support, and New Dehli's quest for a seat on the United Nations Security Council needs U.S. support, Wisner said. And both countries need a shared stance as they negotiate any climate change agreements. To other capitals, Obama planned to nominate Charles Rivkin, an outside homeland security adviser, to France. A former financial analyst, he also ran entertainment companies such as The Jim Henson Co. and Wild Brain, Inc. And Obama tapped Internet and biotechnology lawyer John Roos as the United States' top diplomat to Japan. As the top executive at a Palo Alto, Calif., law firm, he helped raise money for startup companies and has represented major technology companies. Vilma Martinez, a former president and counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, would head to Argentina. She is now a commercial attorney who advises companies on employment law. And Obama nominated a partner in a top Washington law firm as his voice in Denmark. Laurie Fulton of Williams and Connolly already has won Senate confirmation as a director of the U.S. Institute of Peace and has advised nonprofit groups such as the Girl Scouts. Obama turned to a 20-year U.S. Army Reserve chaplain as the United States' representative to the African Union, a position carries the rank of ambassador. Michael Battle worked at several universities and now is president of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. In other posts, Obama turned to longtime foreign service ministers: _ Robert Connan, a diplomat to the U.S. Mission to the European Union, was nominated to represent the United States in Iceland. Previous postings include Saudi Arabia, South Africa, China and Iraq. _ Christopher Dell, currently a diplomat in Afghanistan, was tapped as the ambassador to Kosovo. He previously spent two years there as chief of mission and has worked in Angola, Zimbabwe and Bulgaria. _ Patricia A. Butenis, a diplomat in Iraq, would be the United States' top voice in Sri Lanka and the Maldives. She previously was ambassador to Bangladesh and worked in Pakistan, El Salvador and India. _ Thomas Shannon, an assistant secretary of state since 2005, would head to Brazil. A former National Security Council official, he previously worked in Venezuela, South Africa and Guatemala. The posts all require Senate confirmation. More on Barack Obama
 
Joe Peyronnin: Reverse Thinking Top
Immediately after President Barack Obama announced Judge Sonia Sotomayer as his nominee to the Supreme Court, conservatives unleashed a torrent of snarky criticism led by their pit bull and spiritual guide, Rush Limbaugh. So shrill were the criticisms that it is no wonder that the party of "NO" is dwindling into the party of NO ONE! With less than one quarter of the country identifying themselves as Republicans, the party is struggling to find its way. Today few Americans have empathy (pardon the expression conservatives) for what's left of the GOP, and no wonder. The notion that Judge Sotomayer practices "reverse discrimination" is absurd and reflects the Republican tendency to use scare tactics. A key element of the attacks is Judge Sotomayer's 2001 speech made at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law entitled, "Raising the Bar: Latino and Latina Presence in the Judiciary and the Struggle for Representation." At one point Judge Sotomayer said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who just hasn't lived that life." Conservatives have seized on this statement as evidence that she is racist. They do not understand that this is an aspirational statement, not a condemnation of white males. It is also an incomplete representation of what she said. The judge went on to say, "I am reminded each day that I render decisions that affect people concretely and that I owe them constant and complete vigilance in checking my assumptions, presumptions and perspectives and ensuring that to the extent that my limited abilities and capabilities permit me, that I reevaluate them and change as circumstances and cases before me requires. I can and do aspire to be greater than the sum total of my experiences but I accept my limitations. I willingly accept that we who judge must not deny the differences resulting from experience and heritage but attempt, as the Supreme Court suggests, continuously to judge when those opinions, sympathies and prejudices are appropriate." Another criticism centers on Judge Sotomayor's role in a dispute between the city of New Haven and a group of white and Hispanic firefighters. Here she was on a three judge panel that unanimously ruled the city was within its right to throw out results of a promotional exam because too few minorities scored high enough. The decision relied on precedent not on judicial activism. The case, known as the New Haven 20, is now before the Supreme Court. Conservatives also cite a speech Judge Sotomayer made at Duke University in 2005 as evidence she will make policy from the bench. She said, "Court of appeals is where policy is made. And I know this is on tape and I shouldn't say that because we don't make law." But they leave out or dismiss the follow on sentence, "I'm not promoting it, I'm not advocating it . . . " She went on to clarify her comment, "When you're on the district court, you're looking to do justice in the individual case, so you're looking much more to the facts of the case than you are to the application of the law because the application of the law is not precedential, so the facts control. On the court of appeals, you're looking to how the law is developing so that it will then be applied to a broad class of cases. So you're always thinking about the ramifications of this ruling on the next step of the development of the law." Judge Sotomayer may have been blindsided by an anonymous quote that she in not really smart. The fact that she finished second in her class at Princeton University and edited the Yale Law Review seems to indicate the opposite. But that did not persuade Republican strategist Karl Rove from spouting this comment: "I know lots of stupid people who went to Ivy League schools." Never mind that his former boss, President George Bush, was barely an average student at Yale. At best, these points will make for a lively discussion when Judge Sotomayer seeks confirmation before the Senate Judiciary Committee. But Republicans have to tread carefully or they risk alienating the few Hispanic supporters they do have. There are already more Hispanics in the United States than there are Canadians in Canada. Soon there may be more Hispanics than Republicans. Judge Sotomayer's life story is powerful and compelling. Raised in a Bronx housing project, she has had to overcome great obstacles to achieve success. Unless something more serious comes up, Judge Sotomayer will take her place on the Supreme Court. She will be the third woman and first Hispanic to serve her country as a justice. She is living the American dream. More on Karl Rove
 
