Monday, June 29, 2009

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Eric Kuhn: IAVA Founder on Ning and his Veterans Support Campaign Top
Paul Rieckhoff is the Founder and Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the nation's first and largest non-partisan, nonprofit organization representing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I spoke with Rieckhoff today at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York where he just concluded a press conference announcing the 2009 first quarter results from the Veterans Support Campaign, which launched in November. The on-line and on-air campaign, anchored by Ning -based CommunityofVeterans.org , was established to support veterans coming home. The first quarter brought in $26 million in donated media. In the below video, Rieckhoff talks about Ning, the campaign and IAVA. More on Afghanistan
 
Paul Rieckhoff: Marine Finds Unlikely Reinforcements Online: Nerds Top
John Hodgman was right. It’s the revenge of the nerds in America right now. These past few years we’ve seen self-proclaimed, highly-influential nerds using the power of online technology to play a huge role in driving public policy, political campaigns and organizing grassroots engagement. In the 2008 presidential campaign both McCain and Obama harnessed the power of new media to address voters, raise millions and rally their supporters.  And just in the last two weeks, Twitter is revolutionizing the way protests are coordinated and communicated in Iran. But social networking isn’t just for electoral battles.  It’s transforming the way communities organize for the public good. And now, nerds--and I say that with the upmost respect-- are changing the lives of thousands of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Case in point, Rey Leal , an Iraq veteran, found his community online and began his journey home from war: Rey served in Fallujah during some of the heaviest fighting, earning a Bronze Star with valor as a Private First Class, an almost unheard of accomplishment for a Marine of his rank. When he was discharged in February 2008, Rey looked forward to returning to Texas to begin a new chapter with his wife and infant son.  Unfortunately, Rey’s transition home from combat was far from easy.  He struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and spent months trying to deal with his symptoms, including severe depression and insomnia. His marriage at a breaking point, Rey sought treatment.  Yet, instead of having resources at his fingertips, his closest VA hospital was over five hours away. And at his nearest outpatient clinic, there was just one psychologist, taking appointments only two days a week. It wasn’t until Rey saw IAVA’s “Alone” Public Service Announcement on TV that his transitional journey began. He decided to check out the website, CommunityofVeterans.org —a social network exclusively for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. The first of its kind, the website is the lynchpin of a new national outreach campaign to ease the transition for vets returning home from combat. Immediately, Rey found a community on CommunityofVeterans.org . Thousands of other veterans were inside.  For the first time since returning home, Rey started to feel like he wasn’t operating in a silo with unique issues, but could share them with his peers, many of whom were all tackling the same issues he was. According to Rey, “I honestly didn’t find help until I learned of IAVA and Community of Veterans.  This made me realize that I wasn’t alone in my struggle.  I felt I could talk to these strangers about my problems on COV and for some reason they wouldn’t judge me.  I knew they understood.” Rey told his story to other veterans through IAVA’s social networking tools and yesterday, I shared his journey with a much wider audience --again with a little help from technology. I was at the Personal Democracy Forum (PdF) in New York City to present IAVA’s groundbreaking new social networking site with Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark and Ning CEO Gina Bianchini . For those of you who don’t know, the PdF is the world's largest conference on technology and politics. Everyone from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to Ana Marie Cox have come together to explore how technology is transforming politics, democracy and society. But Communityofveterans.org isn’t just a tech phenomenon—it’s a movement that is literally saving lives. And for that, we have online technology (and countless nerds) to thank. Crossposted at IAVA.org More on Afghanistan
 
