Saturday, September 5, 2009

Y! Alert: The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Paul Slansky: This Preposterous Week In Review! Top
afterbirthers • Obama's placenta , according to the Onion , is demanded by ArmorGroup North America • State Department personnel stationed in Kabul who are guarded by Animal House -emulating employees of will not be reassured by these photos Bachmann, Representative Michele • one hates to pay another nanosecond of attention to, but who can ignore this clarion call by to fellow anti-health-care nuts to "slit our wrists" Bartiromo, Maria • a 44-year-old Congressman is asked by why he doesn't have Medicare coverage if he thinks it's so great, to which he responds, "Because I'm not 65," and somehow manages not to add, "Duh!" Bauer, Lieut. Governor Andre • denial of gayness by does nothing to halt the spread of rumors about the gayness of, which are rumored to have been spread by the man who would be succeeded by Beck, Glenn • one hates to pay another nanosecond of attention to, but who can ignore this spot-on Dan Quayle impersonation by Blob, The • remake of will feature a new kind of blob because, according to director Rob Zombie, "that gigantic Jello-looking thing might have been scary to audiences in the 1950s, but people would laugh now" Buchanan, Pat • inability of to stop defending Hitler Cheney, Dick • "the hell" is offended "out of" by the Obama Administration's brazen intention to launch a torture investigation instead of bowing down and shouting hosannas to for saving the country by breaking laws • "interrogation" of by Chris Wallace is compared by Andrew Sullivan to "a teenage girl interviewing the Jonas Brothers," and then David Letterman weighs in • zeal of the Washington Post -- and especially its egregious David Broder -- to keep carrying water for, though the New York Times refuses Cheney, Liz • disregard of for the truth is clearly genetic For more, including the latest obnoxiousness from Larry King, Donald Trump, Geraldo Rivera, and, of course, Sarah Palin, click here . More on Week In Review
 
Top
If you have to take a quick break from reading this article to check your Blackberry, send a text or reboot your Xbox 360 before you reach the end of this paragraph, then the good news is that help is at hand.
 
Reyne Haines: Labor Day Antique Show & Sale Top
If you are looking for a fun getaway this weekend, head over to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore MD. The Baltimore Antique Show & Sale at the convention center is going on. Get your antique fix, then hit one of the great area restaurants on the water for some great food and drinks. What type of goodies can you find there? Diamonds, Vintage Watches such as Rolex, Patek, Vacheron, etc - Fine Art (American and European) Lamps, Art Glass by the greats such as Tiffany, Galle, Daum, Loetz, Fine Porcelain and Pottery great silver and more. This is a show not to miss! Happy Hunting!
 
David Sassoon: Can Murdoch Flirt with Racism on Fox News and Not Pay a Price? Top
How much more rope can Rupert Murdoch afford to give Glenn Beck and his brand of race-baiting demagoguery? Back in February, when his New York Post published a cartoon widely perceived to be a racist slur on the new president, the media grandmaster himself issued a statement of apology : As the Chairman of the New York Post , I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me. Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted. Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you - without a doubt - that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such. We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community. So where is Rupert Murdoch now that Glenn Beck has brought the issue of racism to the company's doorstep again with his attacks on President Obama and his green jobs adviser Van Jones? Observers believe Murdoch will be guided by financial calculation more than political correctness. Beck is among the Fox Network's biggest draws, and his viewership has increased by almost 30% since he said President Obama has "a deep-seated hatred for white people" before going on to say that "this guy is, I believe, a racist." But the comment also has prompted a backlash from advertisers who have pulled their spots from the show in response to a campaign launched by Color of Change , a grass roots organization co-founded by Jones that is dedicated to strengthening Black America's political voice. More than 145,000 people have signed on to the Color of Change ad boycott campaign, and 57 advertisers -- including HSBC, WalMart, CVS, Geico and Proctor and Gamble. In retaliation, Beck launched a campaign against Jones, now in its second month, highlighting evidence of a radical past, connection to 9/11 truthers, and releasing a video in which Jones calls Republicans "assholes." Jones has already issued two statements, apologizing for his comments about Republicans in one and disavowing his belief in the truther point of view that "high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur." The White House is now on the defensive, protecting Jones and his effective work promoting green jobs, but no matter the outcome, Murdoch and his News Corp. brand are in a vulnerable position. When the dust settles on Pennsylvania Avenue, Murdoch will still have to contend with the Color of Change campaign. The group has yet to call on its members to boycott products of companies that advertise on Beck's show or to bombard them with phone calls. James Rucker said his organization is first giving companies the opportunity "to be responsible corporate citizens." In New York, where over 50% of the population is now comprised of people of color, Murdoch was quick to issue an apology over publication of a cartoon widely perceived to be racist in The NY Post . He acted quickly lest the taint of racism erode the profitability of a key property in the nation's media capital and its ability to compete with arch rival Daily News . Earlier this year, his New York Post reported a 20% decline in circulation. For now, Fox has claimed that the ad boycott has not harmed overall revenues, with advertisers merely shifting their ad buys away from Beck's show but not cutting spending. If the Color of Change campaign continues to grow and intensify, however, Murdoch will have to assess if Beck is worth the viewers he draws. Beck could do permanent damage to both Fox News and the News Corp. brand by associating both with unapologetic racism. For now, Murdoch is making a short-term buck on Beck's race-baiting. Longer-term, it's a losing corporate strategy. The color of demographic change is trending darker, and companies will be forced to be sensitive not to offend their own workforce or their customers by supporting race-baiting speech with advertising dollars. That's Murdoch's bread and butter, and Beck's attack on Jones to protect his own revenue stream has only amplified the success of the ad boycott and has really let the genie out of the bottle. Color of Change couldn't have asked for a better endorsement than Beck's attack on Jones, and a belated apology from Murdoch similar to the one he issued in February, if it even comes, may be too late. More on Glenn Beck
 
Bizarre Animal Behavior: Alcoholic Vervets, Shark Eating Baboons, Mushroom Tripping Reindeer And More! (VIDEO) Top
Animals have evolved some truly bizarre behaviors. Watch our video slideshow to find out about the spotted skunk that handstands for defense, the pistol shrimp that kills by sonic powered shockwave, mushroom tripping reindeer and much more. Don't forget to vote on your favorite! Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter! More on Photo Galleries
 
Rochelle Lefkowitz: How I Spent My Summer Vacation? Top
One March afternoon while on spring break, my son Josh walked into our county's board of elections. He explained he was a local kid who'd lived in the community for 12 years and had interned the prior summer at Rep. Jackie Speier's San Mateo, CA district office. About to complete his freshman year at George Washington University where he planned to major in political science, Josh told the communications director he encountered that he loved stats -- from baseball to politics -- and that, after volunteering for Obama since 2007, he wanted a summer job around voting. There was no job open. But by the time Josh was done, she'd promised to try to employ him under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) grant. From May 18th when he came home for the summer, for about three weeks, he patiently and persistently called several times each day to see when they needed him to start. May 19th was a special election in CA. So was June 2nd. But Josh didn't give up. Finally, in mid-June, Josh began his paid work for San Mateo County. His duties? Visiting as many of the 200 polling places in San Mateo County as he could reach to make sure they'd be accessible to people with disabilities: Were the doorways wide enough? Were there ramps? Could you vote from a wheelchair? Josh also took on some extra projects, like blogging about what he saw--including the polling place with the llamas grazing in front. He wrote PSAs about the county's first-time offer of free rides to the polls in senior vans for voters with disabilities. In the family tradition, my son's name doesn't appear on the blog or the PSA he helped write. One slow day before his official orientation, Josh said he thought the senior van story might be newsworthy. So he helped draft a press release, picked up the phone and called a few local TV stations, several of which seemed open to running the story. As the days grow shorter, I still remember the awestruck phone call from scenic U.S. Coastal Highway 1, I got when, having driven around 150 miles -- California counties can be huge -- Josh tossed his survey clipboard on the passenger seat of his ten year old Toyota, stopped to stretch his legs and take a short stroll and a cellphone snapshot of a sun-kissed Pacific beach. More on Barack Obama
 