Disgrasian: Juliet Lee: Sexy Competitive Eater Top
Competitive eating is gross. And, by extension, so are competitive eaters. These are people who train to stretch the stomach muscle and choke back their own vomit, not to mention lethal amounts of foods that you could sort of see eating in large quantities (until you actually see it done) and foods that make you barf in your mouth just thinking of them, like beef tongue, cow brains, and mayonnaise. What drives a person to achieve that? Why in the world would you take the pleasure away from eating only to replace it with...a stopwatch? What does being the world champ of pounding cabbage, like, do for you? The whole thing is just weird. I'm willing to rethink my position on this, however, because of one "gurgitator"--even that moniker makes me gag--who's relatively new on the scene. Her name is Juliet Lee (pictured above and below, with Takeru Kobayashi ), she's only been competing since December 2006, and she scarfed down 23 DOZEN CLAMS in six minutes this past Memorial Day to set a new clam-eating world record (yes, there is such a thing). Oh, and she's HOT. And I, like everybody else, am unfairly fascinated by gross stuff that hot chicks do (in that way, I'm a dude). She has the face of Michelle Yeoh and a hatefully-teensy waist--she weighs in at 105 lbs.--despite her, um, sport. I don't even mind that she always seems to be wearing a midriff-baring top like some slutty tween girl who wants to be the first in line to bone a Jonas Brother. I'm sure I'd even find her farts charming. And Juliet seems kinda normal . She has a college degree in geology from her native China, she owns a hair salon, and she has two adorable daughters. (She also lives in the same Maryland town as Michelle Malkin--love to see that eating contest go down.) Did I mention she's 42 years old?! She could almost make me forget how demented her sport is, how grotesquely contorted competitive eaters' faces get when they jam 10 hot dogs in their mouths at once, and how, you know, they eat their own puke. Almost. [ Juliet Lee website ] More on Sports
 
Some Abortion Rights Backers Show Unease Over Sotomayor Top
In nearly 11 years as a federal appeals court judge, President Obama's choice for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor, has never directly ruled on whether the Constitution protects a woman's right to an abortion. But when she has written opinions that touched tangentially on abortion disputes, she has reached outcomes in some cases that were favorable to abortion opponents. More on Sonia Sotomayor
 
