Tuesday, June 16, 2009

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Bill Clinton's Spokesman Denies Report Of 'Baile Hot' In Argentina Top
Back when President Obama was considering Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, there were questions raised as to how to handle potential conflicts that might arise with former president Bill Clinton's dealings overseas for the nonprofit Clinton Global Initiative. More on Bill Clinton
 
Huff TV: Nico Pitney Discusses Covering The Iranian Election With Rachel Maddow (VIDEO) Top
Nico Pitney, the National editor of HuffPost, has been covering the Iranian presidential election and the subsequent turmoil on his live-blog. He was a guest on "The Rachel Maddow Show" tonight to discuss his coverage. From MSNBC's website: "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow talks with Nico Pitney, national editor for the Huffington Post who has been tirelessly liveblogging the protests in Iran. Pitney shares insights on where he gets information and how he assesses what he finds." You can follow Nico's ongoing coverage here . Watch his appearance with Maddow below. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Rachel Maddow
 
Dems, GOP Centrists Hold Secret Meetings To Work Together On Health Care Reform Top
Centrist House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working together privately on healthcare reform. The talks have been so secretive and politically sensitive that some members interviewed by The Hill refused to name other legislators involved in the bipartisan effort. More on GOP
 
Charles Warner: Star Trek: J.J. Abrams Is a Neuroscientist Top
"Start Trek: The Future Begins" conceived and stunningly directed by J.J. Abrams and written by Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman is an appropriate, much-needed myth for a new 21st century generation that brilliantly weaves the latest discoveries of neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics into the story. For centuries Grimm's fairy tales hid moral messages in simple stories that told children how to make decisions about life. Twentieth century children needed the more engaging medium of film to hold their ever more diverted attention, but the same messages were still being transmitted about how to make decisions - be kind to little people, don't kill animals, don't lie, don't be mean to your step-siblings, don't fall for a wolf's sweet talking, etc. Ever since Plato, the Greeks, the Romans, and Middle Age religious institutions, the prevailing wisdom was that the mind was divided in two - the rational mind and the emotional mind - and that children had to be taught to use their reason to overcome their baser emotional instincts. Stop and think before you act was the message. And, oh, by the way, we'll tell you how to think. Rational man was the ideal. Descartes articulated it best with, "I think, therefore I am." The notion was that what made man superior to animals was his ability to reason. The poet William Blake romanticized this concept by writing that man was the only animal who had the ability to laugh because God gave man laughter as a consolation prize because man was the only animal with reason, and could thus figure out he was eventually going to die. The theory of rational man gave birth to the theory of economic man - a person who makes considered, rational, and self-interested decisions. The theory also gave birth to the notion of rational markets. If people were rational, then their economic decisions must be rational and self-interested and, therefore, the markets they create must be rational. However, over the last 30 years, the extensive and ground-breaking research of neuroscientists, psychologists, and behavioral economists have shown that people do not make purely rational decisions, that the theory of economic man is hogwash , and that the free-market system is totally irrational - influenced by randomness , not rationality. What the body of neuroscientific, psychological, and behavioral economic research indicates is that people make decisions based on a highly complex interaction between the rational and emotional parts of the brain, as superbly chronicled by Jonah Lehrer in How We Decide" - a must read for anyone who liked Taleb's The Black Swan or Fooled by Randomness. -- and Lehrer's dazzling Proust Was a Neuroscientist. The message of J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci, and Alex Kurtzman's "Star Trek" is in perfect harmony with Lehrer's How We Decide . Near the beginning of the movie, a young 9-year-old James Kirk speeds down an Iowa dirt road in a vintage Mustang that he's taken from his uncle and makes a miraculous recovery based on intuition before the car plummets into a deep canyon - he's obviously a rash young risk taker who makes intuitive decisions. We know who Kirk is. We next see him as a handsome, angry, emotional, fearless, risk-taking teenager who rashly gets into a fight. We really know who Kirk is. We see Spock being trained as a child in pure reason - no emotion, no risk taking - all math, science, and logic. He has a touch of emotion because his mother is human, not a Vulcan, but he is taught to repress unwanted emotion and depend on reason and logic. Spock becomes the captain of the Enterprise and has to make a crucial decision. Kirk's intuition tells him Spock's decision is wrong and they fight, after which Kirk is banished. However, in a dramatic, whiz-bang, climatic rescue scene Kirk and Spock work and fight together, win the day, and win the battle against the evil, revenge-driven Nero. The moral of the story? The risk-taking, emotional, intuitive Kirk and the logical, rational, conservative Spock need each other. They are two integral parts of a complex, effective decision-making system. In the end, the intuitive Kirk takes command of the Enterprise, with Spock his rational second in command at his side to advise him. The Enterprise and its crew boldly go off to fulfill man's ultimate purpose - to explore. What is the engine for our evolution? Curiosity (exploration), for without it we'd still be amoebas. But to explore, we need to take risks, use our intuition, and, when appropriate, think things out - use both sides of our brains. J.J. Abrams along with Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman are neuroscientists, psychologists, and behavioral economists masquerading as filmmakers who make their point by telling a whopper of a story, or visa versa. But we learn an important lesson for the 21st century through their incredible magic box, as defined in this J.J. Abrams TED video .
 