William Bradley: Transformative: Le Cinema de Michael Bay Top
I love the films of Michael Bay. In fact, they are so dramatic and compelling that ... Gotcha! I actually do not love the films of Michael Bay. I don't hate them, either. And there are a couple that I like. But the fact that it is considered preposterous for a writer -- a writer who writes about anything, even wallpaper -- to not dismiss Bay's work in the most vehement of terms points up a dramatic disconnect between the critical community and the movie-going audience. Bay's new flick, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, just took in an astounding $200.1 million at the domestic box office in its first five days of release. That's less than $4 million under the five-day opening record set last year by The Dark Knight. Considering that Transformers 2, I won't call it T2, is one of the worst-reviewed films in recent memory while Dark Knight is one of the best, it's a remarkable situation. I saw the new Transformers over the weekend and, well, didn't think much of it. Not that I'm in the target demographic. After all, I have cowboy boots that are older than the two ostensible leads, young everyman-in-every-movie Shia LaBeouf and the preposterously sexy Megan Fox. But I generally like action movies and science fiction, and thought I might enjoy this movie more than the first Transformers picture, which I found moderately entertaining. Though there are lots more giant robots from outer space able to ingeniously disguise themselves as General Motors vehicles, and they all fight a lot, it didn't do much for me. But then, it seems I'm not into movies based on a globally-popular line of toys. It turns out that a huge number of people, many much older than you think, since these toys have been around for a quarter-century, are into just that. I actually liked the first Transformers better than the new one, because it focused more on the human characters. But that was one of the main criticisms of it from fans, who wanted a lot more in the way of noble and evil transforming alien robots emoting, wisecracking, and fighting with one another. And so what was in the first movie a nice and quite predictable -- except for the transforming alien robots part -- movie about a smart, dweeby young guy getting both his first car and the girl of his dreams is now a movie about this nice young guy turning out to be the most important person in the universe, or what have you, a central figure in this eons-long, complicated mythology battle between good and bad robots after not one but two, I think, McGuffins. Aside from the Amos 'n Andy-like transformers, comic relief a la Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars prequel infamy, and the objectification of Megan Fox -- who doesn't do much besides languorous posing and some energetic running around in tight outfits (not exactly new in Hollywood) -- it doesn't seem like a huge threat to the republic. It is what it is. So, what is it? I've never met Michael Bay, but knew this movie was likely to be a phenomenon. So in the spring, I bought the DVD of the first Transformers -- which I've only seen one other time, in a theater -- and watched it with Bay's director's commentary track playing over the action. It was quite interesting, almost as much for what he didn't talk about as what he did. The commentary was all about the military and the technology, a little on casting, nothing about writing, and an awful lot on the staging of gigantic set-pieces. He frequently comes off as cocky or defensive, mostly about his reputation, and sometimes both. At one point in the action, he says, a little sheepishly: "You know, when you watch this movie ... right here. You're actually rooting for a truck! Isn't that silly? But it works!" That may sum up his view of these movies. At another point, he says: "Sound is 50% of a movie." I'd say that what Bay has done is take the conventions of action moviemaking, not all of which are in every action movie -- fast pace, violent action, fascination with tech, humor, elevated macho factor, elevated babe factor, and the conceit of the ordinary -- pare them down to bare essentials, and then inject them all with steroids. Bay is very proud of his close association with the US military on his pictures, such as The Rock, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Transformers. He gets huge cooperation, in terms of hardware, personel, and set design. Why? Because he makes them look good. He gets so much cooperation that he actually showed some current Navy ships in Pearl Harbor. The first showings of the Osprey and the F-22 stealth fighter, both highly controversial aircraft, as it happens, came in Transformers. Bay talked a lot about the transformers toys, and learning the lore of the toys, and the comics and animated show that grew up around them, and traveling around the world to promote the movie and all its tie-ins. He also talked a lot about learning to sell things hard and fast in commercials. Most of his references are to other directors, producers, studio heads, technical people, and stunt men. A little on the actors. On casting LaBeouf, who was good in last year's Indiana Jones picture, as the sympathetic teenage protagonist and the inexperienced Fox as as the uber-babe and providing them with motivation, by daring LaBeouf and angering the shy Fox. (Neither a shocking technique.) But no mention of the writers until the very end of the commentary, then only in passing. Which is ironic, in that he's worked with the same writers -- Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who wrote the very well-reviewed Star Trek reboot -- on his last three movies. Not that they have much to complain about, as they and another writer reportedly made $8 million on the script for the new Transformers picture. In his commentary, Bay delved not at all into the mythology of Transformers. His concept for the new movie, now exploding on screens? More robots, more fighting robots, bigger robots, more detail on robot faces. The second transformers picture has a big backstory grafted on to the usual formula of fighting robots, explosions, hot babes, inspirational montages, and a stalwart, propulsive, simplistic musical score. If he's not into the mythology, why bother? Perhaps to make the movie seem bigger and more consequential to its audience. In fact, most of his movies are quite long. Which otherwise makes little sense, as he's pared down the other elements to such an extent. Let's take a look at those movies. Now, if you're only into art house movies or domestic dramas, you won't like anything the guy's ever done. You also won't like any of the movies I write about, which tend to be things that have some impact in the popular culture. 1995's action-comedy Bad Boys was the first feature film directed by Bay, a veteran commercials and music video director. Starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence as two wise-cracking Miami cops protecting a witness feistily played by Tea Leoni, the future Mrs. Fox Mulder and surely one of the most attractive women on the planet named after a beverage, it was good smartass fun and action. It set Bay up to direct some of the biggest movies of the next few years. In 1996, Bay directed The Rock, which I think of as his Bond picture. Sean Connery plays Bond. Bond, that is, with a slightly different name, who absconds with some of America's darkest secrets and is clandestinely imprisoned for 30 years after breaking out of Alcatraz, the famed old prison in the middle of San Francisco Bay known as "The Rock." Only to be brought out of supermax confinement when a disgruntled Marine general and his men steal nerve gas and rockets, take over Alcatraz Island, and threaten to kill everybody in San Francisco if the White House doesn't apologize for covering up the deaths of Americans on secret missions. Connery is brought out of the depths of the prison system to help a quirkily brilliant FBI chemist played by quirky Nicolas Cage and an ill-fatedly macho Navy Seal team to break into Alcatraz and stop the threat. It's clever, it's fun, it's preposterous but actually quite good. (I told you I like action movies.) There are a lot of character moments, clever dialogue (including Connery pricking the picture's balloon a bit by quoting Oscar Wilde's line that "Patriotism is the virtue of the vicious), and thundering if frequently over-wrought action. This is when Bay starts getting military cooperation on his movies. A superior popcorn picture, though the babe factor is lower than his other movies, as women are relegated to Cage's worried fiancee and Connery's daughter-he-never-knew-he-had. From when he escaped from Alcatraz and met a girl at a Grateful Dead concert, or whatever ... Things went off the rails with 1998's Armageddon, in which a team of oil drillers led by Bruce Willis has to save the planet from a giant meteor, while Liv Tyler brings the babe factor as Willis's daughter engaged to his colleague Ben Affleck. Beyond the picture's ludicrous premise, the movie is so filled with scientific inaccuracies that it's been shown in NASA management classes to see if trainees can pick out all the errors. I think this is the movie that sunk Bay with the critics. The action is heavily telegraphed and overly iconic, the music overwrought in its tear-jerking and flag-waving. And this is the movie that devalues smart people who know stuff in favor of a guy who hits golf balls against a Greenpeace ship. Bay gets huge military cooperation on the movie. 2001 brought Pearl Harbor, about, naturally, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that marked the beginning of America's involvement in World War II. By this point, Bay was becoming a whipping boy for critics. Armageddon was a big hit, and I was entertained, but it left a a bad taste with the obviousness of its manipulation. I think also that, had Pearl Harbor come out several months after 9/11 rather than several months before it, it would have been better received and an even bigger hit. Bay was dinged for plenty of inaccuracies, but they were basically minor and in service of the flow of entertainment rather than any serious distortion of history. (Though the relative soft-pedaling of Japanese imperialism may have come with an eye on Japanese box office.) The babe factor is high, with Brit Kate Beckinsale leading a bevy of Navy nurses and actually being an authority figure in her own right as an officer. But the most serious attempt at a romance in a Bay picture falls short. The chemisty of the love triangle between Beckinsale's nurse and Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett as childhood friends-turned-pilots doesn't get much beyond lukewarm. Ironically, a pre-Alias fame Jennifer Garner, who later married Affleck, also in the movie as one of Beckinsale's Navy nurses, might have altered that equation had the casting gone differently. Still, I like the movie. Perhaps because I'm fascinated by the lost paradise of Hawaii before the attack and the endless complications for America after that. And perhaps because it's a rousing movie filled with characters who have their hearts in the right place. Needless to say, Bay gets enormous military cooperation on the picture. Bay directed Bad Boys II in 2003, another big hit with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, but I didn't see it, as I'm not really into cop shows. And it came out as the California recall election campaign was beginning, so there was more than enough real-life drama to deal with. In 2005, Bay tried a different approach, a dystopic scifil thriller called The Island with Ewan McGregor as a guy who learns that the key things he thinks he knows about the world and his life are precisely wrong. Scarlett Johansson brings the babe factor as someone with whom he has more in common than he imagines. This downbeat story resulted in a rare non-hit for Bay. But not long after, he got a call from Steven Spielberg, who, as a producer, seems to be the godfather of the Transformers pictures, asking him to direct Transformers. And the rest, as they say, is history. Whether we like it or not, as Gavin Newsom might put it. Bay refined the formula he'd used in his previous action blockbusters, making the action even faster and choppier, to the extent that it's not always easy to know which robot is doing what. But to many folks today, that codes as exciting. And speed usually helps move things along, passing the preposterous, as we know from the thrill ride that is 24. Accelerated action, louder sound, bigger explosions, more spectacular tech, more iconic babe factor, more singularly important yet accessible male hero. It's all there. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Transformers The Island Pearl Harbor Bad Boys The Rock Armageddon
 
