Monday, August 17, 2009

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Diane Schuler's Death: A Downer For Moms Who Drink Top
As recently as last month, drinking parents seemed to be all the rage. On the bookshelves: Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's Naptime Is the New Happy Hour, Robert Wilder's Daddy Needs a Drink and Chris Mancini's Pacify Me, the cover of which shows a six-pack consisting of five beers and one milk bottle. A pacifier dangles from one of the brews. Well, goodbye to all that -- thanks, at least in part, to the fallout from a horrifying drunk-driving tragedy that has garnered national attention.
 
Banks Added 10,000 Branches During Boom, But Left Inner Cities Behind Top
DALLAS — Banks expanded at a breathtaking pace over the past five years, adding more than 10,000 full-service branches, but barely 1 in 10 were in inner-city, minority neighborhoods, another sign the financial spending spree skipped over substantial parts of the country. The discrepancy means millions of people who don't live near a bank have had to hand over $2, $5 or $10 at a time – sometimes even more – in service fees to nonbank outlets to conduct basic transactions such as cashing checks or paying bills that most bank customers take for granted. Nearly six branches were added every day, with bank offices racing to exclusive neighborhoods such as University Park in Dallas, Midtown West in Manhattan and Music Row in Nashville, Tenn., as well as the fast-growing exburban communities surrounding Sacramento, Calif., Phoenix and Cincinnati. "It's crazy, and they're building another one!" said Mary Morgan, pulling into a parking spot at a JPMorgan Chase branch in University Park. Up the road, Comerica just cleared a lot to build a bank. A half-mile away, a financial institution is replacing a restaurant, she said. "It's stupid," Morgan said. "How can the market be that big?" Meanwhile, bank growth either declined or remained stagnant across wide swaths of the nation's inner cities, with branches closing in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and elsewhere. Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. shows that the nation's 99,000 banks generally followed the money. About two-thirds of all neighborhoods have a median household income higher than the national average; about two-thirds of the new bank branches were in those neighborhoods. An Associated Press analysis, however, found that branches weren't added at a proportionate rate in minority neighborhoods. About one-third of the neighborhoods analyzed are predominantly minority, according to the Census Bureau; only about 1 in 10 new bank branches showed up in those areas. The AP study was reviewed by the American Bankers Association and is consistent with other federal studies. "It's like the proverbial ambulance chasers," said Charles O'Neal, a vice president at the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce. "They're all chasing the same dollar and they get little return. Meanwhile, on this side of town, folks are literally spending sleepless nights trying to figure out where do we go to find a financial institution that will be responsive to their needs." Bank officials say they are following the growth of customers to continue providing services because most people choose banks based on branch locations. Bank watchdogs, however, say less-regulated financial institutions are filling the void and expanding at the expense of vulnerable, inner-city residents. As a result, they are relying on high-cost lending businesses for services traditionally provided by bank branches. "When you don't have banks going into poor communities, you're going to wind up with places where there are a lot of predatory products," said Kathleen Day, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsible Lending, a Washington-based advocacy group. "It's not always the case – payday lending seems to target black and Hispanic neighorhoods regardless of income level or bank location – but it's a real problem." Even in a digital age when banking is done online, the 99,000 bank branches are important barometers of economic health for thousands of communities. People in neighborhoods without banks are more likely to spend more of their money for basic financial transactions. About 30 million people cash checks at businesses that aren't banks, according to MSG CPA, a New York-based accounting and consulting firm. There are more than 13,000 check-cashing outlets, handling about $80 billion annually. Customers use the businesses to cash paychecks, pay utility bills, buy money orders and take out payday loans, often at rates that exceed fees charged by banks or even credit card charges. Under the Community Reinvestment Act, banks are encouraged to offer services in poor and minority neighborhoods. The vast majority of banks receive outstanding or satisfactory grades from regulators. The grades are important when banks apply to open new branches or acquire other banks. James Ballantine, a senior vice president with the American Bankers Association, said banks that don't comply can be required to enter into agreements with regulators, fined or even lose their charter. Even so, small and large banks alike focused most of their efforts on wealthy and fast-growing neighborhoods as the housing boom reached its zenith. Banks now receiving billions in federal bailout loans led the charge, according to the AP's analysis. The largest banks added nearly 6,800 branches between 2004 and 2008. Fewer than 900 of those branches wound up in minority neighborhoods. Nearly 18 percent of those full-service bank branches were in minority neighborhoods in 2004, according to the FDIC. By last year, that number had dipped to 16 percent as banks worked harder at pursuing customers in distant, mostly white suburbs. Among the findings in the analysis: _Fueled by explosive growth and its acquisition of Bank One Corp., JPMorgan Chase added 2,566 branches during the five-year period. Only 342 were in minority neighborhoods. In 2004, nearly 30 percent of Chase's branches were in minority areas. By 2008, that number had dropped nearly half, to 16 percent. Christine Holevas, a bank spokeswoman, said most of the bank branches were added by acquisitions of other banks. Chase took over Bank One in 2004, adding 1,800 branches. The bank increased its number of branches again in 2004 when it acquired 300 Bank of New York locations. The acquisitions effectively reduced the bank's presence in minority neighborhoods. Its most recent federal grade, issued in 2007, was "outstanding." _Citigroup added 272 new branches between 2004 and 2008, the overwhelming majority in white neighborhoods. Only two dozen were created in minority neighborhoods, according to federal figures. The bank still has 28 percent of its banks in minority areas. Elizabeth Fogarty, a bank spokeswoman, said Citi makes a strong effort to serve poor and minority communities. _Fifth Third Bancorp increased its presence in minority neighborhoods by more than half, expanding from 60 offices to 95 branches. Still, only 7 percent of its 1,356 branch offices are in minority areas. Stephanie Honan, a bank spokeswoman, confirmed the figures. She said the company has a small percentage of its branches in minority neighborhoods because of acquisitions over the past two years. She said the company has decided to not close or consolidate branches in minority neighborhoods for the next three years. The company, she said, "is committed to expanding our presence in minority areas and making the best use of our branch distribution to serve our markets effectively." Perhaps no place illustrates the expanding chasm as well as Dallas, a major financial center. The typical family living in the University Park section has an annual income of $200,000. The neighborhood, just north of downtown, is 97 percent white. Two percent of its residents are poor. Since 2004, banks have added 16 new branches. The area now has 43 banks, or one for every 475 people. The market apparently isn't as big five miles away, where the typical south Dallas family earns about $17,000 annually. The neighborhood is 98 percent black. Half the people who live there are poor. In 2004, its residents could choose between a Bank of America branch and a Washington Mutual branch. By 2008, only the Bank of America branch remained, leaving the neighborhood with one bank for every 9,300 people. It's a community of small, frame houses, some neat and tidy with security bars on the windows and doors; others are weathered, with peeling paint and tiny, weed-choked yards. The bank stands in the shadow of the State Fair of Texas, the giant Ferris wheel looming above the parking lot. The lack of financial services often takes a back seat to worries about crime, fear of unemployment, or simply having a place to live and food to eat. George Murphy, 68, owns M&W Barber & Beauty Shop, a small business in the heart of the neighborhood. The lack of banks isn't a problem for him because it only takes 30 minutes to walk to one, and a bus is also available. "I don't deal with checks," he said. "My business is cash only." Even so, the line is long at the Ace Cash Express, less than two miles away. The sign reads, "No Bank Account Necessary." Customers can have their paychecks automatically loaded on a prepaid Visa card for a fee. William Bates, 70, sits out front on his motorized scooter, waiting for his wife to get a money order. "Twenty-five or 30 years ago," he said, "there weren't no banks or nothing over here." ___ Bass reported from East Dover, Vt. ___ On the Net: Center for Responsive Lending: http://www.responsiblelending.org/ JPMorgan Chase & Co.: http://www.jpmorganchase.com Citigroup Inc.: http://www.citigroup.com Fifth Third Bancorp: http://www.53.com Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce: http://www.dbcc.org/
 
Senate Guru: Republicans Roy Blunt & Mark Kirk Mislead on Health Care Top
{ Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru . } There are two current Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives who are presently running for seats in the U.S. Senate, Missouri's Roy Blunt and Illinois' Mark Kirk. Both have been telling easy-to-debunk lies in the health care debate. First, friend of all corporate lobbyists Roy Blunt tries to personalize the debate : "I'm 59," Mr. Blunt said last week during a meeting with Post-Dispatch reporters and editors. "In either Canada or Great Britain, if I broke my hip, I couldn't get it replaced." Ooooh, scary! There must be a lot of broken-hipped Canadian and British seniors hobbling around, huh? Nope. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch did their due diligence: We fact-checked that. At least 63 percent of hip replacements performed in Canada last year and two-thirds of those done in England were on patients age 65 or older. More than 1,200 in Canada were done on people older than 85. Oops. Turns out Blunt had been lying the entire time. Blunt's lame excuse: "I didn't just pull that number out of thin air," Mr. Blunt said in a subsequent interview. It came, he said, from testimony before the House Subcommittee on Health by "some people who are supposed to be experts on Canadian health care." "I had been given that example. I was told that 59 is the cutoff," he said. "I'm glad you pointed that out to me. I won't use that example any more." You won't use that example anymore?! How about you stop parroting all of the bogus non-statistics your right-wing corporate cronies feed you? How about you stop engaging in scare tactics to mislead voters, senior citizens especially? Roy Blunt is nothing but a dishonest corporate shill. Second, Mark Kirk wants desperately to make a point - he'll even use woefully out-of-date figures to make his baseless point: In selling the Tuesday Group's health care alternative, Rep. Mark Kirk likes to bring up the comparison between New Jersey (where [he says] health insurance costs $5,326 per patient) and California (where [he says] insurance costs dip to $2,565 per patient). ... But there is one glaring problem: Kirk is using out-of-date numbers. In 2000, Families USA reported that the average annual premium (which is based on employer and worker premiums combined) in California was $2,365, just $200 less than Kirk's figure. Last year, Families USA updated the figures and found that the average premiums rose $1,917 over the subsequent seven years, up to $4,282. Moreover, the organization estimates that the average cost of individual health coverage in New Jersey two years ago was only $4,744, a difference of just $462. Because Kirk doesn't provide a citation (not even in the Powerpoint), it's unclear where he is getting these particular numbers. But it appears he is greatly overstating the disparity. Interestingly enough, over the last decade premiums for publicly-purchased insurance in California rose much less slowly (between 2-4 percent per year) than premiums for employer-provided health insurance (10 percent). Actual 2008 numbers for California and New Jersey show very little difference in health care costs. So Mark Kirk just uses numbers nearly a decade old to make a point that utterly lacks merit. (Not to mention, there's the irony of Kirk pointing to California to make his point, when what California really shows is that a public option both is more cost-stable than private options and is able to exist without eliminating private competition.) All Mark Kirk illustrates with his presentation is that he is a partisan Republican who will disseminate misinformation on behalf of right-wing Republican leadership and corporate special interests. That dishonesty and blind partisanship is not what Illinois needs in the U.S. Senate. Two Republican Congressmen running for U.S. Senate, two easy-to-prove liars on health care reform.
 
Jamie Frevele: Tom DeLay: Making the Saints Cry One Rumba at a Time Top
Tom DeLay is going to be on "Dancing With the Stars." Oh. My. Effing. God. When I saw that, I reacted. Viscerally. I couldn't pinpoint why, nor could I fully identify what I was feeling about this, but the idea of that man in a spangly costume, shaking his hips ...dear heaven. And it isn't even a political thing. I actually liked the idea of Tucker Carlson attempting to dance . He's cute. Infuriating, but cute . His turn on the show a few years ago was manageable. But Tom DeLay? Maybe I'm wrong about this, but aren't the styles of dance featured on this show generally stemmed from primitive mating rituals? Is Tom DeLay actually going to move his body parts around as if he were performing some version of a seductive act? Oh my fuck, are we going to see Tom DeLay's o-face? Every single tiny villi in my intestines just started crying. Tears of acid. How are we, as a country, supposed to handle this? This has to be the most awkward, uncomfortable thing I have ever witnessed in my life. This is worse than picturing your parents having sex, because really, your very existence confirms that they have, so that somewhat alleviates the shock and disgust. But I guarantee, you've never once pictured Tom DeLay shimmying about, rose stem in teeth, to Michael Buble. And now you have. And it can't be unpictured. I'm sorry. All I can think is that he must be in some dire straits. Like Ashley "Remind Me Who Am I Again, Shannen?" Hamilton like straits. On the bright side, maybe Tom DeLay is so in love with his wife that he can't bring himself to fill the GOP adultery quota. So he's doing this to humiliate the party instead. Sweet Mary, that means he and his wife are totally doing it. I have to go. I've done enough damage.
 
David Sirota: "Barely Squeaking By On $300,000 A Year" Top
In the months following the Wall Street meltdown, we've seen a stealth marketing campaign that is profound for its boldness - a marketing campaign designed to make us believe that very wealthy people are suffering the most. We've seen this campaign in Wall Street spokespeople insisting that a $500,000-a-year salary isn't very big , in a New York Times style section that asserts that it's impossible to live in the city on a half million dollars; in a punditburo that says millionaires are oppressed and can't afford to pay $9,000 a year more in taxes for universal health care; and in a national press corps that seeks to portray any effort to raise taxes on the richest 1 percent as unfair; and a business press that threatens a class war if President Obama moves forward with his promise to mke the payroll tax more progressive. As I said, this is a marketing campaign, and a fairly well coordinated one. That's why I wasn't surprised to see this audacious Washington Post piece over the weekend which reports - with a straight face - that those making $300,000 a year are "barely squeaking by" in this economy. I shit you not: Laura Steins doesn't mind saying that she is barely squeaking by on $300,000 a year... As a vice president at MasterCard's corporate office in Purchase, N.Y., she earns a base pay of $150,000 plus a bonus. This year she'll take home 10 percent less because of a smaller bonus. She receives $75,000 a year in child support from her ex-husband. She figures she will pull an additional $50,000 from a personal investment account to "pick up the slack." The nanny and property taxes take $75,000 right off the top, but Steins considers both non-negotiable facts of her life and not discretionary. When she bought out her husband's share of the house after their 2006 divorce, she assumed the costs of keeping it afloat -- $8,000 to $10,000 a month. There's a pool man, a gardener and someone to plow the snow from the quarter-mile-long driveway. As tight as money is, she has decided that living in a 4,000-square-foot house on three acres is the practical thing to do. I'm not going to take up text space going off about how absurd this all is, except to say (as I have before) that in a country where the recession is obviously most crushing the middle-class, I'm playing the smallest violin in the world for those making $300,000 a year (ie. the top 5 percent of the country) - especially those who whine about their plight while refusing to cut back on their nannys and gardeners. What's fascinating here is not how incredibly out of touch with Middle American reality the superwealthy are, but how willing the media are to promote the superwealthy's whines as legitimate and justified. The entire economic narrative on Main Street is about how the average family making $50,000 a year is going to put food on the table - and the entire economic narrative in the elite media is about the top 5 percent's concerns that they might have to cut back on mansion expenses. This is the real "Two Americas" - the elites and the media outlets they control, and the Rest of Us. And clearly, the former doesn't give a shit about the latter.
 