Financial Regulatory Overhaul Is Detailed Top
The Obama administration last night detailed a series of proposals that would involve the government much more deeply in the private markets, from helping to steer consumers into affordable mortgage loans to imposing new limits on the largest financial companies, in a sweeping effort to prevent the kinds of risk-taking that sparked the economic crisis. More on The Fed
 
Michael Henry Adams: Meeting the Maysles: Grey Gardens comes to Harlem Top
New to Earth, or new in town, looking around we are bound to hungrily seek others who look or seem like us. Newcomers and immigrants, bright and driven, are perennially the city's lifeblood. But during the Bloomberg regime serious efforts to attract ever more residents of means have seen measures undertaken to relocate and isolate the poor in outer ghettos, out-of-sight. In a way, that's precisely what' happened to 'Little Edie' and 'Big Edie,' the 'stars' of Grey Gardens. Bred to be lovely and pleasant, to take for granted an ample supply of ready cash, they were essentially abandoned, left without sufficient funds, to languish in a mansion whose maintenance alone required enormous sums. Without their accustomed means, with their garden overgrown, their home overrun by cats, raccoons and possums, a cherished refuge became increasingly susceptible to collapsing around them in utter decay. But defiant to the end, they somehow had the effrontery to sustain each other, and refused to give in, neither to unrelenting nature nor to indifferent humankind. Viewing a group photograph one is in, it's instinctive: to always first check to locate oneself. How smart and special it felt, how exhilarating it was, 26 years-ago, to leave the Oak Bar at the imposing Plaza, and to join in my first New York Gay Pride Parade. In two weeks time, yet again, I will join myriad disparate marchers, with a basket of 20 dozen roses to throw to the cheering crowd. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the revolt at the Stonewall Bar, we honor and commemorate exceptional people from our past whose courage then enables us to enjoy the freedom to be ourselves, largely without fear, today! As a marginalized American, representations that validate one's existence are still a relative rarity. Though things have improved a great deal, there's gross inequality in this respect, President Obama, Tiger Woods, Hilary Clinton and Judge Sotomayor notwithstanding. Whether in books or among features in the Times Home Section, if you're black, Latino, a woman or gay, it remains harder to find images or characters which fully reveal the 'true you'. In my youth and before, positive reinforcement from such sources, in movies or scholarly histories, often seemed nonexistent, thus indicating a productive path for an historian who might choose to write about neglected topics like women and the decorative arts or aspects of African American culture. A couple of years ago, in the June 19, 2007 Observer , John Koblin reporting on the Pride Parade presented an extraordinary and awful idea, one that, unfortunately, is probably true. Koblin's "Goodbye Mr. Chaps" contends that for most lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual people, those who are white and/or well to do, our parade--- a moment challenging intolerance, emblematic of liberation, has evolved into a big non-event, one to be avoided by respectable gays as embarrassing. "Anyone who's got money; anyone who's likely to get money one day soon; anyone who wants to act like they have money..." Koblin and others reported "... say it's unattractive to them...because there are all these faces of people of color from all over the world...as the parade gets blacker and blacker...fewer white people feel drawn to it. The result is, to be seen at the parade is a little déclassé." Last Friday night, June 12,th at a screening of the camp classic of all time, Grey Gardens, I was thinking about both John Koblin's gloomy pronouncement and this haunting movie's enduring popularity. The Beales, mother and daughter, lived secluded in East Hampton at idyllic Grey Gardens. A shingled, rose-bowered and privet-hedge-enclosed Arts-and-Crafts style house by the sea, it was designed by local architect and aesthete Joseph Greenleaf Thorp and completed in 1897. Via a privileged birthright, the Beales were aristocrats. But like blacks or gays, they became outcast too. Unable for a host of conflicted reasons to maintain the glossy façade of apparent perfection demanded by high society, the two women gradually, politely, withdrew. The more destitute they grew, the more sordid their elegant surroundings became, the more they were viewed contemptuously as the worst kind of eccentric non-conformists. Their transgression was not so much a mere rejection of their caste, as a defiant public spectacle rebuking every convention there was. Making the best of a bad situation, they not only maintained great poise amidst what might have been crippling indignity, they also became in the process almost as renowned, and by many, as well beloved, as any of the better known members of their prominent family LOL, there I was the other night at Harlem's innovative but diminutive Maysles' Cinema, an aspiring young man from Akron, Ohio turned more guarded and middle-aged. Like a figure invented by Langston Hughes, I was experiencing one of those fantastic, hard to believe, 'only in New York' moments. Seated in a director's chair, with genial master-moviemaker Albert Maysles on my right, Jerry Torre, Grey Gardens ' enigmatic 'Marble Fawn' was nearby. So were the brilliant " Grey Gardens " musical director-composer Scott Frankel, Paper Magazine's cleverly witty Mr. Mickey, and enthusiastic sisters, garlanded in smiles, Sara and Rebekah Maysles. The Maysles sister's new book, Grey Gardens , prompting a Grey Gardens retrospective weekend, was the reason for the panel, entitled aptly enough, "Unpacking Grey Gardens". It was an invigorating interchange in which Al Maysles related the improbable origins of his modestly made but epic film. It had been proposed as an elegy on the charmed East Hampton upbringing of Jackie and Lee Bouvier, the Beales' famously glamorous relatives. According to Al, then-Princess Lee Radziwell conceived this venture in 1972, as a tame exercise of nostalgia. Through the movie he and his brother David agreed to make, Lee would finally command the spotlight usually focused on her sister Jacqueline, President Kennedy's widow, who had married billionaire Aristotle Onassis. Called one day from Grey Gardens where her first cousin and flamboyant aunt were in distress due to repeated threats from the Suffolk County Health, Building, and Safety departments, Lee Radziwell had casually asked if the young documentary directing brothers would like to come along. "Bring your camera!" she'd said with provocative calm. Given Lee's ulterior motive, to outshine her sister, it's hardly surprising that she soon backed out of the project. Seeing completed footage featuring her, juxtaposed with new shots of the Beales, she had had little alternative. For even in all their disarray, reclusive Edith Bouvier Beale at 78 and her balding 56 year-old daughter, 'little Eddie', were absolutely riveting to behold. The time for their long awaited close-up had finally arrived and each was well prepared to give a performance of a lifetime. So that asked on her death bed by Little Edie, "Mother darling, is there anything more you'd like to say? No," Big Edie had responded, "It's all in the movie." Like Judaism, though to a lesser degree, to be Roman Catholic once almost disqualified one from belonging to the highest echelons of polite New York society, which viewed the Episcopal Church as the optimal faith. If the Bouvier's moderate fortune never entirely overcame the stigma attached to their religion, much as was the case with Jackie and Lee's ambitious mother, Janet Lee, the Beales' charm and beauty had helped mightily to advance their basically unfettered social success. Phelan Beale, a southerner who studied law at Columbia, was a partner in his father-in-law's Wall Street law office. A proper Episcopal churchman himself, just as his two Yale educated sons would be, out of deference to his fiancé, he had wed Miss Edith Ewing Bouvier at St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1917, before a congregation of 2,000. Five hundred guests attended the breakfast which followed at the Hotel St. Regis. Educated at Miss Spence's and Miss Porter's Schools, between nights at the Stork Club, dances, and her debutante supper-dance at the Pierre, little Edie had attempted to initiate a career modeling for Macy's and several specialty shops. A member of the Downtown, Union, Church, Columbia, Devon and Maidstone Clubs, clubable Phelan Beale was not amused. Hit by a taxicab in 1932 in an accident that fractured his skull, he violently opposed his daughter's being on public display in this way. As talented and sensitive as her mother, who'd dreamed of a vocation as a concert singer, Little Edie was discouraged from artistic fulfillment. Instead she was steered toward successive unsuitable, if immensely rich, suitors, including Howard Hughes and Joseph Kennedy, Jr. Her parents' diminished riches and advancing estrangement, leading to divorce, only intensified her mother's growing dependence.
 