Francesca Biller-Safran: Boys to Die again this Summer, and Counting Top
It has been years and it did not stop Thousands of boys too young To drink even Hot alcohol in winter Or cool beers in Indian summers Have died Again Now And again . . . again Boys who only a summer before had been Playing basketball and mowing dewed grass Sun-kissed and sweaty That sweet sweat only a young man can boast And every young girl can smell Boys are dying Boys who had promised pretty girls They would take them away to cooler places In old souped-up cars And for ten dollar meals It had been years and they still went and died Everyone cared but the crying didn't matter Both young wives and older wives sobbed, Over crisply-pressed American Flags And at quick funerals while babes clung to their skirts And while they tried to remember the last time They shared a wind-breezed glance With the young man who now lay Much too still under a shallow earth It had been too many months and marches were few There were no drafts and most college kids Deftly assumed their studies Affairs with MySpace and endless texts without protest The intellectuals talked a lot but didn't seem Mad enough or very mad at all Sunday morning news flashed names and ages of the dead Younger than a nephew, older than a neighbor Young men and women from places Some of us will never visit Places like Indiana, Chicago, Mississippi and Hawaii Last week a boy from my mom's home town It had been so many days That I had to save calendars to remember Sound bites and debates now Floated through my much older ears and I was numb There was a story about an American soldier Who adopted a boy from Iraq Cerebral palsy inflicted his tan small body Left in an institution to die The soldier brought him to the U.S. He said he felt they were meant for each other Both injured for life It had been so long since they started dying That I had been numbed From too many numbers So many 18 and 40-something year-olds Men who instead should have attended baseball games with their fathers Men who should have cheered on their favorite team Drinking sodas like Coca Cola Eating food like hot dogs Coming home with sunburns, smiles and too-loud voices Or a gripe about how their favorite team lost Due to an unfair call It had been years since I went to a game But I thought how a stadium might look filled with All the boys who might still be alive The dead of war, the boys who only a summer before Drank their first beer on a secluded road With a cute neighborhood girl Who only months before owned his first car And a joy ride or two Who only hours before had looked Across a lonely desert or war-torn street Who only seconds before had died With a bomb or gun shattering His last, too-young, embryonic emotioned breath It had been seconds and hours And yet another summer shouts heated Hot and burning Yet I shiver though mean heat waves Even though so many colder bodies lay still Beneath this soul-shallowed earth More on Iraq
 
Abu Ghraib Abuse Photos Include Images Of Rape And Sexual Assault: Report Top
At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee. Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.
 
The Hollywood Ham: Abe Froman Furious Over Mysterious Credit Card Charge From Upscale Chicago Restaurant Top
Abe Froman, known throughout the Chicago-land area as the "Sausage King," is still fuming about an unpaid tab at the French Restaurant, Chez Quiz, which he was billed for over twenty years ago. However, Froman claims he was unable to get a table at the upscale eatery and thus the charge is fraudulent. Said the head of the midwest's sausage empire regarding the meal in question: "Not only could I not get a table - even though I had a reservation, mind you - but the maitre d' was extremely snooty and had the gall to say I was an impostor." After being turned away, Froman reportedly left the restaurant, only to get in get caught in traffic caused by an unexpected parade and a city-wide choreographed dance to "Twist and Shout." "It was an awful day overall," recalled Froman. "The restaurant, that random parade...I also think the employees at the parking lot drove my car. So you can imagine how upset I was when I received the bill from Chez Quiz. Whoever used my name ran up quite a tab. It seems that they also charged them for extra ice for them to chew." Froman added that he will finally fight the charge. The case has been handed over to Sgt. Peterson of the Chicago police.
 
Plan To Rid Banks Of Bad Loans Breaks Down Top
A government program designed to rid banks of bad loans, part of a broader effort once viewed as central to tackling the financial crisis, is stalling and may soon be put on hold, according to people familiar with the matter.
 
Senator Meeks To Chicago Aldermen: 'Don't Come See Me, I Ain't Got No Money' Top
Illinois Sen. James Meeks told visiting Chicago aldermen not to come see him while they were in Springfield Wednesday, saying to the Windy City lawmakers there was nothing he could do for them or their wards. "While I have this opportunity to speak to all of them at one time," Meeks said from the Senate floor, "don't come see me. I ain't got no money, I ain't got no influence. There's nothing I can do to help your Ward. Even my own aldermen, don't come see me." Two Chicago aldermen, Freddrenna Lyle (6th) and Carrie Austin (34th), organized the trip to Springfield for five other aldermen and almost 40 constituents ostensibly to show supporters around the state capital but in reality to make their presence felt at a time when tough budget decisions are being made. Meeks spokeswoman Jessica Dixon said the senator's comments caused a stir as they were piped over the loudspeaker in the senate president's press office. "I work in an office of all press people," Dixon said, "and when he said that it was like someone threw a bomb into our office. Though I am his press secretary I can't prevent him from saying stupid things. The only way to prevent him from saying that would have been to attack him and put my hands over his mouth." Dixon said Meeks was speaking out of frustration with how slowly the budget process was moving. "He's just upset," Dixon said. "There's a lot of tension down here right now, and the senator is frustrated." His comments were not meant to rebuff the aldermen, Dixon said. "No, he was not saying back off. It was him being frustrated with his colleagues and making an off color joke about it." Ald. Lyle told the Huffington Post that she and her party took the comment for what it was: a joke. "We were laughing in the gallery," Lyle said. "He was what we call 'cracking' on the Republicans -- getting a dig in against them for holding up the budget. It wasn't, 'Don't come see me.'" According to Dixon, none of the aldermen had come by Meeks' office Wednesday but Lyle said Meeks did speak with the group during lunch.
 
