Thursday, July 2, 2009

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Fred Whelan and Gladys Stone: How Rude! Top
You've interviewed with a few people for a job you really want. Everyone's been great until this individual. This person is asking questions to "trip you up", isn't smiling and is enjoying the fact that you are on the "hot seat". This interviewer is hostile to you for some reason. Whatever the reason, you can be almost certain that it has nothing to do with you. He or she may be the type of person that's always negative, finding fault everywhere. They might be an egomaniac on some power trip. They may not like the idea of hiring someone for this position or they might have someone else in mind for this job. The worst thing you can do is confront the person and ask them why they appear to be "out to get you". As difficult as it may be, you want to stay focused on doing well because, after all, you want this job and why should you let some jerk stand in your way? So, how do you hold up during 60 minutes of squeezing from a total stranger? Stay Cool - As tempting as it may be, don't take the bait and react negatively. The best thing you can do is to keep your responses even keeled. Even if the interviewer says something that "pushes your buttons" you want to remain professional and in control. If you react negatively, the situation could escalate and you can be sure they'll report back on that. While you can't control how they interact with you, you can certainly control your reaction to them. So, don't take it personally, because it isn't. Play Back Their Ideas - If they talk about what needs to be done to make the company successful, play that back somewhere in the conversation when it's right. If you can use their words or phrases, all the better. For example, if they said "the key is to bridge these two warring groups", then use that phrase to sell your experience, like "we had our warring groups at company x and here's how we brought them together". As artificial as this may seem it works like a charm. It does two things: lets them know that you are listening and that you also have a similar communication style. The more you're like them, the more they'll like you. Look for Ways to Bond - As they're speaking, listen for things you share in common, like where they grew up, went to school, people you might know in common or why they got into this business in the first place. If you're able to bond with them in the interview, that's going to signal that you'll be able to bond with them should you get the job. Compliment Them - You know the saying "flattery will get you everywhere". Find a way to compliment them that's genuine. For example, "I like your directness" or "What's been your key to success here?" That will indicate to them that you view them in somewhat of a positive light. It's only human nature for them to have similar feelings about you. To the extent that it feels comfortable, smile. Move Them In a Positive Direction - Ask things that will elicit positive responses like "What do you like most about working here?" That will get them focused on talking about their favorite subject "themselves" and shift the mood from negative to positive. They'll start feeling positive and attribute that to you. Even if you follow all the above, there's no guarantee this interviewer will give you the thumbs up. However, you can feel good knowing that you have done everything possible to maintain a positive demeanor in a negative environment. What's also important to remember is that this hostile interviewer's feedback will be tempered by the fact that they have a reputation for being negative, "Yeah, but that's Bob". If you've done well with the others, there's no reason to believe that this one interview is going to ruin your chances. Fred & Gladys Whelan Stone Executive Search and Coaching Authors of GOAL! Your 30 Day Career Plan for Business & Career Success
 
Nate Silver Turns To Poker Top
I'll be boarding a plane in the next few minutes headed to Las Vegas, where I'll be for the next several days to conduct some research (yes, really!) for my book and to play in the World Series of Poker. I haven't played cards for 18 months or so, should you probably be happy if I happen to appear at your table. Nevertheless, for a period of about two and a half years starting in 2004, when the poker craze was at its peak and it was easy to find poor opponents, I was playing quite a bit and relied on poker as a secondary source of income, without which I probably would not have been able to quit my consulting job.
 