Emma Ruby-Sachs: Obama Offers Gays a Consolation Prize of Extended Benefits Top
Obama didn't have to defend DOMA . Howard Dean protested on The Rachel Maddow Show that he doubts Obama himself was aware of the recently filed brief in defense of the Defense of Marriage Act. But weeks ago, many new outlets, including my column on this site , covered the fact that the President has the legal right to refuse to defend clearly unconstitutional laws. I have no doubt that President Obama was well aware of the brief filed in defense of DOMA. He also has indicated that his office intends to defend DOMA in subsequent legal challenges. Despite this outrageous decision, in the great game of politics, Obama is attempting to silence the gay outcry by announcing the extension of benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Dean went so far to suggest that repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell would appease the LGBT community. Well, I hate to be the one to explain a rights struggle to the first Black President, but the equality movement is not a grab bag of rights. You don't get to reach in and see which prize you've won. Each of the rights discussed above - the right to benefits for your partner, the right to serve openly in the military and the right to access the same tax breaks and immigration privileges given to heterosexual couples - should be granted. Immediately. Granting one does not absolve trespass over the other rights. Obama has made it clear that he will do only the minimum necessary to avoid a gay revolution. Gay rights are consistently moved to the bottom of the political barrel. He thinks extending benefits to a few federal employees is sufficient. It's our job to let him know that is not enough. Now is the time to pull the funding you have given to the DNC (like some of the most high profile gay leaders in this country). Now is the time to send a letter explaining why you won't be directing any future donations to the Obama administration no matter how many nice emails they send you. Now is the time to blog, argue and get angry. If it takes national outrage to explain to Obama that rights aren't optional consolation prizes to be granted when his administration does something wrong, then we must deliver national outrage. The signing of the presidential memo granting benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees will be at 5:45 pm today. The President is expected to make a few remarks. More on Barack Obama
 
AP source: Same-sex partners to get fed benefits Top
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, under growing criticism for not seeking to end the ban on openly gay men and women in the military, is extending benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees. Obama plans to announce his decision on Wednesday in the Oval Office, a White House official said Tuesday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the president hadn't yet signed the presidential memorandum. The official said Obama would release more details on Wednesday. The decision is a political nod to a reliably Democratic voting bloc that in recent weeks has grown frustrated with the White House's slow movement on their priorities. Several powerful gay fundraisers withdrew their support from a June 25 Democratic National Committee event where Vice President Joe Biden is expected to speak. Their exit came in response to a June 12 Justice Department brief that defended the Defense of Marriage Act, a prime target for gay and lesbian criticism. Justice lawyers argued that the law allowed states to reject marriages performed in other states or countries that defy their own standards. The legal arguments _ including citing incest and sex with minors _ sparked rebellion among gay and lesbian activists who had been largely biting their tongues since Obama won election. They had objected to the Rev. Rick Warren's invitation to participate in the inauguration despite his support for repealing gay marriage in California. Their January protest won the invitation of Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose consecration as the first openly gay bishop divided and almost split his denomination. Gays and lesbians later fretted as the White House declined to intervene in the cases of enlisted military members facing courts martial for defying the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" policies. White House officials say they want Congress to repeal the policy as part of a "lasting and durable" solution, instead of intervening on individual cases. "The president agreed that ... the policy wasn't working for our national interests, that he committed to change that policy, that he's working with the secretary of defense and the joint chiefs on making that happen," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said last month. In the meantime, the administration has tried to make small, quiet moves to extend benefits to gays and lesbians. The State Department has promised to give partners of gay and lesbian diplomats many benefits, such as diplomatic passports and language training. But without a specific change in the Federal Employees' Health Benefits Program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's promises left out financial benefits such as pensions. Obama's move could make that shift. Gay and lesbian activists had expected Obama to take action some time in June, which is gay pride month. John Berry, the highest-ranking gay official in the administration and the de facto human resources chief for the administration, told a gay rally last weekend that Obama planned to take action on benefits soon. Berry, who heads the Office of Personnel and Management, has repeatedly told reporters that he expected the White House to turn to legislation to give domestic partners access to federal health and retirement plans. But Obama so far has sent only one piece of legislation to the Hill _ a pay-as-you-go measure that is part of his wooing of fiscally conservative Democrats. Instead, Obama will use his signature instead of legislation to achieve the benefits parity sought by same-sex couples.
 