First Family Time: How The Obamas Spent Their Summer (PHOTOS) Top
The Obama family got plenty of quality time together this summer. They traveled from Yellowstone and Martha's Vineyard to Paris and Moscow. They held a luau, celebrated the Fourth of July, listened to jazz and country music, and even did their share of community service. There was also some eating involved, including ice cream, seafood, and maybe some candy. Still waiting for your "Wish You Were Here!" postcard? Peruse our Obama summer photo album in the meantime: Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook ! More on Barack Obama
 
G-20 Promises Crackdown On Bankers' Pay Top
LONDON — Top finance officials from rich and developing countries on Saturday pledged to maintain stimulus measures to boost the global economy, warning that the fledging recovery that provided the backdrop to their meeting is by no means assured. Group of 20 finance ministers also promised a crackdown on bankers' pay – while stopping short of a European push for a cap on bonuses – and agreed to giving developing countries a greater say in international financial institutions. A joint communique said that fiscal and monetary policy will stay "expansionary" for as long as needed to reduce the chances of a double-dip recession after the worst financial crisis since World War II. "Financial markets are stabilizing and the global economy is improving, but we do remain cautious about the outlook for growth and jobs," British Treasury chief Alistair Darling, the host of the London meeting, said. "We agreed that we would continue to implement our necessary support measures – inclusing monetary and fiscal policies – consistent with price stability and long-term fiscal sustainability until recovery is secured." The International Monetary Fund has said that the global economy is beginning a sluggish recovery from its worst recession since World War II, raising its estimate for global economic growth in 2010 to 2.5 percent, from an April projection of 1.9 percent. But the IMF also downgraded its forecast for this year to a contraction of 1.4 percent, from 1.3 percent. Japan, Germany, France and Australia all recorded growth in the second quarter. Other countries like Britain, which is expected to move back into growth in the third quarter, have been slower to recover. "The financial system is showing signs of repair," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. "Growth is now underway. However, we still face significant challenges ahead." There is a fear that withdrawing any time soon from the trillions of dollars worth of extraordinary stimulus packages that have been pumped into the ailing world economy in recent months could result in a double-dip recession. Germany and France had previously pushed for more discussion of a so-called exit strategy from the massive stimulus measures, arguing that spending measures have taken government debt to dangerously high levels, but have backed away from the issue in London. The G-20 also pledged restrictions on excessive bankers' pay in a bid to address concerns about the risk-promoting bonus culture blamed for fueling the current crisis. The communique said that work will continue on the possibility of introducing a cap mechanism for financial sector bonuses but did not commit to the measure after U.S. and British objections to the French-German proposal. Instead, the G-20 proposed clawback mechanisms to ensure that bonuses are linked to the long-term success of deals and could be forfeited if they fail to deliver over a period of years. Darling said the new measures would make sure that institutions "are focused on long-term sustainability and long-term strength." Darling said banks must realize that "they would not be here had it not been for the efforts of countries, underwritten by the taxpayer," and there must be no more cases in which "people are being rewarded for reckless behavior." The Financial Stability Board, an international body established at the London Summit of G-20 leaders in April, was given the task of drawing up practical proposals for implementation at the Sept. 24-25 leaders meeting in Pittsburgh. The United States had tried to put the focus of the London meeting, which is a preparatory gathering for the leaders summit, on its proposal for a new international accord to increase banks' capital reserves. The U.S. wants to establish stronger international standards for the reserves banks are required to hold to cover potential loan losses. Going into the meeting, U.S. Treasury Secretary Geithner wanted to reach agreement on an accord by the end of 2010, with implementation by the end of 2012. The communique did not directly address that plan, but called for rapid progress in developing stronger prudential regulation, including a requirement that banks hold more and better capital once recovery is assured. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown won support for his push to take tougher action against tax havens, with the G-20 agreeing to a March 2010 deadline to start sanctions against tax havens which refuse to comply with new transparency rules agreed at the April G-20 leaders' summit in London. The G-20 also reaffirmed its commitment to reform of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to give developing countries a great say on those bodies. The BRIC proposed a quota shift of 7 percent in the IMF and 6 percent in the World Bank Group to reach an equitable distribution of voting power between advanced and developing countries. The G-20 stopped short of that, but said it will complete World Bank reforms by spring 2010 and the next IMF quota review by January 2011. The G-20 includes 19 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and the United States. The European Union, represented by its rotating presidency and the European Central Bank, is the 20th member. More on Banks
 
Walden Bello: The Virtues of Deglobalization Top
The current global downturn, the worst since the Great Depression 70 years ago, pounded the last nail into the coffin of globalization. Already beleaguered by evidence that showed global poverty and inequality increasing, even as most poor countries experienced little or no economic growth, globalization has been terminally discredited in the last two years. As the much-heralded process of financial and trade interdependence went into reverse, it became the transmission belt not of prosperity but of economic crisis and collapse. End of an Era In their responses to the current economic crisis, governments paid lip service to global coordination but propelled separate stimulus programs meant to rev up national markets. In so doing, governments quietly shelved export-oriented growth, long the driver of many economies, though paid the usual nostrums to advancing trade liberalization as a means of countering the global downturn by completing the Doha Round of trade negotiations under the World Trade Organization. There is increasing acknowledgment that there will be no returning to a world centrally dependent on free-spending American consumers, since many are bankrupt and nobody has taken their place. Moreover, whether agreed on internationally or unilaterally set up by national governments, a whole raft of restrictions will almost certainly be imposed on finance capital, the untrammeled mobility of which has been the cutting edge of the current crisis. Intellectual discourse, however, hasn't yet shown many signs of this break with orthodoxy. Neoliberalism, with its emphasis on free trade, the primacy of private enterprise, and a minimalist role for the state, continues to be the default language among policymakers. Establishment critics of market fundamentalism, including Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, have become entangled in endless debates over how large stimulus programs should be, and whether or not the state should retain an interventionist presence or, once stabilized, return the companies and banks to the private sector. Moreover some, such as Stiglitz, continue to believe in what they perceive to be the economic benefits of globalization while bemoaning its social costs. But trends are fast outpacing both ideologues and critics of neoliberal globalization, and developments thought impossible a few years ago are gaining steam. "The integration of the world economy is in retreat on almost every front," writes the Economist. While the magazine says that corporations continue to believe in the efficiency of global supply chains, "like any chain, these are only as strong as their weakest link. A danger point will come if firms decide that this way of organizing production has had its day." "Deglobalization," a term that the Economist attributes to me, is a development that the magazine, the world's prime avatar of free market ideology, views as negative. I believe, however, that deglobalization is an opportunity. Indeed, my colleagues and I at Focus on the Global South first forwarded deglobalization as a comprehensive paradigm to replace neoliberal globalization almost a decade ago, when the stresses, strains, and contradictions brought about by the latter had become painfully evident. Elaborated as an alternative mainly for developing countries, the deglobalization paradigm is not without relevance to the central capitalist economies. 11 Pillars of the Alternative There are 11 key prongs of the deglobalization paradigm: Production for the domestic market must again become the center of gravity of the economy rather than production for export markets. The principle of subsidiarity should be enshrined in economic life by encouraging production of goods at the level of the community and at the national level if this can be done at reasonable cost in order to preserve community. Trade policy — that is, quotas and tariffs — should be used to protect the local economy from destruction by corporate-subsidized commodities with artificially low prices. Industrial policy — including subsidies, tariffs, and trade — should be used to revitalize and strengthen the manufacturing sector. Long-postponed measures of equitable income redistribution and land redistribution (including urban land reform) can create a vibrant internal market that would serve as the anchor of the economy and produce local financial resources for investment. Deemphasizing growth, emphasizing upgrading the quality of life, and maximizing equity will reduce environmental disequilibrium. The development and diffusion of environmentally congenial technology in both agriculture and industry should be encouraged. Strategic economic decisions cannot be left to the market or to technocrats. Instead, the scope of democratic decision-making in the economy should be expanded so that all vital questions — such as which industries to develop or phase out, what proportion of the government budget to devote to agriculture, etc. — become subject to democratic discussion and choice. Civil society must constantly monitor and supervise the private sector and the state, a process that should be institutionalized. The property complex should be transformed into a "mixed economy" that includes community cooperatives, private enterprises, and state enterprises, and excludes transnational corporations. Centralized global institutions like the IMF and the World Bank should be replaced with regional institutions built not on free trade and capital mobility but on principles of cooperation that, to use the words of Hugo Chavez in describing the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), "transcend the logic of capitalism." From the Cult of Efficiency to Effective Economics The aim of the deglobalization paradigm is to move beyond the economics of narrow efficiency, in which the key criterion is the reduction of unit cost, never mind the social and ecological destabilization this process brings about. It is to move beyond a system of economic calculation that, in the words of John Maynard Keynes, made "the whole conduct of life…into a paradox of an accountant's nightmare." An effective economics, rather, strengthens social solidarity by subordinating the operations of the market to the values of equity, justice, and community by enlarging the sphere of democratic decision making. To use the language of the great Hungarian thinker Karl Polanyi in his book The Great Transformation , deglobalization is about "re-embedding" the economy in society, instead of having society driven by the economy. The deglobalization paradigm also asserts that a "one size fits all" model like neoliberalism or centralized bureaucratic socialism is dysfunctional and destabilizing. Instead, diversity should be expected and encouraged, as it is in nature. Shared principles of alternative economics do exist, and they have already substantially emerged in the struggle against and critical reflection over the failure of centralized socialism and capitalism. However, how these principles — the most important of which have been sketched out above — are concretely articulated will depend on the values, rhythms, and strategic choices of each society. Deglobalization's Pedigree Though it may sound radical, deglobalization isn't really new. Its pedigree includes the writings of the towering British economist Keynes who, at the height of the Depression, bluntly stated: "We do not wish…to be at the mercy of world forces working out, or trying to work out, some uniform equilibrium, according to the principles of laissez faire capitalism." Indeed, he continued, over "an increasingly wide range of industrial products, and perhaps agricultural products also, I become doubtful whether the economic cost of self-sufficiency is great enough to outweigh the other advantages of gradually bringing the producer and the consumer within the ambit of the same national, economic and financial organization. Experience accumulates to prove that most modern mass-production processes can be performed in most countries and climates with almost equal efficiency." And with words that have a very contemporary ring, Keynes concluded, "I sympathize…with those who would minimize rather than with those who would maximize economic entanglement between nations. Ideas, knowledge, art, hospitality, travel — these are the things which should of their nature be international. But let goods be homespun whenever it is reasonably and conveniently possible; and, above all, let finance be primarily national." More on Japan
 