Henry Henderson: Chicago River: From open sewer to crown jewel? Top
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham’s iconic Plan of Chicago .  The Plan re-imagined the American industrial city, identifying and prioritizing open space, cultivation of natural areas, and public access to water resources as keystones for the City’s health and quality of life. We are all the richer for this vision of how to integrate the natural and built environments into a rich urban ecosystem.  From the Plan comes the parks, tree lined boulevards, and, most notably, Chicago’s glorious Lake Michigan shoreline.  And while the “open, free and clear” Chicago Lake front is a central part of our inheritance from the Burnham Plan, the vision for the City’s second shoreline---that of the Chicago River---has yet to be fully realized.  The Chicago River is an essential part of Chicago’s  identity, and but for the River, it is unlikely that the City would have risen to be a major metropolis. (See, e.g., William Cronon, Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West , p. 23). The front page of Sunday’s Chicago Tribune featured a look at the waterway , in which architecture critic Blair Kamin notes: Chicago was born by the river and named for the wild onion plants that once thrived on its banks. But in the boom years of the 19th Century, businessmen turned the river into an artery of commerce and a sewer for dumping industrial waste. The river became a forbidding trench, an "On the Waterfront" landscape of piers, bulkheads and bollards for tying up ships. Buildings turned their backs to it. Today, our view of the river has changed, and the opportunity to recover it as an environmental amenity, incorporating nature, culture and commerce in accord with the vision of the Burnham Plan is within our reach. But several things need to be done. Kamin’s excellent feature looked at the $22 million dollar riverwalk extension project which is the culmination of a long-term, multigenerational commitment to turn the river into another beautiful amenity for Chicagoans. Just as the lakefront provides gorgeous open parkland along the eastern edge of the City, the river has always offered visionaries from Burnham’s generation a way to extend that greenery into the heart of the City and its neighborhoods.  You need only look at the stretch of river where NRDC’s new Chicago office sits to see how this evolution of thinking has played out.  Two buildings built in 1929 face each other, but deal with the river in completely opposite ways. On the east side of the river stands the Civic Opera House , which was built with its back to the river (as much of the river front building had resolutely done up to that time). NRDC’s office is on the west bank of the river in the old Chicago Daily News Building (now called 2 N. Riverside Plaza), a building that took a different view of the river---the modern view of the river as an amenity, and stepping back to create a broad, open plaza, facing directly onto the river and embracing its shores with a public space and built-in water taxi stands. Over the years, the embrace of the river has gained support. Development along the river in both the central business district and in the neighborhoods has increased dramatically, and in recent decades   use of the river itself for something other than an open sewer for industrial and other waste has seen dramatic increases. From my window on the river, there never seems to be a point where the waters are not being plied by a water taxi, pleasure boat, or even the occasional rowing team. Canoes and kayaks are a common sight on the north and south branches of the river---and even the central branch which runs through the heart of the Loop is a boating destination. But while the City and residents have embraced the river, the governmental agency responsible for the waterway continues to turn its back to the river and consider it an open sewer. I am talking about the interestingly named Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD). It is an independent government authority, with taxing authority, an elected board, and the responsibility of overseeing waste water issues in Cook County, Illinois. It is clearly the biggest roadblock to fulfilling the vision of the City of Chicago to transform this once blighted river into a highly valued part of the urban environment, contributing to the quality of life of the City and its region. You see, the MWRD is polluting the river with human waste . And putting all those on its waters in harms way. The MWRD owns and operate sewage treatment facilities along the Chicago River that dump undisinfected sewage into the river waters. Both the City of Chicago and State of Illinois have urgently called upon the District to stop dumping of this polluted sewage into the river. Civic advocates, including NRDC, have pressed the case before the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Yet the MWRD continues to release harmful viruses and bacteria associated with un-disinfected sewage into the river that flows past homes, parks, businesses, boats and swimmers. Instead of complying with the regulations proposed by the Illinois EPA, MWRD is pouring millions of taxpayer dollars into fighting them. Certainly, disinfecting billions of gallons of effluent will come with costs. But they are significantly less than one would expect---dwarfed, in fact, by the continued real estate investment and recreation time being spent along the waterway. The Trib puts the investment into proper perspective, returning to that vision of the River as an extension of Chicago’s lakefront: One might have reacted with cynicism in 1909 when, in the Plan of Chicago, Daniel Burnham urged Chicago's leaders to turn their chopped-up assortment of lakefront parks into a sparkling and continuous public space. Yet for the last 100 years, completing that vision has been Chicago's grand civic project. For the next 100 years, in the downtown and beyond, the city has its work cut out for it: turning the riverfront into an equally great public space. Absolutely correct, Mr. Kamin! The city’s embrace of Lake Michigan is world-renown. And the Chicago River could extend that grand vision INTO the city itself. But MWRD’s dumping will prevent this vision from coming to fruition (even as the City and State push them to act otherwise). Until the District modernizes its management of the River, and adopts disinfection practices standard in civilized communities, the people and environment of Chicago will suffer, and their taxes used to defend a wholly out-of-date approach to public health and resist modernization. Perhaps the saddest result of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District’s small-thinking is not that the citizens of Chicago will be prevented from fully enjoying the fruits of investments already made on the riverfront---but that a broader City-changing vision of the riverfront could be prevented from ever coming into existence.   This post originally appeared on NRDC's Switchboard blog . Under the Michigan Avenue Bridge 2 image by jmogs via Flickr
 
Andrea Chalupa: StyleCaster: A Free Personal Stylist, Only Nicer Top
We all have those friends who dress like they should be hung up in the MoMA. I'm certainly not that friend to anybody. But I do have this idea that style empowers you and, as we've shown right here on WalletpopTV , gives you an edge, especially if you're interviewing for jobs. Meet StyleCaster , an inspiring guide to looking your best. Can't afford a personal stylist? Not friends with Rachel Zoe? Then StyleCaster will provide you with the dream cyber closet of ideas and network you with stylists, models, and other fashionistas with similar tastes. It's Facebook meets Elle. "At the end of the day it's about discovery. You don't have to buy the products on StyleCaster. It's about discovering the things you already have and how to wear them better," says Ari Goldberg, the site's young, energetic C.E.O. and co-founder. Mr. Goldberg is in an especially inspired-mood today, given that his company just scored $4 million in funding. If investors see the potential in this, especially in a deep downturn, what can StyleCaster do for your look and closet? Having a particularly rutty day ( please see this video, I promise I clean up nice), I was eager to get out of my blahs by cruising the StyleCaster site. On first look, the site has a nice, clean editorial layout, providing the latest fashion, retail, and muse news -- from a look at Gucci's "breezy bohemian" Spring/Summer '09 show to info on Beyonce's upcoming concert stop in Atlanta, Georgia. But if you want to go deeper into the site, to get StyleCaster's DailyLook, Community access and the weather forecast, and advice on dressing accordingly, then you have to sign up an account. But it's painless. Once you do, your user profile page looks like a dream closet, complete with an interactive guide to that day's user-generated DailyLook. "Our battle cry is: style to the people," says Goldberg. "It's an organic hybrid of community, commerce, and content." The big money maker, for StyleCaster, is that the more you use the site, the more it can feed you tips, looks, and ads that correlate with your tastes. Shortly after logging in for the first time, I clicked on an ad for "Blow-Dry Boot Camp," because the way I blow-dry my hair resembles performance art and head-banging. So on that one, the ad got lucky, which normally never happens. The success comes with it seamlessly fitting in with the rest of the content. Goldberg is driven to provide intelligent technology, which is the engine of StyleCaster's parent company, Sociocast Networks, headed by internet entrepreneur Dan Gilbert. Today it's style, but the company expects to roll out food and sports centered sites soon. "Steve Jobs said the first generation of computing was the early 80s, second generation was the early 90s, now we're in the digital hub -- where the computer is the center of everything. I don't believe, and I think Jobs would agree, that the future will look as different as it does now. You'll have a digital hub, but it'll be smart and know who you are." The real magic is in the technology and Goldberg is inspired by the mall scene in Minority Report , where every ad in the shopping mall is calling out to Tom Cruise's character by name. As long as I can talk back to the ads, especially when having a bad day, that wouldn't be so nightmarish. "I want to see kiosks in Soho. [More] events, conferences, monthly cocktail parties. StyleCaster is a media company, we're not a website," explains Goldberg, citing the analogy of how salespeople at TopShop are called "stylists." The dream for him is, "I can't wait till you can walk into a TopShop and a Saks and a Barneys, Bloomingdales, and there's a nice shiny Mac where you can log into StyleCaster and right then and there the stylist knows who you are. When I walk in, the salespeople don't know a thing about me. Think about the utility you're creating." This story originally appeared on Walletpop.com More on Tom Cruise
 
