The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
- Massive Old Post Office Headed For Auction
- London Police Accused Of Waterboarding Suspects
- Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill Released -- Help Us Read Through It
- Sarah Palin Defines Socialism Sideways (And The Rest Of Today's Scritti Politti)
- Tom Watson: The Right Wing's Own 'False Prophet'
- Senate HELP Committee Releases Health Reform Bill
- Ambitious Plan Would Create Fully Open Chicago Lakefront, Add 500 Acres Of Parks
- In Midst Of Warzone, Afghanistan Protecting 33 Species
- Supreme Court Clears Way For Sale Of Chrysler To Fiat
- BofA CEO: Fed And Treasury Officials Pressed For, Helped Fund Merrill Merger
- John Ruff, Roland Burris' Colleague Turned Accuser, Dies In Car Crash At 42
- Fox Business Network Has No Idea What's Going On (VIDEO)
- Johann Hari: The Three Ticking Time Bombs Under British Politics
- Lisa Madigan, Other State Officials Staying Mum On Tax Hike
- Steele: God Help White Men Appearing Before A Sotomayor Court
- Signed Letter From Landrieu Shows She Supported Public Option Before She Opposed It
- Scott Malcomson: Obama: The Roger Federer of Politics
- Obama Admin In Talks With Palau On Uighur Detainees
- Jim Watkins: Sleeping With The (TV) Enemy
- ZP Heller: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Air Raid Victim Tells Obama to Leave Afghanistan
- Ariston Anderson: The Webby Award Speech: the original Twitter
- Blaise Zerega: How the Catholic Church Fought for Interracial Marriage and What It Means for Gay Rights
- Murdoch, Ailes, Cheney Toast Charles Krauthammer At Private Luncheon
- Matthews Calls Gingrich Comments Xenophobic, "Anti-World" (VIDEO)
- Stuart Whatley: Women's Rights In Afghanistan Depends On Where One Lives
| Massive Old Post Office Headed For Auction | Top |
| The bidding will start at $300,000. That's the suggested minimum bid for the hulking 77-year-old building that was once Chicago's main post office. The postal service announced Tuesday it was putting the 3-million-square-foot building up for auction after a deal with a private developer fell through. The building at 433 W. Van Buren spans the Eisenhower Expressway. Once the largest postal facility in America, the building has been vacant since 1995, when the postal service moved to its current location on Harrison Street. "The Postal Service has tried traditional methods to sell this property," said Tom Samra, vice president of facilities, in a press release. "We are confident the innovation and transparency of an open auction will result in the sale of this building." The Postal Service decided to auction the building after a deal to sell it to Walton Street Capital collapsed, Crain's Chicago Business reports . According to Crain's , Walton Street planned to demolish part of the building and convert the remainder into 450,000 square feet of office space, 300 condominiums and a 236-room hotel. The firm had also secured $51 million in TIF money from the city. Rick Levin & Associates, Inc., a Chicago-based real estate auction marketing firm, will conduct the open, public outcry auction. The suggested opening bid is $300,000, though the property will be sold to the highest bidder, no matter the price. | |
| London Police Accused Of Waterboarding Suspects | Top |
| Metropolitan Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of a major anti-corruption inquiry, The Times has learnt. | |
| Kennedy Health Care Reform Bill Released -- Help Us Read Through It | Top |
| Dropping in at 615 pages is the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's attempt to fix the broken health care system. The HELP Committee is chaired by Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). The second-ranking Democrat, Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, had a large hand in drafting the bill as well, given Kennedy's absence from the committee while he battles brain cancer. If you want to help read through the committee's offering, sign up to be part of the research team by e-mailing submissions+healthcare@huffingtonpost.com . Or, if you can't wait that long, give it a read now and write me at ryan@huffingtonpost.com . The bill can be read here . A HELP Committee aide cautioned that the bill is not in its final form and that part of the reason for filing it is to meet a committee rule that requires a bill to be filed seven days before a vote can be held. Committee Democrats will be meeting with their Republican counterparts Wednesday and Thursday to hash out the bill's details. "On the legislation we'll introduce later today, there are some gaps in it and done so intentionally," said Dodd at a press conference earlier Tuesday. "There are no gaps in our determination, in my determination and that of my colleagues to have a public option, to have something done with the pay or play and deal with the follow on biologics. But I left those areas open for discussion, not because they're open for some sort of decision about whether or not we ought to move in that direction. But I want my Republican colleagues to know, I want their ideas, I want to hear what they have to say. This is a bill, it's an opening step." Kennedy's bill will get its first hearing on Thursday and is scheduled for a committee vote on Tuesday, June 16th. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said Tuesday that a committee vote on a health care bill could come as early as the week after next. The battle over the future of health care in America now enters a span of several months as important as any in a generation. Below is a statement released by Kennedy and further down is the health care bill itself. For the past year, Chairman Edward M. Kennedy and Democratic Members and staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) have been working to develop legislation that reduces health care costs, allows Americans to keep the coverage they have if they want it, and makes health insurance affordable to those who do not have it today. Today, while discussions between HELP Committee Democrats and Republicans on key outstanding issues continue, Chairman Kennedy released the landmark "Affordable Health Choices Act." Click here for a copy of the bill, http://help.senate.gov/BAI09A84_xml.pdf. "Our health care system is a crisis for American families and President Obama and members of Congress of both parties recognize the urgency of the problem. Our goal is to strengthen what works and fix what doesn't. Over the next few days, we will continue working with our Republican colleagues on common sense solutions that reduce skyrocketing health care costs, assure quality care for all and provide affordable health insurance choices. Much work remains, and the coming days and weeks won't be easy. But we have a unique opportunity to give the American people, at long last, the health care they need and deserve," said Senator Kennedy. Earlier this year, Kennedy and Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Finance Committee, which shares jurisdiction of health care reform with HELP, established a joint process that will lead to complementary legislation being marked-up in June and on the Senate floor by July. The HELP Committee is on track to meet that goal. On Wednesday, June 10 and Thursday, June 11, Democrats and Republicans on the Committee will meet to discuss outstanding legislative options such as the public option and employer mandate. A public hearing is scheduled for Thursday, June 11 at 3 p.m. in Dirksen 430. Mark-up will begin Tuesday, June 16 at 2:30 p.m. in Russell 325. Last year, Kennedy asked Senator Christopher J. Dodd, vice chair of the HELP Committee, to be his chief deputy on health reform to help lead the overall effort. In addition, Senators Tom Harkin, Barbara A. Mikulski, Jeff Bingaman and Patty Murray have also assumed leadership roles on key aspects of reform within the Committee. Since January, the Committee has held over a dozen public hearings on improving the quality of care, prevention and wellness, and expanding insurance coverage. "Health care reform cannot and must not wait. Today, we will introduce legislation that will strengthen what works and fix what doesn't. If you like the insurance you have today, you can keep it. If you don't like what you have today, we'll give you better choices, including a public option for health care. This does not symbolize the end of the game or even the end of the first quarter. We still have a lot of work ahead of us and are looking forward to working with our colleagues on a bipartisan basis to resolve the remaining issues and move forward with a mark-up of this legislation next week," Senator Dodd said. "All stakeholders in the health reform debate agree one of the keys to reining in the rising costs of health care in this country is to reduce chronic disease. Data shows that with an investment of $10 per person per year, community prevention programs could yield net savings of more than $18 billion annually within 10 to 20 years," said Senator Harkin. "This reform provides one of the largest investments in prevention and wellness initiatives, offering choices throughout the health care system. At the federal level, it creates a new inter-agency council to develop a national health strategy and a dedicated funding stream to support these efforts; at the clinical level, it provides coverage of preventive services and the elimination of co-pays and deductibles for these services; and at the grassroots level offers grants for community initiatives. It short, it realigns incentives to make it easier to be healthy and removes the barriers to preventive services like screenings for diabetes, depression, tobacco cessation, and nutrition counseling - to name just a few." "We can't fix the economy without fixing health care so families can afford it and businesses can afford it. We can't afford not to fix health care," said Senator Mikulski, who was asked by Chairman Kennedy to lead the Senate effort on improving health care quality. "A national health care quality strategy will provide solutions to the biggest problems - medical errors, preventable hospital readmissions and failure to manage chronic disease - that severely impact people, their lives, their checkbooks and national health care costs. Emphasizing quality improves lives, saves lives and helps pay for reform by saving money." "This bill introduction marks a very important step toward fixing our nation's broken health care system. As we