Soren Gordhamer: Why It May No Longer Help to Be a Liberal Top
While working last night on another blog post for the social media site, Mashable , I was perusing through past tweets of Evan Williams, Co-founder and CEO of Twitter, and I came across this one in response to a Twitter user with the username "brokedad." Ev wrote: @brokedad I like your spirit, but I'm concerned about your name. How can you ever be not-broke if it's part of your identity? It's true. How can we be anything outside of our identity? Impact on Health Care Debate As the health care debate has become increasingly contentious, it not only reveals how many differing views there are on this subject, but also how easily we get caught in our identities. People are adamant, almost as if it were an election year, that the view of their party or political affiliation holds is correct. Yet instead of real dialogue of deep listening and understanding, discussions often end up becoming a clash of egos. Once our identity sets in, no matter whether it is as a yogi, a democrat, or a Buddhist, like the ring in The Lord of Ring , it has one and only one task. In this case, it is consumed with finding ways to reinforce itself and to put down the views of those it sees as "other." Of course, it is one thing to express an interest in a certain practice or belief, quite another to think that such beliefs or activities are who we are. What News Do We Favor? Some time back, there was a story here on Huffington Post of a former Republican mayor in Georgia who was arrested for nudity. The article, only 131 words, had little analysis, yet it got over 650 comments -- a huge amount of compared to most articles. I think it would be fair to guess that if it was a story of a former mayor who was a Democrat, it would have received significantly less comments, probably no more than a handful. Why? Because negative news about the "other" (that which we view as countering our identity, who we think we are not) in this case Republicans, feeds our identity and ego. "Yeah," we think (and often comment) "look how stupid they are and how right and just I am." If we think that who we are is our beliefs, then in any discussion our entire sense of self depends on the outcome; if we win, we think there is "more of us," that we are better; and if we lose, we think that there is less of us, that who we are has been diminished or weakened in some way. It is no wonder then why dialogues become so heated. Our Real Challenge Some years back Ram Dass told a story of a woman he had worked with who practiced meditation and Buddhism, and whose parents were fundamental Christians. She told him that when she visited her parents, it was very hard because they would get into heated arguments over their differing beliefs. But then she realized that if she did not hold so tightly to those beliefs, could instead practice being present and open. When she did so, the dynamic with her parents shifted. She told him, "My parents hate me when I am a Buddhist, but they love me when I am a Buddha." This, I think, is the great challenge of our society at this time. Can we step out of our identities that are constantly looking for ways to justify themselves and to put down the other, and open to a deeper presence and wisdom? Can we be Buddhas instead of Buddhists, practice liberal openness instead of being a liberal? Of course, the issue is not so much an issue of what we do or do not call call ourselves: we can just as easily identify as "not a liberal" or "not a Buddhist" and it is just as limiting. The real question is, Can we tap into a deeper intelligence beyond identification with our thoughts? In fact, this could be the only real way for us to survive in the coming years, as living from and trying to reinforce our identities will only create a greater mess, no matter how seemingly well intended. Though there is needed debate on issues like health care, our real challenge may be less legislative or political, and much more a spiritual one. *** Soren Gordhamer works with individuals and groups on living with greater mindfulness and purpose in our technology-rich age. He is the author of Wisdom 2.0: Ancient Secrets for the Creative and Constantly Connected (HarperOne, 2009). Website: http://www.sorengordhamer.com More on Twitter
 
Hispanic Man Beaten In Racially Charged Robbery Top
NEW YORK — A Hispanic man told investigators he was beaten and robbed in a racially charged attack in a Long Island community where another Hispanic was killed in an alleged hate crime last fall, police said. The latest incident happened around 11:30 p.m. Friday in Patchogue, where the earlier attack prompted a U.S. Department of Justice investigation into allegations of hate crimes on eastern Long Island. The victim in the latest episode told investigators that three young white men called him over and engaged him in conversation as he walked along Division Avenue in Patchogue, about 50 miles east of Manhattan. One man then hit him in the face and knocked him to the ground, and the three stole cash and other items from him while making disparaging remarks about his ancestry, he told police. Police didn't release his name and age, and they said Sunday that they didn't immediately know whether he had been taken to a hospital. Investigators believe there may be witnesses to the attack, which came nine months after Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero was accosted and stabbed to death while walking near the Patchogue train station. He was a 37-year-old dry cleaning worker. Seven teenagers have pleaded not guilty to hate crime and other charges in Lucero's death. Authorities say it was part of a marauding, anti-Hispanic crime spree conducted by the suspects, who are charged in attacks going back nearly a year. Lucero's killing attracted international attention and spurred the Justice Department to probe bias crimes in the area. The agency didn't immediately return a telephone call Sunday night about the status of that investigation. After Lucero's death, several Hispanics said they had been afraid to report crimes to police because of questions about their immigration statuses. Some said nothing was done when they did report attacks. In response to the slaying, Suffolk County Police Department Commissioner Richard Dormer named the department's highest-ranking Hispanic officer to lead the precinct responsible for patrolling the Patchogue area. Dormer has repeatedly said police don't ask crime victims about their immigration statuses. Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has been a vocal advocate for a crackdown on illegal immigration, and critics accused him after Lucero's death of fostering an atmosphere of intolerance. Levy vehemently argued that his stance on immigration had no bearing on criminal activity. Tensions over Long Island's influx of thousands of immigrants from Central and South America have percolated for nearly a decade. Two men are serving long prison terms for attempted murder after luring two Mexican laborers to an eastern Long Island warehouse in 2000 with the promise of work, then beating them with shovels and landscaping tools. In 2003, a Mexican family's home in Farmingville – about 15 miles from Patchogue – was destroyed when teenagers tossed fireworks through a window on the Fourth of July.
 
Shaun Ellis, NY Jets Defensive End, Suspended 1 Game, Fined $100,000 Top
CORTLAND, N.Y. — New York Jets defensive end Shaun Ellis has been suspended without pay for the team's regular-season opener and fined $100,000 by the NFL for violating the league's substance abuse policy. The 31-year-old Ellis was arrested in November and charged with possession of marijuana, speeding and driving without insurance after being pulled over by police in Hanover, N.J., a few miles from the team's training facility in Florham Park. Ellis' suspension means the Jets will be without two defensive starters for their season opener at Houston on Sept. 13. Linebacker Calvin Pace was suspended in July for four games without pay for violating the league's policy on performance-enhancing substances.
 
Hawaii Sober On 50th Anniversary Top
HONOLULU — Hawaii turns 50 years old as the 50th state Friday, but there will be no grand parades, no dazzling fireworks, no lavish displays of native culture. Organizers of the observation are not even willing to call it a party. It is simply a "commemoration," one that is sensitive to a painful history of the Hawaiian monarchy's overthrow and unresolved claims of Native Hawaiians. The main event is a low-key daylong conference reflecting on Hawaii's place in the world. Behind the tourist-friendly tropical images of beaches and sunshine, many remain uncomfortable with the U.S. takeover of the islands and the idea that businesses have exploited Hawaiians' culture. "Instead of state government having huge parties and fireworks, we're having a convention," said Manu Boyd, cultural director for the Royal Hawaiian Center, a shopping and entertainment area in Waikiki. "That shows the strength and spiritual power of the Hawaiian people, whose shattered world has not yet been addressed." When statehood came calling in 1959, it ushered in an era of economic prosperity through tourism and the side effects that came with it: resort high rises, more than 500,000 monthly tourists and an emphasis on hokey luaus rather than the authentic host culture. Sovereignty groups advocating independence from the United States make up a minority, but many residents recognize the long-standing issues associated with the 1893 overthrow of the monarchy, the islands' annexation and past harms to the Native Hawaiian people. Dodie Brown was a smiling 6-year-old when her father took a picture of her holding a newspaper proclaiming "Statehood!" – an image that traveled around the world. "It's good that the commemoration is quiet," said Brown, who now works for the city of Honolulu. "Something like this should be done with taste and finesse, in respect to everyone's feelings." Besides the statehood conference, the Hawaii Statehood Commission has been airing TV and radio ads with "50 Voices of Statehood" interviews, inviting schools to place commemorative items in time capsules, displaying artwork on the meaning of statehood in the Hawaii Convention Center and showing exhibits in state airports. State lawmakers allocated $600,000 for statehood events. "Out of respect, we decided not to do the parade and the big party," said Kippen de Alba Chu, chairman of the Statehoood Commission. Those kinds of events "would have been a waste of state funds, especially given the economy." Alaska, by contrast, which joined the union in January, 1959, embraced the 50th anniversary of statehood with concerts, fireworks displays, a prize-winning float in California's Rose Parade and observances throughout the state during the past 12 months. Among the festivities celebrated in a downtown Anchorage festival was the re-enactment of placing the 49th star on the American flag. Here, even the low-key conference is drawing complaints. Hawaiian sovereignty groups are planning protests outside the convention center Friday, and some say the conference's topics are too focused on tourism, economic development and business opportunities. One panelist, University of Hawaii Center for Hawaiian Studies professor Jonathan Osorio, said the conference should focus more on Hawaiian culture and history. "It's a political cop-out because the state doesn't really want to address the legal or political nature of its claim to authority in Hawaii," Osorio said. "It's one of the reasons they have really muted its commemoration." Nearly 18 years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the United States into World War II, Hawaii was admitted into the United States on Aug. 21, 1959. About 94 percent of island chain's voters supported statehood. Opponents argue that the vote was tainted because the only choice on the ballot was to become a state or remain a territory – independence was not an option. The Hawaiian kingdom was overthrown in 1893 when a group of white businessmen forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate while U.S. Marines came ashore. Hawaii was considered a republic until it became a U.S. territory by a resolution approved by Congress in 1898. "This newfangled idea of celebrating statehood shows that people don't understand Hawaii's history, or if they do understand, then they're celebrating a lie, a theft, that essentially stole a people's right of self-determination," said Poka Laenui, a Hawaiian and attorney who has worked for independence for more than 30 years. Along with statehood came striking changes to the islands, as the first commercial jetliner's arrival in Honolulu just a few weeks earlier began the dawn of the tourism era. Today, Hawaii's economy depends on tourism as its primary industry, with nearly 7 million visiting the islands in 2008. Hawaii's image as a beach paradise captured the imagination of the rest of the world, aided by sometimes irreverent marketing of hula girls, leis or tiki torch-lit hotels. In recent years, the tourism industry has made strides in ensuring the Hawaiian culture is respected rather than exploited, said Kelii Wilson, Hawaiian cultural coordinator for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. For example, businesses should ensure that Tahitian dancers aren't called Hawaiian hula dancers, and that Hawaiian words are pronounced and spelled correctly, Wilson said. "Growing up as a child here in Hawaii, I did see misrepresentations of the culture," she said. "Now we're getting closer to the right place." One way Hawaiians are moving toward having a voice in their self-determination is through legislation pending in Congress that would treat them similarly to Native American tribes and Alaskan natives. After a decade of efforts, the measure could pass into law as soon as this year with the support of Hawaii-born President Barack Obama. ___ 50th Anniversary of Statehood: http://hawaii.gov/statehood/ Hawaii Statehood Conference: http://hawaiistatehoodconference.com/ (This version CORRECTS SUBS 15th graf to correct to 'attack on' sted 'invasion of')
 
Morra Aarons-Mele: Baby bumps and celeb moms! Working Mother's Carol Evans on Celebrity Pregnancy and more Top
I spoke with Carol Evans, CEO of Working Mother Media about the media's portrayal of working mothers and pregnant women.... Q: What do you think of the current news media portrayal of working women and how it's changed over your career? A: There are three big changes from the time I started Working Mother in 1979. The biggest change is that working mothers went from being a real kind of working class image, and then they went to a "high executive" image in the media-- it sort of bounced up and down in the media. And now the portrayal is much more well-rounded: working mothers can be in any type of job, in any type of image. It's gotten a little more realistic. Number two is that it's become much more popular. I cannot believe how Hollywood has become obsessed with working mothers - not so much working mothers but celebrity mothers. All the celebrity magazines- they seem to have one topic, which is who's pregnant. The baby bump- I mean, this is a phenomenon. Even 10 years ago- or 15 years ago, it was hidden, no one saw it, you had a baby, you dropped out of sight and out of Hollywood. When you came back it was a couple of years later. Now it is a nationwide obsession with pregnancy. I think it's wonderful. The minute the baby is born, though - this poor woman, who is so beautiful, she's supposed to be right back into shape. And she's never supposed to age after that. No aging allowed! The excruciating standards the Hollywood stars are held up to - it's got its goods and bads. It's wonderful that pregnancy is seen as such a beautiful thing, but it's a shame that motherhood is framed against a backdrop of such beauty [that] no one can live up to. Q: Do you think that all the celebrities being pregnant has helped normalize the thought of pregnant women in the workplace? A: Yes, I really do. I think it's helped a lot to popularize the pregnant body as a beautiful thing. I see women walking down the streets of every city I go to, and no ones' covering their baby bump they are showing it off as fast as they can. When I was pregnant 22 and 19 years ago we were wearing bulky jackets over our belly. We were pretty much hiding it. People were wearing their skirts unzipped as long as they could- anything to not reveal [the pregnancy]. And now it's like, get that baby out there! Pregnant women are showing their bellies at work. They're not wearing suit jackets to cover their bellies. A pregnant body used to be something that scared people, and made people uncomfortable. Thirty, twenty five years ago people were uncomfortable with pregnant bodies, it caused a lot of alarm on the job. They thought people might have the baby on the job. The image of pregnancy has changed from being unhealthy to being healthy. Now we see pregnancy as a thing of being vital. That's a beautiful change. It's very important because the mindset of the woman becomes one of pride. If you feel like you should be hiding this, it's impossible. If you can just let it be something you're proud of, your mindset is so much better. The popularization of pregnancy is a good thing. We've popularized pregnancy through the normal medium of celebrity worship [laughs]. The bad side is we really feel like you're supposed to be absolutely gorgeous after the baby is born. And birth is a very difficult physical process; it's a medical issue. We need to allow women time to recover without expectations being so high. The third thing that's changed is I think there's a real awareness that the news media itself has used motherhood as a newsmaker. But I don't the general public is buying it so much anymore. There's more skepticism about how media portrays motherhood now- the mommy wars, people are so tired of hearing that. They almost think it's something the media is driving, as opposed to reality. There's more sophistication about how the news media is reporting the current status of moms. Q: Do you think the news media somehow engenders the image that the working mother is going to be permanently stressed out? A: The media portrayal of mothers is pretty complex because a lot of times the media does utilize "women as mom" as a really strong character in their stories- the one image is supermom, and she has to do everything. And the other image is that she's really stressed and frazzled and can't do anything. Both images turn up a lot in the media. Working Mother magazine is really dedicated to showing the real mom who's just making it happen- but in the media you've got the pedestal and the pillory. Because the middle ground isn't as interesting to the news media. There's no news in, everything's ok. For the most part, yes, working mothers are stressed out, and take on too much. But basically the story about working mothers is 'yes, we're the majority, we're ok, we're doing it, we're solving our problems, and here's how we do it.' And that's just not a grabber on the evening news. You can read the rest of the interview at the Families and Work Institute's blog More on Celebrity Kids
 