Deadly Calif. wildfire's western end under control Top
LOS ANGELES — The entire western edge of the massive wildfire burning north of Los Angeles was under control Saturday, but the arson-caused blaze continued to move unchecked into wilderness to the east, officials said. Investigators, meanwhile, were working to find the arsonist responsible for the huge wildfire that has killed two firefighters and burned nearly 242 square miles, or 154,655 acres, of the Angeles National Forest. It was 49 percent contained. At least 76 homes and dozens of other structures have been destroyed. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the culprit. The risk to homes was significantly reduced as hand crews held the fire line to the north, south and west, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Michelle Caldwell. Aerial water drops were expected to resume Saturday to slow the fire's eastern movement into the rural San Gabriel Wilderness. Overnight, firefighters built six miles of new lines on the northwestern flank of the blaze near Santa Clarita, according to Forest Service spokeswoman Barbara Rebisky. A historic observatory and TV, radio and other antennas on Mount Wilson, which at one point were dangerously close to the flames, appeared safe, she said. "They say Mount Wilson is prepped better than it's been in about the last 100 years," Rebisky said. "That's looking real good." Crews with local utilities were preparing to move into the fire zone to repair or replace more than 1,000 damaged or downed power lines, Rebisky said. The weekend weather forecast called for cooler temperatures and slightly higher humidity that could help firefighters further surround the blaze, which has cost fire agencies $37 million to fight. At least a dozen investigators were working to analyze clues found at a charred hillside, including incendiary material reported to have been found there. Officials said the fire was arson but were still investigating who started it and how. "We are in the early stages, just beginning to put things together," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Liam Gallagher, who is heading the homicide investigation. "Firefighters losing their lives in the line of duty is an added incentive, but we work every case to the fullest." Near a large shade tree where crews get their twice daily briefings, firefighters set up a makeshift memorial for Capt. Tedmund Hall and Specialist Arnaldo Quinones. The fallen firefighters helped save about 60 members of an inmate fire crew last Sunday as flames approached their camp when they set a backfire that allowed the group to get to safety. The pair died when their truck plunged 800 feet down a steep mountain road as they sought an escape route. Most wildfires are caused by human activity, and government statistics show that people were faulted for 5,208 wildfires in Southern California in 2008, the highest number since at least 2001. Between 2006 and 2008, Southern California was the only region of the country to see a significant jump in the number of wildfires blamed on people. Still, very few of the forest fires lead to criminal or civil cases. The U.S. Forest Service recorded nearly 400 arson wildfires since 2005, records show. ___ Associated Press writers Allen G. Breed and Raquel Maria Dillon in Los Angeles contributed to this report. More on Extreme Weather
 
Anne Naylor: 6 Keys To Overcome Self-Doubt Top
This is my 40th consecutive week of posting articles on HuffPost. The process has been a great gift and a blessing to me. Writing each post has given me food for thought, a chance to look more deeply at how we can create greater health, wealth and happiness. The HuffPo Living Page is a warm, friendly place to associate with a wide range of wise fellow bloggers, gain fresh inspiration and enjoy readers who visit with comments and views. While I continue to offer blogs here, I decided to make my work more widely available. To start with, I am working on a new website. On the one hand, I feel confident about what I have to offer, both as a speaker and as a writer. On the other, frankly, I feel scared. The "what if's" have been raining in. What if I can't do what I say I can? What if people do not like what I do? What if they don't like me ? What if I get rejected? What if I am a dismal failure? The spectre of self-doubt is showing up. Hello! Can you relate with any of this? Perhaps I would rather stay safe, and be quiet. Then, what if taking what I do to a new level is a whole lot of fun? Giving consultations to people wanting to improve their lives, I have found it common for self-doubt to appear as you come out of a comfort zone. Self-doubt can be felt as confusion, not knowing, self-judgments, a sense of separation, fear - an emotional roller-coaster. Actually, self doubt is a blessing. It does not feel that way. Do you ever experience self-doubt? Or do you have all the trust and confidence you would like? As confident as I am most of the time, I know there is more understanding, more freedom and joy for me to explore. Hiding away will not do it for me. My passion for writing began when I was 11. My father's work took him, my mother, brother and sister to Jamaica. They left me behind at boarding school in England, where the secondary education was considered better than in the West Indies. I joined them for summer holidays. My Dad's sister in London was my guardian and I spent some of the other holidays with her. I grew homesick. Writing, and receiving letters from home, was a lifeline. I missed my Mum. My aunt was quite authoritarian. She spoke with an "upper class" accent - posh - and told me to do the same. At school, kids teased me for talking "posh" and so I learnt to speak there with a rural accent. When my aunt telephoned me at school, I had a dilemma. I found it hard to speak to her on the phone. The fear of speaking on the phone stayed with me for some years afterwards. To make up for my loss of family, I focussed on being successful in my school work and did well. Emotionally, it was painful. I resolved never to get close to anyone in case they would leave me. I wrote letters to forge the connection I was missing from my family. Seeds of self-doubt were sewn during this time - together with my love for the Caribbean, upbeat music, dancing and a sunny climate. Here are some keys that may assist you to overcome self-doubt at a time of change: 1. BREATHE DEEPLY When difficult emotions show up, breathe love into them and relax. Call upon your spiritual, higher or divine self to be present with you. The human spirit that you are never leaves you and is your greatest source of loving support at all times. 2. APPRECIATE YOUR VALUE Who you are deep down is much greater than any issues or challenges you have, or will ever meet. Be aware of the goodness of your intent, and the good that you do - to love and take care of your family; to do your best at work; to give of yourself into your community; to meet and master your challenges. 3. BUILD SELF-TRUST Handle the agreements you have made with yourself and others. If you find you are over-committed, renegotiate those agreements so they do not drain your energy. Make fewer commitments you know you will keep. Get busy and clear out cupboards and drawers, the garage maybe. Let go of things around you that no longer "have energy" for you. Create the space for becoming more fully your true self. 4. PREPARE FOR WHAT YOU WANT How would you like to experience your life in the future? Would you like more adventure, deeper peace, greater happiness, a loving relationship, a rewarding career, more time, a healthier body? Sketch a vision for yourself, in words or images, of the life you would like to create. See, feel and hear yourself fulfilling your intention. 5. BE BOLD Take one brave action to move you in the direction of your new life. If you are anything like me, your mind goes blank at this point. Ask a friend to help you if you feel stuck. Listen to your intuition. The still small voice within you will guide you. Do what is true for you. As the saying goes: Fortune favours the brave. 6. CELEBRATE THE BEAUTY OF YOUR BEING ! High five your achievements as you go Celebrate each little success, each brave step on the way. Self-doubt in my experience has been a blessing because it has caused me to touch more deeply into the spirit that I am. This in turn has enabled me to appreciate that spirit that lives in others, no matter the circumstances of their lives. It seems to me that we each have a predisposition for certain life experiences, and to learn from them. We gain if we choose to see things that way. Attitude is the magic word. Have you run into self-doubt with the current challenges? Are you finding ways to encourage yourself when you have felt doubtful? What brave actions have you taken to pursue your dreams? Please feel free to leave a comment below, or contact me at clearresults@mac.com . I will be happy to assist you if I can. To receive notice of my future blogs, please check "Become A Fan" at the top.
 
