Wednesday, July 1, 2009

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Paul Loeb: Letter to Obama from a Dying Friend Top
My friend Robert Ellis Gordon is dying of lupus, with months left to live. He's spent more than a decade teaching writing to prison inmates, written a terrific book called The Fun House Mirror from those experiences and crafted a rave-reviewed novel, When Bobby Kennedy was a Moving Man , on Kennedy being sent back to earth to determine whether he deserved Heaven or Hell. I often quote something Robert said to a group of fellow prison teachers, which seems an apt metaphor for any effort at change: "Some of the people we work with will already have redeemed their lives. Others, no matter what we do, will be back in here again. And for some, our efforts will make all the difference. We will never know which group is which, but that should not serve as a deterrent to our efforts." Robert just wrote this open letter to Obama, challenging him to reach for his deepest levels of courage in being honest about what we face after decades of pillaging our economy. I'll miss his wise voice. Dear Mr. President: I am one, among millions, who recently received an email regarding your health care plan. Mr. Plouffe's email requested personal stories. As a fifty-five year old man who has lived with a rare and serious illness since 1989, and who was recently referred to hospice, I am, I suppose, no less qualified than others to write about the challenges and unlooked-for blessings that accompany a fatal disease. Upon reflection, however, I realized my story would be less compelling than others. For I come from a generous family. True, we were raised to make our way in the world and I started to work at age fourteen. Some forty years later, however, when it became evident that I could no longer hold down a job, my family cut back on their expenses so that my basic needs would be met. Hence I will not die, as thousands of my counterparts do, alone and anonymous in a hospital room or in the streets. So? I deleted Mr. Plouffe's email and returned to the task at hand. But deleted or not I was distracted by the email, so much so that I left the computer and took my dog for a walk. At the park, as I tossed the squeaky ball to Rose, I asked myself a question: if given the opportunity to write a letter to the President -- a letter in which illness and impending death served a larger agenda-- what would I say to him? The answer was immediate and impassioned: "Please level with the people. Now." What do I mean by level? And why this sense of urgency? The urgency stems from the peril I see in an unbalanced presentation of your economic scenario. I do not mean to suggest that you speak only of the most dire predictions. We need a substantive message of hope. It's been a long forty years since we heard one. But authentic hope, as you know better than most, is founded upon truth. You had the courage to speak it throughout your campaign, and the magnitude of your victory revealed a public yearning to hear it. In order to sustain the trust of the people, it is imperative that you continue to feed this yearning. That you do as you did in your speech on race: speak to us as adults. Speak even more deeply from the heart as well as the head. Above all, speak in the spirit of Judge Learned Hand: "The spirit of liberty is the spirit of not being too sure." So even as you speak words of hope and quell our fears with your steady presence, let us know that you proceed in the spirit of not being too sure because you cannot be; because no one can be; because a global economic meltdown is unprecedented in scope and nature. Tell the people, as FDR did, in a style that is true to yourself, that there's no panacea for this catastrophe. A catastrophe that was decades in the making and is not yet fully understood. And that your approach, therefore, must be a flexible one that allows for a sliding scale of eventualities, among which is the possibility--remote or not-- that this economic Katrina may outrace your best efforts to both remedy the cause and mitigate the effects. What is to be gained by leveling with the people now? And what are the consequences if you do not do so? Your most precious resource, Mr. President, is neither your brilliance nor the elegance with which you wield the language. Your most precious resource is your credibility. The consequences of an unbalanced presentation, one that tilts too heavily toward the rosy? No adverse consequences if that scenario unfolds. But if worse continues to lead to worse as numerous economists predict, and you deny yourself political cover by not allowing for that eventuality? Your popularity will prove thin and short-lived. You will lose your credibility. Quickly. And once relinquished, it can't be restored. Should you lose your credibility the people will, at the least, dismiss you as yet another president in a long line of presidents who opted to not be statesmen. As for your ability to summon our better angels? That remarkable gift will be squandered. And that's the best case scenario, Mr. President. The worst? If , in the absence of a credible President, tens of millions--millions who are ill-prepared for adversity--find themselves living in a state of deprivation and want? And if fear of the unknown starts feeding upon itself? The people may, as they have in the past, turn to a leader who uses the energy of ignorance and fear to summon our darkest impulses. We don't have to travel back to the Trail of Tears to recognize our capacity for looking the other way while our government pursues a policy of genocide. We