Friday, September 25, 2009

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Steve Parker: Our automotive radio shows this weekend Top
Join us LIVE Saturday and Sunday at 5pm Pacific time on www.TalkRadioOne.com for our exclusive LIVE motoring and motorsports talk shows! Steve Parker's The Car Nut Show Saturday starting at 5pm Pacific Join two-time Emmy Award-winner Steve Parker, also automotive writer for the Huffington Post, NBC-TV auto show Whipnotic and the Santa Monica Daily Press newspaper, as he recounts the latest news from the auto industry which really matters to you, from GM's new TV ad campaign and 60-day money back guarantee, to the new gas/electric Lexus HS. Be sure to join-in the conversation: The call-in number is: 213-341-4353. This week there's a new version of Honda's robot, Asimo Steve Parker's World Racing Roundup Sunday starting at 5pm Motor racing worldwide is heading into its final laps for this season, and from F1 to NASCAR things could barely get more exciting! Host Steve Parker goes over the hottest news from the sport in this weekly show. Also, an interview with Dave Rockwell, one of the engineers who created and ran the legendary Ramchargers NHRA drag racing team for Dodge in the '60s and author of the new book, "We Were the Ramchargers." The call-in number is: 213-341-4353. Join in! "Dandy" Dick Landy was one of the Ramchargers on Dodge's factory-supported NHRA drag racing team in the '60s Podcasts of the shows are available one hour after the live shows' conclusions. That's this Saturday and Sunday at 5pm USA Pacific time on www.TalkRadioOne.com! More on NBC
 
Butterflies Migrate Following GPS In Their Antennae Top
Every autumn about 100 million Monarch butterflies migrate to the south. A paper in the journal Science shows the location of [their migratory] clock is the antennae rather than the brain. Scientists say the finding is a surprise. More on Animals
 
11 Creative Ways To Recycle Packing Peanuts Top
Traditional packing peanuts are made out of polystyrene and are now color coded to indicate the origin of the material they contain. Polystyrene takes hundreds of years to decompose in nature, so recycling it is key. More on Green Living
 
The Battle Over Plush Toilet Paper Top
Plush U.S. toilet paper is usually made by chopping down and grinding up trees that were decades or even a century old. They want Americans, like Europeans, to wipe with tissue made from recycled paper goods. More on Green Technology
 
2morrowknight: Interview: Visionary Entertainer Josh Charles Top
Abraham Lincoln once remarked that you can tell the measure and character of a man through what he does with power. Throughout 2009, musician, philanthropist, and Brooklyn resident Josh Charles has proven this to be true. Whether on Tavis Smiley's Show , CNN, USA Today , or Good Morning America, it's clear that Charles is a man on a mission. A popular figure in entertainment circles, Charles has donated his time and money, and used the equity of his celebrity, to help the City of New Orleans return to its former glory, and, to make sure it carves out new roads of cultural significance for future generations. His inspiring breakthrough song, Healing Time , is making waves: 100% of the profits have been going to the rebuilding of New Orleans, and, it's also eligible for a Grammy Award in 3 categories: Best New Artist, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year. Indeed, his passion is as inspiring as his path to success. How did you get started as a musician? I began playing piano when I was 8 years old and grew up with the sounds of Motown in my house. My folks grew up in Detroit and besides those records, my mom used to play a hefty dose of James Taylor and The Band. I got into U2 and Sting at an early age and wanted to play piano and guitar. I started guitar at 13. I was classically trained and spent my summers at band camp. The way I play piano now can be traced to the fusion of New Orleans and gospel styles from a popular radio station I listened to. I heard James Booker, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, Professor Longhair and everything changed for me. I met Dr. John as a teenager and he became my mentor over the years. It was a real blessing. My first professional gigs besides school recitals started when I was 16 at blues and jazz clubs in Kansas City. I moved to New York City at 19 and began playing everywhere they had pianos. I studied with Barry Harris who really taught me so much about music. I've played all kinds of music but always come back to my love for soul and funk. You've received lots of praise for creating the song Healing Time to raise money for the rebuilding of New Orleans. At last check, your efforts are really making a difference. With Healing Time, I'm trying to do my part to give back to the City of New Orleans which has given me so much as an artist. Everywhere I go, people seemed to be moved by the song itself. Our goal is to raise $1 million for New Orleans which has taken a backseat as far as recovery efforts are concerned. There is so much work that needs to be done, and there are still tremendous challenges. For instance, there are over 2000 FEMA trailers still in the city of New Orleans. That's just unacceptable to me. I'm trying to do what I can - with Healing Time - to raise money and bring awareness back to New Orleans. I'm so touched by the amazing world of social media, especially Twitter where I consistently get traffic on my profile @joshcharles . There are so many amazing people, too many to name, who have gone out of their way to help me raise awareness and money for Healing Time . As of now, we are working on a campaign to encourage artists from different genres to cover the song and make it their own. We will also have a Youtube channel where people can upload videos talking about what Healing Time means to them. As I've been on tour this past Summer, people have come up to me and expressed what Healing Time means to them and it's taken on a much broader definition than the way it was written. The images I saw were so vivid and the damage was so vast that I thought "it's going to take so much healing time to fix this" . Neighborhoods destroyed, and lives shattered. It was overwhelming. When you write a song, you never know how it will evolve or how people will react to it. I've been approached by people who are recovering from cancer and they have shared stories with me of how Healing Time has helped them. I'm so moved by people's reactions. Currently, we are in talks with sponsors to match donations to what we raise for New Orleans, and then donate to different charities that help soldiers who have just come back from war and also patients recovering from cancer. We are working to create a movement for Healing Time as this is the right time, and the right place to make a difference as a country. What does New Orleans mean to the American imagination? People think of partying in New Orleans and they think of Bourbon Street and the French Quarter. They also think of the visual aspects such as the St. Charles streetcars, and the mansions along side Tulane. The music and the food stand out among people who've ever been to New Orleans. Generally speaking, I've never met anyone who has not had a great time after visiting the city. New Orleans is the cultural birthplace of jazz, blues, gospel, funk, zydeco, dixieland, R&B, and rock & roll. From the earliest pioneers like Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong leading all the way up to the Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Professor Longhair, Wynton Marsalis, and now Lil' Wayne. The music is unique to New Orleans and the people of the city are incredible. The architecture is so amazing and there is a real spirit to the city that's exciting, mysterious and mesmerizing. Let's not forget the delicious food, I mean that's taking it to another level! 2009 has been quite a breakthrough year for you. Lots of critical praise, and a loyal and dedicated fan base. What's next for you? I just came off the road from touring with Buckwheat Zydeco, Cyril Neville and The Neville Brothers. I'm currently working on finishing up my new CD which is going to be very rootsy, bluesy, and feature a whole lot of my piano playing. The album is being mixed by Gregg Rubin (multi-grammy award winning mixer for Harry Connick Jr). I have a live solo EP that will also be coming out very soon which features my solo performances from this year. Currently, we're in talks to go to New Orleans to shoot a music video for Healing Time which will be set against the backdrop of the city and feature real human life stories of people going through the healing process. Just recently, I started the process for forming a 501(c)(3) non-profit titled The Healing Time Foundation which will focus on raising money to help rebuild New Orleans. The fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina just passed and I want to say to your readers that we need them to download Healing Time . You can buy it on Amazon and itunes. You can gift it to everyone you know through itunes and you can donate in $10 increments to our Facebook cause. New Orleans is not receiving enough federal monies at this time. The Preservation Resource Center , where I'm donating the proceeds from Healing Time , is doing amazing work to help rebuild the city. To date, they have rebuilt over 200 green homes and businesses. Don't you think that that's worth a $.99 download? I do. Together, we can all make a difference in this world. To get involved with Josh Charles' efforts to renew this quintessential American city, New Orleans, go to JoshCharlesMusic.com . You can also fan him on his Facebook Page , and follow him on Twitter . This post was originally published at 2morrowknight.blogspot.com . More on Twitter
 
John Tierney: Carbon Capture Could Be A Cheaper, Neglected Solution To CO2 Levels? Top
Governments are doing practically nothing to study the removal of carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, but this technology could be a much cheaper form of climate protection than photovoltaic cells and other approaches getting lavish support, according to an article published today in Science. More on Climate Change
 
The Clintons' Enemies List (And Other Major Nuisances) Top
Bill Clinton just doesn't know when to hold his tongue. Shortly after his inauguration in 1993, the former president arranged to have monthly discussions with longtime friend and author Taylor Branch recorded for posterity, keeping the tapes in his sock drawer. Branch's book, The Clinton Tapes , comes out next week and some tidbits, from Clinton comparing Al Gore to Mussolini and a drunk Boris Yeltsin sneaking out of the White House for pizza, have been making headlines. But what comes across most clearly from the book is Clinton's complete lack of self-censorship, especially when it comes to the two subjects that consumed and enraged him: the media and the scandals that dogged his two administrations. Almost every chapter of the 668-page book is marked by the president's increasing frustration and anger at the press, including the New York Times , the Washington Post and CNN, for putting a negative spin on every revelation from Travelgate to the Asian donor scandal. "Clinton said the scandal machine had taken a lot of the joy out of being president," Branch writes. As a service to our readers, here's a handy guide to the Clintons' enemies (and other major nuisances): Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Clinton called the paper his chief tormentor for decades and claimed that the paper's owners carried on a racist crusade against Arkansas basketball coach Nolan Richardson. Osama Bin Laden Because of intelligence reports that Bin Laden may be moving to Bangladesh, Clinton said the Secret Service was "going bananas" about the president's plans to visit India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, overruling them when they said they could not insure a reasonable margin of safety for him. "I hope I'm sitting here with you again next month," Clinton told Branch in early 2000. After new intelligence arrived indicating that Bin Laden had diverted some or all of his assassins from Bangladesh to Pakistan, a covert "snatch team" raided a safe house but bin Laden's men escaped. Clinton's security team activated its most elaborate precautions - Clinton landed off-schedule in an unmarked plane while pilots flew an empty decoy plane with the markings of Air Force One. Senator Jim Bunning : Clinton felt that Bunning, a GOP Congressman who won an open Senate seat in Kentucky in 1998, was so mean-spirited that he repulsed even his fellow know-nothings. "I tried to work with him a couple of times and he just sent shivers up my spine," said Clinton, adding that he was "beyond the pale." George W. Bush Though he admired Dubya's political skills, Clinton found him to be cold in private. At a White House dinner, Clinton found Bush "miserable and hostile the whole time." "Of course, he's never forgiven me for beating his father," Clinton told Branch, "but that's about as deep as his political conviction gets. All this 'compassionate conservative' business is phony." Senator Robert Byrd Longtime Democratic Senator Robert Byrd shocked his colleagues with his homophobic views during a meeting with Clinton to discuss gays in the military. Byrd related a story from Roman historian Suetonius about how Julius Caesar never lived down reports of a youthful affair with King Nicomedes of Bithynia, leading to gossip that the mighty emperor was "every woman's man and every man's woman" Branch writes: " Byrd told his colleagues and Clinton that for one senator, at least, this homosexual seed had something to do with the fall of the world's greatest military empire. Byrd said homosexuality was a sin. It was unnatural. God didn't like it. This classical foray "rocked everyone back in their seats... some noted that Roman emperors won brutal wars for centuries while indulging every imaginable vice." Jimmy Carter The former president's interference in foreign policy could be maddening to Clinton. Carter took a group into Haiti during that country's political crisis in 1994 and quickly started to screw up Clinton's aims. Carter became so smitten with top Haitian general Raoul Cedras's wife that he insisted "that these pleasant people could not possibly rule by murder and mutilation" as alleged in a speech by Clinton. Carter then resisted instructions to break off talks and leave Haiti even after Clinton warned him that he was in danger of being captured. At one point, Clinton even threatened to have Carter evacuated against his will. When Carter returned to Washington, he annoyed Clinton by calling CNN's Judy Woodruff to arrange an interview before reporting to the president on his mission. The Democratic Leadership Council After DLC leader Dave McCurdy blamed Clinton for losing a tight Senate race against arch-conservative Jim Inhofe, Clinton dressed down the group after an event, telling them to "suck lemons," and calling them ingrates and sunshine patriots. Maureen Dowd ( New York Times ) Clinton said Dowd was so jaundiced that she dumped on Tiger Woods after he won the Masters by 12 strokes. After Woods' regretful decline of a White House invitation, Dowd slammed the golf star for "dissing" the president and then managed to attack Clinton for craving the aura of celebrity athletes. Clinton told Branch that Dowd "must live in mortal fear that there's somebody in the world living a healthy and productive life." Richard Gephardt The former House Majority Leader neglected to call up Clinton after an important budget speech and refused to take the president's call when Clinton sought to explain the reasons for the speech. "Gephardt is an asshole," snapped Hillary. When Clinton pointed out to her that her comment was being taped for posterity, she shrugged with a smile: "Well, he is." Jeff Gerth ( New York Times ) Clinton fumed that longtime nemesis Cliff Jackson, who helped spread scandal stories about the president, was boasting that he had NYT investigative reporter Gerth "eating from his hand." Gerth was the reporter who wrote the original Whitewater stories for the paper. Later, Clinton condemned Gerth's reporting on the Wen Ho Lee case, the nuclear scientist accused of espionage, calling it "shameless hype." Al Gore Talk about a complicated relationship. Clinton advised his vice president on Gore's 2000 presidential campaign and sympathized with Gore's need to distinguish himself from Clinton's personal flaws (i.e. Lewinsky). He once told Gore, "if you thought it would help in the campaign, I would let you flog me at noon right on the doorstep of the Washington Post " and they joked about various dramatic effects: prostate or kneeling, shirt on or shirt off. He also joked with Branch that to gain votes, he would let Gore cut off his ear and mail it to reporter Michael Isikoff of Newsweek , who broke the Monica Lewinsky story. Later in the campaign, his feelings started to turn and he felt hurt that Gore didn't call him that often: "I think maybe he's slipped off into a trance or something." Eventually, the two got into a heated argument with Gore letting his long-simmer rage spill over about having his integrity questioned in the Buddhist temple fundraising scandal, and telling Clinton that he had never apologized personally to him about Lewinsky. William Greider ( Rolling Stone/The Nation ) Clinton exploded in rage during an interview with Rolling Stone's William Greider when the journalist confronted him about the economic impact of NAFTA on America's working class. He yelled at Greider, telling him "You are a faulty citizen. You don't mobilize or persuade, because you only worry about being doctrinaire and proud," lumping him in with "bitchy and cynical" liberals." Clinton told Branch: "I did everything but fart in his face." Lani Guinier When Clinton asked the noted Harvard Law School professor to withdraw her nomination after a firestorm erupted over her advocacy of racial quotas, Guinier refused. "Then I will have to pull you down," Clinton told her, meaning he would have to retract her name and "his stance heated the awkward showdown." Senator James Inhofe After Inhofe led opposition to the appointment of openly gay Chicago heir James Hormel as an ambassador, Clinton said that Inhofe has passed Jim Bunning on the misanthrope index. CNN president Tom Johnson Accusing CNN of succumbing to scandal fever ("the convergence of the cash-paying tabloids and mainstream outlets"), Clinton said Johnson was determined to get even with him after he and Hillary switched their famous Gennifer Flowers interview from CNN to CBS at the last minute. Clinton told Branch that his political nemeses in Arkansas had leaked to CNN a list of five women alleged to have had affairs with him. Another alleged paramour - a judge's wife - who had flatly denied an affair to the American Spectator told CNN that the charge was a "slander garnished with absurd details." CNN's Johnson was not dissuaded from running the story, telling her, "Well, I guess that means you won't let us use your name," recounted Clinton. Mike McCurry Clinton liked his press secretary but complained about his overly solicitous stance with the press. "I'm tried of this limp-dick shit," Clinton exploded once, pleading for an aggressive army to back him up in combating the relentless Whitewater prosecutors. New York Times "Clinton said the Times was determined for two reasons to allege something crooked about the windfall. First, true or not, charges of scandal would boost the scoop into Whitewater's journalistic surf. Second, the Times relied on political sources who promoted interpretations of corruption at every level. Clinton said he was disillusioned by the Times and the Washington Post , groping for words to comprehend their motives and express his dismay - they had falled prey to a political agenda, or been stampeded or turned cynical. Later, news coverage of the indictments of Whitewater figures led Clinton to declare that the Times and Post had "corrupted themselves over Whitewater." After the NYT called the Asian donor scandal the biggest ethical crisis since Watergate, Clinton fumed that the paper had dropped all pretense of objectivity and he "speculated darkly about the relationship between his nemesis, editor Howell Raines, and a stable of indignant Times columnists." Sally Quinn The doyenne of the Washington social scene spread rumors that Hillary had not written her own book, It Takes A Village . When Branch explained that Quinn had told him that she could help the Clintons learn the social mores of the Beltway, Hillary snapped: "You know, she has been hostile since the moment we got here. Why would we invite somebody like that into our home. How could she expect us to?" She claimed that Quinn invented gossip for the dinner circuit - such as the story of an affair between Hillary and the female veterinarian attending Socks the presidential cat. Janet Reno Brimming with resentment over how his Attorney General had handled requestst for special prosecutors, Clinton said "he had not been able to trust her for four years. If he tried to have an honest conversation with her, she would leak it." When she was quoted expressing her desire to stay on the job, Clinton hauled her in for a tongue-lashing, telling Branch, "I told her I didn't like that one damn bit. I didn't hire her to work for the New York Times and Washington Post . I hired her to work for me." Alan Simpson Clinton recounted that he once pulled aside the senior Republican senator to ask him whether he really believed that the president had done something terrible in Whitewater. Simpson's response: "Oh, hell no. But our goal is to make people think you did, so we can pay you Democrats back for Iran-contra." Wall Street Journal Stung by the tragic suicide of aide Vince Foster after reports emerged about Foster's integrity, Clinton believed that the paper's editors "had hounded Vince Foster to death with malice." The Washington Post One of Clinton's alleged paramours told him that a Post reporter threatened to expose her, after promising her confidentiality if she confessed an affair with Clinton. When Bob Woodward broke the story that Chinese government may have funneled clandestine money into Clinton's reelection, Clinton went on an extended rant about scandalmongers, comparing them to cocaine addicts on the street. More on Bill Clinton
 