Peter Daou: The Health Reform Fiasco Is an 'Old' Media Triumph -- and a Red Flag for Democrats Top
Last February, I wrote a post about President Obama versus the conventional wisdom machine , arguing that "the assumption the new presidency would transform the political process, usher in an era of unprecedented citizen empowerment and decimate the old conventional wisdom-making machinery, has been undermined by the reality of entrenched power structures, deep-seated rivalries, die-hard habits and Beltway business as usual." I've been making some version of that argument since Democrats took power. My fundamental case is that political and policy battles are primarily about messaging, about shaping public perceptions; that despite widespread Internet triumphalism in the wake of the 2008 campaign, 'old' media mechanisms are not only relevant, but potent; and that Obama's victory was predominantly the result of a well-conceived and executed traditional campaign strategy (i.e. creating effective positive and negative message frames and adhering to them). On the first premise, that all political endeavors - whether campaigns or policy rollouts - are primarily about messaging, I discussed the online implications in a December '08 essay : The pyramid of Internet political functions consists of message (communications), money (fundraising) and mobilization. Atop that pyramid sits communications. Message drives money and triggers mobilization. Devoid of a compelling message to spur their use, the most advanced web tools will lie fallow. The impetus to use technology is always external to the technology; the impulse to connect and contribute begins with the inspiration to do so and the inspiration derives from the message. I expanded on the second premise (that established messaging tactics and mechanisms are still a force to be contended with) in the February post referenced above: A striking fact about the current political environment is that despite the ground-breaking Democratic victory on November, the new administration is dealing with an oddly familiar political brew: the "liberal media" mantra is rekindled, conservative talk radio (i.e. anti-liberal radio) is resurgent, Rush Limbaugh is more relevant than ever, Ann Coulter is once again doing the network rounds, and if online commentary over the past month is any indication, many progressives still feel disconnected from the levers of power.... The dynamics and tensions of the past decade remain firmly in play: rightwing noise machine (albeit denuded) versus progressive activists, old-school pundits and politicians versus online powerhouses, netroots versus DLC, frustrated outsiders versus back-scratching insiders, partisanship versus bi/post-partisanship, media versus bloggers, and so on. Democrats would do well to note how unpredictably the Conventional Wisdom Machine has operated (or how predictably for those who are less sanguine about the fungibility of a web-fueled grassroots campaign). On the third premise, that Obama won because he mastered old-school politics, I wrote: The truth is that the Obama campaign was a triumph of integration more than technological innovation. It was the wildly successful marriage of time-tested political strategies and tactics, executed with acumen and discipline, seamlessly combined with cutting-edge technology and tied together with an empowering grassroots message. With a brilliant candidate at the helm. That, in itself, was innovative. Six months later, the health reform battle cements my view on all three points. Setting aside strategic errors by the Democrats (and there have been several in this fight), just look at how reform opponents have outgunned the White House using town halls, cable news, newspaper editorials, Freepers, Drudge, talk radio and chain emails. If I close my eyes, I'm transported back to my days on the Kerry campaign and the summer of Swift Boats, Purple Heart Band-Aids and rightwing attack machine antics. It's as though a half decade of technological advances disappeared in the blink of an eye. Forget Facebook and Twitter, it's all about Fox and MSNBC and CNN replaying images of angry protesters at town hall meetings railing against 'government takeovers.' It's about Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh spreading fear and fury. It's about anonymous emails zipping across the country, distorting the facts and sowing confusion. It's about rightwing pundits setting the terms of the debate by foisting radical ideas on the public. Paradoxically, the attempts by Democrats to counter all this by sending emails to Obama's list and creating campaign-style fact-checking websites seem almost quaint by comparison. When a woman at a town hall spoke about "awakening a sleeping giant," she may as well have been alluding to the old media tools and techniques that have been dismissed by pundits and tech evangelists as anachronistic in the Internet age. Simply put, despite volumes of cyber-ink about the left's online prowess, and despite Democrats controlling the White House and Congress, the right can apparently dominate the national conversation using the same outlets they relied on five and ten years ago. So to my fellow digerati: it's time to admit that the communications landscape, at least in politics, isn't necessarily tilted in favor of new media. The health reform showdown is powerful evidence that the much-touted online advantage of the left, if not a chimera, is certainly questionable when it comes to major political confrontations. Perhaps that's one reason for the diminished turnout of mainstream reporters at Netroots Nation - the creeping sense that the left's online muscle has taken a major hit with the health reform message wars and that the balance of power between old and new media is shifting back toward the former. That's only going to get more pronounced with the ongoing co-opting of new media by the establishment, the increasing deployment by established media outlets of online tools, the advent of hybrid media outlets like the Politico, the continued preeminence of cable news as the agenda-setter for daily chatter, the use of YouTube to disseminate mainstream media content, and the explosive adoption of Twitter by Beltway reporters. It's been fashionable in tech/political circles to think of the Internet as an establishment-slayer that destroys business models and shakes up the political landscape and to consider 2008 a watershed for citizen empowerment, but the more sober scenario is one where the establishment stops the bleeding, stabilizes, and reasserts its capacity to shape public perceptions. The health care battle bolsters the latter case. This portends poorly for Democrats. If you've been fretting about Democratic prospects in 2010 and 2012, then you have every reason to be concerned now that we see how much mileage the right can get out of rickety 'old' media. More on Health Care
 
Daljit Dhaliwal To Take Over As Anchor Of PBS' "Worldfocus" Top
Daljit Dhaliwal has been named anchor of PBS' "Worldfocus." Dhaliwal will replace Martin Savidge, who will return to the field and remain on the program as a special correspondent. "Worldfocus," which debuted in August 2008, is a nightly international newscast that airs on 88% of public television stations nationwide. Dhaliwal has been a contributing correspondent on the program and an occasional subsittue for Savidge. "Martin Savidge has been restless to get out in the field," said Marc Rosenwasser, Executive Producer of Worldfocus. "We're pleased to be able to add his experience and insight to our field reporting team while having Daljit Dhaliwal play a larger role at the anchor desk." "This is a wonderful opportunity," said Dhaliwal. "In a very short-time Worldfocus has become the program to watch for in-depth international news stories showcasing a diverse group of voices through a diverse group of guests. I'm excited to play a more central role in anchoring this newscast as it grows both on-air and online with a more interactive website coming soon. I look forward to working with the entire Worldfocus team."
 
Millions Of Afghan Women Will Be Denied Vote Due To Female Staff Shortage Top
By Jerome Starkey in Kabul and Kim Sengupta | The Independent Millions of Afghan women will be denied their chance to vote in presidential elections this week because there aren't enough female officials to staff the women-only polling stations. A desperate shortage of female staff is threatening to undermine the legitimacy of the elections, which are the pinnacle of western-led efforts to build a peaceful democracy. Strict cultural norms mean women can't vote in male-run stations. Women's activists said the Independent Election Commission (IEC), which is organising the polls, still needs to recruit 13,000 women before Thursday's elections. The IEC refused to comment on recruitment figures, but papers leaked to The Independent suggest the shortfall is much worse, at more than 42,000. Without female staff to operate the strictly segregated stations, and more importantly, without female searchers to frisk women voters as they arrive at those stations, conservative men across the country will ban their wives and daughters from taking part. "If half of the population can't participate, the election is illegitimate," said Orzala Ashref, a director of the Afghan Women's Network. "Without women's votes, without women's participation, of course the election is not going to be valid." Under the Taliban women were banned from working, beaten for laughing, and only allowed outside their homes with a male relative to escort them. Improving women's rights has been a central pillar of the US-led mission, but in many parts of the country medieval customs still prevail and women are treated like property. "You need female staff," said leading women's rights activist Wazhma Frogh. "Otherwise women won't dare go out. Their families won't let them." The problem is most acute in the south east, where there are just 2,564 women on the IEC books, less than 20 percent of the 13,400 target. In the south, they have less than half the 10,428 women required. At Nad-e-Ali in Helmand, an area recently under Taliban control, a lack of policewomen had meant that required searches of female voters cannot be carried out. Local elders have rejected suggestions that female British troops should carry out the task. Many men in this deeply conservative area are adamant that they will not let women from their families vote in mixed stations. Following a shura - community meeting - at Char-e-Anjir, a nearby town recaptured from the insurgents, a number of heads of families said they may consider letting female relations vote as long as strict controls were applied. Niamtullah Khan, a 57 year old farmer, said: "We are very concerned about this. Most of my neighbours are against letting women go to these places where anything can happen. I, and a few others, think we should look ahead and have change, but I would not approve of my wife, sister, or daughter going into buildings with a lot of unknown men." Wali Mohammed, 71, said: " Women voted in the past, so they should vote again. But the government must create the right conditions." The IEC launched an emergency appeal through women's rights organisations last week to try and fill the staffing gap. But in a sign of growing desperation, officials have suggested hiring old men and boys in their place. "We are totally against this," Ms Ashref said. "The men will tell women, 'If you go and vote it will be men who search you'. Would women from the UK feel comfortable being searched by a man? It's even more sensitive here. They won't let them go." The lack of female staff has fuelled fears of proxy voting, where men vote for their entire families. Concerns were first raised in December when The Independent revealed "phantom" women voters were outnumbering men in the registration process. Election officials in Gardez were encouraging men to register wives, mothers and daughters in absentia. "They said I could just give them a list of the women in my family, and they would give me the registration cards," said one. "I could see lists and lists of women's names on the table. They said they were under pressure from Kabul to register lots of women." New figures seen by The Independent show women registrants outnumbered men in five provinces, including Logar, Paktia and Khowst. In Paktika women accounted for 49% of new registrants. What's most alarming is that those places where the female recruitment has been most difficult are the same places where there was over-registration of women," said a senior western diplomat. Women's registration cards are especially prone to fraud because unlike the men's, they don't include a passport picture of the owner. Photographs of bare faced women are deemed culturally unacceptable. In Helmand, Hamid Karzai's agents have faced claims they are buying up registration cards in places where people are unlikely to vote. "Ballot stuffing is going to be pretty outrageous," said a Western official involved with the elections. Britain's Ambassador to Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, said election officials were making "strenuous" efforts to encourage female participation but he admitted: "There will be difficulties in some areas of the country in women casting their vote". Women's votes are also more susceptible to fraud because even in the places where there are female staff, it's usually impossible for them to stay after dark, when the counting starts. There are fewer than 500 international observers - nowhere near enough to monitor more than 6,500 polling centres, and up to 30,000 individual voting stations. Supporters of Mr Karzai's main rival, Abdullah Abdullah, have warned of Iran-style protests, "with Kalashnikovs," if Mr Karzai wins in the first round, insisting he could only do it by fraud. The total cost of the elections is more than $220 million, but most of the money and foreign mentors arrived earlier this year. The IEC was only told it had to hire 28,000 searchers, including 14,000 women, in the middle of last month. IEC officials refused to give exact figures on female recruitment, but papers seen by The Independent show eight provinces across the south and east, including Helmand and Kandahar, are still critical. "In total we need 14,000 female searchers," said an IEC official who asked not to be named. "Recruitment is going on, but in some provinces there are problems because there are no women applying for the positions." Related article: A make or break election in Afghanistan Read more from the Independent. More on Afghanistan
 
Quinn Signs Strengthened Open Records Law Top
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed into law a rewrite of the state's open-records law that will allow courts to fine public bodies that violate it "willfully and intentionally."
 
Len Berman: Len Berman's Top 5 Sports Stories Top
1. Quick Hits Y.E. Yang outduels Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship by 3 strokes. Double ouch. David Wright of the Mets and Dodger pitcher Hiroki Kuroda both suffered concussions Saturday. Wright was beaned and has landed on the disabled list. Kuroda was nailed in the head by a line drive. How low can you go? Jamaica's Usain Bolt set a new world record in the 100 meters in Berlin. 9.58 seconds. Hockey great Mark Messier is taking a front office job with the Rangers. Messier breeds success wherever he's been. After going 0-16 last season, the Detroit Lions won their first exhibition game with a field goal as time expired. Cool. 2. Y.E. Who? Y.E. Yang did the unthinkable, he took down the great Tiger Woods to win the PGA Championship. Was it the equivalent of the Jets beating the Colts in Super Bowl III? Villanova beating Georgetown in 1985? How about the U.S. hockey team beating the Russians in 1980? In South Korea it certainly was. Slight nitpick. Tiger could have been a tad more gracious to Yang in his news conference. His theme, I played well enough to win, I just didn't putt well enough. Maybe, but I got the feeling he was playing "not to lose" on Saturday, and it cost him. 3. Moneyball Now that the Yankees have the best record in baseball and have blown away the AL East, the inevitable carping will start over money. The Yankees have by far the most bloated payroll in baseball, so the critics will say "sure, they bought success." Not so fast. What did they exactly buy the last 8 years? Their spending spree for years looked like "cash for clunkers." Suddenly the model works? Maybe, but buyer beware. Of the top 7 payrolls in baseball one does have a losing record. Yup, #2 in salary, #2 in New York, #4 in the NL East. (The Mets.) 4. Big Man on Campus The Rick Pitino story gets wackier by the minute. So far, if you're scoring at home (or in a restaurant) we've had extortion, abortion and sex on a table. Throw into the mix that the woman claims Pitino paid his equipment manager to marry her to keep the whole thing hush hush. Through it all Louisville "stands by" their man. They used to call college "higher education," can it get any more low brow than at Louisville? 5. Monday Musings Are we going to have to hear from PETA every time Michael Vick makes a move? He's back, he's acting contrite. Deal. The first snap in his very first pre-season game, Jets rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez completed a 48-yard pass. What next, a Knicks point guard completing passes too? I wonder how book sales are coming along for Rick Pitino's "Lead to Succeed: 10 Traits of Great Leadership in Business and Life?" Happy Birthday: 4 time tennis Grand Slam champion Jim Courier. 39. Bonus Birthday: You looking at me? Actor Robert De Niro. 66. Today in Sports: Michael Phelps wins his record 8th gold medal at the same Olympics. That was so last year. 2008. Bonus Event: Not a bad career move. Ringo Starr replaces Pete Best as Beatles drummer. 1962. More on Michael Phelps
 