continue developing this measure in the coming days and weeks, our primary goal will be to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable and quality health care," Senator Bingaman said. "Our health care reform bill is a step toward ensuring all Americans can see a doctor when they need one and that our long term economic strength is not held captive by the skyrocketing cost of care," Senator Murray said. "I applaud my colleagues for the hours of work they have all put in and thank Senators Kennedy and Dodd for their leadership in moving this forward. I am particularly proud that as we work to offer quality, affordable coverage to all Americans that we have included a plan to ensure we have enough health care professionals to provide that care. We still have work to do, but this bill is a good step forward on protecting patient choice, lowering costs and providing coverage for the millions of Americans who currently have none." A Quick Summary of the Affordable Health Choices Act Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP), today released The Affordable Health Choices Act, legislation that aims to reduce health care costs, protect individuals' choices of doctors, hospitals and insurance plans and guarantee, quality and affordable health care for all Americans. The Affordable Health Choices Act includes the following five major elements: CHOICE: An important foundation of The Affordable Health Choices Act is the following principle: If you like the coverage you have now, you keep it. But if you don't have health insurance or don't like the insurance you have, our bill will give you new, more affordable options. COST REDUCTION: The Affordable Health Choices Act will reduce health care costs through stronger prevention, better quality of care and use of information technology. It will also root out fraud and abuse and reduce unnecessary procedures. PREVENTION: The best way to treat a disease is to prevent it from ever striking, which is exactly why The Affordable Health Choices Act will give citizens the information they need to take charge of their own health. The bill will make information widely available in medical settings, schools and communities. It will also promote early screening for heart disease, cancer and depression and give citizens more information on healthy nutrition and the dangers of smoking. HEALTH SYSTEM MODERNIZATION: The Affordable Health Choices Act will take strong steps to see that America has a 21st-century workforce for a modern and responsive healthcare system. America must make sound investments in training the doctors, nurses, and other health professionals who will serve the needs of patients in the years to come. It will make sure that patients' care is better coordinated so they see the right doctors, nurses and other health practitioners to address their individual health needs. LONG TERM CARE AND SERVICES: The Affordable Health Choices Act will also make it possible for the elderly and disabled to live at home and function independently. It will help them afford to put ramps in their homes, pay someone to check in on them regularly, or any of an array of supports that will enable them to stay in their communities instead of in nursing homes. HELP bill - More on Ted Kennedy | |
| Sarah Palin Defines Socialism Sideways (And The Rest Of Today's Scritti Politti) | Top |
| Via Taegan Goddard . PALIN: We are the only state with a negative tax rate where we don't have any income, sales or property tax statewide, and yes we have a share of our oil resource revenue that goes back to the people that own the resources. Imagine that. HANNITY: And it went up higher since you've been the governor and you negotiated with the oil companies. That all went up so people get a bigger check. PALIN: There was a corrupt tax system up there and we had a couple of lawmakers end up in jail because of the tax system that was adopted so we cleaned it up and said we wanted a fair and equitable share of the resources that we own, and the people will share in those resource revenues that are derived. (A few minutes later...) PALIN: If Americans aren't paying attention, unfortunately our country could evolve into something that we do not even recognize. Certainly that is so far from what the founders of our country had in mind for us. HANNITY: Socialism? PALIN: Well... that is where we are headed. Ahh, yes. Socialism . OH NOES! REVERSE COURSE! Head in the direction of GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION IN INDUSTRY FOR THE PURPOSES OF BASE POLITICAL CRONYISM BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. Also, The Part Where Glenn Beck Vents Gas Into The Air Is Pretty Great : The best part of Media Matters' mashup of talking heads getting all sorts of facts wrong , because there's never any accountability for anyone -- right, Fred Hiatt, journalism's worst editorial page editor? -- is this tone poem by Rush Limbaugh: The sea eats oil. The sea eats oil...alive. That place up there? Nature cleaned it up faster Than we ever could "Ski Injury," Eh? : Via Balk , this has got to be the most disingenuous thing Sarah Palin has ever tweeted . Seasons change : But the Washington Independent 's Dave Weigel captured something annoyingly perennial in the Nation's Capitol. Lehmann On The Poverty Narrative : " So it would seem , in other words, that government has done more than its share to shape the suburban housing market, and its many higher-performing lily-white school districts. It's just that, on the New York Post end of the journalism market, no op-ed contributor is about to point out that his or her aggrieved white suburban readers are actually de facto dole beneficiaries; and the midtown savants at the gleaming new Times tower want to turn any available story about social class into a parable on the variable meanings of diversity, and how they make for comparative attitudes of stick-to-it-iveness in your individually sampled Supreme Court justice-in-the-making." [Would you like to follow me on Twitter ? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here .] More on Poverty | |
| Tom Watson: The Right Wing's Own 'False Prophet' | Top |
| Like so many kvelling George Costanzas, frantically waving a bill of sale to a used LeBaron convertible as proof of their brush with fame and an Academy Award, right-wing bloggers are falling over themselves to wrap themselves in the glow of "the great Jon Voight." Reason: Voight's incrediby irresponsible, un-American, and dangerous description of the President of the United States as a " false prophet " at a Republican fundraiser that also featured those Bobbsey Twins of Hope, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich. You'd think Voight was playing his best-known current role (outside of grandpa to the offspring of Branjelina) - that of 24 madman and insurrectionist Jonas Hodges - when he spewed this garbage into the business end of the Congressional GOP: It's no wonder that the Russian newspaper Pravda, the former house organ for the former Soviet Communist regime, has said the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed. We can blame Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, George Soros, David Axelrod and their ilk for the downfall of this country. It saddens me greatly to think we were the great power for good in the world. We as Americans knew America to be strong. And we were the liberators of the entire world. We are becoming a weak nation. Obama really thinks that he is a soft-spoken Julius Ceaser. He thinks he's going to conquer the world with his soft-spoken sweet talk. And really thinks he's going to bring all the enemies of the world into a little playground where they'll swing each other back and forth. We and we alone are the right frame of mind to free this nation from this Obama oppression. But oh the paroxysms of pleasure quivering in the downtrodden conservative blogosphere. "A strong conservative voice," praised the Infidel Bloggers Alliance , a conservative blog that features the classy "Infidel Babe of the Week." "Voight in 2012?" asks the pragmatic right-wingers at Hot Air (I'm rooting for Palin-Gingrich, personally). "Not your typical Hollywood libtard!" enthuses the obsessively named FireAndreaMitchell blogger. "Brave man," cooed Michelle Malkin . There are others, as Voight enjoys that moment in the sun reserved for retirees and recent converts to an ideology, but why go on? This is better anyway - and emblematic of the true value of the newly-minted conservative star: More on Barack Obama | |
| Senate HELP Committee Releases Health Reform Bill | Top |
| This is it.This is what health reform looks like. Embedded in that link is actual legislative language. More than 600 pages of it, in fact. It's the preliminary first draft of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee's bill (there are still some holes that will be filled in Friday or Monday). It's the work of Chris Dodd, but more properly understood, the product of his mentor, Ted Kennedy (and his staff), who has been grinding away at this issue for decades. | |
| Ambitious Plan Would Create Fully Open Chicago Lakefront, Add 500 Acres Of Parks | Top |