Dr. Hendrie Weisinger: Are Your Parents Old and Ill? A Chat With Dr. Tamra McClintock Greenberg Top
If you are like one of the millions that read The Huffington Post , it is safe to say your parents are aging and perhaps ill. How well do you understand what they are going through? Dr. Tamra McClintock Greenberg, in her new book, Psychodynamic Perpectives on Aging and Illness (Springer, 2009) presents keen insights for understanding your parents feelings and behaviors. The book is geared towards professionals who work with the "aging population," but the serious reader can gain understanding too. After reading her book, I thought you would find a session with Dr. Greenberg (Department of Psychitry, Univerity of California, San Francisco) interesting. Dr. Hank : How did you get interested in working with the aging population? Dr. Greenberg : In graduate school I specialized in health psychology, so a number of patients I saw (with on-going medical problems) tended to be older. I really got interested in the elderly when I started learning more about psychoanalytic theory, and that this theory historically has not been very inclusive of applying treatment approaches to older adults. I have wanted to find a way to help clinicians think about the unique needs of this population. Dr. Hank : What did you learn about aging from your parents? Dr. Greenberg : My mother became aware of the need to take better care of herself as she got older. In fact, I remember, when she was in her early thirties, she started to exercise regularly. She would go to the gym before work. We lived in a small rural town and she had to drive over 30 minutes to get to the gym. I don't recall that there was a "gym culture" where we lived, so it struck me as unique and also inspiring. Dr. Hank : What observations have you made on how baby boomers deal with aging parents? Dr. Greenberg : I think it is incredibly stressful for baby boomers, who are really the first generation to be taking care of older parents in such large numbers. They are the first generation to witness first-hand the impact of prolonged life-expectancy and how being alive does not necessarily mean having a good quality of life. I think that there is not only the stress of taking care of elderly parents, but also the anxiety associated with their own future. But of course, there are inspiring examples of older women and men who remain quite healthy, even into their 9th decade. Dr. Hank Why do so many baby boomers feel guilty if they put their parents in a nursing home? Dr. Greenberg : I think boomers feel very sad about seeing their parents suffer. We all want our parents to be strong and capable. Seeing parents decline, particularly if children did not get all that they needed when they were young, can result in unbearable grief. Care-taking of parents often is associated with a wish for a "last chance" to get what they might have missed out on. Guilt can be related to feeling pressured to provide everything for a parent, or angry feelings about having to be in charge, and/or frustration about their parent's vulnerability. Dr. Hank : What health care reforms should be made to help our aging population? Dr. Greenberg : My personal feeling is that health care should be available for all. This should include mental health care, not only because depression is under-treated in older adults, but because health care costs actually decrease when people have access to mental health services. Dr. Hank A decade from now, what will be the challenges an aging population will face? Dr. Greenberg : As this current generation of baby boomers gets older, they will be confronted with all of the things we have heard about in the media: the prospect of a longer life, uncertainties regarding health status, and for some, living with chronic illness. Supportive mental health treatment, which can help people identify the normal struggles associated with aging, will need to be more available. As clinicians, we all need to become more sensitive to depression and anxiety in older adults, as well as how to make people feel safe enough to talk about their concerns. There is still a stigma regarding seeking mental health treatment and that is a barrier we need to overcome. Dr. Hank : Thanks for taking the time to chat. My mother lives in an assisted living home so I will be sure to recommend your book to all the staff -- that way, they will understand her better! More on Health Care
 
Fall Veggies And Greens: Plant Your Own (PHOTOS) Top
September and October are great planting months for root veggies and leafy greens. Want to eat local? Give growing your own veggies a try this winter. Pick the veggie that makes your green thumb itch out of these great treats that can be planted right now. Planting and harvesting this fall? Send us photos of you in your garden, or harvesting your favorite veggies! Here's how it works: hit the participate button, leave your description of your photo and mark your location by searching for an address in the box on the top right of the map, upload your photo and hit submit. Thank you! Get HuffPost Green On Facebook and Twitter! More on Food
 
Linda Buzzell: Is There a Green Career in Your Future? Top
Modern society is based on a Big Lie: that it is possible for humans to be separate from -- and be superior to -- the rest of nature. The delusion that we can continue to suicidally trash our planetary life-support systems and exploit nature's seemingly endless resources without respect for natural limits is at the core of our many current global and economic crises. As ecological economist Herman Daly reminds us: "the economy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the environment." Destroy the environment and you remove the foundation for true prosperity. Every sector of our modern global economy is built on the shaky foundation of the Big Lie, which is why we see depletion and even collapse in so many fields -- the extraction industries, industrial-chemical agriculture, debt-based finance, factory-model education... But as the old economy starts to fade all around us, the green shoots of a new sustainable economy are pushing up through the soil -- and that's where you want to position yourself. Does your career have a future? You've seen how much things have changed in just the last 5 years. In the next 5, 10 or 20 years, will we still need someone to do what you're doing right now? I urge my career counseling clients to begin the process of transitioning from the waning old economy into the emerging sustainable world as soon as they can. But this doesn't mean that we'll all be working on organic farms, building green buildings or installing windmills -- delightful as that may sound. Here's how to start on your own career transition: choose an economic sector that interests you - perhaps banking, education, food, social services or some other area. Then ask yourself how the Big Lie has been active in this arena. How has the field become disconnected from nature, natural limits and natural ways of living? And what would this sector look like if we started to do things in a smarter, greener way? For example, in medicine the Big Lie has been that corporate-based, high-tech health care would create wellness. The assumption was that we didn't need to work in partnership with nature and our bodies in our search for healing. We just needed industrial medicine to provide an (expensive!) silver bullet when our biological "machines" broke down. But as we all now realize, old-style medicine just hasn't delivered on its promises of national good health and wellbeing. Health care became just another commodity in a market economy and Big Pharma, Big Insurance, Big high tech plus Big chemical agriculture have all put profit before health with predictable results. Yes, we've had some amazing benefits from this system (laser surgery or antibiotics, for example) but the goal of good public health has eluded us and our unsustainable medical system is nearing collapse. Even if we patch it together with Band-Aids or magically figure out how to endlessly pay for ever-more-expensive procedures and drugs, we've nearly reached the end of the road with Twentieth-Century medicine. The sustainable alternative -- truly integrative medicine where individualized, unhurried patient care is primary and high tech is a last resort, not a first choice -- is now growing rapidly. It takes a wider view of health that includes a healthy planet, healthy food, traditional healing methods and a more natural way of living. Dr. Andrew Weil is perhaps the best-known exponent of this new, sustainable medicine. But of course medicine isn't the only sector of our economy undergoing this revolution towards sustainability. Almost every occupation is in some stage of a similar transition and yours is probably one of them. To avoid becoming redundant road kill in a collapsing job economy, do your own analysis of your field so you can see the dead ends and avoid getting caught in them. Chart your course for the future by exploring or creating sustainable ways of meeting whatever basic human need your field addresses: health, education, clothing, travel, energy, family wellbeing, transportation, etc. I believe that if you position yourself at or near the "green" cutting edge of whatever arena you're in or want to be in -- you can enjoy an inspiring, meaningful career with a truly sustainable future. To learn more about green careers, read the Green Careers Resource Guide (Fall 2009) by Jim Cassio. More on Careers
 
Dave Lindorff: The Best Health 'Reform' Money Can Buy Top
When the White House or Democrats in Congress talk about health care reform, and about wanting to preserve the central role of the private insurance industry in health care, it pays to look at just what it is that they they're so anxious to preserve. According to the Health and Human Service's department's National Health Expenditures report, private insurers will pay out $854 billion in medical claims for health insurance policyholders this year. That represents about one-third of the nation's estimated $2.5-trillion medical care bill for this year. But that's not the whole story. The premiums paid for those claims payments will total $1.2 trillion, which includes $179 billion in "administrative" costs (21% or over $1 out of every $5 dollars spent on health care) and another 150 billion in profits (a tidy 15% return). That is money that was paid out in premiums by individuals and by employers (who every year are shifting more of the cost of health coverage onto employees). A big part of that $179 billion you and your employer pay for insurance company "administrative expenses" (none of which is for actual patient care) goes to fund private "death panels" whose job, as insurance company whistleblower Wendell Potter has testified in Congress, is to deny coverage to sick policyholders. And that $179 billion wasted on administration (Medicare, a federally-run program, only devotes 4% of costs to administration by way of comparison), isn't all. Doctors, hospitals and pharmacies also spend a similar sum on administrative expenses, much of it devoted to fighting to get paid by those same insurance companies. How many of us have spent hours struggling over claims forms, and getting signatures from physicians in order to get reimbursed for care, or on the phone arguing with insurance company "customer service" people on the phone, either to get reimbursed, or to get a pre-treatment authorization? Doctors, hospital administrators and pharmacists do the same thing. That's why your doctor's office has such a large staff of people who aren't there to take your pulse or blood pressure -- just to work with paper. Insurance companies, in their discussions with investment analysts, actually refer to their payouts for patient care vs. their premium take as their "medical loss ratio," a figure which they vow to improve by clamping down on "losses" (meaning benefits paid). I took a look at the latest 10-Q financial statement filed by Aetna, one of the nation's largest private health insurers. Through June 30, Aetna took in $14 billion in premiums, $10.7 billion of that amount from employers and employees, $2.9 billion more from Medicare recipients who bought a supplemental insurance plan to cover the gap in what Medicare covers, and another $400 million for handling Medicaid claims. Aetna reports that it paid out $11.9 billion in health care reimbursements, and $2.3 billion in administrative expenses (20%). By the way, this same Aetna is headed by CEO Ronald A. Williams, who earned $24.3 million in 2008 according to Forbes magazine (about the norm for insurance CEOs), as well as another $296,639 as a board member of American Express. Williams also has unexercised options on Aetna stock worth $194.5 million, according to Forbes. He owns a palatial home in Farmington, CT assessed at $1.7 million. According to Opensecrets.org, Williams has spent close to $10 million on lobbying activity for his company and the insurance industry since 2005. Somebody tell me why this is a system we not only want to keep, but that, under proposals working their way through House and Senate, would force another 40-50 million currently uninsured people, most of them low-income, to pay into, under threat of being assessed a $3800 tax penalty by the IRS if they don't buy some particularly crummy plan. Common sense says that if this insurance intermediary were removed from the process, besides Williams and the other industry CEOs and other executives losing their fat paychecks and bloated homes, planes and portfolios, the whole American healthcare system would run a lot more smoothly and cheaply. I remember back in 1990, when I was working on my book Marketplace Medicine (Bantam 1992) about the for-profit hospital industry, talking to the administrator of a Canadian hospital in Ontario. He told me he had formerly worked as a hospital administrator in the US. He reported that back then, when new less-invasive technologies, as well as reforms introduced to Medicare, had begun reducing the amount of time people were spending in hospital beds, his hospital had been able to shut an entire wing because of a declining patient census. "But one year later, we had to reopen it to accommodate all the staff needed to deal with paperwork from the insurance industry," he said. That problem has only gotten worse over the ensuing two decades. Meanwhile, this same administrator told me, "In Canada, I have only three people doing paperwork for the whole hospital: one for Canadians, and two to deal with paperwork for the occasional American tourist who gets sick or injured." Let's be clear. The only reason Congress and the White House are pushing a plan that continues to give a central role to the private insurance industry is that the private insurance industry is flooding the capital with money. It's a great investment for them. If health insurers are collectively earning $150 billion in profits in a year, and it only costs them perhaps $50 million in legal bribes to keep their scam operating, they're earning a 3000% return on investment! We would all be far better off if Congress just passed Rep. John Conyers' bill, HR 676, to expand Medicare to cover everyone. As I have explained in an earlier article , expanding Medicare would result in no net increase in taxes, and because it would eliminate insurance premiums, workers' comp and public employee health expenses while also lowering car insurance rates, not to mention lowering the prices charged by doctors, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies, also a substantial savings for all Americans. Some people worry that if we were all on Medicare, medical research would suffer. But this is a spurious fear. Much of the most important research in medical care and treatment is funded by the federal government through the National Institutes of Health. In fact, arguably, the profit motive leads industry to focus research on highly profitable, but much less urgent things, so we get research on cosmetic uses for Botox, but little or no research on finding a cure for Malaria or drug-resistant TB. Furthermore, with all the savings freed up by switching to a single-payer system there'd be more money to provide to the NIH for research. There may be a valid argument for competitive markets, say for cars or food production and distribution. But it should be abundantly clear by this point that when it comes to health care, the market doesn't work. In fact, it is perverse. The end user--your and me--will never have the information needed to make a wise decision regarding either cost or quality. Furthermore, unless we were all buying our own insurance and selecting our own doctors unimpeded by "preferred provider" or HMO lists, we are being forced to chose, if we get any choice at all, from a limited selection made available by our employers, who are motivated only by bottom-line concerns. In fact, in countries like Canada or France, which have Medicare-like single-payer systems, people have vastly more choice as to physician and hospital than any American patient. Some people also worry that a government-run single-payer insurance system, by pushing down the reimbursements to doctors and hospitals through its monopoly position as sole paymaster, would lead to a defunding of hospitals and would drive away the "best" students from choosing the medical profession. But really, if you look at what hospitals in the current "competitive" market spend much of their money on, it turns out to be cosmetic things like fancy building exteriors, pretty rooms, etc.--things that help lure patients, but that do nothing to improve patient care. As for future doctors, does anyone really think that having people go into medicine because of the prospect of earning millions of dollars and driving fancy sports cars results in better doctors than having people choose a medical career because of a passion to serve humanity, or a passion for research into curing disease? What changes is not the quality of the medical students, but their motivation. Some progressives also point out that Medicare, as popular as it is among older citizens who depend on it, and among doctors who treat them and are paid by it, is hardly ideal, covering only 60-80% of most people's medical bills. But that overlooks a key point: if everyone in America were on Medicare, there would be a huge common interest in improving the coverage. All the sturm and drang in Washington and in the media over the course of health care "reform" in Washington is really much ado about nothing. We are not getting real reform. In a replay of last year's to-do over the mess in the banking industry, we are watching our dysfunctional and corrupt government simply, to quote President Obama, "kick the can" down the road, leaving the next Congress and the next President to deal with the same disaster. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans will continue to die needlessly every year because the care they need will be denied to them by insurance companies that are focused on making as much money as possible, and by a government that has sold its soul to the health industry lobbyists. Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist. He is author of "Marketplace Medicine: The Rise of the For-Profit Hospital Chains" (Bantam Books, 1992) and more recently of "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2006). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net
 
Jamil Dakwar: Goldstone Report is Not to Be Ignored Top
Last Tuesday, after months of exhaustive research, including conducting 188 interviews and reviewing 300 reports, 10,000 pages of documents, 30 videos, and 1,200 photographs, the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict released the findings of its investigation in a thoroughly documented 575 page report. This independent mission was given a mandate by the U.N. Human Rights Council to investigate allegations of war crimes and serious violations of international human rights law committed by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups before, during, and after the military operations in Gaza between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009 that claimed the lives of more than 700 Palestinian civilians and three Israeli civilians. The mission was led by Justice Richard Goldstone, formerly a judge of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, the chief prosecutor of the United Nations' International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and a governor of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In accepting this duty, Justice Goldstone reiterated that his mission would undertake "an independent, evenhanded and unbiased investigation." The report concluded that both Israel and Palestinian armed groups perpetrated war crimes and other serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. The report also found that some of the actions carried out by Israel and Palestinian armed group may have risen to the level of crimes against humanity. Unfortunately, the Israeli government refused to cooperate with the investigation, but members of the mission had access to Gaza and heard testimony from both Palestinians and Israelis, including the Israeli Mayor of Ashkelon. The report's findings demand action by the international community, including the United States. The importance of U.S. action is elevated because the U.S. currently holds the Presidency of the U.N. Security Council, the U.N. body charged with enforcing the report's conclusions in the absence of credible internal investigations by both Israel and the de facto Hamas government in Gaza. This report provides the Obama administration a new opportunity to match its rhetoric with reality vis-à-vis a renewed U.S. commitment to international justice and to reforming U.S. foreign policy in a manner that respects, protects, nd enforces human rights around the world. Unfortunately, initial statements from the Obama administration signal an intention to maintain the Bush administration's efforts to obstruct justice for human rights violations committed by U.S. allies. Unable to challenge the factual findings in the report, U.S. officials have instead questioned the legitimacy of the mission's mandate and its recommendations. And the administration has added Israel to a growing list of those shielded from accountability through its "look forward, not backward" rhetoric, used thus far to successfully shield Bush administration officials from accountability for committing torture and other federal and international crimes. Both of these approaches were apparent on Wednesday when U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice stated: "We have very serious concerns about many of the recommendations in the report. ... [O]ur view is that we need to be focused on the future. This is a time to work to cement progress towards the resumptions of negotiations and their early and successful conclusion...." Instead of working to uphold the rule of law, the administration argues that the need to revive the "peace process" trumps the need for accountability. The Obama administration must remember that its duty to uphold the rule of law is not subject to political expediency, it is an absolute obligation. The Obama administration must also remember that peace and justice are two sides of the same coin, as Desmond Tutu noted in a March 2009 New York Times op-ed in support of the Bashir indictment by the> International Criminal Court: "there can be no real peace and security until justice is enjoyed by the inhabitants of the land." Violations of international law did not end with the cessation of Israel's military campaign last January. Israel continues to wage its crippling blockade of Gaza in violation of the laws of war. By granting Israel a perpetual exemption from upholding international human rights standards, the U.S. plays into the hands of massive human rights violators around the world, including Sudan, who argue that any attempt to hold them accountable amounts to selective enforcement of the law. If we are to have a truly universal human rights system, these double standards must stop. All must be held accountable for their actions, regardless of their status as friend or foe. Both U.S. standing in the world as well as global efforts to protect and enforce human rights will be greatly undermined if documented war crimes committed by Israel and Palestinian armed groups continue to be ignored. Justice Goldstone's fact finding mission and report provide an opportunity for the U.S. to support accountability over impunity, and reassert its leadership in the global human rights movement by standing with the victims of war crimes. The report's facts are thoroughly researched and documented, its authors carry impeccable credentials, and its conclusions are impartial. The U.S. should embrace the mission and its report as a model for how to investigate and document violations of international law, not work to subvert it. Jamil Dakwar is a human rights lawyer and former senior attorney for the Israeli human rights group Adalah. The writer is submitting this piece in his personal capacity and not as an ACLU staff member. More on United Nations
 
SNL Mocks Governor Paterson (VIDEO, POLL) Top
SNL's Weekend Update targeted Governor Paterson again last night, this time over his being asked to step aside in the 2010 governor's race. In the comedy bit, Fred Armisen as Paterson likens his accidental ascension to governor to "finding one of those magical monkey paws that grants wishes -- I was psyched to get it but then horrible things started happening right away." For those who feel that Armisen's portrayal of Paterson has been offensive to the blind, last night won't change any minds. Paterson is mocked throughout for his sight-deficiency, including the idea that when in DC, he would try to stick his "ATM card into the Vietnam Memorial." WATCH: More on SNL
 
Twitter's Growth: Has It Peaked? Top
Its growth probably played a big part in Twitter's recent $1 billion valuation via a staggering $100 million investment. However, an analysis from web stats firm Hitwise may indicate that this investment was a bad idea, as the numbers indicate that Twitter has hit a growth ceiling. What do you think? Are you already over the Twitter craze? Comment below or shoot us an email: technology@huffingtonpost.com. More on Twitter
 
Natalie Holder-Winfield: Managing the Kanye West and Joe Wilson in Your Workplace Top
September seemed like the month where we should have been sending some adults back to school--obedience school. We had Kanye West, the self-appointed arbiter of good music, snatching microphones out of MTV music award winners' hands. We had Joe Wilson, today's most popular Congressman from South Carolina, who broke the rules of decorum in the House of Representatives to call President Obama a liar. These outrageous acts of incivility are not confined to rappers and politicians. From the cashier who talks on her cellular telephone while ringing up your store purchases to the jerk who cut you off in traffic, there all sorts of tell-tale signs that rudeness is becoming the norm in our society. But what happens when we're trapped in a workplace, for eight or more hours a day, with people who constantly ignore (or don't care about) the boundaries of impropriety? From annoying gadflies to bully bosses, today's workplace is a breeding ground for the rude and the thoughtless. Earlier in my career, I had the displeasure of working with a bully manager. I remember the pit in my stomach I felt everyday I went to work. I don't know what sadistic school of management he attended, but his philosophies included having an "us" versus "them" approach, yelling, and taking advantage of every opportunity to belittle and embarrass his staff. While we may laugh at Kanye and Joe's antics, bad behavior in the workplace can be toxic and expensive. According to the Corporate Leavers: The Cost of Employee Turnover Due Solely to Unfairness in the Workplace study conducted by the Level Playing Field Institute, unfairness costs U.S. employers $64 billion on an annual basis -a price tag nearly equivalent to the 2006 combined revenues of Google, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks and Amazon or the gross domestic product of the 55th wealthiest country in the world. Much of that $64 million price tag represents the costs of losing valued employees, training new employees and sometimes even lawsuits. Remember that bully boss I mentioned? Well, he lost 85% of his staff within three years. And then we have tragic situations where workplace incivility leads to workplace violence. Earlier this month, the country was gripped by the story of a promising Yale Medical School student who was allegedly strangled by a controlling lab technician. There needs to be a return to direct rather than passive management. During the 1980's we moved away from micro-managing, but now the pendulum has swung so far in the opposite direction that managers forgot how to manage. They don't share their workplace expectations; they don't get involved in workplace disputes. Managers need to not only correct incivility in the workplace, but they need to also make every effort to detect it. If Kanye or Joe were my employees, I would have reprimanded them, counseled them, documented the incidents, and given a strong warning. I guarantee that by taking a no nonsense approach, they would think twice about engaging in misconduct and having another run in with me.
 