Jeff Schweitzer: From Death Panel to Death Spiral Top
A positive feedback loop is defined as a system that responds to a disturbance in the same direction as the disturbance. With every small input the response gets amplified, growing ever larger until the system collapses. In the physical world, one of the most famous examples is the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which collapsed in the face of a moderate wind. The destruction was a result of a "resonant frequency" that allowed the bridge to respond to the gentle nudge of the wind like a swing arcing higher and higher with each push until the oscillation was greater than the bridge could withstand. In the political world the best example is the Republican Party responding to the resonant frequency of crazy . We may be witnessing the GOP self-destructing in a death spiral. With every lost election, the Republican ranks contract, giving greater voice to the remaining extremists -- leading to the next lost election, giving even greater influence to the wing nuts. Destruction just like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Nowhere is this destructive resonance more clearly revealed than in the health care reform debate. Disrupting town hall meetings is a distraction to keep our attention away from the stench of a decaying GOP. Any disinterested third-party observer of what is happening in our town halls would have to conclude that opponents represent the flames of a Party burning out of control. Hysterical opponents seek to foster fear that will spiral toward blind panic. Opponents of reform have shamelessly fanned the embers of fear that the government will prevent us from choosing our own doctor (nothing in the proposed health care plans suggests that), when in fact we already suffer that actual restriction with many insurance policies. Irrational skeptics spread unfounded fear that the government will choose for us what procedures will be allowed, as though this is not common practice in our current system. This is exactly what is happening now with private insurance companies. Opponents spread rumors that the reforms proposed by Obama will be too expensive when in fact the costs of inaction are much greater. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" is the voice of the poorly informed, a level of ignorance so deep as to make reasoned debate difficult. Comparing Obama to Hitler requires no further discussion. Fabricating the idea of death panels is an act of desperation. Claiming a government take-over of health care ignores every fact of the case. The opposition is focusing on fictitious extremes rather than addressing issues seriously. A consequence of the positive loop of amplified lunacy might well be that Republicans cease to be a national political force. The voice of the GOP is now the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly, which positions the Republican Party more as a fringe group like the LaRouche movement rather than as a major player on the national scene. In the throes of death, Republicans may experience an intermediate stage of irrelevance on their slide to extinction as a consequence of inner-party splits as extremists pull ever harder to the right. The rise and fall of the short-lived Bull Moose Party might be informative as an historic comparison. During the presidential election of 1912, Theodore Roosevelt formed the new party (formally called the Progressive Party) after losing the nomination to William Howard Taft. The new party, named popularly from Roosevelt's assertion that he was "as strong as a bull moose," won 27% of the vote compared to Taft's 23% during the election. The resulting split allowed Wilson to win with 42% of the vote. The Bull Moose Party was on scene only briefly but had a significant impact on American politics. We might also witness a trajectory in which the Republicans simply cease to exist at all. We of course have precedent for the demise of important political parties. The Federalist Party comes to mind. But the most telling historic parallel would be the rise and fall of the Whig Party, established in 1834 as a reaction to the growing executive clout of Andrew Jackson. States' rights were a major party platform. While now nothing but a distant memory, Whigs at one time were a powerful force in national politics, boasting three presidents to its credit. William Henry Harrison and Zachary Taylor were elected president as Whig candidates. Millard Fillmore, also a Whig, became president after Taylor's death. During the height of Whig power nobody would have predicted that the party would cease to exist. Ironically, the Whigs died in the face of the new Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln when the issue of slavery divided the nation, and Lincoln's Party attracted more Whigs than anti-slavery Democrats. The Republicans might soon experience the same fate as Lincoln inflicted on the Whigs. Major parties can die. The death of the Republican Party would be no cause for celebration. Excess on the left is as dangerous as right-wing craziness. The only way to weave a path to the middle is through reasonable opposition that prevents the extremes of either group from gaining too much influence. Moderate Republicans have much to offer that would be sorely missed if the GOP declines to the point of irrelevancy. The ideals of smaller government and reduced taxation are laudable, if tempered by realism. But Republicans have truly lost their bearings as the moderate wind of change pushes conservatives to ever greater extremes, responding with growing amplitude to that resonant frequency of crazy. Let's look at some examples. Republican Claim: We want government off the backs of the American people. Reality: Republicans insert government into our schools, hospitals and homes. They want government to control the most personal aspects of our daily lives. Conservatives, for example, want the government to deny a woman's right to choose her own reproductive destiny, and to deny gay couples the right to wed. The right wants the government to tell us what to teach and what research can be done, opposing stem cell research in our universities and proposing that Intelligent Design be taught in our public schools. They want government to favor one religion over others, defending the display of Christian religious symbols on government property. But even more egregious examples can be found in Republican support for increasing the role of government intrusion into the most intimate and private decisions we make. Leaders of the Republican Party interfered directly with the family's end-of-life decisions in the Terry Schiavo case. Republicans supported the Bush policy of illegal wire tapping and the erosion of our civil liberties through illegal arrests and suspension of habeas corpus. These gross expansions of government power under conservative rule are the first death throes, the initial terminal spasms, as traditional Republicans leave a Party that has left them. Republican Claim: We are fiscal conservatives who want a small government, while Democrats just want to tax and spend their way to ever bigger government. Reality: Republicans expanded a prescription drug benefit to Medicare, with no means to pay the $400 billion price tag. Republicans created the swollen Transportation Security Administration and the resource hungry Department of Homeland Security. Republicans implemented the largest tax increase in U.S. history under the leadership of their beloved Ronald Reagan. He was forced to do so following his tax cuts because the philosophy of trickle-down economics proved disastrous. Reagan was responsible for the most bloated growth of the federal government. Reagan created, with his proposed budgets (not that of the Democratic Congress), the largest debts and deficits in history at that time. Then we have Bush, who epitomizes financial mismanagement. He ballooned our debt to $10 trillion and exploded our deficits in an orgy of profligate spending with no off-setting revenue. Only when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office do Republicans become concerned with the national debt. They suddenly become "worried" about spending. We see here the second spasm of death for the GOP as more moderates abandon the Party in the face of this hypocrisy, leaving behind an increasingly extreme core. Republican Claim: We are the Party of family values. Republican Reality: The GOP is the Party of sex scandals, gay love and divorce. Nevada Senator John Ensign had an affair with a campaign staffer. Mark Sanford cheated on his wife while pretending to uphold family values as the governor of conservative South Carolina. John McCain, Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani had sordid affairs followed by ugly divorces, all the while touting family values on the national scene. U.S. Representative Mark Foley liked male pages, urging one to "get a ruler and measure it for me." Ted Haggard, then head of the National Association of Evangelicals, apparently paid male prostitutes for sex while using crystal meth. He held weekly meetings with George Bush, teaching the president that homosexuality is an abomination. U.S. Senator Larry Craig was charged with soliciting sex in an airport bathroom. He was a vocal, loud and prominent opponent of gay marriage. Bob Allen, a Republican Congressman in the Florida House of Representatives, was charged with paying an undercover cop $20.00 for the pleasure of offering the officer oral sex. He was an active sponsor of anti-gay legislation. Glen Murphy, Jr., while National Chairman of Young Republicans, allegedly got some young Republicans drunk, and then decided to practice oral sex on the inebriated. Republican State Representative Richard Curtis from Spokane, Washington was involved in a gay sex scandal. Donald Fleischman, Chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County in Green Bay, WI, was ensnared in his own scandal of homosexual yearnings. This list is not comprehensive, and excludes the more than 4000 priests who have faced sex abuse charges in the past 50 years, involving more than 10,000 kids, mostly boys. Another death spasm, another breeze from the gentle wind. Republican Claim: The free market functions best with minimal regulation and interference from the government. Republican Reality: When lax regulation bordering on criminal neglect and a policy of looking the other way as bankers and brokers raped the American people finally led to financial collapse, Republicans quickly set aside their rhetoric about the magic of the market. They turned immediately to the government that Reagan famously claimed was "the problem not the solution" to solve the problem of their own making. The GOP used government funding to bail out Wall Street through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), an effort inspired and implemented by a Republican administration and supported by a critical mass of conservative allies on the Hill. This may represent the final death throes of the Party as all pretenses at fiscal responsibility and rationality are abandoned. As the winds of crazy blow, these same folks wail in complaint when Obama uses government funds to clean up their mess. The realities of governance have shredded the ideals of the Republican Party beyond recognition. The GOP is not the party of small government and lower taxes. They are the Party of borrow and spend, big government and sex scandals. They are the Party of governors who cut and run midterm and who skulk to Argentina for a tryst with a foreign lover. They are the Party of fabrication and lies. What remains are the inanities of O'Reilly and the absurdities of Glenn Beck. The latter claimed in 2008 that we have a broken health care system designed to do nothing but push patients out the door when he was treated for an unspecified condition. He claimed is surgery went "horribly awry" and that his hospital care was "phenomenally bad." Yet one year later we endure his shrill railing against Obama for tinkering with "the best health care system in the world." You could not make this stuff up. This shrill rhetoric is perhaps the final push on the swing before going over the top of the bar out of control. The violent extremism of the Republican Party seen in the health care debate is likely the last gasp of a terminal patient. Sadly, "the best health care system in the world" will be unable to save the GOP from death. After all, our hospitals are "phenomenally bad." Witness the destruction wrought by the resonant frequency of crazy. More on Health Care
 
New Poll Finds Majority Of Republicans Either Believes Or Isn't Sure About "Death Panel" Claim Top
Wow. A forthcoming poll by the nonpartisan Research 2000 for DailyKos finds that a majority of Republicans either believes, or isn't sure about, the claim that the Dem health care proposal will create "death panels" to determine whether the sick or injured get health care depending on their "productivity in society." More on Sarah Palin
 
State Stimulus Web Site Still Gets Low Marks For Transparency Top
Illinois has updated its stimulus Websites -- but it's still getting low marks for transparency.
 
Afghan Marriage Law That Lets Men Starve Wives Who Deny Sex Infuriates Activists Top
More on Afghanistan
 
Michael Kaiser: Why I Worry About Modern Dance Top
When Merce Cunningham passed away three weeks ago the world lost a dance legend. But I mourn not just the passing of one of the great geniuses of our time but also the state of modern dance. Modern dance is one of the glories of American cultural history. From Isadora Duncan to Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey to José Limón and on and on, the ranks of the great modern dancers and choreographers pay tribute to American creativity. But virtually every great modern dance company was founded more than 40 years ago. Where is the current, not to mention next, generation of great modern dance companies to carry the torch? I do not worry as much about ballet companies. While we are still searching for the next Balanchine, ballet companies can continue to produce the great works of the past -- from Giselle to Serenade. But modern dance depends on new voices, new vocabularies, new works. Since so many modern dance companies are single choreographer companies, they do not have the ability to sustain themselves easily when their founder passes away. The organization needs an entirely new mission and that is not so easy to accommodate. (The exception that proves the rule is the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Alvin never intended his company to depend solely on his works. He encouraged many other choreographers to make work for his company; this made the transition to new artistic leadership far easier.) Merce understood this conundrum. That is why he explicitly planned for the demise of his company in favor of a structure to oversee the dissemination of his works. But which companies will have the wherewithal -- both artistic and financial -- to do justice to his masterpieces? I used to think of Bill T. Jones as the "young man" of modern dance. But in three short years, Bill T. will be 60 years old! Where are the young companies that are gathering strength and are prepared to accept the mantle from the Twylas, Pauls, Merces and Marthas? To be sure, there are wonderfully talented and prolific young modern dance choreographers producing great work. I am fortunate to know, and to present, many of them. But I fear that in our culturally dense world it will be difficult for any of them to attain the level of recognition that their forebears have enjoyed. And I worry that the level of administrative and board support our young choreographers enjoy is not sufficient to compete with the major musical, ballet and theater institutions. Does this matter? Does a dance company have to be big and famous to be of importance? I think the answer is no, and yes. A great work of art is a great work of art. It need not be produced in the biggest theaters in world capitals to make a difference. But I fear that without large role model organizations representing modern dance around the nation and the world, the field will lose its luster, its ability to attract young dancers and choreographers, and its funding. I am so lucky to have lived during the golden age of modern dance. I just hope I live long enough to see the next one.
 
An Organic Vegetable Farm Aids In Addicts' Recovery Top
GARRISON, N.Y. -- It was shortly after 8 a.m. on a sun-drenched July day in this idyllic hamlet 50 miles north of Manhattan, and a hulk of a man named Venice Crafton was lumbering between beds of arugula, leaving outsize footprints in his wake. Mr. Crafton is 6-foot-2 � inches, 241 pounds and missing his two front teeth, all of which might have made him seem menacing but for the wide-brimmed, slightly floppy straw hat on his head.
 
Bill de Blasio: Make NYC's Elections Open and Fair Top
New York City's election laws are notoriously outdated and arcane, and many of them simply do not make sense. Candidates throughout New York City face trying battles to get on and stay on the ballot. Many are kicked off over extremely minor errors, from typos to the misspelling of a name none of which fairly reflects whether they deserve to be on the ballot. Elections should be about fostering Democracy, not suppressing it. We must act now to reform our election system so that voters are encouraged to participate and qualified candidates are not held hostage by excessive bureaucracy. It is too late to change New York City's election process before the primaries on September 15th, but there are some steps that our City and State can take to reform these prohibitive laws to make our City's next elections more open and fair. Right now in New York City, I have submitted legislation to create a pro-bono legal counseling service that would help candidates who don't have the resources to hire an election lawyer. This service would be independent of the Board of Elections and provide a final legal review of a candidate's petition submission to help prevent the most common errors that often unfairly kick people off the ballot. And on the State level, there is even more we can do to eliminate many of the most burdensome requirements current election law places on candidates. I am calling for State legislation that could and should be introduced to: *Eliminate the requirements that only political party members can witness petition signatures, and instead simply requiring that witnesses must be a qualified voter of New York State; *Eliminate requirements related to the gathering of signatures, such as the requirement that signers include their exact town/city/county, as the State has a database to verify this information and so it is no longer necessary; and *Amend the unreasonably restrictive requirement that candidates have only one opportunity to correct errors on their petition filings. These seemingly small changes would go a long way to opening up our City's election system and ensuring that qualified candidates are not left out of our electoral system for lack of financial resources or legal know-how. But this fight does not end with ballot access - we must also work to increase voter participation so that our City has a robust election process. We should allow New Yorkers to register to vote online and on election day, and permit early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, both of which now exist in numerous other states and localities. These common sense reforms will help us build an active democracy in our city that makes all elected officials more accountable to the voters. No candidate should ever be kicked off the ballot over a typo, and no eligible New Yorker should ever be turned away from a polling both because a form was not turned in on time. Please join this fight to ensure that New Yorkers' democratic choice is no longer jeopardized by needless red tape. Visit http://www.billdeblasio.com/petition to sign our petition and make your voice heard!
 
Sheldon Filger: Latest Consumer Spending Data Much Worse Than Expected Top
At its peak level of GDP, the U.S. economy depended on the American consumer for more than 70% of its output of goods and services. It has been the deleveraging of the American consumer, and to a growing extent, his/her unemployment, that has been the catalyst of the U.S. recession. And not only America; the centrality of the U.S. consumer to the overall global economy has meant his pulling back on a debt induced shopping spree, which has sparked a worldwide synchronized recession. The vast amount of money that Uncle Sam has borrowed to fund a nearly $800 billion economic stimulus program is supposed to substitute for the falloff in consumer demand, stop the avalanche of job losses and in the process regenerate consumer spending. The perception that this policy response was beginning to bear fruit has been the foundation of a recent flurry of statements emanating from the Federal Reserve, intimating that the recession was winding down, with recovery just around the corner. Both the Fed, Obama administration and Wall Street fully expected that the July retail sales figures would reflect a return to growth in consumer spending, juiced up by a taxpayer funding "cash for clunkers" gimmick aimed at kick-starting auto sales. When the official sales figures were released by the Commerce Department, jaws dropped right through the floor. Instead of the .7% rise that was expected, July's retail sales figures revealed a decline of .1%. However, the reality was much worse than even the posted decline, for the July figures were artificially inflated by a large increase in automobile related products due to "cash for clunkers." Without the engineered car driven increase in consumer purchases, the actual retail sales contraction was .6%. The ugly truth is that no matter how manipulated official economic statistics are, including the U3 unemployment number, the reality is that total consumer purchasing power, reflecting the number of hours worked multiplied by average wage, has declined to a level that makes it virtually impossible to recreate vigorous economic growth. Despite the happy talk from Washington, I think it would be surprising if the Obama administration does not ask Congress for a second massive stimulus package before the end of the year. Should a second stimulus package be proposed by President Obama, he may encounter stiff resistance from Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats over concerns about the exploding national debt. However, it is likely that the Obama administration will place a higher priority on going into the 2010 mid-term elections with the ability to claim they have reduced unemployment rather than positioning themselves as fiscally responsible. Higher deficits, however, create the danger of inflation and much higher interest rates. Escalating interest rates will serve as a brake on economic expansion, defeating the purpose of deficit funded stimulus programs. Now, in that situation, one can always resort to monetary policy, with the Federal Reserve reducing interest rates. However, in this unique economic disaster our planet is currently navigating its way through, the Fed, as with many central banks throughout the world, has already reduced its funds rate to close to zero. Could the Obama administration be running out of options? If fall retail sales continue to plummet and unemployment rises, things could get even more ugly for the problematic American economy. More on Global Financial Crisis
 
Steve Harvey Joins "Good Morning America" Top
Steve Harvey is joining ABC's "Good Morning America," where he will deliver "a series of reports on topics ranging from relationships to parenting over the next few months," according to a network press release. Harvey currently has a morning radio show, "The Steve Harvey Morning Show," which airs in 60 markets nationwide. His first report is scheduled to air this Wednesday, August 19. Harvey spent seven years starring on the WB's "The Steve Harvey Show" and is a #1 New York Times bestselling author. "He will bring his own unique perspective, style and humor to morning television while interacting with viewers around the country via ABCNEWS.com, Skype and live guests in-studio," ABC said in the announcement.
 
Gray Pride: Who Wears Gray Hair Best? (PHOTOS, POLL) Top
Hollywood tends not to embrace most signs of aging, but these celebs are wearing their gray with pride. Women too have shown us that salt-and-pepper hair can be sexy. Who does it work for, and whose best color isn't silver? PHOTOS: Get HuffPost Entertainment On Facebook and Twitter! More on Anderson Cooper
 
Jenny Sanford To Vogue: "I'd Like Somebody 5,000 Miles Away I Could E-Mail" (PHOTO) Top
South Carolina's first lady Jenny Sanford is profiled in Vogue 's September issue, where she offers a pretty intimate glimpse into her feelings about her husband Mark's infidelity. Vogue isn't a particularly surprising venue for her considering she garnered praise for her post-affair fashion ( see a slideshow here ). Excerpts from the interview and photo below. On her husband's affair with Maria Belen Chapur: "Over the course of both pastoral and marriage counseling, it became clear to me that he was just obsessed with going to see this woman. I have learned that these affairs are almost like an addiction to alcohol or pornography. They just can't break away from them." On her own desire to escape: "Everybody would like an escape sometimes. I'd like somebody 5,000 miles away I could E-mail. It's not exclusive to men, but I know that isn't realistic." On how she feels sorry for her husband and his mistress: What the world saw in that press conference is someone who is struggling. None of us are perfect. We are all trying to do the best we can. I also feel sorry for the other woman. I am sure she is a fine person. It can't be fun for her, though I do sometimes question her judgment. If she knew the newspaper had those E-mails back in December, why did she want him to come in June? But I can't go there too much. All I can do is pray for her because she made some poor choices. Mark made some poor choices. A lot of people were brought down by this, and I am sure that is not what they wanted." Jenny Sanford was photographed at the Sanford's Sullivan's Island beach house by Jonathan Becker for Vogue Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook !
 