Patricia Zohn: Culture Zohn: A Girl's Guide to Love and Ballet: Swan Lake Top
If you say the word ballet to most people, up will pop an image of a girl in a white tutu looking vaguely swan-like, standing on her toes. This is probably because the most famous ballet of all time -- and for my money, with good reason -- is Swan Lake , the 19th century work by Tchaikovsky that I can hum for you so deeply is it embedded. Tchaikovsky wrote this masterwork between 1875 and 1876, and though some think of it as over-the-top and filled with romantic excess, I have never been able to get enough of its lush, stirring movements. It's on my iPod , and I often play it when I either want to be uplifted, or in some cases, to have a good cry. Part of the reason of course is the perfectly tragic ballet that goes along with it. The story of Odette, the princess who has been cursed by an evil sorcerer Von Rothbart to live as a swan, and her doomed love for Prince Siegfried has been performed continuously all over the world since its debut. I grew up with the Act II highlights that George Balanchine edited for the NY City Ballet in years when story ballets were anathema, and he cut the top and tail, the acts with the kitschy Russian soldiers and the Queen Mother parading around and the peasant girls vying for the Prince's attention. Those parts, the more Grand Opera, posy, presentational moments, are in stark contrast with the scenes of swan maidens in formation, flying overhead or darting through glades of trees and atop haunting craggy rocks. But now I love the American Ballet Theater version by Kevin McKenzie, the full monty of queens, maidens, maypoles and swans. Balanchine's version cut the denouement when the Prince, who is forced to choose a bride, sees Odile, dressed in stunning black, the daughter Von Rothbart has brought to tempt him. She is beautiful and flirtatious, a dark version of Odette, and Siegfried is indeed spellbound. He is on the verge of asking for her hand when a vision of the suffering Odette appears and he realizes he has been duped by the canny magician. On Saturday night, Nina Ananiashvili, the ballet diva and one of the world's most beloved Odette-Odiles finally laid down her feathery headwrap in NY. It seems unfathomable that she is bidding us farewell as she looked every bit the part and did not falter on her fouettes -- the famously challenging turns. Nina Ananiashvili and Angel Corella in Swan Lake . Photo: MIRA. The Russians have pretty much had a lock on famous Swan maidens and this is because they get their Tchaikovsky in the water over there. I was as enraptured as ever by her elegance and her heart and thought both her Prince, Angel Corella and her master, Mercelo Gomes were commensurately inspiring. Though I have been at the Met Opera house this year for glorious performances, there was really nothing to compare with this outpouring for a beloved dancer's culmination. After a sustained ovation, flashing cameras, homages by other dancers and a floral shower, Ananiashvili crossed the stage one last time, her back to us, facing her fellow swans and colleagues. It's those arms, those undulating boneless-looking snakelike marvels, that are deservedly renown. Nina Ananiashvili in Swan Lake . Photo: Nancy Ellison. And here we are once again in the nineteenth century dilemma of the good girl v. bad girl , in this case rendered in stark black and white. The good girl finally gets the guy but they are a double suicide to be reunited in the afterlife. It's not easy being in love.
 