Obama Admin Considering Creating Single Agency To Regulate Banking Industry Top
Senior administration officials are considering the creation of a single agency to regulate the banking industry, replacing a patchwork of agencies that failed to prevent banks from falling into the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, according to three people familiar with the matter. More on Barack Obama
 
Chick-Fil-A Coming To Chicago Region Top
Atlanta-based Chick-Fil-A has agreed to buy the site of a shuttered restaurant next to the Westfield Fox Valley Shopping Center in Aurora, where the company plans to tear down the existing structure to build a new restaurant with a drive-through. More on Food
 
Is Sotomayor Bad For Business? Top
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- If there had been a secret-ballot vote among appellate lawyers who argue business cases, it is most unlikely that Judge Sonia Sotomayor would have been selected as the one to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court - even from among the reported finalists on President Obama's short-list. More on Sonia Sotomayor
 
Shannyn Moore: Cop Union Suing Palin Administration Top
The Alaska Correctional Officers Association filed a lawsuit today against Governor Palin's administration. They claim the administration purposefully dragged its feet in getting the legislature to appropriate pay increases, thereby sabotaging new contract arbitration. The Palin Administration says their introduction of the funding request was late in the session, but that there was plenty of time to act. The state claims the arbitrator's findings are now null and void and must be restarted. The money was not included in the governor's budget. Last year, Corrections Commissioner Joe Schmidt earned a union vote of no-confidence. Schmidt allegedly dated Sarah Palin in high school. He is now second in line for the highest office in Alaska behind Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell should Palin be unable to finish her term. Palin appointed him to replace Walt Monegan of Troopergate fame. The no-confidence vote came as a result of correctional officers' exposure to the MRSA virus and hours being cut for essential prison guards. Union president Sgt. Danny Colang told Jason Moore of KTUU, "It's still a raw issue. We're always willing to talk with the administration, but I always think there is an underlying issue there with that no-confidence vote that was taken last year, and I think they still hold that against us. There is still some vengeance, because we had a no confidence vote against one of (Palin's) good friends from high school, who is now our commissioner." If Palin's track record were void of vengeance and retribution on a regular basis, this wouldn't be a story. Palin's administration denies the charge. More on Sarah Palin
 
Clinton: Israel Must Halt West Bank Settlements Top
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton urged Israel in unusually blunt terms Wednesday to completely halt settlements on land that Palestinians claim as part of a future state of their own. In remarks to reporters at the State Department, Clinton said President Barack Obama had made clear last week during talks at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that stopping settlements is a key part of moving toward a deal establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel. "He wants to see a stop to settlements _ not some settlements, not outposts, not 'natural growth' exceptions," Clinton said, referring in the last case to population growth on existing Israeli settlements in the West Bank from births and from allowances for adult offspring of settlers to buy homes near their parents. "We think it is in the best interests (of the peace process) that settlement expansion cease," Clinton added, with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit at her side. "That is our position. That is what we have communicated very clearly. ... And we intend to press that point." Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is putting settlements at the center of his talks with Obama at the White House on Thursday, and he has said he won't resume peace talks without a freeze. Clinton was having dinner Wednesday with Abbas. Obama has made clear that he supports the creation of a Palestinian state, and in remarks last week he noted that under a previous arrangement known as the "roadmap," which dates to the Bush administration, the Israelis agreed to halt West Bank settlements, along with certain steps by the Palestinians. "Settlements have to be stopped in order for us to move forward," Obama said. "That's a difficult issue. I recognize that, but it's an important one and it has to be addressed." The U.S. considers Israel's 121 settlements to be obstacles to peace, since they are built on territory claimed by the Palestinians. Netanyahu sees it differently, raising concerns of a looming rift with Washington. Netanyahu says he is willing to resume peace talks immediately but has not said he supports the creation of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu also says existing Israeli settlements should continue to expand to accommodate "natural growth" in their populations. He also has ruled out ceding sovereignty in east Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of a future state. Israel captured the area in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it. Clinton was more explicit in her comments about freezing settlements than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice, who said last Nov. 7 on a visit to the West Bank: "Settlement activity, both actions and announcements, is damaging for the atmosphere of negotiations. And the party's actions should be encouraging confidence, not undermining it. And no party should take steps that could prejudice the outcome of negotiations." In his joint appearance with Clinton at the State Department on Wednesday, Gheit was asked by a reporter whether the Obama administration differs from the Bush administration in its approach to the issue of human rights in Egypt. Gheit said Obama administration officials express their concern but also listen. "And that is very important to listen and to understand where you come from" and to explain U.S. reasoning, he added. "I think they are very much different than the Bush administration. I wouldn't characterize by that as good or bad, but there are differences, in attitude at least." More on Israel
 
