Wednesday, September 30, 2009

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Larry Gellman: A New Year's Resolution Top
These are the most important 10 days of the Jewish calendar -- the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when we negotiate with God -- making the case that we are worthy to be inscribed in the Book of Life for yet another year. The biggest part of that process involves t'shuvah -- repentance. We try to be honest about things we have done wrong and need to do better during the coming year. That is obviously a very personal negotiation and each of us has very different issues to consider as part our heshbon ha nefesh -- the examination of our soul. But as a people, I would suggest that this is a time when all Jews need to look not just at what we do during the coming year but at what we say and how we say it. The Jewish tradition has always been obsessed with the destructive potential of speech. Of the 43 sins enumerated in the Al Chait confession we recite on Yom Kippur , 11 of them are related to speech. The Talmud tells that the tongue is an instrument so dangerous that God designed us in a way so it is hidden from view and behind two protective walls (the mouth and teeth) to prevent its misuse. In the book of Leviticus, there is a specific prohibition against rechilut --being a tale-bearer . The Hebrew word rechil refers to a trader or a merchant. A tale-bearer -- a biblical reference to a blogger or talk show host--is someone who deals in information instead of other goods. Long before there was talk radio, cable news, and the internet the Torah -- the Hebrew Bible understood that information is not idle chatter. It is a product. It is real. The gravest type of rechilut is lashon hara which literally means "the evil tongue." It is the practice of discrediting or saying negative things about a person even if those things are true. A person who spreads slander or untrue negative information about a person is considered the lowest of the low -- a motzi shem ra -- one who delivers a bad name. Many commentators rank these people on the same scale as murderers and far worse than thieves since the money or property stolen by a thief can be replaced but a person's good reputation never recovers from slander. There is a well-known story about a rabbi who was asked how one could repent for spreading vicious slander. He replied that it was like trying to put the feathers back in a pillow that has been ripped open during a windstorm. It simply can't be done. The great Chasidic rabbi the Chofetz Chayim was preoccupied with the evils of lashon hara -- so much so that it is said he would stay inside his house for weeks at a time because he found it impossible to go out in public without being exposed to evil gossip. Today, he wouldn't be safe even in his home. He'd have to turn off his TV, throw away his radio, and shut down his email and the internet as well. Throughout history, no people has suffered more from sinat chinam -- baseless hatred -- than the Jews. That hatred has come both from within and outside our community. Many of our sages say that the First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed due to our sins against God but the Second Temple was destroyed due to sinat chinam -- baseless hatred shown toward each other by differing groups of Jews. Over the years, anti-Semitism grew and thrived based on lies that were spread by those who hated Jews more than they loved the truth. These bigots justified their prejudice by claiming that Jews were financial pariahs, murdered Jesus, used the blood of gentile children to make their Passover matzahs and a variety of other hateful slurs. Without these lies and those who willingly spread them, history might look very different. American Jews have always taken pride in knowing that in the area of politics and public affairs we have been the most sophisticated, influential, and intellectually honest minority group in our country's history. But on this Yom Kippur there is reason for concern. The politics of rumor, innuendo, and lies -- sinat chinam -- is on the rise in our community and it hurts us all. Former President Bush was a victim of this type of treatment. After Bush visited Yad Vashem, a prominent Jewish blogger wrote that "The President cares about dead Jews. Live Jews -- not so much." During last year's presidential campaign, nine leaders of non-partisan Jewish organizations signed a letter condemning the smear campaigns aimed at Jewish voters that had been launched against President Obama . They took this action not because they supported Obama politically but because they understood the danger of these lies. What started as fallacious emails claiming that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim who cavorts with Jew haters has actually ramped up since his election as our president. It has now made its way to semi-respectable websites and the pages of the Jerusalem Post . In several pieces by Jewish authors our president is associated with Islam, Jew hatred, and anti-Israel sentiment ignoring his voting record, statements on Israel, and commitment to fighting anti-Semitism. Sinat Chinam spills into our community's internal discourse as well. Hatespeech and uncivil conversation are on the rise. A good friend of mine just quit her job in our Congressman's office in part because she couldn't take the daily barrage of obscene and hateful phone calls she was fielding on a daily basis. Jewish Democratic leader Ira N. Forman wrote an insightful article about the rise of hatespeech within the Jewish community. He reported that he had received calls from fellow Jews accusing him of being "a liar and a stooge for the Hitlerite appeasement of Islamofascism." Jewish Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson cites ominious comparisons between the tactics of today's promoters of hatred and the brilliant propaganda breakthoughs that enabled Hitler to promote his evil agenda. Speaking of blast emails and the internet in general, Gerson says "the least responsible contributors see their darkest tendencies legitimated and reinforced, while serious voices are driven away by the general ugliness." Being Jewish has always involved rising above the trends taking place in the broader community and holding ourselves to a higher standard--the standard that has caused us to survive as a people committed to civil discourse and Tikkun Olam --repairing the world. This year, it is important to our country and also to our biblical commandmet to be or l'goyim -- a light unto the nations--for us to commit ourselves to focus on what we say and how we say it during the coming year. It's not about being politically correct -- it's about doing God's work and fulfilling our most important Jewish traditions. May you and your families have a happy, healthy, and rewarding new year. More on Barack Obama
 