don't have to travel back to the torture and murder of Emmett Till to recognize our capacity for denying the humanity of a child. Joe McCarthy's sheet of paper? Ancient history. A mere nine months ago John McCain chose a running mate who proved masterful at inciting fear and hatred of "the other." And if worse continues to lead to worse in the absence of a credible president, the hatred we saw on the periphery of her crowds could move to the center and burst into flames that consume our better angels as they fan out. On June 2nd the headline for the New York Times lead story ran beneath this headline: "Obama Is Upbeat For G.M. Future On A Day Of Pain." Upbeat on a day when the lives of 21,000 autoworkers and their families were shattered. Upbeat on a day in which the closing of seven plants will translate into tens of thousands of shattered lives in other sectors of the auto industry. Upbeat on a day when the Times ran an editorial devoted to yet a new wave of home foreclosures. There's a dissonance here, Mr. President. And even from the standpoint of political calculation-- of the coldest Machiavellian calculation--this dissonance does not have to be. Last November the people rejected the politics of fear, rigidity, half-truths and lies, and embraced the politics of unity and truth. This was a tribute to our ability to discern and to the authentic nature of your message. A message of hope to be sure, but one that calls not for ease but sacrifice. And perhaps above all we came to appreciate a creative and compassionate vision that is tempered, at long last, by reality. Your vision represents the best and perhaps last hope for our children and for theirs. You forged a bond with the people, Mr. President. But the glue hasn't set and the glue will not set if you do not re-calibrate your message. The last and most important question: what is to be gained by leveling? Perhaps the best way for me to address the positive, the potential for realizing your vision, is to circle back to Mr. Plouffe's request, and speak to you in personal terms about the lessons of illness and impending death. You may be familiar with this quote from the poet, Sylvia Plath. "If only you could see me forge my soul, fighting and fighting to forge my soul." Sylvia Plath succumbed to her despair, committed suicide in 1963. But her words still stand, maybe now more than ever, as tens of millions face the potential, at least, of entering the forging fire. And should that come to pass the people will look to you, just as the British looked to Churchill, for guidance, solace, and above all hope in the midst of their despair. And where does my twenty-year dance with the fire fit into all of this? Where do you and I intersect? What have I learned that could possibly be of use to the President of the United States? What have I learned that might help this good man forge the soul of a nation? Maybe something. Maybe nothing. But for what it's worth I offer a glimpse of my journey and a couple of nuggets I've picked up along the way. The first nugget? That we forge our souls not for ourselves but in order to be better disciples of compassion. And how does an obscure writer and former prison teacher make a contribution this late in the day with a timeline, in all likelihood, of months? Below, an excerpt from a recent note to the doctor who saved my life on numerous occasions over the past two decades. ... Suffering may teach but it is not an end in and of itself. And when the pain abates, during windows of peace, I write. I have a book to complete before I die. It is different from the others. I want to leave something behind that may serve as a source of solace to a reader here or there; a reader who wrestles with despair during this era of incomprehensible suffering. All those high-risk infusions? The fatal infection you warn me about? And my choice to continue, to run the risk, in order to buy time to write? Like any man I fear a painful death. But after receiving Extreme Unction on multiple occasions, I no longer fear death itself. What I fear is a life not well-lived. And the best way for me to do so during the time that remains is to complete that manuscript. It's just my body (not my soul) that is weary... So that is my final task: to forge my soul on the page. I may die before I finish. Or I may risk all on the page and find that my skill is wanting; that the story implodes on itself. But if I fail in this task, I will do so in obscurity. Because you sit where you sit, you don't have that luxury. What you do have is the opportunity and responsibility to explain how we got here and enumerate the full panoply of outcomes. If the rosy scenario comes to pass? The people will know, by dint of your honesty, that you are neither above nor below but of them. And if worse continues to lead to worse? If tens of millions find themselves living at the extremes of deprivation and want? And you've retained your credibility? The dreams you've resurrected may still be realized. Realized in ways and to a degree that would be unlikely during less uncertain times. You'll be able to protect us, protect the children, from those who would prey upon fear and unleash violent thought, language and deed. And as this economic Katrina continues to strengthen? As the people become increasingly aware that economic security is not a birthright? And are overwhelmed by a sense of vulnerability? As the people walk through the fire together, the differences so artfully exploited by your predecessor will assume their proper perspective. And compassion may well fill the void. Shared adversity has a way of doing that. And