William Fisher: Titillating the News Business Top
Thanks to America Online, we've just hit a new low in the dumbing down of news. Not a bottom, mind you, just a new low. Because the lowest of the low is probably some years off. In its widely publicized push for more "quality content," AOL recently presented one of its intensely probing investigative reports. It was titled: The Top 19 Hottest Newscasters in America. It was created by Asylum.com. The introduction to this journalistic gem said: "As media professionals, we understand how tough it can be to be, even though on our best days we're merely lobbing spit balls. So we have some sympathy for the lady journalists of the world who have to do everything we do plus look hot doing it. Not that that'll stop us from lobbing gobs at them as well." Warming to their task, these intrepid defenders of the public interest asked us to "Delve with us, if you will, into the world of hot journalists. The roundup includes everything from short skirts on pogo sticks and wet T-shirt contests to creepy, titillating YouTube compilations of crossing and uncrossing legs." Digging beneath the skinny, as it were, the authors presented their list with appropriately titillating (no pun intended), newsy, thoughtful and informative comments. Here are some of them: Catherine Bosley (No.19): Catherine Bosley was an anchor in Youngstown, Ohio, until she went on vacation to Key West, got drunk and stripped completely naked in a wet T-shirt contest. Of course, with the Internet being what it is, a video made it online and went viral. Bosley resigned her post and now works for Action News 19 in Cleveland. Interesting tidbit: Sharon Reed (who got naked for a news segment) interviewed Bosley about her "scandal" in a piece titled "Naked News." We were shocked and depressed when we couldn't find a video of this interview on YouTube. Robin Meade (No. 16): CNN's Robin Meade may be the the anchor of the eponymous show "Morning Express With Robin Meade" and she may have covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for CNN, but what really impressed us is that she too works in a miniskirt and, as this YouTuber noticed, has great legs. Jane Skinner (No. 13): (Fox News) Skinner may be the co-anchor of "Happening Now" and producer of the Skinnerville segment on "Studio B with Shepard Smith," yet the most famous entry on her résumé is a gaffe that launched a thousand YouTube videos. Two words: "Top c**k." Jillian Barberie (No 11): (FOX) Playboy proved long ago that if a woman is hot enough, she can pose in swimsuits and lingerie regardless of her profession. Thank you, Jillian Barberie, for helping to bring this trend to broadcast journalism. Your contributions have not gone overlooked on the Internet. Sharon Reed (No.7): (Action News 19) Sharon Reed is a local news journalist in Cleveland who caused a stir in 2004 by reporting nude on Spencer Tunick's "Naked States" project. Her report, called "Body of Art," was heavily promoted and was one of the most-watched news stories of the year. We at Asylum admire her stunt-journalism pluck, among other things. Lauren Sanchez (No.5): (Formerly KTVK-TV, Extra, and Fox Sports Net) Emmy-nominated Lauren Sanchez is known for hosting "So You Think You Can Dance," as well as numerous sports and entertainment shows. Perhaps she's not a "news journalist," but lay off, you scoop snobs, and consider the more important story: Would you rather date Sanchez or an award-winner from The New York Times? Barbara Bermudo (No.1): (Univision) If you needed a reason to learn Spanish, now you have one. This Puerto Rican beauty makes us wish that all of the news channels would take a page from Univision's playbook and hire ferociously hot Latinas. And under a video of Julie Banderas (No. 14), appeared this caption: Julie Banderas -- Lady newscasters must hate "tribute videos" such as this cleverly titled, porno-music filled, slow-mo video, "julie banderas legs." You can take it to the bank: Legs are NEWS! And what are the other stories these anchors are covering these days? The war in Afghanistan, the Iraq disaster, Dick Cheney, our economic meltdown, health care, cap and trade, immigrant detention, torture, wild fires, not to mention the usual menu of car chases, murders, rapes, kidnappings, kittens up a tree - well, you get the picture. But, viola, thanks to the skill of these dogged TV newsdiggers, all these yarns somehow get magically transformed into "good news" stories we can't wait to watch. This is the future of television news. And, since most of the American public gets its news via television these days, it's our future as well. Which explains why America has such a well-informed citizenry. An Ecuadoran economist named Sebastian Hurtado Perez has apparently been doing a lot of thinking about role of "hot" women in our society. He wrote a funny piece in this morning's Washington Post entitled, "Workers of the World, Exfoliate!" Perez's proposition: "Much attention has been paid of late to whether the United States is trending toward socialism. Alleviating socioeconomic differences through the federal government's active intervention in the economy is a common aim of all socialist movements. Nonetheless, most champions of the less privileged have never made a practical effort to mitigate the social differences caused by the inequitable distribution of what, nowadays, is a factor with an enormous socioeconomic impact: beauty." He goes on to write, "It is unacceptable for physical attractiveness to be the birthright of a very small proportion of the population." For this reason, he suggests that "the civilized nations of the world consider incorporating a few policies based on the most traditional economic principles of socialism." One of those principles: "Political constitutions should define beauty as a 'strategic natural resource'. They should state that citizens may not be discriminated against on the basis of their physical attractiveness and that the protection of ugly people and their integration into society should be an unalienable duty of governments." "To that end," he concludes, "governments should nationalize beauty industries in order to ensure the supply of low-priced makeup, anti-wrinkle creams, aesthetic plastic surgery, etc. This would help to improve people's appearance, thus reducing the differences between the beauty icons and the common people. This would have a significant cost, which, according to a clear principle of solidarity, should be financed through a tax on the beautiful people in each country." If the Obama Administration would only take up Dr. Perez's challenge, it wouldn't be too long before you could get your news from, say, Elizabeth Warren! Hey, as reported by Sam Stein on HuffPo, it worked for Jon Stewart, who was instilled with confidence and left feeling at ease after the Harvard prof did a guest turn on The Daily Show. The TARP overseer would certainly not qualify as one of AOL's hottest newscasters. But the question is whether you watch TV news for information or cleavage!
 