Francesca Biller-Safran: Jackson's Death means We're All Older Now and Need to Sober Up Top
The passing of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett has hit us near-baby boomers and full-on baby boomers with a rock and roll punch to the gut we weren't ready for. We were the generation who was going to live forever, immortalized with youthful hip-ness, and mastered knowing how to be laid back while simultaneously running corporations. We also coined the phrase "Never trust anyone over age thirty" while we will now do anything to look as young as 30. But what do we do know? Farrah Fawcett's death was hard enough to take. The wide-smiled blonde icon of the 1970's graced the walls of every adolescent boy's room in the Western hemisphere, making us all feel sexy, and that youth and beauty was ours for the taking . . . forever. But she passed away from cancer, was 62, and we were prepared, as much as we could be; although memories of her summery California looks and roles that ranged from a Charlie's bubbly angel to a beaten wife in the cult TV docudrama "The Burning Bed" are haunting me still. A couple hours later, CNN sent another breaking news email. I had thought another plane may have crashed, a tsunami killed thousands in some third-world country, or another suicide bombing had left hundreds dead. Sadly, what else may be new? But the one-line email reported that pop star Michael Jackson had been rushed to a hospital with cardiac arrest. A stream of weird and panicked emotions flooded my body as I first reacted by manically calling friends, my father and some who didn't care. Most of my thoughts then turned to how old he was--how could Michael Jackson die? How could the singer of "ABC" , "I'll Be There" and "Thriller" die? After all, I brought down the house at my own prom and parties with dance moves to his songs, with "Rock with You" the first disco song I accepted, and again . . . wasn't he really, really young? I tuned on the television and was hyped up and broken down at the same time. We all knew he had been in trouble for a long time. We knew he had a lot of mental and emotional issues, and watched him like some sort of sideshow freak as the news had portrayed him as 'Wacko Jacko' over the last few years. But I didn't see him this way. The tabloids always take the worst and make up the most vile of stories out of untruths, in order, they think, to help us feel our own lives are somehow better than the kings and queens of celebrity-hood, and to make money above all. When I thought of Jackson, I thought of the early 1980s when I was still a kid. I thought of his manic, genius, flawless dancing and moonwalk across the stage during award shows, and moves that even propelled the legendary Fred Astaire to compliment him on his grace, perfection and unique artistry. I thought of my own youth, when I was energetic beyond words, rowdy, excited and without a care in the world except having fun and being careless because I could. When Jackson was finally pronounced dead and the sound bites on cable news programs morphed into a long parade of surreal words and images that sobered me up, I knew it had to be drugs. I was too young to remember the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Elvis Presley. My god, Presley was only 42 when he died. I was too young to understand the significance of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy. But I'm not too young to understand the tragic death of Jackson, and this means were not merely all getting older, but more jaded as well. My parents don't understand. They have been losing icons for twenty years. But Ed McMahon was 86, it was his time. As I reflect back on my adolescence and childhood which now escapes me like some sort of weird, untouchable narrative, I am truly grieving. This does not just mean my generation is truly feeling the ravages of age, loss and hard times that has even killed a young celebrity; it makes us feel we "somehow" have to close the door once and for all on the fantasy that we will are immortal and put our own childhoods, at least in most respects, laid to rest as well. The later eighties and nineties went by in a flash, with most of us building careers and families, buying homes, cars and keeping up with the Joneses. We are a generation that worked hard at being financially fulfilled at all costs, spent "quality time" with our own kids, something a lot of us didn't get with our own parents, and tried to keep that sweet adolescence of the 70's close to the hearth, as for some of us, these were the best time of our lives. As millions of boomers have now traded in their daily joints for prescription drugs, we also feel for Michael, as no one has been untouched by drug addiction, either street drugs or prescription medication, either personally or by family members and friends. We will all have our own way of grieving and celebrating. As a child of the seventies who remembers The Partridge Family, corduroy bell bottoms, Camero's, Fat Albert, Soul Train and American Bandstand on Saturday mornings, and now the death of 50-year-old Jackson, I have made a conscious choice to celebrate how grateful I am to grow up during that era, rather than only mourn its loss. But we must all seriously and honestly deal with this new epidemic of prescription drug abuse that has most likely contributed to Jackson's death, and has resulted in addictions and deaths in many forms and astronomical terms yet unforeseen for our generation and others. According to recent statistics, from 2001 to 2005, more than 32,000 people died because of prescription drug overdoses, more than heroin and cocaine combined, with numbers for the past few years expected much higher, and with addiction growing highest among teens and baby boomers. If there is anything to be gained, it is the hard lesson that we are all in danger of self medicating ourselves and self-destructing, and having that legacy be the one our children may remember most about us. And that is a bitter pill none of should be willing to swallow. More on Michael Jackson
 