Pequot Capital Shutting Down Due To SEC Probe Top
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Prominent hedge fund firm Pequot Capital told investors Wednesday it will shut down amid an ongoing government probe into possible insider trading. "Public disclosures about the continuing investigation have cast a cloud over the firm and have become a source of personal distraction," Arthur Samberg, the firm's founder and one of the industry's elders, wrote in a letter.
 
Steve Parker: GM and Chrysler -- The Latest Top
GM creditors have refused a deal which would have seen trade $27 billion in bonds for 10% of a "new" GM. This will almost surely push the company into bankruptcy either on or before June 1. It will be the largest bankruptcy in American and probably world history. A similar deal with those bondholders could be worked-out in bankruptcy court; I don't understand their rejection of the deal, because this way they'll get nothing when the company enters bankruptcy. While GM is selling Saab, they also have their Vauxhall (U.K.) and Opel subsidiaries (the rest of Europe) on the block. Opel has over 50,000 employees in Germany alone and German PM Angela Merkel is offering the company billions in loan guarantees to try and keep their factories open and their employees working. Traditionally quirky and aimed at a very specific niche of buyers, Saab, "born from fighter jets," prospered for many years in Europe and for quite some time in the US; some said GM's purchase of Saab homogenized the company's styling and spirit and Saab lost some of the unique aspects which attracted buyers Fiat has emerged as the leading bidder for Opel, but they've said a minimum of 2,000 Germans will be laid-off if the Italian giant does buy the company. But there is heavy criticism in Italy itself over Fiat's desire to add a huge GM entity to their already-planned purchase of Chrysler assets. All the costs involved in these purchases are seen by Italian labor unions and many in the government as cause for eventually laying-off workers in that country, where Fiat is the largest industrial corporation. Opel has been in business since 1899 In the meantime, the mayor of Warren, MI, home to GM's futuristic, advanced technical centers and design studios for many decades, is urging the corporation move their headquarters from downtown Detroit to the suburb. GM corporate is currently ensconced in "The Tubes," a complex along the Detroit River which was originally built by Ford Motor Company. Chrysler is now asking a bankruptcy judge to sign-off on allowing the former Detroit giant selling its assets to Fiat. This would effectively end the existence of Chrysler. Founded by Walter P. Chrysler, who designed and built everything from gigantic locomotives to some of the world's first economy cars, called Plymouth, it was the only American car-maker founded by an engineer and known for almost 100 years for its combination of cars and trucks for the proletariat, enthusiasts and luxury car-lovers. Chrysler's revolutionary 1934 Airflow reflected the streamlining craze of the era From the important, radical and art deco (and surprisingly poor selling) Airflow of the 1930s to America's sensible shoes of the 1980s, the K-cars and the first minivans, and to the wild, rambunctious Prowler faux hot rod and Viper Muscle Car and luxury performance cars from the Imperial to the 300, as well as home of the legendary Hemi engines which have powered the world's fastest and quickest drag racers for 50 years, Chrysler's disappearance will leave a void in the hearts and minds --- and garages and race tracks --- of America's car-lovers and American history which will never be properly filled. More on Germany
 