Gerald Sindell: The Third Golden Age Begins?: Welcome to the Berliner Philharmoniker Top
In the golden days of radio the great symphony orchestras of the world broadcast over short and long wave bands, creating pockets of listeners all over the globe. In isolated Japan in the 1940s the young composer Toru Takemitsu learned the ways of Western music from the Armed Forces radio network. In Maine, Charles Ives listened to the premiere of his 2nd Symphony , conducted by Leonard Bernstein, over the radio. When FM came in after the Second World War, sound quality improved, but the since the range of FM is limited to line-of-sight, those millions of listeners lucky enough to get an ionosphere bounce from New York to Vermont or Chicago to Colorado were left in silence. The advent of the long-playing record took the thrill and necessity away from live broadcasts, and radio audiences shrank. Then came the golden age of television, with new operas commissioned for the medium, and Leonard Bernstein's 53 Young People's Concerts broadcast live to the entire nation. But with astonishing speed, the medium was subjected to raw market forces and the inexorable drive to the lowest common denominator. Television went from golden age to Newton Minnow's "vast wasteland" in less than two decades. Now we are in the early days of a new medium -- high definition broadcasts over the Internet. The pioneer here is Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic offering a complete season ticket for €149, or single month passes to their Digital Concert Hall . The premiere concert August 28 was priced at a special €5, and you can still order it and watch it as many times as you want during any 48 hour period. The overall experience was riveting. Video quality is superb, and the sound is good. First up was Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra , something Sir Simon must have conducted a few thousand times in Birmingham for young audiences. This was an adult version, a chance for Berlin to show off their shimmering strings and brass, and warm reeds. A delight. Next was the premiere of a new work, Laterna Magica by Kaija Saariaho, a mysterious and exciting mélange of ear candy that benefited hugely by video. At one point we heard voices in a whisper, as if a chorus was behind the orchestra, but suddenly we could see that the voices were from anyone not busy playing at the moment. The players were a chorus for a few moments, a stunning surprise, effective, moving. A real treat was seeing the composer herself up on stage at the end, bravoed by audience and orchestra. We knew then that this was a performance that the composer herself had a hand in and we had heard it the way she wanted us to. Before the final piece we created our own intermission by hitting 'pause' and took a little strudel break here in Tiburon while our server in Berlin cooled its heels. We then launched the final piece, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique . This was a decidedly un-opiated performance, with Rattle and the Berliners going for warmth, and ensemble, leaving the madness for others to explore. Still, every moment kept our rapt attention. This can never be the same as a live experience, but it is deeply satisfying, authentic in its own way. Quibbles: the sound. I'm guessing that the miking is a single Blumlein pair somewhere fairly far back in the hall, giving preference to that nice warm Berlin sound, but a loss of detail that in a record-only world might be barely okay. When the camera is hovering over a piano or celeste keyboard and you can't for the life of you hear the instrument, you almost feel as if the whole ensemble is lip-synching. Orchestra balance is pretty good, but the double basses are considerably underbalanced and out of focus. My biggest complaint is lack of dynamics. Either someone's got a heavy hand on the compressor, or the distant miking is the cause. Probably a little of both. Since Berlin offers viewers a choice of video definition, maybe they could do the same for audio. Compressed or not? Your choice. Video direction: directors of all kinds generally adopt an imaginary proscenium and keep their camera angles consistently on one side of that proscenium. It keeps the audience from getting disoriented and woozy. The exception in orchestra protocol is the conductor camera, which does indeed jump across the proscenium line, and we all get used to it. In the Britten, the video director tried using the conductor camera for the first harp solo. Whoops! Suddenly the harpist appears to have gone from the left side of the orchestra to the right, and the shot shows the harpist looking from right to left toward the conductor. My wife almost had to leave the room for a few tense moments. Over the entire concert, certain players and sections were not covered at all. The cellos were barely seen. There was no sense of the natural ensemble of the first desk string players, although there certainly was of the woodwinds. The director failed to let us know the complete forces on stage for any given piece, so in the Berlioz there's a whole lot of percussion battery being deployed, but if you didn't know what a bass drum sounded like, or a gong or cymbal, there was no visual cue to understand how important they were in driving a particular moment. And, not to be overly critical, but there didn't seem to be deep knowledge of any of the scores driving the director's choices. Coverage was a little more like what one might expect at a sporting event than a concert where everyone should know what's going to happen next. The director did seem to have something of a jones for one back-of-the-section fiddler, though. Sir Simon Rattle, judging by a lengthy interview that followed the concert, seems to be the driving force behind this magnificent venture, and he is to be congratulated for his leadership off the podium. And as for his day job, he is a musician's conductor, never showboating for the sake of the audience, giving the orchestra the absolute minimum of what they need and sometimes even a little bit less, so that the ensemble really needs to listen to each other. This is serious, perfectionist, music making of the highest order. The Berlin Philharmonic's personality was consistent throughout the concert, and I'll be eager to see and hear more of them in the coming months. They are a real ensemble, making a beautiful sound together, never forcing, always going to lushness. They present a fascinating contrast with the great American orchestra like Cleveland or the Met, where clarity, transparency and dynamics are prized. And Berlin is distinct from the British orchestras (we've been listening to a lot of Proms) which rely on a lot of enthusiasm and individual musicianship. And French orchestras? Maybe it's like what Freud said of women: What do French orchestras really want? But I digress. Are we at a new Golden Age of the arts with the arrival of a new media? The Web has shuffled the deck for everything else, from exchange of knowledge to shopping. I hope that the Digital Concert Hall will be remembered ten years from now as the brilliant beginning of a great cultural revolution that revolutionized the diffusion all the performing arts, and not as a shining example of a Golden Age that never reached fulfillment.
 
Stephen Gyllenhaal: Abortion, Health Care and the Soul Top
A few days ago a friend of mine agonized over her loved ones from the deep South raging that Obama was a murderer because his health care plan would sanction abortion. She felt an insurmountable gulf between, which seems to have gripped much of the nation as well, a gulf between those who consider themselves progressives, myself included, and those who rage against their government for wanting to protect them (for instance) from illness, pain and unnecessary death. These are people who see a national health care program as signaling the end of the Republic. Their behavior seems laughable, mentally ill, perhaps an argument for health care that requires mental care for every single one of them. But I'm coming to see that this thinking may be wrong. These people may in fact have something deeply right; or at least more right than those of us who put Obama into office, those of us who believe in his brilliant intellectual capabilities, his articulateness, his clarity, his political acumen. It has to do with soul. Those of us who live lives using the principals that have evolved from Plato and Socrates, up through the Enlightenment, Industrialization, the Information Age - how many of us would give up much of anything in an attempt to save our souls? I mean this seriously - really - how much would we be willing to sacrifice? Do we really - I mean, really, really - even believe in what is called the soul, other than in the arena of music or as something abstract enough that it isn't going to get in the way of our Blackberries, iPods, Kindles, twittering devices, jobs, marriages, New York Times, literary books and so on? Would we sacrifice ourselves or our children in a war, for instance? Would we allow ourselves or our loved ones to be maimed for the soul or for anything spiritual at all? Spiritual is a pretty easy word for us (certainly for me) - it's amorphous - and convenient. I no longer believe in organized religion, frankly. I don't belong to a church - so there's no sacrifice there, no ten percent of my income goes to a bunch of priests. I'm not even saying I'm wrong about my cynicism towards all religions. But it does seem quite obvious to me that many of these right-wingers, born agains and so forth have been more than willing to sacrifice a hell of a lot for the soul. It's why the elites of the Democratic Party have been so long perplexed by these folks over and over voting against "their interests." But honestly, are their interests really of "this world?" An innocent baby's soul matters (so you save it under any circumstances). A criminal's soul matters too (so you hang him for his earthly crimes.) Which is why I think government sanctioned abortion (with a medical plan that covers it) so horrifies them. Do I think their rage and apparent self destructiveness is correct? No. But I think what drives them may be more valuable than I have up till now understood. If this nation is to survive (and I sure hope it does) we (the supposed enlightened) will have to make a superhuman effort to understand the other side. I don't believe the "other side" will ever try to understand us. Increasingly I think they see us as evil as "the devil" because they fear we have no souls. Much of the time I think they are being manipulated by the hopelessly soulless creatures who will do anything for power and profit, but this only makes our job more pressing. Who else is going to bridge this gap? Who else can reach across this gulf of confusion, suspicion and rage? And if this experiment that started with Plato and Socrates is in fact correct, then I believe we are up to the task. And if we are able in the end to succeed and bridge this gap enough to ease the worst of the tensions that beset us then, who knows, maybe in the final analysis it will turn out that it's us (not them) that gains back the most, namely, our souls. More on Health Care
 