Andrea Chalupa: Poll: What's the Best Fast Food Value? Top
Do you grab a coffee from Starbucks (still) or has Dunkin' D become your staple? Best fries in our fast food nation? It's road trip season, so vote now in Walletpop's poll, What's the Best Fast Food Value?
 
Johann Hari: The Other 9/11 Has Returned to Stalk Latin America Top
The ghost of the other, deadlier 9/11 has returned to stalk Latin America. On Sunday morning, a battalion of soldiers rammed their way into the Presidential Palace in Honduras. They surrounded the bed where the democratically elected president, Manuel Zelaya, was sleeping, and jabbed their machine guns to his chest. They ordered him to get up and marched him onto a military plane. They dumped him in his pyjamas on a landing strip in Costa Rica and told him never to return to the country that freely chose him as their head of state. Back home, the generals locked down the phone networks, the internet, and international TV channels, and announced their people were in charge now. Only sweet, empty music plays on the radio. Government ministers have been arrested and beaten. If you leave your home after 9pm, the population have been told, you risk being shot. Tanks and tear-gas are ranged against the protesters who have thronged onto the streets. For the people of Latin America, this is a replay of their September 11th. On that day in Chile in 1973, Salvador Allende -- a peaceful democratic socialist who was steadily redistributing wealth to the poor majority -- was bombed from office and forced to commit suicide. He was replaced by a self-described "fascist," General Augusto Pinochet, who went on to "disappear" tens of thousands of innocent people. The coup was plotted in Washington D.C., by Henry Kissinger. The official excuse for killing Chilean democracy was that Allende was a "communist." He was not. In fact, he was killed because he was threatening the interests of US and Chilean mega-corporations by shifting the country's wealth and land from them to its own people. When Salvador Allende's widow died last week, she seemed like a symbol from another age -- and then, a few days later, the coup came back. Honduras is a small country in Central America with only seven million inhabitants, but it has been embarked on a programme of growing democracy of its own. In 2005, Zelaya ran promising to help the country's poor majority -- and he kept his word. He increased the minimum wage by 60 percent, saying sweatshops were no longer acceptable and "the rich must pay their share." The tiny elite at the top -- who own 45 percent of the country's wealth -- are horrified. They are used to having Honduras run by them, for them. But this wave of redistributing wealth to the population is washing over Latin America. In the barrios and favelas, I have seen how shanty-towns made out of mud and rusted tin now have doctors and teachers and subsidised supermarkets for the first time , because they elected leaders who have turned the spigot of oil money in their direction. In Venezuela, for example, the poorest half of the country has seen their incomes soar by 130 percent after inflation since they chose Hugo Chavez as their president, according to studies cited by the Nobel Prize-winning US economist Joseph Stiglitz. Infant mortality -- the number of dead babies -- has plummeted . No wonder so many Latin American countries are inspired by this example: the notion that Chavez has to "bribe" or "brain-wash" people like Zelaya is bizarre. It was always inevitable that the people at the top would fight back to preserve their unearned privilege. In 2002, the Venezuelan oligarchy conspired with the Bush administration in the kidnapping of Hugo Chavez. It was only a massive democratic uprising of the people that forced his return. Now they have tried the same in Honduras. Yet the military-business nexus have invented a propaganda-excuse that is being eagerly repeated by dupes across the Western world. The generals claim they have toppled the democratically elected leader and arrested his ministers to save democracy. Here's how it happened. Honduras has a constitution that was drawn up in 1982, by the oligarchy, under supervision from the outgoing military dictatorship. It states that the president can only serve only one term, while the military remains permanent and "independent" -- in order to ensure they remain the real power in the land. Zelaya believed this was a block on democracy, and proposed a referendum to see if the people wanted to elect a constituent assembly to draw up a new constitution. It could curtail the power of the military, and perhaps allow the president to run for re-election. The Supreme Court, however, ruled that it is unconstitutional to hold a binding referendum within a year of a presidential election. So Zelaya proposed holding a non-binding referendum instead, just to gauge public opinion. This was perfectly legal. The military -- terrified of the verdict of the people -- then marched in with their guns. The hypocrisy in Latin America about term limits is almost comic. When left-wingers like Chavez and Zelaya try -- democratically -- to repeal term limits, they are described as "dictators." Yet when right-wingers like President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia do exactly the same thing, the same people applaud him as "bold" and "brilliant." But there has been progress since the days of 1973, or even 2002. The coups against Allende and Chavez were eagerly backed by the C.I.A. and White House. But this time, Barack Obama has said: "We believe the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras." He called the coup "a terrible precedent". His reaction hasn't been perfect: unlike France and Spain, he hasn't withdrawn the US Ambassador yet. He supports the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are vast brakes on Latin American democracy, and he bad-mouths Chavez while arming the genuinely abusive Colombian government. But it is a vast improvement on Bush and McCain, who would have been mistily chorusing "We are all Honduran Generals now." The ugliest face of the Latin American oligarchy is now standing alone against the world, showing its contempt for democracy and for its own people. They are fighting to preserve the old continent where all the wealth goes to them at the end of a machine gun. I have seen the price for this: I have lived in the rubbish dumps of the continent , filled with dark-skinned scavenging children, while a few miles away there are suburbs that look like Beverley Hills strewn with white mansions and armed guards. This weekend, Zelaya will return to the country that elected him, flanked by the presidents of Argentina and the Organisation of American States, to take his rightful place. Whether he succeeds or fails will tell us the children of the rubbish dumps have reason to hope -- and whether the smoke from the deadliest 9/11 has finally cleared. Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here . You can email him at johann -at- johannhari.com To read Johann's interview with Hugo Chavez, click here . To read Johann Hari's latest article for Slate magazine - about the life and death of the Asian babe - click here . More on Honduras Coup
 