after the worst has passed, Mr. President? And the people, having been tempered by the fire, emerge stronger and more compassionate? Emerge with a visceral understanding of what it means to be dispossessed? That, Mr. President, is when your vision may be realized. For the people who revealed a desire to serve at the outset of your candidacy, during times of relative prosperity, will still be here when the fire is extinguished. But the people will not be the same. They'll be more able and willing to answer your call. And their progeny will learn through their example. This is not to say that the fire is pleasant. At times it's excruciating. I know that well. At times I want nothing more than to escape, and it is only faith that sustains me. Faith in God, yes, but also in man. Indeed, as I approach the River's edge, the distinction between divinity without and divinity within seems merely to be one of choice. And a simple choice at that: towards violence or towards compassion. This is your hour, Mr. President. I, like you, am both a child of God and a member of the body politic. And as I ready myself to leave this bittersweet world, I want you to know that it affords me much peace to know that you are the President. A President who quietly rescued the Constitution. Who can forge the nation's soul if the need arises. And who re-ignited the flame of hope and compassion months before the general election. A flame that was muted but not extinguished some forty years ago. And this speaks to the most important lesson I've learned from my twenty-year dance with the fire. Certainly all people wish and deserve to be treated with dignity and compassion. But the human heart is bigger than that. We wish, as well, to experience our magnanimous natures, the divinity within. This is what Gandhi knew and tapped into. This is what my favorite saint knew: "It is in the giving that we receive." And this, Mr. President, is what you know. So. A dying man's prayer for you and the nation: that the light that burns so brightly in you and your family will extend through generations. And if the children of the children choose to be their brothers and sisters' keepers simply because they listen to their hearts; hearts that tell them they're here to improve the lot of others? Well, they may never know it was you who reminded their forbears of who they truly are. They may never even know your name. But what of it? If the words you spoke on election night come to fruition, they will not bring an end to suffering. But they will bring forth the better angels of which you speak; of which the last great candidate for president spoke. And when I hear you summon our better angels forth, I hear echoes of the poet Robert Kennedy quoted on the darkest night of his brief campaign. And what greater legacy could he ask of you, and you, in turn, ask of us, than a renewed commitment to the age-old call to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world? Sincerely, Robert Ellis Gordon Seattle, Washington robertegordon@mac.com Robert Gordon is the author of When Bobby Kennedy Was a Moving Man and The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison . He's written for Esquire , the Christian Science Monitor, Boston Globe, Ploughshares , and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , and taught writing in Washington State prisons, juvenile institutions and inner-city high schools. He wrote Funhouse Mirror while undergoing chemotherapy, collaborating with six of his incarcerated students to let their voices be heard. The book won the 2000 Washington State Book Award. As one critic wrote of Bobby Kennedy , "Gordon's vision is at once radical and healing. It teaches us a little about Heaven and a lot about Hell." Robert can be reached at robertegordon@mac.com More on Economy
 
Ryan J. Davis: We're surrounded by GDINOs! Top
An e-mail circulating among NYC gay politicos of a poorly photoshopped wanted poster, attacks the many gay New Yorkers who recently endorsed the reelection of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The image contains some familiar faces including Corey Johnson, Brian Ellner, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Co-founders of Friends of the Highline: Robert Hammond and Josh David , Kelli Conlin, former Clinton aide Richard Socarides, and me. We're all GDINOs, Gay Democrats In Name Only, and wanted for treason against the LGBT Community for supporting Michael "Leviticus" Bloomberg. We're lucky that the anonymous author, obviously ashamed of their design skills, is only going after gay Democrats. I'd hate to have both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama wanted for treason, after having said favorable things about Bloomberg in public. New York's openly-gay City Council Speaker Christine Quinn has, so far, refused to endorse a Democratic Candidate for Mayor. However, she did appear on stage with Bloomberg at last week's Gracie Mansion Gay Pride Celebration, a wonderfully fun and well attended BBQ. There sure are a lot of GDINOs. A recent poll , showing the Mayor up 22% against the presumptive Democratic opponent, also had him leading with Democrats by 9%. Bloomberg is just 2 points shy of being the choice of a majority of New York City Democrats. Only 40%, the loyal Democrats, are voting for the party's choice. It will be interesting to see in November just how many real, loyal, non-treasonous, Democrats will show up to vote for whoever that guy is running against Bloomberg. Crossposted on Ryan J. Davis Blogs .
 
Mark Joseph: Memo To Governor Sanford Top
Attn: Gov. Mark Sanford Re: Maria Chapur Shut Up!