Mark Weisbrot: How Much Repression Will Hillary Clinton Support in Honduras? Top
Now that President Zelaya has returned to Honduras, the coup government - after first denying that he was there - has unleashed a wave of repression to prevent people from gathering support for their elected president. This is how U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the first phase of this new repression last night in a press conference: "I think that the government imposed a curfew, we just learned, to try to get people off the streets so that there couldn't be unforeseen developments." But the developments that this dictatorship is trying to repress are very much foreseen. A completely peaceful crowd of thousands surrounded the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where Zelaya has taken refuge, to greet their president. The military then used the curfew as an excuse to tear-gas, beat, and arrest the crowd until there was nothing left. There are reports of scores wounded and three dead. The dictatorship has cut off electricity and water to the embassy, and cut electricity to what little is left of the independent media, as well as some neighborhoods. This is how the dictatorship has been operating. It has a very brutal but simple strategy. The strategy goes like this: they control the national media, which has been deployed to convince about 30-40 percent of the population that their elected President is an agent of a foreign government and seeks to turn the country into a socialist prison. However, that still leaves the majority who have managed to find access to other information. The strategy for dealing with them has been to try to render them powerless: through thousands of arrests, beatings, and even some selective killings. This has been documented, reported, and denounced by major human rights organizations throughout the world: Amnesty International , the Center for Justice and International Law , Human Rights Watch , the Inter American Commission on Human Rights and others. One important actor, the only major country to maintain an ambassador in Honduras throughout the dictatorship, has maintained a deafening silence about this repression: that is the United States government. The Obama administration has not uttered one word about the massive human rights violations in Honduras. This silence by itself tells you all that you need to know about what this administration has really been trying to accomplish in the 87 days since the Honduran military squelched democracy. The Obama team understands exactly how the coup government is maintaining its grip on power through violence and repression. And President Obama, along with his Secretary of State, has shown no intention to undermine this strategy. In fact, President Zelaya has been to Washington six times since he was overthrown, but not once did he get a meeting with President Obama. Why is that? Most likely because Obama does not want to send the "wrong" signal to the dictatorship, i.e. that the lip service that he has paid to Zelaya's restoration should be taken seriously. These signals are important because the Honduran dictatorship is digging in its heels on the bet that they don't have to take any pressure from Washington seriously. They have billions of dollars of assets in the United States, which could be frozen or seized. But the dictatorship, for now, trusts that the Obama team is not going to do anything to hurt their allies. The head of the Organization of American States' Inter-American Human Rights Commission, Luz Mejias, had a different view of the dictatorship's curfew from that of Hillary Clinton. She called it "a clear violation of human rights and legal norms" and said that those who ordered these measures should be charged under international criminal law. What possible excuse can the military have for breaking up this peaceful gathering, or can Ms. Clinton have for supporting the army's violence? There was no way that this crowd was a threat to the Brazilian embassy - quite the contrary, if anything it was protecting the embassy. That is one reason why the military attacked the crowd. On August 11, sixteen members of the U.S. Congress sent a letter to President Obama urging him to "publicly denounce the use of violence and repression of peaceful protestors, the murder of peaceful political organizers and all forms of censorship and intimidation directed at media outlets." They are still waiting for an answer. Some might recall what happened to President Bill Clinton when his administration sent mixed signals to the dictatorship in Haiti in 1994. President Clinton had called for the dictator Raul Cedras to step down, so that the democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide could be restored. But Cedras was convinced - partly because of contradictory statements from administration officials like Brian Latell of the CIA - that Clinton was not serious. Even after Jimmy Carter, Colin Powell, and then Senator Sam Nunn were sent to Haiti to try to persuade Cedras to leave before a promised U.S. invasion - the dictator still did not believe it. In September of 1994 President Clinton sent 20,000 troops to topple the dictatorship and restore the elected president (who ironically was overthrown again in 2004, in a U.S.-instigated coup). By now, the coup government in Honduras has even less reason than the 1994 Haitian dictatorship to believe that the Obama team will do anything serious to remove them from power. What a horrible, ugly message the Obama administration is sending to the democracies of Latin America, and to people that aspire to democracy everywhere. This column was published by The Guardian Unlimited on September 23, 2009. More on Honduras Coup
 
G-20 Spouses Tour Pittsburgh Arts School, Lunch At Warhol Museum (PHOTOS) Top
*Scroll down for photos* By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, Associated Press PITTSBURGH - Comparing the arts to a form of diplomacy, first lady Michelle Obama on Friday promoted arts education while treating her counterparts to tours of two of this city's leading cultural institutions. The first stop for Mrs. Obama and the spouses of world leaders attending an economic summit was the Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts School, where students major in dance, music, theater and other creative arts. "We are here because I wanted to introduce them to some of America's finest, most creative, most accomplished young people. I wanted to showcase the value of arts education and you put that on display," Mrs. Obama told hundreds of CAPA students called to the auditorium for a special concert she organized. Arts education, she said, helps youngsters discover their voices and develop their talents. "This should be an opportunity that is available for every single child in this nation, and quite frankly around the world," Mrs. Obama said. She noted the long-standing practice in which world leaders' spouses share the arts. "We share our music, we share our dance, we share our culture," Mrs. Obama said. "It is a form of diplomacy in which we can all take part." Students and spouses were treated to a sizzling, half-hour show with performances by cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who was accompanied by a CAPA student studying percussion. Country superstar Trisha Yearwood sang "How Will I Live," and singer-songer writer Sara Bareilles belted out her popular hit "Love Song." Before the show, the spouses broke into small groups and dropped into classrooms to watch student rehearsals. Mrs. Obama watched as students performed scenes from the play "Porgy & Bess" in one classroom, and heard a female vocalist sing "I Dream a Dream" in another room. The spouses also posed for a group photo. Mrs. Obama stood in between Margarita Zavala of Mexico and Marisa Leticia da Silva of Brazil. Spouses also were invited to take a tour and eat lunch at the Andy Warhol Museum. The seven-story museum houses the art collection and archives of the late 20th century pop artist and Pittsburgh native. The spouses will get a chance to try the silk-screen printing technique Warhol popularized, and peruse items from one of more than 600 cardboard "time-capsule" boxes Warhol used to store his keepsakes. In one of those boxes, archivists found $17,000 in cash. The big discovery in another box was a piece of crusty cake from Caroline Kennedy's 1986 wedding to Edwin Schlossberg. On Thursday, Mrs. Obama opened two days of spouse events by sharing her passion for eating locally grown food. She treated the group to dinner at Rosemont Farm, which is owned by Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. She also is the widow of Sen. John Heinz, R-Pa., of the Heinz ketchup family. The working farm grows produce and raises livestock. Salad greens and apples grown there were on the menu for the private dinner on the property located in Fox Chapel, just outside of Pittsburgh. The women ate at a long, rectangular table with Mrs. Obama seated between the spouses from Brazil and Indonesia, Ani Bambang Yudhoyono. The ladies were joined by Heinz Kerry, White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and Susan Sher, Mrs. Obama's chief of staff. Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook ! More on Michelle Obama
 
Fawn Germer: Asinine Lessons From the Dish Room Top
David Bailey hated it when people would tell him the day would come when he'd see his adversity as the best thing that ever happened to him. "What an asinine, terrible thing to say," he says. Months later, he tells this story without realizing that he keeps recounting all of the things he's learned and done since the day he was laid off at age 61. Not long after he left his job as executive editor of Sky magazine for Delta Airlines, he sent me an e-mail that ended with this bombshell: "Did I tell you that I'm going to start work as a dishwasher in a fancy French restaurant here on April Fool's Day?" I was dumbstruck. He was one of the most talented journalists I'd ever worked with and a larger-than-life character. I could not believe this gifted man was going to wash dishes for $9.50 an hour. His story has a happy ending. He was promoted to cook. And then, to something much better. But, it's the lessons learned in the middle that are worth sharing. When we talked last night, he'd just come back from a fine dinner at the French restaurant where he'd been the dishwasher. He'd just dined on beef bourguignon on the terrace by candlelight, but before leaving, he stopped back by the dish room to visit two men from Niger, with whom he'd washed dishes. "I hugged them both. They said, 'When are you coming back?' I had a stab in my heart. That's the thing about a kitchen. You have this relationship with these people and it's just like being in the newsroom. You are working extremely hard. You are producing something excellent. It feels good." That was more important to him than taking time off, collecting unemployment and coming up with a new career strategy. "I just had to get back to work," he said. "The real irony of unemployment is it robs you of your ability to do the thing that makes you feel good about yourself," he said. "Taking a job that may not be, in many peoples' view, worthy of my skills, gave me a place to go and a thing to do to validate myself and feel good about myself. That was a good thing. It gave me a community of people I could be around. Those people are still good friends. They are still very important to me." When he started this odyssey, he feared he would lose his house. Now, he says, "If I'd lost the house, I would have gotten over that." He didn't find the comedown from the white-collar world to the kitchen sink demeaning in the slightest. "What's demeaning about washing people's dishes and cooking people's food? What's demeaning about cleaning a toilet? I don't find it demeaning. We were put on the planet to serve others." He's not defensive when he says this. It comes from his heart. The French restaurant where David worked is owned by Dennis Quaintance, a man who was fascinated by his willingness to start out at the bottom. Most of the people who wanted to work for Quaintance in a transition capacity wanted to walk in and be maître d' or sous chef.  David just wanted to work and learn the business - even if it meant pushing a broom. In time, Quaintance promoted him to be marketing director for his company, which also includes two Greensboro, N.C. hotels. One of the hotels houses the restaurant where David started. "I've had people tell me that, 'We knew you'd come out on top.' Well, damn. I didn't. I was worried. I'm still not comfortable. But, maybe that's good. Maybe we're not meant to be comfortable." He's not making half of what he once made, but you can hear excitement when he talks about the company's efforts to make the Proximity Hotel profitable and sustainable. "Sustainability is a metaphor for my entire life," he says. I wanted to live a sustainable life. I never wanted to be rich, but I wanted to be sustainable. When this whole thing came down, I was unsustainable. I was a person who could not sustain my family." But, he did. And he sustained himself. Not such an asinine lesson, after all.
 
Will Durst: How Not to Get the Swine Flu Top
Well, look at the time. Aren't we expecting the Return of the Bride of the Son of the Swine Flu pretty soon? That's right. It's Baaaaack and this time, its personal. Scientists predict the virus will be worse this swing through Northern Hemisphere, but come on, no matter how bad it gets, it's still not going to be 1919. After all, our public water supply systems have undergone a bit of an upgrade over the last 90 years. "Now, With Less Dysentery!" Of course, with the return of the H1N1 virus, (don't want to disparage our proud American pork producers) we are mere nanoseconds away from being inundated with literally three tons of articles on how not to contract it. So, let me assist by being the first to throw out a quick purview. Top 10 Tips on How Not to Get the Swine Flu: A Public Service From DurstCo Wash your hands. If soap and water aren't available, use an alcohol-based rub. Single Malt Scotch should do the trick. Keep that larynx clean as well. Wear a mask. If you can't find one of those scrub masks, use a Halloween mask. What's a pandemic without a little fun? A Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner mask might prove effective enough to frighten the swine flu away. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it, or collect them and construct a sort of swine shrine. Or wipe the doorknob and garage door handle of that annoying radical neighbor of yours. Drink plenty of fluids. Preferably domestic beer. Or Single Malt Scotch. Didn't we just talk about how alcohol inhibits bacteria growth? Throw everything out. No, everything. Clutter causes confusion. And as any medical expert will tell you, confusion leads to the flu. Sleep is good. Try to find a way to sleep at work. A rested employee is not a communicable employee. The CDC recommends a seasonal flu vaccine. As a matter of fact, try to stockpile as many drugs as you can. Flush your body with drugs and environmentally friendly antimicrobials. And Single Malt Scotch. Safe and easy and practical to use. Wear light colors. No, wait, that's for heat advisories. But still applies to the flu, because that way we can see all the various effluviums accumulating on peoples' clothing and know whom to avoid. Stay away from sick people. In other words, don't watch Glenn Beck. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. And arms and feet and hair. And shoes and surfaces and fabrics. Get nude. Repeat after me, "Naked is safe. Naked in the bathroom is safer. Naked in the tub curled into a fetal position covered with a hypoallergenic salve is safest." Will Durst is a San Francisco based political comic who writes sometimes. This is one of them. Catch his new one man show "The Lieutenant Governor from the State of Confusion," appearing at a performing arts center near you.
 
Kamala Lopez: Could Michael Moore Know Why Women Are Unhappy? Top
In Michael Moore's new film Capitalism: A Love Story , Ronald Reagan slaps a woman so hard across the face that there were audible gasps in the audience. Granted, this was an old film clip and Reagan was "acting" but Moore was making the point that along with cozying up to Wall Street in a manner heretofore unseen, Reagan also reversed the forty year Republican position on the Equal Rights Amendment, dashing the hopes of women across America. The women's movement had been in full adrenaline overdrive for almost two decades and federally protected equality had been tantalizingly close when, in 1982, the ERA fell three states short of ratification. I believe in that moment the country delivered a body blow to both the movement and the collective psyche of the American woman that we are still reeling from. Twenty-seven years later, eighty-six years after Alice Paul drafted it, women in the United States of America still do not have equal rights under the constitution. Well, I'll admit I'm not a constitutional lawyer or a feminist scholar. I'm not even a shrink or a psychic. But I've got something of a hunch about why women, as a group, are unhappy . We've done a great job indoctrinating ourselves to put others first -- even in the "macro" abstracted realm of equal rights. If this were any other group being denied equal rights we would be out there fighting for justice tooth and nail, but because it's us... gosh, we don't want to make a fuss -- we're fine, really, we'll get by. But, ladies, by dropping the pressure on our government to provide the majority of its citizens with the protection of equal rights under the law, we women are complicit in this unjust status quo. By allowing this injustice to persist we are betraying not just our sex but also the ideals this country was built on. Here is the language of the ERA: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification." Am I really in the minority in finding this modest paragraph self-evident and indisputable? I find alternately surreal and deeply disturbing that there were people out there who thought it would be the end of civilization should the ERA pass, and actively torpedoed it. Why is this still even a question? Aren't all people supposed to be equal in the U.S.? Aren't women people? What on earth is going on here? The answer lies, as with so many areas of trouble and decay in our society in the calculated and deliberate obfuscation in place, either legal or institutional, that creates the Orwellian nightmare that is the new America. Sure, everyone should be equal, and they are , we are assured; there are other laws protecting women, states laws, Title VII, Title IX, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, on and on, it doesn't need to be federal - this is not the time! Don't we have enough problems to deal with in this country? Why bring the big bad Federal Government in on this? It's working fine the way it is! But here's the thing: upon closer scrutiny, it's not . The common wisdom to leave the protection of women's rights to the states and/or rely on the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment in cases of sexual discrimination leaves justice for women in the hands of a constantly shifting jurisprudence. And we know how quickly things can change in that milieu - Ashcroft, anyone, Gonzales? There are so many loopholes and gray areas in relying on this patchwork of laws that the possibility of discrimination, and legal protection for those engaged in it in the private sector, is practically assured (see below for footnote on excellent article). "Properly interpreted, an equal rights amendment would be a permanent guarantee of basic human rights for women," said previous NOW President Kim Gandy. "With such an amendment to the Constitution, our fundamental rights and liberties would no longer be subject to the ever-changing political cycles." Simply put -- are women, should women be equal or not? Not implicitly equal. Not equal in New York state but not so much in Georgia. Not equal in every area as compared to men. Just equal, plain and simple? If the answer is simply yes, then why oh why is passing this amendment such a big deal? If the answer is no, women are somehow less equal than every other group protected by the US Constitution - let's just get that out there on the table. I would very much like to see which of our Senators and members of Congress are willing to stand up and make that statement to the one hundred and fifty two million of us of the "gentler" sex. We must stop skirting the issue and make an unequivocal statement that eliminates misinterpretation. We must, collectively, make this statement: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. On July 21st of this year, Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney reintroduced the ERA, as has happened each year since 1982. This year, however, it needs to be ratified. Let's give her the support she needs by pressuring our representatives to join with her in co-sponsoring it and put it to a vote. I'd say eighty six years is just about long enough, wouldn't you? Call it my woman's intuition, but I think that might make us happy. [referenced article in the Rutgers Law Journal: STATE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENTS REVISITED: EVALUATING THEIR EFFECTIVENESS IN ADVANCING PROTECTION AGAINST SEX DISCRIMINATION by Linda J. Wharton ] More on Capitalism: A Love Story
 