Giannoulias Courting Grassroots In Quest For Senate Top
State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stepped up his campaign for the U.S. Senate this week with a substantial grassroots recruiting effort, Progress Illinois reports . Giannoulias rolled out a new web effort, Grassroots for Alexi , to begin organizing and mobilizing voters to raise money and volunteer to go door-to-door for him. In conjunction with launching the site, Giannoulias released a new video and wrote a coming-out post on Daily Kos designed to introduce the state official to the site's national audience. "I've been reading the site for a while now (I guess I'm what you would call a "lurker") and I constantly find myself in awe of this community's passion and knowledge," Giannoulias wrote. "While I feel like I know many of you simply by reading your work, I would like to formally introduce myself to the community. So, from user ID# 206022....an introduction." Giannoulias goes on to speak of his upbringing by Greek parents, his election as the youngest state treasurer in the country and his relationship with President Obama, whom he called his mentor. Giannoulias tries to paint himself as an outsider to the political establishment, much like his frequent basketball partner. "President Obama wasn't the choice of DC insiders when he ran for the Senate, and neither am I," Giannoulias wrote. "Fact is, I wasn't the choice of the insiders when I ran for Treasurer. Far from it." Casting himself as an outsider may be Giannoulias' way of carving out space in a potentially crowded primary against against candidates with greater name recognition . "The times are too serious to let the same old politicians fail to solve the same old problems, and the opportunity is too great to settle for the ineffective status quo," Giannoulias wrote. Watch Giannoulias' new video: More on Senate Races
 
Auto Supplier Aid Request Rejected By Obama Administration Top
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has turned down a request by auto suppliers for up to $10 billion in additional federal aid to help the parts companies deal with the bankruptcies of General Motors and Chrysler. The Treasury Department said in a statement Tuesday that an existing $5 billion support program for auto parts suppliers was playing an important role in stabilizing the nation's auto supply base. "No changes have been made to funding, but will continue to monitor the situation," the department said. Suppliers have lobbied for $8 billion to $10 billion in loan guarantees to help them raise money to buy raw materials and pay employees as Chrysler and GM resume production. Supplier trade groups met with members of the Obama administration's auto task force and lawmakers last week. Task force officials told industry leaders they had already provided plenty of support but didn't see the need for further action, said Neil De Koker, president and chief executive of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association. "They basically said, 'You know things are smooth right now; we don't see disruption in the industry; assembly lines aren't being shut down because of part shortages,'" De Koker said. "They left the door open." Obama's task force created a $5 billion financing support program in April to keep parts flowing for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC. It also provided government guarantees to finance parts that were already shipped to automakers but had not been paid for. GM and Chrysler have participated in the program, which allows the car companies to choose how the aid is distributed among the suppliers. Hundreds of suppliers of all sizes manufacture bolts, axles, transmissions and other parts for assembly in car plants. Suppliers have been hurt by the dramatic downturn in auto sales and some analysts have been concerned the supply chain could collapse. Government aid and payment guarantees for GM and Chrysler have kept most suppliers afloat. About 20 suppliers have filed for bankruptcy this year, including Visteon Corp., Ford Motor Co.'s largest supplier, and Metaldyne Corp. GM and Chrysler, which are both working through bankruptcy filings, are temporarily shutting down some factories for up to three months because of growing inventories. If the plants aren't running, suppliers have no income and must deal with a 45-day lag between when they ship parts and when they are paid again. The potential cash crunch has prompted industry groups to seek additional federal support. De Koker said some suppliers could be forced to shut down or liquidate due to a lack of cash while others may be unable to provide parts once automakers resume production. "The entire industry is running at such low capacity that when the plants start ramping up again the cash won't be there to pay for parts and labor," he said. "If we don't find some way to get credit to suppliers, there are going to be suppliers who just can't make it." Lawmakers from auto states are seeking other ways to help supplier companies. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was expected to announce a plan on Wednesday to provide a new funding source to help small and midsize auto suppliers revamp their facilities to create clean energy jobs. "We'll have to follow through and see what other options are available, but I think it's very important that we do everything we can to help suppliers," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. ___ AP Business Writer Chip Cutter in New York contributed to this report.
 