 
Mike Ragogna: HuffPost Video Premiere: "Last Summer" by Pete Yorn / The Bee Gees Get Stamped Top
Taken from Pete Yorn's latest album Back & Fourth , a live video performance of the single "Last Summer" premieres on The Huffington Post , its melody rocking somewhere between The Byrds and Gin Blossoms. Over the course of the album, Conor Oberst's Omaha musical crew helped reinvent and re-energize Yorn, successfully dissolving the artist's unnecessary rock star veneer; the same goes for the video, it employing that "unplugged," low-fi approach to Yorn simply strummin' the heck out of his Gibson Dove, accompanied visually and musically by only his band. In the song, the artist laments, "We were there last summer, it was fresh as the ocean, we were great last summer...we cannot go back again." Not true, all's well this summer too since the studio version of "Last Summer" is Back & Fourth 's best shot at a solid hit, one you probably will be hearing many times before it wraps up its radio run by winter. So grab a bevvy, get your sit back on, and take a gander... THIS WEEK'S BEST BEE GEES PRESS RELEASE: "BEE GEES HONORED WITH POSTAGE STAMPS IN THEIR BIRTHPLACE" Issued Today, Isle Of Man's Eight-Stamp Set Salutes Hitmaking Native Sons Isle of Man Post Office commemorates the long and illustrious career of this world-famous Manx-born band with this set of eight stamps which chart their progress through the years. The images are derived from the covers of many of their milestone albums. This multiple award-winning group were born on the Isle of Man to English parents, Hugh and Barbara and the family lived in various places during the boys' childhood -- the Isle of Man, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester and Australia. It was here in Australia that their musical career began. After early chart success in Australia, they returned to England where they met Robert Stigwood who became their manager and mentor and the Bee Gees, as they became known, were promoted to a worldwide audience. It has been estimated that the Bee Gees' record sales total more than 200 million, making them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. Although they have lived on three different continents, the Bee Gees have always felt a strong attachment to the Island on which they were born. On Christmas day 1997, Manx Radio broadcast a special programme for which the brothers recorded a version of the Island's unofficial national anthem "Ellan Vannin" for Manx Children in Need. "It was such a proud moment for us," Maurice said. "Believe you me, it was wonderful to do something for home." Sadly Maurice died in January 2003, bringing an unexpected end to one of the most distinctive sounds in pop history. The surviving Bee Gees are proud to be Manx-born and the Isle of Man is just as proud of them, over fifty years after they left home. More on Australia
 
Yoani Sanchez: Thugs and Caudillos Top
Nine years have passed since I wrote the last lines of a thesis on the figure of the dictator in Latin American literature. Although my study pointed out the existence, still, of several caudillos who served as magnificent references for writing novels, in the end I thought it was an endangered species. Shortly afterwards I began to doubt if the tyrants weren't in incubation, to reappear on our American lands. For some time now I have left my doubts behind: the dictators, or those aspiring to be, are here, although now they wear jeans, guayaberas or red shirts. Nor has that other danger been extinguished: the military that takes the law into their own hands; the uniformed who impose their will by force of arms. We continue to rush into the arms of one or the other because a tradition of personalities and demagogues is not so easily eradicated. Right now in Honduras a whole nation can wrap itself in the prickly coat of the soldiers or be mesmerized by the "triumphal" return--a la Chavez--of one who has been deposed by force. In this dilemma, the citizens rarely come out well. I like neither military coups nor presidents who seek infinite reelection. I have the same distrust of one who comes down from a mountain bearing arms, as I do of one who is elected at the ballot box and administers his country as if it were a hacienda, or as if it were his parents' old plantation. And so I am worried about Honduras. I fear what happened will pave the way for the emergence of another figure invested with full powers. Beware! In the broad range encompassing satraps, the worst combination is when the figure of the caudillo and the armed thug converge in a single person. Yoani's blog, Generation Y , can be read here in English translation. More on Honduras
 
Unemployment To Hit 26-Year High, Rising To 9.6 Percent Top
WASHINGTON — Out-of-work with no place to land, the legions of America's unemployed are growing. The Labor Department is scheduled to release a report Thursday expected to show the nation's unemployment rate edging closer to double digits. Wall Street economists predict the jobless rate will rise to 9.6 percent in June from 9.4 percent in May. That would mark a 26-year high. The rising rate comes as recession-weary companies continue to cut workers. Economists expect a loss of 363,000 jobs in June, up from 345,000 job cuts in May. Economists believe a chunk of those cuts will be tied to shutdowns at General Motors Corp. and fallout from the troubled auto industry. Still, if economists' forecasts are correct, it would be consistent with the belief that the worst of employers' payrolls cuts have occurred. Companies are expected to keep shedding jobs through the rest of