Rabbi Jennifer Krause: Save The Children Top
Once upon a time, "Save the Children" meant late-night infomercials featuring Sally Struthers and periodic cutaways to starving children in Africa whom we could save "for just pennies a day." Unfortunately, the children -- all over the world, and right in our own backyard -- are still starving. But saving them, at least over the past few days, has taken on a strange new meaning. Perhaps like many of you, I have received e-mails with this very subject line -- "Save the Children," but they are not from the artist formerly known as Gloria Bunker Stivic, but about shielding America's innocent youth from...our President. When America's kids go back to school next week the greatest concern we should have is H1N1 -- not the President of the United States addressing our young people as so many have done before, yet to far less scrutiny and with much less fanfare. And before we go hurdling into "the lesson plans," let's remember that parents are and forever will remain their children's greatest and most influential teachers all the days of their lives. No one and nothing can change that, unless parents actively relinquish the role. Whether you are for or against the President's fully transparent, pre-released address and accompanying, optional food-for-thought exercises left to the discretion of children's schools and administrators, children's classroom teachers, and, most important, the parents, do something truly worthy of your time and energy: talk to your kids. To borrow a phrase from the Bible, "Teach your children, speak to them when you sit in your homes, when you walk with them along their way, when you tuck them in at night, when they awake in the morning and prepare for a new day." If you cannot distinguish between the President of the United States offering words of encouragement and responsibility to our nation's young people in a democratic society in which people are just as free to agree with their leaders and with each other as they are to disagree, and a dictator forcing every single man, woman, and child to hear and adhere to his decrees on state-run television, then make all the more certain to use this opportunity to talk to your children, to teach them your views, share your experiences and your thoughts, to clarify your expectations of and for them as they learn and grow. That, perhaps, may be the greatest object lesson of democracy in action than what any one president ever has to say. And if you believe that your children, who will not even be close to voting age when, and if, President Barack Obama seeks a second term in office yet will, by dint of this one presidential address, instantly possess the power to persuade you and others currently of the age of majority to change your minds and political affiliations, perhaps you've got a future politician on your hands. No need for that high school career counselor down the road. It's a win-win! When so many of our nation's youth spend a great deal of their time playing XBox and PlayStation games with names like "Assassin's Creed" and "Killzone," perhaps "saving the children" from that and so many other far more pressing and dangerous social ills may be much more important than saving them from President Obama's scheduled words for next week. Bring back Sally Struthers!
 
John Burton: I Agree With George Will Top
Yesterday, California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton emailed the letter below announcing his organization's desire for a speedy American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Dear Supporter, Recently, I wrote you about HR 2404 , which would require the Secretary of Defense to define an exit strategy for Afghanistan, so we can start bringing our troops home. Of course, Democrats aren't the only ones who have concerns about the war in Afghanistan. This week, conservative writer George F. Will penned a column titled " Time to Get Out of Afghanistan ." I don't usually agree with George Will, but in this case, he's right: We need to leave Afghanistan as soon as safely possible. Alexander the Great, the British Empire and the Soviet Union could not impose their will on Afghanistan. Neither can the United States. It's time for American troops to come home - not only from Iraq, but from Afghanistan. And it's time the people of Afghanistan assumed full control of their own country. Not only do we need an exit strategy, we need to exit Afghanistan as soon as safely possible. Our brave men and women have performed admirably in Afghanistan. Now it's time to bring them home. Peace and friendship, John More on Wash Post
 
James Heffernan: ROADBLOCKING THE AMBULANCE OF HEALTH CARE REFORM Top
I have a simple message for all those who denounce the reform of our health care system as a government "takeover" and warn that government "death panels" will decide whether or not older Americans (like this one, who just turned 70) will live or die. With a combination of gross distortions and outright lies, you are ROADBLOCKING THE AMBULANCE OF HEALTH CARE REFORM. (Full disclosure: I stole this metaphor from the AARP. See (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNrUAve-opU) While you conjure up the spectre of government "death panels," an estimated TWENTY THOUSAND AMERICANS are dying every year because they can't afford health insurance. (Five years ago, a study by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences, put the figure at 18,000 a year.) And if you really want to know what a death panel looks like, rent THE CORPORATION (2004), a film by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott. In this film, a former executive for a health insurance company tells a Congressional committee that under orders from her superiors, she denied coverage for treatment of a life-threatening condition that did indeed take a life. Is that the system you're dying to keep? While you darkly warn of a government takeover, more than forty million Americas enjoy the benefits of a government system that long ago (44 years , to be exact) took over the task of providing basic health care to all Americans older than 64. Though the conservative charge against this system was led by the patron saint of the Republican party, Ronald Reagan, who warned that it would turn America into a socialist swamp, 94 percent of all seniors--NINETY-FOUR PERCENT!--are satisfied with the quality of care it delivers for them, and no legislator of any stripe, not even the most fiery red, dares to attack it. Listen to Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee. "We need to protect Medicare," he says, "and not cut it in the name of 'health insurance reform.'" Michael, let's get something straight. Health care reform will not cut Medicare. It will build on it by extending its benefits to all Americans who need them but cannot now afford them. Cost? While you say we can't afford to reform health insurance, more than FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS (at latest count) live without it, go hungry or heatless or bankrupt without it, and in thousands of cases literally die without it. Do you have eyes and ears in your head, Michael? Can you hear the siren and see the flashing lights? Then please get out of the way. Now. More on Health Care
 
Palin Resignation Costs Alaska Top
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Early estimates put the cost of Sarah Palin's midterm resignation as Alaska governor at a minimum of $40,000, not including a special legislative session partly linked to her departure. The preliminary figures obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request show it cost the state almost $14,100 for the July 26 swearing-in ceremony of new Gov. Sean Parnell. The price tag for moving Palin – the former GOP vice presidential candidate – and her family from the governor's mansion in Juneau amounted to roughly $3,328. Palin's spokeswoman, Meghan Stapleton, says suggesting the resignation cost the state is "incredibly misleading." She says the resignation ceremony was added to a previously scheduled governor's picnic and was organized by the lieutenant governor's office. The tally doesn't include the estimated $100,000 it cost for a one-day special session last month in which lawmakers approved Palin's pick to replace Parnell as lieutenant governor and overrode her veto of federal stimulus funds intended for energy efficiency projects. More on Sarah Palin
 
Martin Varsavsky: Iraq, Afghanistan: Lessons From the Pros Top
The Iraqi and Afghan military interventions have caused the death of over a million people, have cost trillions of dollars, have greatly weakened the US military, have increased the budget deficit, have hurt the dollar, have resulted in much greater terrorism in the Middle East (now expanding into Pakistan), and have fortified Iran's position as the strongest regional power determined on its quest for an atomic bomb. In short, it's been a disaster. As a result, while calling to an end of the intervention was the home of "the weak" (i.e. the Dems, according to the Republicans) now "the brave" as well are asking for withdrawals. As criticism of the US and European policies in the Middle East grows, this article looks at how the failed policies in the region could be reshaped by learning from those who have managed to do surprisingly well for themselves in this troubled part of the world: the Israelis, the Iranians and the Afghan drug lords. Lessons From Israel First, allied forces should emulate the strategy of Israel to deal with terrorism -- by ending the occupation of South Lebanon and Gaza -- by ending the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, while keeping key bases in the region from which to retaliate should it be necessary. Israel tried and failed with occupation. It found it too costly, inhumane and inefficient. In the end it withdrew, or separated with a wall, from all occupied territories. Israel's new strategy is to stay away from areas where terrorists are, but to always stand ready to retaliate when attacked from them. As controversial as it is, retaliatory, short-lived invasions such as the ones of Lebanon and Gaza, rather than permanent occupation, work best at deterring Hamas and Hezbollah. Israel has not solved the conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah, but the death toll has dwindled to the lowest levels ever on both sides in 2009. History has shown again that military interventions are much easier than occupations. Why insist? Lessons From Iran Secondly, the US and EU should learn from Iran and emulate its tactics, but, of course, in favor of peace. What Iran does best is to influence Middle Eastern nations by proxy. Iran provides key donations and training in areas that improve people's lifestyles and wins their approval for their own objectives, which, unfortunately, are not peaceful. Many Lebanese and most Palestinians now love the Iranians for the help they receive for schools, hospitals, job creation and a vision for the future. We should emulate the Iranians but finance an alternative Muslim lifestyle that is compatible with peace. We should also fund better schooling, housing, jobs and health, but along the proposals of Jordan not Iran. Our opportunity here is to work with the very able King Abdullah II and Queen Rania of Jordan. If we only endowed a foundation led by the King and Queen with a fraction of what we are spending in the war efforts we could outspend and outsmart the Iranians at their own strategy and win good will for a future based on cooperation. The GDP of Iran is a third of that of Spain. We can do much better if we help our allies in the region help everyone else. Lessons From the Drug Lords Lastly and sadly, in Afghanistan we must learn from the Afghan drug lords -- the only ones who seem to thrive in this horrible conflict. Allied forces in Afghanistan must understand that the war in that country is mainly about drugs, which make up 1/3rd of the country's GDP. We should also accept the unfortunate truth that if it were not for European and American drug consumerism, drug lords would have no income. It is our mental health problems that finance their drug traffic. We are mainly responsible for it. Drug lords finance their wars against us with our money. How? They buy drug crops at very low prices and collect market prices from consumers of drugs in Europe and the USA through their mafias. What is the solution? What we should do is buy all the drug crops from Afghan peasants directly, outbidding drug lords and cutting them out of the value chain. After we have the crops we should simply destroy them. Interestingly, peasants in drug producing nations -- such as Colombia or Afghanistan -- get a tiny fraction of the end value of drugs; drug lords make a living by collecting the spread between what they buy the crops at and what they sell them for as drugs on our markets. But we must get in that market and neutralize their income without hurting the peasants. Another similar solution -- costly but very "European" -- is to imitate the Common European Agricultural Policy of subsidies to Afghanistan. By paying a surplus for each Afghan sheep and cow, we will make it more profitable for Afghans to raise cattle than growing drug crops. This would have the appeal of ending drug cultivation altogether. But whatever we do, we can't fight the livelihood of most of the population if we want to stabilize the country. People must make a living, and the drug lords provide one. More on Afghanistan
 