Joe Cirincione: Outmaneuvering Iran Top
Obama knew all along that Iran had a secret uranium factory. He may be more of a master strategist than his foes--and even his friends--have realized. The key to understanding today's announcement on Iran is this: President Obama knew about the secret Iranian facility nine months ago. Before he began his strategy of engagement, he knew Iran was lying about its program. When he extended his hand in friendship, he knew Iran had built a secret factory to enrich uranium. Before he offered direct talks, he knew Iran was hiding a nuclear weapons breakout capability. Each move was denounced as "weak" and "naïve" by the right. That talk looks foolish today. These were the moves of chess master, carefully positioning pieces on the board, laying a trap, and springing it at the opportune moment. We now know that Obama was not acting on impulse, or philosophy or general principles, but on deep strategy. He knew better than his critics that Ahmadinejad could not be trusted. He just had a better plan for how to deal with him. Obama is now well positioned to unite world leaders in a long-term strategy to back Iran away from nuclear weapons. While some nations mistrusted the previous administration--fearing a repeat of the Iraq War--they have more confidence in Obama. They don't believe he will use military force, except as a last resort. Meanwhile, Obama's missile defense decision--a move that puts more military assets in position more quickly against the Iranian missiles--not only increases the pressure on Iran but allows Russia to move closer to the U.S. position without appearing to be buckling to America. Obama's open hand also undercut Ahmadinejad at home. Previously, he was able to use the nuclear program as a nationalist rallying cry, posing as the warrior president defending the nation against Western attack. He kept the reform movement down and IAEA inspectors out. Obama's strategy of engagement has foiled Ahmadenejad, allowing the forces of reform to surge in Iran. Without the threat of a US attack, Iranian opposition leaders have more freedom of movement and are less vulnerable to the government claims that they are tools of US imperialism. Internationally, Obama is restoring American credibility. By pushing the military option with Iran to the back of the table, he increases support for sanctions. By proposing a balanced, comprehensive nuclear policy strategy, backed unanimously at the United Nations Security Council this week, he increases support for tough measures against those that cheat on their treaty obligations. Obama has now backed Iran into a corner. The solution will not be easy or quick, however. A great deal depends on getting Russia and China to agree to tougher sanctions. There are options that Europe and the US could employ without them, but their agreement to UN sanctions would greatly increase the financial and diplomatic pressure on Iran. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking with Obama and French President Sarkozy this morning, laid down a December deadline for sanctions. The obvious solution is for Iran to agree to intrusive inspections. Let the IAEA inspectors into all sites; give them access to all records; give them access to all scientists. If possible, we want a suspension of the program--both construction and operations. All of this is now more likely than at any time in the past few years. We will know soon, within the next few months, if Obama's sophisticated, comprehensive approach is working. For now, we have a new appreciation of Obama, the strategist. More on Barack Obama
 
John Doolittle Named As Co-Conspirator In Corruption Case Top
Federal prosecutors named ex-Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) as a co-conspirator Thursday in the public corruption case against former House aide-turned-lobbyist Kevin Ring. The government included Doolittle, who has not been charged with wrongdoing, on a list of 11 co-conspirators filed Thursday. Prosecutors indicated they intend to submit statements from those individuals during Ring's trial, currently under way in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. More on GOP
 
John J. Castellani: Putting American Jobs, Competitiveness, and Economic Health First Top
As America continues on the path to a full and robust economic recovery, business leaders are working alongside President Obama and Congress to forge a path forward, create new jobs, and usher in a new era of economic health. Public policy can serve as an important catalyst for recovery or severely damage the momentum the economy seems to be gaining. It is important that we build on this momentum and establish a foundation for long-term, sustainable growth that will benefit American workers. During these fragile economic times, we need policies that foster growth; however, the current proposal to raise taxes on American companies that do business overseas by an estimated $200 billion over 10 years will do just the opposite. Companies from almost all other industrialized nations are not required to pay taxes on international revenues to their home nations. Instead, they operate under territorial tax systems in which they pay corporate income taxes only in the country where revenues are earned. In stark contrast, the U.S. employs a worldwide tax system -- earnings are taxed where revenues are earned, and then taxed again in the U.S. To compensate for this double taxation, which places American companies at a disadvantage with foreign rivals, the U.S. has created a system of accounting rules and deferrals meant to help maintain a level playing field. It is this system that is under attack. The current proposed changes to the tax code for American global companies would risk much of our economic recovery to date, putting in jeopardy our jobs, the ability of American businesses to compete, and the health of our economy -- something that benefits all of us. Without deferrals -- the mechanism that balances U.S. corporate taxes against foreign tax systems -- American companies would have fewer dollars to reinvest back home. The new rules would also limit the flexibility of U.S. businesses to redeploy capital to geographic areas that show the most promise for growth (through the so-called "check-the-box" tax option) and eliminate vital foreign tax credits. Why does this matter? Because overseas expansion supports thousands of companies and millions of jobs here at home. Administrative, financial, marketing, and even manufacturing jobs in the U.S. support -- and benefit from -- operations in other countries; in fact, research indicates that overseas expansion tends to correspond to domestic job creation. On the flip side, restricting deferral, or the availability of foreign tax credits for that matter, would put real pressure on many businesses to not just trim expenses, including those associated with employing workers in well-paying jobs in the U.S., but also to compensate for lost revenues by increasing the prices of the goods and services they produce. In other words, the real cost of this proposed tax change would be an increase in wholesale and consumer prices -- something that would impact virtually every American. That is not something that the business community wants; we do not believe it is something that Americans in general or our elected representatives in our nation's capital want, either. The business community understands that the federal government must attend to its balance sheet. But we also know that with some of the country's best minds engaged in determining how best to do that, it is a goal that can be accomplished without putting at risk the real economic gains that we, working with President Obama and Congress, have achieved in recent weeks and months. Congress should reject these proposed tax changes -- an effective tax increase--in favor of sensible reforms as part of broader federal tax reform effort. Together, we can promote job growth here in the U.S., the competitiveness of American businesses, and the long-term health of our economy. More on Economy
 
Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson: Climate Change: Making Anxiety an Asset Top
Complex problems and anxious people are a bad combination. And right now that sums up the nation's political agenda for the rest of the year: health care, climate change, immigration and the economy all have the public both confused and scared. But at least when it comes to climate change and energy, the debate doesn't have to play out as badly as it has for health care. Properly channeled, anxiety can be an asset. We're not talking about scaring people into going along with the government's plans, as arguably happened with the "war on terrorism." Neither are we talking about mustering an army of the anxious to block anything that's proposed, as seems to be happening on health care. That is a Marxist strategy, and we mean Groucho, not Karl. Groucho famously vowed " Whatever it is, I'm against it ." But that didn't even turn into good policy for fictitious Huxley College. There's plenty of anxiety out there on energy -- along with a vast span of misinformation and lack of knowledge -- but for clever coalition-builders (which we hope includes the leaders at the United Nations summit this week), there's also a lot to work with. When our organization, Public Agenda , conducted its Energy Learning Curve survey of Americans, we found they fell naturally into four broad categories : the Anxious (40 percent), the Greens (24 percent), the Disengaged (19 percent) and the Climate Change Doubters (17 percent). The Anxious don't know much about energy issues, but they know enough to be worried. Almost all of this group worries "a lot" about the cost of energy (91 percent); They report higher levels of worry than the other groups on scarcity and on increased worldwide demand for oil. Global warming is a lesser concern, but even here 69 percent say it's real and 54 percent say they worry "a lot" about it. The Greens are the most knowledgeable. They rarely give "don't know" answers, and they're the only group that said that drilling offshore in Alaska would not eliminate our need for foreign oil (79 percent, compared with 43 percent overall). Next to the Anxious group, they are the most concerned about the United States' dependence on foreign oil and on global warming. They also engage in many energy-saving behaviors, and they're already convinced that sacrifices will be needed to solve energy problems. The Disengaged are, well, disengaged. They don't know very much about the problem, but then again they're not that worried about it either. Not only do they rate poorly on the knowledge questions in the survey, but they have higher "don't know" responses. Twenty-two percent, for example, have no view about the existence or causes of global warming. Climate Change Doubters actually know quite a bit about energy issues, but they're just not buying the idea of global warming, caused by humans. Their energy approach favors drilling for oil and building more nuclear power plants. When asked to choose between protecting the environment and economic growth, for example, the Doubters choose growth by an overwhelming 80 percent. They oppose any measure that might increase taxes or direct costs to the consumer. One thing ought to leap right out from this breakdown is that none of these groups is a majority by itself. And if you subscribe to the Willie Sutton philosophy of life (Why do you rob banks? Because that's where the money is), you can easily see that the one group that matters most are the Anxious. They're the largest single block -- 4 out of every 10 Americans -- and they could go either way. The other is that the defining characteristic of the Anxious is that they are so worried about so many things that they make Buster on Arrested Development look relaxed . A lot of environmentalists seem convinced that the key to success in this debate is making everyone else as concerned about climate change as they are. That's actually no help in persuading the Anxious; they're already worried about it and convinced it's real. But they're also worried about everything else. Nine in 10 worry "a lot" about increases in fuel prices, and three-quarters think oil prices will rise because of scarcity. Making sure there's enough energy to go around, and at a price that people can afford, are even more important to this group. The good news is that there's room for coalition-building . People can approach a problem from entirely different perspectives and still end up at the same place. The Anxious are actually strongly supportive of alternative energy, ranging from ethanol to solar, and they strongly favor conservation over exploration. So do the Greens. But the rationales are different -- Greens favor alternative energy because it's clean; the Anxious favor it because they want to stretch the supply. Someone with a much different approach to governing than Groucho Marx, Lyndon Johnson, once said that if you can't walk into a room and know who's for you and who's against you, you don't belong in politics. Our organization does a lot of citizen engagement, and we've found a slightly tweaked version of that quote very helpful in thinking about it, namely, that you have the address the concerns people bring into the room with them. You can try to tell them not to worry, or to worry about something else, but unless they believe you're addressing what they were worried about in the first place, you're not going to get past it. Anxiety isn't always bad. It can be a great motivator. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter so much whether you're worried about climate change or nervous about imported oil, the key point is that this country is way too reliant on fossil fuels , and developing alternatives and ramping up efficiency handily addresses both problems. More on Climate Change
 
15 Iraqi Soldiers Killed In Accidental Blast Top
MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) �" Fifteen Iraqi soldiers were killed accidentally during what were meant to be controlled explosions in a town outside the northern city of Mosul on Friday, a defence ministry official said. More on Iraq
 
Paul Slansky: This Preposterous Week In Review! Top
Blitzer, Wolf • crushing defeat of on Jeopardy (finishing with minus $4600!) makes for some mighty entertaining viewing if you're the kind of person who finds a pompous anchorman revealing his howling ignorance (Jesus was born in Jerusalem ?) amusing Blunt, Representative Roy • Values Voter Summit is regaled by with story comparing President Obama and his fellow Democrats to jungle monkeys, but hey, it's not like anything racist was meant by Bush, George W. • former aides to attempt to discredit memoir by former speechwriter for, many of the sweetest details from which can be found here and here and here • imagined reminiscences of Cameron, Kirk • video promoting an altered creationist version of Origin of Species -- a version containing an introduction citing "Darwin's racism" and "his disdain for women" and tossing in an obligatory link to Hitler -- is narrated by, and made fun of, and made more fun of Cantor, Representative Eric • fool is made of self by with the suggestion that an uninsured cancer-ridden woman should just find some charitable organization to pay for her operation Coburn, Senator Tom • Values Voters Summit is told by chief of staff for that pre-teen boys hate homosexuals more than anyone else does, and that "all pornography is homosexual pornography," so if you explain that to them they won't want to read Playboy , and -- oh, just read it for yourself Corzine, Governor Jon • obesity of opponent of is none-too-subtly pointed out in ad for DeLay, Tom • booty of is shaken and "Wild Thing" is lip-synched and air-guitared to by, after which daughter of urges viewers to repeatedly vote for "to keep him on the show that he's enjoying so much!" Dylan, Bob • surreality of upcoming Christmas album by can be experienced here Edwards, John • preternatural caddishness of Egypt • slaughter of all the pigs in turns out to have been not such a brilliant idea FBI • extreme displeasure of with New York City detectives who blew the cover on a major counterterrorism investigation by Finke, Nikki • profusion of excuses by for occasionally sporadic postings of Fiorina, Carly • Web site for senatorial race of -- "Carlyfornia dreamin'!!!" -- is not respectfully received For much more, including some serious dirt-dishing by Mackenzie Phillips, click here . More on Week In Review
 
Karen Salmansohn: How 'Doing Good' Makes You Sexier Top
Note: The following is adapted from the Deepak-Chopra-touted-Jon-Stewart-humor-approved-new-love-boosting-book Prince Harming Syndrome -- which you can check out more about at http://notsalmon.com/prince-harming/ .............................................................. Want to be happier in love? Want to attract better partners? Follow Aristotle's big secret to a happier life: Do actions you are proud of! It's Like This: You might think you can get away with being naughty not nice -- but your soul will always know when you misbehave. Your soul will always know the truth about what you are doing -- or not doing -- even if nobody else knows. It's as if your soul is a constant candid camera recording the reality of your life wherever you go. If you're naughty too often -- you will become an unhappy person with low self-esteem -- and thereby you will on a subconscious level feel as if you are NOT worthy of a high level true love! Listen up! Aristotle said it well when he said: "Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them." Meaning? There is no way to dupe your soul! Hence it's highly worthwhile to consistently choose morally right actions your soul can be proud of! Aristotle's #1 secret for happiness both in life and in love: Be goddamn virtuous! Unfortunately, here in America this big secret for overall happiness seems to be remaining a big secret. Too many people have sold their souls -- winding up with what I jokingly refer to as "soulds"! With these "soulds" of theirs, people pursue instantaneous indulgence gratification in the form of lying, hurting others, drugging, overeating, cheating in business, cheating in love, winning at any/all costs at the costs of others. BUT -- the cost these people with "soulds" are paying is a high one: unfulfilling love lives, low self-esteem and rampant depression! Aristotle was a big believer that every time you behaved immorally -- performing actions your soul was not proud of -- you tarnished your "sould." Aristotle went on to say that the worst shape your soul became in -- the worst shape your mood and self esteem. Basically, you cannot be a happy, confident person if you don't nurture your soul with actions your soul can be proud of! The larger and more frequent your unsoulful acts (i.e., being unkind, ungenerous, inconsiderate, immoral) the more tarnished your "sould" -- and the deeper your sadness and lesser your self assurance. In Summary: Although you might think you can get away with being unkind, ungenerous, inconsiderate and immoral -- you can never lie to your soul. In my opinion, this bad "sould" versus good soul theory of happiness is why Prozak and Zoloft don't truly work long-term on many people -- that is people without true chemical imbalances. It's Like This: If you take these happiness pills, and don't change your life for the soul-nurturing better, you're simply making superficial changes in your brain chemistry. Prozak and Zoloft might be able to temporarily fool your brain chemistry into believing you are a happy person. Unfortunately, Prozak and Zoloft do not work on your soul! Unless you start to create major soul-nurturing life changes while on these happiness pills, you will remain an unhappy person. IN SUMMARY TO MY PREVIOUS SUMMARY: Emotions are messages - they are there to guide us to keep doing more actions we are proud of -- so as to keep on feeling as happy as possible on the inside. Yes - positive emotions are our reward for consciously choosing to do actions we are proud of us - and grow into our highest potential selves. And according to Aristotle, we feel our most happiness when we are in what he called "a relationship of shared virtue" - a relationship where each partner inspires the other to grow into their highest potential self -- a relationship in which you will feel worthy of pursuing -- and excited to pursue - if you already value becoming your highest potential self! Capiche? If you want to capiche this even more - check out the Deepak-Chopra-touted-Jon-Stewart-humor-approved-new-love-boosting-book this passage is adapted from -- Prince Harming Syndrome -- which you can check out more about at http://notsalmon.com/prince-harming/ More on Jon Stewart
 
Liz Glover: Liz Glover Chats with Fox News' Interplanetary Correspondent Top
Liz Glover Chats with GWAR's Oderus Urungus, Fox News Interplanetary Correspondent . More on Bill O'Reilly
 
Sen. Fritz Hollings: One Troop Top
In his imposition of tariffs on imported tires from China, President Obama stated: "We are not going to see a trade war." We have been in a trade war since World War II, when Japan closed its domestic market, subsidized its manufacture, and sold its export at cost, making up the profit in its closed market. Japan, with its closed market, has Toyota No. 1 as GM, in an open, free trade market, goes bankrupt. Thirty million now unemployed didn't just lose their jobs in this recession, but to the off-shoring of production and jobs by Corporate America for a bigger profit. Globalization is nothing more than a trade war with production looking for a cheaper country to produce. Competition in this trade war is cut-throat. Japan prevents its advanced technology from being patented for fear that China will rip it off. After fifty years of free trade agreements, just read the 547-page 2009 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers that sixty-three countries have against U. S. exports. "Free trade" is a fraud! Of course, the President knows we are in a trade war. But Axelrod tells him that he has to call for "free trade" to get the contributions from the bailout and bonus crowd - Wall Street, the big banks, the financial houses, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Business Roundtable, etc. Larry Summers has the Obama administration concentrating solely on finance with no attention to production, jobs, and the economy. Newsweek reports: "It took $19 trillion in public funds to save the financial system." But the greedy financial system wants to save only the jobs of the investment community. They are openly hostile to saving jobs of the production community. They and their economists call for "free trade, don't start a trade war," in which we are presently AWOL. The bailout and bonus crowd could care less about the economy. They act as a fifth column in the trade war. Banks get rich financing off-shored operations. Since 1973, Chase Manhattan has made most of its profits off-shore. Accordingly, David Rockefeller in The New York Times calls for "fast track" and states: "...our economy is richer as a result of globalization." Rockefeller and the banks are richer -- but the economy is poorer. A command decision must be made to come in from the cold in the trade war - and trade. Stop whining "free trade," which Henry Clay said: "... never existed," "it never will." Since government industrial policy is the "comparative advantage" in globalization, the United States must develop an industrial policy to protect our economy. It will be measured. It must tend to open markets and against monopolization. And it must guarantee the production of those materials essential to our national security. But we need to return to our founding principles as a "Yankee trader." For now, we can solve the problems of our fiscal and trade deficits by eliminating the corporate income tax and replacing it with a 3% value added tax. This actually cuts taxes, raises more revenue, and the United States begins to fight in the trade war. An additional 1% VAT over ten years will pay $1.3 trillion for health care, and 1% more brings in revenue to start paying down the debt. With the average corporate tax at 27%, the 5% VAT cuts taxes by 22% for domestic sales and eliminates taxes (which are rebated) for Corporate America's exports. China has a 17% VAT. Today, U. S. production pays an average of a 27% corporate tax and, when its export reaches Hong Kong, China adds its 17% VAT -- for a total of 44%. The 5% VAT immediately removes the 44% tax advantage to off-shore Corporate America's production and jobs to China; and it removes the VAT tax advantage that 152 countries have over the U. S. in the trade war. This will put the people of the country on notice that Washington has finally gotten the message - that in globalization the United States will protect its production and economy. For fifty years we've been draining the country of production and jobs. Congress has responded by passing through both Houses legislation to enforce our trade laws, but Presidents of both parties call for "free trade" and veto the legislation. So Congress calls for "free trade," too, and gets the money for the campaigns. Congress neglects its Constitutional role of regulating trade. Under the Constitution, all trade measures must initiate or derive in the House of Representatives. This relieves the Senate from introducing any trade measures. When a trade bill comes over to the Senate from the House, the bailout and bonus crowd keeps the Senate hamstrung with "fast track." They fix the trade bill in the Finance Committee and once the bill is reported for consideration on the floor of the Senate, "fast track" forbids any amendment. Take it or leave it. Of course, to get the money, the Senate takes it. With a two-year term, House members are constantly campaigning for money and not about to cut their throats by introducing a trade bill unless it's been sanctioned by the President. So it's up to President Obama. Does he continue to campaign for the money or does he save the country by replacing the corporate income tax with a 5% VAT - by cutting taxes and engaging in the trade war? In this war, we need only one troop. For more commentary by Senator Hollings, please visit his web site at http://www.citizensforacompetitiveamerica.com
 