David Flumenbaum: Mao Takes Manhattan: Empire State Building Goes Red and Yellow for China Top
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China under Communist rule and Mao's 1949 revolution, the Chinese will hold a military parade in Beijing on Thursday of unparalleled size -- 5,000 soldiers, 43,000 fireworks and a display of 52 new weapons -- followed by a civilian parade of 100,000 marchers and 60 floats, many chanting new nationalistic mantras coined by the Chinese government for the occasion. For a nation that worships Mao, and the path of development and prosperity the Chinese people believe he charted, nothing less would do to commemorate its 60th anniversary. But when it comes to the commemoration of China's 60th anniversary in the U.S., perhaps we could -- and should -- expect a little less. Wednesday night in New York City, the Empire State Building will illumine its familiar spire with red and yellow lights in honor of Communist China. The Communism-themed color scheme will stay lit through Thursday night, much to the delight of China's consular officials, who were on hand for a ceremony in the lobby of the iconic building Wednesday morning, and to the acute dismay of the dozen or so protesters outside, and to many Americans who question whether honoring China's Communist revolution here is at all appropriate. China's Consul General Peng Keyu, the main attraction at Wednesday's ceremony, offered kind words for the building, New Yorkers and the American people, before pulling a fake lever that lit up a fake Empire State Building. He told the crowd: I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to all the friends in the greater New York area for their support to China's development and the China-U.S. relations... I sincerely wish China, my motherland, continued prosperity. And let us work together for a brighter future of the Sino-U.S. relations, and a sustainable, peaceful world. Here's the video of the ceremony: American reaction to the Empire State Building's decision to honor the People's Republic of China has been fiercely, and almost unanimously, negative. To most Americans, Mao is a symbol of evil, his revolution a reign of terror, and his legacy the antithesis of how he's revered in modern China. Media reaction to the lighting has reflected America's discomfort with a Communist-themed Empire State building. U.S. News and World Report published an editorial Wednesday titled "The Empire State Building's Disgusting Kowtow to China," which asked: Is this to honor Mao Zedong, whose euphemistically-named Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution led to the mass starvation and mass murder of 40-70 million Chinese, a death toll perhaps surpassing that of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin combined, and led him to declare, "China is such a populous nation, it's not as if we cannot do without a few people?" The AP quoted New York Congressman Anthony Weiner as saying the lights should not be used to pay tribute to "a nation with a shameful history on human rights." And Investor's Business Daily asked in a Tuesday editorial what many New Yorkers and Americans in general are wondering: "What is the Empire State Building thinking?" I spoke with Han Shan , a HuffPost blogger and one of the protesters Wednesday morning outside the Empire State Building, who told me that there's no distinction between honoring the anniversary of the People's Republic of China and celebrating China's Communist party itself, which he described as a "totalitarian state that has killed 1.2 million Tibetans and countless Chinese people." When I asked Han who was responsible for making the decision to light the Empire State Building red and yellow, he said, "it's not transparent and we haven't been able to figure out how it happened... we imagine it was at the request of the Consulate." Here's my interview with Han: While Han and the Students for a Free Tibet were unable to get an answer as to who exactly requested lighting the Empire State Building red and yellow, I did my best to find out how the building came to its decision and whether it was at the request of the Chinese Consulate. The spokespeople for the Empire State Building told me the following: "ESB doesn't discuss the lighting process, but it is explained in brief on their website www.esbnyc.com ." Nothing there. So I called the Chinese Consulate and spoke with Gao Wen Qi, the spokesperson for the Consulate. He told me the decision to light the building in China's colors was "a bilateral decision, reached through a consensus between the building and the Consulate." I asked him whether the Empire State Building approached the Consulate or vice versa and he told me "in this instance, the building approached the Consulate." He assured me the Consulate didn't pay the Empire State Building any money for the honor. Representatives for the building told Fox News that taxpayers would not be footing the bill for the lights. No matter who is responsible for the Empire State Building "going Communist," as some have put it, when the spire glows China's red and yellow, New York City, defined by its most iconic structure, will be giving Mao, Communism, and the People's Republic of China a big pat on the back. As Mr. Gao pointed out to me, "this isn't the first time the Empire State Building has gone red and yellow." True. But it is the first time it has been done for Mao. More on China
 
Sesame Street Does 'Mad Men' (VIDEO) Top
The Sesame Street Mad Men parody that we've been waiting for is finally here! As many of you know by now, we're huge fans of the Street and their TV show spoofs. See more of them here ! WATCH: Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on Sesame Street
 
American Police Force And Hardin: Mysterious Security Firm Gets Control Of Empty Montana Jail Top
A shadowy private security company that has no known clients but claims to have helped foreign governments combat terrorism and will protect anything from cruise ships to Pakistani convoys has taken over a jail in a small Montana town, with plans to build a law enforcement training facility on the property. More on Blackwater
 
Terry Gardner: Commerce Residents Choke on Fumes Top
I was shocked to read in Column One of the LA Times last week that residents in Commerce, California have a 29% increased risk of cancer caused by air pollution in the area. Trains idling in train yards spew gray diesel smoke and apparently other carcinogens. Another contributor to air pollution are trucks that transport goods from ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach and the ships that dock there. Neighborhoods along the 710 corridor including Wilmington, Carson, Compton, Huntington Park and Commerce get some of the most intense pollution. LA Times staff writer Margot Roosevelt reports: "Each year, pollution from ships, trucks and trains that move goods through the region contributes to an estimated 2,100 early deaths, 190,000 sick days for workers, and 360,000 school absences, according to the California Air Resources Board." See: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-air-pollution24-2009sep24,0,194490,full.story On LA Times ' Greenspace blog, Roosevelt has posted a video on the subject: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2009/09/railyard-pollution-california.html . I live in Santa Monica, so my air quality is pretty good (I think). No one should have to hold their breath at home to avoid inhaling diesel fumes. I hope the Clean Air Resources Board will take action on this issue soon.
 
Bachmann To Raise Funds For Controversial Christian Punk Ministry Top
Rep. Michele Bachmann will be headlining a fundraiser in November for controversial ministry You Can Run But You Cannot Hide (YCRBYCH). Based in Annandale, Minn., the group has made a name for itself as an anti-drug Christian punk rock band that organizes motivational student assemblies to bring Christ to public schools. But over the last several years, parents and school administrators have complained that the ministry misrepresents itself, claiming that the group is not transparent about its Christian mission. And since schools pay using public funds, some are concerned that the group is violating the constitutional principle of the separation of church and state. More on Michele Bachmann
 