The Yes Men: Why the Yes Men Said "No" Top
From Andy (the floating head on the left above the green letters): A few weeks ago, I was telling an Israeli filmmaker friend how excited I was to be going to Jerusalem. Why are you coming to Jerusalem? he asked. Our film is in the Jerusalem International Film Festival, I told him excitedly. You can't go, he said, and then explained why. It was like a bucket of freezing cold water had been poured on my head. I lived in Jerusalem many years ago, and loved it for all kinds of reasons. I was really looking forward to going back. But over the next several days, we spoke to many Israelis and others who either supported or didn't support the boycott . And we came to realize that we had to boycott the festival, which, incidentally, is run by a progressive bunch of people and attracts a progressive audience. Some friends asked us why we didn't boycott the U.S. instead. After all, the U.S. has done and is doing things abroad that are every bit as bad as what Israel is doing. Or why not direct our efforts at the Congo, for example? There are war crimes occurring every week in the Congo, ultimately fueled by U.S. consumerism, that absolutely dwarf any that are alleged against the IDF and, incidentally, any that have ever occurred in Darfur ( search on "Congo" and "massacre" and you won't sleep at night). One answer, of course, was that we haven't been invited to the Kinshasa Film Festival (and we wouldn't have been able to afford the private security force if we had been). More importantly, changing U.S. policy (and the direct and indirect results of that policy, e.g. in the Congo) is going to take a lot more than a boycott—whereas in Israel, a boycott could actually work. Why? For one reason or another, unconditional public support for Israeli government policies is eroding among the American public (and today's Amnesty report won't help). This changing weather has not yet been clocked by the Israeli public, who are the only ones who have ultimate control over what their government does. The sooner it becomes clear to the Israeli public that we in America don't like their government's policies, the sooner those policies will have to change. A boycott—cultural and economic—is one way to send the message to the Israeli public that things aren't normal, and that things need to change. Especially if the message is sent not in blind anger, but with consideration, hope, and even love, it might have a chance of coming across. We know our decision won't get us too many friends in Israel, even among progressives—after all, 94% of Israelis supported the war on Gaza, which means that most progressives did too. But we have to do what seems right to us, and hope the message gets through. Here is the text of our letter to the Jerusalem Film Festival, that more fully explains our decision. More on Palestinian Territories
 