| Sea changes could be coming to Chicago's iconic lakefront landscape if an advocacy group gets its way. A plan released Tuesday by the non-profit Friends of the Parks proposes adding 500 acres of new parks and beaches to make continuous and publicly accessible the 30 miles of Chicago lakefront from Evanston to Indiana. The Last Four Miles: Completing Chicago's Lakefront Parks represents the culmination of three years of public hearings and architectural and engineering research into how to fulfill Daniel Burnham's 100-year-old vision for a publicly accessible lakefront. "The lakefront in Chicago, unlike other waterfront cities in the U.S., is public and was created with much sacrifice for all to enjoy," said Erma Tranter, the group's executive director, in a press release. "The notion that the lakefront belongs to all of us has been deeply imbued in our character from the time of the city's incorporation." Under the Last Four Miles plan , two miles of new parks would be created on both the south and north lakefront at the following locations: South Side : • Between 71st and 75th Streets • Between 79th Street and Calumet Park at 95th, encompassing the former U.S. Steel manufacturing plant. North Side : • Between Ardmore Avenue and Loyola Park • Between Touhy Avenue and the Chicago-Evanston border. The areas are two of Chicago's most park-starved, with less than two acres of park space for every 1,000 residents. That's far below the National Recreation and Park Association standard of 10 acres per 1000 residents. The plan would cost between $350 million to $450 million, Tribune architecture crtitic Blair Kamin reports . The proposed parks would include beaches, recreational fields, the pedestrian/bike trail, natural areas and landscaping to promote aquatic and wildlife habitat. Some versions of the plan include peninsulas that jut out into the lake and create calm areas for swimming or kayaking. The additional public parks and beaches would reclaim existing landscapes that include the former U.S Steel and Youngstown Steel plants, a waste disposal facility for contaminated sediments and waterfront that's currently fenced off. Previous efforts to close the gaps have been met with suspicion , particularly by lakefront property owners who fear Lake Shore Drive would be expanded or that new development would take place between them and the lake. "Our vision of completing the lakefront parks does not involve roadways, does not involve marinas, does not involve commercial development," said public trust and policy director Eleanor Roemer. "It is strictly a park project." Despite the sense of completion projected by Friends of the Parks, the plan is far from winning acceptance in City Hall. Neither Mayor Daley nor the Chicago Parks District has endorsed the plan and the Tribune 's Kamin characterized the response of the district's planning and development director as "tepid." See renderings of the proposed plan: Facing South on proposed Edgewater peninsula park (north of Ardmore to Granville) Looking South at the new lagoon and parkland on the old US Steel property (between 79th and 92nd) adjacent to Lake Michigan and the Calumet River. Enjoying the north view of the city skyline in the new parkland and beach on the eastern edge of the old US Steel property (79th - 92nd) Walking North along new lakefront path in Rogers Park between Howard and Rogers Ave. Watch a CLTV report on the plan: | |
| In Midst Of Warzone, Afghanistan Protecting 33 Species | Top |
| Amid Afghanistan's struggles to stem violence and political instability, the country is slowly moving forward to protect its biological and environmental patrimony. More on Afghanistan | |
| Supreme Court Clears Way For Sale Of Chrysler To Fiat | Top |
| WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Chrysler LLC's sale to Fiat, turning down a last-ditch bid by opponents that included consumer groups and three Indiana pension plans. The court rejected a plea to block the sale of most of Chrysler's assets to the Italian automaker. Chrysler, Fiat and the Obama administration had warned that the high court's intervention could have scuttled the sale. A federal appeals court in New York had earlier approved the sale, but gave opponents until Monday afternoon to try to get the Supreme Court to intervene. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ordered a temporary delay just before a 4 p.m. deadline on Monday. A little more than 24 hours later, the court freed the automakers to complete their deal. The opponents include a trio of Indiana pension plans, consumer groups and individuals with product-related lawsuits. The court issued a brief, unsigned opinion explaining its action. To obtain a delay, or stay, someone must show that at least four of the nine justices find that the issue raised is serious enough to warrant hearing a full appeal and that a majority of the court will conclude the lower court decision was wrong. "The applicants have not carried that burden," the court said. Chrysler has been working to complete the sale of its assets to Fiat before a June 15 deadline, a key element in its restructuring plans. The pension plans seized on comments from Fiat officials that they would not walk away from the deal even if June 15 were to pass without completing the sale. The plans tried to persuade the justices that there was no reason to rush to meet that deadline. But Chrysler, Fiat and the Obama administration stressed in response that Chrysler was losing $100 million a day and that the deal automatically terminates in less than a week, with no guarantee that a new agreement would be reached. The court did not consider the merits of the opponents' arguments, only whether to hear their full-blown appeal. Earlier Tuesday, Chrysler returned to bankruptcy court to get approval to terminate 789 dealer franchises. More than 25 attorneys representing hundreds of dealers from across the country opposed Chrysler's request, arguing that little would be gained by ending the franchises. The company said the move was a necessary part of its plan to cut costs and quickly emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Many of the dealers were selling the last cars on their lots and preparing to shut their doors for good at the end of the day, while others planned to sell used cars or other brands after severing ties with Chrysler. More on Supreme Court | |
| BofA CEO: Fed And Treasury Officials Pressed For, Helped Fund Merrill Merger | Top |
| Treasury and Federal Reserve officials pressured Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis not to back out of a planned merger with Merrill Lynch in December, Lewis will testify on Thursday, according to a copy of his remarks obtained by the Huffington Post. Lewis had previously testified that Treasury and Fed officials pressured him to keep quiet about the troubles Merrill was having stemming from a fear that the news could drive the economy over the cliff. Lewis made the claim in a deposition conducted for New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in February; the Wall Street Journal was shown a copy of the transcript in April. The story he plans to tell Thursday before a House oversight panel will be his first public accounting of the government role in pushing the merger to closure. Lewis has come under attack from Bank of America shareholders for the merger; Merrill's losses rapidly accelerated around the time BofA took it over, threatening the stability of the bank. The decision to acquire Merrill, Lewis will testify, was made in September and approved by shareholders on December fifth. It wasn't until mid-December, he'll testify, that he realized it could go up in flames. He told Treasury and Fed officials he was thinking of backing out of the deal. "Treasury and Federal Reserve representatives asked us to delay any such action, and expressed significant concerns about the systemic consequences and risk to Bank of America of pursuing such a course," he'll testify. The government offered taxpayer assistance for the deal, according to Lewis' testimony, which reduced the risk of the merger, convincing the bank to go through with it. "Officials of the company, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve discussed a plan to close the transaction, with the government providing assistance. For its part, Bank of America concluded that there were serious risks to declaring a material adverse change, and that proceeding with the transaction, with governmental support, was the better course," reads the testimony. A Treasury spokeswoman declined to comment. Lewis will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on June 11th. Here's Lewis' full testimony and below is the portion regarding the Merrill merger: In mid-December, after the shareholder vote, I became aware of significant, accelerating losses at Merrill Lynch, and we contacted officials at the Treasury and Federal Reserve to inform them that we had concerns about closing the transaction. At that time, we considered declaring a "material adverse change," which as a matter of contract law can, if upheld, allow an acquirer to avoid consummating a deal. Treasury and Federal Reserve representatives asked us to delay any such action, and expressed significant concerns about the systemic consequences and risk to Bank of America of pursuing such a course. We commenced discussions to determine whether governmental support could limit the risk of proceeding with the transaction. Both the government and Bank of America were aware that the global financial system was in fragile condition, and that a collapse of Merrill Lynch could hasten a crisis. Officials of the company, the Treasury Department, and the Federal Reserve discussed a plan to close the transaction, with the government providing assistance. For its part, Bank of America concluded that there were serious risks to declaring a material adverse change, and that proceeding with the transaction, with governmental support, was the better course. This course made sense for Bank of America and its shareholders, and made sense for the stability of markets. We viewed those two interests as consistent. I believe that committed people of good intentions, in both the private sector and the government, worked desperately hard in late 2008 to prevent a collapse of the global financial system that would have resonated throughout the global economy. Even six months later, it is easy to forget just how close to the brink our system came. I will never forget, and I believe those efforts will be remembered long after any current controversy is forgotten. More on Merrill Lynch | |
| John Ruff, Roland Burris' Colleague Turned Accuser, Dies In Car Crash At 42 | Top |
| A key figure in the perjury investigation of U.S. Sen. Roland Burris died in an automobile accident Monday, authorities in far west-suburban Kendall County confirmed Tuesday. | |
| Fox Business Network Has No Idea What's Going On (VIDEO) | Top |
| When the news broke yesterday that the Supreme Court had issued a stay, temporarily delaying the sale of Chrysler to Fiat , Fox Business Network (FBN) wanted to tell you about it, but they just didn't know what to say. Liz Claman was anchoring the 3-4p hour when a producer told her what had happened. (My guess is she's talking to him or her when she says "define that please.") Claman then proceeded to toss to not one but two other FBN reporters who had no idea what to say. The first, Tracey Byrnes, responded with, "I think you want...Robert." Robert Gray was not who she wanted, at least in retrospect, as he had no knowledge of the situation either. In all fairness, I doubt this is the fault of the on-air talent. It sounds like a control room break down, in that none of the FBN producers could tell any of them what was going on or who had what information. WATCH: Watch Fox News Has No Idea Whats Going On and more funny videos on CollegeHumor More on Video | |