Carl Pope: Oh, Yes We Can! Top
San Francisco -- As the Senate slogs forward, and the Chamber of Commerce drags its feet, and the U.S. disappoints the rest of the world at the Bangkok climate talks, it's easy to get discouraged. But at the end of the day, all the hot-air CO2 emitted in political speeches will get recycled. And as you poke around the real energy economy, the signs keep signaling, "this is easier than we think." Last week, at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, I sat down with a solar entrepreneur from India who had some startling numbers. Harish Hande runs a company called SELCO.   They offer a grassroots distribution model for solarizing villages that don't have grid access. Here's what their experience shows: Properly financed, installing solar cuts the lighting cost of a poor family in India, Pakistan, Africa or Latin America currently dependent on kerosene by 1/3 to 1/2, depending on the size of the government subsidy for the kerosene. Solar is not only less costly than fossil, it is less costly than doing nothing! And one-fifth of humanity needs this solution. It turns out that if a village begins electrifying with distributed solar cells, it never needs to connect to the grid -- it can just keep adding solutions such as solar, small-scale wind, biomass, and methane generation from agricultural waste. How much upfront capital would it take to electrify that final one-fifth of humanity? My back-of-an-envelope calculations suggest total capital cost would be about $25 billion, but two-thirds of that could be obtained in-country as commercial loans from local banks. So the seed capital for the whole world would be only $8 billion -- the cost of a couple of nuclear power plants. A similar idea has just been floated in India by my friend Raj Chengappa, one of the editors of India Today. What makes this even better is how easily it dovetails with the just-announced decision, by the G-20, to phase out global subsidies to fossil fuels.  These subsidies total $300 billion a year. If they are gone by 2020, the G20 estimates that step alone would reduce global greenhouse pollution ten percent by 2050. But that misses the big picture. What's really important is that we invest the money saved in clean energy. If we cut subsidies by one-tenth every year, then in 2011 we'll have $30 billion to invest, in 2012 we'll have $60 billion, and over the course of this decade we'll have $1.5 trillion. That's far more than the biggest offers thus far from the U.S. and Europe to held put third-world countries on a low-carbon development pathway -- although it's still at the low end of what the World Bank has estimated is needed to do the job. But I think the World Bank's estimates are almost certainly too high. Compare them with my estimates. Even if I 'm off by a factor of two or three, there's still a huge difference. Why? The bank ignores grassroots distribution models like my friend at SELCO's. The bank's estimates, like most conventional models, ignore the reality that huge parts of this job can be financed with conventional commercial loans, IF there are loan guarantees and seed capital at the front end to develop the technology, scale the supply chains, and bring down the cost. Most economists also ignore that the lack of clean energy means that the poor spend a huge amount on dirty energy. If the government subsidies total $300 billion a year, wasteful expenses by the poor on fossil fuels must total a trillion dollars or more. SELCO's model is a classic piece of what Clayton Christensen calls disruptive innovation.   SELCO goes after customers -- poor householders in villages off the grid -- that the established electrical companies don't care about (because at first they don't need much power). This model meets their needs at very low cost -- and scales to meet more demand over time, even as it drives the price of the innovation down. It's simple, elegant, and it could save the world. We don't even need to take the costs of global warming into account in this calculus. We just need to act on our understanding that there aren't enough cheap fossil fuels to power the entire world and that a clean-energy revolution makes economic sense on its own terms -- once we get the financing right. More on India
 
Panthera: Walking with Lions: The Myth of Conservation Top
Barely a month goes by without news of someone getting into a tussle with a 'tame' big cat. A recent case in point showed a young lion in a South African resort roughing up a British journalist who thought it would make good copy to go into the animal's cage for a close encounter . It's easy to dismiss the stunt as journalistic nonsense (which it is) but dozens of operations across Africa sell similarly close encounters with lions to the average tourist. For a fee, just about anyone can play with cubs, take a stroll with young lions or pose for photos to show the folks back home. Inevitably, the marketing behind these outfits is heavy on the C-word -- 'conservation.' Visitors are told relentlessly that, by handing over their cash to cozy up to tame lions, they are helping to save the species in the wild. There's little doubt that lions are in dire need -- they have been eradicated from over 80% of their range in Africa alone -- but don't believe their advertising. Churning out cubs for photo opportunities is a great revenue earner but none of those cubs are set free. They are too tame. If they were ever to wander into a village or farm looking for a belly rub or a feed, the surprised locals would, not unreasonably, reach for their rifles or spears. Even assuming there is someplace sufficiently wild and people-free, captive-raised lions simply don't have the skills and experience to survive. Many of the tame lions released by Joy and George Adamson (of 'Born Free' and Christian the Lion fame) starved to death, were killed by people and wild lions or, in some cases, killed people themselves and were shot. (Photo courtesy of Luke Hunter) The more sophisticated operations counter this by declaring that tame, tourist-friendly lions are not intended for release: rather, only later generations of captive-bred lions, not exposed to people, will be set free. Even setting aside the formidable obstacles in 'training' captive-bred lions to be wild, there simply isn't the need. In South Africa, there are now more than 500 reintroduced lions in 37 reserves -- the key difference being that all of them are wild born and bred. Starting back in 1992, South African biologists pioneered the process of translocating wild lions from marginal areas and reintroducing them into areas where people had wiped them out. It takes money and has risks, but considerably less of both than using captive lions. Wild lions captured in one place are already much better equipped to survive as wild lions in another place. But, of course, using wild lions to re-establish the species rules out charging gullible tourists for an up-close experience. Cue cub cuddling. If all of this fails to convince you to think twice about paying for an 'encounter,' ask the handlers point blank how many of their lions have gone back to the wild? If they furnish you a figure, they are probably lying. As I write this, I do not know of one example. In fact, most of them never actually attempt releases. Which begs another question -- what really happens to their lions? When cubs grow up, they cost a lot to feed and maintain, and they need to pay their way somehow. No problem. There is a thriving market for lions, mainly in South Africa, among 'lion farmers.' They buy surplus cats, much as livestock producers buy new stock on auction, and they breed them. For hunting. As adults, the cubs that cavort with tourists often end up in the gun-sights of trophy hunters. It's quite legal provided you have the permits. If you don't believe me, have a look at this report from the excellent South African program Carte Blanche . The bottom line is, the 'lion encounter' industry is only that -- an industry. I'm the first to applaud businesses finding ways for wildlife to generate a profit when it actually helps protect that wildlife. The same tourists who spend $200 for an afternoon of walking with tame lions could instead visit nearby national parks and game reserves where the entry price and lodge fees truly do help to conserve wildlife. For my money, stick with the real thing: no matter what the glossy brochures and slick websites claim, it won't ever involve tame lions. Dr. Luke Hunter is the Executive Director at Panthera, the leading global nonprofit organization devoted to saving the world's wild cat species, from the diminutive black-footed cat of southern Africa to the massive tiger of Asia. Hunter has conducted fieldwork on large cats in Africa since 1992. His current projects include assessing the effects of sport hunting and illegal persecution on leopards outside protected areas, developing a conservation strategy for lions across their African range, and the first intensive study of Persian leopards and the last surviving Asiatic cheetahs in Iran. More on South Africa
 
HP Invent: Printers Star In Coolest Tech Music Video Ever (VIDEO) Top
Hewlett Packard challenged students at the D&AD Student Awards to "present an idea which promotes HP workstations' ability to bring to life anything the creative mind can conceive." Matthew Robinson and Tom Wrigglesworth conceived and directed this awesome short: a music video for computer printers, if ever such a thing existed... Check it out below. WATCH: HP - invent from Tom and Matt on Vimeo . Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!
 