Julia Moulden: When You Educate A Girl, Everything Changes Top
"Your eyes, it's a day's work to look into them." American composer and performance artist Laurie Anderson wrote the line that came to me when I first saw Cindy, the girl whose photograph appears at the top of this week's column. She lives in Zambia, and is about to go to school. I don't know what she is thinking looking back at the photographer, Caroline Daniel. But I can share what's going on inside of me. I'm imagining the rich and colorful journey that is just beginning. One that will change her life. Improve the health and fortunes of her family. Strengthen her community. And inspire other little girls to go to school, too. You see, Cindy is part of a powerful new trend in development circles -- girls have moved from the wings to the main stage. All of a sudden, educating young females is seen as the best way to lift economic growth, encourage smaller families, and reduce three things: the spread of HIV/AIDS, along with child and maternal mortality. Some pretty heavy hitters have added their voices to the chorus calling for a global investment in girls and women. Kofi Annan, former secretary general of the United Nations has called the education of girls, "the single highest returning social investment in the world today." Lawrence Summers, former US treasury secretary and chief economist of the World Bank wrote in a paper that, "hard statistical evaluations fairly consistently find that female education is the variable most highly correlated with improvements in social indicators." And Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, produced a research report showing that Japan needs to "exploit" their "untapped resource" - women - if they want to prosper. And a second that linked women's education in that country to its economic growth. All of this makes Ann Cotton very happy. She's been beating the drum on this message for a long time. In 1993, she founded Camfed , an international organization dedicated to eradicating poverty in Africa through the education of girls. Today, Camfed has helped more than half a million girls across Africa. Including Cindy. (Watch the Camfed videos . And find out how you can get involved.) Goldman Sachs, one of Camfed's supporters, has launched their own initiative. Last year, the company announced that it would invest $100 million to help 10,000 women from developing countries gain access to business and entrepreneurial education. (And, yes, the 10,000 Women program continues, even in these uncertain financial times. Check it out .) For Goldman Sachs , it was a philanthropic decision. But only in part -- the program also sends a strong signal that the bank wants to recruit and retain women. Here's what chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein told Caroline Daniel of the Financial Times. "We lose people to government, public service, and philanthropy more than to our competitors. People don't want to feel that they are merely earning a living." Which makes Goldman Sachs New Radical Innovators. If you've been following this column, you know that New Radicals are people who put skills acquired in their careers to work on the world's greatest challenges (for more, please see archived articles [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/julia-moulden/]). While many people become New Radicals by changing careers, Innovators stay inside their field or organization and drive change from within. Ann is a New Radical, of course. I asked which life events had prepared her to do this new work. She told me that she had worked in education in the UK, mostly with "children on the margins". There is also a deeply personal connection. Ann grew up in a working-class family in South Wales. "I could see the passion for education that grew out of really poor societies." And deeper still. Ann lost her second child, a daughter. "It was so profoundly overwhelming that my husband and I felt that the only thing one could do was to try to make good out of that loss." There is so much more to this story than I can possibly share in one post, including Camfed's expansion into new countries across the African continent. But you can read about Ann and one of the first girls Camfed helped, Angeline (who is now executive director of their Zimbabwe office!), in a book that's being released on September 8th. "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide" was written by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This week, as your children - or those of someone you know and love - head back to school, I hope you'll remember Cindy and her kaleidoscope eyes. Please share your thoughts by commenting below, or by emailing me at julia (AT) wearethenewradicals (DOT) (COM). Julia Moulden's new book is "We Are The New Radicals: A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World." http://www.amazon.com/Are-New-Radicals-Manifesto-Reinventing/dp/0071496300/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252075023&sr=1-1She is also one of the most sought-after speakers on the lecture circuit. http://www.speakers.ca/moulden_julia.aspx More on Goldman Sachs
 
Joanne Bamberger: What's Wrong With This Country? Top
I had many honest discussions with PunditGirl during the 2008 Presidential election about why her dad and I are Democrats, why we believed that the Bush administration was bad for our country and why we wanted a Democrat in the White House. But I also made sure that my then-eight-year-old understood that even though I felt VERY strongly about why the GOP was so wrong in its current philosophies, that it's also important to respect the President and the presidency. The leader of our country, regardless of what we think about his (and hopefully someday 'her') positions, inherently deserves a certain amount of respect. It's crucial that our children understand that, in this time of shouting head programs where news personalities bash anyone and everyone, the leader of our country is inherently someone they should pay attention to and respect. But after what I learned this week, I have to wonder whether I'm being a tad naive. Right-wingers are calling for their own to keep their children home from school on September 8 , when President Obama is scheduled to speak to children across the country. They're afraid that the mean, old President is going to do or say something to our children that would lead them down the path to becoming a nefarious liberal! (As an aside, I find it pretty amusing that one of those crying the loudest for this school day boycott doesn't have to worry about her kids hearing the speech. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that.) Has the right wing really become that paranoid? I guess they have . Somehow, they've turned an innocuous speech by the President into an evil effort to brainwash and indoctrinate our children that *GASP* they should stay in school and work hard!!! Cover your ears and run for the hills!! It's all very silly, actually, but I wonder if these calls for truancy mean that right-wingers believe we should teach our kids to disrespect the President AND the education system by going to the zoo instead of school next week? Can anyone TRULY think that a Presidential address to schoolchildren is about trying to indoctrinate them with subliminal liberal messages? 'Cause if you do, I've got this great bridge in Brooklyn I have to sell you. As for the hate thing, it's time to back off on that a bit. Trying to gin up so much hate and faux propaganda must be really tiring for those who have taken that on as a political profession. What this really amounts to is the uber-conservatives continuing the Fox News drumbeat of finding any way to take Barack Obama's words and actions out of context in order to demonize him every moment of every day between now and the 2012 election. It's nothing more and nothing less. I knew this sort of thing would happen during Obama's administration, but I didn't think that each and every move he makes would be turned upside down by the extreme right and twisted until it made me want to move to another country. I still had a certain amount of faith that people would prove that they wanted what was best for everyone in the country, not just an extreme political agenda. I won't make that mistake again. Joanne Bamberger is the founder of the political blog, PunditMom . Joanne is a Contributing Editor for News & Politics at BlogHer and is at work on a book about the increasing political involvement of mothers, Mothers of Intention (Bright Sky Press, Fall 2010). More on Barack Obama
 