No Recovery For Burris' Image: AP Top
WASHINGTON — Tainted from the day he was appointed, Sen. Roland Burris again finds himself denying any role in a pay-to-play scheme as newly revealed wiretaps show him begging for his Senate seat and offering to donate to ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign. Burris repeatedly insists he did nothing wrong, telling reporters Wednesday that his taped conversation with Blagojevich's brother, Robert, was the result of a misunderstanding. He said he was trying to placate the governor's brother because he wanted to win a Senate appointment. Political observers say Burris' justifications aside, there's no recovery for his image. "If anything, the tapes confirm the position he was in," said David Bositis, senior political analyst with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Nothing Burris did or does was going to change his prospects," Bositis said. "Even if he kept his nose to the grindstone and worked hard and so forth, that wasn't going to make a difference." Burris, 71, wanted the Senate seat as a crowning achievement, something to carve into his tombstone. Instead, it has made him a political pariah, viewed on Capitol Hill mainly as an oddity. "People identify Burris with a governor who made multiple attempts to sell the Senate seat and they say 'Here's the guy who took it,'" said Norman J. Ornstein, a scholar of U.S. politics at the American Enterprise Institute. "He can't win in that sense." On the tapes, Burris is heard asking Blagojevich's brother to tell the governor that he would like to be appointed to the Senate seat vacated by President Barack Obama. Burris then notes that it would look bad for him to raise money directly for Rod Blagojevich, so he promises to personally write the governor a check and take other actions to help the campaign. "OK, OK, well we, we, I, I will personally do something, OK," Burris says. The Senate Ethics Committee is investigating Burris, as is a state attorney in Illinois. When asked in a recent interview with The Associated Press how the scandal back home has affected him, Burris made a sweeping gesture with his hands and literally brushed the matter aside. "We've done some very serious and meaningful work," Burris said. "I've been a part of all that energy here, all that's helping people. And that's what I seek to do." Burris casts himself as a team player, a loyal Democrat. He says Senate minutiae enthralls him, and the briefing books that crowd his bedside table offer him a kind of peace. He ticks off key votes and points out that without him, Democrats would have one less Senate vote _ and might not have enjoyed the successes they've highlighting after Obama's first few months. "There's a lot to learn, and that's good _ that's what I want," Burris said. "I am here to work. I am here to learn." Burris doesn't have any close friends in the Senate, though he says he chats with every member he bumps into. Most conspicuous is his lack of a relationship with his Illinois colleague, Richard Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat. Durbin routinely takes new senators under his wing, but he has never been supportive of Burris' Senate aspirations _ he told Burris it would be a bad idea to accept his appointment in the first place. "As far as the relationship goes, I wouldn't say it's a bad one," said Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker. "It's just not a very deep one." Durbin switched from tepid acceptance to calling for Burris' resignation after Burris revealed that he had tried, and failed, to raise money for Blagojevich. Despite the questions from the tapes, Burris went ahead with plans to tour downstate Illinois. At a stop in Champaign, Ill., he looked like a typical politician walking into a Small Business Administration seminar at a hotel on the University of Illinois campus. The hotel's developer, Peter Fox, warmly shook Burris' hand as he told him, "We're lucky to have you here." "Roland was always so gracious," Fox, past head of the state's Economic Development Commission, said afterward. "He's just always been a friend of mine." ___ Associated Press writer David Mercer in Champaign, Ill., contributed to this report. More on Rod Blagojevich
 
