Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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John Feffer: The Dance of the Child Soldiers Top
Wars usually end with talking. With the blood still fresh on the battlefield, politicians sit down at a negotiating table for peace talks. Words, after all, are their currency. Just as psychoanalysts apply a "talking cure" to resolve deep-seated conflicts, politicians sit across from each other to talk things out. But what about soldiers? Their experience of war has more to do with action than with words. The traumas of wartime -- inflicted by and on soldiers -- are more of the sticks-and-stones variety. Yet the default approach to dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is through words. The National Center for PTSD recommends sitting down with a trained professional for a course of cognitive, exposure, group, or family therapy. Talk, talk, and more talk. It's not that talk is useless. Such therapy has helped many, many people. But soldiers are not out on the battlefield yelling epithets and absorbing verbal abuse. They're killing and brutalizing, and being shot at and brutalized in return. Can such traumas be healed through words alone? Now imagine these horrific experiences, which are enough to push adults into catatonic states, being visited on children. Between 2004 and 2007, child soldiers fought in 19 countries or territories. Employed in various capacities -- scouts, prostitutes, mine sweepers -- they often begin to kill before they hit puberty. Nor does the tragedy end with the end of conflict. "Tens of thousands of child soldiers have been released from armies and armed groups since 2004 as long-running conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa have ended," according to Child Soldiers: Global Report 2008. Reintegrating those children back into war-torn societies is a monumental task. Like ballet dancers, these young soldiers have been trained from an early age to go through precise motions, to shape their bodies to the required task. In this case, though, the task is to kill, not to pirouette. So, can we address these traumas through words alone? David Alan Harris, a choreographer and therapist, has pioneered the use of dance and movement therapy with child soldiers. In his contribution this week to Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF), Harris tells the riveting story of how young men in Sierra Leone, who show no outward emotion about their past atrocities, slowly come to terms with their experiences -- through dance. "The first sign of empathy for a victim came during a group dramatization," Harris writes in Dancing with Child Soldiers . "A 17-year-old who had never before shown any emotions, even when speaking of horrific events, was cast by a peer in the role of a young mother with a baby at her breast. When another teen, acting the part of a rebel, ripped the infant away and murdered it, the face of the youth playing the mother contorted in utter agony. Following this courageous depiction of authentic horror, the sharing of long-suppressed emotions emerged." The use of movement therapy releases pent-up emotions and body memories, provides a kind of counter-ritual to the ones imposed by the army, and promotes new bonding experiences for the former child soldiers. The arts, here, aren't supplemental or elective but an essential and integral part of the healing process. Reading and learning about this is one way to observe the Day of the African Child, which occurs every June 16. "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution," anarchist Emma Goldman once more-or-less said . Perhaps in the future, the survivors of war will proclaim, "If we can't dance, we don't want to be part of your therapy." Crossposted from Foreign Policy In Focus where you can read the full post. To subscribe to FPIF's e-zine World Beat , click here . More on Africa
 
Sally Kohn: The Bloody Truth Behind Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric Top
A week after a white supremacist attacked the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, and on the day that three teenagers are being sentenced in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, for brutally beating and killing a Mexican immigrant, it's time we confront the fact that behind violently anti-immigrant and supremacist rhetoric is a real urge and a real encouragement for actual violence. On May 30, 2009 , a group of armed men and women killed 9-year-old Brisenia Flores and her father in Arivaca, AZ. The vigilantes were Minutemen, members of a "civilian defense corps" that polices the US-Mexico border for undocumented immigrants. When Jason Bush, 34, Shawna Forde, 41, and Albert Gaxiola, 42, allegedly busted down the front door of the Flores home and murdered Raul Junior Flores and his daughter and seriously injured Flores' wife, the armed gang was supposedly looking for drugs and cash to fund their anti-immigrant organization . Arizona police allege Shawna Forde was the ringleader. Shawna Forde was the Executive Director of Minuteman American Defense (M.A.D.) and a spokesperson for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), often touted as a "mainstream" voice opposing immigration. But if Forde was indeed involved, the bloody acts in Arivaca reveal the true hatred and contempt behind anti-immigrant organizations in our country. Many well-meaning, average Americans who have understandable concerns about our economy and how they're going to support their families have been convinced that anti-immigrant organizations are on their side and feel their pain. But the reality is, organizations like the Minutemen and FAIR are only co-opting our economic insecurity (an insecurity that's actually shared by immigrants and citizens alike) to mask their real agenda, motivated purely by hatred for those who are different. It was the same thing in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler started by talking about how Jews were threatening the German economy and should all be expelled from the country. And then he killed six million. Are we really so naïve as a nation to think that the anti-immigrant fervor, from Lou Dobbs to the Minutemen, is anything about our economy or our well-being or our way of life? After all, our nation was built by immigrants, our strongest economic times in recent years have been driven by high rates of immigration and even now, our economy actively lures low-wage worker from across the border to get back on firm footing. Do we really think we'd be reacting as negatively if the immigrants coming here had light skin and spoke French? Jason Bush, one of the other Minutemen charged in the Arizona murder, was charged in another slaying in 1997 in Washington State. He allegedly bragged to a police informant about "killing a Mexican." The man Bush killed was a 29-year-old homeless man who had been sleeping under a blanket near a parking lot when Bush stabbed him several times with a knife. Regarding the Arizona murders, the Minutemen American Defense group has placed the following statement on its website : MAD does not endorse or condone any events that are outside of the normal boundaries of any normal private citizen who is concerned about the current conditions of the opened border condition and we do work totally within the boundaries and with the total cooperation and knowledge of all appropriate Law enforcement agencies in our areas of operation. While revealing how ironic it is that groups like M.A.D. criticize new immigrants for not speaking English, the statement does anything but condemn violence against immigrants. It's worth noting here that Forde and her gang allegedly entered the Flores home wearing law enforcement attire. Groups like the Minutemen are pretending to uphold laws that they flagrantly violate. Who are the real law breakers? Immigrants who come to the United States without legal permission but every single economic invitation, to work for companies that actively recruit them in order to support their desperate families back home? Or the vigilantes who prowl our southern border with assault rifles and camouflage and raid innocent families' homes and slaughter 9-year-old children? "This was a planned home invasion where the plan was to kill all the people inside this trailer so there would be no witnesses," said Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County, Arizona. "To just kill a 9-year-old girl because she might be a potential witness to me is just one of the most despicable acts that I have heard of." I actually feel badly for Shawna Forde. She was fed a load of crap about how her economic troubles and sense that the 21st century was passing her by were the fault not of something vague like the public education system or American trade policies or Reaganomics but something specific, something dark-skinned, something that fit perfectly into the us-versus-them scary story that readily embraces misplaced blame: immigrants. Never mind that we were all in the same boat, sinking fast, immigrants and citizens alike --- and never mind that shaking her fist at foreigners and patrolling the US-Mexico border was distracting Shawna from taking action that would have brought about real change, like making our economy more democratic, changing tax policy to help working families, easing the burden of health care costs and gas. No, Shawna believed the hate mongerers on CNN and the internet and stuck to her guns. Literally. But if the allegations against her are true, Shawna can really only be blamed for taking to extremes the garbage that so many Americans believe is true, the lies we swallow to make the bigger pill of America's real, shared problems seemingly dissolve but in truth get stuck in our collective throat as we're looking the other way. The alleged acts of Shawna Forde and her gang are inhumane. Our outdated immigration policies are inhumane. We can and must reform our immigration laws to make America work better for all of us, immigrants and citizens alike. That is the only pro-America side of this debate. Everything else must be unmasked for what it is -- a façade for an anti-immigrant bloodbath. On which side will you stand? More on Immigration
 
Carl Pope: Cleaning Up Our Forests Top
The cleanup of the Bush administration's phenomenal mismanagement of the nation's forests continues to grind forward in federal courts. Thus far the Obama administration has not yet put in place new leadership for the Forest Service -- one potential nominee had a lobbying background and one withdrew for personal reasons. The biggest forest-management policy issue -- the Roadless Areas -- is being managed in the short-term by Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack himself. But at the finer-grained level, it's still the lawsuits filed against Bush that are, effectively, driving forest policy. The most recent ruling was in Los Angeles. In 2005 the Forest Service revised the Forest Plans for the Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino National Forests. As was its habit under Bush, the Service didn't include any management requirements to protect endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity sued, and Judge Marilyn Hall Patel agreed that Forest Plans require Endangered Species Act protections. But there's a lot left to do. A new study confirmed -- as the Sierra Club and I have argued for years -- that while climate change and years of forest-fire suppression and over-cutting of big trees have substantially increased the risk of wildfire to homes and communities, the Forest Service has diverted almost all of the money appropriated to minimize these risks for the benefit of the timber industry. A University of Colorado analysis of 44,613 "fuel-reduction projects" found that only three percent of them occurred in urban-wildland interfaces or the buffer strip around them. By contrast, Congress insisted that at least 50 percent of the money be devoted to community protection -- and the Sierra Club advocates spending 100 percent for five years to get rid of the worst of the backlog. One major factor, the study's authors found, was that a majority of the most critical urban-wildland community-protection zones -- 71 percent -- are on private lands, and only 17 percent are under direct Forest Service jurisdiction. "Our results suggest the need for a significant shift in fire policy emphasis from federal to private lands, if protection of communities and private property in the wildland-urban interface remains a primary goal," the authors wrote. The bottom line: We've spent $2 billion since 2000 without reducing the number of acres burned, homes destroyed, or firefighters killed. President Obama's new forest chief is badly needed.
 
Letterman's Ratings Soar On Palin Apology: Beats Conan By 700K Viewers Top
Monday night, when Mr. Letterman offered his extended apology to Governor Palin and her family, he had his best night yet in the continuing late-night competition against NBC's new "Tonight" show star, Conan O'Brien. In preliminary national ratings, Mr. Letterman pulled in 700,000 more viewers than Mr. O'Brien Monday night, 3.9 million to 3.2 million, his biggest margin yet over his new competitor. Mr. Letterman routinely trailed the former "Tonight" host Jay Leno by a million viewers or more. More on David Letterman
 