Ryan Haydon and Stefani Piermattei: REAL DEAL REASON / The Bachelorette June 29th Recap Top
It was either when Zombie Jake started crying or Jillian went through the lasagna test, but at some point in this episode we realized that we were in the midst of reality TV gold. And, as big fans of Real Housewives of New Jersey, we knew a thing or two about great reality TV. Jillian Harris might not be much of a catch, but she sure is a wonderful watch-someone-else-grab-her-and-throw-her-in-a-bucket-think-about-it-and-then-finally-figure-they-couldn't-do-much-better. That's right, we've reached the family meeting phase and we're officially in the Last Call stages of the show. Jillian Harris is gonna stumble into a cab with someone... who's it gonna be? Jillian Harris began with Reid's family. They thought her interior design experience would be helpful in the family business of real estate. Then they watched glue harden and grass grow and water evaporate. When we woke up, we found Jillian with Michael, who tried to pull a "Parent Trap" with his littermate brother. Jillian's stupid, but not that stupid as it worked for nearly three seconds. Then Jillian scampered over to Kiptyn's, whose parents made the wise choice of taping off the hot tub. She threatened that that wouldn't stop her from being gross in someone else's hot tub. You know, making a good first impression. His mom left grill marks on her by asking her hypothetical, psuedo-women's lib, psuedo-new age questions. Then she poked Harris in the rear with a digital thermometer. Time to get her off the grill and into a hot tub, where she could make out with Kiptyn. Next she galloped out to wine country to meet Jesse's Hungarian gypsies parents. His brother, who would totally be played by Jack Black in The Bachelorette: The Movie , asked if she got naughty under a quilt yet. They finished the evening with kooky dance music and tambourines. And that's when it turned into a comic book. Harris traipsed down to Texas to be in Wes' latest music video - this time with his family band. The first song was called "I Have a Girlfriend (and She Ain't Jillian)". Jillian swooned. Meanwhile , Captain America abandoned flight 204 to Seattle to rescue Jillian. She received this heroic and brave quest with contempt, as if he were a plate of rubbery calamari. Jake persevered and summoned all of his will power (after a quick pick-me-up phone call with Dr. Foot Tanner) to tattle on Wes, post- rosa . Jillian didn't believe him (would you?) and told him she'd grill Wes herself. Jake obliged and reminded her that if she needed him, she could find him next to the brochure stand drinking complementary coffee in the Ramada Inn near the airport. Jillian got her best grill face on, and grilled Wes with the ferocious flames of an unplugged George Foreman Grill. Wes continued to try to tell Jillian to get away from him, by reminding her he's not a good liar and that if she doesn't like him , then he doesn't like her either! The classic 7th grade mind game. He spoke with the gentleness of a brillo pad. But Jillian knew better - perhaps there was a lie under the lying liar's lie - and she needed to see Good and Evil battle it out in front of her. Jake and Wes took gentlemanly turns calling the other a liar until Jake left, reminding Jillian he's there for her. Whenever she sees a Boeing 767 cross the horizon, she should remember Captain America is out there - or crying on a third rate hotel balcony. Jillian finally met Wes' family after he uninvited her. We can't agree whether Wes' girlfriend, Laurel, was also his sister, or that his "family" was a bunch of local Austin actors he hired, but they made an irresponsibly strong case for Wes as Jillian's dream-douche. She felt reassured when his platonic sister reminded Wes several times that guys would always be jealous of him. Just when things didn't seem stupid enough, Ed lost his job and was bored couldn't stop thinking about Jillian Harris (and really, who CAN stop thinking about her?) and returned for a rose. Jillian did her best to hide her excitement, which is of course to say, she grinned so wide it broke our TV. Harris reminded her that he's been bad, and he'll have to make up for it, but she invited Zombie Ed to the already crowded Rose Ceremony. Four roses for five six guys, who, regardless of how base and ordinary they seem, certainly don't deserve this fate. Sadly, Reid, Kiptyn, Zombie Ed and what the f*ck, are you serious, how stupid can you be!?! Wes got roses. Baby Michael was sent home for more booster shots and Jesse left for his Fleetwood Mac rehearsals with his family. Biggest Winner: Zombie Ed (2 points) You're telling us you can take a rose, leave the show, keep the rose, come back and skip like three elimination Rose ceremonies? This guy is the chessmaster of reality dating shows! Honorable Mention: Wes (5 points) They say that love, it don't come e--e--easy. Neither do record deals, and he's WORKING HARD. Biggest Loser: Jillian (negative all the points) Forever and from now on. Jillian is the new dumb. Honorable mention: Zombie Jake (3 points). I get it. It's emotional. Hold it together for 10 more minutes and don't cry on national television. Don't forget, we liveblog each week so join us for real time commentary and Bachelor Point tallying! Scoreboard: Team Ryan took the week 12 to 11 DESPITE two Zombies (Jake and Ed) emerging for Team Stef. Next week they battle things out fair-like with two Bachelors a side. Team Ryan 192- Team Stef 176 TEAM RYAN (12 points this week, 192 overall) WES (5, 38) REID (4, 29) JESSE (9, 32) ELIMINATED ROBBY (0, 23) ELIMINATED TANNER P. (0, 24) ELIMINATED MARK (0, 15) ELIMINATED JUAN (0, 19) ELIMINATED SASHA (0, 7) ELIMINATED MATHUE (0, 2) ELIMINATED JULIEN (0, 0) ELIMINATED TEAM STEF (11 points this week, 176 overall) KIPTYN (3, 47) ZOMBIE ED (2, 27) ELIMINATED GONE RESURRECTED MICHAEL (3, 25) ELIMINATED ZOMBIE JAKE (3, 20) ELIMINATED DAVID (0, 25) ELIMINATED MIKE (0, 12) ELIMINATED BRAD (0, 9) ELIMINATED TANNER F. (0, 5) ELIMINATED SIMON (0, 2) ELIMINATED BRIAN (0, 2) ELIMINATED you can find a explanation of Bachelor Points at the bottom of this post More on Reality TV
 