David Sloan Wilson: Evolution and War: Basic and Advanced Top
John Horgan , whose article on evolution and war was the subject of my last blog, has written a blog in reply and informed me of a second article that he has written on the subject. Since I accused him of flunking Evolution 101, I shouldn't be surprised that he called me an "arrogant evolutionary reductionist". How ironic, that two thinkers on war should so easily lapse into the intellectual equivalent of saber rattling and war! I hereby apologize and lay down my saber in hope of fostering a more collaborative discussion. First I will try to achieve a consensus on some basic issues. If we can't agree on these, then we can't even leave square one. Then I will jump to an advanced level by showcasing the work of Peter Turchin, author of War and Peace and War among other books. My hope is that everyone who thinks about war and peace can begin to approach his level of sophistication, even if they don't agree with him in every respect. Leaving square one : Too often, discussions of war have implicitly or explicitly assumed the following formulae: (evolution/genes/innate/biology)=(war is inevitable/nothing can be done) (learning/culture)=(war is preventable/anything is possible) The point that I was trying to make in my last blog is that these formulae are profoundly wrong and unhelpful. Evolution is all about context sensitivity. All organisms are elaborately designed to change their phenotypes in response to environmental change, according to rules that evolve by prior evolution. Adaptive phenotypic plasticity turns genetic determinism on its head, as I discuss in a chapter of Evolution for Everyone titled "How I learned to stop worrying and love genetic determinism." If we were instructed by our genes to "do X under all circumstances", we would have little capacity for change. But if we're instructed by our genes to "do X under circumstance X', do Y under circumstance Y'..." and if we decide that Y is a desirable behavior, we need merely provide circumstance Y' and Y becomes easy. Knowledge about evolution becomes a powerful tool for environmental intervention. Moreover, learning and culture do not stand outside the orbit of evolution but must themselves be understood from an evolutionary perspective. Even B.F. Skinner, who most people associate with the "anything is possible" view of human nature, regarded operant conditioning as a product of genetic evolution and a process of evolution in its own right. The if-then rules provided by genetic evolution include the reinforcers that cause behaviors to be learned and transmitted in a more open-ended fashion. To summarize our progress so far, we can't leave square one on the subject of evolution and war unless we abandon these formulaic assumptions. Evolution is all about change and only by the strangest of secondary assumptions can it be interpreted as an incapacity for change. The interesting question is this: Have smart people already discovered all the answers without using the E-word, or would a sophisticated knowledge of genetic and cultural evolution lead to new answers about the causes and prevention of war? It's a complex world: In his reply to my previous blog, John chided me for implying that war can be prevented by finding the right environmental context, as easily as sunburn can be prevented by applying sunscreen. Here is the relevant passage: Wilson, of course, doesn't specify the environmental conditions under which war always occurs. That's because there are no such conditions. For example, war is often linked to population density, environmental degradation, resource scarcity, and sedentary cultures, but war does not always occur when all these conditions are met. Conversely, war may break out and persist when none of the usual risk factors are present. War is both over-determined and under-determined. That is what makes it such a frustrating and fascinating topic for scientific analysis--and why it makes fools of arrogant evolutionary reductionists like David Sloan Wilson. Gracious! I hope that I can get John to back down from his own fiery rhetoric. First, there is a big difference between no conditions and complex conditions. If there are truly no conditions that cause war, if it is purely random, then there is nothing left to discuss, regardless of whether we are evolutionists, another sort of scientist, or a postmodernist. If the conditions that cause war are complex, with multiple interacting factors (including chance), then outcomes cannot easily be predicted on the basis of single factors. In this case, it is everyone's job to figure out what is going on, in all its complexity, and it is an open question whether a sophisticated knowledge of evolution can contribute to understanding. The important point is that emphasizing complexity is no argument at all against the relevance of evolution. Evolutionists are fully aware that it's a complex world. In addition, single factors are sometimes so important that they can be straightforwardly identified and changed. In my aforementioned chapter, I discuss the work of Margo Wilson and Martin Daly, who demonstrate a strong relationship between violent conflict among men and early reproduction in women to life expectancy and income inequality in Chicago neighborhoods. If you want men to get along and women to delay reproduction, try providing a social environment that enables the average person to live into their seventies with a relatively equal sharing of resources. That remedy might not be as easy as applying sunscreen, but the results will be as reliable. I'll end this section with a word about postmodernism, which I mentioned pejoratively in my last blog, prompting HeevenSteven to ask for a clarification. In its extreme form, postmodernism treats science as equivalent to any other belief system without any special claim on what counts as knowledge. It is this position that royniles defines as "something from which the absence of leaves one profoundly enriched and liberated." I recommend the book Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism by philosopher Paul Boghossian for the highbrow version of royniles' definition. As Paul shows, nothing has happened in philosophy to challenge the truth of such statements as "there were mountains on earth before there were people." There is, however, a more moderate form of postmodernism worth keeping, which emphasizes the extreme complexity and context sensitivity of cultural systems and questions whether assertions of truth in any particular culture, including scientific culture, are in fact part of the culture's ideology. Insofar as postmodernism, relativism, and constructivism merely emphasize complexity and ideology masquerading as truth, they fit comfortably with scientific approaches that also emphasize complexity, including evolutionary theories of human belief systems, as described in my book Darwin's Cathedral and elsewhere. Jumping to the advanced level : Meet Peter Turchin . The son of a famous computer scientist and pioneer of the artificial life movement, Peter began his career as a biologist specializing in population dynamics, such as the boom and bust cycles of bark beetles. These cycles are influenced by multiple factors and are therefore complex and irregular. If you want to appreciate complexity in the biological world, read Peter's earlier work, which places an equal emphasis on mathematical modeling and the analysis of time series data. At some point Peter decided that he needed a new challenge and decided to approach human historical dynamics in the same way as nonhuman population dynamics, including the same emphasis on mathematical modeling and time series analysis of historical trends in the real world. He calls this approach Cliodynamics , from Clio, the muse of history, and dynamics, the study of temporally varying processes. Peter's most accessible book is War and Peace and War: The Life Cycles of Imperial Nations and his newest book, Secular Cycles , was just published by Princeton University Press. For a shorter introduction to Peter's work, I recommend the article titled "War and the Evolution of Social Complexity: A Multi-level Selection Approach" available on the Cliodynamics website . It is beyond the scope of this blog to discuss Peter's work in detail; better to read it yourself. The point I want to emphasize here is that Peter is operating at a level of sophistication concerning evolution and complexity that makes the formulaic discussions outlined above seem silly by comparison. That doesn't make Peter's work incomprehensible; he is perfectly able to write for a general audience in addition to his more technical work. It's just that he is making use of contemporary genetic and cultural evolutionary theory. He might not have everything right, but getting it right will require operating at the same level. I hope that everyone interested in evolution and war can permanently leave square one and gravitate to the level represented by Peter's work. As I concluded my last blog, we have a lot of work to do.
 
PETA's New "Save The Whales" Billboard Takes Aim At Fat Women Top
PETA's new billboard campaign in Florida is raising eyebrows and ire among women and health groups. A drawing on billboards in Jacksonville depicts an obese woman with the phrase, "Save The Whales, Lose The Blubber: Go Vegetarian." In a press release, PETA stated: A new PETA billboard campaign that was just launched in Jacksonville reminds people who are struggling to lose weight -- and who want to have enough energy to chase a beach ball -- that going vegetarian can be an effective way to shed those extra pounds that keep them from looking good in a bikini. [....] Anyone wishing to achieve a hot "beach bod" is reminded that studies show that vegetarians are, on average, about 10 to 20 pounds lighter than meat-eaters. [...] "Trying to hide your thunder thighs and balloon belly is no day at the beach," says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. "PETA has a free 'Vegetarian Starter Kit' for people who want to lose pounds while eating as much as they like. Jessica at Feministing blasts the billboard as "fat-shaming" and that "PETA owes the residents of Jacksonville a serious apology." Holly at Deceiver states, "This is exactly what you would expect [from PETA] -- no empathy for humans whatsoever, just a lot of B.S. about how vegetarianism will make fat people just a little bit less of a blight on humanity." PETA is known for its attention-grabbing tactics involving scantily clad-women, like this veggie dog eat-in on Capitol Hill that involved playboy playmates wearing only lettuce bikinis . When asked to comment on the charges that the ad is sexist and mocking of overweight people, Ashley Byrne, a senior campaigner for PETA stated, "Our goal is help overweight Jacksonville residents - the best way to do that is to go vegetarian. We're not trying to insult anyone. [....] Vegetarians look and feel better than meat eaters. This is a life-saving message." When asked specifically if the billboard shames overweight people, Byrne stated, "If the billboard is shocking, hopefully it will gets people's attention, and help them improve quality of life for themselves and their families.... it's designed to help people." This latest billboard reminded me of a recent Onion News Network send up of PETA's sexist tactics. Advocacy Group Decries PETA's Inhumane Treatment Of Women Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter! More on PETA
 
Alex Matthews: Zimbabwe Heading Towards a Rwandan Genocide Top
Once upon a time there was an African country that after several years of instability seemed to be moving shakily towards reform and democracy. Its aging despotic president had signed a power-sharing deal with the opposition that created a unity government that would precipitate a new constitution and elections. Sounds rather like Zimbabwe, doesn't it? But I was actually describing Rwanda in early 1994 -- only months before a genocide that would claim almost a million lives. While the Arusha Accords were being haphazardly implemented (but more often than not being ignored), fanatics in the countryside were setting up militia training bases. Arms and military advisers were being flown in to train and equip these ragtag groupings. President Habyarimana 's assassination in April 1994 was the catalyst for a hundred days of massacres, rape and torture. Zimbabwe is in an eerily similar situation to the one that Rwanda was experiencing before its genocide. After a decade of brutality and economic devastation, it is tempting to hope that Zanu PF's "partnership" with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shows that Zimbabwe is irreversibly on the road to recovery. Sadly, however, what we see in Zimbabwe is nothing but a false dawn: a Potemkin peace designed to lure us into the same indifferent complacency with which the world viewed Rwanda in 1994. The violent repression that has characterised Zanu PF's rule continues, flouting the provisions of the Global Political Agreement (GPA), the power-sharing agreement signed with the opposition in September. Zanu PF considers the unity deal after its defeat at the March 29 polls last year as a mere speed bump in its path of continued authoritarian rule -- a speed bump which creates the illusion that it is prepared to accept reform and genuine democracy. Don't be fooled. Activists , lawyers and MDC supporters continue to be unlawfully harassed and detained . Senior opposition leaders face death threats . Opposition members of parliament are being targeted with ridiculous criminal charges by a brazenly partisan police and judiciary. Five have already been convicted (MPs have to resign if they serve a jail term longer than six months). The Zanu PF militias that unleashed a wave of brutality on suspected MDC supporters as punishment for the 2008 election result have been accused by teachers of setting up "terror bases" at schools. Even more frightening (and chillingly reminiscent of the prelude to Rwanda's genocide when French weapons were despatched en-masse to Kigali) is the build-up of weapons in Zimbabwe . Last month the International Peace Information Service (IPIS) revealed that in April 2008, Chinese arms (including several million rounds of ammunition as well as RPC7 rockets and mortars) destined for Zimbabwe reached Luanda, Angola. It has been confirmed that the arms have subsequently reached Harare. Later, in August, an additional 53 tons of ammunition were flown to Harare from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in August 2008. There's more. David Maynier, the Democratic Alliance's defence spokesperson, has revealed that South Africa is seeking authorization from its National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) to export ammunition to its neighbor. Maynier has been subsequently vilified by the ANC ruling party which seems more obsessed by how the opposition MP found out about the application than about what the arms will be used for should they be authorized for export. President Mugabe has unleashed his military on innocent civilians before -- in 1982 he used North Korean-trained troops to torture and massacre thousands in Matabeleland for their alleged support for Zapu, a rival anti-colonialist movement that he eventually forced to merge with his own party. His army's abysmal rights record continues, with Human Rights Watch recently exposing the army's invasion of the Marange diamond fields in November 2008, where it has subsequently subjected locals to forced labor, torture and murder. According to two South African MPs, Wilmot James and Kenneth Mubu, who returned earlier this month from Zimbabwe on a fact-finding mission , "There are reports from credible sources of increasing paramilitary activity in the countryside..." They explained, "Under his [Mugabe's] personal control he has a paramilitary machine consisting of soldiers, thugs, the so-called war veterans and ZANU political commissars. There are the hit squads. The police also collaborate..." They also have reason to believe that in addition to the arms exports uncovered by IPIS, "Mugabe is talking to Venezuela, Cuba and Korea to fund a war-chest in preparation for the referendum and election following on the implementation of the GPA." While Rwanda's genocide was powered by ethnic hatred, this was merely a pretext: the tragedy was deliberately orchestrated by a shadowy ruling clique which knew its power was in jeopardy, and which refused to sacrifice it at all cost. So while ethnic tensions in Zimbabwe are nowhere near the levels of those in Rwanda in 1994, a similar intensity of hatred exists, as does the same desperate willingness for its rulers to do whatever it takes to remain in power. The arms flooding in and the paramilitary training in the countryside are deliberate preparations for war -- a war to be inflicted by homegrown postcolonial imperialists on an innocent and undeserving citizenry so that Zanu PF's rapacious supremacy can continue. We cannot ignore the warning signs. We know what happened in Rwanda in 1994. The world looked away while almost a million people were slaughtered. Will we let this happen in Zimbabwe? More on Zimbabwe
 