UK Official: Oil Played A Major Role In Lockerbie Talks Top
LONDON — Trade and oil considerations played a major role in the decision to include the Lockerbie bomber in a prisoner transfer agreement between Britain and Libya, a senior British official said in an interview published Saturday. Justice Secretary Jack Straw said trade, particularly a deal for oil company BP PLC, was "a very big part" of the 2007 negotiations that led to the prisoner deal. The agreement was part of a wider warming of relations between London and Tripoli. "Libya was a rogue state," Straw was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph newspaper. "We wanted to bring it back into the fold and trade is an essential part of it – and subsequently there was the BP deal." The British government has faced intense criticism over the release of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. The attack killed 259 people aboard the plane, most of them American, and 11 on the ground. Last month Scottish officials freed al-Megrahi, 57, on compassionate grounds because he is dying of prostate cancer. Although he was not released under the prisoner transfer agreement, opposition politicians, and many victims' families, claim business considerations influenced the decision to free him. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown insisted there was "no conspiracy, no cover up, no double dealing, no deal on oil" over the bomber's release. But officials admit the prisoner transfer agreement was part of a wider set of negotiations aimed at bringing Libya in from the international cold, and improving British trade prospects with the oil-rich nation. David Lidington, foreign affairs spokesman for the main opposition Conservatives, said it was "very hard to square what Jack Straw says today with Gordon Brown's repeated denials of any kind of deal." "That's why we need an independent inquiry to get to the truth." Documents released by the government show Straw had originally tried to ensure that al-Megrahi was exempted from any prisoner deal with Libya, but in December 2007 he changed his mind. He wrote in a letter to his Scottish counterpart that "wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage" and a blanket agreement was in "the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom." Soon after, Libya ratified a $900 million oil exploration deal with BP. The oil company acknowledged Friday that it had urged the government to sign the prisoner transfer deal, but insisted it had not singled out al-Megrahi as part of the discussion. Straw said Brown had not been involved in negotiations over the prisoner agreement. "I certainly didn't talk to the PM," he was quoted as saying. "There is no paper trail to suggest he was involved at all."
 
Frank Schaeffer: Military Contractors and Our Buck-Stops-Nowhere "Wars" Top
The truth is that if (post-9/11) America wanted to fight two wars simultaneously -- and apparently endlessly -- protect our shores and project power into other parts of the globe simultaneously we needed draft. But we are a culture that refuses to make hard choices and likes happy endings, in other words we're experts at lying to ourselves. Instead of facing the fact that if you're going to fight wars you need to raise taxes and mobilize the whole country and draft citizens, we pretended we had a military adequate to the task. Besides, anyone who questioned the civilian wartime leadership would be accused of "disrespect to our wonderful men and women in uniform." What is disrespectful to people who serve is to do what we're doing now. We keep lying to ourselves by hiring contractor personnel to do the job the military could be doing -- if it was big enough and if we stopped lying to ourselves. More "contractor" (read mercenary) abhorrent behavior is surfacing. This time it's not civilian murder in Iraq, or child prostitution from XE (formerly Backwater). It comes from a US embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. Some contractor guards have come forward with sworn testimony and visual evidence of sexual deviancy and drunken hazing. In my capacity as the proud father of the United States Marine I wrote a series of opinion pieces for the Washington Post and several books on what it's like to be in military parent in the all volunteer military era while my son was a war in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of those books Keeping Faith -- A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps became a New York Times bestseller (once Oprah invited me on her show.) I also co-authored AWOL--The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country . After that was published I established close contact with hundreds of military families and many military leaders. What I say here comes from the perspective of someone connected to the military as a civilian author and also as the proud father of a son who fought in our ongoing wars. I have a deep personal love for the military family. That said, I have less and less respect for the way our civilian leaders lack the courage to tell the truth about our wars. Lies From the Right and Left Which brings up a point: both the right and the left, the military and civilian leadership, Democrats and Republicans have a stake in either lying about or ignoring a very inconvenient fact: given the scope of American foreign entanglements our "all volunteer" military is a sham. It is the same sort of sham that fighting wars without paying for them is idiocy. We are so over-extended that we hire professional contractors to bulk up what in fact is a military far too small for the onerous rotations that military people are now being deployed on again and again and again. High divorce rates, custody battles where military people, including women and mothers who come back from war are denied access to their children, and suicides are just the tip of the dysfunctional iceberg. The real problem is that the right and the left the Democrats and Republicans and our top military establishment and the government all have a percentage in keeping quiet about the truth. As reported by various news sources, including NPR, ( Sept 2, 2009), The Pentagon's civilian contractor work force in Afghanistan outnumbers the deployment of uniformed U.S. soldiers, with contractors accounting for 57 percent of Defense Department personnel there, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service-- "the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States," concludes the report. Overall, as of March 31, 2009, the Defense Department employed more than 240,000 contractors in the two war zones, compared with approximately 282,000 uniformed soldiers. How Have the Contractors Worked Out? The founder of Blackwater USA allegedly deliberately caused the deaths of innocent civilians in a series of shootings in Iraq , attorneys for Iraqis suing the security contractor told a federal judge. The attorneys singled out Erik Prince, a former Navy SEAL who is the company's owner, for blame in the deaths of more than 20 Iraqis between 2005 and 2007. Amid allegations that the contracted security force guarding the Kabul embassy have run riot the State Department a team to investigate. Alcohol has been banned at Camp Sullivan -- the compound where the guards live -- and diplomatic security officers have been assigned to keep an eye on the guards. As reported by AP and many other sources, Blackwater's secret work for the CIA has leaked out. The company's involvment in the assassination program and the CIA drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan are front-page material in the Washington Post and New York Times . Blackwater also offered "foreign" operatives to work on the CIA assassination program. The Real Problem The fact is our all volunteer military has long since departed from the citizen soldier military our founders had in mind and is now professional force that is close to becoming a permanent class of mercenaries set apart in virtually gated communities rather than citizen soldiers. And with today's contractors we've taken the fateful next step: America now fields a truly imperial mercenary force. To appease the left who will not countenance a draft, we pretend we have a military global force that doesn't need public support. And to allow the right wing Republican fat cats to send other people's children to war without asking them to commit their own children, we say the all volunteer force "works just fine." Fighting wars without national mobilization is a sign of decadence. It means that sacrifice is denied and ignored by most while a few pay the price for a system that depends on an out-of-sight-and-out-of-mind military. This is also part of a crazy anti-government right wing nuttiness, wherein "privatizing" everything, now even our military, is seen as "good." Everything must turn a profit, right? Everything is about choice. right? Wrong! The Truth The United States needs to face the truth: If we don't have the stomach to reintroduce the draft and have a military large enough to do the military's job we should stop fighting wars around the globe . We should also stop lying to ourselves. If the American public doesn't support our wars to the extent that they will tolerate a draft and much higher taxes then our wars are bogus. The military needs to stop selling itself to the American public as the greatest American military ever while it lacks the numbers to do the military's basic job. The generals should be screaming bloody murder about the fact that traditional military roles -- such as Marines guarding our embassies -- are now being farmed out to private (and grossly incompetent, largely unsupervised) companies who answer to no one. Talk about dishonoring our men and women! It's time for the military leadership to tell the President and Congress that the need for the hundreds of thousands of civilian workers bolstering the military proves the military can no longer do the job the President is asking it to do. Here Are the Honest Choices: 1) Get out of our wars now or raise taxes, and raise a force commensurate with our global obligations by the draft. or... 2) Trim our military to a true defense force and stop thinking that we can fix the world. or... 3) If we are attacked, hit our enemies with everything we've got, then go home. Let them fear us or pay the price, no more dreams of Marshall Plans applied to completely different situations, like Iraq and Afghanistan. To believe our own BS: that we can fight wars without costs, is leading to a bad end. Nation-building is after-the-fact nonsense. War is hell, not nation building. We aren't the good guys. We are just one more country protecting its interests. Deal with it! Blame the Right and the Left The left is culpable because it so denigrated and politicized military service coming out of the Vietnam era that the military brass ran for cover and are still hiding behind the all volunteer concept to protect the military from political scrutiny. The right is culpable because it keeps launching wars without asking for moral or financial accountability from the whole American people, including higher taxes and a draft of our sons and daughters. This is lazy man's war: no need to sell it to the American people, because they aren't involved. "Other people" fight and our grandchildren will pay the bill. Let's call decadence by its name. Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back and the forthcoming Patience With God: Faith For People Who Don't Like Religion (Or Atheism)
 

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

Stocks - Stay connected to the market with price quotes and more

Weather - Get today's weather conditions




You received this email because you subscribed to Yahoo! Alerts. Use this link to unsubscribe from this alert. To change your communications preferences for other Yahoo! business lines, please visit your Marketing Preferences. To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)