Merrill Markoe: I Know How to Save the Republican Party! Top
It was never a short or long range goal of mine to save the Republican party. But it came to me yesterday how they can do it. Now my altruistic side has got the better of me. It hit me after reading Maureen Dowd's column in the Sunday New York Times. Here's her final sentence: " The Republican Party will never revive itself until its sanctimonious pantheon- Sanford, Gingrich, Limbaugh, Palin , Ensign, Vitter and hypocrites yet to be exposed- stop being two faced ." In just that short list of names, she covered illicit theatrical affairs, unwed teenage moms, cruel poorly timed dumping of first wives, drug addiction and stretching the truth. Add Larry Craig , Mark Foley, Ted Stevens and Jack Abramoff and you also add spicy alternative sex hookups, bribery, tax fraud, and fancy vacation houses. Now put them all together and what do you get? The new Republican Party image: From Grand Old Party to Big Old Party! The New BOP! All they have to do, to win over millions, is keep doing the things that they're already doing only really embrace them. Voila! It's their "new brand!" That's where Maureen Dowd's piece takes a wrong turn. She's stuck in the old GOP, where they used to look down on the stuff they were secretly doing. In the all new BOP, they're Two Faced and In Your Face! Just like Sara Palin said, when she shrugged off questions about her then pregnant unwed high school aged daughter; "Life happens!" Damn straight! "Because that's the way we do it in the new BOP. The party that lives to love and loves to party! We're the mid life crisis dawgs and playas, dressed for business but looking for fun. And shit yes, sometimes our teenage daughters get pregnant! Life's for living! We do what we want, when we want and then find a way to explain it! We take no prisoners. Unless we can post their pictures with panties on their heads! We're The New In Your Face Two Faced Shit Faced BOP. " Actually I'm scared this might be a little TOO effective. More on Maureen Dowd
 