Courtney Reum: Towards a Spectrum of Green Top
I want to get something off my chest: "....but are you really green now ?" That was the question posed to me at a very recent meeting over a VeeV cocktail. To be more formal, the full context of the quote was "VeeV sounds very progressive with everything you're doing in the space but (are you personally) really green?" This question, and it's not the first time I've gotten this, frankly irks me in many ways. However, I'm going to choose to view the proverbial glass as half full and explain both how I, as a micrcosm of a new group of eco-conscious entrepreneurs, try to answer this question, as well as to what extent I actually consider myself "green." Simply put, to me it's all about a spectrum. The question isn't black/white or cut/dry, so I think it should actually be rephrased more along the lines of, "Where do you fall in the spectrum of trying to be more 'green'?" This question is still highly subjective, but at least admits to some element of needing/wanting to improve and recognizes that it's a continual process. I remember several years back when I was just getting my feet wet in the green community and I went to a gathering at the home of Lawrence Bender (he of Inconvenient Truth fame). The featured speaker of the evening was Gary Hirschberg, who is the founder of Stoneyfield Farms yogurt and, for my money, one of the pioneers of the modern green movement. Anyway, he got up in front of the group and said "Hi, my name is Gary and I'm a polluter...let's just get that out of the way." At first, I chuckled and brushed this statement off as some type of ice breaker that he regularly used to kick-off these sorts of gatherings. I'm sure that is in fact the case, but after a few minutes of introspection I realized just how profound and fitting this quote was. To have a person up there who has been interested in sustainability and all of its ramifications virtually his whole life stand there and humanize himself the way he did and admit that he, and his company Stoneyfield Farms, both have a long way to go was truly cathartic. People like Gary have helped to remove the soapbox stigma from the green movement and allow it to be inclusive and forgiving, much like a religion (not trying to open Pandora's Box but hopefully you understand the intended analogy). As a counter example, let's look at former Vice-President Al Gore. Clearly he's done as much or more than anyone for a very long time, but when the news erupted about the astronomical CO2 admissions at his house in Tennessee I felt like he was very defensive and alienating towards the average American who is still getting up to speed on all things 'green.' Granted, it was a catch-22 in many ways, but I feel like if he could have been a bit more forthright as to why his house utilizes so many fossil fuels and admitted some culpability and room for improvement it might have endeared him to more people. Let's get back to this idea of the spectrum. Whether it's our employees at VeeV or friends I'm speaking with more casually, I always try to emphasize that there's no line in the sand that needs to be drawn. Little things can truly make a big difference. I'm always blown away by eco-tidbits, such as recycling a single aluminum can runs an average television set for 4 hours. How crazy is that? For anyone that has never done anything to purposely minimize their carbon footprint, let's just start with something that mundane since there's a good chance that you drink pop (that's right, I'm from the Midwest originally (Chicago) so we say "pop"...live with it). Anyways, whether you drink it at work or at home, if you start recycling that can at one or the other, I can almost guarantee that it will have a spillover effect. For me, it was the opposite of most people in that my company VeeV was the catalyst for many changes in my personal life. It started with that little voice in my head saying things like 'even if you recycle that paper at work, you still need to do it at home or the airport...even if it is a small amount of paper.' That's right, I swear on my life I'm that guy that does not throw away any paper when I'm traveling on the airplane (which I do a lot) because you know they don't recycle it even when they say they do. At first the temptation was strong to unload a couple of pounds of paper from my briefcase that was already probably 25 lbs or more. But eventually you realize that it's worth the sacrifice or the few extra minutes until you find a recycling bin and that's how the work changes start to permeate your personal life and vice versa to the point where it's all a continuum. As a larger corporate example, many people have heard about Wal-mart's grand plans to revolutionize green and make sweeping changes given their position at the top of the food chain, yet many are skeptical that these changes are being enacted. Having some insider knowledge I personally think that Wal-mart is headed in the right direction, but without passing judgment I can actually tell you that they have had a profound impact on my company with a simple thing that they call employee PSP's (Personal Sustainability Projects) or D.O.T. (Do One Thing). The idea is aimed at making the smallest changes, having it become habit and then watching the compounding effect of millions of people making small changes take over. At VeeV, it manifests itself as part of our quarterly bonus system which certainly helps it sink in. We keep it simple and ask every employee to come up with one personal and one work PSP goal much the way they get new sales goals each quarter. There are a few PSP's that are better not put into writing but they can be things like 'take shorter showers to conserve water' (personal) and 'check my tire pressure once a week because I drive a lot for work and I get 2 more mpg when the tire pressure is optimized' (work). As you can see, we keep these very free form and try not to put restrictions on them because the point of the exercise is really just to make people think about habits they have, how they can modify them, and where that moves them on the spectrum. Does the fact that I traded my SUV for a Prius and take much shorter showers make me "green?" Of course not...but it's definitely a step in the right direction and I'll get up tomorrow trying to move one step closer to my desired end of the green spectrum. I doubt I'll ever quite get there all together but that's fine, too. I'd encourage other folks to comment on ways their personal and professional lives have impacted their position on the "green spectrum."
 
Kevin Grandia: Toyota's Two-Faced Stance on Climate Change Top
As the old saying goes: "You can't have your cake and eat it too." Or in the case of Toyota: "You can't have your green and fight it too." With a well-earned reputation as a leader in the development of fuel efficient cars it boggles my mind that Toyota continues to be a supporter of the US Chamber of Commerce - an organization that is leading the charge against President Obama's clean energy agenda. Other big supporters of the Chamber of Commerce have been distancing themselves from the organization over their archaic standpoint on the issue of climate change. Just today we saw Nike relinquish its membership on the US Chamber's board , stating that: "we fundamentally disagree with the US Chamber of Commerce on the issue of climate change and their recent action challenging the EPA is inconsistent with our view that climate change is an issue in need of urgent action." And over the last week two other high profile members have quit, including the largest US electric utility company, Exelon. In a press release, Exelon states that: "Exelon is so committed to climate legislation that Rowe [Exelon's CEO] announced during today's speech that Exelon will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the organization's opposition to climate legislation." If an energy producer and a shoe company are willing to take such a strong stance, one would reason that Toyota, a company that heavily markets itself as a "sustainable mobility" company, would have led the exodus from the US Chamber. Instead we see all sorts of big green talk from the auto-giant, like: "We support environmental programs that educate and mobilize people to reduce their environmental footprint." "At Toyota, our commitment to the environment goes beyond our products." "As an auto manufacturer, Toyota believes that "sustainable mobility" can be achieved through advanced technologies, key partnerships and creative people who are willing to take on this most important challenge." It goes on and on like this throughout Toyota's website and I applaud them for putting their money where there mouth is on things like their Together Green program. But it all rings just a little too hollow when you know that at the same time they're doing all this "green" work, they're still a big backer of the US Chamber of Commerce who continues to be a major lobby against action on climate change. At the least it seems to me to be financially backwards to fund one group that is advancing environmental causes while at the same time funding those opposed to those very same things. At the most, it makes me wonder whether all of Toyota's "green" image in nothing more than a clever ruse. If Toyota is genuinely committed to sustainability as they say they are, then they can can take their lead from Nike, Exelon and others and stop supporting the US Chamber and their attack on the Obama administration's clean energy and climate change reforms. If they don't leave the US Chamber, then we know where their motivations truly lie.
 