| Johann Hari: The Three Ticking Time Bombs Under British Politics | Top |
| Last Thursday the British public queued at their polling stations to quietly and politely lay three ticking bombs under British politics. If we don't hear the tick-tock and steadily defuse the voters' anger, the eventual blasts will damage Britain for decades to come. The first shelf-full of Semtex was aimed at the Prime Minister. I hate talking about politics in terms of personalities, and I find the vindictive tone towards Gordon Brown - booing him at a D-Day commemoration? - unpleasant. But we can't live in a fantasy world. Brown has turned out to be electoral kryptonite. Labour has just taken its lowest share of the vote since 1910, before the First World War - and if it keeps on marching in the same jerky formation, it is heading for a political Somme. The reasons why the Brown stuff has hit the fan have to be understood properly. The attempts to take Brown down have come almost exclusively from the Blairite wing of the Labour Party - people like Stephen Byers, Hazel Blears and Charles Clarke. They have always thought Brown was too left-wing, and now grasp for his few tiny millimetre-shuffles towards social democracy as explanation for his failure. But this is surreal. Gordon Brown has failed because he has been paralysed, unable to take any substantial decisions at all - except to keep drifting in a Blairite direction. With the honourable exception of using the state to stop the banks collapsing, he has carried on with hardline Blairism: building more airports, trying to part-privatise the Post Office, and apologising profusely to millionaires for his meager tax rise, even though 68 per cent of the public support it. In reality, he has failed because of a double-whammy: he has continued with lousy and unpopular right-wing policies, and he sells them appallingly. If he remains as Labour leader, he will hand the country to the Conservative leader David Cameron, who will dismantle the few good left-wing policies that snuck through New Labour - tax credits, SureStart (our equivalent to HeadStart), Educational Maintenance Allowances to help poor kids stay on at school. The Independent's poll shows that another Labour figure, Alan Johnson, can stop the hemorrhaging and confine Cameron to a hung parliament, where he will be able to do far less damage. Labour would need more commitments from Johnson that he will respond to the recession-heavy mood for greater social democracy - but it would be an act of political self-harm to stay with Brown. It is sad for his political career to end like this, but it will be much sadder to be poor in a Cameron-led Britain. In the name of Gord, go. The second bomb came crashing in from the extreme right - the British National Party - which now has two Members of the European Parliament, both with records of extreme bigotry. Its leader Nick Griffin has palled about with David Duke and bragged about how much he learned from Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, while as a young man Andrew Brons joined the National Socialist Movement, set up on Hitler's birthday as a tribute to him. But it is not the case that 10 per cent of people in Yorkshire are sympathetic to Holocaust-denying lunatics. No: they were overwhelmingly broke young white men who would, a generation ago, have formed the Labour core vote. They are angry about low wages and chronic shortage of housing - and simply telling them they are bigots won't get us very far. Any conversation with BNP voters has to begin by agreeing that they are right to be angry about both subjects. There is a housing scandal in Britain today. In the 1980s, the revenues from council house sales were squandered by Margaret Thatcher on tax cuts for the rich, instead of being used to build more social housing. Labour allowed social housing construction to fall even further. We now have a housing drought, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stuck in cramped, damp homes. Similarly, our minimum wage is one of the lowest in the developed world. Tax credits are good, but today they only go to people with families: the rest watch their wages sink. Only once this is agreed should the conversation move on to the fact there is a more effective and more deserving outlet for their rage than other poor people with different pigmentation. The white working class has a shared interest with black and Asian people in demanding higher taxes on the wealthy - and less squandering of cash on pointless projects like Trident and ID. cards - to lift up everyone stuck at the bottom. But what mainstream party has advocated that for years? In the absence of any socialism, we will see its antithesis, National Socialism, rise as a nasty intimidating fringe. If we want to choke this off, we need to deal with the real issues it feeds on. The third bomb is the rising rejection of the European Union. We have now reached a point where Britain's governing party has been beaten by an organisation whose sole purpose is to yank us out of the EU. This undercurrent is tugging at the entire political system: the British Conservatives in the European Parliament are now withdrawing from their alliance with Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and the rest of the European centre-right, and cobbling together a coalition of Polish gay-bashers, Czech global warming deniers, and assorted Europe-hating loons to sit with. Cameron's Tories would form the most anti-European government in living memory: they even voted against European co-operation to track down child molesters. How long can we spit at the 450-million-strong trading block on our borders, with which we do 60 percent of our business, before it has consequences? How long can we try to kick out the foundations of unprecedented peace in Europe before it begins to crack? This can't go on. The Liberal Democrats - a third party who are a lonely, brave British voice in defence of Europe - have been arguing for years that we need a rerun of the 1975 referendum: should we stay or should we go? The arguments for Europe - and the real cost of leaving - would be drawn into the open. The case would become clear at last. Since the majority of Britain's trade is with the EU, after withdrawing the country would have to abide by almost all its rules anyway to be allowed to sell to them - but it wouldn't have any influence on drawing them up. Think of it as the United Kingdom Isolation Party, where the UK won't even be on the sidelines; we'd be outside the stadium, on an empty street. So Brits would gain little, but we would suffer horrible self-inflicted wounds. Three million jobs would melt away to a Europe that would now be wrapped away behind tariff walls. The millions of Brits living elsewhere in the EU - one million in Spain alone - would be left stranded, and have to come home, or apply for immigration rights they were no longer entitled to. Britain's ability to shape the future of the world, especially on global warming and foreign affairs, would be dramatically diminished. Our ability to reform the very real flaws within the EU would be gone. And we would have helped to bring down an extraordinary political project that shows the world that even the most bloody and war-ravaged continent can pool its sovereignty and live together in peace. The British electorate just booted Brown, brown-shirt nostalgists and browning-off Europe to the top of Britain's agenda. The ticking will only get louder if we try to brush these bombs under the Westminster carpet - and carry on as if the people have not spoken. Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here or here. | |
| Lisa Madigan, Other State Officials Staying Mum On Tax Hike | Top |
| SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- As the governor and legislators struggle to balance the state budget, Illinois' other statewide elected officials are largely ducking the key question of whether to raise income taxes. Attorney General Lisa Madigan, a likely candidate for governor next year, won't take a firm position. Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois' chief financial officer and another politician looking at his 2010 options, says raising taxes is acceptable only as part of a "fundamental restructuring" of state government. He won't explain what that means. And Secretary of State Jesse White, a government official for 32 years, says he doesn't know enough about the problem to judge whether a tax increase is necessary. Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias hasn't played a leadership role in the tax debate, but he does answer the tax question clearly, arguing an income tax increase must be part of the solution with state government drowning in red ink. Under normal circumstances it might be OK for state officials to focus on their own duties and stay out of the budget debate, said Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. But an $11.6 billion hole in the middle of a major recession means everyone has to weigh in, he said. "In tough times, leaders lead," Martire said. "I don't think any elected official should simply hoard political capital if they're never going to use it in the public interest." Quinn has spent months pushing to raise taxes as part of his plan to close the huge state budget hole. Joined by Democratic legislative leaders, he says spending will have to be cut sharply even with a tax increase. Without one, Quinn warns, services will be chopped mercilessly. That means cutting state grants that pay for local mental health or drug addiction services, slashing child-care and aid to food banks, and firing state employees. Quinn proposed a tax increase in March. The Illinois Senate approved a different tax plan last month. The House debated and rejected yet another tax plan. The governor has scolded the other four statewide officials, who are all Chicago Democrats. "It's time that these men and women come forward and speak out about the importance of having a budget in Illinois that reflects our values," Quinn said last week. Since Quinn first proposed a tax increase, Madigan has questioned the idea without flatly rejecting it. She says it would hurt families to raise taxes during a recession and that government must tighten its own belt before doing so. What budget cuts would the attorney general support? Spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler said Madigan can't offer specific suggestions. "She's not in that process. She doesn't have access to that level of detail," Ziegler said. Hynes takes a similar position. "The comptroller has said from the beginning that a tax increase should not be considered without a fundamental restructuring of state government. That has not yet occurred," spokesman Alan Henry said in an e-mailed statement. He would not answer further questions. White said he's not in a position to judge whether a tax increase is necessary. The governor and legislators are the ones with detailed information about the budget, said spokesman Dave Druker. "We just don't feel that we have enough information to make a decision at this point," Druker said. Giannoulias, the newest of the statewide officials and a likely candidate for U.S. Senate next year, believes state government must cut waste and trim costs where it can, said spokesman Scott Burnham, but it's simply impossible to cut enough to balance the budget. That makes a tax increase a vital part of any solution. "If we don't address these issues now, the state's financial health will only get worse," Burnham said. "We need to address our long-standing budget deficit rather than using accounting tricks, gimmicks and Band-Aids." J. Thomas Johnson, president of the Taxpayers' Federation of Illinois, said he is disappointed that some elected to statewide office aren't playing a bigger part in solving a major state crisis. "It's a big problem," Johnson said Tuesday. "We would hope everybody that represents the people of Illinois would join in the debate." -ASSOCIATED PRESS | |
| Steele: God Help White Men Appearing Before A Sotomayor Court | Top |
| RNC Chairman Michael Steele isn't shying away from highlighting race as a signifying issue of the Sonia Sotomayor Supreme Court nomination hearings. In an interview with CNN's Campbell Brown on Tuesday, the Republican Party leader insisted that white males would not be granted even-handed jurisprudence under a Court with Obama's nominee. "God help you if you're a white male," said Steele. "If you're seeking justice, this may not be the bench you want to go before." The remarks come at a time when Republican officials have attempted to remove any semblance of racial politics from their opposition to Sotomayor's nomination. Earlier on Tuesday, Sen. Mel Martinez, a Hispanic Republican from Florida, defended Sotomayor's now-infamous "wise Latina" remarks as sensible. "For someone who is of Latin background, personally, I understand what she is trying to say," the Senator said after meeting with Sotomayor. "Which is, the richness of her experience forms who she is. It forms who I am." Likewise on Tuesday, conservative New York Times ' columnist David Brooks endorsed Sotomayor's temperament for the bench by highlighting the experiences in her background. "If you look at the whole record," Brooks wrote , "you come away with the impression that Sotomayor is a hard-working, careful-though-unspectacular jurist whose primary commitment is to the law." Steele, during his CNN interview, insisted that he was not being inflammatory in his assessment of Obama's Supreme Court pick. "It's based off of... the inference that she left and what she said," he said, when asked about a similar, earlier critique. "You know, if you have a judge, where you have a situation where you have -- you're going before a trier of fact, and the trier of fact is on record as saying that this individual's background experience is better positioned to make a decision than someone else, that gives one pause. And so my view of it was, in looking at it, you're now segregating out white men by your comments." Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! More on Sonia Sotomayor | |
| Signed Letter From Landrieu Shows She Supported Public Option Before She Opposed It | Top |
| Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) pledged her support for a public health care option in April, two months before she announced opposition to such a plan, according to a signed letter she sent to a major reform coalition dated April 11. Read the letter, obtained by the Huffington Post, here . "I'm not open to it. I'm not open to a public option," Landrieu told the Huffington Post early Tuesday afternoon. "However, I will remain open to a compromise, a full compromise. Public option is not something that I support. I don't think it's the right way to go." It only took a few hours for her rejection of the public plan to become ammunition for the GOP. After lunch with his colleagues on Tuesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell used Landrieu's rejection of a public health care option to make the case that the nation doesn't want such a "government plan." McConnell, after citing a Washington Post editorial opposed to the public option, turned his attention to Landrieu. "Apparently Sen. Landrieu just made an announcement a while ago that a government plan is a bad idea, and so I would strongly recommend to the administration, and to the majority in Congress, that if we're serious about getting a bipartisan health reform bill...the best way to go forward on a bipartisan basis would be to take out the government plan," a pleased McConnell told reporters. Landrieu had told the coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN) in April that she supported a public option, which would compete against private plans. She signed a pledge that she supported a "choice of a private insurance plan, including keeping the insurance you have if you like it, or a public insurance plan without a private insurer middleman that guarantees affordable coverage." Landrieu went even further and drafted a letter to HCAN specifically spelling out her support for a public option. "HCAN principles embody an approach that actually delivers a solution of guaranteed quality, affordable health care for all in America. Under this approach, everyone gets a choice of health insurance plans, including the right to keep your current insurance, choose another private plan or to join a public health insurance plan," she wrote in April. "Again," she concluded, "I support the HCAN Statement of Common Purpose, and I oppose the 'on your own' approaches to health care reform that go against these principles. And, I salute the efforts of the broad grassroots coalition represented by Health Care for America Now to advance this most critical of issues." The efforts of the coalition that she saluted will now be directed at her. Throughout her congressional career, Landrieu has raised $1,668,693 from health insurance and health care interests -- broken down by "health professionals" ($607,616), "Insurance" $401,731, "Hospitals/Nursing Homes" $269,645, "Pharmaceuticals/Health Products" $224,696 and "Health Services/HMOs" ($165,005). Landrieu's office has been getting deluged by calls from reporters since the news of her public plan rejection broke and her spokesman Aaron Saunders responded to a request for a comment with a statement: "Senator Landrieu is committed to reforming the health care system and ensuring that all Americans are covered. She is reviewing all of the reform proposals. Senator Landrieu does not believe that health care reform starts with a public option. However, she is open to compromise in a comprehensive legislative package, and is focused on appropriate consumer protection and patient-centered care." Landrieu Letter - | |
| Scott Malcomson: Obama: The Roger Federer of Politics | Top |
| I'm not the first to equate Barack Obama with Roger Federer. (HuffPo colleague Brian Ross did so last December.) But the near-coincidence of the French Open and Obama's Cairo speech brought the comparison to mind again. Each man raises the level of play with a cool focus and economy of gesture that make most other players look crude. Obama and Federer are not power hitters; they use a variety of strokes, and think them through in advance. Obama's Cairo speech was very Federer. (I'm trying to be the very last person to blog about President Obama's Cairo speech and think I might hit my goal.) I won't add further to the huzzahs of others, or echo the schoolmarmish injunctions to follow words with deeds (apologies in advance to all marms!). I only want to point out two things. The first is that his phrase about Muslim tolerance being demonstrated in "the history of Andalusia and Cordoba during the Inquisition" doesn't make sense, as Cordoba is in Andalusia, and by the time of the Inquisition Andalusia had long since gone Christian and expelled its Muslims and Jews. Not a big deal, but if this White House wants to continue its honor-thy-history strategy ("I'll see your ibn Khaldun and raise you two al Ghazalis, Mr. Fundamentalist!"), it needs to sweat the details. And this speech kept stressing the importance of historical fact. My other point is less marmish. The Cairo speech was given on June 4, which was also the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen repression and of the first democratic elections in Communist Poland -- a beginning of the end of Communism. There was a time, not long ago, when these events were seen as part of a pattern suggesting the inevitability of democratic freedom. The Cold War had contained two teleologies, one of which, in 1989 and the period soon after, seemed to have won. This winning teleology was going to carry all the days afterward. The power of this idea was such that two more or less opposite events - in China and in Poland -- were often seen as part of a single forward movement of history, and have continued to be seen in this way for the past 20 years. But neither the Tiananmen nor the Solidarity/election anniversary was mentioned in Obama's Cairo speech, even though they were on the very same day. And this is despite the fact that the democratization narrative those anniversaries evoke was a big part of Obama's message. For the Cairo speech was looked to for many reasons, but one of the main ones was to assess the Obama administration's commitment to promoting democracy, concerning which there was some question. Democracy promotion did not seem to be a priority. Obama is clearly no political romantic, and the uplift many people feel during his speeches is due to many things (not least biography). But it is not due to anticipation of the projection of American power. It is not due to sunny idealism about either politics or human nature. The former was something of a Clinton specialty, the latter more a Bush trope. Thesis-antithesis-synthesis.... Is it possible to be both the Hegel and the Federer of politics? (If we were to follow Alexandre Kojeve's famous analysis that would make Obama Napoleon and his Cairo speech the Battle of Jena, which, frankly, is just too weird.) What struck me, then, in the Cairo speech was the visible waning of the post-1989 narrative in its usual form. I suppose you might justify this on distancing-from-Bush grounds, since the aggressive pro-democracy, victory-of-1989 narrative is associated with him. But seriously, even after eight years of steady effort, did the Bush White House ever succeed in convincing very many people that it "saw farther," as Condi Rice (following Madeline Albright's lead) used to say? Bush never secured intellectual ownership of democracy promotion. And Team Obama is too smart, and too calculating, to give up a useful world-historical organizing principle just out of spite. No, there's more to this than leaving Bush, or even neoconservatism, behind. These anniversaries were lying there, like political gold nuggets, waiting to be picked up; and the president did not pick them up. Admittedly, it may not be the time to antagonize China, which was pretty well freaked out about the Tiananmen anniversary. And Poland's own commemorations had devolved appallingly just prior to the Cairo speech. The Warsaw government had wanted to have an amazing Solidarity anniversary show in Gdansk. Alas, the shipyard unions there were pissed off (membership is about a tenth of what it was in 1989) and decided to hold the government's fiesta plan hostage. Meanwhile, Western Europe was showing less than total respect to the Eastern cousins in this anniversary year. (The Western states like to think the overthrow of Communism was somehow their doing, or at least a subsidiary act in their own drama. Thus they focus on the fall of the Berlin Wall.) So the whole Gdansk celebration plan collapsed. But such mundane matters don't really explain the absence of these twin anniversaries from the Cairo speech. Elsewhere in the talk, Obama freely cited historical events - the overthrow of Mossadegh, the Holocaust - to advance his points. Indeed, the section on democracy was the only one free of this sort of historical scaffolding. I'm only guessing, but I think there is something revealing here. My guess is that it is part of a semi-conscious erasure of the baby boomers, the generation of Obama's parents. When you look at the speech, you see its historical texture is mostly from the 1940s and '50s - Obama's grandparents' generation - and then the period of the Founding Fathers. The boomers are left out Another possibility is that Obama simply doesn't think of European events as uniquely exemplary to the world as a whole. The healing of the West circa 1989 as first step in the world's healing would then not resonate with him. A third possibility, related to the first two, is that Obama thinks of world history as discontinuous, with different historical narratives and regional destinies playing themselves out with a fairly high degree of autonomy. You could see this in how he talked about democracy ("America does not presume to know what is best for everyone") and that boomer fetish, globalization ("education and innovation will be the currency of the 21st century"). This is uninspired, even bland, and in its modesty very post-boomer. I am pretty confident that the post-boomer aspect of this administration is only beginning to come into focus. More on Barack Obama | |
| Obama Admin In Talks With Palau On Uighur Detainees | Top |
| The Obama administration is in talks with the South Pacific island nation of Palau to relocate some or all of 17 Uighurs -- native Chinese Muslims -- being held at Guantanamo Bay, senior administration officials told CNN Tuesday. | |
| Jim Watkins: Sleeping With The (TV) Enemy | Top |
| As someone who works in the economically-challenged television business, I'm naturally concerned about anything that might keep people from, you know, watching television. So I'm not happy to see this new academic study that came out today: "According to new research presented at Sleep 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies,* television watching may be an important determinant of bedtime, and may contribute to chronic sleep debt." sciencedaily.com Uh-oh. So it's not healthy to watch TV leading up to the time you turn in. What does that mean for people like me--and maybe you--who watch television after they go to bed? Or people--like me--who leave the TV on in the bedroom even after they go to sleep? What's to become of us, Associated Professional Sleep Societies members? It really doesn't matter what the answer is to that, because I don't think I can change. I love watching TV in bed. My bedroom television--my big beautiful HD bedroom television--isn't my distraction as I finally get horizontal after a long day; it's my reward. I personally don't think it has a negative effect on my sleep. In fact, we have an arrangement: I watch the television, and after I get tired and conk out, the television watches me. Sleep experts say it's a mistake to have a television in the bedroom at all. An article I read once said the bedroom should be used for only two things: sleep and sex. Well, I hate to tell you, but if there can only be two things going on in that bedroom, either sleep or sex is going to have to go, because there's no way I'm giving up the TV. Thank goodness my wife feels the same way. Who says it's difficult for couples to be fulfilled in bed after decades of marriage? I guess the television has become our adult night-light. That's not such a bad thing. With all the troubles and worries in the world today, what would you rather wake up to in the middle of the night: an infomercial promising a new career in the exciting world of distressed real estate? Or darkness, utter total darkness? It's an easy choice. YOU CAN READ JIM'S DAILY BLOG AT WPIX.COM/JIMWATKINS | |
| ZP Heller: EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Air Raid Victim Tells Obama to Leave Afghanistan | Top |
| Here is a face of the war in Afghanistan. Najibullah, an air raid victim from the Malwand district of Kandahar, points to where three bombs shattered his home during a recent US airstrike. His message to President Obama: Withdraw US forces from Afghanistan at once. "They're going to leave anyway," Najibullah says. "It's better for them to leave Afghanistan on their own terms now rather than later. To leave our country voluntarily. We're all deformed, people are missing fingers. Look at my finger." He points to a missing index finger on his right hand. "Some people are missing eyes, some people are missing legs. Some are missing their arms. They destroyed the whole nation." This exclusive footage, which Brave New Foundation released today as part of the soon-to-be-released fourth segment of Rethink Afghanistan , stands as an unflinching testament to the rampant devastation wrought by recent US airstrikes in Afghanistan. It should be seen by everyone who attempts to write off the civilian casualties of this war with the dehumanizing phrase "collateral damage." It should be seen by everyone in Congress considering whether to escalate this quagmire with $96.7 billion in supplemental wartime spending . And it should be seen by Gen. Stanley McChrystal as he submits his review of US strategy in Afghanistan --the fifth review this year--and tries to pretend the war in Afghanistan is not a quagmire that's destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians like Najibullah. Here's how Chris Hedges assessed this dire situation : We are not delivering democracy or liberation or development. We are delivering massive, sophisticated forms of industrial slaughter. And because we have employed the blunt and horrible instrument of war in a land we know little about and are incapable of reading, we embody the barbarism we claim to be seeking to defeat. We are morally no different from the psychopaths within the Taliban, who Afghans remember we empowered, funded and armed during the 10-year war with the Soviet Union. Acid thrown into a girl's face or beheadings? Death delivered from the air or fields of shiny cluster bombs? This is the language of war. It is what we speak. It is what those we fight speak. Raw images like those seen in this video, though disturbing, are necessary to drive home exactly what's at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The civilian death toll has skyrocketed due to Predator drone attacks and airstrikes such as the Farah province bombing that killed 143 Afghans last month (including 96 women and children). And we must also consider how the survivors of such attacks like Najibullah can go on living. Forced to flee their war-ravaged homes to seek shelter in IDP camps, they are left with no food, water, or medicine for their families. They have only the clothes on their backs, hatred for the United States, and desperation that leads them to support Taliban extremists who use these bombings as a recruiting tool. We must stop speaking the language of war. Rather than perpetuating a cycle of catastrophic violence with 21,000 more troops and $96.7 billion more in wartime spending, we must acknowledge this war's victims, negotiate a peace, and set an exit strategy to leave . More on Barack Obama | |
| Ariston Anderson: The Webby Award Speech: the original Twitter | Top |
| Last night Seth Myers hosted the 13th Annual Webby Award s at the Wall Street Cipriani, a location that symbolized one more example of how new media is replacing the bankers as the industry du jour. "If you love the Oscars, but wish there were fewer celebrities and more awards," then this is the ceremony for you. What had historically been an event that takes all night, this year's ceremony was edited down to People's Voice Top 10, Famous Selections, Randomizer choices, and achievement awards. And when it came to celebs, the room was not too shabby: Jimmy Fallon, Cameron Diaz, Lake Bell, Lisa Kudrow, Martha Stewart, Trent Reznor, Molly Sims, Alessandra Ambrosio, Isabella Rossellini, Sarah Silverman, Charlie Rose, and all the way from the Muppets, Beaker. The point of the Webbys is not a traditional award ceremony, as the winners are announced online weeks in advance. The real competition of the night lies in who has the best speech. Some might call the Webby Awards the original Twitter. The best of the Web is delivered in a concise, informative manner, giving us a lot of information in few words. But where Twitter allows for 140 characters, the Webby Awards allows for a mere five words, putting the pressure on award winners to deliver something funny, smart, and memorable. The concept of the five-word speech was a reaction to years of listening to ten minute boring acceptance speeches of companies talking about people no one knew about. The best speeches over time have included Al Gore ("Please don't recount this vote"), Stephen Colbert ("Me. Me. Me. Me. Me."), and the Beastie Boys ("Can anyone fix my computer?"). It's a tough, slightly drunk, crowd that won't be afraid to heckle or denounce any speech. And this year, the pressure was on even higher to give a speech worthy of a retweet. One person who wasn't limited to the five word speeches was host Seth Myers. "I'm taking advantage of the fact that tonight I can say like a million words, and everyone else is super limited," he told us before the show. "The power is palpable." Myers, who had also hosted last year knew the pressure of making a good speech: "I feel like you could probably remember about three of them, so you want to be one of the three people that you remember when you leave. I've seen some good ones last year, so there's a lot to look forward to, but mostly I'm looking forward to my million words." We spoke with Webby Executive Director David-Michel Davies, who has seen years of hits and misses to find out what makes a great speech. "Speeches should have a lot to do with who you are and where you're from." Several sites nailed it year, including 1000 Awesome Things: "Short acceptance speeches, awesome," as well as Yahoo for Flickr, as the winner raised his camera to photograph the Cipriani audience and said: "Can everyone get closer together?" And YouTube Live hit it on the mark with "Hallelujah for short attention spans." "Also, don't say 'I would like to thank,'" Davies advised. "We've seen that one before." Unfortunately, we also saw it as the first speech of the night, from Great Works. Davies also saw the Twitter connection, and told Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, who was accepting the award for Webby Breakout of the Year, that the pressure was on him. "He's like a master of the short. We've got the five-word speech. If anybody out there is supposed to deliver, I think it's him, so we'll see." Stone did deliver, announcing "Creativity is a renewable resource," to much applause. Certainly Twitter was the ongoing joke of the evening as Myers continually referred to the site, saying this is the year we've spent explaining twitter to our parents. Myers loved how Time Magazine recently applauded Twitter. "I love when old media praises new media," he said. "That's like an old man praising the tennis pro his wife is f----ing." And finally, "Ashton Kutcher is not here. I just wish there was a way to know what he is doing." One person who has clearly cracked the Twitter mystery is NYTimes.com writer David Pogue. "I was sort of a skeptic and cynic at the beginning. But I saw how people were using it, how people could get instant answers to any questions. I'm kind of manipulating it for my own reporting needs," he admitted to us. And because of Twitter, he won a lucrative book deal. His followers answer a question he poses every night, and the best answers are published. The pressure from master Twitterer to master speech giver was on Pogue. "I read some of the ones from last year and personally what bothers me are the ones that no one would get but like three people, this really insidery thing. So, I'm trying to go for something that everyone will get." Pogue had about a dozen speeches prepared, and didn't choose until the final moment. The Twitter/Webby connection was one candidate of his: "Speeches would work well on twitter," but he ended up pushing in the Slinky-like trophy on stage: "A Bedspring? Tough economic times." Many of the celebs we spoke to on the red carpet admitted they hadn't quite decided on their speeches yet. Sarah Silverman, told us on the red carpet, "I still have to come up with it." What she came up with: "Holocaust, did it happen? Yes." When asked what makes the perfect Webby Speech, Lisa Kudrow responded in three words: "I. Don't. Know." She was equally baffled on stage, counting the words on her hands: "Well, thank you. Oh God...." Trent Reznor told us, "You're talking to the wrong guy. You should ask Al Gore that one." The Nine Inch Nails frontman commented on the album Slip which debuted for free on his website in 2008: "Wait, we didn't charge anything?" Humor reigned in the speeches. The Onion took to the stage with: "Free all attractive political prisoners." It got a few chuckles, but most of the audience was expecting more from the Webby Humor award winner. The prize for most memorable goes to an Animoto executive, who in the spirit of Soy Bomb took to the stage, stripped off his suit, revealing zebra leggings, a metal hair wig, and a hot pink headband: "Ahhhh...thank you New York!" The exec from Discovery communications looked at his watch around 8:30 PM and said, "When do we get dinner?", a sentiment shared with many in the room. A man in a suave white suit from the Economist shouted "Read a f---ing newspaper!" And Arianna Huffington, who had solicited the community for a good speech responded, "I didn't kill newspapers, ok?" A woman from Huge was heckled and booed after going over the allotted five words with "All of our best times are ahead." But the greatest heckles were reserved for someone from the Internet famous group, Bill O'Reilly's producer of the unseen footage, who announced: "Film and television, blow me." Ever quick on his feet, Myers responded, "The randomizer group was way more polite. Even Internet famous makes you a little dicky." Molly Sims, who accepted for Funny or Die's "Proposition 8, the musical" strutted to the stage with a group of computer geeks and announced into the mike: "I'm not with these guys." And the most endearing speech came from a gentleman from the Netherlands, who used his five words to propose to his girlfriend. Beaker, who was awarded for his online rendition of " Ode to Joy " tried to deliver his five meeps into a microphone from the balcony, but ended up being electrocuted by the poor sound system. Seth MacFarlane accepted via video conferencing: "What is this for again?" And after Cameron Diaz presented to Jimmy Fallon, his response was "Thank God Conan got promoted." The privilege of the last word was awarded to Webby Lifetime Achievement winner and inventor of the World Wide Web Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who perfectly summed up the sentiment of the evening: "Free. Open. Keep one Web." More on Sarah Silverman | |
| Blaise Zerega: How the Catholic Church Fought for Interracial Marriage and What It Means for Gay Rights | Top |
| Consider that California was the flashpoint for marriage of a different sort in 1948. Then the issue wasn't two men or two women wanting the state's blessing for their matrimony, but couples from different races seeking to be married. According to Reverend Scotty McLennan of Stanford University, author of Finding Your Religion , it was the Catholic Church that stepped forward to successfully challenge California's anti-miscegenation law on behalf of a black-white couple in Los Angeles. At the time, 40 states had such laws in force. It wasn't until 1967 that the Supreme Court struck down remaining restrictions on interracial marriage then being enforced by some twenty states. So, after the California ruling upholding Proposition 8 and as more states pass laws in support of same sex marriage, how much longer before the law of the land applies to all its citizens, gay and straight alike? Watch the full program at FORA.tv. More on Gay Marriage | |
| Murdoch, Ailes, Cheney Toast Charles Krauthammer At Private Luncheon | Top |
| Columnist Charles Krauthammer was feted at a private luncheon today at the St. Regis in honor of winning this year's Breindel Award, POLITICO has learned. Rupert Murdoch...came down from New York along with Fox News president Roger Ailes. More on Dick Cheney | |
| Matthews Calls Gingrich Comments Xenophobic, "Anti-World" (VIDEO) | Top |
| On "Hardball" Tuesday Chris Matthews criticized Newt Gingrich for comments he made at a GOP Senate-House fundraising dinner Monday night, saying his statements exhibited "xenophobia" and an "anti-world mentality." At the fundraiser Gingrich declared proudly that he was not a "citizen of the world" and that 'the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous." (Gingrich also used the occasion to declare that President Obama had "already failed.") The former House Speaker then went on to list a number of countries that he would not want to be a citizen of under any circumstance. Matthews, who had began the segment by asking if Gingrich could be the figure to lead the GOP's comeback, made it clear he found nothing to like in Gingrich's worldview : "If that's gonna lead the Republican Party out of the wilderness, maybe they should just stay in the wilderness, because he looks like the enemy." Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Chris Matthews | |
| Stuart Whatley: Women's Rights In Afghanistan Depends On Where One Lives | Top |
| In President Barack Obama's address to the Muslim world from Cairo, he spoke out against the subjugation of women and conveyed his belief that "a woman who is denied an education is denied equality." The speech comes two months after the Karzai government was forced by international obloquy to rescind a controversial law that would have all but legalized rape within Shiia marriages. And just one month after 90 Afghan teenage girls were hospitalized by a poison gas attack as punishment for their enrollment in school -- the third such attack in as many weeks. Starkly disparate appraisals of the conditions for women in Afghanistan continue to paint what is, at best, a rather blurry picture. Determining whether the overall situation has improved since the Taliban was ousted in late 2001 can be difficult. And, as demonstrated by reports from sources who have recently returned from the war-ridden country, this determination is no less intractable now than in the past. The primary reason is that conditions in Afghanistan are acutely compartmentalized into what is, in some regions, a muddling patchwork. Reports from one tribal village can be bright and optimistic while another locale only a few miles away will be rife with atrocities towards women and girls. "Problems in Afghanistan tend to be local in nature, not nationwide," says Stephen Brown, a humanitarian aid worker with the La Jolla Golden Triangle Rotary Club in San Diego, California who has been in and out of both Pakistan and Afghanistan since 2002. For his part, Brown sees the situation for women in Afghanistan as being wildly better overall than in 2002. He has spent the past months assisting his Rotary Club colleague Fary Moini in opening the first women's dormitory at Nangahar University in Jalalabad. The idea is to bypass the requirement that women be accompanied by a male family member if they commute (which they all must, as there is never on-campus housing). Moini, like Brown, has worked intermittently in Afghanistan -- in Kabul and Jalalabad, and in a number of smaller villages, including Surkhrood, Barabad and Laghman -- and she supports his claim that conditions for women are markedly improved. However, the fact that most of Moini and Brown's work has been in the more developed Jalalabad area may account for their rosy outlook. "Jalalabad is totally different. It's a prosperous town, and more secure," says Fahima Vorgetts of Women for Afghan Women , who runs women's shelters in Afghanistan's more rural and treacherous areas. Overall, according to Vorgetts, "the cities are better, women can go to work and school...in rural areas though, things haven't changed." According to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) , 80 percent of Afghanis earn their living through agriculture, in rural areas. Moreover, the Afghan urban population is generally overestimated, the United States Farming and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concludes. By Vorgetts' account, the prospects for Afghan women were thought to have improved in the years following the Taliban's fall, but hope quickly dissipated when the Bush administration's priorities shifted to Iraq. The little aid directed towards Afghanistan in the following years was allocated to the military, leaving almost nothing for vital improvements in education and infrastructure, laments Vorgetts. But, according to USAID, the number of children now enrolled in school has increased six-fold to 6 million children -- one-third of whom are girls -- since the Taliban's fall. Moini and Brown, who previously opened a co-ed elementary school in Jalalabad that now enrolls 2,000 students, tell a similar story of expansive improvement in women and girls' education. However, the same criticism that these gains are exclusively in urban areas reemerges. Ann Jones, a women's rights expert and author of Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan , spent four years in Afghanistan as a journalist and aid worker, from 2002 to 2006, and has more recently been involved with Rethink Afghanistan , filmmaker and activist Robert Greenwald's latest Brave New Films documentary. She applauds the successes in developing areas such as Jalalabad, and even notes improvements in some rural localities where non-governmental organizations (NGO) such as Vorgetts' Women for Afghan Women and the National Solidarity Project have a strong presence. But overall, she is less sanguine than Moini and Brown. "All the positive changes are still insufficient to produce something like critical momentum, and all could be reversed in a moment by laws such as the Shiia family law Karzai was ready to implement until international pressure gave him pause," writes Jones in an email to the Huffington Post. One often-highlighted tangible improvement is that women's rights protections are now codified into law. The Constitution of Afghanistan, ratified in early 2004, explicitly guarantees "equal rights and duties before the law" between men and women. But according to Jones, "although there have been improvements on paper in the Constitution and international treaties, for most Afghan women life has stayed the same, and for a very great number, life has gotten much worse." She attributes much of the deterioration to misappropriated development aid, government corruption and to NATO's war with the Taliban that rages mostly in the countryside. According to the State Department Human Rights Report for 2008 , violence and the unequal treatment towards women, rather than being the exclusive behavior of Taliban militants, actually runs rampant among Afghan police and security officials as well, including the wanton rape of women prisoners by male police. Moreover, "authorities imprisoned an unknown number of women for reporting crimes perpetrated against them or to serve as substitutes for their husbands or male relatives convicted of crimes," reports the State Department. Jones' critiques of US government aid, and USAID in particular, are enumerated in Kabul In Winter and in a lengthy Huffington Post jeremiad tellingly titled 'The Afghan Scam: The Untold Story of Why the U.S. Is Bound To Fail in Afghanistan' . "Most of what we call 'American aid' is phantom aid anyway. Either it never exists, or it goes into the pockets of private American contractors and never leaves the US. It's been calculated that 86 cents of every American aid dollar never leaves the United States," Jones tells Greenwald in Rehink Afghanistan . Amnesty International seems to corroborate Jones' negative appraisal of the situation in its 2009 report covering the period between January and December 2008. For one, it notes the number of Afghan women in government has decreased since the initial years of the Constitution of Afghanistan. And in 2008, it is estimated that 60 - 80 percent of marriages were forced, and that a large portion were with young girls. Moreover, "the year saw increased attacks on schools, the intimidation of teachers and female students primarily by the Taleban, and greater disruption of classes because of armed conflict. In areas controlled by the Afghan government, both health and education systems suffered from inadequate funding, lack of qualified professionals, and security problems," states the report. Vorgetts echoes Jones' frustration, insisting that Women for Afghan Women "can do a lot with very little," if only more development aid dollars reached NGOs like hers in the more marginalized and war-ravaged rural areas in the south and east. There are an estimated 20 women's shelters in Afghanistan, which has a population of 32 million people, and five of these are located in Kabul. As Jones notes, the same problem with disproportionate clustering can be said for schools. "What would Afghans have done differently, if they'd been in charge? They'd have built much smaller schools, and a lot more of them, in places more convenient to children than to foreign construction crews." For their part, Moini and Brown recognize the importance of involving Afghans in Afghan development by making "sure they know that it's their project, not yours," Moini explains. This is, in fact, the crucial element of what has proven to be the Rotarians' winning strategy. The Nangahar University dorm was built with funds from a number of independent donors, and with the local community's full involvement. But most importantly, says Moini, it was an Afghan project, not an American one. There is an advantage to operating in Jalalabad, which despite its propinquity to the Taliban-ridden Peshawar, Pakistan border about 100 miles to the east, is a relative oasis of modernity. But Moini and Brown's successes, and the lessons they have learned operating amidst such powerful traditional elements -- dominant even in Jalalabad to a degree -- leave them with no doubt that the same can be achieved elsewhere. By contrast, it is no surprise that those who have seen Afghanistan's most destitute corners have their doubts about the situation for women. At one point in Rethink Afghanistan , Greenwald visits a refugee camp of mostly widows who are so deprived of basic needs that they must sell their own daughters to survive. Those who visit these places and then return to the developed areas around Kabul, Jalalabad, Mazar or Herat describe two vastly different worlds. To many, the differences appear insurmountable because of what is often described as the entrenched tribal culture prevalent in rural areas. But Vorgetts, who grew up in Afghanistan and remembers far better conditions for women just 30 years ago, promptly dismisses this argument. "It means it's not culture, it's forced by the fundamentalists," she says, adding that she believes education to be the most powerful weapon against these "root causes of terrorism." The disparate reports out of Afghanistan suggest that the polarity of conditions between urban and rural areas is increasing. However, improvements in the former could lead the way for improvements in the latter by, if nothing else, demonstrating that improvement is indeed possible. But a key issue is the war. President Obama is shifting the US focus from Iraq back to Afghanistan with the deployment of 21,000 additional troops and a $96.7 billion bill that passed the House in mid-May. Yet many involved in humanitarian and development aid bemoan the troop increase, such as Vorgetts, who points out that the presence of NATO soldiers in villages gives men even more reason to sequester women indoors, while instituting oppressive behavioral and dress standards. Likewise, Dr. Roshanak Wardak, one of the Afghan Parliament's few women members, tells Greenwald in Rethink Afghanistan that there are far better ways to improve the situation than fighting. She insists that a political solution exists to accommodate hardline elements into the parliament that will a spur a productive quid pro quo, with each side accepting certain conditions from the other, including respect for women. But the Obama administration's troop increase and its replacement of General David McKiernan with counterinsurgency specialist Lt. General Stanley McChrystal indicates that the US will continue prosecuting the war in Afghanistan certainly for the immediate future. The most aid groups can hope for -- especially for women -- is better disbursement channels for development dollars entering Afghanistan. And in the meantime, the activists and aid workers have no intention of relinquishing their efforts. More on Afghanistan | |
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