Jillian York: Internet Filtering in Asia Accelerates Top
From the Great Firewall to the Myanmar Wide Web, Asia is well-known for its practices in Internet filtering. China has long taken the lead in blocking Web sites, filtering sites across the spectrum - from social to political content, pornography to Internet tools. The OpenNet Initiative (full disclosure: I'm involved) has been studying the Internet in Asia and around the world since 2002, and has just released its latest reports on Internet surveillance and controls in Asia , and specifically in China . New research from the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) reveals accelerating restrictions on Internet content as Asian governments shift to next generation controls. These new techniques go beyond blocking access to websites and are more informal and fluid, implemented at edges of the network, and are often backed up by increasingly restrictive and broadly interpreted laws. According to an recent ONI press release: "Since 2006, many Asian governments have quickly realized the potential benefits of exploiting opportunities for conducting propaganda or public relations strategies over the Internet, even while cracking down on independent and critical voices thriving in these online spaces- an example of the evolution towards next generation controls," said Ron Deibert, director of the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and one of four principal investigators at the ONI. These controls were evidenced recently in ONI's analysis of China's latest attempt at controlling the flow of information , Green Dam Youth Escort filtering software mandated for pre-installation on PCs sold in China starting July 1. "However, even China's example demonstrates that restrictions on information are far from uniformly effective, and will meet resistance and be contested by the very groups they are intended to silence," said Rafal Rohozinski, CEO of the SecDev Group and co-founder and principal investigator of ONI and ONI Asia. The reports for Asia, as well as Burma, China, Pakistan, and South Korea will be featured in a forthcoming MIT Press volume, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Rights, Rule, and Power in Cyberspace , to be published by MIT Press (2010). Access Controlled will include a series of analytical chapters and regional overviews that contribute to the developing discourse around global Internet regulation and censorship raised in the first ONI volume Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering , (Cambridge: MIT Press) 2008. More on Asia
 
Iranians Protest Election Results In Chicago (VIDEO) Top
After some difficulty obtaining protest permits from the city, members of Chicago's Iranian community finally got the official go-ahead and held a protest against the result's of the country's presidential election outside Federal Plaza Tuesday. Windy Citizen has an excellent live blog of the demonstration and Chicago Public Radio interviewed some protesters . Watch a report from the scene: More on Iran
 
White House Climate Change Report Issues Dire Warning On Worsening Situation Top
WASHINGTON — Rising sea levels, sweltering temperatures, deeper droughts, and heavier downpours _ global warming's serious effects are already here and getting worse, the Obama administration warned on Tuesday in the grimmest, most urgent language on climate change ever to come out of any White House. But amid the warnings, scientists and government officials seemed to go out of their way to soften the message. It is still not too late to prevent some of the worst consequences, they said, by acting aggressively to reduce world emissions of heat-trapping gases, primarily carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. The new report differs from a similar draft issued with little fanfare or context by George W. Bush's administration last year. It is paradoxically more dire about what's happening and more optimistic about what can be done. The Obama administration is backing a bill in Congress that would limit heat-trapping pollution from power plants, refineries and factories. A key player on a climate bill in the Senate, California Democrat Barbara Boxer, said the report adds "urgency to the growing momentum in Congress" for passing a law. "It's not too late to act," said Jane Lubchenco, one of several agency officials at a White House briefing. "Decisions made now will determine whether we get big changes or small ones." But what has happened already is not good, she said: "It's happening in our own backyards and it affects the kind of things people care about." Lubchenco, a marine biologist, heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In one of its key findings, the report warned: "Thresholds will be crossed, leading to large changes in climate and ecosystems." The survival of some species could be affected, it said. The document, a climate status report required periodically by Congress, was a collaboration by about three dozen academic, government and institute scientists. It contains no new research, but it paints a fuller and darker picture of global warming in the United States than previous studies. Bush was ultimately forced by a lawsuit to issue a draft report last year, and that document was the basis for this one. Obama science adviser John Holdren called the report nonpartisan, started by a Republican administration and finished by a Democratic one. "The observed climate changes that we report are not opinions to be debated. They are facts to be dealt with," said one of the report's chief authors, Jerry Melillo of Marine Biological Lab in Woods Hole, Mass. "We can act now to avoid the worst impacts." Among the things Melillo said he would like to avoid are more flooding disasters in New Orleans and an upheaval of the world's food supply. The scientists softened the report from an earlier draft that said "tipping points have already been reached and have led to large changes." Melillo said that is because some of the changes seen so far are still reversible. Even so, Tom Karl of the National Climatic Data Center said that at least one tipping point _ irreversible sea level rise _ has been passed. A point of emphasis of the report, which is just under 200 pages, is what has already happened in the United States. That includes rapidly retreating glaciers in the American West and Alaska, altered stream flows, trouble with the water supply, health problems, changes in agriculture, and energy and transportation worries. "There are in some cases already serious consequences," report co-author Anthony Janetos of the University of Maryland told The Associated Press. "This is not a theoretical thing that will happen 50 years from now. Things are happening now." For example, winters in parts of the Midwest have warmed by 7 degrees in just 30 years and the frost-free period has grown a week, the report said. Shorter winters have some benefits, such as longer growing seasons, but those are changes that require adjustments just the same, the authors note. The "major disruptions" already taking place will only increase as warming continues, the authors wrote. The world's average temperature may rise by as much as 11.5 degrees by the end of the century, the report said. And the U.S. average temperature could go even higher than that, Karl said. Environmental groups praised the report as a call for action, with the Union of Concerned Scientists calling it what "America needs to effectively respond to climate change." Scott Segal, a Washington lobbyist for the coal industry, was more cautious: "Fast action without sufficient planning is a route to potential economic catastrophe with little environmental gain." ___ Associated Press Writer Dina Cappiello in Washington contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: U.S. Global Change Research Program: http://tinyurl.com/m4rdnp More on Climate Change
 
Credit Card Defaults Keep Climbing Top
Banks continue to write off credit card debt as consumers hurt by record high unemployment default at an increasing rate. Regulatory forms filed this week by some of the nation's largest banks showed default rates on credit cards rose in May. The default rate is a measure of loans that the bank does not expect to be repaid. More on Small Business
 
ABC News: Is The American Dream Dead? Top
As the recession grinds on, and we take stock of our country's lost jobs, foreclosed homes and decimated 401(k)s, many Americans are lamenting the loss of something that can't be captured in statistics and data points: the American Dream. More on Personal Finance
 