Finger Murals: Which Nail Design Is The Ugliest? (PHOTOS, POLL) Top
Fingernails are one of a fashionista's favorite ways to express herself -- a French manicure indicates an elegant woman, black is a little goth, and red says, "I'm a femme fatale." But take a look at these magnificent manicures. From Mario to under-the-sea-style, these people have the whole world in their hands. Tell us which manicures you think are kind of cool and which you find offensively ugly. Images from Offbeat Earth . Follow HuffPost Style on Twitter and become a fan of HuffPost Style on Facebook !
 
Brazilian Paper: New Yorker Tried To Scuttle Olympic Bid Top
"It's war!" cries Brazilian newspaper O Globo, lamenting an article in the latest New Yorker on gang violence in Rio de Janeiro, which comes out mere days before the International Olympic Committee decides the location of the 2016 summer games. More on Brazil
 
Larry Gellman: Back to the Future -- The Tension Over Tense Top
Have you ever noticed that most things people say they are worried might happen in the future are things that have already happened? Once the dreaded event has taken place, they start speaking in the future tense about it as though it hadn't happened yet -- but they're worried that it might. That was this year's Rosh Hashanah insight that got me through the day as we Chosen folks ushered in 5770 the other day. As a financial adviser I have seen it repeatedly over the years. Investors and the business news media always seem to consider the market to be risky after it has already been crushed. It is only near market tops that people tend to be comfortable owning stocks and are losing sleep because they don't own enough hot issues. We saw panic at the bottom after the stock market crash in 1987 and again last March when people were so worried about how risky the market had become that they wanted to sell every stock they owned -- including companies that were trading at valuations that were less than the cash they had in the bank. That, of course, was after their accounts had been crushed and the people sold their stocks without regard to price just so they could sleep at night. We saw the mirror image of that behavior during the late 1990's during the tech bubble. "Conservative" investors fired their money managers for not owning enough high-flying stocks that had already gone up by 1,000 percent or more. Then they turned around and sued their new managers in the early 2000's because they owned too many of the internet companies that the investors themselves ordered them to buy. It's easy to poke fun but in fact human nature tends to lead us astray under a variety of circumstances. With investments, mob psychology takes over. People get greedy at the top and afraid at the bottom. At the end of the day, they almost always default in favor of sleeping at night. What is harder to understand is why people speak in the future tense about their worries months after the worst has already happened and the risk would seem to be gone. The same phenomenon seems to apply to the criticism and concerns expressed about President Obama. The very issues that many detractors say they are most worried about seem to be events that already happened long before Obama even took office. For example, critics say they are worried that Obamanomics will create huge federal deficits and destroy the economy. But during the eight years of George W. Bush's presidency, what had been a budget surplus turned into $5 trillion in deficits and that doesn't include the cost of the Iraq war and other expenses that were made off budget. To save the economy, Obama will certainly run $1 trillion-plus deficits in coming years, but Bush already did that in 2008. John McCain has admitted that had he been elected the deficit numbers would have looked pretty much the same. As far as destroying the economy is concerned, that was pretty much a done deal at this time a year ago -- months before Obama was even elected. There is also a lot of hand-wringing and fear that Obama wants to redistribute wealth and take all the money from the rich and give it to the poor. But wasn't it Bush who pushed through a $170 billion stimulus bill more than a year ago where checks of up to $1,200 were sent to the poorest Americans in a failed effort to avert a recession? Where were the cries of "socialism" and the teabagging parties back then? And wasn't it Bush who redistributed billions of in the opposite direction with his tax cuts for the wealthy? The same is true regarding many concerns about health care reform -- not the phony ones which are just based on lies. Outrage is routinely expressed about having a government-financed health care system in which the care itself would be rationed. But isn't that what we already have with Medicare, Medicaid, and the V.A.? And isn't health care already being rationed by our current system? I am covered by a "gold-plated" health plan but my premiums and co-pays go up every year and the procedures that are covered by my insurance keep going down. In recent years, I have been told more and more often that "your insurance doesn't cover that procedure" and have seen an increasing number of doctors refuse to accept patients covered by certain insurers because their reimbursement levels have dropped so dramatically. Perhaps the most ironic line of this whole debate comes from the millions of Republicans who have cautioned Obama and the Democrats to "keep the government away from my Medicare." There are many reasons to be concerned about the future of health care in our country and how we're going to pay for it. But those who are most concerned about the government controlling coverage or about care being rationed in the future are waiting for a train that left the station years ago. My guess is that 95 percent of the things most people worry about either have already happened or will never happen. Having said that, there is no doubt that fear about the future can be a useful tool. But only if it is used to keep us out of trouble or to spur us on to imagine and work to create better outcomes and a better world. Today, however, fears and worries seem to mainly just whip up anger, hate, and demonization of our leaders and institutions. Hopefully during the coming year we will funnel more of our energy to finding constructive solutions to the many problems that confront us and waste less worrying about things that have already happened or never will. Steering the Ship of State and our personal lives is tough enough under the best of circumstances. It becomes impossible if we spend all our time looking in the rear view mirror. More on Health Care
 
Pentagon Journal Calls For Repeal Of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Top
For a long while now, I've been of the mind that the current "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that the Armed Forces enforces on its soldiers is pointless, juvenile, and detrimental to our national security concerns. Well, today, Spencer Ackerman highlights a story in the "After a careful examination, there is no scientific evidence to support the claim that unit cohesion will be negatively affected if homosexuals serve openly," writes Colonel Om Prakash , who is now working in the office of Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. "Based on this research, it is not time for the administration to reexamine the issue; rather it is time for the administration to examine how to implement the repeal of the ban." At some point, it would be nice if President Barack Obama would join this emerging vanguard of thought urging for the repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell" before it completely passes him by. RELATED: Don't Ask, Don't Be Ridiculous [Attackerman] PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST: Rep. Patrick Murphy, Iraq Vet, Takes Charge of DADT Fight [Would you like to follow me on Twitter ? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here .] More on Barack Obama
 