Judy Montero: The Vehicle Impound Initiative Round Two -- What You Should Know Top
Last year, Denver citizens passed a ballot measure initiated by Mr. Daniel Hayes that granted police officers the ability to order the impoundments of cars driven by unlicensed drivers. That measure left the order for impoundments up to the discretion of police officers. This year, another version of that law is slated to go before voters on the November 3, 2009. What is different in the impound initiative round two? Instead of merely granting police officers the discretion of ordering impoundments of vehicles driven by unlicensed drivers, this new measure would require them to do it. MONEY SPENT ON 'ARRESTING' CARS, NOT CRIMINALS At a time when we are making choices in our City budget to close libraries or cut jobs, this initiative asks that we redirect our sparse City resources toward "arresting" cars rather than arresting criminals. According to the Denver Police Department (DPD), if this measure passes the total number of tows would increase by 115%. What does this mean practically? We would need an additional 18,160 person hours of work by police officers for impounding cars. So in addition to the law enforcement staff already working impound, we'd need to pull at least another 5 full-time officers to work on "arresting" cars instead of criminals. I'd like for you to think about whether or not we should shift our limited safety resources this way when our dedicated safety staff just stepped up by sacrificing wages in order to help prevent their co-workers from loosing jobs. Officer hours spent calling a tow truck, waiting for that tow truck to arrive, waiting for vehicle hook up, and the filing of extensive paperwork are not the only redirection of resources that would cost the citizens of Denver if this impound initiative passes. As DPD reports, "Other personnel impacts could occur in the Communications Center, and the Property Management Bureau. This increase in out of service time by one hour will impact the number of calls being held by the dispatcher thus placing a greater demand on officers who are not towing vehicles as well as the demand on the Communications Center." What other kinds of tax payer dollars would be spent on jailing cars instead of criminals? Impound operations would have to increase by $1.2 million. Just the storage expansion and tow slips would cost us an additional $59,000. The DPD estimates the cost of the proposed impound measure to be over $1.6 million dollars. With the passage of this initiative, the City would be increasing funding to pay for operating impound lots around the same time we will be turning over the keys to some of our recreation centers to non-profits because the City can't afford to operate them. WHAT IT MEANS TO YOU If for some reason your vehicle would be towed by the City -- let's say your car was booted for unpaid parking tickets -- the charges you'd face to get your car back would be $120 for a tow fee plus $20 per day for storage. However, if an officer pulled you over and you could not produce "convincing corroborating" evidence to prove your identity or , if the officer that pulled you over merely suspected that you were in the US illegally, your car would be towed. If later when you returned to retrieve your car you were not able to prove that you posses a valid driver's license the cost of the required impounding of your car under this measure would be equal to the general fees from above plus $230.00 in additional fees and about $350.00 for the cost of posting a $2500.00 bond. At a minimum you would pay at least $500.00, and potentially up to $2730.00, more for this type of impounding than if your car had been towed because of unpaid parking tickets. THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS One reason there is such strong concern about this measure within legal community is that it requires officers to impound the cars of drivers who cannot produce "convincing corroborating" evidence of their identity. What is "convincing" evidence? Good question. The initiative doesn't spell out what "convincing" evidence might be. Further, law enforcement is very concerned that under this proposed measure officers would be required to order impounding if the officer merely suspects the driver to be in the United States illegally. The current law grants officers the discretion to do this already, but the new measure would actually require it. What kind of criteria would warrant such suspicion on the part of a police officer? Another good question the initiative language doesn't answer. The proposed measure doesn't tell us what kind of criteria an officer should use to establish suspicion about someone's legal citizenship status. The requirement that officers impound cars based on a fuzzy order to consider the suspiciousness of the person driving the car flies in the face of the anti-racial profiling training our safety workers are expected to undertake. Another unwilling party that would be considerably burdened by this initiative is the car sales industry. Last year, Council members were lobbied hard by the car loan industry which voiced its strong opposition to the required $2,500 bond for releasing vehicles impounded under the current law. Car dealerships across the state told us that if they hold the bank note on a vehicle that was impounded, the required year-long bond of $2,500 was an exorbitant burden on reclaiming cars they technically owned and were responsible for. Council agreed this was unfair and decided to add an exemption for parties possessing liens on vehicles, such as car sales lenders, from having to post the $2,500 bond. But the newly proposed version of the impound law is written so that if the impounded car had been sold to a person who is not a legal US citizen, the dealership would be responsible for putting up the $2,500 bond to release the car. In other words, if the dealership did not go through the trouble of verifying the US citizenship of the person they sold the impounded car to, they would be stuck paying between $500 and $2,730 to reposes the vehicle. If this initiative passes, it would pressure the car sales industry to add the extra burden of verifying legal citizenship of people they want to sell cars to. The ballot featuring the impound initiative on November 3rd will also be host to Denver Public School Board members up for election. Yet, since this isn't a statewide election, voters will not receive a bluebook that offers arguments for and against the issues on the ballot. This is yet another reason that I sincerely hope that you will talk to your neighbors and friends about the very significant impacts this initiative will have on all Denver citizens.
 
Clinton Press Secretary: Sanford Should Have Stopped Talking Top
Spin doctors save politicians from their personal disasters. Governor Mark Sanford's spin doctors didn't take the right steps, said Mike McCurry, former press secretary for President Bill Clinton. McCurry was part of a three-person panel discussing the how aides should handle communication crisis when a politician becomes part of a scandal. More on Mark Sanford
 
Kit Bond Pulls Out Of CIA Torture Investigation Over Criminal Probe Top
The top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee has pulled out of the panel's bipartisan review of Bush-era terrorist interrogation techniques, saying Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s criminal investigation into the CIA undermines the committee's ability to interview witnesses. More on Eric Holder
 
Russian Hackers: Cybergangs Infect "More And More" Computers Top
Russian cybergangs have established a robust system for promoting Web sites that sell fake antivirus software, pharmaceuticals and counterfeit luxury products, according to a new report from security vendor Sophos.
 
Reversing The Stigma Of HIV In Jamaica: Ida's Story (VIDEO) Top
Ida Northover is known fondly in her community as "Miss Gene." She is a volunteer community leader battling stigma and discrimination in one of the poorest inner city communities on the outskirts of Kingston, Jamaica. Miss Gene's leadership has proven to be a successful model for encouraging tolerance and support for people living with HIV. Correspondent Lisa Biagiotti, producer Micah Fink and director of photography Gabrielle Weiss report on how Jamaica's national AIDS program is targeting community leaders like Ida Northover to educate people about HIV and change the stigma surrounding the disease. For more on HIV, AIDS and homophobia in Jamaica, visit The Glass Closet, a multimedia project produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. WATCH: Read Word Focus for more stories. More on HIV/AIDS
 
Burton L. Wise: Afghanistan: History says "NO" Top
If those who forget History are condemned to repeat it, we can expect a disaster. There may have been logical reasons to invade Afghanistan in 2001-2002, when we "defeated" the Taliban and "almost" caught Bin Laden. Then came the Iraq invasion, and Afghanistan was mostly ignored. Now we have moved more troops than before back to Afghanistan, and are considering whether to send even more to fight the resurrected Taliban and Al Qaeda, support an incompetent corrupt government, and "win the hearts and minds of the people".' I am not a pundit, nor have I been to Afghanistan, but I have read some history and other pertinent writings especially Rory Stewart's The Places In Between (Harvest Books, 2006) which describes his walk across Afghanistan alone in winter, spending each night in a different tribal enclave and speaking with the local tribesmen. He describes a land made up of many ancient independent tribes which have resisted conquest for millenia, from Alexander The Great through the recent Russian invasion. The weak central government is mainly irrelevant in tribal areas. When the Taliban was "defeated", members and officials returned to their tribes and were indistinguishable from other tribal society members-several were quietly pointed out to Stewart. I do not have the expertise to question the current military strategy or tactics "on the ground", but history suggests that Afghanistan's tribal societies are unconquerable in the long run. We are ending or destroying the lives of brave young men and women, and pouring money we do not have into this "bottomless pit"--probably to no avail. More on Afghanistan
 
Juliet Linley: I Need to Get Rid of Him Top
The other day, I bumped into a colleague pushing her 18 month old through the streets of Rome in a cherry-red stroller. The dark scowl on the little boy's face clashed with the brightness of his cross-country four-wheeler. The exasperation on her face was unmistakeable. She's been out of the journalism world since her son was born. And she made no bones about her frustrations. Not professional; parental. So far, so good. I listened and identified with her on several fronts. That is, until she came out with a phrase that made me gasp. "I took him to daycare today, because I need to get rid of him." I glanced at her and said gently, "Take it easy. You can't express yourself like that in front of him. He hears and understands everything..." She retorted: "Are you kidding? He knows I need to get rid of him. I can't stand him anymore." Then she added equally angrily "And he can't stand me." On the one hand, I felt sorry for this mother whose attitude had turned so sour towards her child. And who clearly felt unloved by him. It takes a lot to push one to speak with such vehemence. On the other hand, it angers me that a mother can have such a poor grasp of basic child psychology that she insults her son to his face. Without understanding the damage she is doing to his self-esteem. Children whose feelings are trampled on in such a manner, grow up with very little self confidence. There's no point being surprised later on, if -- once they become parents themselves -- they perpetuate the cycle and fail to show respect for their own children in more ways than one. Or not?
 
Kit Bond Pulls Out Of CIA Torture Investigation Over Criminal Probe Top
The top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee has pulled out of the panel's bipartisan review of Bush-era terrorist interrogation techniques, saying Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s criminal investigation into the CIA undermines the committee's ability to interview witnesses. More on Eric Holder
 
Kit Bond Pulls Out Of CIA Torture Investigation Over Criminal Probe Top
The top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee has pulled out of the panel's bipartisan review of Bush-era terrorist interrogation techniques, saying Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.'s criminal investigation into the CIA undermines the committee's ability to interview witnesses. More on Eric Holder
 
Nathan Lewis: Does Hong Kong Have the World's Best Health Care System? Top
I am a supporter of a fully British-style government-operated health care system for the U.S., which many find a little odd given my otherwise libertarian leanings. The United States was founded on libertarian principles. There wasn't even an income tax for the first 124 years of U.S. history -- to 1913 -- and even that took a Constitutional Amendment, as it was deemed unconstitutional before. The U.S. has been something of a disappointment to us libertarian types since 1913. Today, one of the best examples of the potential success of a libertarian approach is Hong Kong. Over the last fifty years, it has evolved from a tiny exporter of cheap consumer junk to one of the wealthiest and most prosperous places in the world. Hong Kong was one of the first places to adopt the kind of "flat tax" system that people like Jack Kemp or Steve Forbes have long advocated. The top income tax rate in Hong Kong is 17% for individuals, and 17.5% for corporations. There is no sales tax, VAT, payroll tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, tax on dividends or interest income. There is also not much of anything in the way of a government pension system, like our Social Security. The bottom 60% of earners pay no income tax at all. The top 100,000 taxpayers pay 57% of all taxes. Even after sixty years, the entire tax code is 200 pages long. Info on Hong Kong's tax system. Hong Kong is the last place you'd think of as having a "nanny state." However, Hong Kong has a system of government-operated hospitals , which constitutes the majority of the health care system. People also have the option of a private hospital if they wish. There are more than fifty public hospitals , and twelve private ones. Hong Kong's 6 million people are one of the healthiest populations in the world. The life expectancy is 84 for women and 78 for men, the second-highest worldwide. Here is how it looks to a Hong Kong citizen: To many of us who have worked and lived overseas, the Hong Kong health care system was the ultimate social safety net that never failed to lend us a strong sense of security. It was comforting to know that if we ever fell ill, we could always return home for care. I was rushed to hospital after a bad car accident in Hong Kong many years ago. None of the nurses or doctors asked me if I had insurance coverage, or enough money to pay the bill. They just gave me the medical care I needed. The next morning, a stern-faced hospital administrator came to visit me in the ward. I did not know what to expect until she asked me if I needed social service assistance for myself and family. I stayed in hospital for a week and was charged only for the meals. The total bill was HK$35 [US$4], and the food was actually not bad at all. There must be millions of other people in Hong Kong who, like me, look upon our health care system as sacrosanct. Any attempt to tamper with it would arouse our strong suspicions and deep concerns. http://english.sina.com/1/2008/0312/149936.html This system of government-operated hospitals, open to all citizens, costs the Hong Kong government about 3% of GDP. Three percent! Private hospitals, used mainly by the wealthy, and all other health care services bring Hong Kong's total health care spending to about 6% of GDP. Compare that to about 16% in the U.S. today, and rising. Three percent of GDP is less than half of the 7.5% of GDP that is already being spent by U.S. governments on health care. There you have it. In terms of both cost and effectiveness, the Hong Kong system of public hospitals is one of the best in the world. It does not interfere in any way with Hong Kong's libertarian approach to economic policy in general. Indeed, you could even say that it helps. Hong Kong corporations have no excessive health care burdens. Workers are happier and more productive. You might even argue that, when people aren't worried about health care, they are more likely to set off on their own and start the kind of entrepreneurial businesses that have made Hong Kong great. We don't have a government here in the U.S. that is capable of anything but stealing taxpayer money. However, other people in other places, like Hong Kong, have faced problems like our own and solved them brilliantly. More on Health Care
 
Margarita Alarcon: Quick Wit in Politics Top
If there is one thing Americans have to be very proud of is their wit. The fact that the American sense of humor knows no bounds is indisputably an absolute. And when it comes to politics and irony well there you see marvellous things that simply make you crack up. By the way, the term "crack up" is pretty much unique to the English language and I would dare say unique to the United States as an inborn idiom. (Now of course the Huff Post will be getting truckloads of hate mail for me from the four corners of the rest of the Anglo Saxon English speaking world !) Maybe it's an Irish thing, maybe it's Jewish; maybe it's the melting pot phenomenon, who knows?! On September 23rd after most people were still unwinding from the Cuba weekend and others were still enjoying the brilliant speech at the UN by President Obama on climate change. Bloomberg News published an article by Fabiola Moura entitled "Overturning Cuba travel ban may pass House this year, Representative says." The piece is about one Congressman's idea over an issue that has been very important to him and to his constituents and also for many of his colleagues. He has been working for years on trying to get legislation passed that will resolve this travel issue and put relations back on table of normalcy. He and a bipartisan group of Congressman need 27 votes more to pass new legislation because as the very bright and quick and frankly hilariously clever and accurate Congressman Sam Farr has said: "If you are a potato, you can get to Cuba very easily. But if you are a person, you can't, and that is our problem." More on Cuba
 
Carol Smaldino: The Tone of Our Atonement: A Meditation for Yom Kippur Top
On a quest for more honesty, whenever we question the key assumptions of our lives, religion and the visceral ties of tradition as well as the significance of believing (or not) come into play. For Jews -- religious and secular alike -- there is a need to consider Yom Kippur the most holy and, in a sense the most ominous, day of the Jewish calendar. This consideration is vital no matter how frightening it is for the superstitions we hold deep inside that are often immune to reason or which are, at the very least, resistant. Spiced with the good meal before the holiday, the haunting sounds of the Kol Nidre (the original prayer of forgiveness by Spanish Jews for conversion during the Inquisition), Yom Kippur is the Day of Repentance, of affliction and of communal confession that comes with shuddering before God's power to seal the fates of all as to whether they will be written into the "Book of Life" for the next year. When it comes to sins against other people, amends or requests for forgiveness are required along with the attempt to make amends to those persons without intervention by God. These annual rituals, replete with the flutterings of safety and fear, comfort, belonging, awe and physical hunger, keep the harshness of our simplistic and moralistic views cycling. During the insistent confessions of sins against God, there is the self-loathing for what is human. We learn hatred for imperfections and the promises that make us feel superior to those imperfections for the day or for the season. On the whole, religion is sacred, personal and private, but how can that be when it is one of the tools for inculcating values and fear along with righteous teachings of exclusivity? And, if we promise our sins away, do we continue to despise anything not glorious? In this process we fail to get closer to understanding our enemies because we shut out the baser emotions from our world view. We leave out a more humanistic ecology that connects us all to every thing and every being -- and for me, to every part of ourselves. One could suggest that Yom Kippur should include a time for reflection on our methods of discipline, our ways of loving and teaching the regulation of emotions by modeling rather than by threatening. However this goes against the intestinal tracts and consciences of most who observe this day "religiously." This is, after all, the time to take out our religious insurance policies, and so it is beyond chutzpah to suggest the use of reflection in a manner that might change our ways instead of maintaining the status quo. If you think making such suggestions is easy for me, it is not. My memories are infused with the melodies and rhythms of this High Holy Day that for me were a form of emotional regulation and spiritual reliability. It is just that at age sixteen when I read the English transliteration of the Hebrew text that I realized I could no longer abide by the repetition the whole day long about sins with which I did not identify. Again, don't get me wrong. At this point in my life, I can identify with and relate to just about every sin, barring a few which at the end of the day I recognize at least as part of human potential. But, I feel we need a gentler tone that helps us find the common ground with enemies and friends alike. If we promise away our capacity to inflict torture or to ignore torture, to enable racism and colonialism with hate or lethargy, then we remain isolated in a world that needs a broader belonging. With the admission of dread from my own layers of indoctrination, I want to dare to pose the notion of making Yom Kippur a time for softer and longer reflections, about how to make things better, truer, safer for our insides and freer from inner terrors, freer from the perfectionism which is strangling so many of us. How appropriate it seems that this year Yom Kippur immediately follows a historic U.N. General Assembly. In terms of evolution and the salvation of our planet, we need to broaden the field of wonder, of curiosity, to both ask and hear the questions and cravings we experience. I will be Jewish no matter what, but perhaps even as a good Jew still as I get more connected to my heart, to others, to the earth and all that we have in common. More on UN General Assembly
 
Jose Alencar, Brazil VP, Says Country Should Build Nuclear Arms Top
BRASILIA, Brazil — Brazil's vice president says in an interview published Friday that his country should develop nuclear weapons. Other officials stressed that his comments were not government policy. Jose Alencar, who also served as defense minister from 2004 to 2006, said in an interview with journalists from several Brazilian news media that his country does not have a program to develop nuclear weapons, but should: "We have to advance on that." "The nuclear weapon, used as an instrument of deterrence, is of great importance for a country that has 15,000 kilometers of border to the west and a territorial sea" where oil reserves have been found, Alencar said. Alencar aide Adriano Silva confirmed the comments published by newspapers including O Globo and O Estado de Sao Paulo. But he said they were personal opinions and not a position of the government. Brazil's constitution prohibits nuclear weapons. A spokesman for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also insisted that Alencar's "comments do not reflect the position of the government." The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to government policy. Still, the remarks come at an embarrassing time; they were made on the very day that the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously for a sweeping strategy aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons and ultimately eliminating them. Brazilian officials have promoted nuclear-generated electrical power and say they plan to build a nuclear-propelled submarine. But Defense Minister Nelson Jobim said in August that Brazil has no interest in nuclear weapons. Alencar, who is not a member of the ruling party, sometimes expresses positions at odds with Silva's, said political analyst David Fleischer of the University of Brasilia. Fleischer said Brazil abandoned efforts to develop nuclear weapons about 25 years ago when the military ceded control of the country to civilians. Brazil also signed the 1988 Tlatelolco Treaty that bars nuclear arms in Latin America. More on Brazil
 
Inhofe: Global Warming Isn't Real: "God's Still Up There" Top
On C-Span's Washington Journal this week, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the godfather of global warming deniers, said that he will travel to the climate change summit in Copenhagen this fall to present "another view." "I think somebody has to be there -- a one-man truth squad," he said. Throughout the program, Inhofe went through his tattered global warming denier claims: that climate change is a "hoax," that CO2 is not a pollutant, and -- latching on to the latest false right-wing talking point -- that clean energy legislation will cost American families $1,700 a year.
 