Paula Gordon: Deadly Wrong Top
Death, dying and an abrupt step back from death's door have dominated our summer. Lessons to date: you'd better have fabulous insurance and a lot of it, know the difference between "gravely" and "mortally" ill, and have tenacious advocates looking out for your best interests, on whichever side of The Great Divide those interests may lie. All this would have been sufficient to radically personalize "health care" and America's faux-system for me. Then I had to factor in the ubiquitous craziness generated by a fear-mongering, deluded few, acting against their own best interests and on behalf of Big Insurance's obscene mega-profits, devil take the hindmost. Add a dash of my personal furies exacerbated by Atlanta's ever-filthy air keeping me captive indoors month after month while driving up all kinds of directly correlated but uncaptured and dire health-related costs. What links all three? Ill-gotten gains and a savage disregard for the health and well-being of all but the most privileged among us. Personal dramas aside, I cannot leave to chance the urgent need for each and all of us to stand up and be counted. To push back against out-of-control Big Status Quo -- abetted by crony capitalists and corporate philistines who have rolled over to this outrage by blindly yielding to the soaring costs eating our economy alive and actively causing death to those who simply can't pony up the ever-bigger buck. Never has there been a better time to challenge the tortured and degenerate Calvinism that lets the powers that be determine that somehow only a wealthy few are worthy of life's blessings. These collective interests have now clearly demonstrated the depths and breadth of their ignominy. They will do anything -- anything -- to stop reform of our appalling health insurance industry and their richly-rewarded pals. The enormity of what today's slick and, yes, evil spirits are intent on pulling off -- defying the clear will of the American people to reign in the abuses to our health in the name of their profits -- is beyond breath-taking. We really are seeing the work of the usual suspects. They run this country whenever we let them. They're the all-too well-known, self-aggrandizing Newts and Palinistas. The scum of TV, cable and Radioland. And as usual, they're aided and abetted by the shameless likes of incendiaries including Grassfire.org, ResistNet and other paranoid extremists. And never give a pass to the GOFERs -- Good Old Fashioned Establishment Republicans (with due apologies to authentic gophers). Their self-serving ideas have wormed their way into uncritical and poorly educated minds with the intention of turning us against each other -- eating away at the core of our democracy -- while profiteers and fundamentalists of all stripes attack the best interests of the vast majority. Our long cultural legacy bears a disturbing resemblance to the current and unacceptable condition in the extensive industry allegedly responsible for our health. A difference between today and once upon a time is that the scary and loud extremists are no longer relegated to the margins of society. Now, they've captured significant megaphones, which makes them appear to have credibility. It is "standing" that they have not earned, do not deserve, and for which they must be held accountable. They own, outright, entire systems of mass distribution, including but not limited to the FoxFauxNews phenomenon. While these reactionaries seem always to have been utterly shameless, now they have intimidated the dainty and faint-of-heart that pass themselves off as our main stream media. No surprise, the latter are owned by giant corporations also vested in the outrageous status quo and generating outsized revenues REGARDLESS of the consequences. Craziness gets covered as news, filth flung defending their masters' profits gets respectfully reported as if it were a legitimate perspective. At least Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert remind me to laugh at wicked ways and spur me on to act. The wrong-wing influence in the public arena is no abstraction to me. Every single day, relentlessly, we are bombarded with the thought-grenades these parasites drop. We get rained on by people and organizations intent on the rabid exploitation of our weakest citizens, barraged by the diatribes, drenched with the lies that the reactionaries spew. Make no mistake. These are demagogues and fear-mongers who would give cockroaches a bad name. The result? My e-inbox, I regret to report, smokes. And the stuff coming in makes killer-tobacco look mild, radio-active fall-out a balm. Then we see this same stuff popping up in the garbage dished out by shady characters getting rich off this drek. We receive the end-poison on the airwaves that are allegedly public, witness the blogosphere tainted with anti-truths, distortions and bald-faced lies, peppered with nuttiness like "Life and Government Without Taxes!" These instruments of kleptocracy have a very long track record of running roughshod over our common wealth. They remain fiercely determined to retain or recapture the reigns of power that for decades have allowed them aggressively to undermine our health, restrict our options and the will to act, while cheerfully enriching themselves. And as practically every person in America can testify -- what gets dished up to us is the WORST health care extortion can buy. The Bigger the Lie the better. These propagandists care not a whit that the vast majority of the rest of us are suffering the results of what Robert Kuttner aptly described as Everything For Sale and more recently Thomas Frank diligently outed in his reportage of the net result of their minions in The Wrecking Crew. My horror grows ever greater as I follow the dark places that current, extraordinarily well-funded business interests are merrily plumbing, intent on again having their way with us. While rape, pillage and plunder -- the effects of the current industrial-model, profit-based health administration not-system -- are far from new, they do not improve with age. What we are witnessing is what they have done for decades As a matter of well-documented fact, the United States has a long and dishonorable history of facile and masterful exploitation of our most vulnerable individuals. The susceptible get stirred up, then cuddle up to their worst fears, grow and cherish their fullblown paranoia. Yes, the rampant mania we're all witnessing under the cover of August "dog-days" does appear to me to be a misanthropic Hobbesian Leviathan on steroids and the farthest side of sanity. But that is hardly the beginning or the end of it. Be ready. We do well to remember that America has had more than our fair share of lunacy hovering around the endeavors of our better angels. If you can find a history textbook not distorted, tainted and/or sanitized by the Texas Board of Education and other hard-rightists, you'll find the stories of legions of the disaffected and heavy-hearted arriving here from our first moments on. Dissidents, malcontents, criminals (remember I live in Georgia,) religious zealots, latter-born sons powerless in the face of primogenitor and just plain folks desperate enough to try to start all over. European diseases had emptied much of the continent of earlier peoples; slavery dulled the entire culture to exploitation; we became expert at xenophobia; flourished by taking what we wanted from those who could not defend themselves -- most workers, all women, too many children -- until the Labor and Progressive movements, one mighty persuasive Depression and a long climb out of its depths and into world war effected changes that opened the way for a genuine middle class. Alas, reactionaries know how potent demonizing The Other is so they created one. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Dulles brothers delivered on the fear by the bucket-full and an exhausted, distracted post-war America bought it. Whatever your opinion of the Cold War, one thing is indisputable -- it was astronomically profitable to those Eisenhower clearly warned us about. It took a while for the reactionaries' waterboy from Wisconsin and his terror tactics to be shamed, but even when McCarthy was held modestly accountable, the Senate vote to censure him was opposed by 22 -- TWENTY-TWO -- Senators, Republicans each and all. It is now abundantly well documented how this first "Joe" is the spiritual wet nurse to a certain confused plumber who shares the name, and a snarly host of others including the sycophant Joe who shills for America's second-favorite stimulant on weekday mornings (along with our most-favored drug: adrenalin.) Not coincidentally, numbers for all of them grow along with profits for the entire anti-health industry that continue to buy political favors, indifferent to party labels. Heavily funded "astroturf" groups add to the noise, confusion, disinformation and distortions. This dark, stark and,yes, sinister 300 years of baggage rebounds every time those of us vested by our Founders with sovereignty let down our guard. We woke up long enough to get Obama to the White House, but that was the beginning, not the end. In spite of the painful current reality foisted on us by out-of-control pseudo-free-marketeers, we're still in the deadly grip of profit-über alles. Shame on us. It's hardly news that a well-oiled machine is intensely focused on derailing long overdue reforms to our deeply flawed delivery system, a bloated monstrosity that administers over-priced, under-performing services. OF COURSE the "town halls" we are seeing covered by media outlets as if they were genuine news events are fake, the false-fears shouted manufactured. However, the deluded individuals who've swallowed whole the lies are real enough. The same arrogance and abuse that is now loosed into the public policy sphere is now countenanced in even the most ordinary day-to-day exchanges. The Republicans' decades-long and shocking destruction of a civil and civic society leaves us with challenges at every turn. Democrats' complicity is one of those challenges. Challenges, yes. Intractable, no. Hard? You bet. Worth the effort? Absolutely. To paraphrase the exemplary Bo Lozoff, if we're going to make the drastic changes that decency and democracy require, it will take practice. So in addition to being a "regular" in my Senators' and Representative's in-boxes, voice-mail and offices, I'm taking my own advice to heart in even the little stuff. Example one: Yesterday afternoon, I returned to my office to a curt, booming and unfamiliar voice, a message from "Dr. Somebody Something". He demanded that I call back. Immediately. Now we gets lots of calls for companies with names similar to ours, so the mistake was no surprise, but his tone was. Hey, I'm nice. I called back to tell him he'd reached the wrong number. (OK, the devil made me do what came next.) When he answered, I asked for him by name, dropping the "Dr." part. He shot back 'DR. Somebody!' Then he continued, "Who are you? Who are you with?? And what took you so long to return my call???" As politely as I could manage, I repeated, "I believe you have called the wrong number, sir ... who are YOU and who are YOU with?" Now he shouted at me, "I AM DR. SOMEBODY and I am CEO of SOMEBODY, INC!" I graciously matched him rank-for-rank. I said, again, that I was extending to him a courtesy in returning his erroneous call, and even managed to laugh at the absurdity of it all as he hurtled the best insult he could manage -- he was taking me off his list! -- and slammed down his phone. I did not "win". But I did feel I'd make my mark for civility. 'Sides. He WAS a "doctor". This is not how people in a civil -- as in "civilized" and "civilization" -- society govern themselves. It's also not how decent human beings should talk to each other. This IS how the schoolyard bully gets away with abuse. This is how the Aetnas and erroneous collection agencies and the Rush--Gingrichs prevail. They corrode the private square as surely as they are doing in the public one, advancing the predation of their masters. We must resist the provocations from Big Insurance and small-time hustlers (including now the arriviste Palin ... trust me, it's the money). We must confront and defeat them, and there's no better or more necessary place than our failed health delivery system. In the meantime, raw wounds will take healing. It's past time to take back to conversation, on every level, starting with making sure we GET a major overhaul of our health delivery would-be system. And it can happen. That requires immediate attention from us each and all, everyday people choosing to turning down the volume, telling each other the truth, calling people out when the occasions arise, pointing out errors or, as now, lies. Example number two from my own life. My cousins and I cover a broad political spectrum and several generations. That insures, shall we say, some lively exchanges. AND, across our differences, we quite simply love each other. Over the years, we've actually built some trust. And I dare say, we've learned from each other. A couple days ago, one cousin forwarded a scorching piece from a garbage-monger intent on denying us all the right to well-being and reform of today's sorry excuse for a system addressing pressing economics and very real heath needs -- getting between me and wellness. I give my cousin credit. His subject line was "????" Another cousin, generally slow to take political bait, is deeply knowledgeable about the entire medical system, from the inside, and she took a very real chance. I could almost hear her inhaling as she took the time to carefully examine the lies and misrepresentions, then offer reasoned, fact-based views in their place. She carefully demonstrated how and where the misrepresentations and distortions -- and lies -- are costing us. She subject line? "I don't want to start an argument, but..." and she gave us all a chance to learn. Here are excerpts. The page numbers refer to pages of A DRAFT version of the partial reform of our pseudo-system, followed by Republican former Florida Governor "Bob" Martinez's selective perversion of reality. Then my cousin's reality check: Page 280: (Martinez) Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions. This is already the case with all medicare and private insurance patients now.  It protects patients from being kicked out of the hospital because the insurance company or medicare has decreed the number of days for their diagnosis have passed. Page 298: (Martinez) Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.   Same as above.  If the doctor is just tired of you or is not making enough money on you he can decide you are ready for discharge.  This prevents that. This is an excellent idea and worth the whole bill being passed. Page 317: (Martinez) Doctors: you are now prohibited from owning and investing in health care companies! Wow.  About time.  I love it. Doctors really milk the system with this one.  I have seen it to many times.  Do you want to go to a hospital or nursing home the doctor actually owns?  I don't. Page 318: (Martinez) Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.  This is now called "certificate of need".  It very effectively keeps hospitals from over building.  There is absolutely no need for a hospital to spend millions of dollars adding beds that are not needed.  You and I would pay for that when we go to the hospital and they have big  unnecessary building costs.  Again I like this one and always have.  Hospitals always want the biggest most expensive equipment even if it is already available in the
 
Rachel Sklar: The Mad Men (and Women!) of Morning Joe Top
You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that Mad Men debuted its third season tonight. For the past month fans have been inundated with Mad Men Twitter avatars , Mad Men window-dressings , and Mad Men - themed websites . All that smoke-filled, sexed-up, whiskey-splashed glamour could make an asthmatic teetotaler long for the heady days of the early '60s -- who knew advertising could be so compelling? We know who: the folks at Morning Joe , currently representing the most harmonious blend of advertising and editorial on the airwaves . Don Draper himself couldn't have topped it (and he might even have switched out his whiskey for a Venti Frappucino). From there, the comparisons suddenly seemed obvious. So, in the tradition of merging the media beat with whatever pop culture sensation has captured the Zeitgeist ( Harry Potter and the Media Muggles , anyone?), I and my colleagues at Mediaite thought it would be fun to cast the Mad Morning Men (and Women) of Morning Joe . Hey, what else are you gonna do until next Sunday at 10? Don Draper - Joe Scarborough Just as Don Draper's voice can dominate a hushed conference room filled with clients, so too does Joe's voice dominate the show that bears his name, though it's decidedly not hushed. Scarborough, a former Congressman, is certainly no stranger to selling, nor does he lack for Draper-esque confidence. We've noticed he's traded in his zipper sweatshirts for dark suits of late, but that's not all it is -- of any character on Morning Joe , he's the one we can most easily see sitting in a darkened bar with a glass of something amber at his side. Besides, couldn't his book on the GOP just as easily have been called Meditations on an Emergency? Joan Holloway - Mika Brzezinski And what is Don Draper without a beautiful woman nearby? Mika puts the "Joe" in "Joanie," who keeps things moving at Sterling Cooper with brisk (and bodacious) efficiency. Similarly Mika keeps the trains running on Morning Joe , as well as being the resident sex symbol (and she's got the Peggy Noonan-shocking shoes to prove it ). No word on what Mika's college roommate might think. Pete Campbell - Willie Geist Oh, we're on to you, Willie Geist. You with your affable smile and quickness to joke -- we've watched your rise through the ranks at MSNBC, always with an eye on the top spot. Like a junior ad executive doing what's necessary to bring in that Clearasil account, you scored that plum 5:30 anchor spot -- just another feather in your cap while you bide your time. Somewhere under your bed, we know there's a box of photographs that will finish Joe Scarborough once and for all. You don't fool us. Peggy Olsen - Erin Burnett There she is, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, chipper but professional, girlish but savvy with an eye on the prize. Peggy Olsen? Erin Burnett? Exactly. Both have risen meteorically in their respective workplaces, making the heads of more seasoned types whip around, but they don't mind the gawking (or whispering), they'll just work a little harder like they always do. How else can you get ahead in a man's world? For more, including Roger Sterling, Betty Draper , that guitar-playing priest — and Pat Buchanan ! — continue reading here . More on Morning Joe
 
Piers Fawkes: Urban Rustic: Neighborhood Grocery, Local Food Top
Urban Rustic Locavore grocery shopping has come to Williamsburg with Urban Rustic, a food enthusiast's paradise, stocked only with products sourced from farmers, butchers, cheese makers and other suppliers within a 100-mile radius. Electricity comes from wind power and handwritten tags give info on the origin of each item, which the owners meticulously source for specific reasons (and can tell you exactly why if you ask). Photos on the wall pay homage to the felled trees that were sacrificed to make the earthy floors (the owners were even part of the lumbering process). There's a juice and- coffee bar in the back with a special brunch menu on weekends. Have your order delivered or get your goods to go and have a picnic in the nearby community garden at McCarren Park. www.urbanrusticnyc.com - 236 N 12th St, Brooklyn, NY Urban Rustic is featured in our latest book, PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn This article originally appeared in PSFK.com More on Local Food
 
Piers Fawkes: Rubulad: A Labyrinth Of Nightlife Top
Rubulad Rubulad is an off-kilter urban fun-house in the middle of Bed-Stuy, where art drips off every wall and the party never stops. The three story maze-like space consistently hosts the weirdest, wildest and most packed theme parties in the city, and its stage has been graced by some of the most entertaining, yet oddest musical talent in town. Rubulad, though, is more than just a venue; it is an intricately, decorated fantasy land circus for all the senses. Parties occur on a semi-regular basis (usually bi-monthly) and are typically only announced the day before - sign up for the NonsenseNYC newsletter to be the first to hear. www.nonsensenyc.com Rubulad is featured in our latest book, PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn This article originally appeared in PSFK.com
 