White House: Derrion Albert Beating Death Video 'Chilling' Top
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the beating death of 16-year-old honor student Derrion Albert was discussed at President Obama's morning meeting Wednesday and called it "shocking" and "chilling." "I can tell you obviously the reports of and the video that we have seen on television is among the most shocking that you can ever see," NBC Chicago quoted Gibbs as saying . "The killing of an honor student by others who's beaten to death is chilling, chilling video and I think this is something that the administration has been working on." Gibbs said the administration plans a response to the "heinous crime" soon. Albert was walking to a bus stop Thursday when he got caught in the melee between rival gangs of Fenger High School students. Amateur video of the brawl shows Albert's fatal pummeling in explicit detail. Police called Albert an "innocent bystander" and family and friends said he had never been involved with gangs. (WARNING: GRAPHIC VIOLENCE) Prosecutors have charged four teenagers with first-degree murder in connection with Albert's death. Police Supt. Jody Weis said Tuesday that they are seeking three more people potentially involved with the killing. More on Video
 
Maria Eitel: At CGI and beyond, world leaders say girls are the key to progress Top
The Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which just wrapped up, was a key moment in the movement to get girls on the global agenda and drive resources to them. Those organizations who have been doing this work for years were thrilled see that we're finally beginning to penetrate the power circle with the issues of girls and women. Let's dig into what happened. CGI has historically organized its agenda around the "tracks" of poverty, global health, education and climate change. This year, they reorganized into thematic areas including innovation, finance, infrastructure and human capital. In and of itself, this isn't news. The shift makes sense given the global economic reality of the moment. The big news, however, is this: For the first time in its five-year history, CGI included a cross-cutting focus called "Investing in Girls and Women." That means that for every single session no matter what the topic, CGI's planners included solutions designed for girls and women to accelerate progress. Now this isn't a total win. Anyone who's ever met me has probably heard me talk about how girls and women can't be lumped into the same category. That's one of the ways we make the mistake of thinking our efforts are reaching girls when they really aren't. That said, this is an enormous step in the right direction and there was a ton of momentum at CGI this week around both the importance of investing in girls and women for global prosperity. The press seem to be taking note, with the Wall Street Journal referring to it as "a global tipping point," while Politics Daily remarked on "the start of something big." In this very forum, Sarah Brown (who, as the wife of UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is decidedly not "press") writes about a " changing tide of opinion for girls and women ." It goes well beyond CGI too. • At an event called "Combating Violence Against Girls" hosted by the Netherlands, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that girls and women could no longer be an afterthought. Instead they must be a foreign policy priority. • In President Obama's address to the UN General Assembly earlier this week, he referred to the Assembly's charter and reminded members of their commitment to reaffirm the "opportunity for women and girls to pursue their own potential." • At a UN high-level event on food security, World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke eloquently about the unique need for the initiative to carefully consider girls in upstream design to ensure they are part of the solution. She emphasized that girls are a unique population and we cannot assume they are included when we say "women". • Belinda Stronach, former member of Canadian Parliament and chair of the Belinda Stronach Foundation, wrote a piece in the Globe and Mail called " Investing in girls pays off in social and economic progress ." And the Toronto Star brings us " How can you save the world? Start with her ." • The nonprofit Plan USA released the third in its groundbreaking series of "Because I am a Girl" reports, with this one focused on " Girls in the Global Economy: Adding It All Up ." A big week indeed, but back to CGI. Tuesday night featured a great dinner focused entirely on investing in girls and women. Ann Cotton, executive director of Camfed made an inspired speech that put the focus of the evening squarely on girls. Camfed was one of the Nike Foundation's first grantees and Ann was among the first to connect the concept of girls needing not just education but economic opportunity if they are to succeed. At the dinner she shared the story of the executive director of Camfed Zimbabwe, Angeline Mugwendere. Years ago, Angeline received support from Camfed to attend secondary school while her girlhood friends who did not have the same opportunity instead slept with sugar daddies in return for school fees and basic necessities. She said it wasn't foolishness, but rather the effect of exclusion that forced these girls into what ultimately proved to be life-threatening relationships. We need more voices like Ann's to ensure that girls remain in the dialogue and the world understands the inextricable link between education and economics. At our table, Judith Bruce of the Population Council talked about areas that need to be fixed. "There's almost a hard-wired resistance to do asset building for girls. I've analyzed many gender based violence programs and you're hard put to find programs that actually have girls at their center. They're spending time with the police or the judge or the teacher, but if you say 'Ok, show me the girls whose assets you're building,' they can't. There's a tremendous bias to work with everybody but the girl." President Clinton invited me to the stage at the start of the Wednesday morning plenary session on "Investing in Girls and Women" to introduce a group of commitments focused on the girl effect including Merck and Qiagen's partnership to deliver 3 million HPV vaccinations, Sustainable Health Enterprise's commitment to increase girls' school attendance by providing sanitary napkins to 1 million girls, AND Plan USA's efforts to train girls in Ghana in media production and journalism. I also announced the Nike Foundation's commitment to "Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health" in partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Center for Global Development, and our investment in Muhammad Yunus' Grameen Nurse Institute - a revolutionary business model that puts girls at the center of health care solutions in Bangladesh. Simply having a plenary session called "Girls and Women" with male CEOs and heads of multilateral organizations was a symbolic victory for girls actually being seen and considered on the global stage. The heads of The World Bank, Goldman Sachs and Exxon Mobil, along with State Department's Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues, the founder of Women for Women International and Edna Adan, a nurse/mid-wife from Somaliland and the founder of a maternity hospital there. Five years ago, it was generally assumed that CEOs and heads of institutions would not be interested in investing in girls. It is amazing to see how times have changed. When Diane Sawyer, the session's moderator, asked World Bank president Robert Zoellick why the Bank would focus on adolescent girls, he said, "When times get tough, when food prices go up, the girls get taken out of school. If [the family] can't feed two kids, they'll feed the boy, not the girl... the Adolescent Girls Initiative... keeps them in school, makes sure their education is connected to a job, gives them some mentoring, and what you can see is the benefits to not only their lives, but their children's lives." Diane Sawyer reminded the audience that a woman is dying in childbirth every single minute around the globe. What wasn't discussed was that many of those "women" are actually girls. In fact, some 60-70,000 adolescent girls die in childbirth every year. She asked Edna Adan what simple things could happen to have an impact. "When we talk about reproductive health," Adan said "it is affected by health, it is affected by nutrition, it is affected by the age at which she is married... These problems don't need complicated technologies to deal with them. They can be dealt with in the majority of cases by having skilled birth attendants and, of course, basic equipment and water to wash one's hands with." When it comes to girl mothers, Adan touched on something really critical. Reproductive health is affected by the age at which she is married. Early marriage is a key driver of early childbirth in the developing world. Pregnant girls absolutely need girl-focused health services, but their younger sisters need an alternative to child marriage. At another point in the session, Women for Women's Zainab Salbi hit on a critical point in speaking about Southern Sudan. "Girls get married there at the age of nine or eleven. They get cows for their dowry and they are stuck. Their parents need them to get married...these cows are the means of survival. It's all about money. So you can talk to the parents as much as possible, particularly to the father to convince him not to do that...or you can create a viable alternative for the parents to send their girls to school, not only primary school, but also secondary school so the girl can get a job and hopefully go to the university and that job is more important and is more income to the family than the cow...you can create economic solutions that are an incentive for the family to change these traditions." After the plenary, Kavita N. Ramdas, president of the Global Fund for Women commented on the world's tendency to see victims instead of powerful agents of change. "There is this constant sense that because they [girls and women] do so much with so little, that we actually don't need the resources. Zainab pointed out how little real money is actually allocated... there's this little underlying assumption that if you're giving it to women and girls, they really are these vulnerable victims who just can only be filled up with good things and that they actually are not these capable, strong, fearless leaders who actually have ideas about how to do things." Later that day, Jennifer and Peter Buffett, co-chairs of the NoVo Foundation and our partners in this work, hosted an event to celebrate Ruchira Gupta's winning a Clinton Global Citizen award. Ruchira leads Apne Aap, a community-based initiative founded by women and girls in prostitution in India with a goal to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation. The organization provides access to education, income-generation training and legal protection to more than 10,000 vulnerable girls and women across India. After learning of Ruchira's amazing efforts with Apne Aap, the NoVo Foundation nominated her for the Award...their call to CGI to honor Ruchira's efforts was well heeded. I'm truly inspired by Ruchira's work and think this is one organization that should be applauded again. Ruchira is a shining example of how we can solve issues at the source by investing in girls and women. President Clinton also acknowledged Jennifer and Peter's work just before the plenary in an announcement of their $24 million commitment, in partnership with Women for Women International Founder and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to support the economic empowerment of over 100,000 girls and women in the next three years. I wish I had been able to count the number of times I heard the phrase "girls and women" instead of "women and girls" this past week. This is a major shift in public consciousness. Even in a small way it may ensure that girls aren't lost in the discussion. Those reading this can do the same. You can help shift the global lexicon by putting girls first. It's an easy but unbelievably important thing to do for the world's girls.
 