Andy Borowitz: Ruth Madoff: 'This Is Not the Man I Owned Nine Homes With' Top
Just hours after her husband Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for masterminding a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, Ruth Madoff expressed shock and dismay at her husband's behavior, telling reporters, "This is not the man I owned nine homes with." "When you spend hundreds of millions of dollars with someone, you think you know him," she said. "I guess I was wrong." Mrs. Madoff said she was kept "totally in the dark" about her husband's activities because he used a clever cover story: "He told me he was hiking the Appalachian Trail." Read more here . Andy Borowitz is a comedian and the author of Who Moved My Soap? The CEO's Guide to Surviving in Prison: The Bernie Madoff Edition. . He performs Thursday July 2 in New York at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca. Tickets available here . More on New York
 
Steve Rosenbaum: Is Broadband a Civil Right? Top
There are some moments when you can feel the conversation change -- and the world tilt from right to left. Today was one of those days. It began early at the Personal Democracy Forum in New York City. The PdF as it's known, is now in it's 6th year -- and attracts the top talent in politics, consulting, and technology. Predictably, the conversation this year revolved around Twitter, Iran and the transformational power of social media to change the political landscape. The days agenda featured a list of Obama campaign and administration superstars -- and it perhaps is somewhat ironic that Julius Genakowski, the newly appointed FCC chairman wasn't able to attend, as he was being confirmed in DC just as the afternoon sessions began. But the elephant in the room wasn't about software, or technology -- it was about Broadband. The issues around Universal Access emerged as the most powerful metaphor for freedom, democracy, and free speech. So the conversation came to a head as PdF Founder Andrew Rasiejr moderated a panel about access with two of the industrys best know spokesman -- Hank Hultquist from ATT and James Assey from the National Cable Television Association. Also on the panel, activist Josh Silver from Free Press. For the bulk of the panel, Josh was the pitbull -- taking on big cable and telcos for being a "duopoly" and that they had the interests of their shareholders and profits above the public good. Surprisingly, neither of the industry spokesman denied the charge, rather pointing out that it was because of the free market that they'd been able to 'invest' in the infrastructure that today was bringing Broadband to the nation. The fact that our access is woefully behind most developed nations, and priced high and going higher, was left an open question. Then, as the panel was drawing to a close -- a woman got up to ask a question from the audience. She introduced herself as an Argentinean journalist, and said -- simply -- isn't' broadband access what is making the Iran Protests happen? Wasn't broadband and essential component of freedom and democracy. In short - should broadband access be a civil right? It was a question that was stunning in its simplicity. If the internet is the backbone of free speech and participation, how can it be owned by corporate interests whose primary concern isn't freedom or self expression or political dissent? Doesn't it have to be free? You could feel the room go silent. Hmm... freedom = broadband. Broadband as a right, not a privilege. Wow. That's the moment you could feel the conversation change.
 
Dave Hill: The Gayest Day of the Year Top
It's Monday and I am still coming down from the gayest day of the year (Gay Pride Day in New York City, in case you happen to live here and didn't leave the house) in a city that is already pretty gay year round if you really think about it. I am not a gay myself, but sort of like how everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day, I tried to gay it up as much as possible on Gay Pride Day anyway, stopping short of doing anything actually seriously gay that might have changed my totally not gay life forever. I started by having myself a delicious brunch (albeit by myself, which- to be fair is not very festive and- as a result- also not very gay. It is important to note here that sometime a part of being fierce is to "work it" or tell other that "they better work." This has almost nothing to do with going to one's place of employment, so do not get confused by this and go to your job instead or you will likely be made of later, possibly on the dancefloor, where often things are at their gayest) and then just sort of walking around my neighborhood being as fierce as possible (a popular thing to do among gays), which- given the fact that I was kind of tired and all- mostly consisted of me just putting on a bright yellow T-shirt and wearing sunglasses that I am pretty sure were meant for an old lady. Given the level of gayness that was happening all around me, however, it was really hard to compete with the actual gays who were gaying it up like it was some kind of contest (which I guess it sort of it when it gets right down to it). By mid-afternoon, I kind of gave up and just went home and didn't really act very gay at all other than working on my abs for a bit. Things got slightly gayer at night as a couple of my good friends, who happen to be totally gay even though I don't in any way think of them as "my gay friends" because I am really, really open-minded and accepting of their super-gay lifestyle (except for when they do something totally gay right in front me and it's really more than I can handle), called me up to meet up with them and celebrate their gayness. Because I didn't want to become gay by association, I was hesitant at first but in the end decided to fully gay it up with them for a little while before we went our separate ways, me to go home and be so totally not gay that it's not even fucking funny and them to go home and probably be so gay that it's actually kind of ridiculous. Now it's Monday and the streets of New York have gone back to just being sort of gay instead of totally gay. I miss the dancing in the streets and the good gay times in general though. I think we could all stand to gay it up a little more each day, even people like me who are totally into having intercourse sex with chicks. Gay it up, New York City! Gay it up, America! You know you want to! Dave Hill
 