Steven L. Spiegel: Building Momentum for Mid-East Peace: Bring Back the Multilaterals Top
The first phase of the Obama administration's efforts at progress on the Arab-Israeli dispute is over, and let's be honest: it's not what the administration hoped would happen when it embarked on its campaign to bring the parties to the table. In a prelude to negotiations, the Israelis were supposed to freeze settlements, but the Netanyahu government only talked privately about going part of the way. The Palestinians were to increase security measures to prevent violence against Israel and decrease incitement. Although there was some progress on security, largely because of General Keith Dayton's efforts at training Palestinian police which would have happened anyway, nothing was done on stemming incitement. By toughening their stands on preconditions for talks, just showing up for the summit in New York became a concession. To build momentum for re-engaging, the broader Arab side was supposed to provide confidence building measures like overflight rights and offers of Israeli liaison offices in their capitals. Only Oman, Qatar, Barhrain, and Morocco took positive steps. The state that could really have helped, Saudi Arabia, stood steadfast on claiming it would do nothing until Israel agreed to withdraw from the Golan and the West Bank. The Obama team was smart to declare that the first phase was over and it was time for the parties to enter into negotiations. Otherwise, it was clear that they would not budge from established positions. After chiding them for not taking the steps he had requested, President Obama declared before the summit "Simply put it is past time to talk about starting negotiations--it is time to move forward". Inside the room, apparently, his impatience and frustration showed even more clearly. Now Mideast envoy George Mitchell has the tough task of actually initiating negotiations. The problem is that he has to do make that challenging effort in an atmosphere in which all parties feel that the other side hasn't taken the necessary confidence building steps that would have improved the context for talks. President Obama himself has validated that disappointment. In his speech to the UN General Assembly, President Obama provided the direction for a new approach, when he said that in pursuit of his goal of peace between Israel and "its many neighbors", "we will develop regional initiatives with multilateral participation, alongside bilateral negotiations," to use the President's words. We have an idea for just such an initiative. Why not revive the regional "multilateral" approach that provided breathtaking examples of what could happen in the Middle East in the 1990's. It's hard to believe now, but after the Madrid Conference in 1991, Israelis, Palestinians, and nearly all Arab states met regularly in five international groups to redress such common problems as water scarcity, environmental degradation, refugees, economic development, and regional security. Among their achievements, they agreed to establish a regional desalination research center for producing fresh water, a program to reunite refugee families, an environmental code of conduct, a regional development bank, and pacts to avoid dangerous incidents at sea and require early notification of certain military activities in order to augur greater transparency and comfort. Equally important, seeing their diplomats on television engaging each other for the first time in various Middle East capitals on these issues gave Israelis and Arabs confidence in the overall peace process. Sponsored by America and Russia, and facilitated by Japan, Canada, the European Union, Turkey, China, India, and other "extra-regional" states, the multilaterals demonstrated the potential fruits of regional peace, while Israel and its immediate neighbors engaged in direct bilateral negotiations. Progress was pegged tightly to the outcomes from the bilaterals. When those negotiations deteriorated, so did the multilaterals' five working groups. It didn't help that a heated dispute developed in the Arms Control and Regional Security group, largely on Israel's purported nuclear force, and poisoned the rest of the multilaterals as a consequence. We think that a 2009 version of the multilaterals would help jumpstart the Obama administration's new efforts, because it would immediately change the atmosphere from a sense that the parties are just going along with President Obama because they have no choice, to one in which all parties could have buy-in that would build Israeli and Arab confidence that this process will indeed lead to a lasting, comprehensive peace. But based on experiences in the 1990's, we suggest reconfiguring the process to make it better. First, leave the water and environment groups as they were because they worked well. The economic development group should continue in its old dramatic way, holding large economic summits like those conducted in Casablanca, Amman, Cairo, and Doha, and attracting as many as 4,600 participants. The refugee group in the 1990s focused primarily on Palestinian refugees and demonstrated that these meetings weren't just designed to make Israel feel as if it belonged in the region. Indeed, this group accomplished important steps on designing a system for addressing refugee needs. Since then, illegal immigration has escalated throughout the region, creating new refugees, along with huge numbers in Jordan and Syria escaping the Iraq war. As such, the group should enlarge its focus and include immigration problems. We recommend not reviving the arms control and regional security program, as important as it is, at this time, because this group had such a negative impact on the entire multilateral process in the 1990's. Hard security talks should continue, but in a second track format. As witnessed in the Asia Pacific context, an officially sanctioned Track Two program can serve successfully as a venue where issues not ready for formal negotiations can be incubated. We would also add four other groups. The first is on education, a topic of regional significance because of the negative manner in which Arabs and Israelis describe each other in textbooks and classrooms, and because the issue of education is so critical to future regional development as suggested by several United Nations reports. We would add a tourism, group because of the shared ancient experience of many countries of the region. Coordination between neighboring countries could enhance tourism and the economies of many countries in the region. We would also look at energy. Despite an abundance of oil and gas in the region, these commodities are not uniformly distributed and will become scarcer in the next three decades. Regional parties are beginning to search for alternatives to fossil fuels, including nuclear and solar. Only regional electrical grids and power production partnerships can provide a stable foundation for meeting growing energy demands in the Middle East, and potentially in neighboring Europe. Finally, in an era of pandemics and potential man-made and natural disasters, a multilateral on health security would be a logical step. Pandemics do not recognize borders and can easily overwhelm individual countries, and realistically can only be addressed through regional coordination at the functional level. With strong American support, the eight multilateral working groups could serve to accelerate the momentum for peace agreements in a genuinely altered Middle East environment as negotiations begin and the tough process of making concessions is initiated. They would alter the role of President Obama from a stern teacher lecturing the parties on their failings to a lofty visionary showing the way for a better future. The Obama administration's policies are the right way to go, and the administration is right to proceed. As the President told the UN, "even though there will be setbacks and false starts and tough days, I will not waver in my pursuit of peace". We think that the revival of the multilaterals would ease the way in the negotiations themselves and enhance the prospects for his success. Steven Spiegel is Director of the Center for Middle East Development and Professor of Political Science at UCLA; and Michael Yaffe is Professor of International Relations at the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies and former member of the U.S. delegation to the Madrid multilateral talks. More on Israel
 
Bin Laden Tape: Europe Must Pull Out Of Afghanistan Or Risk "Retaliation" Top
CAIRO — Osama bin Laden demanded that European countries pull their troops out of Afganistan in a new audiotape Friday, warning of "retaliation" against them for their alliance with the United States in the war. The al-Qaida leader denounced NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan that have killed civilians and warned that European countries would be held accountable alongside the Americans unless they pull out. "A wise person would not waste his sons and money for a gang of criminals in Washington ... In summary, we are not asking too much or an invalid demand, but it would be be fair that you lift your opression and withdraw your troops," bin Laden said, addressing the Europeans. The audiotape, just under five minutes long, was posted Friday on Islamic militant Web sites. It comes after a series of al-Qaida videos this week directly addressing Germany, threatening attacks over that country's involvement in Afghanistan. Those videos featured a little-known German-Algerian militant and have raised concerns among German authorities ahead of parliamentary elections. Bin Laden's tape came as a voice-over on a video that had English and German subtitles translating his speech, alogn with a still photo of bin Laden in front of a European map. Bin Laden predicted that American forces would soon pull out of the country, abandoning their European allies, and warned that al-Qaida would then retaliate against them. It was not clear whether his threat was aimed at European troops in Afghanistan or against European countries themselves. "It won't be long before the war's dust in Afghanistan clears out, and you will not find a trace of an American (soldier) ... and it will be only us and you left," he said, addressing Europeans. "How do think you will fare after America pulls out – Allah permitting – allowing us to retaliate from the oppressor on behalf of the oppressed?" he said. The authenticity of the tape could not be immediatly verified, though the voice resembled that on previous recordings confirmed to be by bin Laden. The video carried the logo of al-Qaida's media arm, Al-Sahab. The al-Qaida leader is believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. More on Afghanistan
 
Francine Hardaway: The U.N.May Have Jumped the Shark Top
The United Nations meeting yesterday stunned me. I grew up thinking the UN was one of the pinnacles of global achievement. And I thought disrespectful debate was the province of the USA until I heard Gadhafi and  Ahmadinejad . Now I wonder if the UN is worth stopping NYC traffic for. I'm pretty much a disciple of Ghandi, so I understand why Obama would address the United Nations, trying to "be the change" he wants to see. But I also wonder if when the US media calls out these guys as "crackpots," we are seeing things through our own eyes and those of our allies, or through the eyes of their constituents. How do I know how much credence to give these unfamiliar-behaving world leaders? I'm troubled by the fact that, even in the Internet era, I can't get a good fix on whether these guys represent mainstream opinion in their countries, or are indeed the lunatic fringe. Ghadafi, who wanted to pitch a tent on Donald Trump's lawn because he doesn't like elevators, is a little easier to dismiss than Iran's president, but he, too, seems not to be an accepted leader in his own country. And Karzai? Another crooked election? So is the UN outdated, bloated, and over ? I suspect so.  By having these meetings, we are showcasing people who would be marginalized if we didn't bring them an audience of global media. Or are we showing different points of view about the world that need to be aired? How crooked are our own elections? At times like these, I think I don't get out of my comfort zone enough, and that perhaps I should go to places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya and Iran before I accept the judgment of the cable news networks that I so readily dismiss on issues like health insurance reform, where I possess enough information to form my own judgment. Knowledge is power. More on United Nations
 
Trish Kinney: Johnny Miller's Whole? Top
It's just my luck that Father of the Bride has become one of those movies that is shown over and over on cable, maybe not quite as often as Pretty Woman , but right up there. Don't get me wrong, I love the movie for all its sweetness and emotional cleanliness. Mostly I love the kind of father Steve Martin portrayed. He had all the healthy, appropriate responses when his darling daughter, Annie, found the man of her dreams. He couldn't bear the thought of Annie being with a man, any man, because she was his little girl and he didn't want to lose her. No one could be trusted to love her the way he did, as much as he did. His lovely narration that tenderly reflected his struggle with this life transition broke my heart. He knew that he had to find a way to give her the love and support she needed from her dad and then send her out into the world to find her own happiness. Diane Keaton, playing the perfect wife and mother, understood her husband's struggle and loved him all the more for it. Seeing that movie was devastating to me. It perfectly illuminated the deep dysfunction in my own family as told in my book, Silver Platter Girl. Despite my best efforts, when I see Father of the Bride on the program guide, I sometimes cannot resist watching it all over again. And it makes me wonder what it would have been like to bring my fella home and have my dad tell him that he better take good care of his little girl or else. And mean it. I rely on movies and television to show me, and validate for me, the way it is supposed to be. During last year's season of Friday Night Lights , the town's football coach walked in on his 15 year old daughter and his team's quarterback in bed. He blew a gasket and for a moment, I thought he was going to get out the shotgun in a Texas moment. He told his player, "that's my daughter". Enough said. Coach is a man of few words but believe me, QB1 got the picture. Then Coach left it to his wife to have "the talk" with their daughter. How very different from my experience. Sometimes it isn't what actually happens to you as a child, it is what goes on around you, the things you are routinely subjected to, the atmosphere of your home, the environment of your family. Take Sean O'Hair for instance. He is a professional golfer who stepped into golf's biggest spotlight when he blew a five shot lead on the final day of Arnold Palmer's tournament to none other than Tiger Woods. That gave the announcers time to speak about Sean's background, including his hard driving father who yanked him out of high school and took him on the road using the family fortune, demanding a rigorous training schedule and weekly qualifying tournaments all around the country. Sean's dad didn't believe in college, a waste of time spent studying if all you want to do is play golf, or if all that your father wants you to do is play golf. At some point along the way, Sean rebelled and they became estranged. Sean married and formed a bond with his father-in-law, who often caddied for him in his early pro years, and now has a family of his own. When asked in an interview during the Arnold Palmer tournament if he had talked to his dad, he said no. That led Johnny Miller, former golf great and now television analyst, to proclaim that poor Sean would never be "whole" until he reconciled with his dad. Because, Johnny said, we need our father's support and praise. Mr. Miller's comments were troubling to me. Of course we cannot know the exact circumstances of the relationship between young Sean and his father. But for the sake of discussion, let's suppose that it is, as the press has reported, abusive. Let's suppose that Sean is estranged from his father because he somehow found the courage to stand up for himself and no longer chooses to be subject to his control. Does Mr. Miller assume that Sean does not wish to have a father to "support and praise" him? Does Mr. Miller assume that it is Sean's responsibility to remain loyal to his father no matter what the personal and professional consequences? Does Mr. Miller assume that it is no less valuable to find a father figure who respects and appropriately loves him if his own father is not capable, or willing, to be that person in Sean's life? As a society, we must learn that it is not the responsibility of the child to honor the parent if that parent cannot or will not act in the best interest of the child and refuses to seek help. Healing takes committed work by both the victim and the abuser. Forgiveness does not necessarily mean continuing contact, depending on whether the abuser has made any effort to reform or has truly repented. I do know one thing, an abuser without a victim is powerless. An abuser without power cannot hurt anyone. We all deserve a chance to be cherished as children and to grow into the potential of ourselves. We don't always have a choice as children when our family situation is inappropriate which is all too frequent. But as adults, we do have a choice and should exercise that choice using our best judgment. And golf announcers should refrain from implying that only our birth father's support and praise can make us whole. If that were true, I would be only a fraction of myself. When my physical therapist, each and every time I go in for a session on my lower back, respectfully asks me if it is ok to roll my pants down over my hips, I feel a little more healed. That's the way it is supposed to work. And I know that now.
 
Top 10 Most Spammed States (VIDEO) Top
Idaho is already famous for its spuds but, computer security experts say, it also abounds in something else: Spam. Idaho is the most spammed state in the country, with a 93.8 percent rate of spam in its e-mail stream, according to security firm Symantec's MessageLabs Intelligence.
 
Neil Barofsky, TARP Inspector: Economy Could Now Be In A "Far More Dangerous Place" (VIDEO) Top
Neil Barofsky is the man who tracks the historic bailout known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP. The 39-year-old special inspector general, named to the post in December 2008, monitors a dozen separate bailout-related programs that now account for nearly $3 trillion in financial commitments. A former federal prosecutor, Barofsky has subpoena power and has launched about three dozen investigations since being named to the post in December 2008. In an audit released in July, Barofsky made clear that he was intent on demanding transparency from all quarters - including the U.S. Treasury. His next audit is due in October. In an interview with the Investigative Fund, Barofsky lays out the breadth of his work and is blunt in his assessment about whether the financial system, now with fewer and bigger banks, is safe. "I think we may be in a far more dangerous place today than we were a year ago," he said.
 