Katya Wachtel: HuffPost Review: Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi Top
As a journalist in Afghanistan, or Pakistan... Or Iraq. Or any other war-ravaged land where you don't speak the language, let alone the dialect of the region in which you're expected to unearth and unravel a never-before-told story, there is only one way to get that story: you hire a fixer. A fixer: translator, shepherd, travel agent, private investigator, Rolodex and secretary, rolled into one for the journalist in a foreign land. To describe these ghostlike figures as indispensable is barely sufficient, since without them, the bylines of many celebrated foreign correspondents and the critical stories they propel back to the West, may cease to exist. In 2005 and 2006, one of these correspondents, an American named Christian Parenti, filed several reports from Afghanistan for the The Nation . He used a fixer called Ajmal Naqshbandi, a 24-year old cherub-faced Pashtun from Kabul. Parenti left Afghanistan at the end of 2006, and Naqshbandi moved on to another project, this time with veteran Italian radioman, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, sent to cover the war for La Repubblica . En route to meet with Taliban commanders for an interview in March of 2007, the team is ambushed and kidnapped by a militant group led by Mullah Dadullah - a close aide of Mullah Omar, who is known to boast about his orchestration of various Shia massacres and was once described as "the backbone of the Taliban." Although Italy secured Mastrogiacomo's release, Naqshbandi, in a move that sparked outrage across Afghanistan, was beheaded by his captors a few weeks later. Ian Olds' Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi is the story of one of the thousands of silhouettes who roam war-zones every day so that we, thousands of miles away, can grasp what is happening on the front-line of wars that affect life on this continent too. The first time we come face to face with the fixer, he standing at the base of a sandy mountainside in Kandahar, a southern province home to the second largest city in Afghanistan. Parenti is there too, behind the camera. He swings the machine around erratically, before the picture suddenly unblurs and a man comes into focus -- his head conspiratorially wrapped in black scarves to reveal only the top third of a wrinkled, umber face. The man dawdles in the sand as he shifts the weight of the rocket launcher hanging from his shoulder, from one side to the other. Then Parenti pans left, and lands on two more Taliban soldiers, their faces also concealed, Kalishnikovs dangling in their hands. This is Naqshbandi's life; ferrying one enemy to another on a daily basis, in abandoned buildings and isolated swatches of desert in locations hat regularly make headlines as the latest dire front for NATO and American forces. On this occasion, Naqshbandi has managed to arrange a meeting for Parenti with active Taliban fighters. The gun-toting interviewees confirm that Pakistan has been supporting the Afghani insurgency after a series of questions from Parenti, whose voice is filtered then echoed in the local dialect by Naqshbandi. With his plump cheeks and a smile that is at once mischievous and ingenuous, Olds' protagonist is instantly beguiling. Perhaps because we know he is destined, unfairly, for such a horrific end, we are quick to take his side. But Naqshbandi is an enigma, at first innocent and sweet, with each frame his motives are less obivious. In one sequence, Naqshbandi talks with a friend about his work while Parenti and Olds sit obliviously in the back of the car, neither speaks the local language. His friend asks if the reporters will take photos in the village. "If I feel like it I'll let them," Naqshbandi says, "Or I'll just tell them its too dangerous -- 'hide your camera they'll kill us!' Ultimately for Naqshabandi, Parenti is a paycheck -- and a meager one at that, complaining that The Nation pays nothings compared to the major papers and broadcasters. "Money matters," he tells his friend. "Because these people, don't have friendship. They don't know anything about it. They know you while you're working with them, but after that they don't even recognize you. These people are all the same; European, American, from London, from anywhere." In Fixer , the audience is transplanted back and forth from Parenti and Naqshbandi's experience in 2006 -- at times nerve-racking but generally successful from a journalistic point of view -- to grainy Taliban footage of their hostages and other military victories. The Taliban footage is one of the most spectacular elements the film, raw and unnerving, it offers a glimpse into the other side; an eerie glimpse, but an important one. One video shows the gruesome decapitation of Naqshbandi and Mastrogiacomo's driver, censored to the point that we avoid seeing his head being sawn off, but every other part of the victims body, and his killer's working arms, are visible as the Taliban's sentence is carried out. Old's own work behind the camera is thoughtful and beautiful, certainly intensified by an elegiac soundtrack designed by Jim Dawson, who worked with the director on his critically acclaimed documentary Occupation: Dreamland , which followed a deployment of American soldiers in Falluja. When Old languidly pans across boundless, arid landscape, it seems amazing that it is this land -- a deserted expanse of rock and dust -- that torments a military machine backed by billions of dollars and the most sophisticated defense technology in the world. Perhaps the most tragic layer of Fixer , is the hopeless chaos in which Afghanistan is drowned; a growing insurgency; a flaccid government; a people bereft of trust in its 'elected' leaders and repulsed but scared to death of gun-wielding insurgents and regional warlords. And this that was in 2006; five years later, the country is mired in a bloody battle exacerbated by a second front in Northern Pakistan. But this is life in Afghanistan; it has been so for decades. And one of the most amusing moments in Fixer , happens immediatel after the Kandahar meeting when Parenti asks Naqshbandi if he'll tell his fiance about their day's work. "No, no not at all" he exclaims, "She will kill me." The angry girlfriend -- not the militants -- the real danger, Parenti jokes. Last year, James Nachtwey -- arguably the modern-day god(father) of war photography -- was bestowed the coveted President's Award at the Overseas Press Club for the fifth time. He dedicated his prize to the Naqshbandis: "We all know the value of colleagues who often go unsung -- the fixers and translators and drivers who take such great personal risks... to make what we do possible. Whatever abilities we might have, we absolutely need the assistance of people who know the language and the culture and how to navigate hostile terrain. I don't know how many times I've only been as good as my driver. They love their countries. They truly value journalism. When we leave, they stay." Indeed, for Naqshbandi, Nachtwey's words are especially and tragically gemane. When we leave, they stay. Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi premiers tonight at 9 pm on HBO. More on Afghanistan
 
Bil Browning: Pandora's Box: The National Equality March Top
I've made my concerns about the National Equality March known and Cleve Jones responded with his reasons why it should go forward. After spending a week at Netroots Nation talking to Kip Williams, the Director of the march's organizing campaign, Equality Across America (EAA), I'm reminded of the Greek myth of Pandora's box. For those who don't know the myth, Pandora was created at Zeus's instruction after Prometheus stole the gift of fire. She was gifted by other dieties with talents like beauty, persuasion, curiosity, and music - hence her name which means "All Gifted." Zeus gave Pandora a box full of all of mankind's evils but didn't tell her what was inside; instead he just told her not to open it. Compelled by curiosity, Pandora opened the box and all its contents flew into the world. The last item in the box was Hope. Pandora slammed the lid shut once she realized what she'd done and trapped Hope inside. Scholars have spent centuries arguing over the basic crux this presents: Is the box a prison for Hope (trapping it away from mankind) or a pantry (saving it for use when needed)? The National Equality March and EAA also present the same dilemma. I choose to believe Hope's retention is meant to be comforting and not a bane to our existence. In that spirit, I've decided to whole-heartedly endorse Equality Across America and the National Equality March. The box is open and some unpleasant concerns have flown out recently - and not just around this march. A History of Oppression Continues The LGBT community is used to being downtrodden and dismissed. Prejudice, animosity, and apartheid flew out of Pandora's Box long ago. Our community's dealings with these evils isn't anything new; it's also been a part of human civilization for centuries. We still fight to overcome these nightmares and legitimately prove that Americans have properly put aside our differences in favor of our common equality. Our right to marry was stripped from us at the ballot box in California after the state supreme court had ruled in our favor. Maine is fighting to keep that same right - even though the state's legislature and governor passed and signed this into law. The far right has long complained that we'd only won the right to marriage via the courts, but once they realized that public opinion had shifted and we can now claim our rightful place in society through the legislative process, once again they're trying to overturn those rights. Don't be fooled, this isn't about which route we take to our natural liberties. This is about forcing their beliefs on a group of people that they despise and disdain. This has more to do with Pandora's "gifts" of intolerance, racism, sexism, antipathy and contemptuousness. Logistics Pulling together an event of this magnitude is a logistical nightmare. With only a couple of months left to firm everything up, we're going to have to roll up our sleeves and get to work. Not only do we need to work out the ins-and-outs of what to do with youth who show up without housing plans, transportation issues, speakers who will motivate the attendees, cooperation issues with Gay, Inc., and funding, but there's all the small details and massive egos that will need to be massaged and managed. As our community's leaders have jockeyed for position to be the top dog , we've undercut the very people we're supposed to be supporting and empowering. This isn't limited to those who work for Gay, Inc. You can see it in communities across the nation. Look to your own state's various LGBT organizations and their interactions with each other and the body politic. As an oppressed group, we take it out on each other. Infighting, hostility and distrust have become common weapons that we use on each other with deft precision. We don't need the right wing to do the damage; we often inflict it on each other. Even in my own post, I got sidetracked by my concerns and worries instead of taking the step backwards to look at the big picture. We don't have the luxury of slapping something together half heartedly. We need to use the same precision you use to cut a diamond. Our lives, our families and our civil rights are just as valuable and shouldn't be handled like offal. Owning the Box It's clear now that this is our strongest and best opportunity to make a communal statement that will resonate. Going to Washington does not take away or diminish other efforts. Consider the IMAX experience versus the Netflix version. The impact of what you see on widescreen can never be entirely duplicated at home. The reach of the march extends far beyond the individual in-your-face. It is a show of solidarity and force, a statement that is in proportion in its volume to the need for such a statement. The communal voice has been silent since the loss in California. That voice was heard in the wake of Prop 8, but not since. It's time for that voice. While the idea may have been the province of only a few people in its inception, it is now, in its full discussion, owned by many. The geographic distinctions of time and space, first chipped away at by smoke signals, and telegraph and telephone and radio and TV, are now entirely extinguished by the handheld and instantaneous presence of everyone in view of everyone else. We should not underestimate the power of sentiment generated when people gather to make communal that which can be done privately. People can pray in private but benefit from spiritual asembly. People can do yoga in private but do it better as a class. People can sing in the shower or as part of a choir. There is an amplification and timbre to the communal voice that generates its own music. Hope Is Not Imprisoned I don't envy Kip's position. His job is monumental and he'll need every bit of support possible to pull this off. We can't do this on a wing and a prayer. We need to open the box back up and pull out Hope . Gay, Inc. is not the enemy of the grassroots movement. The young new activists and online media gurus are not diametrically opposed to established lobbying efforts and infrastructure. We have to find a way to bring all of our best activists, strategists and lobbyists together in a way that allows them to work in conjunction while checking our egos at the door. I'm putting my own reservations aside in favor of Pandora's last and best gift to humanity. None of us can open this box on our own. This time to pry the lid open, it's going to take all of the muscle and determination of our community. After all, we too are "All Gifted." It's time to take Hope out of the box and use it. (Crossposted from my home blog, Bilerico Project . Come visit me there to see why both the Washington Post and the Advocate named us one of the top 10 LGBT political blogs in the nation.)
 
Piers Fawkes: Head To Hoof: A Brooklyn Carnivore Movement Top
Head to Hoof Part of the artisanal food renaissance is having a true understanding of where food comes from, how it's raised and ultimately how it ends up on a dinner plate. The"head to hoof" carnivore movement is Brooklyn butcher Tom Mylan's contribution to the cause. You can find him holding court at Brooklyn Kitchen on Monday nights, teaching sold-out classes in Pig Butchering to rapt students who leave with a hefty portion of fresh-carved meat and an education in animal anatomy. Head to hoof butchering emphasizes having a genuine respect for the animal's life, encouraging the use of all parts of the animal for food. Mylan's Williamsburg butcher shop Marlow & Daughters serves restaurants who align with the cause as well, including Marlow & Sons, Diner and Bonita. www.marlowanddaughters.com - 95 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY Head To Hoof is featured in our latest book, PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn This article originally appeared in PSFK.com
 
John Kenagy: Solving the Healthcare Reform Puzzle Top
Healthcare reform in America is possible. In fact, four eminent physician leaders wrote an intriguing editorial in The New York Times on Aug. 12 offering the opinion that, in places, it has already been done. Authors Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick, Elliot Fisher and Mark McClellan - who represent a broad spectrum of physician leadership - note how the healthcare reform debate has funneled into the discussion of only two options: raising taxes or rationing care. Neither fly very well in politics. They are almost always dead ducks. But then the editorialists raise an option that really does fly and which readers of my Huffington Post columns know I've repeated over and over again: "Change the way care is delivered so that it is both less expensive and more effective." To counter the widespread skepticism about whether this option is possible, the editorialists make an intriguing argument - it's not only possible, it's already been done! As evidence they list the multitude of examples around America and the world in which more care is available at lower cost - big name places like Mayo and the Cleveland Clinic, but more importantly, from many other "towns big and small, urban and rural, North and South, East and West." Here's their list: Asheville, N.C.; Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Everett, Wash.; La Crosse, Wis.; Portland, Me.; Richmond, Va.; Sacramento, Cal.; Sayre, Pa.; Temple, Tex.; and Tallahassee, Fla. There's not a "magic kingdom" medical center anywhere on this list. That's just America! Sure enough, the evidence is there. But the evidence only makes one piece of the healthcare reform puzzle. This puzzle has three parts. 1. Everyone - President Obama, both parties in Congress, healthcare managers, doctors and nurses, and, of course, patients - wants more care at lower cost. Surprise! We have some unanimity in this fractious, bitter debate. We can agree on something! 2. And we can do it! The data shows that more care at lower cost is possible. The editorialists reference many places, right here in expensive, profligate, "greedy," multi-payer America, where more care at lower cost is not only available, it's the norm. 3. Everybody wants it and we can do it. But we can't get it done! Instead we face higher taxes and rationed care. That's the puzzle. How is it possible that we all want more care at lower cost and data shows that it's available, but we can't achieve it? How is it possible that our healthcare reform options have been reduced to raising taxes and rationing care, which will achieve exactly the opposite - less care for more cost? It's more than a puzzle; it's a trillion-dollar dilemma. My research at Harvard Business School into the few companies that innovated strategically when others failed to adapt shows that the root cause of our dilemma is the way we are approaching the problem. For my entire 40 year career as a physician, healthcare executive, scholar, advisor, and patient, we have been "fixing" healthcare. Methods yield outcomes. Therefore, all our past solutions have summed together to create our current condition, which we all agree is tragically flawed. The problem is that our approach is well intentioned, but antiquated and ill-suited to the unpredictable complexities of 21st Century healthcare. Our current approach seeks to manage the problems of healthcare with methods that worked successfully for mid-20th Century factories. We identify the biggest problems, gather data about them, then bring experts together in meetings to decide upon and implement big solutions. It's data up/implement down, but in the fast-moving, complex world of 21st Century healthcare, these methods can't keep up with the problems. The faster the rate of change, the more flexible and responsive we must become. As I describe in my forthcoming book, Designed to Adapt: Leading Healthcare in Challenging Times (Second River Healthcare Press, September 2009), adaptive innovators like Intel, Southwest Airlines and Toyota, and a small but growing number of health care organizations, have begun to make a difference. Instead of just implementing a big top-down fix, they are identifying better ways to rapidly adapt by making small fixes exactly when and where they are needed. All healthcare, like politics, is local. And not surprisingly, all the evidence of programs and policies that deliver more care at lower cost noted in The New York Times editorial are also local. What's the secret formula or silver bullet? In my experience, those great results were the product of the knowledge, creativity and problem solving of people who had the opportunity to adapt their work to getting patients what they needed. Fortunately, we can harness that creativity and direct the powerful desire of almost everyone in healthcare to make it better for patients through a method called "adaptive design." Instead of moving data up to experts, management can develop new critical thinking skills and embed new coordinated decision-making capability where the information is, very close to the patient. There clearly is a role for government to accelerate and generalize this success. The policy options I described in my previous column: "My Healthcare Reform Fear: It's Not Who Pays, It's What We Get" can stimulate the growth and development of the thousands of small, local fixes that will truly reform our troubled system. The physician leaders writing in The New York Times last week have established our objective - more care at lower cost. The history of innovation shows that we will not get there through data up/implement down methods or big, expensive technology. We will achieve that objective by growing locally from thousands of places close to the point of care. How? - By putting in place disciplined, structured ways to harness the knowledge and creativity of everyone in healthcare to focus on getting patients exactly what they need at continually lower cost. Government policy can help make that happen. That's the adaptive design approach. That's the way to fix healthcare. More on Health Care
 
Michael Seitzman: My Nazi Can Beat Up Your Nazi Top
There's a line in A Few Good Men where Demi Moore says that Marines in Gitmo are very serious. Tom Cruise asks, "Serious about what?" Demi responds, "About being Marines." That's how Jews feel when you try and appropriate the word Nazi, we get very Gitmo about our Jewishness. You have to understand, Jews are very good at remembering everyone who ever took a shot at us. We have a holiday for most of the biggies ("They killed us, pass the turkey."). But Hitler and the Nazis have a very special place in the pantheon of monsters. Nazi is our N-word. That's why it's not okay with us -- and shouldn't be okay with anyone -- to throw the word "Nazi" around unless you're talking about actual Nazis. It's definitely not okay to use it in a health care debate. In fact, put Nazi and doctor in the same sentence and you come up with one name and one name only -- Josef Mengele, winner of the "Black Badge for the Wounded." That was like the Nazi Oscar for Best Health Care ("I vant to sank zee Academy, mein Fuhrer, and mein agent..."). For all you Town Hallers out there, I'm going to assume you don't know who Josef Mengele was. I assume that because if you did, I'd hope you wouldn't be painting Swastikas on your picket signs. Dr. Mengele drew a horizontal line across a wall at Auschwitz, five feet from the floor. If you were shorter than that line you were immediately sent to the gas chamber. The line was drawn in the childrens' barracks. Dr. Mengele performed experiments on live, fully conscious human beings to determine just how much pressure it would take to crush a skull. In order to be precise, he had to administer the experiment very slowly. Dr. Mengele put people in bread ovens to determine at exactly what temperature the skin would receive first, second and third degree burns. Dr. Mengele once murdered a thousand women in one day. Why? Because they had lice and it cost less to kill the women than to kill the lice. Again, Josef Mengele was awarded the most prestigious medal for health care for this "work." Are you getting it now town hallers, town hollers and town criers? You may not like Barack Obama, but calling him a Nazi makes you sound like a clown, an imbecile and an infant. And continuing to cry about America no longer resembling the one you grew up in only further proves the point that you got it backwards. It's America that did the growing up, and you're the one we no longer recognize. More on Glenn Beck
 
EveryBlock Acquired By MSNBC.com Top
We've got some huge news today: EveryBlock has been acquired by MSNBC.com. More on MSNBC
 
Madonna, Jesus & Kids In A Boat (PHOTOS) Top
Material Girl Madonna appears to be having a fine old time with her kids and her big kid BF, Jesus Luz, in Italy at the moment. More on Madonna
 