Ali Gharib: Are the Protesters Trying to Bring Down the Iranian Regime? Top
The regime is NOT going to collapse. And that's not the goal of the vast majority of those marching Tehran's streets. This is not about ending the Islamic Revolution, it's about getting back to it. For all his talk of returning it to its roots, Ahmadinejad's slow crawl from a de facto dictatorship to a de jure one is a shift away from the Revolution, which was, let's not forget, first and foremost about getting rid of the dictatorial and tyrannical Shah, not about Islam and that state. Moussavi has made clear that the people are behind him not for his sake, but for the sake of the Republic that they love. Likewise, the emerging ritual of standing at windows, balconies, and rooftops at around 10pm and shouting "Allah-o-akbar" is a call of hope for the idealism of 1979 -- hardly a time an anti-Islamic Republic of Iran movement would look to. I think it's the most moving thing to come out of the whole ordeal so far: Check out Trita Parsi's article on the same subject here on Time Magazine's website. This post originally appeared here on Mondoweiss . More on Ahmadinejad
 
Paul LeGendre: Will Matthew Shepard Rest In Peace? Top
In 1998, the murder of Matthew Shepard sent shock waves through the nation. A 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming, Shepard was brutally beaten, tortured, tied to a fence, and left for dead. Eighteen hours later, a bicyclist found Matthew, initially thinking he was a scarecrow. He was rushed to the hospital and died five days later. Now, more than a decade later, the U.S. Senate is set to vote on a bill that would give the government additional tools to combat and prevent such heinous acts. This critical legislation, which has already passed in the House of Representatives in a bipartisan vote of 249-175, is aptly named the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act (S. 909). If passed into law, it could prove to be one of the nation's strongest weapons to date to protect those who are most vulnerable to bias-motivated violence. Though it is widely believed and acknowledged that Matthew Shepard was targeted precisely because of his sexual orientation, his killers were not charged with a hate crime. There wasn't then and still isn't a state hate crime law in Wyoming, and the current federal civil rights law that the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act seeks to update extends to race, religion, or national origin, but not to sexual orientation. While all violent crimes are reprehensible, hate crimes cannot be measured solely by the harm caused to the individual victim. These acts are among the most pernicious forms of discrimination because they target all those who identify with the victim. This reality leaves many to live in fear and exclusion from the larger society. More broadly hate crimes threaten the core fabric of the diverse and pluralistic societies in which we live, undermining the shared values of equality and nondiscrimination among all individuals. Fighting hate crimes is nothing less than fighting to uphold human rights. While there has been progress on this front since 1998, there is still a long way to go. At the state level - where the vast majority of hate crimes are and will continue to be investigated and prosecuted - only 30 states and the District of Columbia punish hate crimes based on sexual orientation bias; 30 punish disability bias, 26 gender bias, and 12 gender identity bias. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act gives the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power in certain cases to investigate and prosecute bias-motivated violence by providing the DOJ with jurisdiction over crimes of violence where the perpetrator has selected the victim because of the person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. Importantly, the bill would also makes grants available to state and local communities to train law enforcement officers or assist in state and local investigations and prosecutions of bias-motivated crimes. The family of Sean Kennedy may have appreciated this protection two years ago. A 20-year old gay man, Kennedy was leaving a bar in South Carolina when a man shouted homophobic epithets, while punching him hard enough to knock him onto the asphalt. One of Kennedy's friends later received a voicemail saying, "You tell your faggot friend when he wakes up, he owes me five hundred dollars for my broken hand." Kennedy never woke up. He died in a hospital later that evening from injuries suffered during the attack. Although local law enforcement wanted to prosecute the case as a hate crime, they couldn't, because South Carolina has no hate crime law, and the federal statute doesn't apply to violence based on sexual orientation bias. That critical change cannot come soon enough. According to data collected by the FBI, attacks motivated by sexual orientation bias are on the rise and are characterized by levels of physical violence that, in many cases, exceed the severity of other types of hate crime. We are calling on all Americans to join us in urging Senators to provide law enforcement officials with the tools they need to hold responsible those who commit these senseless acts of bias-motivated violence. To contact your Senator today and urge passage of S. 909, visit here . The protections this bill affords are long overdue. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act addresses hate violence against all Americans - not just some - and will allow the United States to lead by example in its efforts to ensure global leadership in combating all forms of discrimination and bias-motivated violence. Paul LeGendre is the Director of the Fighting Discrimination program at Human Rights First. Join them at facebook.com/humanrightsfirst and twitter.com/humanrights1st
 
Omid Memarian: A Coup Manual: What We Should Know About Iran's Election Top
The foreign media and western states are confused and puzzled as to how to interpret the Iranian election on June 12th. Over the past few days I've been speaking with many journalists in Tehran who normally go there for one or two weeks on assignment. Many of them, initially, believed that Ahmadinejad's declared re-election was similar in nature to his first term election in 2005. Meaning that he had successfully mobilized his base of poor people and conservatives and that the reformists and Iranian middle class had, once again, lost the election. But recent development tells us that this is not the real story. So, what are the sources of confusion? What went wrong and why are people angry and un-accepting of the results? Here are some essential questions that one might ask in order to fully understand the issues at hand: Was the Iranian election rigged? No doubt it was. There are many signs that indicate a very organized fraud, which has been in the works for many months. It's inconceivable that Ahmadinejad could have won 24 millions votes. How could he when he had only received just over 5 million in the first round of the 2005 election? In the second round he gained 16 million and that was simply because he was running against Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was very unpopular at the time, a man that was rumored to have corruption in his family, rumors that became etched in the memory of the Iranian people. There was even a saying that "anybody could beat Hashemi in the second round". At that time, even Ahmadineajds's second position in the first round was so controversial that he was accused of an organized fraud led by Iran's militia forces, Basijis, and the Revolutionary Guard. Now, without any change in Iran's demography, he received, in some places, figures of twenty times more votes than he did four years ago. During the past four years, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have increased inflation from approximately 11 percent to 25 percent, more than double. The effects of such policies have been a hard reality for millions of Iranians. He is the only president in Iran who has not gained the support of Iran's middle class and elite. Although his government spent billions of dollars on propaganda, he remained widely criticized by reformists, experts, civil society activists and even some conservatives. On the other hand, Mousavi (Iran's prime minister at the time of war with Iraq 1980-1988) is very well respected and popular in the society. Iranian people know him as a man of integrity, a politician who managed the war economy quite thoughtfully. The overwhelming support for Mousavi by the Iranian middle class, the political elite, reformists and millions of people was contagious even amongst part of the conservative base (also known as Ahmadinejad's base). Mousavi drew crowds of more than 50,000 to his rallies over the past three months in small and large cities alike, not just in Tehran. So a landslide victory seemed like a joke. When did the suspicion start? On election night, Mousavi received a call from the Ministry of Interior telling him of his victory. Meanwhile, a committee, which included the Minister of Interior himself and two of his deputies, announced different results. They declared Ahmadinejad as Iran's President elect faster than anyone could imagine. While the election was still in progress a news agency, known to strongly support Ahmadineajd, had already written about his landslide victory. It was as if they knew in advance. In less than a few hours the authorities began announcing the results by the millions. Everybody who is familiar with Iran's bureaucracy knows that it's just impossible to have possibly counted the ballots this fast. The voting process is not computerized but totaled by hand and therefore it takes quite a bit of time, particularly with voter turnout being at a record high. So it was obvious that the results were not based on actual votes. Also, like many countries including the United States, Iran is a very diverse country. Candidates naturally have more support in some provinces than in others, like their hometown for example. It's impossible that a candidate could win by a same margin in every single province as Ahmadinejad, allegedly, has. This is numerically improbable and does not make sense to anybody. The results of this election make a mockery of the Iranian voting system and their history as a democracy. Is it a coup? It might not seem a classic coup. But there are indications that the fraud did not happened just on the actual Election Day. Even if 90 percent of the people voted reformists, it would never have been reflected in the ballot counts. It's just impossible. Let's review different segments of the game and then you call it whatever you want: 1. Before the elections, Ahmadinejad's supporters, major news agencies and radical newspapers, predicted a landslide victory. They even mentioned a plausible win by 60 percent! An alarming and odd a prediction in a country where one cannot even predict the price of a tomato, or an onion, from one day to the next. 2. The results were announced too quickly to be true. It was as if they already knew what the numbers were going to be. So it seems that the authorities didn't even have to bother to actually count the ballots for results. 3. On Election Day, the police were ready for the huge presence of protesters in the major cities. They were fully armed and well equipped with anti-riot gear. What was supposed to happen? Why were they so prepared? 4. A few hours after the results were announced, and even with all of the complaints, the Iranian Supreme Leader announced Ahmadinejad as the next president, and asked all of the other candidates to cooperate with the winner. Why such a rush? 5. Dozens of prominent reformist politicians and journalists were systematically arrested within 48 hours of the announcement of the presidency. Forces were organized, knowing who to arrest and where to go without legitimate reason. But this game could not afford prominent political figures to potentially play leadership roles against the outcome. 6. On Election Day SMS services were cut off followed by cell phone reception the day after. Reformists websites were blocked as well, which forced a disconnect between surprised reformists and their supporters. Everything happened very quickly. It's been part of the plan to be swift. 7. A top-down pressure began. Mousavi and Karrubi were placed immediately under unofficial house arrest. There were told that it was for their own security. Simultaneously, some of the major religious figures from the office of the Supreme leader, and reportedly, some of the other officials in power pressured Mousavi to accept the results. 8. The next day Ahmadinejad's supporters, many of whom were armed with cold arms, rallied in one of the squares in Tehran in a show of power. 9. At the same time, the spontaneous, and unexpected massive protests began. (Which was not expected on such a scale (because Iranians know how the police and the government can go wild and brutal). Ahmadinejad called it a rebellion. It was a necessary label for justifying the police action taken to stop the protesters. The protests were peaceful, but the police themselves, started to destroy cars setting the scene for confrontation. 10. Now, you put together the above pieces and tell me what you would call it. Is the media covering this election properly? There are some good reports. But consider that many of the journalists are not able to report freely. They know that the government monitors their work closely. They can easily be forced to leave the country. The news agencies, which have correspondents in Tehran, do not want to jeopardize their visa situation nor their ability to have their people on the ground. Even CNN's Christiane Amanpour grossly underreported on the number of Mousavi supporters in Monday's protest in Tehran. She described "thousands" when in fact, it was apparent that there were "hundreds of thousands". It is no surprise. I personally know many journalists who have never been able to renew their visas after writing blunt pieces about the realities on the ground. For many of them it is a matter of professional survival. Beyond this, many of them are not able to connect the dots. They cannot travel throughout the country, many of them do not speak Farsi and there are there just there for a few weeks and like many are just as surprised. Also, some of the commentators on cable TV tend to add the United States to the equation unnecessarily. This is wrong. What is happening in Iran has nothing to do with the United States. Iranians have been fighting for their rights for decades now. However, if the U.S. had an open and amicable relationship with Iran, it would be more likely that the Iranian authorities would have to behave and respect the demands of the people. The best way to follow the development of the events as they unfold is to follow multiple and diverse news channels. What should the United States do? President Obama is in a very critical situation. No matter what happens in the coming days, Obama should not congratulate Ahmadinejad for his victory. He did not win the election, he stole it. However he should stick to his plans to negotiate and communicate with the Iranian government. Most of the U.S. allies in the Middle East, from Egypt to Saudi Arabia, have a much worst political situation on their hands and yet they remain friendly with Washington. If the Iranian government engages with the U.S. in the coming months and years under Ahmadinejad's second term, it will surely be harder for the Iranian government to ignore their responsibility to the Iranian people. Iran's disconnect from the outside world has served the radicals in Tehran more than anybody else. Also, the United States should not take side. If Obama supports the protesters it gives the Iranian authorities the reasons they want and need to portray the recent protest as an American phenomena. Play into made up stories of how, for instance, CIA and Moosad and the other intelligence services on the planet are behind the scenes of such an original and genuine movement. The United States and other western countries should put more pressure on the United Nations to act more decisively. So far more than 10 people have died. (I just received word from a reliable source that 9 people died in Rasool e Akram Hospital in Tehran, and a tenth one had been shot and killed earlier). The United Nation's Security Council really should hold an emergency meeting over this issue. The protests have potentials to be another Tiananmen Square, particularly when the police and the militia are interested in turning these peaceful protests to chaos. This gives them an excuse to use force, something they are waiting to do it. The UNSC should adopt a resolution in condemnation of the use of force against peaceful protests. This post will be updated with more questions. Photo by Leila Partia, Tehran More on Barack Obama
 
Iran Uprising: Historic Parallels To Today's Protests Top
The massive socio-political movement in Iran, following the highly controversial announcement Saturday declaring Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the victor of that state's presidential election, is reminiscent of a number of other such uprisings during the past few decades -- with some being notably more violent than others. However, it should be noted, the situation in Iran is by no means a "revolution" at this junction, and experts and pundits aplenty agree that such an appellation would be both premature and inappropriate. Nevertheless, a look back is merited, given the situational picture painted by images, video and reports that have made their way out of Iran thus far. An especially violent historical parallel is Rhodesia's (now Zimbabwe) Second Chimurenga , that began in 1964 and lasted until 1979, which began as a civil disobedience movement, but escalated into civil war against the minority white colonial ruling faction. The eventual result was Zimbabwean independence, with Robert Mugabe taking power over the new Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980. Read more here. Second Chimurenga A more peaceful example is Portugal's 1974 Carnation Revolution , which saw thousands of civilian dissidents take to the streets to side with military insurgents in the country's two-year-long civil war. The eventual result was an almost bloodless coup whereby an authoritarian regime was supplanted by democracy. Read more here. Carnation Revolution A very obvious parallel to Iran today is of course the Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979, when demonstrators brought the country to a standstill and forced the US-backed Shah to flee. The result was that the monarchy was replaced with the current Islamic Republican system. Read more here. Islamic Revolution A popular uprising that saw far more bloodshed, however, is the 8888 Uprising in Burma (also known as Myanmar), when on August 8, 1988 student protesters joined with monks, doctors, housewives and even children in a call for democracy. The movement ended with the slaughter of thousands of protesters -- mostly students -- by the Tatmadaw (Burmese Armed Forces). This is also when opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, now on trial, entered politics. Read more here. 8888 Uprising Another uprising in Burma came in September 2007, when tens of thousands of monks marched through the streets of all major cities to demand political change and better living conditions. The movement, called the Saffron Revolution because of the monks' red robes, grew to include Burma's former student leaders called the '88 generation as well as a new generation of dissidents. The protesters used new media tools like cell phones and Google Chat to send information on their uprising to the international community. However, like in 1988, the army quickly sent in troops, killing dozens if not hundreds of protesters and arresting thousands. Saffron Revolution Perhaps the most well-known (despite government efforts) similar example, however, is China's Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. The protests saw upward of one million people -- many of whom were students and intellectuals -- gather in and around Tiananmen square following the death of pro-democracy, pro-capitalism opposition leader Hu Yaobang. The protests grew into a larger outcry against government corruption and ended in a massacre. Read more here. Tiananmen Square Massacre Less violent and also in 1989 was Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution against the ruling Communist party. Thousands of students took to the streets, only to be suppressed by armed police. Their suppression, consequently, led to even larger demonstrations and nationwide strikes, eventually forcing the Communist government to step down. Read more here. Velvet Revolution Similarly, what has become known by many as the Colour Revolutions took place in four countries and were characterized by mostly non-violent demonstrations in post-Communist Eurasia. The are: the Bulldozer Revolution in Serbia in 2000; the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003; the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004; and the Tulip Revolution (also known as the Pink Revolution) in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. Bulldozer Revolution Rose Revolution Orange Revolution Tulip Revolution It should be stressed that no two "revolutions"/uprisings/mass demonstrations can ever be the same. However, reflecting Mark Twain's insight -- that, though history never repeats itself, it can sometimes rhyme -- there are often notable parallels. The Colour Revolutions shared a mostly nonviolent approach centered around a symbolic color (much as we are seeing now in Iran with Mousavi's "Green Wave" ). And Tiananmen and Burma were begun by students and young intellectuals from the universities (also similar to the current Iranian demonstrations, though Iran expert Trita Parsi points out that it is far more heterogeneous than that). Historical examples cannot possibly tell us definitively what will happen in Iran as the demonstrations and consequential crackdowns continue. However, past mass movements to effect social and political change are surely serving as motivation and inspiration now, given the reformist mentality of Mousavi and his supporters. Only the coming days will tell us more. What protests or uprising had an impact on you? Leave your ideas and reflections in the comments below. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on Iran
 

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