Francesca Biller-Safran: Pharmaceutical Drug Pushers Lead to National Overdose Top
I only hope that some woman is lucky enough to be with a man who becomes afflicted with one side effect Viagra claims, a condition known as priapism, an erection that lasts more than four hours requiring immediate medical attention. It's difficult to remember when the slightly abnormal and "normal" physical and mental characteristics began hysterically calling for immediate medications in order to stop, start, maintain or prevent anything from happening at all, with some side effects worse than the diagnoses itself. It is now the norm that pharmaceutical companies and some unethical doctors have became our legalized drug dealers, and here we are, from infant to infirmed, lusting to be doped up and numbed up, pushing drug company profits to pop more than your grandmother's version of Coke in a bottle ever dreamt could effervesce. It's working too. Gone are the days of harmless advertisements that flaunted the latest detergent or face cream so that we may avoid looking dirty or decrepit. Now we're convinced we are either impotent, sleep-deprived, manic or depressed-- even needing medication so that we won't pee as much or so that we can pee more. Ironically enough, a woman well into her nineties said that trying to stop peeing was just about the only fun she has left, leaving her to tell her doctor a big "No" when attempting to prescribe her yet another medication. There is even an ad that irresponsibly suggests that "anyone" may be bipolar with symptoms such as fatigue, irritability, sleeplessness, excitability, moodiness and lethargy. Just bring in your ad from your Ladies Home Journal into your doctor's office and you could get lucky with a load of meds. Rodney Dangerfield once said, "My psychiatrist told me I was crazy and I said that I want a second opinion. He said okay, you're ugly too." Imagine a world where we diagnose ourselves with mental illnesses and disease, prescribed psychotropic medications by General Practioners after viewing ads in Newsweek and on Larry King--drugs that change the characteristics of our brains and behaviors forever. No, this is not from a book by George Orwell, this is now. It's a good thing drug ads didn't exist during the early days of Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield, Jack Benny and The Marx Brothers, or we would have missed out on the many wonderful perils and profundity of the human condition. Woody Allen aptly said, "Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon." As human beings, it is only natural that we may feel down, low, foreboding, sleepless, weary and even unable to hold an erection, and I'm a woman. No letters please. But in moderate and even somewhat regular doses, these are normal and expected traits of the human condition. These emotions drive us to write great music, melancholy and thought-provoking novels, significant legislature, ponder with exuberance over social inequalities and wrestle with new inventions and solutions. It is when we are at our lowest points when we often discover what can be done right in the world, where we find the impossible answer and question, where we see the value in the value-less, and when we see light in the darkest of night, because we stay awake, and struggle through. Just imagine how Lincoln, Beethoven, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Monet, F. Scotts Fitzgerald and Keats must have suffered when struggling through the creative process. By the way, they all suffered from depression. Writer Victor Hugo wrote, "Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job." It is through suffering and frustration that leads to new ways of thinking and being, eventually solving what made us feel low and doomed in the first place, without masking tangible emotions before their inception. The pharmaceutical industry is now outspending companies like Budweiser, Nike and Campbell Soup for television and print ads. The Internet has also become a ghastly cohort with more than 800,000 web sites that sell prescription drugs to minors and households with no questions asked. Gruesome statistics include preschoolers as now the fastest growing market for anti-depressants with at least 4% diagnosed with clinical depression. And over the past decade and a half, the number of teen and young adult (ages 12-25) abusers of painkillers has grown from 400,000 in the mid eighties to more than 2 million in 2000. Sadly, 17% of those ages 60 or older are most likely to become unwilling prescription drug addicts. And with millions of baby boomers hitting their 50's, one can only imagine the future spending on drugs such as Lipitor, Vioxx and Viagra, and the new medications hitting pharmacy shelves each day. We all suffer from painful problems at one time or another, be they physical or emotional, with the latter making us wonderfully unique from any other species on the planet. But when we are pimped medications that are unnecessary, dangerous, no amount of therapy or antidote in the world will be able to soothe this modern tragedy we have allowed to infest our culture. Sometimes when coming across ads during a Law and Order episode or reading an article in The New York Times, I wonder if I suffer from the growing list of medical problems I had never heard of. Surely I must need Prozac along with millions of Americans because I get depressed whenever bad things happen and overwhelmed. I must also need sleeping pills like Ambien or Lunesta as well as the Suburban Mommy vitamins Zanax and Valium as I have been told I am hyper and too keyed-up. Perhaps I also suffer from adult ADHD or ADD as I have trouble focusing on more than three tasks at a time. And even though I have kept out of the sun, Botox isn't a bad idea for getting rid of any sort of facial expressions I might want to show. God forbid I should show an emotion and look angry. But I am angry and so should we all. In the year 2000, pharmaceutical companies spent about $1.7 billion in TV advertising, 50% more than was spent in 1999. According to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, an estimated 2.2 million Americans 12 and older start using prescription pain relievers each year for non-medical uses, with 15.1 million Americans abusing prescription drugs, exceeding the combined number who abuse cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants and heroin, of those, 2.3 million are teenagers. And from 1992 to 2002, prescriptions for controlled drugs increased more than 150 percent. Only as recently as ten years ago, prescription drug ads were outlawed on television, but when the FDA greatly relaxed its rules for drug advertisements, the American culture as we knew it began to change drastically. Mother's little helper has taken on a whole different meaning. Prozac is one of the leading medications now given to moms and even moms to be, often to treat anxiety, feelings of hopelessness and even premenstrual symptoms. And I was naïve to think these were just part of the job description that comes with motherhood. Our own mothers felt blue at times, and most dealt with these feelings just fine. It's called life. This is not to preach any sort of Tom Cruise-esque gospel whatsoever as some women have true chemical imbalances and need medications to get them through the baby blues and bouts of clinical depression. For the most part, human beings are able to defy a lot of horrible circumstances that include feelings of anxiousness, guilt, shame and even depression through being courageous, stoic and fearless; and able to come out of darkness with no pretty little yellow or pink pills whatsoever. I imagine my grandmother during the "real" depression of the 1930s and World War II when she had two sons who were fighter pilots, a husband who was gone working, three children home to take care of, and single-handedly ran a small grocery store and farm by herself. She was not on any medications except natural and expected doses of integrity, brevity and strength. The hardest lesson will be that of facing ourselves as hypocrites of the worst kind if we continue to preach to our children to say no to drugs while our medicine cabinets overflow with quick fixes for every real or imagined malady-- and as studies show, home is often where our children get their first fix, leading us all to become unfixable, and for how long, we cannot begin to fathom. The only combative strategy to give modern drug pushers a strong, clear message is to prescribe to ourselves our own dose of character, reasonable judgment, intelligent consumerism and a strong shot of self-promotion unwilling to apologize for being ourselves, with all of the natural human traits that might imply, with self control, discipline and courage. Otherwise we will allow a gross misdiagnosis for generations to continue with an overdose of chemical dependency and fall of character beyond any perceived corrective remedy. Billie Holiday, that beautiful Jazz singer who died of a drug overdose said, "Dope never helped anybody sing better or play music better or do anything better. All dope can do for you is kill you, and kill you the long, slow, hard way."
 