Iraqi Gays Targeted, Brutally Killed: Human Rights Watch Top
The number of deliberate attacks against homosexual men in Iraq has risen precipitously this year at the hands of Iraqi militias and death squads, according to a report released today by an international human rights organization. New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed nearly 50 gay Iraqi men for the report, publishing their harrowing stories about the crackdown on gays and documenting the wide-reaching campaign of targeted executions, kidnappings, abductions, death threats and torture of gay men and men suspected of homosexual conduct. The 67-page report, entitled "They Want Us Exterminated: Murder, Torture, Sexual Orientation and Gender in Iraq," says the killings have spread from the Baghdad neighborhood of Sadr City to many cities across the Middle East country, with Baghdad experiencing the most severe "killing campaign." Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred men have died from homosexual targeted attacks. HRW says Iraqi police and security forces have done little to investigate or quell the violence against Iraqi homosexuals and many Iraqis doubt the government's sincerity and success to purge key officials with militia ties. According to the report, no arrests or prosecutions have been announced and the human rights watchdog says it has heard of accounts of police complicity in abuse, which ranges from harassing "effeminate" men at checkpoints, to possible abduction and extrajudicial killing. "Iraq's leaders are supposed to defend all Iraqis, not abandon them to armed agents of hate, said HRW's Scott Long, Director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program, in a statement. "Turning a blind eye to torture and murder threatens the rights and life of every Iraqi." The men interviewed by HRW described how corpses have been dumped in the garbage or hung as warnings on the street. According to testimonies, the attackers invaded homes, abducted men and interrogated and brutalized them to extract names of other people suspected of homosexual conduct. The doctors who spoke with HRW researchers said they have found mutilated bodies with their anuses glued shut. HRW says many of the Iraqis interviewed in the report believe the Mahdi Army, the militia led by Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite religious cleric, bears primary responsibility for the murders and spearheaded the killings earlier this year. Mahdi Army spokesmen have "promoted fears about the 'third sex' and the 'feminization' of Iraq men, suggesting that militia action was the remedy," according to the report. Iraqi men who have acclimated to Western fashion trends are viewed as less "manly" and often singled out as homosexuals by religious and militia groups. Iraqi men who wear their hair long, shave their facial hair or dress in tight, fitted clothing become targets by religious militias. Cafes and barbershops once frequented by homosexuals have also come under attack. According to Hamid, an Iraqi interviewed in the report, murderers and thieves are respected more than gay people. Consensual homosexual conduct between adults is allowed under Iraqi law but illegal in all countries surrounding Iraq except Jordan and Turkey. Islam forbids homosexuality. HRW says the targeted killings were committed without evidence or trial. Iraqi homosexuals did not live in fear or feel forced to leave their homes and villages when former president Saddam Hussein ruled the country, says Hossein Alizadeh of International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Homosexual men faced death threats and warnings after the 2003 U.S. invasion, Alizadeh said, because Saddam's ouster left power vacuums for religious militias. "Saddam was a political dictator but not a religious leader," said Alizadeh. "Homosexuals were tolerated under Saddam because he didn't feel threatened from that section of society." Homosexuality remains a forbidden, even taboo, topic for many Iraqis and the lack of understanding and sympathy from the public allows militias to kill effeminate men with tacit approval, says Alizadeh. Many Iraqi homosexuals, or those perceived to be, are an embarrassment to their families and tribes and are killed by the hands of loved ones, he said. "Iraq is a religious and traditional society and killers of homosexuals are very proud of what they do...they see it as a social service, a cleansing of society," he said. The United States government has recently begun to address the plight of homosexual Iraqis after the media and international human rights organizations brought awareness to the problem. In June, U.S. State Dept. Spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters the U.S. condemned violence and abuse against homosexuals in Iraq. "In general we absolutely condemn acts of violence and human rights violations against individuals in Iraq because of their sexual orientation or gender identity," he said. "Our training of Iraqi security forces includes instruction on the proper observance of human rights. Human rights training is also a very important part of our and other international donors' civilian capacity-building effort in Iraq." U.S. Congressman Jared Polis (D-Colorado), who toured Iraq in April and spoke with men sentenced to death for being members of an Iraqi organization known as Iraqi LGBT, has written letters to the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, demanding an investigation of human rights abuses. Rep. Polis said the U.S. has a responsibility to address these allegations of persecutions of gays. "The U.S. should take a strong stand for human rights and exert its influence for human rights - for all Iraqis," he said by phone. "The U.S. has a heavy involvement in Iraq, has a close relationship with the Iraqi government and billions of taxpayers' money are there." Rep. Polis said about five percent of the Iraqi population is homosexual, however, there are no official aggregate statistics for this group. The numbers used by international human rights organizations are based on known individual cases. In April, London-based Amnesty International expressed its concern about the Iraqi government's failure to address and publicly condemn the killing of young men because of their sexual orientation to the Iraqi government, but said its letter written to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has remained unanswered. Amnesty International's Said Boumedouha says Iraqi gay men have to hide their homosexuality or flee their neighborhoods in fear that neighbors will report their names to religious militia groups. Boumedouha says the majority of killings take place in Shiite-dominated areas of Iraq and the state simply cannot protect this minority anymore. "The policemen, the security forces are turning a blind eye to the killings, they are sympathetic with the militias," he said. "Nothing has been done to stop the violence. The 'so-called' investigations have brought no one to justice." Some homosexual Iraqis have sought asylum in other Middle Eastern countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Kurdistan with the financial assistance of NGOs. Human Rights Watch, like other international organizations, has called on the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as well as other governments that accept Iraqi refugees to offer rapid resettlement to homosexual and transgender Iraqis. Get HuffPost World On Facebook and Twitter! More on War Wire
 
GMAC Financial Services "Ceases Advertising" on Glenn Beck Show Top
That's the word this morning from spokesperson Sue Mallino, who confirmed to Media Matters that the company recently pulled its ads off the Fox News program. Mallino would not comment on whether the move was made in response to Beck's claim that President Obama is a "racist," an allegation that sparked a grassroots campaign by ColorofChange.org to get advertisers to stop supporting Beck's program. More on Glenn Beck
 
Tony Rezko's Foreclosed Mansion Sells For $2.8 Million Top
Antoin "Tony" Rezko's Wilmette mansion was sold today for the opening bid of nearly $3 million after failing to get more than one bidder. More on Bank Of America
 
Michelle Obama's Favorite Children's Books Top
We've scoured through photos and news clips--following Michelle Obama from elementary schools to Easter egg hunts--to discover the children's books she loves to read. More on Books
 
Sen. Grassley: GOP Support For My Plan More Important Than What's In The Plan Top
In an interview today On MSNBC Senate Finance Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley -- of recent Death Panel fame -- laid out what was most important in the upcoming health care reform bill: Republican Support. "I am negotiating for Republicans," he said. "If I can't negotiate something that gets more than four Republicans, I'm not a good negotiator." When Chuck Todd pressed him on whether he'd vote for health care reform if he got a "good deal", Grassley emphasized again: "It isn't a good deal if I can't sell my product to more Republicans." During the interview, he also dug into the public option, calling the government a "predator": "When you have the government running something, the government is not a fair competitor," he said. "The government is a predator, not a competitor."
 
Glen McDaniel: After Swastika Incident, Rep. Scott Holds Health Care Town Hall Top
In Jonesboro, Georgia, an energized crowd of about 700 gathered to attend a town hall meeting organized by Congressman David Scott. Scott, an African American Blue Dog Democrat, represents a largely white area. A few days after a recent town hall meeting where Scott lectured some in the crowd for "highjacking" the healthcare debate, a large swastika was painted outside his Smyrna district office. It was clear that the meeting was going to draw media attention. Satellite trucks from the four major networks lined the road leading to the school, the parking lots were full, and journalists with microphones were everywhere. The long line snaked from the entrance of the school all around the building. The multiracial crowd, which spanned all ages, seemed anxious but orderly. Signs of all sizes, some professionally-made, some crudely crafted, dotted the landscape. Billy Bob Prather, a sixty-seven year-old retired plumber, held a sign that said "No Obamacare for Georgia." He and his female companion (who requested not to be identified) said they had spoken about the healthcare plan at church and in gatherings at neighbors' houses. Several neighbors had discussed a strategy of "calling out" Representative Scott if he tried to smooth talk them. They were disappointed that more of what they called "their side" was not evident in the crowd but were still optimistic their neighbors would show up. Several members of the crowd thought it was important for reason to prevail in the debate. Marianna Kaufman and her friend Alfredo Duarte wished more people would realize that Medicare is a government run program. Avowed Democrats, Marianna and Alfredo suggested that the White House do more to educate the public and rebut unfounded Republican criticisms and urban legends regarding the president's plan. A group of young men chanting loudly and waving homemade banners said they were veterans who, having fought for the country, were now fighting with equal fervor for healthcare for all Americans. Jeff Adams, a thirty-seven year-old Gulf War veteran, was particularly troubled by the vitriol exhibited at town hall meetings. "This outrage has to do with more than healthcare," he said. "Look at our President. Many are just exhibiting obstructionism and racism simply because of who our President is." Another young veteran was perplexed about religiously motivated arguments against healthcare reform, hoisting a sign that read: "Real Christians want healthcare 4 all Americans." Hannah and her mother Grace held a huge banner demanding "Healthcare Reform Now." Grace has terminal cancer and does not have health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Hannah is very concerned that a civil debate about healthcare has been replaced by the rantings of extremists. She considers the swastika incident at Representative Scott's office beyond the pale. Hannah believes that while some of the outrage at recent town hall meetings reflects people's authentic concerns, some are using the debate to "foment discord and anarchy." She considers recent accusations that the Obama Administration's healthcare plan includes death panels "ludicrous." The crowd filed into the building in an orderly fashion and quickly filled the gym. Those who wanted to ask questions were given numbers that would be called in order. Numbers went quickly. I was one of the first to enter, but I received number 167. Congressman Scott entered the gym and quickly asked if the meeting could start with a prayer for guidance, almost as if in an attempt to disarm the crowd. This was followed by the pledge of allegiance, and then the congressman launched quickly into his opening remarks. First off, he noted that since no bill was pending, everything that the crowd said could still receive thoughtful attention. Also, he made assurances that no matter what bill emerged from Washington, there would be no government coverage of abortion, as this is prohibited by the Hyde Amendment. He stressed that talk about death panels and "pulling the plug on Grandma" were all false and irresponsible rumors started by those wanting to create mischief. This was met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation. Lastly, he pointed out that the public option was just that: an option intended as a fail-safe measure for those who either chose to join or who were rejected by private insurance companies. A public option would also help to make private insurance more competitive and responsive. At one point, a Dr. Brian Hill rose to his feet to question Representative Scott. Dr. Hill garnered national attention after verbally tussling with Representative Scott when Hill asked about healthcare reform at a meeting devoted to discussing a local road project. When Scott verbally slammed Hill--suggesting he might be a plant--Hill appeared on a variety of news shows, representing himself as a concerned physician whose views were being ignored. Hill's question-suggestion this day was that any healthcare plan should adopt best practices since the current system, including Medicare, was obviously not based on best practices. "Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, is just insanity", he shouted. He also received a mixture of cheers and boos. As the forum continued, Scott seemed to wax alternatively eloquent and weary as variations of the same questions were asked and answered over and over. T-shirts worn by individuals representing groups like Move On.Org and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) dotted the audience, but there seemed to be little organized activity from any one group. As I left the meeting after two and a half hours, individuals were still pushing their disparate agendas. James Newman of Lawrenceville, dressed in a blue and white colonial uniform, including a powdered wig, loudly explained he wanted to remind Congress that, "They work for us and not the other way around." Representatives of the group Organizing for America were actively soliciting signatures on a petition to signify support of the President's Health Insurance Reform. The debate continues. More on Health Care
 
Human Rights Watch: Iraqi Gays Tortured And Killed Top
BAGHDAD — Militiamen are torturing and killing gay Iraqi men with impunity in a systematic campaign that has spread from Baghdad to several other cities, a prominent human rights group said in a report. Human Rights Watch called on the Iraqi government to act urgently to stop the abuses, warning that so-called social cleansing poses a new threat to security even as other violence recedes. The bodies of several gay men were found in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City earlier this year with the Arabic words for "pervert" and "puppy" – considered derogatory terms for homosexuals in Iraq – written on their chests. The New York-based advocacy group said the threats and abuses have since spread to the cities of Kirkuk, Najaf and Basra, although the practice remains concentrated in the capital. "Murders are committed with impunity, admonitory in intent, with corpses dumped in garbage or hung as warnings on the street," the 67-page report said. Reliable numbers weren't available, Human Rights Watch said, blaming a combination of the failure of authorities to investigate such crimes and the stigma preventing families from reporting the deaths. But it cited a well-informed U.N. official as saying in April that the death toll was probably "in the hundreds." The campaign has been largely blamed on Shiite extremists who have long targeted behavior deemed un-Islamic, beating and even killing women for not wearing veils and bombing liquor stores. Shiite militiamen have for the most part stopped their violence against rival Sunnis after radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's forces were routed by U.S. and Iraqi forces last year and declared a cease-fire. But the report indicated they were conducting a less publicized campaign of social cleansing. "The same thing that used to happen to Sunnis and Shiites is now happening to gays," said a doctor who had fled Baghdad and was interviewed for the report. The doctor, who described himself as gay, said several of his friends had been killed. An Iraqi Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue with the media, acknowledged there has been a sharp escalation in attacks against gay men this year by suspected Shiite extremists. But he told The Associated Press that the ministry does not have numbers "because in most cases the family members themselves are either involved in the killing or prefer to keep silent, fearing shame." The former No. 2 official at the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, Patricia Butenis, wrote in a letter to a U.S. congressman that reports from contacts familiar with the areas where some of the bodies were found "suggest the killings are the work of militias who believe homosexuality is a form of Western deviance that cannot be tolerated." The letter was in response to concerns raised by U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat who is openly gay. Polis had brought up the issue during a visit to Iraq. Homosexuals have been targeted throughout the Iraq war, but the killings appear to have intensified as improvements in overall security led gay men to begin going out to cafes in groups and socializing in public, according to the report. Human Rights Watch accused authorities of doing nothing to stop the killings and warned that reflected an overall inability to protect the people. "These killings point to the continuing and lethal failure of Iraq's post-occupation authorities to establish the rule of law and protect their citizens," said Rasha Moumneh, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. The Human Rights Watch report was based on interviews with more than 50 Iraqi men who identified themselves as gay as well as Iraqi human rights activists, journalists and doctors. The Iraqi government's Human Rights Ministry has condemned the killings of gay men. "We are against any violation of their rights because they are after all Iraqi citizens," said ministry spokesman, Kalim Amin. "The government should not allow any armed group to launch random killings against people, sometimes only for mere suspicion." Sadr City, a teeming slum district, is a stronghold of al-Sadr's militia, which launched several uprisings against American forces after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 before U.S.-Iraqi forces seized control last year. Iraqi police said homosexuals were afraid of being seen in public while the militiamen were in charge of Sadr City but began going out more as violence declined. Fliers warning homosexuals that they will be killed "unless they come back to their senses" were distributed in Sadr City earlier this year and Shiite clerics have frequently called for the "education and rehabilitation" of gays in their Friday sermons. Sadrist Sheik Ammar al-Saadi has denied any involvement by the movement in the killings and said the clerics only urged people to stop practicing homosexuality. One 35-year-old man with the pseudonym Hamid has been unable to speak properly since his partner of 10 years was seized from his parents' home in early April by four gunmen wearing black. His body was found the next day. "They had thrown his corpse in the garbage. His genitals were cut off and a piece of his throat was ripped out," Hamid was quoted as saying. Human Rights Watch singled out the use of glue to seal men's rectums as a common form of torture. The report said Iraqi law does not ban consensual homosexual conduct between adults but contains certain provisions that can be exploited, including Saddam Hussein-era provisions that could reduce penalties for so-called honor crimes and crimes against people due to their sexual orientation. ___ Associated Press Writer Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report. ___ On the Net: http://www.hrw.org/node/85050 More on Iraq
 

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