Heather Robinson: Iranians and Jews Unite in Protest Yesterday Outside the U.N. Top
Yesterday thousands gathered at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza outside the United Nations in New York to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's pledge to destroy Israel, and to show solidarity with Iranian protestors who have faced down Iran's mad mullahs in recent months. The plaza was awash in green worn by protestors in solidarity with Iran's freedom-seekers as speakers including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, and South Sudanese Christian human rights activist Simon Deng called for freedom and fair elections in Iran. Demonstrators came to New York from as far away as Houston, Texas, Spokane, Washington and Ottowa, Canada. Interviewed individually, Iranian-American and Iranian-Canadian demonstrators spoke of the urgent need to uphold freedom and human rights in Iran. "I'm Iranian Muslim and I'm dead against the [current Iranian] regime," said Zizi Reich, 68, a retired nurse who grew up in Iran, and who traveled from Spokane to attend the rally. "The Iranian election is a farce. I still have family there. They are not free to talk on the phone, but from what I can gather, it's much worse there than what you see on CNN. "I can't believe the courage of these young men and women. They are right in the faces of the Basijis and they get beaten and get back up again. Iranian young people are going against guns and batons and the least I can do is show my solidarity with them." Parviz Ashtari, 60, a retired electrical engineer, and his wife Nancy Ashtari, 52, a nurse, came from Houston to show their opposition to the Iranian regime. "We don't have a democracy in Iran; this regime is a killer, a rapist, against humanity," said Mr. Ashtari. "I left [Iran] 23 years ago, at the time of the Khomeinist revolution. It was bad; I felt that from the beginning. They were against humanity, against educated persons. "Ahmadinejad shouldn't be here. The U.N. should be for human rights, not against human rights." Iranian-American demonstrators were strongly supportive of Jewish concerns about Ahamadinejad's Holocaust-denial and stated desire to annihilate Israel. "[Jewish protestors] came here because ... [Ahmadinejad] says Iran has to wipe out Israel," said Mr. Ashtari. "I don't agree...he doesn't know history." Mrs. Ashtari added: "300,000 [Israelis] are our Iranian brothers and sisters, Iranian Jews. The Islamic Republic threw them away." Jasmine Gaeini, a nurse from Toronto who was turned out in green to condemn Ahmadinejad, said, "Ahmadinejad said we [Iranians ] are against Jewish people...[ But regarding] Israel, we don't have any problem with these people. They are smart. We need them. I love them. We are here to support them as well. I believe we have another Hitler [in Ahmadinejad]." Asked if she felt there was real chance for regime change without war, Ms. Gaeini, who declined to give her age but looked to be in her thirties, said, "Yes. There is a real chance for regime change short of war. But only if everyone supports us. Other people, other countries." Ahmadinejad's Holocaust-denial and desire to destroy Israel does not reflect the views of most Iranians, according to those at yesterday's rally. "Most Iranians understand what happened to the Jewish people [in Europe]...I'd say 60 to 70 percent of Iranians understand," said Reich. "Of course, there are some people in Iran who support the regime." She added that according to her relatives in Iran, many of the Basij-- the Iranian paramilitary group that takes orders from the mullahs and cracks down on dissidents--are foreigners, because most Iranians do not want to brutalize their fellow citizens. "[The mullahs] bring these people from other countries," Reich said. "They are Palestinians, Lebanese, and Chechnyans." Signs held aloft at the rally bore messages like, "On Religious Freedom Israel is Right" and "Israel is on the Map to Stay." Another Iranian-American man at the rally, who wished to comment only anonymously, said he supported the anti-Ahmadinejad, Jewish-American protestors. But he cautioned against an Israeli mission to set back Iran's nuclear program. "The military option would be a disaster," he said. "It would start a war and give an excuse to [the mullahs]...the people of Iran would put things aside and fight with their country ...Let's say [Israel] gets rid of nuclear weapons, there would [still] be another war between Israel and Iran." Jewish-Americans in attendance expressed dismay that the United Nations hosted Ahmadinejad. "That the United Nations allows [Ahmadinejad] to say he'll wipe out a state, and does nothing about it, is terrible," said Karl Kaplan, 83, a retired CPA from East Brunswick, New Jersey. "It sounds like the days of the Nazis. We did nothing then. The League of Nations was a failure and frankly, the United Nations is a failure." He added he maintains hope the world's people will unite in isolating Iranian leadership, which has declared genocidal intent. He also expressed solidarity with Iranian-Americans. "Iranians have their own problems; people's relatives feel threatened," he said. "Our relatives in Israel are threatened. Some of the people here have relatives who are not only threatened but have been thrown in prison and killed, so our hearts go out to them." More on Israel
 
William Bradley: Obama's Summiteering: High Altitude Headaches and Rumors of War Top
As any hiker knows, high altitudes often lead to headaches, and President Barack Obama has had a few at his New York summits. They center around AfPak, the perennial question of Israel and Palestine, and Iran. And today the latter went front and center, with war a real possibility in the wake of this morning's revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility. President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy appeared together this morning in Pittsburgh to charge that Iran has a secret nuclear facility in violation of its agreements. Even as he unleashed another masterful speech on the global stage, Obama struggled with a few emerging realities. First, that his latest apparent strategy of nation-building in Afghanistan is bound to fail without about 200,000 troops, which the nation simply wouldn't allow, to back it up. Next, the eternal quandary of Israel and Palestine, with the new right-wing Israeli government refusing, in various forms of gobbledygook, to stop settlements by religious fundamentalists on the disputed West Bank and various Arab actors refusing to fully recognize Israel. And finally, the apparent intransigence of Iran, which says it doesn't want nuclear weapons even as it apparently insists on its right to them, notwithstanding its signature on the the Nonproliferation Treaty. President Barack Obama uncorked a strong speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. While there was no particular meeting amongst Obama's raft of public and private summits in the Big Apple on Afghanistan -- though there was a big meeting on Pakistan, where things are going much better than earlier this year -- this mountainous graveyard of venturesome empires loomed large nonetheless. That's because the secret report to Obama by his new Afghanistan commander, General Stanley McChrystal, was somehow leaked on Sunday to Bob Woodward. Not that its overall conclusions were a surprise, as they'd been telegraphed for weeks. Without still more troops -- how many more was left unclear, though it's clearly a lot -- the current strategy in Afghanistan of counter-insurgency will fail. Not that counter-insurgency, a euphemism for nation-building in perhaps the least hospitable place for building a modern nation imaginable, is necessary to deny Afghanistan to Al Qaeda as an operational base. But that is how a mission creeps from one goal to another very different one. As I've been writing here for months on the Huffington Post, including this piece a little over a week ago. Of course, we expect generals to hope for more troops. It's in their nature. But what is especially interesting about the leaked McChrystal report, not that the conventional media is reporting this, is that the former Joint Special Operations Command chief is not saying that the US will "win the war in Afghanistan" with more troops, at any level of increase. He is simply saying that the current strategy will fail with the current force level. Which is on the level of a truism. The reality is that all the hoo-hawing over how bad things have supposedly just gotten in Afghanistan ignores the fact that things have actually gotten better. And Obama knows this. For he gave the order that made things better, and thus allowed most to finally see how bad things were there. Here's what I mean. Absent the Marine offensive he ordered some months ago in southern Afghanistan, in which British forces and Afghan forces also participated, there would never have been a presidential election on August 20th. So, does the mission creep to nation-building in one of the most inhospitable places in the world continue? Or does the mission refocus on the original goal: Counter-terrorist action to prevent Afghanistan from being a base for Al Qaeda? Which does not involve extending the writ of a dodgy Hamid Karzai presidency all across the country. Assuming that he ends up being re-elected, which is still in doubt. Amidst major allegations of election fraud, there's a big recount underway in an election which happened 36 days ago. Not surprisingly, Obama didn't say too much specific about Afghanistan in his big UN speech. He's rethinking his drink there, and not for the first time this year. Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu took the UN to task for years of silence on terrorist rocket attacks. On Israel and Palestine, Obama did get his tripartite mini-summit with Israel Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But there's intransigence on all sides in what may be an historically intractable situation. Netanyahu, fronting the most right-wing government in Israeli history, has issued a series of seemingly contradictory statements on West Bank settlements by religious fundamentalists, but the bottom line is they are continuing. Which, they say, is a non-starter for the Palestinians. And the Palestinians are split, with Abbas unable to speak for the more radical Hamas, which seems deeply opposed to Israel. And other Arab states have not been very forthcoming with additional recognition of Israeli rights. Yet Obama gets credit for pushing on this, which helps with the overall task of dampening opposition to America in the Muslim world, the raison d'etre for Obama's historic June 4th speech in Cairo. That greater goodwill toward America is on the verge of being tested in the rising showdown over Iran and its nuclear program. Even before this morning's dramatic revelation by Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy of a secret Iranian nuclear facility, Obama had made some progress on the Iranian question. With an American president presiding for the first time in its history, the UN Security Council agreed on some beginning steps to rein in nuclear weapons. At his mini-summit on Wednesday with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, Obama succeeded in getting Medvedev to say that stronger sanctions on Iran may well be necessary. Russia is key on this, because the principal sanction the US has in mind is squeezing Iran's gasoline supply. Iran is very vulnerable to this because, although it is a major oil producer, it has to import gasoline because of its lack refinery capacity. That's a hangover of the Ayatollah Khomeini's fundamentalist revolution 30 years ago, which led to an Iranian brain drain and the refusal by oil companies to renovate Iran's energy infrastructure. Now Russia is the world's biggest oil producer, having surpassed Saudi Arabia. It has plenty of refinery capacity and is geographically situated to get the gasoline to Iran which it needs to circumvent American-led sanctions against it. The US is able to use its own economic and political clout to pressure companies from getting gasoline to Iran. Most of the companies providing Iran with gasoline are Swiss-owned, which might be one reason why Medvedev went to Switzerland before coming to New York. Moscow has been unalterably opposed to a new round of sanctions. This is playing out in the foreground of a major behind-the-scenes discussion between the US and Russia over how how much influence Moscow has over the former Soviet Union. Which, naturally, is barely mentioned in the conventional media, fixated as it is on rowdy town halls and other non-serious behavior. It's not in Russia's interest for Iran to become a nuclear power. But it is in Russia's interest to use the stumbling block that Iran provides for the US and much of the West to block attempts to, for example, further expand the military reach of the US and NATO into the Russian periphery. Obama made a good start last week with Russia by scrapping, as I long expected, the Bush/Cheney era anti-missile shield in Eastern Europe. Naturally, the conventional media essentially ignored the importance of the Obama-Medvedev meeting, and the substance of how US sanctions against Iran would play out and Russia's significance in that. After all, Obama's noteworthy speech to the UN General Assembly about mutual responsibility for shared threats was followed immediately after by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi's interminable speech, in which he ran through the usual anti-American litany and called for the removal of the UN from New York to somewhere else, at one point appearing to suggest it be headquartered in Libya. Which would be a lovely way to permanently marginalize an already troubled institution. But he said he loved Obama's speech, repeatedly calling the president a "son of Africa" and "my son" -- Gadhafi has reinvented himself as an African leader -- saying that what he's heard is new and promising but could change unless Obama is president "forever." I can only imagine the right-wing cable chatter over that. And Fidel Castro liked Obama's speech, too, putting out a statement calling it the bravest speech given by an American president. More grist for the chatterfest. Moving back to the substance of things, it turns out that China, which generally joins with Russia in opposing tougher sanctions on Iran, has already started shipping gasoline to Iran. We'll see if that lasts in light of today's revelation, or in the face of potential US trade sanctions. Iran has played a delaying game on negotiations with the US and the rest of the Perm 5 plus 1 -- the permanent five UN Security Council members (US, UK, France, China, and Russia) plus Germany. Those are the countries which will at last begin negotiations on October 1st with Iran. Obama, Brown, and Sarkozy unveiled a potential game-changer this morning in the form of an intelligence report revealing a large secret Iranian nuclear facility that they say is inconsistent with a peaceful nuclear power program. They're demanding that Iran immediately allow International Atomic Energy Agency officials to inspect the plant. And they want an explanation from Iran by the time negotiations begin October 1st. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to deny the Holocaust, saying that Israel is founded on "a lie." China has already reacted by saying it's very troubled by what Iran has been doing in secret. Of course, before we get carried away, it's important to ask a few questions. Namely, does this facility actually advance an Iranian nuclear weapons program? And if so, by how much? After all, the head of Mossad said in June that Iran is several years away from having an actual nuclear weapon. Then there is the question of actions leading to reactions, and what that might mean. For example, a successful US-led constriction of Iran's gasoline supply could lead to Iran trying to close one of the world's most critical chokepoints, the Strait of Hormuz. That would choke off much of the world's oil supply, and could crash the global economy. It would also crush the Iranian economy, but that might not be the principal concern for the regime in Tehran. How would Iran close the Strait of Hormuz. While its navy could be blown out of the water by the US Navy, Iran could use missiles to disrupt shipping. Or it could lay mines in the strait itself. Naturally, mines can be cleared. But that would place US and Iranian forces nose to nose. And that's how wars can start. There is, of course, another scenario which jumps straight to war, at least of a sort. The long-rumored Israeli air strikes against Iranian nuclear sites could actually take place. Recall that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has just declared the Holocaust to be a hoax and Israel to be founded on "a lie." These air strikes would be virtually impossible without at least tacit support from the US. Like the Bush/Cheney Administration before it, the Obama Administration has been discouraging of this. That might change now. We're moving into a rugged new phase around Iran. You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes ... www.newwestnotes.com. More on Afghanistan
 
Joan E. Dowlin: Why Is Susan Boyle Still Being Disrespected? Top
What does Susan Boyle have to do to gain respect? The initial YouTube video of her audition on "Britain's got Talent" has received a record 75 million or so hits, and her debut album ( I Dreamed A Dream ) is at number one with tens of thousands of copies being ordered three months before its release , more than that for Whitney Houston and the Beatles. She has a fan-based website with thousands of members . And she is still being disrespected by some newspaper journalists. In his "Dave On Demand" column in the Philadelphia Inquirer , David Hiltbrand wrote last Saturday : "Mary Hart conducted an interview of Paul McCartney on 'Entertainment Tonight' this week that exemplified the show's ridiculous obsession with the flavor of the week. She asked the pop legend what he thought of flash-in-the-pan Susan Boyle. That's like getting a sit-down with Dame Judi Dench to ask her what she thinks of Gossip Girl 's Blake Lively." Huh? Susan Boyle a "flavor of the week?" A "flash-in-the-pan?" What was Dave thinking? I emailed him disagreeing with his assessment and asked if he had heard the YouTube video of Susan performing "Wild Horses" (from her latest album) on "America's Got Talent" which got rave reviews. He wrote back that he had and that it only reinforced his opinion. Well, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I wrote back and said that he has no ear for music (I can say that because I am a professional musician) and that Susan's voice is stronger and more beautiful than Paul McCartney's and that she sings better in tune and that someday she will be as big a legend as the Beatles. He emailed back that time will tell. I'm sure it will, in Susan's favor. Sure, she had a rough time after the instant fame and attention she received from the first YouTube video of her audition on Britain's Got Talent. Who wouldn't with all that pressure, especially if you have lived a relatively isolated life (with no computer even)? In an earlier article in the Huffington Post, "The Appeal of Susan Boyle," I explained why I believed she touched so many viewers of the video. She showed inspiring grace in forgiving the audience for pre-judging her before hearing her sing. She is a hero to many and a reminder that we shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Now that the shock of our first encounter with her has worn off and she has experienced a "make-over", what is left is her extraordinary talent and haunting, powerful voice. I can't help but wonder if Dave's opinion of her singing would be different if he had only heard her voice with no knowledge of her appearance (past or present) or her age or background. Judging from her moving rendition of "Wild Horses", I believe her first audition was just the beginning and she has a long and successful career ahead of her. As Dave has said, only time will tell. More on Susan Boyle
 
Robert Fuller: Must Love End? Top
If I loved you, Words wouldn't come in an easy way-- Round in circles I'd go! Longing to tell you ... How I loved you-- If I loved you. - Carousel , Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein When we fall in love, we don't know our beloved. She's a mystery. We're constantly looking for her -- in our mind, on the street. We contrive "chance" encounters. When we meet, we're jumpy and off-balance. We want to gaze upon our beloved, inhale her aroma, absorb her essence. Everything we behold is suffused with love. The world is new. Why do we love? To complete ourselves. To give us purpose. To know our quest . To bring us home. To accept ourselves. " You're nobody till somebody loves you ." In adolescence, as we struggle to put together a viable self, our basic guide is love--love for ideas, art, cultures, but above all, love for particular individuals. Love, while it sometimes leads to folly, is nonetheless the best catalyst there is for defining ourselves and identifying our task. As Charles Baudelaire said, "Nature, whether in cookery or in love, rarely gives us a taste for what is bad for us." Young love is fanciful, fleeting, and fragile -- in a word, romantic. As we come to know our lover, we lose a piece of our innocence. Once love has been acknowledged and returned, it either evolves or turns into memorabilia. Memories aren't experience, whereas love must be experienced or it's just habit. Disappointed, we may conclude that love has not lasted. But, in truth, it has as many lives as a cat. As routine displaces novelty, we may be tempted to shift our attention to someone new and taste again the thrill of romantic love. This is the point of no return. As the mystery that fuels romantic love is dispelled, we either move on or get serious. If we follow its lead into deeper waters, love morphs into something with the potential to remake us. This is the love of familiar, committed partners, variously known as conjugal, married, or spousal love. Marriage is love's crucible -- it has the tensile strength to contain the heat of self-transformation. Here, we know our partner. There's neither the mystery nor the uncertainty to stoke fevered romance. In fact, relationships between mortals invariably include conflict as well as canoodling. But we do not abandon our partner or abort the process just because our ego takes a hit. The bonds of marriage bring us back to try and try again. In "sparring" with our partners, we root out the false in each other and grow. In a long-running, committed relationship, we love our partners because they love us in spite of the fact that they may hate something about us (often the very same things that bother us about ourselves). A love strong enough to incorporate criticism continually renews its lease on life. As we respond to our partner, a subtly altered person steps into our shoes. Instead of settling into habit, the relationship is recharged by the advent of changed partners. Sometimes the business of love completes itself for one or both partners. Two people may either hit an impasse or, for reasons they may only dimly surmise, cease to support one another's continued development. At moments like these, it will seem that love has indeed ended, that the relationship is beyond hope. The point of the sword is hard to find, and having found it, it's a mistake to wriggle off before getting as clear as you possibly can as to why you're doing so. Achieving a blameless understanding of a break-up may take years, but it's a high-return investment in the rest of your life. As we better understand how ex-partners served our development, they may come to feel like old friends. During a long relationship, there are moments when we see our partners as we did at the outset -- with beginner's eyes. A certain smile, a fragrance, a toss of the head, a posture or gait, can make our hearts leap. At the start, there was mystery: What does a smile mean? Will our love be returned? Now, we know. The smile holds not mystery but meaning: together, we go forward. The gaze of love holds not a question, but an answer: refreshed, love endures. More on Marriage
 
