Saturday, June 27, 2009

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Liz Cheney Reveals What's In Her Father's Book Top
For Liz Cheney, it's the project of a lifetime: working with her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney, on his still-untitled bio being published by Simon & Schuster's Threshold Editions. She gave us some insight on what the story she's helping to research and write will cover. More on Dick Cheney
 
David Wild: Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 2: Special Michael Jackson Edition Top
When we all heard the news on Thursday, I shared "Forever Came Today: Ten Songs By Which To Remember Michael Jackson." At the time, I focused on many of the more poignant songs that Jackson sang in his lifetime that seemed to somehow speak to that initial moment of loss. But now that a few days have passed, and the media is starting to focus on other elements of this story, I wanted to share my list of ten songs that immediately remind me of all the joy, the soul and the life that Michael Jackson brought to music at his best. After all, the Jackson family themselves have just asked fans not to "despair," so perhaps it's now okay for people to dance in Michael's memory. By coincidence, my eleven-year-old son was attending tennis camp this week right next to the hospital where Michael Jackson was declared dead. Like many his age, my son knew who Michael Jackson was, but perhaps mostly as some sort of pop cultural punch line. So on the way to camp the next morning, I played my kid some of my favorite Jackson songs, and he immediately said, "Wow, Dad, that's Michael Jackson!" Here are ten songs, all of which can still make his Dad think, wow, that's Michael Jackson! ABC -- The Jackson 5 If only everything educational were so funky. "DOCTOR MY EYES" -- The Jackson 5 Yes, Virginia, Michael Jackson and his brothers really could get people dancing to a Jackson Browne song. "DANCING MACHINE" -- The Jackson 5 A song so undeniable, the Brothers even got the crowd at my Bar Mitzvah moving. BLAME IT ON THE BOOGIE -- The Jacksons There's going to be a lot of talk about who's to blame here. None of that talk will make you feel as good as this song. "SHAKE YOUR BODY (DOWN TO THE GROUND)"-- The Jacksons Sonically this song helped set the stage for "Off The Wall," which in turn helped set the stage for everything that followed. "ROCK WITH YOU" -- Michael Jackson In the great Quincy Jones, Michael found a masterful collaborator with the musical knowledge to help him do anything he wanted to try. Here Michael helped forever capture in three minutes and twenty-three seconds what love and lust feels and sounds like. "DON'T STOP 'TILL YOU GET ENOUGH" -- Michael Jackson Disco was not a dirty word. Or at least it was a dirty word in the best sense. "WANNA BE STARTIN' SOMETHING" -- Michael Jackson The perfect way to begin a "Thriller" -- with a song about the desire to get something big going, and now. "BLACK OR WHITE" -- Michael Jackson Whatever else he did, Michael Jackson carried on that great Motown tradition of black and white people listening to the same great songs, even afterhe left the label. I still love that message - and that guitar riff too. "YOU ROCK MY WORLD" -- Michael Jackson Now that Michael has become omnipresent, I keep hearing this song from his last album "Invincible," which was by his standards a commercial disappointment, and liking it more and more. As it turned out, Michael Jackson was far from invincible, but he sure was good. What Jackson songs continue to rock your world? More on Michael Jackson
 
America's Most Expensive Homes Top
There's been a lot of denial among luxury homeowners. In 2006, it was thought that the luxury market wouldn't suffer the same fate as the broader market. A year later, high-end home buyers were thought to have endless, deep pockets, further insulating the top-tier from the cratering economy. As the nation's markets in 2008 went from bad to worse, some in the industry claimed that the dearth of trophy properties outstripped supply.
 
Frank Lombard, Duke Univ. Official, Charged In Child Sex Case Top
(AP) WASHINGTON - A Duke University official has been arrested and charged with offering his adopted 5-year-old son for sex. Frank Lombard, the school's associate director of the Center for Health Policy, was arrested after an Internet sting, according to the FBI's Washington field office and the city's police department. According to an affidavit by District of Columbia Police Det. Timothy Palchak, an unnamed informant facing charges in his own child sex case led authorities to Lombard. Authorities said that Lombard tried to persuade a person -- who he did not know was a police officer -- to travel to North Carolina to have sex with Lombard's child. The detective's affidavit charges Lombard identified himself online as "perv dad for fun," and says that in an online chat with the detective, Lombard said he had sexually molested his son, whom he adopted as an infant. The court papers say Lombard also invited the undercover detective to North Carolina to have sex with the young boy, and even suggested which hotel he should use. Lombard was charged in federal court in Washington with attempting to induce someone to cross state lines to engage in sex with a child. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Lombard's lawyer did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Michael Schoenfeld, vice president for public affairs at Duke, said Lombard has been employed with Duke University since 1999. He is now on unpaid administrative leave. "Duke is cooperating with the investigation," Schoenfeld said. He said the university was notified of the incident after Lombard was arrested. Authorities executed a search warrant Wednesday evening at Lombard's home, according to court documents. The papers show investigators seized two webcams, five computers and a sex toy, among other items.
 
Clyde Persley, California Man Working 3 Jobs, Wins $39M Lottery Top
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — A man who works three jobs to support his family _ including one as a limousine driver _ has won a $39 million jackpot in California's SuperLotto Plus. Clyde Persley, who is married with a 4-year-old daughter, turned in his winning ticket on Tuesday night and should get his first check for about $16 million in four to six weeks, said a California lottery spokeswoman. The 49-year-old Santa Cruz man operates candy-making machines for Santa Cruz Nutritionals, drives a limousine and picks up extra hours at a restaurant. He says his first moves will be taking his wife on a trip to Hawaii and hiring a financial adviser. He bought his winning ticket at a Santa Cruz market where he has played the lottery twice a week for several years. ___ Information from: Santa Cruz Sentinel, http://www.santacruzsentinel.com
 
Steve Kirsch: Climate Bill Ignores Our Biggest Clean Energy Source Top
Do you think our country's energy policy is in good hands now that the American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) climate bill has passed the House? I'm very worried and I think you should be too. Experts fret about balancing energy, environment, and the economy. But there is a way to have all three at the same time if we are willing to take a fresh look at an old technology. And that great solution is nowhere to be found in the ACES bill. First, let's start by assuming science of global warming is correct. We'll see later that we'd want to do exactly the same thing even if we didn't believe in global warming at all. To stop global warming, we must virtually eliminate the use of coal worldwide Dr. James Hansen, one of our nation's leading experts on global warming, is very clear about the necessary attributes of any solution: we must stop building new coal plants immediately and start retiring existing coal plants worldwide . If we cannot virtually eliminate coal worldwide within a couple of decades, then the sum total of all of our other efforts to reduce our carbon footprint will be like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The "worldwide" requirement is critical. The best way, and for all practical purposes, probably the only way, to get other countries to abandon coal is to give them a seemingly magical new technology that is lower cost than coal, with the same 24x7 baseline power reliability, but without the CO 2 emissions. Existing coal plants could be "upgraded" simply by replacing the "burner" with a the new technology. We invented a superior power generation technology in 1974, but killed it for political reasons in 1994 The good news is we have such a magical power technology. The big surprise is that it isn't new. It's old. It is a fast nuclear reactor known as the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) that was developed by a team of hundreds of scientists working for more than 20 years at our top government national laboratory for nuclear energy (Argonne National Laboratory, at its branches in Illinois and Idaho). The bad news is that the IFR development was abruptly canceled in its final stages in 1994. A decision was made in the early weeks of the Clinton administration by people who formerly worked for the oil and natural gas industry to cancel the project. The three reasons publicly given for canceling the program were all based on misconceptions . Since then we haven't done a damn thing to exploit their marvelous invention. The convenient solution invented at Argonne is simple: instead of spending billions to dispose of our nuclear waste, we can re-use that "waste" to generate power by using advanced "fourth generation" nuclear power technology. Using just our existing nuclear waste, we can power the entire planet for centuries. Our uranium "waste" is our biggest and most valuable energy resource Did you know that our uranium waste is our nation's #1 energy resource? In fact, just in the depleted uranium (DU) waste alone (the stuff left over after natural uranium has been enriched), we have more than 10 times the extractable energy than we have from coal in the ground! Using fast reactors (a type of fourth generation nuclear), we can make use of this "waste" and extract enough energy to power the entire planet (at the current usage rate) for 700 years. Yet the Department of Energy (DOE), due to an admitted lack of funds to properly study the problem, currently plans to spend $428 million to permanently get rid of the DU . Such an action would be as nonsensical as Saudi Arabia suddenly deciding to pay someone to destroy all their oil reserves! Hopefully, someone at DOE will stop this from happening. It is directly contrary to the recommendation of a National Academy of Sciences committee (specifically requested by the DOE in 1991 to study this issue) that fuel retrievability should be extended to a reasonable time (on the order of 100 years) to avoid foreclosing alternative fuel strategies that may be in the national interest. The IFR is superior to today's nuclear technology in every respect Fast reactor nuclear power designs, such as the IFR, are more than 100 times more efficient than our existing light water nuclear reactors (LWRs). The waste they produce is minimal, short-lived, and relatively easy to safely store: a factor of 500 less in space-time requirements than the waste from our existing nuclear reactors. If an American used nuclear power their entire life, they would produce enough nuclear waste to fill a soda can. The IFR is inherently safer than existing reactors: they can't melt down because the laws of physics prevent it. They are also objectively more resistant to use in weapons proliferation than existing reactors and also substantially more proliferation resistant than the far more expensive alternatives that we have already decided are perfectly safe (such as the $10 billion we are currently spending on the AREVA MOX plant in South Carolina). LWRs are very safe and the nuclear industry is one of the nation's safest working environments. It is safer to work at a nuclear power plant than in the manufacturing sector and even the real estate and financial sectors ! Yet, IFRs are better than LWRs in every aspect, including safety. Here are a few excerpts from emails from former Argonne Lab associate director Charles Till regarding the safety of IFR reactors: These [safety] effects are not theoretical or subject to informed challenge. They have been proven by full-scale experiments in the assemblage of fast reactor test facilities in Idaho by Argonne National Laboratory. The ultimate point is that no radioactivity will be released. Period. Under any circumstance. And under even very, very unlikely circumstances which would lead to a mess in other reactors, the IFR will not even incur damage. IFRs also meet the four requirements (transparency, security, waste, and proliferation) that President Obama recently laid out as a pre-requisite for using nuclear energy. Till pointed this out four years ago . Even though the initial capital costs of these plants are high, over the 60 year lifetime of the plants, they are a small fraction of the cost of generating power from renewables. Other countries are building fourth generation nuclear reactors Russia, China, and India are building fast nuclear reactors now and the French plan to begin construction in 2012 with completion by 2020. Japan plans to build a prototype fast reactor by 2025. Russians scientists independently found the same thing the scientists at Argonne have been saying for years : these plants are safer and less expensive to build and operate than existing nuclear plants and they solve the nuclear waste problem while providing a virtually inexhaustible power source. The Russians also realized a key point that the 2003 MIT report on the Future of Nuclear Power had missed: that if nuclear power grows faster than people think, large scale deployment of fast reactors will absolutely be required in as little as 25 years from now (see the first paragraph of BN-800 as a New Stage in the Development of Fast Sodium-Cooled Reactors ). In the US, the complexity of understanding the science combined with an abundance of misperception and misinformation has stalled any progress on fast nuclear technology Dr. Hansen and scientists at MIT are urging Obama to build fast reactors now. House Members Jerry McNerney (D-CA) and Judy Biggert (R-IL) agree. But what about Al Gore? The environmental groups? What do they think? The problem is that there is so much misinformation in the nuclear space and the science is so complicated that it takes a reasonably large investment of time to really understand what is going on so you can sort truth from fiction. Al Gore has looked at fast reactors, but hasn't taken a position on the issue and it's likely he never will. The top environmental groups have either been too busy to be briefed, have no nuclear expert on staff qualified to be briefed, or have already taken an anti-nuclear position before the briefing and have no interest in impartially weighing the facts. At the most recent Aspen Institute Energy Forum held March 25-28, the experts talked about how difficult tackling all three issues together: environment, economy, energy. Sure, I agree. It's difficult to impossible without the IFR. But the IFR enables us to solve all three simultaneously. But it wasn't brought up by anyone, even though the attendees acknowledged nuclear had to be part of the solution. This is a big problem that the "big thinker" experts assembled at Aspen seemed to be completely unaware of the world's best nuclear design. The former top civilian nuclear guy at DOE thinks we are nuts for not pursuing this technology Ray Hunter was Deputy Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology in the U.S. DOE. At the time of his retirement in 1998, he was the most knowledgeable senior person in the government on civilian reactor research and development. He spent more than 29 years in DOE and predecessor agencies working on developing advanced nuclear reactors for civilian nuclear power applications. He's seen it all. He's heard all the arguments from every side multiple times. His conclusions are the same as Hansen; he thinks it is a huge mistake that we are not pursuing the IFR technology we invented at Argonne. On December 23, 2008, Hunter wrote a letter to Senators Reid, McCain, Bingaman, and Mikulski explaining that before his retirement, he was the Director of the Office of Nuclear Energy at DOE and pointing out that "the energy content contained in LWR spent fuel and depleted uranium resulting from weapons production and enriched LWR new fuel production exceeds all the known oil reserves in the world." He pointed out that we have the technology to safely and securely harness that power and eliminate our nuclear waste at the same time. Hunter received no response to his letter; Senator Mikulski's office thanked him for sharing his thoughts but did not respond to any of his comments. But I don't blame these Senators at all. It's unlikely that any US Senator ever saw Hunter's letter; in each case, a staff person decided that his thoughts were not significant enough to bring to their Senator's attention. It's not clear that we can rely on the DOE to make the right decisions I recently wrote to the DOE offering to have the scientists who were directly involved in the IFR brief Secretary of Energy Chu on our most important source of energy. I received this email response from the DOE that a briefing was unnecessary as there are many people in DOE who are knowledgable about the IFR and that "the IFR definitely lives on." I said if that was true, then how it is possible that DOE wants to dispose of all the fuel that could be used to power these reactors? I received no response to my question. I then asked Hunter how could it be that both Secretary Chu and DOE are saying fast reactors are good, while at the same time announcing plans to destroy the material that could be used to power them. I received the following response: The main reason that nuclear energy development is so screwed up in DOE is that critical elements e.g. nonproliferation, waste, and nuclear R&D are in separate organizations all reporting to the Secretary. It requires real head knocking to integrate the pieces to have a rational program and there is no one in DOE sufficiently interested in nuclear to perform this task. The problem is made worse by individual budgets requested and approved by Congress. In addition, the waste issue encompasses both civilian and defense waste. For example the depleted uranium stored as uranium hexafluoride at Portsmith, Ohio; Paducah, Kentucky; and Qak Ridge, Tennessee is a result of enrichment for weapons and naval reactors, enrichment for LWR commercial reactors and enrichment for DOE and University test reactors. The nuclear energy program should have requested funds to retain all of the material in a safe store condition as a future resource as you suggested. Since the material is under the waste program, funding was requested from Congress to dispose of it. My guess is there wasn't any internal discussion on this matter. You might note from my resume that I had the assignment to address safety concerns about storage of the depleted uranium and an action planned was initiated to correct deficiencies and retain the material for possible future use. Steve, I don't know who you talked to or sent a letter to at DOE regarding the IFR, but the response you got is baloney. Sadly, many people now at DOE are content to not make any waves. They just do what they are told. The disenchantment with the DOE is not just from people inside the DOE, but the dysfunction inside the DOE is also negatively impacting the quality of talent at our national labs. I received this email from a scientist who spent 33 years at Argonne including 10 years working on the IFR: I was there at the birth of the IFR, in late 1983, and still there at the cancellation in 1994.My main beat was demonstration of the pyroprocess fuel cycle, which morphed into "EBR-II fuel treatment" post-1994. I was on the U. Chicago bid team which competed for the INL contract in 2004.When BEA wonthe contractand assumed command of the entire Idaho site in early 2005, ANL-W went away and was absorbed into INL.To this day most of the ANL-W people, and I think ALL of the key people who haven't retired or gone on, are very disenchanted with the inability to get much work done in the DOE environment. I could only take it as an INL employee for nine months. When, on a Friday in November 2005 the Vice-President for Research at Idaho State U. said "Mike, you ought to just end this. Come on over to ISU full time". I said I'd be there the following Monday. 33 years, and I resigned inan hour.It couldn't have worked out better for me. I'm able to close out my career working with young budding nuclear engineers andbuilding research programs. You asked about when the disenchantment began. I'd say around 1990. I think it was about then that the FBI rolled into Rocky Flats. Adm. James Watkins (retired, then DOE Secretary) became convinced that there was an inadequate "safety culture" in DOE facilities, and thus were spawned "Tiger Teams"-- composed of literally dozens of consultants who would descend on a major facility for two weeks. Months of preparations went into their much-feared visit. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. All sorts of new DOE orders related to safety, environment, and QA began to appear. The workplace became so highly
 
Supreme Court To Decide Final 3 Cases On Monday Top
WASHINGTON — A closely watched discrimination lawsuit by white firefighters who say they have unfairly been denied promotions is one of three remaining Supreme Court cases awaiting resolution Monday. The court intends to finish its work for the summer that day, Chief Justice John Roberts said. The court also will say goodbye to Justice David Souter who has announced he will retire "when the court rises for the summer recess." Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to take Souter's place, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that officials in New Haven, Conn., acted properly in throwing out firefighters' promotions exams because of racially skewed results. The city says it decided not to use the test scores to determine promotions because it might have been vulnerable to claims the exam had a "disparate impact" on minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The white firefighters said the decision violated the same law's prohibition on intentional discrimination. The opinion that Sotomayor endorsed has been criticized as a cursory look at a tough issue. Among the critics are fellow judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Her defenders have said the short opinion properly applied earlier cases from that appeals court. The outcome of the case could alter how employers in both the public and private sectors make job-related decisions. The other two unsettled cases involve campaign finance law and states' ability to investigate alleged discrimination in lending by national banks. The court is considering whether a movie that was critical of Hillary Rodham Clinton during her presidential campaign should be regulated as a campaign ad. The scathing 90-minute documentary about the former New York senator and current secretary of state was made by a conservative group. It wanted to air television ads in important Democratic primary states and makes the movie available to cable subscribers on demand, without complying with federal campaign finance law. The Federal Election Commission and a lower court in Washington have said the not-for-profit group, Citizens United, must abide by campaign finance restrictions. The high court's conservative justices appeared especially skeptical of that view when the case was argued in March. In the dispute over investigating national banks, the Obama administration says federal law prohibits states from looking at the lending practices of those banks, even under state anti-discrimination laws. Federal courts have so far blocked an investigation begun by New York, which is backed by the other 49 states, of whether minorities were being charged higher interest rates on home mortgage loans by national banks with branches in New York. President Barack Obama's proposed overhaul of financial regulation could make the outcome of the case less important. The proposal would create a consumer protection office and states would be empowered to enforce their own laws, with some degree of coordination with the new federal agency. In addition to the three pending decisions, the court also is expected to announce whether it will hear several important cases in its term that begins in October. Among those cases are: _A plea by victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to reinstate a lawsuit against Saudi Arabia and several Saudi princes over charitable donations that allegedly were funneled to al-Qaida. _A request by Chinese Muslims who continue to be held at Guantanamo Bay that the court put teeth into last year's ruling granting detainees some rights by allowing a judge to order their release into the United States. The 13 Uighurs who remain at the U.S. naval base in Cuba may be sent to the tiny Pacific nation of Palau, a move that probably would end their court case. _A bid by convicted cop killer Troy Davis of Georgia to get a new court hearing so that he can present evidence suggesting his innocence. Seven of nine key witnesses against Davis have recanted their earlier testimony, but state and federal courts have so far refused to order a new hearing. Once their work is done, four justices are heading to Europe for teaching gigs. Roberts will be in Galway, Ireland. Justice Samuel Alito will travel to Innsbruck, Austria. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is heading to Rome. Justice Anthony Kennedy will spend July in Salzburg, Austria, for the 20th straight year. In keeping with his practice of shunning the spotlight, Souter is expected to return to his home in New Hampshire with little fanfare. ___ On the Net: Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ More on Supreme Court
 
Porsche Accuses Volkswagen Of Extortion Top
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Porsche accused Volkswagen and its key shareholder Lower Saxony of extortion following a magazine report that VW and the regional state had demanded Porsche accept a tie-up of the two carmakers with VW in charge.
 
Francine Hardaway: Economies of Scale in Health Care Reform Top
I've been listening avidly to all the different points of view about health care reform, and the only conclusion I've come to is that almost anything is better than what we have. On Bloomberg the other day, I heard a call for a systemic approach to the practice of medicine from Dr. Eliot Fisher, Director of the Center for Health Policy at Dartmouth. He said there are always better outcomes where groups of doctors collaborate and practice together, as in the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, or even less renowned group practices such as in Grand Junction, Colo. The efficiencies come when a group of physicians are all responsible for a patient's continuity of care, and when they share information such as that possible with electronic health records (EHRs). Dartmouth has studies that show these kinds of group practices cut costs, and yet we have relatively few of them in the US. Most physicians still practice in groups of four or less, usually four of the same specialty. And fewer than 20% of these small practices have EHRs. In fact, in Arizona, where EHR adoption took off after Gov. Janet Napolitano mandated it, another article just said doctors who had EHRs were abandoning them because they were costly to support and impossible to learn. Your basic family practice guy or pediatrician, practicing what the docs call "Hamster Medicine," where he/she has to see 60 patients a day for five minutes each just to support his office, does not have the time or money to shut the office down to train people on an EHR. So I dread what will happen when these small practices are forced to implement a complex EHR like GE Centricity, which is both the market leader and the product with the worst user interface. GE has already started a lobbying campaign on behalf of its product, part of which consists of interest-free loans to physicians to install it. The learning curve for Centricity is steep, especially for the bi-lingual staff of many medical offices, where wages are low and turnover is rampant. I have a physician friend who wrote an EHR himself, and then left that product with his old practice (where they love it) to move to another state. There, he found a group that had chosen Centricity not just for the single group, but for the entire region -- and nobody could use it! They had abandoned entire parts of it because no one knew how it worked. That's shameful. That won't lower costs. Lower costs will only come from software that works like Amazon.com or Yahoo -- interfaces that make it simple for users to pile in mountains of data without even realizing they're doing it. And to keep the costs down and the learning curve short, the data should be kept in the cloud. This is, of course, horrifying to the privacy advocates, who have never run a medical office. Well I have, and I can tell you that when the doctor's fax machine is overflowing with test results, they spill out on to the office floor or sit there in a pile, and anyone walking by can see them, until some harried front office person collects them and (perhaps) misfiles them in the wrong patient folder. How do I know this? Because not only have I run a medical office, but I helped a group practice install an EHR, and one of their "pain" points and biggest reasons for going electronic was the loss of patient records due to misfiling or non-filing. What other business runs as inefficiently as a medical office? None. What other business is more dependent on paper? None. What other business could become 1/16 of the American economy without being forced into business process automation? None. But forcing EHRs down the throats of sole practitioners isn't the answer to reigning in costs. Collaboration is. Collaboration is also the answer to many medical errors and misdiagnoses. I'm not saying that we should "crowdsource" the practice of medicine-although that's happening through various online Health 2.0 sites that consumers rely on when they have insufficient access to care -- but I am saying it might be time to streamline these small practices, put them in groups, and allow them to talk to each other over lunch about the same patient. That way I wouldn't have to tell my internist what my cardiologist said, or wait for the cardiologist to fax over my results to him. Any kind of information exchange would help. And
 
Will The Washington Post Survive? Top
Washington Post ombudsman Andy Alexander's column on Dan Froomkin ends with the observation that "With his loyal followers, he'll survive. So will The Post." I'm not certain that the Post won't survive, but like Brad DeLong I don't think it makes a ton of sense for Post employees to be that confident that the paper will survive either. More on Newspapers
 
Vamsee Juluri: Michael Jackson and the Dawn of Global India Top
Rock may have smashed the iron curtain, but it was just the moonwalk that did it for India. My generation came of age during the last years of the Nehruvian era. Among other things, what this meant was that Western pop culture was barely affordable or accessible to most Indians. We had one television channel, the government-run Doordarshan, which aired in most cities for a couple of hours each day. Foreign programs were very rare. And when Michael Jackson's videos suddenly showed up one night on Doordarshan on a music-video program called Hot Tracks, it was not only a stunning experience, but also turned out to be part of a moment that heralded many changes to come. "Beat it" was to our generation in India what "Video Killed the Radio Star" was to our MTV-watching American cohorts of the 1980s. It was the first music video that we ever saw. The Grammies, and Live Aid, a little later, were the equivalent to us of what the 1969 moon landing was in some ways for America; it was one of the first occasions on which we felt part of a global media event. But the coming of Michael Jackson to Indian television was also the equivalent, for good or for bad, of the empty bottle of cola that falls from a plane into a remote African village in the movie The Gods Must be Crazy. Michael Jackson was not just a pop star for us; he represented the world beyond India we had only heard about as well as the possibility of catching up with it. Michael Jackson was the first symbol of aspiration for a generation that went from denial to obsession about it almost overnight. In the 1980s, bootleg VHS copies of Thriller went from home to home, even as we sought to work hard and study and buy into the first signs of consumerism that had started to appear. By the 1990s, with economic liberalization and the rise of satellite television channels like MTV India and Channel V, Michael Jackson, his music, image, and charisma all became a part of India, like globalization itself, culminating in his 1996 Mumbai concert and his now poignantly never-to-be promise to return . To me, Michael Jackson will remain a part of a generational experience of globalization, but his accomplishments in India certainly go beyond that. In some ways, Michael Jackson was perhaps the most famous non-cricketing foreign celebrity Indians have known. Unlike other Western singers, Michael's fame went far beyond the English-educated urban middle classes. To this day, Michael Jackson is the one pop star that even working class, non English-speaking Indians have heard about, and whose music plays in the most unexpected places where English music is seldom heard. And if we consider his influence on and through India's truly popular mass medium, its cinema , we can see how widespread his resonance was. Just as how Michael Jackson's fame traveled across national and class barriers, we saw talent and success flowing across regional and language barriers in India during the 1990s. After all, it was with artists like A.R. Rahman and Prabhu Deva , "India's Michael Jackson," that we saw members from the South Indian regional film industries achieving national recognition as well. Despite, or perhaps because of the wave of nostalgia that his death inevitably has provoked for those of us who grew up in the pre-liberalization India of the 1980s, it may be easy to lose sight of what he really meant. To be honest, I was never a fan then. Some of us fancied ourselves on one side of a high school cerebral class divide that pitted Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd against Michael Jackson and Madonna. I believed then that pop was all image and moves and rather shallow for having none of the honest angst and depth that Bob Dylan and John Lennon expressed. Like Bollywood perhaps. But in some ways, when one is duly angsted-out, the world of Michael Jackson's music, once again like Bollywood, perhaps, does appear for what it is. It was happiness. It was a part of our lives, and now forever associated with people and places that are gone. It was there in the first fast-food and ice-cream hang-outs of 1980s India. It was there in the big 2-in-1 tape recorders people brought home from abroad and in the first shops that sold branded jeans. It was there in the first (and few) auto-rickshaws that were fitted with stereos. It was there when friends chanted themselves into a frenzy with "Beat it" to solve tough math problems. It was there when we wondered where we would go after school, and where India would go too. And in my reckless sentimentality fed on TV mourning now, it is hard not to see the passing of Michael Jackson as part of the passing of a world that was, like the great rocks of my hometown Hyderabad before they got blasted into oblivion. We are in a story that has suddenly lost one of its most iconic signs of how it began. More on Michael Jackson
 
Steve Martin: My Attempt At Moonwalking (VIDEO) Top
As a dancer, Michael Jackson was great. He was like Fred Astaire. This video, a parody of the "Billie Jean" video, was done for "The New Show," which was a prime-time NBC program that Lorne Michaels did in 1983-1984, when he wasn't producing "Saturday Night Live." More on Michael Jackson
 
Chris Rodda: MRFF Demands DoD Revoke Authority of Chaplain Endorser Who Suggested Democrats Should Be Executed Top
As I wrote back in May , the antics of disgraced former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, and his retaliation against the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, after the two organizations issued a joint letter to the Chief of Naval Operations requesting an investigation of his use of his image in uniform to solicit funds for political causes, led MRFF to take a closer look at Klingenschmitt's endorser, the Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC) and its leader, retired Army colonel Jim Ammerman. What we found was astounding, and led to a decision by MRFF to formally demand that Ammerman, whose agency provides the ecclesiastical endorsements required by the Department of Defense for over 270 military chaplains and chaplain candidates, be stripped of the authority granted to him and his organization by the DoD to endorse military chaplains. MRFF's letter to the Secretary of Defense, copied to numerous other government and DoD officials, went out on June 24, accompanied by a 55-page package of enclosures supporting the four separate reasons that Ammerman's authority must be revoked. Included among these enclosures is a 1997 memorandum from a three-star general calling for an investigation of Ammerman and CFGC at that time. This memorandum includes nine pages of excerpts from Ammerman's radio appearances and Prophecy Club video, "Imminent Military Takeover of the U.S.A.," a video circulated among militia groups. Ammerman's statements included everything from saying that Bill Clinton (president at the time the video was released) should have been executed to inciting the militia types by making claims that his chaplains were reporting back to him that they had inside information that the U.S. military was preparing to attack U.S. cities and claiming inside information from other sources indicating an imminent threat of the United States being placed under martial law. Unbelievably, as Kathryn Joyce reported in her recent Newsweek.com article , "Christian Soldiers: The growing controversy over military chaplains using the armed forces to spread the Word," the outcome of this 1997 investigation was that the DoD found Ammerman's statements to be within the bounds of free speech, and Ammerman retained his authority as a DoD authorized chaplain endorser. Updating the list of excerpts from the 1997 memorandum is a list of more recent quotes from Ammerman, recent CFGC chaplain newsletters, and statements made by Ammerman's protégé, current CFGC chaplain Army Major James Linzey, including an excerpt from a CFGC newsletter suggesting that the four democratic senators who were candidates for president in the 2008 election, including, of course, Barack Obama, should be arrested and executed for voting against making English the official language of the United States. Here is the letter sent by MRFF to the Secretary of Defense: June 24, 2009 Hon. Dr. Robert M. Gates Secretary of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301-1000 Secretary Gates, It has recently come to the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that an ecclesiastical endorsing agency authorized by the DoD to approve chaplains for military service has continually been in flagrant violation of a number of DoD regulations, the U.S. Code, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and the United States Constitution for well over a decade. 1. The Chaplaincy of Full Gospel Churches (CFGC), headed by retired Army Col. E.H. Jim Ammerman, which, according to its website, currently has over 270 chaplains and chaplain candidates in all branches of the military, habitually denigrates all religions and religious denominations except Charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity. This denigration, which includes virulently anti-semitic and Islamophobic statements, as well as the deprecation of Catholicism and mainstream Protestantism, occurs in the CFGC's chaplain newsletters, as well as in the speeches, media appearances, and videos of both Mr. Ammerman and a currently serving CFGC chaplain, Army Maj. James F. Linzey. (See attached enclosures for numerous specific examples of these disparaging statements.) 2. Both Mr. Ammerman and Maj. Linzey have made numerous statements against the government of the United States and certain government officials and departments, promoted civilian militia movements, and disseminated many conspiracy theories in an attempt to foment disloyalty to the government of the the United States among both civilians and military personnel. This type of activity has previously led to an investigation of Ammerman and CFGC, called for by Air Force Lt. Gen. Normand Lezy in 1997. (See enclosed memorandum.) DoD Directive Number 1325.6, "Guidelines for Handling Dissident and Protest Activities Among Members of the Armed Forces," cited in Lt. Gen. Lezy's 1997 memorandum, states that "Military personnel must reject participation in organizations that espouse supremacist causes." The Prophecy Club, an organization for which both Mr. Ammerman and Maj. Linzey have made videos, unquestionably espouses a supremacist cause. In addition, various statements made by both Mr. Ammerman and Maj. Linzey in their Prophecy Club videos, as well as in other forums, such as radio appearances and speeches, incontrovertibly violate one or more of the following statutory provisions found in Enclosure E1.2 of DoD Directive Number 1325.6. E1.2. STATUTORY PROVISIONS E1.2.1. Applicable to All Persons E1.2.1.2. Section 2385 -- Advocating overthrow of the Government. E1.2.1.3. Section 2387 -- Counseling insubordination , disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty. E1.2.2. Applicable to Members of the Armed Forces E1.2.2.5. Section 888 (Article 88, UCMJ) -- Contemptuous words by commissioned officers against certain officials. E1.2.2.9. Section 934 (Article 134, UCMJ) -- Uttering disloyal statement, criminal libel, communicating a threat, and soliciting another to commit an offense. 3. According to the definition of a "Religious Organization" found in DoD Directive Number 1304.19, "Guidance for the Appointment of Chaplains for the Military Departments," CFGC is not eligible to be authorized as an ecclesiastical endorser. CFGC is not an "entity that is organized and functions primarily to perform religious ministries to a non-military lay constituency." CFGC, which is operated out of a house located in a residential neighborhood of Dallas, Texas zoned for single family homes, did not have a "non-military lay constituency" at the time of its founding, but was founded for the sole purpose of endorsing chaplains, and this continues to be its primary purpose to this day. 4. In a clear and blatant violation of CENTCOM's General Order 1-A, which absolutely prohibits the proselytizing of any religion, faith or practice in Iraq and/or Afghanistan, a network of forty CFGC chaplains has engaged in the organized distribution in Iraq of Arabic language Bibles and other Arabic language fundamentalist Christian evangelizing materials to the Iraqi people. The violation of this explicitly prohibited activity by these forty CFGC chaplains was initiated, encouraged, and aided by Mr. Ammerman. (See enclosed Newsweek article and other enclosures.) Given CFGC's and Mr. Ammerman's multiple, habitual, and ongoing violations of military regulations, the U.S. Code, and the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and Mr. Ammerman's encouragement, aiding, and abetting of the chaplains he oversees in their violations of these regulations and the United States Constitution that they swore an oath to uphold, MRFF demands the immediate revocation of CFGC's ecclesiastical endorsing authority. Furthermore, MRFF demands an aggressive investigation to identify and swiftly punish all CFGC chaplains and any other enabling DoD military or civilian personnel involved in any of the aforementioned violations of military regulations and/or the U.S. Code. Michael L. "Mikey" Weinstein, Esq. Founder & President Military Religious Freedom Foundation www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org Enclosure CC: President Barack Obama Pete Geren - Secretary of the Army Ray Mabus - Secretary of the Navy Michael B. Donley - Secretary of the Air Force Admiral Michael Mullen - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General James E. Cartwright - Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General George W. Casey, Jr. - Chief of Staff of the United States Army Admiral Gary Roughead - Chief of Naval Operations General Norton A. Schwartz - Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force General James T. Conway - Commandant of the Marine Corps Carl Levin - Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Ike Skelton - Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Armed Services Executive Director of the Armed Forces Chaplains Board Gail H. McGinn - Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Pedro L. Irigonegaray, Esq. - Law Offices of Irigonegaray & Associates Robert V. Eye, Esq. - Law Offices of Kaufman & Eye The entire package of enclosures sent with this letter can be viewed on the MRFF website . In addition to the items and articles mentioned above, the package contains articles by Bruce Wilson and Talk to Action contributor Ruth , both of whom volunteered many hours to help MRFF in its investigation of Ammerman and Maj. Linzey, and whose tireless efforts over the last two months, and continuing exposure of the many aspects of this story, are greatly appreciated.
 
Janet Jackson And Moving Trucks At Michael Jackson's LA Home Top
LOS ANGELES — Janet Jackson is at her brother Michael Jackson's home in Los Angeles where moving vans arrived earlier in the day. Janet Jackson, wearing dark glasses, drove up in a Bentley and went directly through the gates to the Holmby Hills estate. About eight movers took dollies and packing equipment through the gates. It wasn't immediately known what was being taken out. More on Michael Jackson
 
Bradley Cooper: Jennifer Aniston "Just A Friend" Top
In a more serious vein, Cooper, 34, said of Aniston (in French, which he speaks fluently from his 1996 exchange-student days): "She's a friend of mine. Simply, simply, just a friend." More on Jennifer Aniston
 
Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's Doctor, Hires A Lawyer Top
LOS ANGELES — Elvis had one. So did Anna Nicole Smith and Marilyn Monroe. They are the doctors who cater to celebrities, dispensing powerful painkillers and sedatives to some of Hollywood's best-known entertainers. Now, as police investigate Michael Jackson's sudden death, questions are swirling around the King of Pop's personal cardiologist _ and any other doctors who may have cared for the superstar in his final days. Dr. Conrad Murray had apparently been living with Jackson for about two weeks and was with him when he stopped breathing Thursday. The doctor reportedly performed CPR until paramedics arrived. An ambulance crew worked on Jackson at his home for 42 minutes before rushing him to UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The cardiologist has hired a Houston-based law firm, and on Saturday, an attorney there said he was cooperating. "Dr. Murray has never left L.A. since Mr. Jackson's death, and he remains there. Investigators have indicated Dr. Murray is considered a witness and is not in any way a target of any kind," William M. Stradley told The Associated Press. He said his colleague was meeting with investigators on Saturday. Also on Saturday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said the singer's family wants a private autopsy because of unanswered questions about how he died and about Murray. And Jackson's longtime friend Deepak Chopra said he's been concerned since 2005 that physicians were overmedicating the singer. The suspicions of Jackson's friends and family fit into a long-standing pattern of celebrity doctors becoming entangled in death investigations involving prescription drugs. Doctors can become enchanted by the glamour of the celebrity lifestyle and may find it hard to refuse potent painkillers for their clients because of their wealth and power. "It's a big issue with people who are used to getting what they want. And if someone says no, they can pay someone else to get what they want," said Karen Sternheimer, a sociologist at the University of Southern California who is writing a book on social problems and celebrity culture. "The physician is not immune to that heady feeling of being in a celebrity's inner circle." In other instances, the doctors themselves may have questionable pasts or significant debts, and caring for a celebrity allows them to make large amounts of money, said Julie Albright, a sociologist at the University of Southern California. "Some of these people might not be the most successful doctors, so the money will also buy their complicity in fueling a drug habit," said Albright, who was speaking generally and not specifically about Murray. Records reveal years of financial troubles for Murray, a 1989 graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville who practices medicine in California, Nevada and Texas. Over the last 18 months, Murray's Nevada medical practice, Global Cardiovascular Associates, has been slapped with more than $400,000 in court judgments: $228,000 to Citicorp Vendor Finance Inc., $71,000 to an education loan company and $135,000 to a leasing company. He faces at least two other pending cases. Court records show Murray was hit last December with a nearly $3,700 judgment for failure to pay child support in San Diego, and had his wages garnished the same month for almost $1,500 by a credit card company. Another credit card claim for more than $1,100 filed in April remains open. He also owes $940 in fines and penalties for driving with an expired license plate and for not having proof of insurance in 2000. Best-selling author Deepak Chopra, a longtime friend of Michael Jackson and a licensed medical doctor, said he first became concerned about the pop star's prescription drug use in 2005, when Jackson visited him shortly after his trial on sex abuse allegations. Chopra said Jackson asked him to prescribe painkillers and already had a bottle of OxyContin. "I was kind of a bit alarmed. I said, 'Why are you taking that. You don't need that,' and then I started to probe a little further, and after I grilled him a little bit, he admitted he was getting them from a bunch of doctors," Chopra said. Chopra said he refused to prescribe the medicine, but over the next four years the nanny of Jackson's children would periodically call to say that a parade of doctors was coming to his homes in Santa Barbara County, Los Angeles, Miami and New York City. She told Chopra she felt they were overmedicating him, and one time she even tried to stage an intervention with Chopra's help, he said. Each time, Jackson would discover the nanny's calls and then shut himself off from Chopra to avoid discussing the issue, he said. Chopra, a spiritual adviser, said he last talked to Jackson directly about his drug use about six months ago and spoke with him on the phone about two weeks before his death. But they did not discuss drug use on that call, and Chopra said in his final months, Jackson seemed much healthier and excited about his upcoming concerts in London. "This is a strange addiction. You cannot get these pills or injections unless a physician prescribes them, and he had this bunch of enabling doctors who were in a sense criminals. And they get away with it half the time _ and I hope they don't this time," he said. "It's become a culture with celebrity doctors who in one sense get a sense of importance by hanging around with celebrities." Marilyn Monroe died at 36 from an overdose of sleeping pills in August 1962. She had been under a doctor's care at the time. Elvis Presley, who died in 1977 at 42, was known to travel with George Nichopoulos, a former physician who overprescribed drugs to clients. Nichopoulos lost his medical license but was acquitted of criminal charges related to Elvis' death. More recently, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged a psychiatrist and a doctor with conspiring to provide Anna Nicole Smith with thousands of prescription pills. Smith died Feb. 8, 2007, in Florida after collapsing at a hotel; medical authorities later ruled her death an overdose. Megastars may be given more leeway than ordinary patients because of their wealth _ and because of expectations that the famous often have eccentric habits, said Albright, the sociologist. "It's almost expected in some ways if it's a rock star or a big actor. You almost expect them to have a larger-than-life lifestyle," she said. "People are drawn to celebrity like a moth to a flame, including these doctors who want to be around that lightness and brightness." _____ Associated Press writers Sophia Tareen in Chicago, Juan A. Lozano in Houston, and Beth Harris and Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report. More on Michael Jackson
 

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