Giles Slade: Grizzly Bear Extinction Top
At lunch-hour on Pender Street in Vancouver last summer, I went AWOL during the first incredibly tedious day of Robert McKee's three-day story seminar. I walked into Macleod's,* a used bookstore of the old school, one replete with signed first editions no one buys. Time stopped. Macleod's has plenty of nooks and obscure sections. Military History. Northwest Coast Indians, and -- oooh -- real travel books, the one's that make you reflect and understand the place you're visiting unlike superficial guides that only tell you where to shop, or party. There are books stacked up in corners like teetering lego towers across a squeaking oak floor that is worn to bare wood by years of determined 'bibliophiliac' traffic. There are old fashioned single-pane store windows -wide and high- that let in no light whatsoever. There's a smell of dust and yellowing paper. The place is a total time-warp, and the prices are fair. What did I find? Rare treasure! A signed 1910 edition of Franz Boaz' Kwakiutl Tales going for a song. -- Well OK, an expensive song. Not the kind of song you tell your wife about, but the kind of song you buy yourself because when you were 10 your parents sent you into the world all on your own every Saturday morning with a brown bag lunch and 25 cents telling you that after raising three much older kids they were sick of you, and don't come home until 5pm. So, after swimming and reading comics at the Boys Club all morning, what else was there to do but walk to the public library and read adventure books until it closed. Military History. Northwest Coast Indians. Travel Books. No one called me a nerd in those days, because, although I was shy, I was tall and strong and canoed, played baseball, swam like a fish, climbed like a chimp and sometimes -- very reluctantly -- got into fights I tried to win. Somehow though, I could also read a book faster than most kids my age... I read Franz Boaz' Indian stories because, I swear, they whispered to me from a shelf calling me over with something like 'Pssst. Kid!' That was how, I found the world of books with which I imagined a life like Grey Owl's where I swam, fished and canoed among the Indians of the North West Coast. They showed me how to split logs, how to build a lodge, how to eat seaweed and how to make salmon jerky out of two tired bologna sandwiches. They never told me not to come back before 5pm. Kwakiutl Tales are important stories because Boaz had an actor's empathetic gifts. It contains stories about Meskwa', the Greedy-One, a half-human child rejected by the gods and by humanity. A boy who eats everything in his adopted father's house before then eating everything in his tribe until his people abandon him. Then after destroying a few more unlucky folks, Greedy One, tricks, kills and eats the Salmon and the Grizzly Bear. The story is pretty powerful and has stuck with me for 45 years, so imagine my surprise when I read Mark Hume's "Ecosystem In Peril Puts Predators At Risk', an article detailing the declining numbers of Chum Salmon and Grizzly Bears on the northwest coast of B.C. (You can find Mr. Hume's piece here .) I am amazed by this story now, because Franz Boaz did not know what we now know about the coastal rainforest, that it depends on the abundance of the salmon which the Grizzly Bears catch and eat and then poop out under the great trees. Isotopes from the salmon find their way into the fabric of the Douglas firs and other trees that make up the coastal forest. The fish fertilize and nourish the trees via the Grizzlies who hyper-phaginate (pig out) during the fall in order to pack on sufficient fat to then hibernate through the long winter. But now, in 2009, after four years of terrible salmon runs, the Grizzlies' numbers appear to be declining. People are beginning to wonder if the bears are joining the salmon in an ongoing species extinction. The same thing is also happening to a lot of northern creatures: Polar Bears, Pacific Walruses, and Arctic Caribou. The vast populations of only a few years ago are collapsing. Often we don't even know why. Just a very few years ago, there were about 16,000 Grizzly Bears in British Columbia. If significant numbers have died recently you'd think someone would find the bodies But some researchers think the bears cannot put on enough fat to make it through the winter so they die asleep in their underground lairs. This accounts for the fact that there are many fewer bears but no visible emaciated bear corpses.. It also accounts for the absence of Grizzly Bear cubs in the woods during recent years since young bears cannot live without food as long as adults can, and since fertile female Grizzlies have a mechanism that delays and can prevent fertilizing their eggs -- much as Wolverines do -- in order to avoid pregnancies during times of little food. Okay, but if the bears are dying where is Meskwa', The Greedy One, who is responsible for this disaster? Well, he is everywhere we are. He is in the fishing boat that over-fishes the coastal seaway. He is in the carbon dioxide exhaust that warms the planet and makes the waters inhospitable for fish. He is in the stupid and offensive 'sport' Grizzly Hunt that continues this year despite the absence of Grizzly Bears to kill. Meskwa is us and we are Meskwa, a solitary creature with a world-consuming appetite that will soon cause an environmental reckoning everywhere including right here in North America. I write about the human migrations that will result from future environmental collapse of our continent in my forthcoming book, North American Ark, but most people, I believe, already share a vague sense of some overwhelming danger that hovers slightly beyond the horizon. With the end of the Grizzlies, this 'vague' sense of foreboding should end and we should at last put ourselves to the task of saving whatever we can from the 'Greedy One'. Ourselves.
 