Noam Unger: Beyond How Many Troops Top
Yesterday's Washington Post featured a front page article by Bob Woodward with the headline " Key in Afghanistan: Economy, Not Military ." The article focused mostly on discussions National Security Adviser James L. Jones has been having with, well, our military on the ground in Afghanistan, and it did not include a single quote from a government official or outside expert focused on economic development. Today's Post featured a front page article by Rajiv Chandrasekaran about the launch of a mission in Afghanistan's Helmand Province , the Marines' biggest operation since their invasion of Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004. The activities and fates of our dedicated troops should be top news in a time of war. Their service is invaluable. Sustainable security in Afghanistan and our own national security depend on much more than our military, however. If the key in Afghanistan is the economy and not the military, then the public should be demanding, and key news outlets like the Post should be providing, deeper coverage of U.S. policy and strategy related to economic development. To his credit, Chandrasekaran did write a lengthy and well-researched June 19th article headlined " U.S. Pursues a New Way To Rebuild in Afghanistan ," but most of the story was really about past blunders and how not to support much needed agricultural development. The part about Richard C. Holbrooke's forward-looking plan to revamp reconstruction efforts is a story in and of itself. Journalists should find no shortage of potential leads on the economic development front of U.S. engagement in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. For better or worse, Afghanistan and Pakistan will be the crucibles of U.S. foreign assistance reform. The high stakes of these different but connected national security challenges may provide the impetus for long-needed changes to our overall aid system. On the other hand, picking the Af-Pak border region as a place to ensure and measure fundamentally more effective assistance may be like picking the middle of the Atlantic as a good place to stay dry. That same spotlight of public and policy attention is less likely to tolerate the risks associated with experimental approaches to development. Additionally, few experts are optimistic about the prospects for large-scale investments that must be executed by a foreign assistance bureaucracy that is politically weak, incoherent, and fragmented to the point at which it is far less effective than it could be in supporting strategic goals. In keeping with my Washington Post theme, today's edition also ran a story by Ann Scott Tyson about Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's 60-day assessment of the Afghanistan campaign. She notes that McChrystal "has been advised to tell Mullen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and President Obama, 'Here's what I need.'" We should all be reading more stories about how U.S Ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, and specifically U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director in Afghanistan, William Frej, have been advised to tell the USAID Administrator, Holbrooke, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Obama, "Here's what we need," because hopefully that is what is happening. The fact that the president has not yet nominated political leadership at the helm of USAID poses yet another set of challenges when trying to execute an approach to national security built on the 3 D's: diplomacy, development and defense. Clinton and her deputy, Jacob Lew, have both consistently made it a point to emphasize global development efforts, and Holbrooke is surely trying to stay on top of reconstruction and development issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan, specifically, but such policy leaders are not focused on development in the same way and to the same extent as the head of USAID (or yet-to-be confirmed policy makers at Treasury and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, for that matter). In the case of Afghanistan policy, there may be a silver lining to this dark cloud in that Acting USAID Administrator Alonzo Fulgham has on-the-ground experience serving as the Agency's Mission Director in Kabul. Beyond More Civilian Personnel As Chandrasekaran's article on the Marines' operation makes clear, the State Department and USAID are not yet capable of bringing their expertise to bear in Helmand through the deployment of personnel. The issue of human capital constraints among U.S. diplomatic and development professionals is certainly highlighted in non-permissive environments like Helmand, but staffing problems cut across all contexts, not just conflict settings. Certainly State needs more diplomats. USAID needs more development professionals. The Administration seems to be working on those issues through the budget process with Congress and no less than eight former Secretaries of State spoke up just last week to support more robust funding and resources. More technical experts at USAID, for example, could help to reduce that agency's over-reliance on contracting, especially mega-contracts with insufficient monitoring and evaluation. Ultimately, however, if instability stemming from economic turmoil is the top security concern for our country, and that is what Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair believes , then our government should be looking to solutions that extend beyond beefing up personnel. In the near-term, for example: President Obama should quickly name a highly qualified USAID Administrator and enable that person to represent development policy considerations within the National Security Council; The Administration should craft a formative interagency National Strategy for Global Development to bring coherence to U.S. global development policies across aid, trade, debt and other areas; and The Administration and Congress should work together to clarify the relationship between key development assistance bodies of the government including USAID, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and those in the State Department (eg. the Global AIDS Coordinator) as well as key objectives of U.S. foreign assistance. Thinking Really Big Perhaps, after his assessment in Afghanistan, McChrystal will explain that what he really needs in addition to more Afghan security and governance counterparts is enhanced U.S. civilian capabilities to carry out responsive and responsible development programs in partnership with local communities. To get there, he may point out that "[t]he way to institutionalize these capabilities is probably not to recreate or repopulate institutions of the past such as AID.... just adding more people to existing government departments such as Agriculture, Treasury, Commerce, Justice and so on is not a sufficient answer either - even if they were to be more deployable overseas. New institutions are needed for the 21st century, new organizations with a 21st century mind-set." If he did so, he would be quoting a 2007 speech delivered by his boss, Secretary Gates. As foreign assistance challenges from Afghanistan and Pakistan to Sudan, Palestine, Nigeria, Honduras and more arise in the news, the American public and media must take a close look at relevant policies, strategies and planning processes. We may have a tendency to do so more thoroughly when the military is involved, but whether they are or not, the non-military side of U.S. "smart power" matters at least as much. More on Afghanistan
 
3 More Banks Fail As FDIC Mulls Rules For Private Equity Sales Top
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three Illinois banks were shuttered Thursday as government regulators proposed new rules for private equity firms seeking to take over failed banks. Regulators shut down John Warner Bank of Clinton, Ill.; First State Bank of Winchester in Winchester, Ill.; and Rock River Bank of Oregon, Ill., bringing to 48 the number of U.S. bank failures this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was appointed receiver of all three. Deposits of John Warner Bank were acquired by Lincoln, Ill.-based State Bank of Lincoln. Three John Warner Bank branches were to reopen on Friday as branches of State Bank of Lincoln, the FDIC said in a statement. As of April 30, The John Warner Bank had total assets of $70 million and total deposits of approximately $64 million. In addition to assuming all the deposits of the failed bank, State Bank of Lincoln agreed to buy about $63 million of assets. The FDIC will retain the remaining assets for later disposition. The FDIC estimated that the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $10 million. The deposits of State Bank of Winchester were acquired by The First National Bank of Beardstown, Ill. Two offices will reopen on Monday under the new bank name. As of April 30, The First State Bank of Winchester had total assets of $36 million and total deposits of approximately $34 million. The First National Bank of Beardstown also agreed to buy about $33 million of assets. The FDIC says the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $6 million. Rock River Bank's deposits and most of its assets were acquired by The Harvard State Bank of Harvard, Ill. Four bank branches will reopen on Monday as Harvard banks. At the end of April, Rock River Bank had $77 million in assets and $75.8 million in deposits. In addition to assuming all of the deposits of the failed bank, The Harvard State Bank agreed to buy about $72.9 million of assets. Cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $27.6 million, the FDIC said. The three closings bring to nine the number of Illinois banks closed this year. Under new rules proposed Thursday by the FDIC, private equity firms seeking to buy failed banks would face strict capitalization and disclosure requirements, but some regulators already warn the proposal may go too far. The FDIC is seeking to expand the number of potential buyers for the growing number of banks it has closed during the financial crisis. With mounting interest from private equity firms, whose methods and motives aren't always clear, the FDIC is trying to set requirements to ensure the banks won't fail again. One of the new proposals under discussion would require investors to maintain a healthy amount of cash in the banks they acquire, keeping them at about a 15-percent leverage ratio for three years. Most banks have lower leverage ratios, which measure capital divided by assets. Investors also would have to own the banks for at least three years and face limits on their ability to lend to any of the owners' affiliates. Regulators said their intent was to tap into the potentially deep source of private equity, while ensuring that banks remain well capitalized once they are sold. "We want nontraditional investors," FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said at the board meeting. "There is a significant need for capital and there is capital out there." Still, some regulators worried that the rules could stifle a potentially valuable new source of investment. Bair said the proposal was "solid," but acknowledged that some details, including the high capital requirements, could be controversial. Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan said that the rules, which will now be subject to public comment, may be too restrictive. The Private Equity Council, a Washington-based advocacy group for firms, criticized the proposed FDIC guidelines. In a statement, the group's president, Douglas Lowenstein, said the proposals would "deter future private investments in banks that need fresh capital." The proposals will be subject to a 30-day public comment period, after which the bank regulators likely will meet again to finalize the rules, said FDIC spokesman David Barr. The FDIC monitors the health of banks to ensure that they have enough capital to stay afloat and cover their deposits. When banks get in trouble, the FDIC can seize and sell them. Prior to Thursday, the FDIC already had closed 45 banks this year, many of them community or regional institutions. That compares with 25 failures last year and three in 2007. The FDIC already has brokered two sales this year to entities controlled by private equity firms. In March, the government sold IndyMac Federal Bank for $13.9 billion to a bank formed by investors that included billionaire George Soros and Dell Inc. founder Michael Dell. But the business practices and ownership of the lightly regulated pools of investor funds often can be difficult to penetrate. The FDIC proposals include requirements meant to pry some information out of the investors, including disclosing the owners of private equity groups. The FDIC rules also would prevent the groups from using overseas secrecy laws to shield details of their operations. Under the regulations, banks also would not be sold to investors with so-called "silo" structures that make it hard to determine who is behind a private equity group. The FDIC had 305 banks with $220 billion of assets on its list of problem institutions at the end of the first quarter, the highest number since the 1994 savings and loan crisis. AP Business Writer David Pitt reported from Des Moines, Iowa. Get HuffPost Business On Facebook and Twitter !
 
Everyone Has A "Type" What's Yours? Top
What's your type? Talk, dark and handsome? Short, bald and chubby? Muscular, unavailable and angry? How about Explorer, Builder, Negotiator or Director? These are the four personality types that anthropologist Helen Fisher coined during her research into why we fall in love with certain people but not others. According to Fisher, interpreting these types can help you navigate the dating ocean and net the perfect tuna (or man, if that's what you prefer). More on Sex
 
Top 10 Barbecue Recipes By Huffington Post Commenters Top
We asked, you answered. When we requested your best barbecue recipes on Wednesday, the response was, well, not overwhelming, but it was enthusiastic. So after combing through them carefully--and stopping to eat a snack in the process--we've selected the top ten dishes we hope you'll make this 4th of July. Thanks to all the commenters who made suggestions, and please leave more recipes below! Happy holiday! 1. Award-Winning Ribs 2. Brew Burgers 3. Whiskey Skirt Steak 4. Mojo Beans 5. Mississippi Bacon Mayonnaise 6. Indian-Style Chicken 7. Daddy's BBQ Sauce 8. Cheesy Corn Bake 9. Maple Salmon 10. Mesquite Dry-Rubbed Cola Ribs More on Food
 
US Honduras Aid On Hold: State Department Top
The State Department said Thursday it has put much of the U.S. aid program to Honduras on hold pending a legal determination as to whether the overthrow of elected President Manuel Zelaya last Sunday requires an aid cut-off. The United States meanwhile is cautioning Mr. Zelaya against an early attempt to return home. More on Honduras Coup
 
Muslim Mayor's Gay Rights Drive Fights Homophobia In Conservative Amsterdam Suburb Top
Ahmed Marcouch, the Muslim mayor of Slotervaart, an uncharacteristically conservative suburb of Amsterdam, is fighting back against a long-lived trend of homophobia in that town by inviting Amsterdam's annual gay pride parade to march right down main street, as it were. According to AFP: Slotervaart's population is mainly of immigrant origin, many of the Muslim faith, like Moroccan-born Marcouch himself who came to the Netherlands in 1979 at age 10. The suburb has recently been in the news for homophobic incidents, with gays being called names, spat on and generally bothered. The community grew particularly restless over gay men using Slotervaart's De Oeverlanden public park as a place to meet and have sex, a practice known as "cruising". Following Marcouch breaking the ice, the town has now instituted further plans to accept previously persecuted gay community, such as with the opening of a gay culture center, AFP reports. However, Marcouch's actions have also drawn strong rebukes, namely from local religious leaders such as Mohamed Adardour of the el-Oumma mosque and the local Roman Catholic parish. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on Europe
 
Volunteering Time and Talent in Afghanistan Top
We asked you, our readers, to submit your stories of volunteerism and community service, and you've delivered stories of doing good across the globe. Reader Elsie De Laere submitted an email that told us this tale: after 20 years of working in education in the San Francisco Bay Area, she gave her time and her talents to the women of Afghanistan, who had long been oppressed and undereducated. "I decided after the tragic events of 9/11 to make a link between my work here and that in Afghanistan. I decided there was too much talking and wringing of hands and joined a friend of mine for a trip to Afghanistan during the summer of 2004 to see for myself what is was like for the teachers, and especially the female teachers, several years after the US and allied forces had removed the Taleban from power." De Laere had grown up reading National Geographic and she was enchanted by that magazines photos of the geography and people of that region. The famous Afghan Girl portrait by Steve Curry hung on her bedroom wall. But when she got to Kabul, she saw just how badly her skills were needed, and she got to work right away. "The second day, I was trailing my American colleague to a school where she ran a teacher training, and the principal noticed me sitting there observing and came up to ask me if could take over an English language class. Teaching the young women a weeks' worth of English conversational lessons changed profoundly how I spent my subsequent Spring and Summer vacations. I have helped organize and conduct teacher trainings in Kabul, Ghazni, Ghor and Khost for both Afghan and American -based educational organizations." In addition, Elsie has begun a "Change for Change" program to raise funds for Afghani women at her local elementary school in California. She's currently the Afghanistan country specialist for Amnesty International. She has lobbied congress, and she has spoken about pressing human rights issues at fundraisers throughout the Bay Area. But still, her heart takes her back to her work in Afghanistan. She's been there nine times in all. "We travel with donkeys, USAID small planes, US military helicopters, in police convoys and in burkas in beaten up cars. We have slept in VIP quarters at governors' guesthouses, in B-huts on an American base, in simple small rooms in the middle of nowhere. And we've learned one of the local languages enough that we can figure out what people are talking about, which comes in handy. We follow the simple rules of being a guests in another culture, cover up our skin and hair and follow the safety protocols. All this has resulted in an amazing and life altering experience, one in which I feel I have received more than I was able to give, both from average Americans and average Afghan people. I guess you could say I found the perfect combination for two of my strongest passions: human rights (the right to an education IS a human right, enshrined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights) and education." As a counterpoint to the (justifiably) gloomy tone of much reporting about the economic crisis, HuffPost is going to be highlighting stories of service, local heroes, and acts of kindness (random and otherwise). So if you read about or hear about uplifting stories or good deeds in your community (or do a good deed yourself), please let us know about them by emailing allforgood@huffingtonpost.com . Get HuffPost Eyes&Ears on Facebook and Twitter! More on Travel
 
Eric Alterman: Think Again: The Strange Politics of Collusion (and "Dickishness") Top
Crossposted with the Center for American Progress. With Danielle Ivory For a conversation so self-evidently silly, last weekend's food-fight between The Washington Post 's Dana Milbank and The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney on CNN's Reliable Source sure has excited quite a few people. Maybe it's because according to Pitney, Milbank called him a "dick" after the cameras were turned off. We would not be surprised. But alleged dickishness notwithstanding, the argument was not nearly as trivial as it might initially appear. In fact, it revealed some important aspects of a battle underway to define the manner in which different members of the media define their jobs as the protectors and defenders of American democracy. It is no secret that the elite, insider Washington media (herein "MSM") is under siege on a number of fronts -- political, moral, intellectual, and certainly financial. All of the challenges threaten the self-image -- and some would say self-importance -- of these journalists and the most common response has been one of defensiveness. They have a way of doing things around here, thank you very much, and if you don't like it, it's probably because you, in your ignorance, ideological obsessiveness, or simple cluelessness, just don't get it. Their response, believe it or not, is not always wrong -- particularly when compared to say, the quality of discourse on cable TV these days, and much of what can be found in the "comments" sections of most websites. This defensiveness was in evidence all across the MSM when President Barack Obama, in an extremely unusual move during his most recent press conference, not only called on an upstart website for his second question, but signaled that the exchange had been coordinated in advance. Pitney, the National editor of The Huffington Post, had been liveblogging the uprising in Iran since the election. The White House told Pitney that the president might call on him with regard to his reporting on Iran. Pitney, who had solicited questions from Iranian readers, came up with a tough one regarding the president's willingness to toughen his stand against the regime. You can both read the question and Obama's response here . Many members of the MSM evinced shock on multiple levels. They were offended on the one hand by Obama's turning to Huffington Post, particularly for the second question of the conference, and even more by the Huffington Post's willingness to cooperate with the White House in the staging of the event and agreeing to the topic in advance. But The New York Times (whose White House correspondent, Jeff Zeleny, famously asked Obama what "enchanted him the most" about serving as president) complained that the Obama-Pitney exchange was staged. On Sunday Obama adviser David Gregory demanded of David Axelrod, "If President Bush had done that, don't you think Democrats would have said that's outrageous?" When it came time for Reliable Sources , Milbank, positively dripping with contempt for his fellow panelist, termed the Pitney-Obama exchange "collusion." Of course Bush did this many times. For two years the Bush White House gave James Guckert, writing for Talon News under the pseudonym of "Jeff Gannon," access to the press room. Guckert, a former gay prostitute and delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2000, with no journalistic background to speak of, had established Talon News in 2003, worried that his actual employer, GOPUSA, might give the appearance of a "built-in bias." The president called on Guckert regularly and he would lob softball questions that highlighted White House talking points. The National Press Club invited Gannon to be an honored guest on a panel on blogging and journalistic credibility. Howard Kurtz, who draws a paycheck both from CNN and The Post , while reporting on both, blamed the scandal on "these liberal bloggers, [who] have started investigating his personal life in an effort to discredit him." It continued -- slightly less egregiously but no less obviously -- after Guckert was revealed in the manner of the Bush relationship to Fox News. As the scrupulously fair-minded MSM reporter Ron Brownstein notes, "Through its language, its news decisions, and its hosts -- [Fox] generally functions more like a cog in the Republican message machine than as a conventional news organization that attempts to abide, however imperfectly, by the traditional standards of (yes) fairness and balance." Dana Milbank did not, insofar as our research could discover, ever criticize any of these Bush events. In fact, he engaged in some rather significant ones on his own.... You can read the rest of Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory's analysis in their recent article, " Think Again: The Strange Politics of Collusion (and "Dickishness") " Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation . Danielle Ivory is a reporter and producer for the American News Project. She lives in Washington, D.C. More on Barack Obama
 
CIA Report Delayed Two More Months For Obama Administration Top
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Thursday that it needs two more months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program before making it public, drawing criticism from civil libertarians who say it's past time for Americans to know how its government treated terrorism suspects. The Justice Department had originally said it intended to release the report in June as part of a lawsuit, but department officials now say they need until the end of August. The report by the CIA's inspector general questioned the effectiveness of harsh interrogation methods employed by CIA interrogators during the Bush administration, such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning. The American Civil Liberties Union, which has sued for release of the report, said it's time for President Barack Obama to live up to his promises of greater transparency and release the report instead of making further delays. "The public has a right to know what took place in the CIA's secret prisons and on whose authority," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the report contains information that overlaps with other CIA documents that they also must review and release by a court-ordered Aug. 31 deadline. "As we re-reviewed the CIA IG report it was clear that we would not be able to complete it in an expedited manner as we had hoped," Schmaler said. "There are unique processing issues to this review that made it clear to us we would need all the time the court gave us to complete it." The government published a version of the report in 2008, but its contents were almost entirely blacked out. The ACLU filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for release of all documents related to the interrogation program. On June 3, a federal judge gave the administration until Aug. 31 to release 319 documents related to the program, but the Justice Department initially said it would expedite review of the inspector general report and turn it over in June. The report, more than 200 pages long, had been expected to be made public two weeks ago but was held back over debates about how much of it should be censored. Justice Department attorneys said in a letter to U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein that they are not able to expedite the release of the report because they first need to review the other 318 documents to determine what needs to be redacted. "Given the sensitivity of the information at issue, and the need for coordination among multiple components of the government, the review of the remanded documents is a time-consuming and labor-intensive exercise," the government attorneys wrote. The ACLU wrote Hellerstein saying it objects to further delay of the report's release. "It is apparent that the CIA report is not being delayed for legitimate reasons but to cover up evidence of the agency's illegal and ineffective interrogation practices," said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. "It is time for the president to hold true to his promise of transparency and once and for all quash the forces of secrecy within the agency. The American public has a right to know the full truth about the torture that was committed in its name."
 
Obama's AP Interview: Michael Jackson, Gitmo, Affirmative Action And More Top
Highlights of President Barack Obama's interview Thursday with The Associated Press: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION The nation's first African American president said a recent Supreme Court ruling in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., doesn't close the door on thoughtful efforts at affirmative action aimed at maintaining diversity in the workplace or in college admissions. He cautioned that affirmative action "hasn't been as potent a force for racial progress as advocates would claim, and it hasn't been as bad on white students seeking admissions or seeking a job as its critics have said." GUANTANAMO DETAINEES Obama said he's open to the idea of detaining certain Guantanamo Bay terror suspects someplace else for prolonged periods, but it may turn out that he won't be comfortable with any proposals to do that. Obama said some detainees aren't a good fit for prosecution in the United States or under international law. "How we deal with those situations is going to be one of the biggest challenges of my administration." ECONOMY As the nation struggles with escalating unemployment, Obama said, health care reform and an increased focus on clean energy are two critical areas that can be exploited to boost the economy. "If we're weatherizing every building and home in America, if we are creating windmills and solar panels and biofuel facilities, that is a huge promising area not only for jobs here in the United States, but also for export growth." RUSSIA Obama said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin "has one foot in the old ways of doing business and one foot in the new." Obama, who plans to meet with Putin when he travels to Russia, said the former Russian president must understand that the Cold War approach is outdated and that the U.S. is not seeking an antagonistic relationship, but wants to partner on issues including energy and counterterrorism. AFGHANISTAN The president said he will reassess the possible need for additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan after the Afghan national elections in August. The narrow national security goal, he said, is to ensure terrorist organizations are not acting with impunity. To that end, the U.S. must help build the Afghan army and encourage Pakistan to shore up its borders, he said. "I think those goals can be achieved without us increasing our troop levels." MICHAEL JACKSON Obama said he has Jackson songs on his iPod and is glad to see that the entertainer is being remembered for "the great joy" that he brought to people with his extraordinary gifts. But he said that brilliance was paired with a tragic and sad personal life. More on Michael Jackson
 

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