this year, but economists hope the pace will continue to taper off. "Employers were very quick to pull the trigger on job cuts last year, and most of the biggest cuts are behind us. But companies are going to be very cautious about hiring," said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics. The deepest job cuts of the recession came in January, when 741,000 jobs vanished, the most in any month since 1949. Another report from the department due Thursday is expected to show the number of newly laid-off people filing applications for unemployment benefits dropped last week to 615,000, from 627,000 in the previous week. The number of people continuing to draw benefits is expected to nudge up to 6.740 million from 6.738 million. Even if companies slow the pace of layoffs, they will be reluctant to hire until they feel certain the economy is back on its feet. That's why economists are forecasting a continued rise in the unemployment rate over the next year. It's expected to hit 10 percent this year. Many think it could rise as high as 10.7 percent by the second quarter of next year before it starts to make a slow descent. Some think the rate will top out at 11 percent. Others think the peak will lower _ around 10.5 percent _ by the spring of 2010. The post-World War II high was 10.8 percent at the end of 1982, when the country had suffered through a severe recession. The worst crises in the housing, credit and financial markets since the 1930s plunged the country into the current recession, which started in December 2007 and is the longest since World War II. As the downturn bites into sales and profits, companies have turned to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to survive. Those include holding down workers' hours and freezing or cutting pay. In May, the average work week fell to 33.1 hours, the lowest on record dating to 1964. Newspaper publisher Gannett Co. on Wednesday said it plans to cut 1,400 jobs in the next few weeks, about 3 percent of the work force, as it faces a prolonged slump in advertising revenue. Farm machinery company Deere & Co. earlier this week said 800 salaried employees, or 3 percent of its salaried work force, took a voluntary buyout offer. Cessna Aircraft Co., which makes corporate jets, has said it would cut 1,300 jobs by this summer on top of 6,900 earlier layoffs. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke predicts the recession will end this year, with many economists forecasting that the economy will start to grow again as soon as the current July-September quarter. And fresh signs of improvement for the economy have emerged. Manufacturing activity declined less than expected in June, and an index of pending home sales edged up May for the fourth straight month, reports out Wednesday showed. But recoveries after financial crises tend to be slow, which is why economists predict it will take years for the job market to return to normal. Some predict the nation's unemployment rate won't drop to 5 percent until 2013. An elevated unemployment rate could become a political liability for President Barack Obama when congressional elections are held next year. The last time the unemployment rate topped 10 percent, the party of the president _ then Ronald Reagan's GOP _ lost 26 House seats in midterm elections in 1982. So far, many people are saving _ rather than spending _ the extra money in their paychecks from Obama's tax cut, blunting its help in bracing the economy. Much of the economic benefit of Obama's increased government spending on big public works projects won't kick in until 2010, analysts say. The White House last week said federal money is being shoveled out of Washington quickly, but states aren't steering the cash to counties that need jobs the most.
 
Kim Morgan: Black Malden Moan: 'Baby Doll' Top
With the great, titan of acting and frequent genius Karl Malden passing (at 97 years of age god bless him), I'm posting one of my favorite Malden movies and performances -- Baby Doll. Though there's many brilliant Malden performances to choose from, this one will leave you fuzzy and buzzy. And I think we all need some of that right now. "There isn't much of you, but what there is is choice. Delectable, I might say... You're fine-fibered. Soft and smooth...You make me think of cotton. No! No fabric or cloth, not even satin or silk cloth, and no kind of fiber, not even cotton fiber has the absolute delicacy of your skin." So says a predatory Eli Wallach to an aroused and "hysterical" Caroll Baker in one of the most notoriously erotic mainstream films ever produced at that time. The movie was Baby Doll , director Elia Kazan's tragic-comic follow up to his already steamy masterpiece A Streetcar Named Desire , his controversial On the Waterfront and his poignantly powerful East of Eden . Used to a certain amount of censorship and hullabaloo (especially for Streetcar ), Kazan was most likely, not prepared for the maelstrom of controversy when Baby Doll , a sultry Southern gothic he intended as a "sleeper" was released in 1956. Denounced by the Legion of Decency and deemed "Just possibly the dirtiest American-made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited" by Time Magazine, Baby Doll , though not as "dirty" through time (at least in the common, modern comedy manner -- our current accessibility to salacious cinema isn't dirty in the right way...) still remains as sexually charged, perversely interesting and psychologically complex as it did then. It's also incredibly funny, superbly acted and weirdly beautiful. Though somewhat, inexplicably forgotten through time (it finally got a DVD release a few years ago), Baby Doll is one of Kazan's greatest accomplishments -- a masterpiece that stands on equal footing with Streetcar and Waterfront . Written by that genius of Southern turbulence, Tennessee Williams ( Baby Doll was his first original screenplay -- adapted from parts of two earlier one-act plays), the film gave Carroll Baker her first starring role with an entrance that, in terms of cult cinema, is about as sexually iconic as Marilyn Monroe's upswept dress in The Seven Year Itch . Gorgeous, blonde 19-year old child bride Baby Doll (Baker) lies in an infant's crib, sucking her thumb while her middle aged husband Archie Lee (a wonderfully frustrated Karl Malden|) leers at her through a peephole. But why must he leer at his own wife? As we soon learn, Baby Doll is a virgin -- she married Archie for what she thought would be a cushy life of prosperity and Southern comfort. But at this point Archie's lost his cotton gin to a Syndicate Plantation and is so in debt that his furniture (or, as she drawls "fornichore" which is how what every woman should call a sofa) has been removed from the house. An exasperated, angry Baby Doll threatens to leave Archie while he desperately waits out the day -- the eve of her birthday -- for their especially provocative "agreement:" that when she turns 20, he can finally sleep with his wife. But things take a turn when lumbering, impetuous Archie loses his temper and burns down the Syndicate Plantation and Cotton Gin, managed by the cocky Sicilian Silva Vacarro (Wallach). Seeking revenge, Vacarro finds the one thing that'll make Archie murderously angry -- Archie's wife. And not just his wife but, perhaps (not to be revealed here) his wife's maidenhood as well. That is, if you could call the sassy, sexually curious tease Baby Doll a "maiden." She's certainly not-as-infantile-as-she-looks -- and she will reveal herself to be smart--making her all the more sexy. The cat and mouse games and tricks played by Baby Doll and Vacarro result in the picture's gleefully demented, yet supremely hot seduction sequence on a porch swing that some viewers thought was downright pornographic. What were his hands doing? (I know) Why is she swooning that much? (We all know) This hyper eroticism is heightened by the film's lovely counterpoint of a blonde, summer dress-wearing Baby Doll to the darkly dapper, swarthy Italian who picks floating cotton off her dress and holds a riding crop, no less. And to further amp things up, after some antics in the shell of a house, Wallach will be seen riding Baker's hobby horse to the rock tune of "Shame! Shame! Shame!" The beautifully seamy shot of his shadowy rocking suggests a whole helluva lot more is going on here. Yes, lots of s-e-x. Good, bad, dirty southern s-e-x. But there's more to the film than just overheated sensuality. Starkly but stunningly shot in black and white, the picture showcases a sad, crumbling South which is perfectly encapsulated via Malden's distressed and ultimately crazed performance as a cotton farmer being taken over by big business. You feel for poor Malden, as dumb as he is, and the intelligent actor nails sleazy, desperate, sad, cruel and touching all at once. Malden could be a powerful passive aggressive (check A Streetcar Named Desire , in which his "nice" guy ends up being one of the most despicable characters in the picture), and a powerful aggressive aggressive (like his tough priest in On the Waterfront ). Here he's just a lost soul who strikes out, but like his relationship with Baby Doll, his fire will ultimately be extinguished. No (for lack of a better word) orgasmic pleasure will come from this. He can't keep anything. Not his gin, not his wife, and not the old Southern way. So as loud-mouth and as stupid as he seems hollering "Baby Doll!" at the top of his lungs, you can see that Williams, Kazan and Malden understand this is a man who has lost all dignity -- and though frequently funny, this is just plain sad. And really, everyone here, save for his stray plantation hands whom he sneaks shots of hooch with, are sad. And, in their own way, creeps. But they're all-too-human creeps and earn sympathy for each of their dire situations. Baby Doll as the unhappy, clever though unschooled wife, Archie as the out-moded Southerner and Vacarro as the despised outsider. No one is inherently good, but none of are purely evil either. They are corrupted, vindictive, mean and in the case of Baker -- achingly sexy on top. I would, in fact, go so far as to say that Baker's Baby Doll is one of the sexiest film performances in screen history. With that alone shouldn't the film earn greater respect through time? It did somewhat in its DVD release (in conjunction with the Tennessee Williams' box set which also includes that other underrated depiction of frustrated sexuality and a sizzling Lolita Sue Lyon -- The Night of the Iguana ) with an accompanying short documentary. Chronicling the film's scandal (happily all three spectacular leads are alive to discuss the movie -- god bless you Karl Malden for even making it that far) and appreciating the picture's placement within Kazan's esteemed canon of work, it's a nice addition. But I wanted more. I always want more with Baby Doll. More movie, more respect, more thumb-sucking and ice cold glasses of lemonade. As Baby Doll express at the end of the film, "we got nothin' to do but wait for tomorrow and see if we're remembered or forgotten." Thankfully and respectfully (maybe ironically so) Baby Doll is indeed remembered. Really, how could it have ever been forgotten? Read more Kim Morgan at Sunset Gun.
 
David Rohde, Reporter Who Escaped Taliban, Returns to Thundeous Applause Top
After seven months of being held hostage by the Taliban, David Rohde returned to The New York Times today and to perhaps the most sustained ovation ever heard in the paper's newsroom.
 
Arianna Huffington: London Diary: Gordon Brown's Obsessions, The Loyal Opposition's Cuddly Karl Rove, Bad Germs, and the Most Unusual Royal Honeymoon Ever Top
LONDON -- Hello from London, where I have come to take part in a media and technology conference sponsored by the Guardian. Any time I'm in London, I always feel a bit nostalgic, having gone to college, started my career, and fallen head over heels in love here -- but never more nostalgic than during my breakfast at the flat of Lord George Weidenfeld, the legendary British publisher. He was the person responsible for turning my career around when he commissioned me to write a biography of Maria Callas . My previous book, After Reason , a rather chewy piece of political analysis I wrote in my mid-20s, was collecting dust on bookstore shelves when George took me aside and said: "If you are going to write books that have an impact, you are going to have to learn to tell a good story. Writing a biography is a way to learn to do that." Arriving at his book-lined apartment overlooking the Thames, I was immediately transported back to dozens of evenings spent in that flat, attending George's famous dinners, which became my ongoing source of education after leaving Cambridge. I remembered learning about Middle East politics from Shimon Peres one night and about meaningful silences from Harold Pinter another night. The apartment hasn't changed at all. And even though he's about to turn 90 (with a party for 400 of his closest friends planned for September in Lausanne), neither has George. Within five minutes of sitting down, he was referencing Voltaire and Madame de Stael, and peppering the conversation with French, German, and Latin phrases. And yet it never feels like an affectation because it comes so naturally to him. His interests have always been global -- and he is as familiar with political happenings in Russia, Germany, and Israel as he is with those in England and America. When I asked for his take on Obama, he smiled: "He is a crusader without a cross. He has every gift imaginable: brilliance, soaring rhetoric, impressive wife, adorable children... but every now and then you get the sense that the White House has become Crusaders, Inc. 'Press 1 to find out today's crusade.'" As Britain has already moved into pre-election mode -- the election here could be called anytime between now and May 2010 -- Gordon Brown presented to the House of Commons on Monday his big crusade : getting out of the slump both he and Britain have been in and "Building Britain's Future." When I met with him earlier in the week, I found him to be obsessed with the challenge of making sure that everyone in England is offered the chance to live up to his or her potential beyond the reality TV idea of "making it big." Britain's Got Talent is a big hit, but Brown was talking about, as he told me, "making sure young people realize their talent as engineers, doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, despite whatever adversity they have to overcome." Brown clearly has had to overcome a lot, including losing one eye playing rugby at age 16 -- something that would have been a much bigger part of his biography if he were an American politician. But it is barely mentioned here. The question of young people and their potential has been in the news here this week as, according to a government report published on Tuesday, one million people 16-to-24 will be without a job or place in college this summer because of the recession. They even have a name for them: "Neets" -- Not in Education, Employment, or Training. Even before these record high numbers, this has been a preoccupation of Brown's -- philosophical as well as practical. He even got in touch with the former poet laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, to ask if there were any contemporary poems that, like Thomas Gray's famous English poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard," reflect on "talent wasted, potential unfulfilled, and opportunities forgone." Motion told him there weren't. Even Brown's harshest critics acknowledge his moral seriousness and intellectual prowess. When the conversation turned to re-inventing capitalism after the global economic meltdown, he pointed out that Adam Smith, who was born in the same town in Scotland that Brown comes from, was very aware of the need for a moral foundation in order for free markets to work. "Adam Smith's father was a customs official and he was very conscious of the advantages of free trade," Brown pointed out. "But, at the same time, he also knew that the mercantile class couldn't be allowed to dominate at the expense of everybody else. So Smith has been unfairly appropriated by the market fundamentalists." Indeed, Adam Smith once wrote: "When the regulation, therefore, is in support of the workman, it is always just and equitable, but it is sometimes otherwise when in favour of the masters." Brown is very conscious of the power of new media to affect not only domestic politics, but also foreign policy. "Foreign policy," he told me, "used to be the province of the elites. No more. The coverage of the Iran uprising, and people's engagement in it all around the world, will affect the way governments deal with the Iranian regime. In the Philippines, you had the 'coup de text' that got tens of thousands of people organized and ended up forcing President Estrada from office in 2001. And, in Burma, the Internet has been critical in keeping public awareness on the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi." Suu Kyi's 64th birthday was June 19, and Brown urged for her release and promised that the European Union would "step up sanctions and take further targeted measures against the Burmese regime." Talk of new media and the Internet led to a charming moment when I was introduced to Brown's five-year-old son, John. When prompted to talk about computers, John explained how much he enjoys spending time on "the Labour site." "Wow, the Labour site?!" I asked. "The Lego site," he corrected me. "The Lego site!" What was it his father was saying about "Building Britain's Future"? I met another young crowd tuned into the Internet (though slightly older than John Brown) when I was invited to dinner at the home of George and Frances Osborne. George Osborne is the Shadow Chancellor and ran David Cameron's campaign for leadership of the Tory Party (so, if the Tories win in the next election, Osborne will become the equivalent of our Treasury Secretary). Frances Osborne is a bestselling author (and HuffPost blogger ), whose last book, The Bolter , is about her grandmother Idina Sackville, who scandalized 1920s society. It got great reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Dinner was served in a large, open kitchen/dining room with signs of the Osbornes' two young children everywhere. The guests were a mixture of journalists (mostly friends from George and Frances' Oxford days) and Tory Party colleagues, including the Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Michael Gove, whom George Weidenfeld described as the Tory shadow cabinet's reigning intellectual. "Tell me you didn't do the cooking too," I told Frances. "No, I just ordered it and arranged it!" she replied. I was relieved! Talking to Rohan Silva, an economic adviser to Osborne who is not yet 30, I was struck by how Internet savvy the loyal opposition is. Silva, a former civil servant who switched over to the Tory side, described some of their plans: publishing all procurement contracts online; posting every item of government spending over £25,000; crowdsourcing crime fighting by publishing crime data that can be mapped and analyzed by the public; using open source IT in government computer systems to save £600 million a year; and posting hospital performance data, school performance data and road traffic information. Silva was headed to Silicon Valley to meet with different people from the tech world, including Craig Newmark. Steve Hilton, the marketing guru set to run the Cameron campaign, is already there, having moved to America last summer when his wife, Rachel Whetstone, became Google's vice president of public policy and communications. I asked Osborne if they were planning to have their campaign run from Palo Alto but he assured me that Google had agreed to let Whetstone work out of London, and the couple would be moving back. He also assured me that Hilton was "a cuddly Karl Rove." Isn't that an oxymoron? The following night I ended up debating one of the other guests , Anne McElvoy, a columnist at the Weekly Standard , on Newsnight , when Jeremy Paxman interviewed us about the media's coverage of Iran. Well, it was hardly a debate as we both agreed that setting new media against old media has become really obsolete. Preceding us on the show was Michael Gove, debating his Labour Party counterpart on education. And the next day, Anne took on everyone (including Gove and Osborne -- and Brown for that matter) in her column in the Evening Standard , "The Campaign Has Begun -- With a Slanging Match." At a lunch hosted by Lynn and Evelyn de Rothschild at their beautiful home, which used to be the studio of John Singer Sargent (no wonder the lighting was so extraordinary), Sarah Brown, the Prime Minister's wife, was talking about her work with the White Ribbon Alliance , which is dedicated to improving maternal health around the world. No matter what they think of her husband, everyone in England loves Sarah. Talking about her life at Downing Street, she echoed the sentiments of President Obama when she described how great it was "living over the shop." "His aides will tell Gordon he has 20 minutes between two meetings and he will duck upstairs for bath time or to help tuck the kids into bed," she told me. My final lunch before leaving London was hosted by Princess Michael of Kent at Kensington Palace. I was joined by Lyn Lear and her 15-year-old daughter Brianna who is going to Oxford for summer camp. Also there was the Princess' soon-to-be-daughter-in-law, Sophie Winkleman, who is both a double first from Cambridge and an actress. On September 12th, she will marry Lord Frederick Windsor at the Chapel Royal on Hampton Court. And on September 14th, she will be in Los Angeles to start filming a new NBC comedy series called 100 Questions , centered on a online dating service, soulmates.com. That will be quite an unusual royal honeymoon. I told her that "Sophie Windsor" would look good in the credits, but she's sticking with Winkleman. My time in London wrapped up with a panel at the Guardian conference. The unambitious theme: Using the power of information and technology to confront and defeat the global challenges of our age. One of my fellow panelists was Nick Bostrom, Director of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford, who describes himself as a "failed stand-up comedian." Even though his speech focused on the possibility of using our technological powers "not only to change the world but also to change ourselves by enhancing some of our basic biological capacities," I fixated on the chart he put up showing how many millions have died through the ages because of either "bad germs or bad men." In fact, I think this chart could be a great therapeutic tool that puts all our little daily problems into sharp perspective. Indeed, I'm planning to laminate it and put it on my desk. More on Travel
 
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