GM Saturn Shutdown: Automaker To Shut Down Brand After Penske Walks Away Top
DETROIT — General Motors Co. said Wednesday it would shut down its Saturn brand after an agreement with Penske Automotive Group Inc. to acquire it fell apart. Penske, citing concerns of whether it could continue to supply vehicles after a manufacturing contract with GM ran out, ended talks with GM Wednesday to acquire the brand. GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in statement that Saturn and its dealership network will be phased out. "This is very disappointing news and comes after months of hard work by hundreds of dedicated employees and Saturn retailers who tried to make the new Saturn a reality," Henderson said in a written statement. "PAG's announcement explained that their decision was not based on interactions with GM or Saturn retailers." In a statement, the Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based auto retailer says an agreement with another manufacturer to continue producing Saturn vehicles after GM stopped making them fell through, leading Penske to terminate talks with GM. Penske said it negotiated terms and conditions to make Saturn cars with another manufacturer, but that company's board of directors rejected the agreement. Penske spokesman Anthony Pordon would not identify the other manufacturer. "Without that agreement, the company has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction," the company said in a statement. In June, GM and Penske agreed to take over the Saturn brand and related dealerships, although GM would produce the vehicles for a limited period of time. GM said Saturn vehicle owners can still go to their Saturn dealer for service and would be able to go to a certified GM dealer for service once Saturn dealerships are closed. It was expected that GM would announce the completion of Saturn's sale to Penske in the coming days. Share of Penske fell $1.93 to $17.25 in after hours trading. They rose $1.32, or 7.4 percent to $19.18 in regular trading Wednesday.
 
Ken Lewis Retiring: Bank Of America CEO To Step Down By End Of 2009 Top
NEW YORK — Ken Lewis, the embattled CEO of Bank of America Corp., is leaving the company, succumbing to nearly a year of strife that followed his company's acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co. The bank said in a statement late Wednesday that Lewis, 62, would retire as CEO and also leave the company's board by the end of the year. The company said his successor will be selected by the time he steps down Dec. 31. The news, coming after shareholders had stripped Lewis of his chairman's title earlier this year, wasn't surprising because of the heavy pressure he came under after the Merrill deal. Lewis had said he would stay on as CEO until after the company's financial problems were resolved, a process expected to take several years. However, with the bank also under heavy criticism from government officials, Lewis was increasingly seen as vulnerable. Since the Merrill deal closed Jan. 1, it was learned that the investment bank with the knowledge of Bank of America executives, gave billions of dollars in bonuses to employees even as it asked for more bailout money from the government. The deal was forged a year ago at the height of the financial crisis. More on Bank Of America
 
Sen. Michael Bennet: Now Is the Time Top
Over the past year, I've visited all 64 counties in our state and had conversations with thousands of Coloradans. That's how I know Coloradans want a meaningful departure from the status quo on health care -- I've heard their stories. Regardless of the county they live in or the cable news channel they watch, Coloradans are tired of the enormous instability and uncertainty that our current system brings to their lives. Families and small businesses in Colorado can't survive another decade in which health care costs rise by 97%, as they did over the last decade. Add to this the fact that median family income in Colorado has actually declined over the last decade -- a shocking statistic -- and it's no wonder that our middle class families are struggling. Last month, I made the case that we have an urgent moral obligation to change the health care system in this country so that every American has access to affordable, quality health care. I also said then -- as I had many times before -- that a public option would give Colorado families a valuable choice when choosing health insurance. I still support a public option, because working people across the state have told me their stories about paying insurance premiums year after year, only to find that the insurance company isn't there when they need it most. Anyone who says they are serious about curbing our runaway federal deficit needs to be serious about health care reform. Reforming our health care system is the fiscally responsible thing to do because Medicare and Medicaid are two of the biggest drivers of our federal deficit, and runaway health care costs make these programs more expensive every year. This is why reforming health care and controlling costs matters to all 300 million Americans, not just the 47 million Americans without health insurance. If we don't control these costs, if we don't stop these costs from growing our debt, then it won't be us paying the consequences, it will be our kids and grandkids. As a father of three young daughters -- ages 10, 8, and 5 -- I think this is unacceptable. The fight to change our broken health care system hasn't been easy. Nonetheless, I am extremely optimistic we will get health care reform done this year -- and that it will be a meaningful departure from the status quo. I am encouraged by the more than 3,000 people who have signed our petition fighting for health care reform. This groundswell of grassroots support is evidence that Coloradans want health care reform, and they want it now. The opponents of change need to understand that too many Colorado families are being left behind by our current system. If we work together, we can bring the change that Coloradans need. More on Health Care
 
Khloe & Lamar's Fake Wedding: The Audio Proof Of Scripts, Lines (LISTEN) Top
Despite defending their non-legal Sunday 'wedding' as a real marriage, (they have yet to sign prenups and have no legal marriage to date) Khloe Kardashian and LA Laker Lamar Odom's scripted ceremony has further been exposed as fake. The event was being filmed for a November 8 episode of the E! show "Keeping Up With The Kardashians," and crews caught walkie-talkie chatter from the show's producers, and it's now on TMZ . In the audio, posted below, the producers are heard debating a line from the wedding script, specifically when during the festivities Khloe should tell her stepdad Bruce Jenner that she considers him her real dad. Biological dad Robert Kardashian died in 2003. Watch November 8 to see if she says it just after Bruce walks her mom down the aisle, as producers decide that is a better time than just before he walks Khloe down the aisle. They are also heard discussing how many steps Khloe should backup before going in for the ceremony. They settle on 10. LISTEN: Get HuffPost Entertainment On Facebook and Twitter!
 
Microsoft Courier Video LEAKED: Watch Touchscreen Tablet Demonstrated (VIDEO) Top
*SEE VIDEO BELOW* Someone's leaked a video of Microsoft's Courier, the touchscreen tablet that's in the works, and it looks good. