Saturday, June 6, 2009

Y! Alert: The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Dan Dorfman: Clip and Save: $1 Million Off Top
Looking to save a buck? Who isn't? How about saving one million bucks. Intrigued? Read on. It's a brand new and almost inconceivable dimension to the boom in money-savings coupons, which nationally have spread like wildfire from local drug stores and supermarkets to a rash of services (such as massages, auto checkups and hair salons) and on to the country's most prestigious retailers. With practically everyone economizing these days and merchants hurting, we're all being swamped these days with money-saving coupons that generally offer discounts ranging from 20% to as much as 70%. Or in dollars and cents, depending on whether you're shopping in a drug store, a supermarket, a department store or a furniture dealer, you might save as much as 75 cents on a tube of toothpaste, $1.39 on a box of strawberries, $50 on a sports coat or as much as $300 or $400 on a new sofa. Nothing, however, comes close to the $1 million money-savings coupon in the beaten-up housing industry, notably in Fort Meyers, Fla., where higher priced homes ($500,000 and up) are going begging. More specifically, this coupon will allow you to buy a new $6.995,000 estate, never lived in and on the market for a year, originally priced at $10 million, for $5,995,000, about a 16% savings. "Everybody likes a bargain and I thought the coupon would get a lot of attention." the owner, Richard Ricciani, a retired CPA and land developer, told me. The coupon offering, made May 31, is a brainchild of Ricciani's, who built the home for himself and his wife, but then changed his mind. "I'm getting a bit older. I'm 62, and I figured maybe it was too big for me." What do you get for nearly $6 million? The 15,000 square-foot gated seven-bedroom estate, which is centered on three quarters of an acre, was just completed in March. It's situated on a canal, features a mile-wide river on two sides, and has a fishing pier, a dock and a swimming pool. The house also has a three-tier movie room, a four-car garage, eight bathrooms, a fireplace and an elevator. A 30% down payment is required, the owner will finance and taxes run about $50,000 a year. If you're interested, don't dilly-dally because the coupon expires July 31. The broker, sales associate Lani Belisle of VIP Realty Group, says there have been some feelers, but so far no offers. What happens if the $1 million coupon doesn't work?, I asked Ricciani. "Then we'll take it from there," he says. My thought: Who knows? Given the state of the Florida tumbling real estate industry, maybe a $2 million money-savings coupon could be next. More on Real Estate
 
Football Coach Ron Zook Is Highest Paid Public University Employee Top
There are 69,000 people who work for public universities in Illinois, and none of them is paid as much as Ron Zook, the University of Illinois' football coach, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows. Zook was paid nearly $1 million to coach the Illini last year.
 
Patrick Fitzgerald Fights Book Publication Top
Patrick Fitzgerald may be the most feared prosecutor in the country, but even as he's racked up headlines for big-name convictions (Scooter Libby) and indictments (Rod Blagojevich), the hard-charging U.S. attorney from Chicago has been waging a private crusade: trying to kill a book he believes maligns his reputation. In the past year and a half, Fitzgerald has written four letters to HarperCollins--owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.--demanding it "cease publication" and "withdraw" copies of Triple Cross, a 2006 book by ex-TV newsman Peter Lance that criticizes Fitzgerald's handling of terror cases in New York in the 1990s. Fitzgerald raised the temperature even more last week, aiming to halt a paperback version. "To put it plain and simple," he wrote in a June 2 letter obtained by NEWSWEEK, "if in fact you publish the book this month and it defames me or casts me in a false light, HarperCollins will be sued."
 
Koko Taylor Funeral Services Announced Top
CHICAGO (AP) - A Chicago record label has announced plans for funeral services for the legendary blues singer Koko Taylor. A statement from Taylor's label, Alligator Records, says visitation will be held Thursday from 4 to 9 p.m. and Friday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Rainbow Push Coalition headquarters in Chicago. A funeral will be held Friday at 6 p.m., at the same location. Taylor died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital about two weeks after surgery. Taylor earned worldwide acclaim during her long career and was known as the "Queen of the Blues." On the Net: http://www.alligator.com -ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Bank Of Lincolnwood Shut By Federal Regulators, 37th FDIC Bank To Fail This Year Top
WASHINGTON — Regulators on Friday shut down Bank of Lincolnwood, a small bank in Illinois, marking the 37th failure this year of a federally insured bank. More are expected to succumb amid the pressures of the weak economy and mounting loan defaults. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of the failed bank, based in Lincolnwood, Ill., which had about $214 million in assets and $202 million in deposits as of May 26. All of Bank of Lincolnwood's deposits will be assumed by Republic Bank of Chicago, based in Oak Brook, Ill., which also agreed to buy about $162 million of the bank's assets; the FDIC will retain the rest for eventual sale. Bank of Lincolnwood's two offices will reopen on Saturday as branches of Republic Bank of Chicago. The FDIC estimates that the cost to the deposit insurance fund from the failure of Bank of Lincolnwood will be $83 million. It was the third bank in Illinois to be closed by regulators in recent weeks. The previous two, shuttered on May 22, were Strategic Capital Bank, based in Champaign, and Citizens National Bank, based in Macomb. Their resolutions are expected to cost the insurance fund about $173 million and $106 million, respectively. As the economy has soured, with unemployment rising, home prices tumbling and loan defaults soaring, bank failures have cascaded and sapped billions out of the deposit insurance fund. It now stands at its lowest level since 1993, $13 billion as of the first quarter. While the pounding from losses on home mortgages may be nearing an end, delinquencies on commercial real estate loans remain a hot spot of potential trouble, FDIC officials say. If the recession deepens, defaults on the high-risk loans could spike. Many regional banks hold large numbers of them. The number of banks on the FDIC's list of problem institutions leaped to 305 in the first quarter _ the highest number since 1994 during the savings and loan crisis _ from 252 in the fourth quarter. The combined assets of those banks rose to $220 billion from $159 billion. The 37 insitutions closed this year compare with 25 in all of 2008 and three in 2007. The FDIC expects U.S. bank failures to cost the deposit insurance fund around $70 billion through 2013. The agency recently adopted a new system of emergency fees paid by U.S. financial institutions that shifts more of the burden to bigger banks to help replenish the insurance fund. The move by the agency cut by about two-thirds the amount of special fees to be levied on banks and thrifts compared with an earlier plan, which had prompted a wave of protests by small and community banks. The new system is intended to raise about $5.6 billion. Additional emergency assessments could come later in the year, the FDIC has said. Congress has more than tripled the amount the FDIC may borrow from the Treasury Department if needed to restore the insurance fund, to $100 billion from $30 billion. Government "stress tests" of the 19 biggest U.S. banks last month showed that 10 of them had to raise a total of $75 billion in new capital to withstand possible future losses. Of those, Bank of America Corp. needed the most by far _ $33.9 billion. Wells Fargo & Co. needs $13.7 billion, auto lender GMAC LLC $11.5 billion, Citigroup Inc. $5.5 billion and Morgan Stanley $1.8 billion. The tests were a key part of the Obama administration's plan to fortify the financial system. The banks were given until Monday to submit their plans for raising capital and have it approved by their regulators. If they can't raise the money on their own, the government said it will dip further into its bailout fund. The closing last month of struggling Florida thrift BankUnited FSB is expected to cost the insurance fund $4.9 billion, the second-largest hit since the financial crisis began. The costliest was the July 2008 seizure of big California lender IndyMac Bank, on which the insurance fund is estimated to have lost $10.7 billion. The largest U.S. bank failure ever also came last year: Seattle-based thrift Washington Mutual Inc. fell in September, with about $307 billion in assets. It was acquired by JPMorgan Chase & Co. for $1.9 billion in a deal brokered by the FDIC.
 
David Carradine HANGING PHOTO: Family Outraged Over Publication Top
RadarOnline reports that a Thai publication has outraged the family of David Carradine by publishing a photo of him hanging: The shocking published photo shows Carradine with his hands tied in front of him, hanging from the support bar in a closet. Tattoos on the lower half of his nude body can be seen. Attorney Mark Geragos, who represents Carradine's brother, Keith, told Radar that the family is "outraged" by the move and will legally go after any publication in the U.S. that publishes the photo. Carradine was found hanging in his luxury hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand in what was at first called a suicide. However, Thai police have since said that accidental suffocation may be the cause of death after they discovered a rope around Carradine's genitals: The circumstances under which he died have led to speculation that the 72-year-old actor may have been engaged in a dangerous form of sex play known as auto-erotic asphyxiation. The practice involves temporarily cutting off the supply of oxygen to the brain to heighten the effects of a sexual climax.
 
Frank Dwyer: Political Haiku: Cheney and Billy (Our Cat) Top
If Cheney could make his tail fat, like Billy, he'd still be running things.
 
Holly Cara Price: Review: Amanda Palmer at the Highline Ballroom, June 5, New York City Top
Earlier this week, Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman presented a joint spoken word and musical performance at Soho's Housing Works Café as part of the SPIN Liner Notes series, which pairs writers and musicians together to promote reading and raises money for the Housing Works Foundation supporting New Yorkers with HIV/AIDS. The room (which is small, deliciously crammed with books, and reminiscent of an old library in the very best sense) was sold out completely with people practically hanging from the rafters. The audience of 250 hung on every word and musical note as a monsoon raged outside in the what's-next late May climate. Palmer told the throng about her years as a living statue in Harvard Square, where she appeared as The Eight Foot Bride and stood tall, white, and silent, accepting flowers and money from the teeming mass of humanity that came through the square. This presaged her creating the Brechtian punk cabaret team The Dresden Dolls with multi-instrumentalist Brian Viglione, touring the world and creating much magic. Fast forward quickly to September 2008 and the release of Who Killed Amanda Palmer , Palmer's first solo album, produced by Ben Folds. She launched a tour with a group of outrageous, spectacular Australian performers called the Danger Ensemble , who worked for free, living on money received by passing the hat every night at gigs and staying at the homes of local fans in each city. The shows were gut-wrenching, theatrical, transcendent and I lucked into seeing one at New York's Webster Hall last fall. You know that feeling when you're sure you are in the right place at the right time? It doesn't happen all that often. That's how I felt that night. Ms. Palmer took to the stage last night at the Highline Ballroom in New York, a vastly different room than the baroque Webster Hall, sleek and streamlined and very kind of Clockwork Orange . She was all Peter Pan come to life as she began the show strumming a ukulele, perched in the upper balcony. The sold out crowd went silent, heads craning up. Back to the stage, she pounded that piano like a postmodern Jerry Lee Lewis, and coaxed sweetness, joy and sorrow out of it. I managed to drag three Amanda virgins with me to the show; all left believers. This was not the show I saw last year, which alternately ripped open my soul and made me giddy with glee, but it firmly established AFP (as she calls herself - Amanda Fucking Palmer ) as a veritable force of nature. Great beauty ballads from WKAP like Ampersand , Runs in the Family , and Astronaut were delivered to us whole and seething, along with fun covers like Yakety Yak . The show, which can teeter on almost too much intensity at times, is tempered halfway through by the Ask Amanda segment in which AFP takes random written questions from audience members. This particular night we also had a birthday singalong for Amanda's longtime comrade / photographer / aide de camp Beth Hommel. Towards the end, Emily Brodsky and opening band The Lisps joined AFP on stage for a rousing version of Delilah , a Dresden Dolls number about a girl who seems to enjoy being abused in a bad relationship. Much of Palmer's work is about women in the grip of such badness who can't seem to find a way out. The show ended with a sweet duet between Amanda's way cool dad, Jack Palmer, and his daughter on Leonard Cohen's tragic love ballad One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong . And yet another night in Palmer's presence convinces me once again that, a year from now, I'll be saying, yes I was there when you could still get tickets easily to see her and you could still see her in small places. Because this extremely talented goddess angel is going to be around a long time. And it's not always going to be this easy to see her. Read more of Holly Cara Price 's ruminations on the slings and arrows of outrageous pop culture at Snoop* Du Jour .
 
Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent: Turn a Spring Fling into Summer Love Top
We may have marked the start of summer in our last column, but it's still technically spring, flowers are blooming and love is most certainly in the air. If you're single, why not take this opportunity to find yourself a magical, memorable spring fling, one that will invigorate you, make you excited to wake up in the morning and might end up being the birth of a significant relationship? We may have written How to Love Like a Hot Chick to help all you single ladies get the love you deserve, but that doesn't mean that we don't strongly believe in the importance of being single. If you rush from relationship to relationship you often never get to step back and think about who you are and what you want, but if you make the most of your singlehood it can truly be the best time of your life. Of course being single can also be lonely, but there's absolutely no reason to sit around feeling sorry for yourself while you watch the Bachelorette sift through twenty five lame guys. There's no better time than now, when the sun is shining and the birdies are chirping, to throw caution to that springtime breeze and do everything in your power to find a relationship that is passionate, carefree and meaningful! We want all of you single ladies who are ready and willing to take some action to know that there is the perfect person out there hiding between blooming flowers and happy hours just waiting to be plucked by you. So get excited about finding a spring fling that could turn into a summer love. Here are a few tips: 1. Know That You Are a Hot Chick There is a sexy, confident Hot Chick taking a nap right now inside of you and we want you to wake her up and embrace her! Start telling yourself that you are a Hot Chick who deserves some love and attention and see how quickly you start getting it. Remember that when we say Hot Chick we are not talking about looking like an airbrushed supermodel or a slutty reality TV star. Our definition of a Hot Chick is a confident, empowered, passionate woman who doesn't compete with other Hot Chicks, knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go out and get it! 2. Declare It Your Heyday We don't care how old you are; this is your time to enjoy every juicy bit of goodness that life has to offer. Stop letting fears, insecurities and baggage weigh you down and decide right now to throw caution to the wind and start doing all of the things you've always wanted to do. Life is hard and life is short, so if you feel like you are not having enough fun or getting what you want, it's up to you to change that. Open your heart, be open to invitations and decide right now that you deserve to have the time of your life. When you let your hair down and start having fun, that's often when you meet Mr. Right. (And if he doesn't turn out to be Mr. Right, he'll at least be a damn good spring fling!) 3. Start Acting Bold Why not ask a guy out? The more proactive you are, the more active you're life will be, so stop waiting for the phone to ring and being scared of rejection. You have the power to get what you want, so start asking for it now. Remember that men are often more insecure than women and have the same fear of rejection, so take the burden off of him this once and see what happens. If he says no, instead of letting it get you down be grateful that he saved you time by making it clear that he's not right for you and move on. You are a Hot Chick and most guys will be thrilled if you make the first move. When you start acting bold and going after what you want, you'll not only get what you want, but you will brighten someone else's life too! For more of our girlfriend to girlfriend advice, a few good laughs and a confidence boost like no other, check out How to Love Like a Hot Chick and our first book, How to Eat Like a Hot Chick . You can read more about them and see our full definition of a Hot Chick here: www.heydayproductions.com .
 
Sarkozy Gushes Over Obama Who Keeps His Cool Top
OMAHA BEACH, France — Nicolas Sarkozy certainly tried hard to please the American president when the two leaders met to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The French leader pulled out the stops for President Barack Obama's visit to Normandy on Saturday, spilling with unusually generous praise for "the America that we love" and the U.S. veterans who fought for France's freedom from the Nazis. Obama was grateful, but reserved. The men were friendly, but they didn't seem to create much of a spark _ at least in public. "You think that people just want for us to be here together, holding hands?" Sarkozy quipped when the presidents were asked at a news conference whether the brevity of Obama's weekend visit to France reflected low U.S. esteem for Europe, coming after his trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Obama papered over any suspected rifts, saying his time is always limited when he travels. Noting that the U.S. economy "requires a lot of work," he said he'd love to come and picnic in Paris' Luxembourg Gardens one day when he had more time. French commentators read that to mean when he's finished being president. The meeting at the Prefecture of the Normandy city of Caen on Saturday was one not just of two men with starkly different characters, Sarkozy kinetic and sharp-tongued, Obama cool and measured. It was also one of two countries with a sense of exceptionalism, two nations that think they have lessons to teach the world. "All countries are proud of themselves. But not all countries necessarily have the idea that they have the right to explain to others what they should do. That's a characteristic of the United States and France that we share," said Laurence Nardon, researcher at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. "But we can't have two of us doing that. That's what explains this kind of reciprocal irritation and great reciprocal admiration... it is not a neutral relationship," Nardon said. After their private talks in Caen, the two men tried to stress their partnership on several issues. They agree on Iran _ open to dialogue but firmly against Iran's refusal to suspend its nuclear program _ and on the Middle East, with both pushing for a two-state solution. Overall, the French-U.S. relationship is a sturdy one. The two men showed Saturday that they have definitively moved beyond the clash over the Iraq war, which France fiercely opposed. Sarkozy has taken important steps to improve France's stature with Washington. Earlier this year, he ended France's four-decade rift with NATO, bringing his country back into the alliance's military command structure, and France has accepted a former detainee at Guantanamo. "President Sarkozy talks fast, so we can still do lots of things" even if the visit is brief, Obama said. Sarkozy responded, "I talk fast, but he, he understands fast." ___ Associated Press writer Scott Sayare contributed to this report. More on Barack Obama
 
Robert E. Murphy: Steroid Use in Baseball? It's Often Obvious Top
Here in Brooklyn, where -- along with Manhattan -- baseball-as-we-know-it evolved, the game remains an inexhaustible topic when boys and men of summer meet and chat along our bluestone sidewalks and in our barrooms both raffish and classy. As the author of a recently published book on the life and death of the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, I am often invited to comment on the modern game and consistently surprised by the dubious reactions I get when I mention the names of players in recent decades whom I strongly suspect have buoyed their careers on seas of steroids. Then I usually express a simple guideline: "Look for the anomalies." Exhibit number one obviously is Barry Bonds, who in 1991, at age 27, hit 25 home runs, and in 2001, age 37, whacked 73. The most credulous of my companions will concede that such an increment is highly unusual, at which point I suggest that it is in fact unprecedented in the history of athletics. I might even recite a little limerick I once strung together: Growing older, like Aaron and Ruth, Barry Bonds sought the Fountain of Youth. Not a hole in the ground -- In a lab it was found, And a very long way from the truth. Such anomalies did not first appear in the 1990s when artificially bulked-up Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa disintegrated decades-old home-run records. The first instance that I'm aware of is the 1973 Atlanta Brave season of Davey Johnson, better known as a champion manager than as a slugging second baseman. That's because he wasn't a slugger, except in '73, when he knocked 43 of the 136 homers that he collected in a 13-year career. Those who attributed this amazing spike to the home-run-rich atmosphere of Fulton County Stadium must not have been watching when Davey, still with Atlanta, produced only 15 clouts the following year. I wonder what Davey was thinking during 1989, when Kevin Mitchell, whom he had managed with the New York Mets, raised his homer total for the Giants to 47 after hitting 19 in his full previous season. Those Mets are my team and the team of many of my barroom interlocutors, and I've noticed that the latter, like the fans of any club, are most resistant to suggestions that one of their own boys has transgressed the country's pharmaceutical laws. One of the most popular Mets of all time was Mike Piazza, who in the 1990s and beyond strung together a remarkable series of outstanding offensive seasons in Los Angles and New York. Especially remarkable -- in fact (here's that word again), unprecedented -- for a catcher. Piazza was the last player selected by the Dodgers in the 1988 amateur draft -- in the 62nd round -- and then only because his father was was a close friend of Manager Tom Lasorda. His chance of even reaching the major leagues was miniscule. Yet he would become by far the most productive catcher in history. Mickey Cochrane and Bill Dickey had slightly better lifetime batting averages, yet Mike hit more than 100 more home runs than the two of them combined. He hit just 38 more than Johnny Bench, but MIke's lifetime batting average was 41 points higher, at .308. Comparisons to Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella and and Gary Carter are similar. I have no lab report in front to me to prove that Piazza was juiced, but I will argue over a glass of any brand of beer that it is very, very likely. And, by the way, so, apparently, was the man he displaced as the Mets' catcher, Todd Hundley, who had broken Campanella's single-season home-run record and was later named as a client of the steroid-peddler Kirk Radomski, who had haunted the Mets' locker-room. Like a lot of alleged steroid-users, Hundley's body broke down prematurely. The stuff is illegal, after all, because it is health- and life-threatening. The player who in 2002 blew the lid off the secret of steroids in baseball, Ken Caminiti, died of a heart-attack two years later, at 41. Now in this season of 2009, New York baseball fans have been stricken by concussive reports of Yankee star Alex Rodriguez's detected steroid use and his and Met slugger Carlos Delgado's disabling by hip injuries requiring surgery. It is not logical, of course, to conclude that Delgado, therefore, was also using steroids. Nor MIke Lowell of the Red Sox, nor Chase Utley of the Phillies, nor Alex Gordon of the Royals, who all recently have lined up for hip operations. And wasn't it necrosis of the hip that ended the legendary feats of Bo Jackson in both baseball and football a decade or two ago? But back to Delgado of my Mets. One of the anomalies that raise the question of steroid use is extraordinary disparity in performance between successive seasons or even within one season, suggesting periods when a player was and was not using the stuff. Such as during the then 36-year-old Delgado's 2008 season, when he was batting in the .230s with just a handful of home runs through May before taking off dramatically in June and continuing to soar for the rest of the season, finishing with 38 homers, 115 runs batted in and a .271 average. Carlos told Sports Illustrated ithis February that "not one time" had he had he ever taken steroids, and his interviewer, Tom Verducci, believed him. But that was before his hip started to crumble. Yes, it's possible that Carlos Delgado was being truthful, but the sad reality is that so many players have lied about steroids that it is impossible to believe anyone's protestations, particularly when there are glaring anomalies on record. I think of Roger Clemens, continuing to lie to the Congress and the country with his trousers fallen and bunched at his ankles. He and others, such as Bonds, are latter-day disciples of Lenny Bruce, who advised straying husbands always to "Deny it! If your wife finds you in bed with another woman, deny it!"
 
Andy Plesser: Nick Denton: A Third of Gawker Media Posts Are Video Centric: NYT's David Carr Explains the Power of the Moving Image Top
Earlier this week, at the much talked about iWantMedia panel on the future of the media, Gawker Media founder Nick Denton said that a third of his company's "posts are video centric." Gawker blogs don't publish much in the way of original videos, the videos are embeds from other sources and videos culled from a rack of DVR's which monitor a number of cable channels, nonetheless, for us over at Beet.TV, this extraordinary degree of video integration into news reporting and blogging is a big deal and very exciting. Nick told the panel that video integration was the biggest development at his company. After the panel ended, I interviewed David Carr, media columnist for the New York Times about the value of the moving image. He also spoke about the evolution of blogging as serious reporting. You can find the original post on Beet.TV More on Video
 
Paul Szep: The Daily Szep - Supreme Court Pick Top
More on Sonia Sotomayor
 
Michael B. Laskoff: One Unrepentant Zionist and the Two State Solution Top
That one Zionist would be me, but I know that I'm not alone. Take President Obama: he sounded like another unrepentant Zionist in Cairo this week. Zionism is an 19th Century political (agrarian socialist) idea that Jews -- particularly those residing in Europe -- should establish a "Jewish" state in some or all of the area that is currently the footprint of Israel, the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Jews of the day came to the conclusion that the Europeans weren't thrilled with -- and never had been -- our presence in their counties. The English evicted us, the Spanish offered us the opportunity to convert to Christianity (or die), the Eastern Europeans repressed us and the French scape-goated us in the Dreyfus Affair. (The Crusades weren't too wonderful for us either.) This was all well before Nazi Germany got around to creating the mother of all genocides at our expense. Had it not been for that last fact, the modern state of Israel might not exist. Nevertheless, it is hard to get around idea the reality that more Jews died in the Holocaust than live in the state of Israel today. Many of those who died, I might add, shared my atheist tendencies and were ethnically identical to those living all around them. But when the whip came down, others decided who was a Jew and who was not: the facts, religious practices or personal beliefs of the individual had little or nothing to do with it. The lesson imparted by this experience is that it doesn't matter whether you think that you are Jewish or not: what matters is the opinion of those who have the power to kill you. Further evidence of this is supplied by the genocides of Rwanda, Cambodia and Sudan -- all massive tragedies in their own rights. Knowing all this, I'm thankful for the creation of the modern state of Israel and believe that its continuity is of vital importance to Jews the world over. What I do not support is the idea of a theocratic, apartheid regime that represses the right of Palestinians to have their own state. Small as the place may be -- a bit less than the landmass of New Jersey -- it is better to help the Palestinians establish their own state than to attempt to be a functioning democracy that denies equality to what will be shortly be the majority of inhabitants. The faster we can make that a reality the better. Stopping the expansion Jewish settlements in the West Bank will help create the conditions in which a two state solution is possible. It is not all that the Israelis need to do, but it's a concrete step in the right direction. I believe that this is precisely why the Obama administration is being suitably firm on the issue. Of course, Israel cannot achieve peace on its own and it requires responsible partners in the process. That means that the Palestinians will have to make plenty of difficult concessions of their own; it also means that Israel's Arab neighbors and other Muslim countries will have to stop appealing to their "main streets" with anti-Semitism to distract people from their own theocratic, monarchical and despotic misdeeds. Peace will not easy, but it's only likely to occur when two states exist where currently there is one. More on England
 
Mike Lux: Pew Analysis Mostly Shows Obama Has Been a Successful President So Far Top
That sound of high pitched whining you hear from Republicans abut the new Pew analysis showing more positive than negative stories about Obama so far is pretty funny, but I have to say it's pretty easy to dismiss. Trends on positive and negative stories about presidents and presidential candidates tend to pretty closely correspond to how well they are actually doing. Here's what I mean historically: -FDR got very positive coverage because he was a successful president in very tough times. He got virtually everything he wanted through Congress; the economy started to improve; his party won big in the off-year elections in 1934; he won a massive landslide re-election in 1946 and in two more elections after that, he was a successful war president. No surprise he got lots of good press. -Truman, even though he was of the same party and followed many of the same policies, generally got worse coverage because he didn't succeed as much. Few of his domestic initiatives were enacted; he got bogged down in the Korean War; Republicans capitalized on his unpopularity to win congressional elections in 1946; his party lost in the 1952 landslide to Eisenhower. -Eisenhower got mixed coverage because his record was, well, mixed. He got some big things done, got stalemated on others and generally didn't have a big agenda. You get the idea. Presidents generally get about the media coverage they deserve. Carter and the first President Bush got pretty bad press coverage because they really weren't very good Presidents, and Reagan - who passed many of his biggest legislative initiatives and was generally quite popular - got better coverage. A lot has been made of Pew's mentioning that Obama did a lot better in his first couple of months than Clinton or GW Bush, but look at each of their first two months: -Clinton mishandled the gays in the military fight and he got beat in the stimulus debate in his fist two months. -GW Bush came off a hotly disputed election and got very little accomplished in the first two months. His tax cut bill got passed, and his popularity didn't go high until after 9-11. -Obama, in his first two months got the biggest stimulus bill in American history passed, along with the popular Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, the SCHIP reauthorization, plus he reversed restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research. I'm reminded of Kevin Costner in Bull Durham : baseball is a pretty simple game, you hit the ball, you pitch the ball, you catch the ball. Politics is the same: if you succeed, the media tends to write good stories about you. If not, they don't. And frankly, campaigns tend to be much the same. Candidates that run ahead in the polls, raise more money, get bigger crowds, and do better in debates in the polls, tend to -- amazingly enough! -- garner more positive stories. That may or may not be a good thing, but it's a fact. I know both progressives and conservatives have things we complain about, and I happen to think the media is far more biased towards conservative point of views on issues and candidates. But in terms of baseline studies like Pew on positive vs. negative coverage, it's pretty easy to figure out the formula.
 
Dave Johnson: Health Care: Public Option Is A Must Top
I just want to go on the record here that any health care reform must include a "public option." This is an option for insurance that comes from the government, not from for-profit companies. Without it there really is no "reform." This is a deal-breaker: no public option, then no anything, and we keep trying to get health care that works for the public instead of just taking our money to benefit a few. Conservatives like to say that government is inefficient, incompetent, cumbersome, wasteful and can't compete with "the private sector." But NOW they're suddenly all worried that private businesses can't compete with government. The ONLY reason there is consideration of continuing the failed, greedy, destructive corporate insurance system is because the few who get rich off of it are paying off politicians to keep things they way they are. This is about providing what is best for the people, not about watching out for corporate interests and the profits that get funneled up to a few people at the top. If business can serve the people better than the people (government) can, let them prove it by including a public insurance option in the health care reform.
 
Capehart: Now Obama Needs To Do Gay Rights Speech Top
There has been a growing roar within the gay community about seeming inaction by a man who promised change. Some activists fume that President Obama hasn't followed through on his promise to repeal the offensive Defense of Marriage Act or muttered a substantive word about the legalization of same-sex marriage in six states. After last night's airing of NBC's Inside the Obama White House interview, in which Obama provided a tepid answer to a question about whether "gay and lesbian couples who wish to marry in this country have a friend in the White House," the blogosphere is filling with cries of "shameful" and "no passion, no heart, no real connection to our cause." More on Barack Obama
 
Avital Binshtock: How to Green Your Spiritual Life Top
Most people who consider themselves at least somewhat spiritual, regardless of their religion or set of beliefs, have realized that caring for the earth is imperative to their spirituality. Here are four tips for aligning your inner life with your green life. 1) Green Your Place of Worship: The places where people pray, meditate, or simply stop to have moments of peace vary vastly - but you can make sure that your place of worship isn't causing environmental damage. If you go to a church, temple, mosque, or other organized place, ask your congregation's leaders to emplace green measures like reducing energy use , water use , and waste . You can even volunteer to head recycling efforts or organize carpools . If a corner of your home is your place, make sure that room is as planet-preserving as possible . If where you connect to the spiritual realm is outdoors, remember the "leave no trace" commandments . 2) Read What's Written: The deep connection between spirituality and the environment is all in the scripture: Christians and Jews can refer, among other passages , to Genesis 1:1 : "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The Buddhist Sutta Nipata instructs: "Within yourself let grow a boundless love for all creatures." Hindus reading the Dakshinamurti Upanishad pray: "Let there be peace in my environment." Muslims are instructed by the Qur'an (2:60): "Do not commit abuse on the earth." The Wiccan Rede says, "Heed the flower, bush, and tree." Atheists, many of whom revere Darwin's writings , hold that humans should refrain from destroying the earth of their own accord. For more about religion and the environment, read these books . 3) Green Your Holidays: Religious holidays are some of the most memorable times of the year, but they can also be some of the most environmentally degrading. Check out our tips about how to green your Christmas , Hanukkah , Easter , and Lent . Whether you celebrate these holidays or others, try to keep consumption to a minimum (experiences, lessons , or homemade items as gifts, are always most memorable anyway), to choose simple and natural decorations , and to remember the charities closest to your heart . 4) Be an Evangelist: Many religions have always been about spreading the good word, and the environment could use that same type of help. If you passionately believe in preserving the planet, tell the world ! It's best to refrain from being too preachy, but a few well-targeted comments and messages could make the difference. A few ideas: Don't be afraid to apply a bit of peer pressure with someone who doesn't, say, recycle or turn off lights. Slap a bumper sticker on your car, or throw on a shirt that broadcasts your faith in saving the environment. And sign up for -- and tell your friends about -- the Green Life blog's daily green tips . Share your tips: How have you connected your spiritual life to preserving the environment? More on Green Living
 
Daniel James Murray, Man Sought For Threatening Obama, Arrested Top
SALT LAKE CITY — Authorities have arrested a man who allegedly told bank tellers while cleaning out his savings account in Utah that he was on a mission to kill President Barack Obama. The Secret Service said Daniel James Murray, 36, was arrested Friday outside a casino in Laughlin, Nev., a gambling town 100 miles from Las Vegas on the Nevada-Arizona line. He was charged Thursday in Salt Lake City with a federal count of conveying threats while talking to tellers last month at Zions First National Bank in St. George, Utah. Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Bearnson said Murray was in federal custody in Nevada and likely will get a court date there Monday. Neither Bearnson nor the Secret Service would discuss whether Murray was considered to be a serious threat. Charging documents say Murray, originally from Rexford, N.Y., is the registered owner of eight guns. He was described by his father and former neighbors in Rexford as troubled but not dangerous, known for strolling down a street wearing a cape while talking to himself. "He's sick. He's been sick for about 10 years," Michael Murray, his father, told the Times Union of Albany, N.Y. In charging documents filed Thursday, the Secret Service said Daniel Murray made bizarre statements while opening _ and then closing within two weeks _ an $85,000 savings account. First, he demanded to know if Zions First National Bank was solvent, saying, "I'm sure if citizens happen to lose their money, they will rise up and we could see killing and deaths," bank tellers told a Secret Service agent. On May 27, as a teller counted out bills no larger than $50, Murray delivered a rambling discourse on the probability of economic and social disorder, ending with "We are on a mission to kill the president of the United States," a bank employee told the Secret Service. The next day, Murray withdrew the remaining $72,000 and closed his account. In Washington, Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Murray offered no resistance when he was arrested at 7 p.m. Friday on a warrant in the parking lot of the Riverside Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev. Wiley wouldn't offer any further details. It wasn't clear if Murray had a lawyer. ___ Associated Press writer Kathleen Hennessey in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
 

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more

Weather - Get today's weather conditions




You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)