Meg Favreau: A Letter From the Cosmos Regarding the Death of Michael Jackson Top
Hello Americans! The spiritual center of the universe here. I'm just reaching out across countless galaxies, through burning stars and endlessly dark black holes, to tell you to STFU about Michael Jackson. Oh, don't make that face and proceed to perform a stiff-lipped, defiant "Thriller" dance in my direction (which, yes, is everywhere ). I'm not telling you to stop because I'm sick of hearing about MJ (although, yes, I am) -- it's for the safety of your eternal soul. See, it's a matter of universal balance. The Chinese refer to it as yin and yang. The idea also factors heavily into the Hindu concept of karma. How else to explain it...Paula Abdul needs Simon Cowell. And, yes, Simon needs Paula. Randy is just there to let people know that the show isn't racist. Anyhow. This balance. Normally, when someone who is close to you like your grandmother dies, you mourn their death by discussing your memories of that person extensively. This process will take several days. Right now, people are treating the death of Michael Jackson like everyone's grandmother died at once, and everyone's grandmother had a monster-based dance move and bunch of top-40 hits they could blast in every single public and non-public venue for 72 hours straight. All of this mourning of someone you didn't really know is throwing off the balance of your soul (or, as I like to call it, your "Personality Black Box" that I fish from the depths of your body when you die to figure out WTF went wrong). "Oh!" you might argue. "We're not crying. We're not upset. We're just remembering Michael." Here's a tip: when you remember, use your brain voice, not CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, ESPN, every major newspaper, every pre- and post-show soundtrack, all of the internet, and every magazine except the Dowsers Quarterly journal. No one wants to hear about your Michael Jackson memories, unless you're the Culkin child and can set a few rumors straight. If you danced to "Billie Jean" on your first date with your wife, if you first-learned what crotch grabbing was at a young age from watching a televised concert, welcome to the cross-section of humanity known as "pretty much everyone." Yeah, the guy wasn't old, and premature deaths are always sad. But nobody would argue that that man was in perfect mental or physical health. And, moreover, even though he was working on his comeback tour, I think we can all agree that Michael was not likely to ever make music better than his old stuff. A lot of you, if you look deep inside of your Personality Black Boxes, would probably realize that you didn't even like Michael Jackson as a person; you found him creepy, but you enjoyed his music. I'm not trying to be callous (although I can be: vengeful god, etc. etc.), but please, let's be reasonable: the coverage, both from the media and from your mouth-hole, is way overdone. Put away your MJ albums for a couple of weeks so when you listen to them again, you're not completely tired of the music. Anyway, that's all I've got for you today. Oh, and I know I haven't communicated with you in a while, so feel free to print this page out and tape it in the back of whatever holy book you subscribe to. Xo, SCotU (Spiritual Center of the Universe) More on Michael Jackson
 
Jon And Kate Release A Statement To Say They Will Be Private Top
One week after filing divorce papers, Jon & Kate Gosselin are speaking out - for what they say is the last time - and claim their focus is on their eight children. "During this very difficult time we will be working to focus solely on the needs of our family," the reality TV stars say in a joint statement posted on the TLC Web site. "This includes no longer commenting publicly or reacting to media stories and speculation." More on Jon & Kate Plus 8
 
Sarah Jessica Parker And Matthew Broderick's TWINS: The First Photo Top
NEW YORK — Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick are sharing the first photo of their twin daughters. The baby girls _ Marion Loretta Elwell Broderick and Tabitha Hodge Broderick _ were born last Monday at an Ohio hospital to a surrogate mother. The photo, taken Monday in New York, shows a happy family: Parker and Broderick are smiling, each holding a twin. Their 6-year-old son, James Wilkie Broderick, stands in between mom and dad, gazing down at one of his little sisters. More on Celebrity Kids
 
Matthew Weigman, Blind Phone Hacker, Sentenced To 11 Years In Prison Top
A legally blind Massachusetts phone hacker was sentenced Friday to over 11 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea on computer intrusion and witness intimidation charges earlier this year.
 
Yemeni Plane Crashes Off Comoros, 150 On Board Top
SAN'A, Yemen — A Yemenia Air plane going from the Arabian Peninsula country of Yemen to the island nation of Comoros has crashed in the Indian Ocean, a Yemen airport official said Tuesday. The official said the plane was going from the Yemen capital San'a to Moroni, on the main island of Grand Comore. It was not known how many passengers were on board the Airbus 310 or the status of the passengers and crew. The official said most of the passengers on the plane were believed to be Comoros residents returning from Paris. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The Comoros is an archipelago of three main islands situated about 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometer) south of Yemen, between Africa's southeastern coast and Madagascar.
 
Michael Jackson's Will: Most Recent Document Is Believed To Leave Out His Father Top
A will drafted by Michael Jackson in 2002, which divides the singer's estate among his mother, three children and one or more charities, could play a central role in determining how his tangled financial relationships will be unwound. More on Michael Jackson
 

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