Michelle Obama Garden Harvesting Outfit: Comin' Up Roses! (PHOTOS) Top
Michelle Obama joined fifth graders from Bancroft Elementary School again on Tuesday to harvest the Kitchen Garden they planted in March. To mark the occasion, the first lady wore pink pants, a striped tank top, and a matching floral cardigan. PHOTOS: From the pool report: Children from the Bancroft elementary school who had helped First Lady Michelle Obama plant a vegetable garden in April were invited back today to harvest vegetables. White House associate chef Sam Kass said the garden has produced lettuce, snap peas, beans, kale, collards and chard. The children were accompanied by their principal and teachers. The children concentrated on harvesting lettuce and peas. The garden had grown incredibly in only two months. White House Associate chef Sam Kass said, "The rain has been beautiful." He added that the large amount of rain in Washington this spring had not washed any of the plants away and that Bo, the dog, had not eaten from it. Kass said no chemicals--fertilizer or herbicide-- had been used on the garden, but that the underlying White House soil had been "amended" with crab meal from the Chesapeake Bay, green sand compost and lime powder. Kass said that the only problem he had noticed is that "something is nibbling a little bit on the kale." But Kass also said the garden "is not "certified organic." Kass said that there has been one big weeding once a week and that he and a pastry chef along with "volunteers" from the White House had done the weeding. The garden was cleaner of weeds than the area under the nearby trees. Kass also said that the White House has begun offering tours of the garden to school children and plans to have the school tours about twice a week. Kass said he has taken 90 pounds of produce from the garden, including broccoli and green beans and "one beautiful eggplant." He also said he has harvested herbs "every night" and they are not included in the 90 pounds. Some has been used at the White House and some has been donated to Miriam's Kitchen. The garden has produced only one cucumber, which Kass saved for the children to harvest today. It is supposed to be a white cucumber, but it had turned yellow. Kass said he had told the children that the Thomas Jefferson lettuce has already gone to seed and that he explained to the children about farmers passing seed down through the generations. Kass also said that he has visited the children's school and that they told him working on a garden has taught them they need to take care of themselves and their families and neighborhoods. Kass said one boy told him he had "learned to be gentle" by tending plants. After completing an interview with ABC News, Mrs. Obama walked down the White House lawn alone dressed in orange jeans, a blouse and patterned sweater. Mrs. Obama thanked the children for being there when the ground was broken and the garden planted. She reminded them, "Your group helped pull up the soil." Mrs. Obama then took a knife and showed the children how to cut lettuce heads from the bottom. Other children harvested other vegetables. The children washed the various types of lettuce--red oakleaf, green leaf and lola rossa, according to a map of the garden provided by White House staff--in clear plastic bins but Kass very wisely noted that they would wash the lettuce again before it would be used. Later higher up on the lawn in the First Lady's garden the children washed the lettuce again before making the salad. The children weighed the produce and a White House spokeswoman said the harvest was 73 pounds of lettuce and 12 pounds of peas. While one group of children worked in the kitchen (see first report) others were outside preparing salad and decorating cup cakes with raspberries and blueberries (apparently an alternative to frosting.) Mrs. Obama and the children came from the kitchen to the First Lady's garden. Mrs. Obama helped set the picnic table with paper plates and plastic tableware. "Today is the culmination of a lot of hard work," Mrs. Obama said, beginning remarks about the role of nutrition and good eating habits in health care reform and the reauthorization of child nutrition programs. The remarks should be released shortly. --- More on Michelle Obama Style
 
Rhode Island Will License Medical Marijuana Shops, Overriding Veto Top
The Rhode Island legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a medical marijuana law Tuesday afternoon by an overwhelming margin, paving the way for state-licensed medical marijuana shops to begin operating. The House voted 68-0 for the pot measure and the senate moved it minutes later by a 35-3 count. Once the law takes effect, the state will be the first in the nation to have one officially licensed nonprofit center selling marijuana. Over time, the state will license further nonprofit dispensaries. The bill got a boost in the state after a much publicized incident in which a pot dealer beat up a medical marijuana patient. Proponents of the bill argued that patients shouldn't have to deal with unregulated, unlicensed drug dealers, but deserved a more orderly system. In March, New Mexico became the first state to grant a state license to a medical marijuana producer. "We are seeing a historic shift to allowing state-licensed, regulated medical marijuana production and distribution," said Karen O'Keefe of the Marijuana Policy Project after the vote. Legislators in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina and Pennsylvania are considering similar legislation. Arizona and Maine voters may soon vote on similar initiatives. The Rhode Island bill's passage was only made possible by President Obama's announcement that his Justice Department would not raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they were following the law. California's dispensaries operate legally in the state but don't have the kind of exclusive state license that the new Rhode Island shop will have. Jesse Stoup, executive director of the Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition , which led the charge on the bill, said that state Rep. Tom Slater's announcement Saturday that he would himself begin using medical marijuana to treat his rapidly advancing cancer swayed the General Assembly. Slater, a Democrat, is the bill's sponsor. The Rhode Island Department of Health will license one nonprofit "compassion center" in 2010 and two more in 2011. They will grow and distribute marijuana and provide it to an unlimited number of patients. My book, This Is Your Country On Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America , is now out. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!
 
Andy Ostroy: The Internet Kills Another of My Favorite Spots Top
The Virgin Megastore in NYC's Union Square is closing. Another record shop bites the dust, having fallen victim to a culture of young people who've fallen in love with pirated music, iTunes and their laptops, which they've turned into their best friends, spending more time with these web-surfing vehicles than with actual human beings. I'm sorry, but I'm distressed. This is just another example of our youth turning more and more inward. I can't begin to calculate all the time I've spent in my life either at lower Broadway's now-closed Tower Records and the Virgin store. So many hours spent cruising for the latest cool music to buy. So many beautiful women to look at during my single periods, some of whom I actually had the balls to approach. The feeling of being around other people who shared my love of music. The sensory overload of seeing the thousands and thousands of CD's to choose from, listening to samples on the headphones. A place to gather and inhale this incredible art form. So therapeutic, almost Zen-like. The warmth of the store on a frigid Manhattan Winter night. These places are suffering a rapid death, and it's a damned shame. I am not a fan of modern technology, at least that which is bankrupting many of the things in life I love. It's stripping us of the interpersonal experiences from our daily lives that seem to be fading faster than Steve Jobs' hairline. To be sure, there are no people at the iTunes "store." No one to talk with. No eccentric clerks. No cute women. No racks of discs to flick through my fingers in rapid-fire succession. No energy that comes from being around other like-minded music-lovers. There's no cool NYC experience there whatsoever. No place to go to to simply get lost in the music and bask in the sweet smell of its packaging. Music lovers are now trapped in lifeless, impersonal computer screens. Bazillions of people have traded in true social-networking for the ease and convenience of purchasing music online. Today's kids really have no clue what they've lost. It's just not the same to sit alone in some over-priced coffeehouse with little plugs jammed into your ears as you download the latest Killers CD. It's pretty sad, actually. Now go ahead and make all the "cranky grandpa" jokes you want. I'm ready. But what I'm not ready for is a culture that will eventually do everything from the comfort of home except have real socialization and intimacy with real live actual people . If this is progress, I'd rather be old school. More on Steve Jobs
 
Omid Memarian: A coup Manual: What We should Know About Iran's Election? Top
The foreign media and western states are confused and puzzled as to how to interpret the Iranian election on June 12th. Over the past few days I've been speaking with many journalists in Tehran who normally go there for one or two weeks on assignment. Many of them, initially, believed that Ahmadinejad's declared re-election was similar in nature to his first term election in 2005. Meaning that he had successfully mobilized his base of poor people and conservatives and that the reformists and Iranian middle class had, once again, lost the election. But recent development tells us that this is not the real story. So, what are the sources of confusion? What went wrong and why are people angry and un-accepting of the results? Here are some essential questions that one might ask in order to fully understand the issues at hand: Was the Iranian election rigged? No doubt it was. There are many signs that indicate a very organized fraud, which has been in the works for many months. Its inconceivable that Ahmadinejad could have won 24 millions votes. How could he when he had only received just over 5 million in the first round of the 2005 election? In the second round he gained 16 million and that was simply because he was running against Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was very unpopular at the time, a man that was rumored to have corruption in his family, rumors that became etched in the memory of the Iranian people. There was even a saying that "anybody could beat Hashemi in the second round". At that time, even Ahmadineajds's second position in the first round was so controversial that he was accused of an organized fraud led by Iran's militia forces, Basijis, and the Revolutionary Guard. Now, without any change in Iran's demography, he received, in some places, figures of twenty times more votes than he did four years ago. During the past four years, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have increased inflation from approximately 11 percent to 25 percent, more than double. The effects of such policies have been a hard reality for millions of Iranians. He is the only president in Iran who has not gained the support of Iran's middle class and elite. Although his government spent billions of dollars on propaganda, he remained widely criticized by reformists, experts, civil society activists and even some conservatives. On the other hand, Mousavi (Iran's prime minister at the time of war with Iraq 1980-1988) is very well respected and popular in the society. Iranian people know him as a man of integrity, a politician who managed the war economy quite thoughtfully. The overwhelming support for Mousavi by the Iranian middle class, the political elite, reformists and millions of people was contagious even amongst part of the conservative base (also known as Ahmadinejad's base). Mousavi drew crowds of more than 50,000 to his rallies over the past three months in small and large cities alike, not just in Tehran. So a landslide victory seemed like a joke. When did the suspicion start? On election night, Mousavi received a call from the Ministry of Interior telling him of his victory. Meanwhile, a committee, which included the Minister of Interior himself and two of his deputies, announced different results. They declared Ahmadinejad as Iran's President elect faster than anyone could imagine. While the election was still in progress a news agency, known to strongly support Ahmadineajd, had already written about his landslide victory. It was as if they knew in advance. In less than a few hours the authorities began announcing the results by the millions. Everybody who is familiar with Iran's bureaucracy knows that it's just impossible to have possibly counted the ballots this fast. The voting process is not computerized but totaled by hand and therefore it takes quite a bit of time, particularly with voter turn out being at a record high. So it was obvious that the results were not based on actual votes. Also, like many countries including the United States, Iran is a very diverse country. Candidates naturally have more support in some provinces than in others, like their hometown for example. It's impossible that a candidate could win by a same margin in every single province as Ahmadinejad, allegedly, has. This is numerically improbable and does not make sense to anybody. The results of this election make a mockery of the Iranian voting system and their history as a democracy. Is it a coup? It might not seem a classic coup. But there are indications that the fraud did not happened just on the actual Election Day. Even if 90 percent of the people voted reformists, it would never have been reflected in the ballot counts. It's just impossible. Let's review different segments of the game and then you call it whatever you want: 1- Before the elections Ahmadinejad's supporters, major news agencies and radical newspapers, predicated a landslide victory. They even mentioned a plausible win by 60 percent! An alarming and odd a prediction in a country where one cannot even predict the price of a tomato, or an onion, from one day to the next. 2- The results were announced too quickly to be true. It was as if they already knew what the numbers were going to be. So it seems that the authorities didn't even have to bother to actually count the ballots for results. 3- On Election Day, the police were ready for the huge presence of protesters in the major cities. They were fully armed and well equipped with anti-riot gear. What was supposed to happen? Why were they so prepared? 4- A few hours after the result were announced, and even with all of the complaints, the Iranian Supreme Leader announced Ahmadinejad as the next president, and asked all of the other candidates to cooperate with the winner. Why such a rush? 5- Dozens of prominent reformist politicians and journalists were systematically arrested within 48 hours of the announcement of the Presidency. Forces were organized, knowing who to arrest and where to go without legitimate reason. But this game could not afford prominent political figures to potentially play leadership roles against the outcome. 6-On Election Day SMS services were cut off followed by cell phone reception the day after. Reformists websites were blocked as well, which forced a disconnect between surprised reformists and their supporters. Everything happened very quickly. It's been part of the plan to be swift. 7- A top-down pressure began. Mousavi and Karrubi were placed immediately under unofficial house arrest. There were told that it was for their own security. Simultaneously, some of the major religious figures from the office of the Supreme leader, and reportedly, some of the other officials in power pressured Mousavi to accept the results. 8- The next day Ahmadinejad's supporters, many of whom were armed with cold arms, rallied in one of the squares in Tehran in a show of power. 9- At the same time, the spontaneous, and unexpected massive protests began. (Which was not expected on such a scale (because Iranians know how the police and the government can go wild and brutal). Ahmadinejad called it a rebellion. It was a necessary label for justifying the police action taken to stop the protesters. The protests were peaceful, but the police themselves, started to destroy cars setting the scene for confrontation. 10-Now, you put together the above pieces and tell me what you would call it. Is the media covering this election properly? There are some good reports. But consider that many of the journalists are not able to report freely. They know that the government monitors their work closely. They can easily be forced to leave the country. The news agencies, which have correspondents in Tehran, do not want to jeopardize their visa situation nor their ability to have their people on the ground. Even CNN's Christian Amanpour grossly under reported on the number of Mousavi supporters in Monday's protest in Tehran. She described "thousands" when in fact, it was apparent that there were "hundreds of thousands". It is no surprise. I personally know many journalists who have never been able to renew their visas after writing blunt pieces about the realities on the ground. For many of them it is a matter of professional survival. Beyond this, many of them are not able to connect the dots. They cannot travel throughout the country, many of them do not speak Farsi and there are there just there for a few weeks and like many are just as surprised. Also, some of the commentators on cable TV tend to add the United States to the equation unnecessarily. This is wrong. What is happening in Iran has nothing to do with the United States. Iranians have been fighting for their rights for decades now. However, if the U.S. had an open and amicable relationship with Iran, it would be more likely that the Iranian authorities would have to behave and respect the demands of the people. The best way to follow the development of the events as they unfold is to follow multiple and diverse news channels. What should the United States do? President Obama is in a very critical situation. No matter what happens in the coming days, Obama should not congratulate Ahmadinejad for his victory. He did not win the election, he stole it. However he should stick to his plans to negotiate and communicate with the Iranian government. Most of the U.S. allies in the Middle East, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, have a much worst political situation on their hands and yet they remain friendly with Washington. If the Iranian government engages with the U.S. in the coming months and years under Ahmadinejad's second term, it will surely be harder for the Iranian government to ignore their responsibility to the Iranian people. Iran's disconnect from the outside world has served the radicals in Tehran more than anybody else. Also, the United States should not take side. If Obama supports the protesters it gives the Iranian authorities the reasons they want and need to portray the recent protest as an American phenomena. Play into made up stories of how, for instance, CIA and Moosad and the other intelligence services on the planet are behind the scenes of such an original and genuine movement. The United States and other western countries should put more pressure on the United Nations to act more decisively. So far more than 10 people have died. (I just received word from a reliable source that 9 people died in Rasool e AKram Hospital in Tehran, and a tenth one had been shot and killed earlier). The United Nation's Security Council really should hold an emergency meeting over this issue. The protests have potentials to be another Tiananmen Square, particularly when the police and the militia are interested in turning these peaceful protests to chaos. This gives them an excuse to use force, something they are waiting to do it. The UNSC should adopt a resolution in condemnation of the use of force against peaceful protests. This post will be updated with more questions. Photo by Leila Partia, Tehran. More on Barack Obama
 
Cash-Strapped Illinois Cuts Out Funerals For Poor Top
For the poor, it's a final indignity, funeral directors say: The state of lllinois is suspending payments for funerals for the indigent.
 
Paul Krassner: Postscript to Politically Correct Comedy Top
I neglected to mention in my previous post that a January 2005 press release issued by the No Name-Calling Week Coalition stated: "Results from 2004 bullying surveys in schools indicated that students reported a significant decrease in the amount of bullying and harassment in school after taking part in the first No-Name-Calling Week and its activities. More than 5,000 educators and administrators have officially registered to take part in the [2005] week."
 
ABC News Disputes Nielsen Ratings Following Lowest "World News" Audience Ever Top
NEW YORK — ABC News has asked Nielsen Media Research to investigate after the company's ratings indicated that "World News" most likely had its smallest audience ever. The news ratings were a downer for the network after the entertainment division won in the prime-time ratings for the first week since last September, keyed by the National Basketball Association finals. It was ABC's most-watched week in the summer in five years, according to Nielsen. "World News" averaged 6.2 million viewers last week (4.3 rating, 9 share), its worst showing since at least 1987, when Nielsen's "People Meters" technology was introduced, and probably for many years before that. The previous week, the "CBS Evening News" hit a similar low point. ABC's average did not include Tuesday and Thursday's newscast, because "World News" was pre-empted out West those nights for the NBA Finals. What ABC is questioning is Friday night's ratings, when Nielsen said "World News" was watched by 4.1 million people, well below its Friday average of 7.3 million this year. Friday marked TV's digital transition, when analog signals were cut off and an estimated 2.5 percent of the nation's TV homes lost their TV transmissions. News ratings are typically down in the summer, but not by that much, ABC said. Given the relatively small number of homes losing signals, ABC claimed that a loss of more than 3 million off its season average makes no sense. CBS, for example, had 5.1 million viewers Friday compared to its season average of 5.8 million that night, Nielsen said. "The numbers don't make any sense," said Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News." Banner said the network has already learned that some of its affiliates that made the digital switch over early were inadvertently left out of the news ratings. Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesman, said the company is working with ABC to determine what happened. NBC's "Nightly News" averaged 8.3 million viewers last week (5.5 rating, 12 share), while the CBS "Evening News" had 5.4 million (3.7, 8). In prime time, the last three games of the Los Angeles Lakers championship series victory over the Orlando Magic were the most-watched programs of the week. HBO also reported that the second season premiere of "True Blood" on Sunday was seen by 3.7 million people, the most-watched original series telecast on the network since the June 2007 finale of "The Sopranos." ABC averaged 7.3 million prime-time viewers (4.4 rating, 8 share), with second-place CBS at 6.9 million (4.6, 8). Fox had 5.1 million viewers and NBC 5 million (both 3.2, 6), My Network TV had 1.5 million (0.9, 2), the CW 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and ION Television 670,000 (0.5, 1). Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with 3.3 million viewers (1.7 rating, 3 share), Telemundo had 1.2 million (0.6, 1), TeleFutura 740,000 (0.4, 1) and Azteca 150,000 (0.1, 0). A ratings point represents 1,145,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.5 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show. For the week of June 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NBA Finals, Game 4: L.A. Lakers vs. Orlando, ABC, 15.96 million; NBA Finals, Game 3: L.A. Lakers vs. Orlando, ABC, 14.2 million; NBA Finals, Game 5: L.A. Lakers vs. Orlando, ABC, 14.17 million; "NBA Trophy Presentation," ABC, 13.48 million; "The Mentalist" (Tuesday, 9 p.m.), CBS, 11.62 million; "NCIS," CBS, 11.05 million; "Two and a Half Men," CBS, 9.52 million; "The Mentalist" (Thursday, 10 p.m.), CBS, 8.94 million; "48 Hours Mystery" (Tuesday), CBS, 8.85 million, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 8.74 million. ___ ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by General Electric Co. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TeleFutura is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V. ___ On the Net: http://www.nielsenmedia.com
 
John Ensign Affair: GOP Senator Admits Relationship With Ex-Campaign Staffer Top
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. John Ensign of Nevada admitted Tuesday he had an extramarital affair with a member of his campaign staff. Ensign told The Associated Press in a statement, "I deeply regret and am very sorry for my actions." An aide in Ensign's office said the affair took place between December 2007 and August 2008 with a campaign staffer who was married to an employee in Ensign's Senate office. Neither have worked for the senator since May 2008. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity. The aide declined to comment on Ensign's political future. Ensign did not participate earlier Wednesday in a vote concerning the ailing travel industry, an unusual absence considering the topic's relevance in his home state. "I know that I have deeply hurt and disappointed my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my staff and the people of Nevada who believed in me not just as a legislator but as a person," Ensign said. Ensign's wife, Darlene, also released a statement about the affair. "Since we found out last year we have worked through the situation and we have come to a reconciliation. This has been difficult on both families. With the help of our family and close friends our marriage has become stronger," Mrs. Ensign said. Ensign was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and has been an influential conservative voice within that chamber. Last year, his GOP colleagues picked him to serve as chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, moving him to the No. 4 position in leadership. The committee coordinates the GOP's legislative efforts in the Senate.
 
Obama Crushes Pesky Fly On CNBC (VIDEO) Top
President Barack Obama had a lengthy interview on CNBC today to talk Wall Street, health care, and his proposed financial industry reforms. The President was interrupted, however, by a pesky fly. During a break in the interview, the President made quick work of the pest. "That was pretty impressive wasn't it?" President Obama said. "I got the sucker." WATCH: Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter !
 
Kase Wickman: The Iranian Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- It'll Be Twittered Top
As protests of Friday's Iranian election and the victory proclamation by incumbent President Ahmadinejad rolls on for another day, one thing has become abundantly clear: tomorrow's newspaper is too late. Now that press have been all but escorted out of Iran, the world's news is coming minute-by-minute from the little micro-blogging (some say ego-stroking) site that could: Twitter . Founded in 2006, Twitter now boasts millions of users, and according to Nielsen grew 1382 percent in the month of Febrauary alone. Previously written off as a tool for inane thoughts (my leg itches, what should I have for dinner, etc.), Twitter has emerged from its adolescence as an outlet for instantly sharing information with thousands (millions, countless numbers) of people. Under the hashtag #iranelection , Twitter users have been both giving updates about the events unfolding in the Middle East (see a partial list of people tweeting from Iran ) and people discussing the election and protests. The conditions in Tehran are worsening, and Twitter is literally the only way to consistently release information. Twitter has become so crucial in current events that when scheduled maintenance to the site was supposed to happen Monday night, someone at the U.S. State Department called Twitter to ask that they reschedule it and not cut off one of the only channels of communication out of the country, especially after other Web sites, newspapers and phone service had been hacked or shut down. People are using Twitter not only to update others about times and places for protests (tomorrow there will be a pro-Moussavi protest in Haft Teer Square at 4 p.m., protesters will bring flowers to give to the Basij) or to give information about the things they are seeing, but also to check in on one another. Iranian Twitter user persiankiwi has sent hundreds of messages from secret locations for days straight as well as updates before going to bed or going offline so that people don't worry that he or she is injured or dead when the stream of messages stops. ABC correspondent Jim Sciutto is in Iran and sent a message this morning that he was "up & all safe" after someone worried that he hadn't updated in a few hours. Since Twitter is the only first-hand reporting we're going to see out of Iran for a while, it's a good idea to be familiar with some guidelines for digesting news over Twitter . The news is short-term, but it's already becoming clear that the implications of this revolution (both Iranian and Twitter) will be long-lasting. Will the next war be the first where reporting via text messaging becomes the norm? "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" first popped up in the 1970s, but surely, at least for now, the revolution will be Twittered. See more of Air America's Iran election coverage . This post originally appeared at Air America Media. More on Iranian Election
 
Paul Krassner: Should Comedy Be Politically Correct? Top
Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy for governor on the Tonight Show . John Edwards announced his candidacy for president on The Daily Show . And now Sarah Palin has in effect announced her candidacy for president in 2012 by denouncing Late Show host David Letterman for a joke about her daughter -- the wrong, younger daughter, it turned out -- being knocked up by baseball star Alex Rodriguez. Palin accused Letterman of promulgating statutory rape. He apologized for the joke. Neither Rodriguez, who was once Madonna's insignificant other, nor the flight attendants' union, made any public objection. Palin also objected to being compared to a "slutty flight attendant," though Letterman didn't apologize for that one. Palin never complained when Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert -- separately but equally -- compared her to the generic librarian in a porn movie who removes her glasses and lets down her hair. She didn't say a word about Larry Flynt's porn movie Nailin' Paylin . But this wasn't the first time a comedian has been accused of telling a joke that could be blamed for the possibility of instigating a criminal act. In his book, Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict , Paul Lewis quoted a Jay Leno joke from January 2005: Do you know what week this is in our public schools? I'm not making this up. This week is National No-Name-Calling Week. They don't want any name-calling in our public schools. What stupid dork came up with this idea? Lewis then wrote: No doubt staying with his fixed role not as a satirist but a comedian, Jay Leno sent this joke flying, along with tried and true observations about Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Jessica Simpson and Paris Hilton. Anything to avoid 'preaching' to his audience, anything for a joke, a laugh. Leno may begin his routine by asking 'Did you see X or Y,' but affecting how viewers see anything is the last thing he intends. It appears not to matter that, however ridiculous it sounds or can be made to seem, National No-Name-Calling Week might just be a good idea. A step away from a culture that leads the world not just in gun violence but specifically in school shootings. Not taken into account by Tonight Show gag smiths was the fact that there were 23 fatal shootings and sex fatal stabbings in American schools during the 2004-5 school year, climaxing in the Minnesota Red Lake High School murder/suicide that left nine people dead and 13 others wounded a mere two months after Leno enjoyed his dork putdown. Does it matter that Jeff Weise, the junior who began this killing spree by murdering his grandparents and ended it by killing himself was, as Red Lake students told MSNBC, 'regularly picked on him for his odd behavior,' that he was 'terrorized a lot by others who called him names'? 'Hey,' I can hear you thinking, 'take it easy. Lighten up. It's just a bleepin' monologue.' It's the 'just' part that gives me pause. The Red Lake teen jokers, the ones who found, perhaps, an outlet for their aggressive instincts or were also, perhaps, just enjoying a joke or two at Jeff Weise's expense: should we lighten up on them too? Unlike Jay Leno, their humor was spontaneous, an expression of what was running through their twisted little adolescent brains. Perhaps they were feeling anxious, insecure, depressed, stressed out; perhaps the ridicule they served up was therapeutic, not for their target obviously, who would eventually acquire a more lethal weapon but, in the moment of laughing, for them. That the overlap of healing and hostile impulses... in cases of adolescent name calling, can be fatal appears not to have factored into the creative process followed by the Tonight Show staff. As Leno told the Los Angeles Times , members of his audience have a simple desire: they 'want to hear a joke.' OK, then. So a priest, a rabbi and a bully, all fully armed, walk into a bar to hunt down a punch line... More on School Shootings
 
Rob Kall: Facebook Personalized URLs -- Free But Going Fast Top
At Midnight, Friday night, facebook.com started offering what twitter and myspace have long offered -- personalized URLs for users. Within hours over a million were taken and by the end of the weekend, over 5 million had been grabbed. I found out today, Monday morning, so my first choice robkall, like I have for Twitter , was already taken by a fellow in Ohio. The facebook personalized URL selection user interface offered me some options and I tried out robertkall, which was available, and I'm guessing that rob-kall, which is what I used for myspace, was also available. But I went for shorter -- rkall. Really short, rk, was not permitted because the personalized url must include a minimum of five characters -- letters or numbers and probably both. As long as you were a registered facebook user before facebook announced the program on June 9th, you can claim your personal URL. Once you claim a URL you can't change it. Click here to claim your personalized facebook URL. www.facebook.com/username/ Crossposted from OpEdNews.com More on Facebook
 
Obama: Unemployment At 10% This Year, Recovery Soon Top
June 16 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said the U.S. unemployment rate will reach 10 percent this year, even as the economy begins to emerge from the recession. Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter !
 
Carol M. Swain: The New White Nationalism in America Top
Seven years ago, Cambridge University Press courageously published The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration (2002). Identified in the introduction (p.2) are seven conditions that I believe threaten to fuel a disruptive racial consciousness movement among White Americans that could have dangerous consequences for race relations. Unlike my first book, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress (Harvard Press, 1993, 1995, and University Press of America, 2007), it received no prizes or accolades from fellow academicians who dismissed the book as apocalyptic sensationalism. I confess that The New White Nationalism was written after I had had a profound religious conversion experience that changed my worldview bringing about a profound sense of urgency. Given the recent murder at the Holocaust Museum and the raging debates about who or what is responsible for what seems to be an increasingly violent anti-Jewish, anti-minority climate, I am compelled to share with readers an excerpt from the concluding chapter of the New White Nationalism in America. If anything, the conditions I identified back in the early 2000s have taken on an increasing urgency. The conditions are ripe, I believe, for unprecedented levels of racial conflict and racial turmoil. As I stated in my book, there is hope for a better future. The New White Nationalism was written as a warning and a wake-up call for Americans who cherish the civil rights vision of an integrated America, a common humanity, and equality before God and law. Below is an excerpt from the most important book I have ever written: Chapter 15: Concluding Observations and Policy Recommendations And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run who readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. -Habakkuk 2: 2-3. "We in America, I believe, are increasingly at risk of large-scale racial conflict unprecedented in our nation's history that is being driven by the simultaneous convergence of a host of powerful social forces. These forces include changing demographics, the continued existence of racial preference policies, the rising expectations of ethnic minorities, the continued existence of liberal immigration policies, growing concerns about job losses associated with globalization, fear of minority crime, the demands for multiculturalism, and the Internet's ability to enable like-minded individuals to identify each other and to share mutual concerns and strategies for impacting the political system. This combination of factors, in addition to others mentioned in Chapter 1, contributes to a social dynamic that can only serve to nourish white racial consciousness and white nationalism--the next logical stage for identity politics in America. There now exists an emerging white interest that is parallel with, and structurally akin to, a black and brown interest, which increasingly sees itself in need of protection from public and private initiatives that are said to favor minorities at the expense of more deserving whites. Moreover, it is not only whites who are angry or feel resentful or threatened. A part of the future discord will come from the rising expectations and demands of racial and ethnic minorities, which are sure to increase as minorities become a larger portion of the American population. The ominous tone of this book may come as a surprise to those familiar with my past research. For more than a decade I have been an unapologetic optimist on race relations who has watched with great satisfaction as my once controversial ideas on racial redistricting and racial representation - criticized by some as wishful thinking -- have become widely accepted across the political spectrum. Actually, there is no contradiction - or abrupt change -- between my previous position on race relations and the views I present here. I still believe that the majority of white Americans are morally good people who do not hate members of other races or ethnicities. But the same non-quantifiable intuitions about human behavior that led me almost ten years ago to argue the optimistic claim that black politicians can represent white voters, that white voters will support suitable black candidates, and that white politicians can effectively represent black voting interests now compel me to offer a cautious warning of the potentially dangerous waters ahead that threaten our common goal of an integrated and harmonious American society. Insights drawn from my day-to-day interactions with Americans of different races and social classes have combined with my research and personal experiences to lead me to the conclusion that it will be very difficult sailing ahead for race relations in America. New challenges present themselves which must be faced squarely if the optimistic vision for the future of America's race relations is ever to be realized. This final chapter consists of two distinct sets of recommendations. The first set is aimed at the improvement of American society overall and the creation of greater opportunities for disadvantaged and politically powerless citizens. The policy recommendations that I make here were developed to help address lingering inequalities in American society and to help spur a vigorous debate on issues of race, ethnicity, and public policy. Some of these recommendations, I know, will be dismissed by white conservatives as partaking of the same style of Great Society social activism that allegedly failed so miserably in the past. To such critics I can only say that not all forms of policy activism are doomed to failure and that we must try to do more in the future to help the most "truly disadvantaged" members of our society, especially when their continued distress threatens the peace and repose of the entire country. The second set of recommendations is aimed specifically at African-American leaders and intellectuals because I believe that they have a pivotal role to play if we are to avoid more serious racial strife in the future. Some of these recommendations may be controversial, and some blacks may criticize me for washing dirty linen in public. But I believe that the issues I raise here need a public airing, and that too many black leaders seem reluctant to acknowledge some of the very real problems that currently plague black communities, not all of which can be blamed on continuing white racism." Carol M. Swain is a Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University. A highly sought after political analyst and frequent commentator on race relations, immigration, black leadership, and evangelical politics, Swain is also an accomplished author of several popular books including her most recent book "Debating Immigration" (Cambridge University Press, 2007). You can follow Carol M. Swain on Twitter @CMSwain
 
Azberbaijan Scandal: Witness Tells Tangled Tale Of Bribery Top
MANHATTAN (CN) - A key witness in the case against investors accused of bribing officials of the government of Azerbaijan revealed details of the alleged scheme under questioning Monday. Hans Bodmer, a Swiss attorney, said he carried millions of dollars in suitcases across the globe, toured the Caspian region in one of the defendants' private jets, and participated in incriminating conversations with them at black-tie parties. More on Crime
 
Paul Szep: The Daily Szep -- A Best Friend Top
 
Sammy Sosa Tested Positive For Steroids In 2003: New York Times Top
Sammy Sosa, who joined with Mark McGwire in 1998 in a celebrated pursuit of baseball's single-season home run record, is among the players who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug in 2003, according to lawyers with knowledge of the drug-testing results from that year. More on Sports
 
Obama Warns Wall St. About Financial 'Abyss' Top
June 16 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama, warning Wall Street not to forget how it almost caused the financial system to collapse, said "sensible" new rules are needed to tighten oversight and restore confidence in U.S. markets. Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter ! More on Barack Obama
 
Paul Szep: The Daily Szep --Jobs Top
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The Real News: Revolutionary Guard in Charge Top
Massive protests as Revolutionary Guard consolidates power, likely to expand economic control. Paul Jay speaks to Babak Yektafar, Editor-in-Chief of washingtonprisom.org about the protests in reaction to the Iranian election results. Yektafar speaks of the power in Iran being in the hands of the Revolutionary Guard, and says that, "in the past five or six years we have seen a major step forward by this entity. They gained immense economic power... [and now] they've gotten more and more involved in the politics of the Islamic regime. They're extremely sensitive to guarding their interests." For further interviews or to contact Paul Jay, visit The Real News website . More on Iranian Election
 
Spencer Green: A True American Idol Top
In a digression from the world of media-cultivated celebrities, I now write about a gentleman worthy of the attention and adulation lavished upon the seemingly bottomless pit of manufactured "heroes," "rock stars," "icons," and assorted nonentities. His name is Dan Leslie Bowden, he is a teacher, and few of you have ever heard of him unless you attended Ransom Everglades, a high school in Miami, Florida. If you are still reading this and have not clicked over to Blogger #2145's latest Sarah Palin ambuscade, you may suspect this blog falls within the parameters of The Most Fascinating Person I Have Known or A Teacher Who Changed My Life and you would be right on both counts. I recently attended a celebration for Mr. Bowden--and, yes, he will forever be Mr. Bowden--that marked his 80th birthday and honored his 50-plus years of service at Ransom Everglades, where he continues to work and educate. In the school's gymnasium, administrators detailed the friendships they have forged with him; faculty members paid tribute to working alongside him; former students described the mixture of awe and dread with which they sat in his classes; and a variety of adjectives were used in noble attempts to describe someone who is instantly recognizable in manner and bearing yet quite elusive and mercurial in nature. A native of Georgia, Mr. Bowden's accent and booming, theatrical voice make themselves known blocks before he comes into view. He grips the hands and arms of friends and strangers alike, he jokes, cajoles, interrupts, provokes, digresses in thought and action. He, in short, marvelously is. I took Mr. Bowden's courses in poetry and AP English and can testify to the awe and dread that wafted through his classrooms. He was not a lovable kind of instructor, he did not tolerate foolish students (or teachers), he was often quick to anger and could launch into a tirade about the school's permission slips that was as long and as eloquent as any Shakespearean soliloquy. He was challenging, confounding and incapable of eliciting an apathetic response. (My defining memory of him remains the time he grabbed a student's chair, shook it, and yelled, "I like to use my students as props!") A character, then, the kind you imagine exists only in fiction made flesh and blood, communicating the excitement of learning, of knowledge, and the excitement of teaching. (And I still have slivers of "To His Coy Mistress" and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" in my head to prove it.) His annual reading of the Truman Capote short story "A Christmas Memory" has become something of an event at Ransom Everglades and at the Miami venues where he reads it, with people returning year after year to attend. A celebrity, then, in a small way (though Mr. Bowden would deny it, then half-heartedly acknowledge it, then deny it again), but one earned via genuine achievement and embraced with respect and admiration. Sitting in the gymnasium and listening to the cascades of praise and remembrances, I tried to calculate exactly how many people Mr. Bowden had taught in his career at Ransom Everglades--not including those outside the confines of the classroom which were and are many. The number would probably total several thousand, which may not seem like much in a span of 50 years, especially at a time when people can become famous, even revered, in a matter of hours as the result of a video posted online. But the process of teaching, that slow, painstaking process of feeding minds, opening and encouraging viewpoints--how rare, how difficult it is and with results just as difficult to measure. And in today's culture, where speed and the transitory nature of communication and occupations are not only valued but taken for granted, how many Dan Bowdens are there left? How many schools would allow such a person to make a similar mark on the young men and women there? And how many young men and women, in turn, are being inspired to wed themselves to that diligent path of education and enlightenment, whose rewards take years, decades to accrue? I have no idea but, at the very least, I can say that I am fortunate to have been one of the props in Mr. Bowden's class.
 
Kelley Bell-Wenzlaff: This Revolution Will be televised Top
Internet coverage of the election in Iran is sweeping the globe in spite of the Iranian governments attempts impose an international media blackout. This is one of the first large scale examples of the true power of global social media, and its ability to change the world. There is a saying in urban culture, "The revolution will not be televised", which first appeared on the 1970 album Small Talk at 125th and Lenox, by Scott-Heron. The phrase has since attached itself to pop culture in reference to the common political strategy to control the media in times of crisis. Just think "Good Morning Vietnam." In the film Robin Williams character Adrian Cronauer witnesses a bombing and rushes into the army radio station to report the story. He is stopped by the censors who say: "What do you think you're doing? You know you're forbidden to read anything not checked by this office." "What was there to check? I was there." "You know the rules, airman. If this is a legitimate news story, it must go through proper channels." "Look, tweedledee, it's an actual event." Cronauer replies while pointing to the blood stains on his shirt. "What do you think this came from? Shaving? It's the truth. I just want to report the truth. It'll be a nice change of pace." "This is not official news, airman. As far as I'm concerned, it didn't happen." Cronauer retaliates, "It did happen... What are you afraid of Dickerson? People might find out there's a war going on?" That of course, is exactly what Sergeant Dickerson and his Army censors were afraid of, and what all military tacticians know to be an important element of maintaining control. Censorship and propaganda are weapons as powerful as any bomb. All throughout history those in power have attempted to control the free flow of information, from the burning to the great libraries of Alexandria to the Iranian election of last week. Spin doctors are the NBA all stars of global politics. Press releases and newsfeeds from the top are manipulated to seem like they came from "the grass roots." The gatekeepers choose what goes into print and what appears on television, spinning it either right or left, based on the beliefs of editorial boards and people in power pulling the strings. Oh yes, that is not to say we lack dedicated and honest news people out there. Quite the contrary: They are legion. But any old time news hound will tell you, the walls of censorship do exist, and the fight to report unbiased truth is the eternal battle of ages. In the old days, a three channel television and a one newspaper town were common. The people took in what was spoon fed, and developed their opinions accordingly. But that has all changed. The Genie has been let out of the bottle. The post election riots in Iran this week are a perfect example. In spite of the fervent attempts of the Iranian Government to cut off the flow of information about the election protests, the people have pushed back. After the election, text messaging was blacked out in Iran, social networking sites like Facebook were shut off, cell phone and land line service became spotty, and satellites for major networks like the BBC were jammed, preventing newsfeed transmissions from getting out of the country. On Italian television station reported their interpreter was beaten by police while confiscating their video tapes. At least four reporters are known to have been arrested inside the country and the whereabouts of ten others are currently unaccounted for. But this time the media blackout did not work. The rise of the geeks has begun. Young tech savvy progressives are finding ways around every blockade, reporting first person accounts on blogs, Youtube and twitter, they are finding ways around the old guard attempts to control. They are circumventing downed networks, and uploading thousands of videos and pictures live from the scene. The gatekeepers no longer hold the keys. The uncensored voices on the internet are unstoppable, growing like a magic beanstalk, beyond any earthly means of control. Yes folks, this revolution will be televised. The people have spoken, and in the process, they are changing the global face of power forever. More on Twitter
 
CNBC's Erin Burnett Compares EFCA to Ahmadinejad Top
Hey, kids! Did you hear that CNBC's Erin Burnett made a broad comparison between the Employee Free Choice Act and what's going on in Iran? When I first heard that this fascinating and provocative comparison had been made, I said to myself, "Surely she said something like, "The Employee Free Choice Act, if passed, will allow would-be union members the opportunity to organize without the sort of brutal crackdowns and authoritarian intimidation associated with Iran's ruling mullahs and crazypants dictators." Then I figured Erin would wave a green flag in the air and start Twittering about it, because THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING. But, you know, what? No. This is not at all what happened! From The Plum Line, today : In February, after she was pilloried by liberals as "an apologist for Wall Street's worst practices," Burnett was forced to respond. Now Burnett suddenly seems to be in the soup again -- this time for comparing the Iranian elections to what would happen under the Employee Free Choice Act -- and she's getting bombarded by a plague of angry emails, courtesy of the Service Employees International Union. Burnett asked whether the situation in Iran "makes a strong point for this whole union conversation that we're having in this country?" The point being, of course, that EFCA's supposed elimination of the "secret ballot" for joining unions would be analogous to Iran. Yes, on CNBC, "card check" equals creeping Ahmadinejadism. This is the sort of perspective that can only be taken by those at a safe remove from the concerns of both American workers and Iranian reformers. Of course, traditionally, trade unionists fight dictatorships. Sen. John McCain, sizing up the events in Iran, recently compared it to the fight for democracy in Poland . Well, while we're talking analogies, here's a fun fact: The fight for democracy in Poland was led by a trade unionist named Lech Walesa. As you might expect, the SEIU has condemned Burnett's statements , citing "irresponsible journalism" and "reckless reporting." I think "appalling lack of perspective" covers it just as well. Here's a video of Burnett getting attaboys from the sage genius Jim Cramer for her heroic observation. As you'll see, their primary concern with the Iranian election is how it will effect the price of oil. I hope that the pro-reform protestors spare a thought for that as they are getting their heads beaten in, because, priorities! [WATCH] [Would you like to follow me on Twitter ? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here .] Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Jim Cramer
 
Frances Beinecke: New Film Captures Link between Imperiled Oceans and Climate Change Top
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/lsuatoni/acid_test_the_movie.html Last week President Obama called for a national ocean policy to protect critical marine ecosystems. At the same time, climate negotiators wrapped up a major international meeting in Bonn. These may seem like two unrelated events--one is about water, after all, and the other about air. But in fact, the global warming talks and the health of the oceans are deeply intertwined. A new film called ACID TEST powerfully illustrates the fateful connection between global warming and our oceans. ACID TEST will be featured on the Discovery Planet Green in August, and the channel just released a trailer for the film. You can watch it here . I am very proud of this film. It was co-directed by NRDC's Daniel Hinerfeld, and it is narrated by my college roommate and dear friend Sigourney Weaver. It also draws on the expertise of NRDC's Dr. Lisa Suatoni to explain what has only recently emerged as a serious threat. As Dr. Suatoni explained in a recent post, we have known for some time that oceans are like giant sponges that absorb carbon dioxide. Scientists used to think this was a good thing, since it reduced the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. But the pace and volume at which carbon dioxide is being pumped into the seas have grown so dramatically that the oceans are becoming overburdened. High carbon dioxide levels are changing the ocean's pH and making the water more acidic. As water becomes more acidic, it causes a drop in the amount of carbonate -- a key component of shells. When carbonate levels fall, it is more difficult for organisms to make their shells, which become thinner and more brittle. Corals will be especially hard-hit. Coral reefs are already suffering a death of a thousand cuts from pollution, warming temperatures, and overfishing. Many scientists worry that more acidic water will deliver the final blow that pushes corals into extinction. But a central thrust of ACID TEST is that solutions exist. Marine biologists have noticed that coral reefs undamaged by pollution and fishing are still thriving despite warmer water and lower pH levels. This means ocean life that remains healthy has a better chance of weathering the onslaught of global warming than species weakened by other environmental impacts. NRDC is pushing Congress to ensure that ocean protections are included in any global warming legislation it passes. We must act now to cut carbon dioxide emissions, which will protect all life on the planet, including in our vast oceans. And we must act now to convert to clean energy solutions. As Sigourney Weaver says in the film, "We can go on as we have, or we can move beyond fossil fuels. We have to choose." NRDC has also been pressing federal agencies for years to help revive ailing ocean ecosystems by halting overfishing, reducing pollution, and creating marine reserves--the equivalent of national parks in the oceans. The Presidential Memorandum Obama released last Friday could be an excellent start. You also have a role to play in protecting the world's oceans and their marine life. You can tell your representatives to pass the American Clean Energy and Security Act --a bill to reduce global warming pollution that will likely go to a vote in the next month or so. You can also click here to tell your representative to co-sponsor the Healthy Oceans Act. And don't forget to check with Planet Green about local air times for ACID TEST. This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog .
 
Alexis Maybank: How We Started a Viral Business Top
It is not every day that one gets to start up a business with a close friend of 14(+) years. Over the past 18 months, our start-up has grown from a small room of six people to a booming office of 200+ and counting. We have put in much of our own blood, sweat and tears into what has truly become an experience of a lifetime for us both. Here's a glimpse of where this wild ride all began and where we are today... October 31st, 2007, Halloween night- The evening before our official November 1st launch... We were a small but determined team of six people wholly dedicated to successfully launching our start up concept of Gilt Groupe. Our amazing engineers each pulled an all-nighter to make final tweaks to the code for our site before we would officially blast invitations across the country. November 1st, 2007, Gilt Groupe's membership launch- Show time. Over the course of the day, we sent out invitations to join Gilt Groupe to every single person we had ever met. Several tens of thousands of emails left our servers to sprinkle inboxes (and unfortunately spam filters) of potential Gilt Groupe customers throughout the United States. We were aiming to create a viral business model, but it depended on getting an initial critical mass of loyal style mavens to become members of our company. We thought that once they joined and hopefully quickly became obsessed with Gilt Groupe, they would in turn spread the word to all of their nearest and dearest. Fortunately, our friends -- fashionable, highly educated and tech savvy -- were the perfect demographic for Gilt Groupe, so it took almost no convincing to get them to join our website as members... membership was free... We promised to find our Gilt Groupies the very best brands, for unbeatable prices. Our platform also removed all of the stress of NY sample sale shopping. No lines... No getting strip searched... No crazy women grabbing shoes out of your hands... No sneaking out of work and faking a doctor's appointment. No being forced to pay with cash and running frantically to ATMs across the garment center... No nastiness... No damaged or shopworn merchandise... why wouldn't someone join Gilt Groupe? November 13th, 2007, Gilt Groupe's first sale- Zac Posen was our first sale on our site. We were so nervous. Would anyone buy anything? Even more important, would anyone visit the site during our 36 hour timeframe? In the 13 days that we ran our membership launch, we amassed approximately 15,000 registered Gilt Groupe members. Between the two of us, we knew almost all of these people -- they were our friends and the friends of our friends. We thought 9am seemed like a good start time for the sale because a lot of our NY friends would just be arriving in the office and could probably do some online browsing before their days got hectic. However, we didn't think about the West Coast... 6am over there. Painfully early! The morning of the sale, we were positioned to act as customer service. We did not know if our phones would be ringing off of the hook with questions from our members. Or perhaps our members would email us with their specific questions. Does a dress run particularly small? From what season was the merchandise? What if a top didn't fit, could it be returned? Was the product authentic? We were intimately familiar with the product since together we had hand-selected it in Zac Posen's showroom. As the sale went live, our engineers noticed a traffic spike on our site. Lo and behold, sales began to trickle in... Our first purchase was from state of Missouri! We were puzzled. How did someone on Missouri hear about us? Neither of us knew anyone there. It was our first sign that viral marketing works. Our next order came from zip code 90210. It was 6:05am in Beverly Hills! We couldn't believe that someone in California had woken up so early to shop from our site. The concept was working and after 8 hours, the Zac Posen sale sold out and we were elated. Today, 18 months later, we have truly experienced hyper growth during a time that has been trying for many businesses and we are so gratified to have been a part of every single step of the process. We changed our start of sale time to 12pm EST, friendlier for the West Coast. We now offer our members over 25 sales per week. We have over 1 million members in the US. We launched our business in Japan in February 2009. Our warehouse space has expanded from one small room to three bustling studios that are in constant use. It's gratifying to see how far we've come and thrilling to think how we will grow. Stay tuned for updates on our adventures, challenges and continued growth. For more, please visit PowerwomenTV.com More on Fashion
 
Iran's Competing Rallies Use Widely Different Tactics Top
TEHRAN -- With cellphone connections disrupted and SMS services shut off by the government, Mousavi demonstrators at the historic rallies in the capital passed the details of their next rally from person-to-person, by word of mouth: Tuesday, 5 p.m., at Vali Asr Square. More on Iranian Election
 
Daniel Blackman: You Can't Keep a Good Message Down Top
I've been amazed about the amount of news coming out of Tehran from the election protests. From following #iranelection, #Tehran or #moussavi on Twitter, it seems like social networks have been the leader over most news agencies in getting the word out. However, as the government has been cracking down on media and internet access inside Iran, it's important for these voices to still be heard. At Howcast, while working with movements from Iraq, Colombia and Sri Lanka who have all used social networks to protest against violent extremism during our Alliance of Youth Movements Summit, we created a series of videos based off their experiences, that we hope can help show people how to continue to use these networks even when they have been blocked. Learning How to Circumvent an Internet Proxy is something many Iranians are already doing, as images on flickr, tweets on Twitter and videos on YouTube are still leaking out. However, we hope that protesters in Iran and beyond can learn from the experiences of previous youth movemnets and continue to get their voices out and potentially galvanize change. To learn how to use social networks for change check out: http://www.howcast.com/playlists/2442-How-To-Use-Social-Movements-For-Change More on Press Freedom
 
Stephanie Gertler: Replica Top
Every Memorial Day weekend from the time I can remember, my mother packed us up for a summer rental -- usually a house near the sea, and for two summers to a 1932 pre-fabricated Sears Roebuck house in the "country." In 1971, she bought her own summer house. For me, the rentals were more exciting... magical somehow as we moved into a space that belonged to someone else and made it home. And there was always one locked room which, of course, held the special belongings of the owners (who were usually summering on Cape Cod or thereabouts), but for me it was all about mystery -- leaving much to my imagination. The houses were furnished, stocked with linens, dishes, pots and pans, and ramshackle. Their decors so different from the urban formality at home: over-stuffed sofas, canopy beds, hefty armoires, tattered rugs thrown on bare wood floors. In particular, I remember one summer room of mine with a pink canopy bed adjacent to a sun porch where I could watch the summer storms at night -- a safe distance from the lightning, but close enough for a thrill. Until recently, I never questioned my mother's intentions all those summers when her husband stayed in the city, taking the train out on Friday nights for the weekend. It was just what we did in summers, a part of my landscape, my childhood. It is only in the last months since my mother's death that I wonder why my mother, so opposed to living anywhere but Manhattan, felt it was so necessary to leave the city in summer. Her cousin Judy explained to me just weeks ago that it was my mother's desire to have me experience a different kind of life -- one with neither the regimen of sleep-away camp nor the worries that went along with navigating city streets and subways in the summers when most of my friends were away at camp or at their own summer homes. Perhaps it was also something endemic to those of my mother's generation who were somewhat affluent: a social statement to have families at the "seaside" or in the "country," although my mother was never one to follow societal mores, so I don't think that was it. Judy insists it was for purposes of lending a different perspective -- something I now believe to be true for both my mother as well as myself. Perhaps she, too, needed a respite, a hiatus, a different life -- and the summer gave her a good excuse. It never occurred to me during those summers if my mother was lonely without her husband during the week. Looking back, I have no idea what she did in the evenings when I was out with friends or holed up in my room with books and writing tablets and magazines. And, of course, as we barreled up on Memorial Day weekend and returned come Labor Day weekend, I never considered the effort it took on her part to pack the suitcases and boxes, making sure she had all my required summer reading, and generally transplanting our lives for three short months. This is the first summer I find myself waffling on spending summers in the city despite this June which has been far more redolent of April what with the cool air and the rain. A few weeks ago we entertained the idea of renting a small retreat for summer weekends, but financially it made little sense in terms of how often we would be there. Kind of pricey for simply weekends -- not to mention the distance we'd have to drive for a mere 48-hour respite. Somehow fighting weekend traffic felt counterproductive when the quest was for solitude, quiet, and peace of mind. If I stayed during the week without my husband as my mother did, I would miss him and feel lonesome. Of course, my mother stayed alone when her children were young -- that also opens up a series of questions. So many questions... Lately my heart reaches back to our old Victorian house in what was, in fact, a suburb but somehow felt like the "country" to me having grown up in New York City. The house was white, rambling and slanted as much as The Leaning Tower of Pisa, not at all like the cookie-cutter houses around us. The new owners have painted it orange with black shutters: It looks like an ode to Halloween. I want to knock on the door and ask 'how dare you?' It is the wraparound porch that I miss the most about the house -- of course, on second thought, it may not be the porch precisely, but rather the friendships that were forged, sealed, and continued on that porch. Once the weather warmed, Nancy, Ellen and I sat on wicker chairs drinking wine, talking, laughing, crying, complaining, comparing notes -- that's what I miss more than I wish I did lately. In winter, we moved ourselves upstairs to my office -- the place in the house that was "mine" -- where I worked, where I retreated, where I entertained my friends when it was "all girls," where my husband and I, and the children and I, had our "talks." But in winter, I often felt isolated when the snow socked us in and my husband donned a suit and headed to Manhattan while I put on sweat pants and went upstairs to my office. When we moved this past February, I made myself a home office that is almost an exact replica of the office I had in our old house -- right down to the wine red sofa that opens into a sleeper for company and the walls of books. The "feng shui" is nearly identical in terms of positioning the desk, paintings, photographs, knick-knacks. Like my old office, this one also fills with sunlight and rain audibly taps the window pane -- yet the urban sounds and scents are different: I have yet to be accustomed to the street noise -- jack hammers, the beeping of trucks as they back down the narrow streets, the noontime serenade of the man who stands on the corner asking for change, the angry honking of horns, the sirens. There is no sweet smell of fresh cut grass, no birds chirping, no sound of the gravel as cars pull into the driveway or, going back even further in time, the screech of the school bus brakes reminding me that my work day has come to an end and I've been at the desk for eight hours and time has flown. So, what exactly do I miss? That porch on hot summer nights. Those friends. How I could place a marble on the living room floor and it would roll downhill into the dining room. My mother. I feel myself channeling my mother, looking into myself as I look back upon her at roughly my age, understanding her better, and if not better, then making up stories that quell the need for understanding -- perhaps projecting, comforting myself with the notion that she and I might have been more alike that I would have thought back then. Wondering if maybe my mother rented those beach houses because as much of a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker as she was (although she moved to New York City when she was in her thirties) and as much I am, there is something about the sea and salt air that quiets the soul in summer. Neon and pavement are better in winter. Maybe it's all just as simple as that.
 
Bomb Squad Blasts Bible Top
LEAVENWORTH, Kan. — A bomb squad used a disrupter gun to blast a suspicious package left on the counter of the Leavenworth post office, but only a Bible was found inside. Police said the person who left the package on Friday night took off in a hurry and probably didn't put enough stamps on it to get it delivered. The woman to whom the package was sent to said she was expecting something from a relative who had been acting a little strange. But she had no idea what it was. The package and the Bible were taken as evidence. No injuries were reported. ___ Information from: Leavenworth Times, http://www.leavenworthtimes.com More on WTF
 
Women dine, dash and then crash into Detroit IHOP Top
DETROIT — Four women trying to skip out on their bill at an International House of Pancakes ended up plowing into the Detroit restaurant as they sped away. No one was injured in the accident Tuesday morning. Restaurant manager Raymond Jefferson told the Detroit Free Press the women ran from the IHOP just after 6 a.m. without paying their bill. Their server chased them out the door. But one of the women lost control of the Mercury Cougar as they drove away, crashing through the restaurant's wall and smashing at least one large window. The driver was ticketed at the scene. The driver's father told The Detroit News his daughter had more than $200 in cash on her at the time and was talked into dining and dashing by friends. More on Stupid Criminals
 
Harry Fuller: Global warming hitting home Top
Less than six months after Dick Cheney lost his power position in Washington D.C., federal scientists have re-gained their freedom of speech. Today a report by more than thirty tops federal researchers spells out just how bad global warming will get in the U.S. It isn't pretty. An average temperarture rise of ten degrees, possibly more. Kansas to have 120 days annually of 90 degree temps. Radical changes in rainfall and storm patterns. Here's a summary of the NOAA report. Greenpace quickly called for action to head off some of the avoidable effects. The report makes it clear that water will become more precious than even a stock portfolio. You can read NOAA's full report here. More on Climate Change
 
Jim Watkins: Jon Voight: "Bring An End" To This Dangerous Rhetoric Top
For me, it was the news consumption equivalent of a spit take: my full realization, days after the fact, of what exactly it was Jon Voight said at the Republican party's national fundraiser in Washington last week. I had heard that Voight, hosting the event, made the kinds of anti-Obama comments anyone with a pulse since January would have expected out of a GOP gathering, and I didn't delve into it much more deeply than that. But Frank Rich's column in the NYT on Sunday isolated a quote by Voight that elicited the aforementioned spit take: "Few if any mentioned, let alone questioned, the ominous script delivered by the actor Jon Voight with the G.O.P. imprimatur at that same event. Voight's devout wish was to 'bring an end to this false prophet Obama.'" I read the quote over and over; "....bring an end to this false prophet Obama." And then, dropping the modifiers: "...bring an end to....Obama." Notice, Voight didn't say "..bring an end to the administration of Obama," or "...bring an end to the policies of Obama." Nope. He called for the President of the United States himself to be brought to an end. How is one to interpret this? I'm going to assume Jon Voight wasn't standing before the cream of the mainstream Republican Party, such as it is today, calling for the assassination of Barack Obama. But coming as it did almost simultaneously with the murder of a guard at the Holocaust Museum at the hands of a Jew-baiting, Obama-hating white supremacist, and weeks after the cold blooded killing of an abortion provider at the hands of a anti-abortion zealot, how could Voight have even strayed into rhetorical territory that hinted at calling for the "end" of Barack Obama? Normally, it wouldn't make a smidgen of difference if an over-the-hill actor, four decades past his best work, tried to reclaim some time in the spotlight by issuing a pseudo-Biblical fatwa against the U.S President. Entertainers from both the right and the left spew their political thoughts constantly, and I would normally have no inclination to take Jon Voight's or Chuck Norris's words any more seriously than I've ever taken Barbra Streisand's. But while considering the source, you have to also consider Voight's audience: the top layer of the supposedly "loyal" opposition, taking in his words with apparent and complete approval. Again, I'm not saying Voight was calling for what it sounds like he was calling for. But I call upon journalists, bloggers, and others who find themselves in his company to ask for a clarification of exactly what he meant by "..bring an end to...Obama." If he doesn't answer them, maybe the Secret Service should start doing the asking. YOU CAN READ JIM'S DAILY BLOG AT WWW.WPIX.COM
 
Kaity Tong: If What Your Parents Feed You Doesn't Kill You, It Will Make You Stronger (Apologies to Nietzche!) Top
I don't know about you, but my head is spinning from all the studies that come out almost daily about how one food is good for your kids one day, and terrible for them the next. It's become a joke! Jim (my co-anchor) and I can barely keep a straight face half the time, honestly. It made me think of the kind of stuff my parents used to feed us. By today's standards, it's a miracle my brother and I are alive. And I don't believe our parents were TRYING to do us in. I remember coming home from a hard day of elementary school and my mother would take a slice of white Wonder bread, spread about a half-inch of butter all over it, and THEN spread a half-inch of white granulated sugar over THAT. She would then lovingly roll up this ticking time bomb, and FEED IT TO US! EVERY DAY! Thank the Lord for what we didn't know back then. And just like clockwork, my brother and I would end up getting yelled at for tearing up the living room or banging so hard on the piano the neighbors would complain. Now, we know why. Straight sugar like a shot of speed right into the system. But we sure didn't have a clue back then. I also developed an addiction to Pream. I think that's what it was called. Do they still make it? It's that powdered stuff like Cremora that you put into your coffee instead of milk. Well, when I was about 8 or so, I decided, for no particular reason, to take a teaspoon right out of the jar and eat it. I thought I'd never tasted anything so wonderful in my entire eight years of existence. It seemed heavenly to me, and yes, I shoveled spoonfuls of this stuff into my mouth till the jar was almost empty. God knows what it was made of. Certainly nothing that came from nature. My little brother told me I was going to get really sick or die. In either case, he was delighted to inform me I would end up in big trouble with Mom and Dad. But they didn't seem to notice, and every time they bought a new jar, half of it would mysteriously disappear. I must say my brother was a standup guy 'cause he never told on me. But then, HE had this unholy attraction to Spam. That, and those tiny vienna sausages that come all jammed together in little tins. My mother was a great cook. We're immigrants from China, so Chinese food is what we had at home most nights. Delicious, BUT those dishes were LOADED with MSG! Nowadays, we know to tell our Chinese takeout restaurant to hold the MSG because it does something not so nice to your brain or something. Anyway, you can get a hell of a headache. But not back then. Oh, no. First, a pure white sugar rollup, then MSG out the yin-yang! Hurray! Oh, and even though my mom always cooked our favorites dishes for dinner, things like twice-cooked pork, kung pao chicken, sauteed string beans...staples in a Chinese family's menu, every once in a while, our father would decide we needed to be introduced to the way Westerners eat. That was cool with us as long as it was burgers or shakes or something like that. But one day my father decided we needed to eat SALAD, because Americans ate a lot of salad and we should too. Only, HIS idea of a salad was to take an entire head of iceberg lettuce,, balance it on the wooden cutting board, then chop it into four equal parts, using the giant butccher knife like it was a samurai sword (gripping it above his head with both hands and making the appropriate martial arts yells as he slammed the weapon down. Okay I made that part up.), then put each portion on a plate. That wasn't the weird part. He would then put a HUGE dollop of mayonnaise on each wedge. With a little sprinkle of sugar. There's that sugar again. And he would make us eat it. Happily, his experiments into Western cuisine didn't go much further than that. We loved Howard Johnson's. That was a real treat. We were not allowed to have Coke or soda of any kind in our house, so when we WERE treated to such a beverage.....heaven. But the best was Little Tavern, Washington, D.C.'s version of White Castle. Those teeny-tiny burgers with sauteed onions. I am starting to salivate now! When it came to eating American, my brother and I were into Little Tavern sliders like Harold and Kumar are into White Castle. Again, I digress. Have to run now. Time for the newscast, and I'm fading. A tablespoon of sugar should do the trick. No problem. Anyone else out there with weird childhood eating adventures???? More on Food
 
Kimberly Krautter: The "Just Say NO-Bama Campaign": Part 1 - Where Have All the News Editors Gone? Top
This is an introductory installment of a series that will examine the crafty use of language in the political propaganda on the most important issues of our day and the news media's coverage of the public debate. Language is one of the richest forms of expression we have. Like any form of art, it can paint a picture as nearly true as an actual unretouched photo or one as incomprehensibly abstract as a Jackson Pollock. The explosion of media outlets in the Internet Age has enriched our use of language in the most crafty ways. At the same time, the pace of the news cycle has loosened once sacrosanct fact checks and editorial balances. Just as television reduced the news cycle from 24 hours to 6, and the Internet reduced it to hourly, Twitter is rapidly compressing it even further, to the minute. The cacophony of messages is deafening, with even the most vaunted media outlets reduced to "reporting the reporting" in an endless, "He said, she said and that's all we have time to say." Instead of reporters and editors confirming sources and analyzing the information to parse fact from innuendo and conjecture -- which takes time -- they seem to be giving up the ghost of old journalism rules. The public is therefore left to fend for itself when it comes to wading through the muck of propaganda, forced to rely on the (questionably reliable, mostly partisan) Blogosphere and Twitter to determine what is truth. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge fan of Blogs and of micro-blogs like Twitter. Duh! 'Nuff said [sic]. However, I am deeply concerned that the rules of engagement have been irresponsibly relaxed under the pressure to compete for the scoops, exclusives and gotcha-quotes-of-the-day, which media use as a key marketing tool to earn an audience and therefore advertisers. It seems that our "news" is little more than lightly filtered information. Whatever falls into the daily colander gets rinsed clean, packaged into a branded format and regurgitated to a hungry audience. This predominates on cable television news but is occurring with increasing frequency in the content of broadcast network news, radio news and -- worse -- the few newspapers that remain. Try this at home: How many times in the span of a broadcast or on a printed page does your news provider cite another news outlet's coverage of a topic? Or, how many times does the talking head say, "according to X organization" without any further substantiation for what is being presented, much less offer an opposing source or suggest that certain questions remain on the matter. Don't get me started on the dearth of follow-up questions! As a corporate communications strategist I can spot a pre-packaged video news release in a New York second, and I can tell you they are used now more than ever. It's pure laziness. Imagine if your child came home and tattletaled on another kid or a sibling. Do you take what he says as pure fact? Or do you ask him a few probing questions and then, depending on the seriousness of the matter, consult with another parent? Over the next few installments, this column will explore how the news organizations are repeating the propagandist terms like "Apology," "Socialism," "Racism," "Election fraud," etc. and therefore limiting and unfairly coloring public debate. Oh, and before anyone gets on a high horse, I'll be giving equal scrutiny to some lefty wing nut exploitation, too. Stay tuned. More on Barack Obama
 
Johann Hari: Does This Mean War between Israel and Iran Can Be Averted? Top
Are we witnessing an anti-1979 - a democratic uprising against the Ayatollahs by the grandchildren of the revolution? On the streets of Tehran, many of the massed millions are chanting: "We will die - but count our votes." The religious police are trying to teargas and truncheon this cry into submission, with the possibility of a Tehran Tiananmen hanging in the city's smog. But for today, the secret policemen are in panic, and the Ayatollahs are in retreat. The Iranian Revolution was, from its first gasps, a marriage between two incompatible urges: theocracy, and democracy. Only now are they two finally unravelling. The Shah - the torturing dictator installed, armed and adored by the C.I.A. - was overthrown by a chasm-wide coalition stretching from communists to Islamists. My parents lived in Iran at that time, and they remember the raw hatred of the Shah that was felt by bearded Mullahs and hijab-free feminists alike. Almost everybody rose up in 1979. But once the Shah was toppled, one wing of the revolution hijacked it. The Grand Ayatollah Khomeini installed himself as the Supreme Ruler, and started killing off the democratic wing of the revolution. But splinters of democracy remained in the constitution, like shards of glass after an explosion. Alongside the theocrats, there was an elected President and Parliament. For thirty years, the clerics have smothered these institutions, blocking most candidates from running, and - on the rare occasion when a reformist gets through - preventing him from changing much. But now that system has over-reached by blatantly falsifying the election results in order to keep their preferred candidate in power. The official results show Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh winning by huge margins in the strongholds of the opposition - Tehran and Tabriz. It's as if George Bush in 2000 claimed to have won not only in Palm Beach County but also in Massachusetts and San Francisco. As soon as the polls closed, Ahmadinejadh said he had won by 64 percent - precisely the amount that was later 'counted.' Either he has superhuman powers of prediction, or he had a role in the result. Inside Iran, shifting power from the clerics to the people would free millions of women. Today, a woman's testimony is worth half a man's in court. A woman can only inherit half as much as her brother. A woman invariably loses her children in a divorce case, and while she can be dumped in a second by her husband, if she wants a split, it can take up to a decade. The late surge to the reformist Mir-Hossein Mousavi was driven in large part by women enthused by his wife's call for an end to this vicious misogyny. But what about outside Iran? This uprising could avert the disastrous war between Israel and Iran that was looking increasingly probable until today. The leaderships of the two non-Arab countries in the Middle East have increasingly resembled each other as they embark on a long, dark tango towards bombing. With Benjamin Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman on one side and Ayatollah Khameini and Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh on the other, both countries are led by paranoid strongmen who are traumatised by their country's histories and scrambled by a political strain of post-traumatic stress disorder. We can't understand the mindset that is driving both sides - and could be about to change - unless we delve into the past. The current Iranian leaders' pursuit of enriched uranium is a response to a long history, too often scrubbed from Western textbooks. By the 1950s, Iran had developed a thriving democracy, and its people decided - rationally, correctly - to take control of its own oil and use the profits for its own people. The governments of the West ruled that this was unacceptable: it's our oil under their soil, dummy. So they toppled the democracy and installed a dictator. From 1953 to 1979, this dictator was paid by the Americans, Brits and friends to suppress the Iranian population and keep the petrol pumping. Khameini is one of the many people he jailed and tortured. When the Iranians rejected "our good friend", we paid for Saddam Hussein to attack their country using chemical weapons. Ahmadinejadh saw some of this mass slaughter - death toll: one million - as a young volunteer. That's why they feel nervous when they see US bases encircling them from Turkey to Afghanistan to Iraq. And that's why they want at least nuclear power and perhaps (although there are some doubts, even in the C.I.A.) nuclear weapons. We mustn't offer a second of excuses - but we should understand why they are acting this way. Meanwhile, Israel - with its own memory of its people being subject to near-annihilation in the gas chambers of Europe - sees something different. When they watch Ahmadinejadh inviting a jamboree of Jew-haters to Tehran for a deranged Holocaust denial conference, or hear his massed supporters chant for "death to Israel", they begin to suspect that Ahmadinejadh would use these weapons if he had them, and therefore they must bomb to stop him. There were, thankfully, always a number of flaws with this theory. If Ahmadinejadh and Khameini (whose finger would be on the button) are so determined to kill the Jews that they are prepared to kill themselves and everyone they know in a nuclear holocaust, why are the 30,000 Jews living in Iran alive and well? Wouldn't they start there? Hasn't Ahmadinejadh's disgusting Holocaust denial been attacked within Iran - by the man who probably just won the election? And if Israel bombed the more than 40 sites where Iran's nuclear programme is spread across the country, wouldn't they just kill many of the people marching against Ahamdinejadh today? Wouldn't this create support for a bigger, bolder nuclear programme tomorrow by vindicating the fears that Iran is left vulnerable to attack without the bomb? Yet it's not hard to see how each side has talked itself into a paranoia they can't back down from. Khameini and Ahmadinejadh won't let international inspectors in see their full programme, much less control it, pointing out that the CIA used information gathered by inspectors in Iraq to know where to bomb. Netanyahu, in turn, has convinced himself that Ahmadinejadh is an incarnation of the genocidal anti-Semitism that stalked Europe down the centuries. His rhetoric becomes as crazed as Ahmadinejadh's. When asked how he sees Iran, he replied: "Remember Amalek." The Amalekites are the primordial enemies of the Jews in the Torah. In 1 Samuel 15, God says, "Go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Irrational fear and tribal-religious manias are now driving both sides - and until this week, a violent show-down looked ever-more-likely. But the uprising in Iran offers a radically different route. If the Iranian political system can be made to bend to the will of the Iranian people, we will see there is a peaceful solution that has been waiting for us all along. The most detailed study of Iranian views - carried out by the independent Centre for Public Opinion - found that 94 percent of Iranians want nuclear power, and 52 percent want the nuclear bomb. But there's a crucial clause. More than 70 percent agree that if the US and EU offer a peace package where they guarantee there will be no invasion and instead bring aid and investment, they will let inspectors closely monitor their nuclear power programs and renounce nuclear weapons for good. This is a way out of the ratchet of fear. It averts a bombing campaign that would spread another bush-fire of mutual loathing through the world, and forestalls the risk of an endless Gazan Missile Crisis at the heart of the Middle East. It's not inconceivable that a deal could be struck with a weakened Ahmadinejadh still in power, but it would be far more likely under a reformist with the people at his back. But how can the Iranian people get there? It's plain what kind of Iran they want to build: some 70 percent of them want every position of power in their political system, including the Supreme Ayatollah, to be directly elected. They don't just want a rerun of this election: they want to expose the entire corrupt gerontocracy to election. The Islamic Republic would be dramatically reformed from within, without the wrenching risks of abolishing the entire system and starting again. The Mullahs won't go quietly. They may go down fighting. But the demographics ensure Ahmadinejadh's side will lose in the long-term. Another 70 percent of Iranians are under the age of thirty, and the vast majority are growing up in the cities, linked via Twitter and Facebook to a world beyond. They have developed huge subcultures of bloggers and rappers expressing their rage at the "morality police" who monitor their behaviour at every turn. While the hardcore Islamist constituency - the old and the rural - shrivels, the reformist constitutency is swelling. There's only so long you can suppress an angry, wired population much younger than you. I-Pods beat i-slamism in the end. But will they prevail before another Middle Eastern war born of irrational fear begins? Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here or here. You can email him at johann -at- johannhari.com
 
Ingrid Newkirk: Every Week There is More Reason to Feel Empathy for Animals Top
This week, Sir Paul McCartney and his daughter Stella introduced the concept of "Meat-Free Mondays," coincidentally the same name as that of a program that PETA Europe is also working on in British schools. As a vegan who was once busily eating her way through the animal kingdom, from mussels to calf's brains on toast, it's a message that I wish I'd heard far earlier, just as I wish that when I wore my first fur coat, there had been an animal rights activist there to hand me a card saying, "Your coat was stolen from its original owners." Thirty years ago, a good animal rights "nag" was hard to find. Some people had figured it out though. Back in 1977, a young man was charged with freeing a dolphin named Puka from a laboratory isolation tank in a university in Hawaii and releasing him into the ocean off Maui. The man said that he had been driven to this desperate act, which cost him his career, by the attitudes of those around him in the science lab where he worked. At his trial, the man said this: "I came to realize that these dolphins were just like me. I watched the psychiatrists tormenting them and I watched the dolphins sink into deep depression, cut off from all that was natural and all that they had loved and wanted. I could not stand my own inaction any longer. I will go to jail with sadness that the world does not yet understand what I do ..." In the decades between then and now, that understanding of who animals are has changed, in part thanks to pioneers like Dr. Jane Goodall, who reversed science's deliberate attempt to depersonalize animals by daring to name the chimpanzee families and individuals she studied in the Gombe; Jacques Cousteau, who introduced us to the undersea world of the incredible "aliens from inner space," the squid and octopus; to Biruté Galdikas, who showed us video footage of young orangutans making umbrellas out of leaves with which to shelter from the rain; and so on. And every week, there is more reason to feel empathy for animals. A couple of months ago, we were treated to news reports that crabs can remember pain inflicted on them, and a couple of weeks ago, we learned that crows will not only find a piece of wire or a bendable twig but also can gauge how long it should be and at what angle to bend it so as to extract food from a hole in a tree trunk or a jar. I was in England a couple of weeks ago and, reading the Sunday paper, came across a curious remark from a dog walker. Remember that, contrary to what Buddhists would have you believe, he said, a dog is just a dog--"he will never write a great book or compose a great symphony." I question whether that columnist will ever write a great book or compose a great symphony, but one thing I know for sure is that he will never detect a cancerous tumor with his nose, and he certainly wouldn't be able to find his way home over hundreds of miles without the benefit of a GPS, a map, a street sign or advice from another human being. Perhaps what separates humans from other animals is the desperate quest that our species has to find something that distinguishes us from the other animals. To add to Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along?" maybe the next question should be "Can't we all just see ourselves as one of many musicians in a vast orchestra, no more special than the others?" The place to start can be the breakfast table. As the philosopher Peter Singer said, "The way most people interact with animals is three times a day, when they eat them." Although more people are downloading PETA's free "Vegetarian Starter Kit" (at PETA.org) than ever before and vegan cookbooks are flying off the shelves, it is nevertheless a sorry reflection on the ability of most otherwise caring people that they can read an article about pigs' intelligence, a hen's fierce maternal protectiveness, or a lamb's natural playfulness but not connect it to the animals' terrifying and painful experience on factory farms, in transport trucks, and in slaughterhouses when they step up to the supermarket freezer case. The wonderful thing is that it's so incredibly easy to be kind. Today, I marvel at the vegan foods in the supermarket, at the cruelty-free clothing choices in stores, and at the fantastic alternatives to dissection in schools, the modern ways to test medicines without killing rabbits and beagles, the many forms of entertainment involving purely human performers. Every animal has his or her story, his or her thoughts, daydreams, and interests. All feel joy and love, pain and fear, as we now know beyond any shadow of a doubt. All deserve that the human animal afford them the respect of being cared for with great consideration for those interests or left in peace. The wish of that young man who freed the tormented dolphin 30-odd years ago is coming true: More and more people understand that animals have their own languages, their own music, their own culture, and their own lives and that they are, in all the important ways, "just like us."
 
"True Blood" Ratings: Season 2 Premiere HBO's Highest Broadcast Since "Sopranos" Top
HBO's second season premiere of "True Blood" earned a series record-setting 3.7 million viewers, making it was the most-watched program on the network since "The Sopranos" finale two years ago.
 
Human Rights Campaign Pulls Out Of Major DNC Fundraiser Top
It's over, folks. A lot of us have been saying that if the Human Rights Campaign, the largest gay civil rights group in Washington, were to pull its attendance from next week's DNC $1,000 a person gay fundraiser, then the fundraiser would effectively be dead. Well, HRC just pulled out as a result of the White House's homophobic DOMA brief in which they equated gay marriage to incest.
 
Jewish Dem Talking Points Link Obama To Bush On Settlements Top
Talking points, distributed by one of the nation's largest Jewish Democratic organizations, seek to improve perceptions of President Barack Obama's policies on Israel by, in part, painting them as a continuation of former President George W. Bush's policies. The Huffington Post obtained a copy of a brief that the National Jewish Democratic Council has sent to Jewish Democrats on the Hill, as well as prominent Jewish activists. In it, the organization stressed Obama's commitment to Israel's security, the continued strength of the U.S.-Israel relationship and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's praise for the president. The most interesting bit comes, however, when NJDC addresses recent Republican critiques of the White House's position on Israeli settlements: Obama wants a complete freeze on settlement activity including "natural growth" within the settlements. Though it is unusual for the organization to cite Bush favorably, NJDC does just that, arguing that the Obama administration is actually mimicking its predecessor's approach. Obama's critics seem to have a very short-term memory and forget that U.S. policy on settlements has essentially not changed from the previous George W. Bush administration. As evidence, the NJDC points to a May 2003 article in The Forward , in which it was reported that "the administration, from the president on down, continues to insist on a 'total freeze' on settlements, in accordance with the road map, and rejects Israel's insistence on continued expansion of the settlements within the limits of their 'natural growth.'" It sounds like a nice political rebuttal. In reality, however, the Obama-Bush comparison is a bit more complex. The former administration publicly called for a freeze in Israel's settlement activity, but made few, if any objections, when such activity continued. As for natural growth, reports have surfaced in recent weeks that there was a tacit agreement that Israeli families would be allowed to expand within their current homes. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has insisted that there is no proof such an arrangement ever existed. NJDC's disbursement of talking points comes at a time when the president's Republican opponents have begun attacking him more forcefully for downplaying the United States' special relationship with Israel. The group addresses this attack heads on, arguing that, "Obama has been crystal clear in his support for Israel and his rock-solid commitment to Israel's security as well." ( Read the talking points : here ) But the main rebuttal may be simply be a matter of pointing to recent staffing moves within the Obama White House. Ambassador Dennis Ross, a longtime Israel ally (and occasional hawk) is slated to move from the Iran portfolio to the National Security Council, giving him greater access to the president and better sway over administration policy. "The people around Obama have more pro-Israel credibility than Bush," said one Jewish Democrat, who noted Ross's ascendancy along with Chief of Staff's longstanding commitment to the Jewish State. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter!
 

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