Richard M. Benjamin: Sparkman: Casualty of Methland, USA? Or Victim of Anti-Government Bile? Top
Is Bill Sparkman -- the 51-year old US Census fieldworker found hanged in rural southeastern Kentucky with the word "Fed" scrawled across his chest -- a victim of hate crime directed at Uncle Sam? Or the casualty of drug-related violence in a struggling pocket of America? To date, nobody knows for certain. The FBI is intensely investigating whether Sparkman was murdered; if so, by whom (acquaintance? stranger?); and whether his death is an act of violence against the federal government. After suffering from cancer, Sparkman worked as a teacher and took on the Census gig to supplement his income. Sparkman's workaday life and violent death -- whatever the cause and whoever the culprit -- highlight the precarious struggles of the white working class and the brewing storm surrounding the 2010 Census . From the mid 1970s to now, the white working class has faced economic decline not measured simply by stagnant take-home wages, but also by cuts in vital non-cash benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans. This deterioration of earnings and vital support goes hand in hand with employment practices that disadvantage rank-and-file workers (the weakening of unions and wage bargaining, outsourcing, the rising exploitation of contracted part-time help, etc). Count Sparkman among the ranks of America's "perma-lancers," permanent freelancers cobbling multiple jobs to make ends meet. Census workers like Sparkman -- a quintessential permalancer -- report having to scrape together extra bucks working multiple jobs to supplement meager to nonexistent retirement income. Besides these issues, Bill Sparkman's death spotlights the hot controversy surrounding the 2010 Census. In an April 2009 fundraising letter, GOP chair Michael Steele accused President Obama and ACORN -- "the leftist, urban 'community' organization with a long history of promoting vote fraud" -- of planning "to rig" the 2010 Census. Representative Michele Bachman (R, MN) declared in June that she would not complete her 2010 Census form. Bachman echoed her fear that ACORN would be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts. (ACORN's contract to participate in Census taking has since been terminated.) Bachman's stance sparked a viral protest among right wing and Libertarian advocates to boycott the Census. "Libertarians believe that these questions violate your privacy and will be used as the basis for expanding the size, power and cost of government," says Erich Smith on his "Boycott the Census" website , referring to the Census long form's 53 questions. For their part, a slew of Latino advocacy groups are boycotting the 2010 Census, too. The Mexican-American Political Association and The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders , a group claiming to represent 20,000 evangelical churches in 34 states, urge undocumented immigrants not to fill out Census forms unless Congress passes "genuine immigration reform." Fausto da Rocha, a Brazilian immigrant advocate in Boston, bluntly explains the Latino boycott: "Legalize us before you count us.'' His boycott protests state and local crackdowns on illegal immigrants and seeks to fully incorporate Latinos into the political process. High stakes loom behind the 2010 Census and thus the heated controversy. 2010 Census data will directly affect how more than $300 billion per year in federal and state funding is allocated to communities for neighborhood improvements, disaster preparation, public health, education, transportation and much more. The federal government will use 2010 Census data to distribute to the states more than $180 billion in grants for education, construction, health, and safety-net programs. Moreover, the 2010 Census determines the number of U.S congressional seats each state gains or loses, and therefore the number of Electoral College votes, beginning in 2012, when President Obama will presumably seek re-election. In addition to money and raw power, a less discussed, equally volatile dynamic looms in this equation. Since its last head count in 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau has been crunching some startling projections and churning provocative press releases. A Census prediction that makes headlines across the nation is fast becoming a reality: By 2042, whites will no longer be the American majority . The next census is being conducted against this backdrop, what I call "The White People Deadline," 2042. While all racial groups are growing in actual numbers and overall percentages, the Latino population grows the fastest. Experts point to that growth as the largest factor for white people's imminent status as a racial minority. What's in a number? Quite a lot. Who gets to count the population; how groups and individuals get categorized and counted; and what happens with that count: These questions spawn intense anxiety across the political spectrum - especially in a time of limited public resources, heated controversy over immigration policy, and economic fear. "The American Dream of the middle class has all but disappeared, substituted with people struggling just to buy next week's groceries." This commentary comes not from a lefty think tank agitating against capitalism, but from a discharged GI writing his hometown newspaper in Lockport, New York, during the winter of 1992. This working-class, white GI would later blow up the Alfred P. Murray Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people. Not responding to the stubborn nexus of economic hardship and anti-government vitriol can be tragic. Add to McVeigh's economic anxiety a dash of present-day nativism, government bashing, race-based fear, and resentment over the government's Wall Street bailouts, and you have a recipe for even more anti-government violence. Is Sparkman, the late cancer survivor and single dad, the human victim of this deep anti-government sentiment pulsing in America? Or a working-class casualty in a sordid, pedestrian crime in Methland, USA? Time and research will tell. In the meantime, Sparkman's workaday life and violent death offer telling lessons on stubborn problems and disenchantment, so that informed people can enter this debate and not concede it to the fringes. Chart courtesy of University of Kentucky, Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues More on Crime
 
Madeleine M. Kunin: All Over the Country, Women in Politics Make a Difference Top
I recently got a lesson in how diverse this country is by speaking about my book, Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead on Nantucket, El Paso, Texas, Chicago, Illinois and Greenville, South Carolina. When I walked into the Nantucket Athenaeum, I inhaled the air of history. The walls were lined with portraits. Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and woman’s suffragist had spoken here; so did Lucretia Mott, a suffragist born on the island, and Henry Thoreau. As one might expect, it was a sympathetic audience, following in the tradition of northern liberalism. Greenville, South Carolina has a starkly different history. Frederick Douglass, Lucretia Mott and Henry Thoreau would not have been welcomed there. But I spoke at the neutral venue of Furman University, originally a Southern Baptist college, now independent. The faculty, I was told, is more democratic than the student body. I had been invited by former Secretary of Education Richard Riley, who I had worked with when I was Deputy Secretary in the Clinton years. As a result my reception was warm and cordial. But nothing could hide the fact that politics in South Carolina is fierce. This is not only the state that produced “You Lie” Joe Wilson, who is revered more than he is rejected, but also Governor Mark Sanford, who refuses to resign after an affair with an Argentinean woman, followed by a tearful public confession. I was told that despite a petition asking for his resignation from a majority of Republicans, they are unlikely to vote for impeachment because they don’t want the Republican Lieutenant Governor to have an advantage in the next election. It is a tough state for women in politics. South Carolina is at the bottom—50 th —of all the states in the percentage of women in politics. There are no women in the State Senate, in contrast to New Hampshire, which was a majority of women in their Senate. Ever wonder if there are different political cultures in this country? I wanted to learn more from the women of South Carolina, so in addition to my public address, I met with a group of 25 women leaders. They know they have a problem and they didn’t need an uppity northerner to tell them about it, so I did more listening than talking. The picture of the genteel southern woman has not faded, neither has the power of the church, they said. That day I had read an editorial in the Furman student newspaper, decrying the lingering influence of the southern Baptist church and it’s role in diminishing the role of women. Women are not encouraged to be leaders. Most significantly, politics is dirtier than in some other places. During our roundtable discussion, there was an empty place behind a name card. The 69 year-old woman could not attend because she was seeing her lawyer to file a lawsuit to refute an anonymous letter campaign that accused her of having had an affair with Governor Sanford. No wonder women hesitate to enter the arena. I left with one message—sometimes women get elected to be the clean up crew after a period of dirty politics or political violence. The state of New Jersey has moved from around 35 th place in the country to one of the top ten in just a few years. In addition to recruiting and training women to run for public office, Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, told me women got a boost because “a lot of the men were indicted.” The very qualities that make it harder for women to get elected—not being part of the old boy’s network, gives them the advantage of having fresh, and yes, clean faces. El Paso, Texas was totally different, not only in terrain, but in how it welcomes women into leadership. As we began to land, I saw nothing but sandy colored ground, and a rim of bare mountains. A few blocks from our hotel we could see the border fence (which the locals hate) and a huge Mexican flag waving in the breeze. Most of the people at the airport and at the restaurant where we had lunch spoke Spanish. This is the state that produced Governor Ann Richards, Sarah Weddington, who as a young lawyer argued the case for Roe v. Wade, and Molly Ivins, the outrageously funny, liberal columnist. My audience was comprised of 100 women from Leadership Texas, a competitive program that recruits women from all over Texas for leadership training. They were joined by the El Paso Women’s forum. The 300 women were raring to take on the world. When I spoke I could see heads nodding and faces smiling. Like any speaker, I know an audience is in tune with me when the audience laughs at my jokes before I even finish the punch line. I was even introduced to a distant cousin. Now that’s connecting with your audience. In Chicago I spoke to the National Council of Jewish Women, a social service group which provides funding and volunteer work for many non-profits. I was told that there was not a social service group that had not been touched by these women. The question I posed to them was, would any of them take the next step and jump into the political fray? Chicago politics is not for the faint of heart either. They were keenly aware of the fact that most of their recent governors had landed in jail, and the recent Governor, Rod Blagojevich, has been impeached. One of the surprises in my travels was to discover a marvelous museum in El Paso, with an extraordinary collect ion of Renaissance art, and to see the new addition to the Chicago Art Institute and the sculptures in Millennium Park. This is a diverse country, and getting elected in some states is much harder than in others, but the message has to continue to be the same—women can and must make a difference.   Madeleine M. Kunin is the former Governor of Vermont and was the state's first woman governor. She served as Ambassador to Switzerland for President Clinton, and was on the three-person panel that chose Al Gore to be Clinton's VP. She is the author of Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead from Chelsea Green Publishing. Cross-posted on ChelseaGreen.com .
 
Barack Obama's Smile Never Changes (VIDEO) Top
Eric Spiegelman, of the blog "Bus Your Own Tray," noticed something fabulous while scanning the State Department's flickr page: Barack Obama's smile is amazingly consistent. On Wednesday, the Obamas hosted a reception at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and posed for over a hundred photographs with foreign leaders in town for the big UN meeting. His smile never changed. WATCH: Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo . Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on Barack Obama
 
Bruce Wilson: Blue Dog Leader Works With Theocratic "Mafia" Opposed to Health Care Reform Top
Blue Dog Democrats in Congress played a "magnificent" role in blocking health care reform during the Clinton administration and now, under the "courageous" and "smart" leadership of House Pro-Life Caucus leader and Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak, and with the support and prayers of Republicans categorically opposed to the Democratic Party's health care reform effort, the Blue Dogs may be able to do it again. That's what Stupak's caucus co-chair Chris Smith (R-NJ) told his audience at a "townhall" panel event last Friday at the Family Research Council Action's Washington DC 2009 Values Voter Summit [ see video, below ]. Another Republican at the event, Tom Price (R-GA), suggested that lockstep GOP opposition to health care reform affords the Blue Dogs "an opportunity to show some backbone" and "stand up to their leadership to say 'no more will we allow this travesty to go on.'" Besides leading anti-abortion Democrats in the House, Stupak is a longtime member of the mainly-Republican radical free-market, union-busting theocratic Washington fundamentalist group known as "The Family," which runs the "C Street House" registered as a church where Bart Stupak has enjoyed Christian fellowship and cheap rent for years. Stupak's former "C Street" housemate Senator James DeMint (R-GA) has vowed to make the fight against health care reform President Barack Obama's "Waterloo". During Family Research Council Action's over-one hour "townhall" event on health care, featuring a panel of three GOP house representatives that included Smith, Price, and Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), an audience member addressed Representative Smith: It's been said that the main roadblock to this legislation in the House are the Blue Dog Democrats. I actually happen to think it's the pro-life Democrats. And I'm just wondering - I also read on a pro-life blog not long ago -- that Steny Hoyer was apoplectically reaming the pro-life Democrats after a vote sometime ago. I'm just wondering -- are you all confident that the pro-life Democrats are not going to have their arms twisted by Nancy Pelosi and that they are going to not waver from this and, more specifically, what are you all as Republicans doing to voice solidarity with them -- because I think if there's any group in the Congress right now that needs our prayers it's those courageous pro-life Democrats. In response Representative Smith gushed: [Bart Stupak] has been absolutely valiant and brave and courageous, and very smart.... the pro-life Democrats, and there are fewer now then when we went through this trial with HillaryCare, and they too, during that difficult time, were magnificent - standing there with an amendment saying that, 'we will not be part of the greatest expansion of abortion in United States history since Roe vs. Wade.' So Bart Stupak, and people like Jim Oberstar from Minnesota, and others, have signed letters to the speaker and to the president saying that they will not vote for ObamaCare unless all the pro-life problems, the pro-abortion problems, have been rectified. While Stupak, who leads a substantial block of antiabortion Democrats in Congress, has publicly indicated that his support for a health care bill is contingent on preventing federal money from going to pay for abortions, he has co-sponsored, along with his fellow long-time Family member GOP Representative Joe Pitts (R-PA), a health care amendment that would have barred not only publicly but also privately funded abortion coverage in a national health care exchange system: a requirement which would make abortions unavailable to most Americans. The Stupak/Pitts Amendment has been repeatedly blocked by House Democratic Party leadership. Early in September, Congressman Stupak told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he was "confident" he had the votes, from as many as 39 pro-life House Democrats, to prevent Max Baucus' health care reform bill, H.R. 3200, from coming to the House floor. In a video statement to CBN, Stupak refused to commit categorically to a Democrat-sponsored health care bill, citing the possibility it would contain "back door policies." Then, in a Friday, September 16th Fox News interview, Representative Stupak suggested President Barack Obama's assurance that federal funds would not go to finance abortions under a new health care system was a lie, telling Fox "it's just not true." Stupak's statements also suggest he is opposed to a health care system which acknowledges any basic reproductive rights at all. On Wednesday September 23rd, in an interview for the National Catholic Register, which bills itself as the nation's biggest Catholic pro-life publication, Bart Stupak warned that under public health care options, "At least one dollar of your money will go to supplement reproductive rights or abortion services." While Stupak has been careful to avoid giving the impression that he is categorically opposed to any health care reform bill, his associates in the powerful, secretive, and anti-democratic Washington Christian fundamentalist association known as The Family, or The Fellowship , have led some of the most virulent opposition to health care reform and especially a "public option". Bart Stupak has been a longtime resident at The Family's now-infamous "C Street House" that over Summer 2009 became nationally notorious for a trio of sex scandals which enveloped three national GOP politicians who have lived at or been associated with the house. The C Street House provides below market rate rent, is registered as a church, and functions, according to journalist Jeff Sharlet, as an unregistered lobby. Sharlet is author of the 2008 NYT bestelling book The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at The Heart of American Power , a heavily researched exploration of the secretive but remarkably influential DC-based international fundamentalist group whose members are known to refer to their association as a "Christian mafia." In a July conference call with journalists, Representative Stupak told Michigan Merssenger reporter Ed Brayton, "I don't belong to any such group. I rent a room at a house in 'C Street.' I do not belong to any such group. I don't know what you're talking about, [The] Family and all this other stuff." But in an interview for a seminal 2002 LA Times article on The Family by journalist Lisa Getter, Stupak indicated he considered himself bound by a C Street House or Family code of secrecy, telling Getter, "We sort of don't talk to the press about the house." The C Street House is owned by a global missionary group whose founder advocates that Christians infiltrate and take over key sectors of society such as business, media, educations, and government. One of Bart Stupak's housemates at C Street identified in Getter's article was then-South Carolina Congressman Jim DeMint, now a Senator. In a July 17th conference call DeMint told conservative activists, "if we're able to stop Obama on this [health care] it will be his Waterloo. It will break him and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society." During the Summer of 2009 DeMint, author of the new book Saving Freedom: We Can Stop America's Slide into Socialism , held a "townhall" forum event which, as described by Editor of Editor & Publisher magazine Greg Mitchell, featured "lies and misinformation that came both from the crowd and the stage" which "probably exceeded what many might have imagined." Longtime Family member and GOP Representative Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas) also held a summer townhall forum promoting brazen falsehoods about proposed Democratic health care legislation. As described in Jeff Sharlet's groundbreaking 2003 Harpers story " Jesus Plus Nothing: Undercover Among America's Secret Theocrats ," Tiahrt has had the benefit of personal personal tutelage from Family head Doug Coe. Exclusive video footage shown in an April 2008 NBC News story by Andrea Mitchell and Jim Popkin, from the late 1980s, showed Coe before an audience celebrating the dedication and political efficacy of Hitler's Nazis, Lenin's Bolshevik's, and Mao's Red Guard -- who during the Cultural Revolution demonstrated such dedication they were willing to chop off their own parent's heads for the good of the state according to Coe. One of Bart Stupak's C Street housemates is Arizona Senator John Ensign, who has taken a lower profile since becoming embroiled in a summer C Street House-baeed sex scandal but made an appearance at an early September 2009 roundtable discussion with 20 health care professionals during which Ensign declared that if the Democrats "want a public option, it won't be bipartisan. I don't know a single Republican that, if there is maybe there's one, but I personally don't know of any Republican that could live with this so called public option. Because it will destroy, I believe, and most believe, that it will destroy the private insurance system." Senior Republican member of the Senate Finance Committee and Family member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) has played an outsized role in negotiations over possible health care legislation. As Grassley told the Wall Street Journal in late August, "Government is not a competitor, it's a predator." Criticizing the public option Grassley then declared, "[w]e'd have 120 million people opt out [of private insurance], then pretty soon everyone is in health care under the government and there's no competitor." As described in journalist Jeff Sharlet's book The Family , Grassley has at times served as Family head Doug Coe's personal international emissary. Like Grassley, James Inhofe (R-Okla) has also served as Coe's personal representative, making repeated taxpayer-financed trips to Africa to evangelize African heads of state. In an early 2009 conversation with Washington evangelist Rev. Rob Schenck, Inhofe described visiting Africa in the mid 1990s, at the request of Doug Coe, to "take the name of Jesus" to "the kings". Inhofe has stated he will vote against any health care reform bill without even reading it first. Although The Family's politics in the aggregate skew decidedly right the group's membership includes a number of centrist Democrats, such as Florida Senator Bill Nelson, who has opted to throw his substantial political weight behind Montana Senator and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus' compromise health care bill, H.R. 3200, which does not include a public option. Nelson's wife Grace has served on the board of the Fellowship Foundation, one of the main nonprofit organizational entities of the Family. Founded in the 1930s as an anticommunist and union-busting initiative, The Family advocates a type of laissez-faire Christian theocracy called "Biblical Capitalism", in which a divinely ordained elite caste in business, government, and other sectors would beneficently rule the masses. As founder Abraham Vereide wrote in a pamphlet entitled Better Way , "We have entered into an era when the masses of the people are dependent on a rapidly diminishing number of leaders for the determination of their way of life and the definition of their ultimate goals. It is the age of minority control." In a recent Salon.com article , Jeff Sharlet explained that The Family "began 74 years ago as an anti-New Deal coalition of businessmen convinced that organized labor was under the sway of Satan. The Great Depression, they believed, was a punishment from God for what they viewed as FDR's socialism." [ video transcript ] Questioner: Hi. It's been said that the main roadblock to this legislation in the House are the Blue Dog Democrats. I actually happen to think it's the pro-life Democrats. And I'm just wondering - I also read on a pro-life blog not long ago -- that Steny Hoyer was apoplectically reaming the pro-life Democrats after a vote sometime ago. I'm just wondering -- are you all confident that the pro-life Democrats are not going to have their arms twisted by Nancy Pelosi and that they are going to not waver from this and, more specifically, what are you all as Republicans doing to voice solidarity with them -- because I think if there's any group in the Congress right now that needs our prayers it's those courageous pro-life Democrats. Rep. Chris Smith: It's an excellent question. Bart Stupak from Michigan is the co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus -- I'm the Republican chair, he's the Democrat -- [he] has been absolutely valiant and brave and courageous, and very smart. He and Joe Pitts, who is also a Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, crafted an amendment that would take abortion out -- completely -- from ObamaCare. And their amendment initially won in the committee, amazingly, only to have a parliamentary maneuver pulled, a couple of arms were twisted, and they were able to, on the pro-abortion side, eke out a very small, narrow victory. And then on what's known as the CAPS Amendment, which is a very, very pro-abortion amendment... Uh, I agree with the questioner... the pro-life Democrats, and there are fewer now then when we went through this trial with HillaryCare...uh, and they too, during that difficult time, were magnificent -- standing there with an amendment saying that, "we will not be part of the greatest expansion of abortion in United States history since Roe vs. Wade." So Bart Stupak, and people like Jim Oberstar from Minnesota, and others, have signed letters to the speaker and to the president saying that they will not vote for ObamaCare unless all the pro-life problems, the pro-abortion problems, have been rectified. And so your call for prayer -- Bart is a very
 
Silvio Berlusconi Greets Michelle Obama: Come To Padre! (PHOTOS, POLL) Top
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was certainly happy to see First Lady Michelle Obama on Thursday night at the G-20 dinner, and greeted her with some come-to- padre hand motions as Barack kept a close eye. Click through the play-by-play, and tell us which gestures are appropriate and which are crossing the line. See what other world leaders and their wives were wearing on the G-20 arrival red carpet. PHOTOS: Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook ! More on Silvio Berlusconi
 

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