Joe Sestak: "I Intend" To Challenge Specter In Primary Top
Rumors that Rep. Joe Sestak, (D-PA) intends to challenge Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) in the Pennsylvania Democratic primaries have been confirmed, TPMDC reported today. The site received a handwritten note from Sestak to a supporter asking for donations. Sestak's sister, Meg Infantino, who works for Sestak for Congress, confirmed the report. Specter is planning to run for re-election next year after recently switching parties to avoid a primary challenger in the Republican field. Sestak confirmed that he intends to throw his hat in the ring in a conversation today with Wolf Blitzer on CNN's "The Situation Room." Said Sestak: Wolf, I personally have made a decision that I intend to get in this race with one other item. I haven't sat down and had the time to sit down with my 8-year-old daughter or my wife to make sure that we are all ready to get in. Sestak emphasized that he is not worried about clashing with the White House, although President Obama has thrown his weight behind Specter and has vowed to campaign for him. Sestak noted that he had not been contacted by the White House and expressed dissatisfaction with the administration's decision to line up behind Specter: As I said weeks ago, Wolf, I was disappointed that the Washington political establishment had decided to anoint someone for Pennsylvanians. And so I said I would wait and listen. And I've spent the last weeks going around Pennsylvania to see if others felt like me. Sestak also appeared on MSNBC's "The Ed Show". Watch the video: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Arlen Specter
 
Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry, Teresa Valdez Klein: Post-Decision Day in California: What's next in the battle against Prop 8? Top
Yesterday was a big day in the battle over gay marriage. The California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, but also unanimously agreed to keep in place the 18,000 marriages that took place before the November election. Protestors gathered all across the state to condemn the decision, and we've got audio from the West Hollywood protest, featuring Kathy Griffin, Drew Berrymore, and LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. But these protests weren't anywhere as big as those right after the election, and this brings up the question: how does the movement sustain the enthusiasm and organization that it lacked during the "No on Prop 8" campaign? A big question mark on this issue is President Obama, whose support of civil unions was often believed to be a feint for a truly progressive stance. That belief hasn't bourn out, as the President has been virtually silent on both Prop 8 and Don't Ask, Don't Tell. What gives, Mr. President? You can commend yourself for nominating a Latina to the Supreme Court while you totally ignore another minority group that desperately needs leadership? Maegan and Teresa discuss what would be the best way forward for marriage equality, including legal arguments and possible best practices. That big nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor is a big deal, of course, and while it's pretty unlikely Sotomayor is going to be denied, could she turn out to be the Democratic version of David Souter? And what is the media doing paying any attention to what Mitt Romney says about this issue? He has nothing to do with Sotomayor's confirmation. It's all the media's push for drama. But since we love the drama, what can the GOP hang their opposition of Sotomayor on? Racism? Playing identity politics, which Teresa denounces as a big part of why she doesn't consider herself a Democrat? Finally, we touch on Mr. Bow-Tie Himself, Tucker Carlson, and his feeble-looking attempt to counter The Huffington Post? With The Daily Caller, is the Right starting to believe that talk radio is being marginalized, so they have to jump into the online realm? Can the conservatives match the relentless nature of Arianna Huffington and her work with the internet newspaper? Carlson's got his work cut out for him, certainly. Listen to the show here , subscribe to the iTunes podcast , or use the Blog Talk Radio player: Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein ( www.teresacentric.com ), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry ( www.maegancarberry.com ). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com. More on Sonia Sotomayor
 

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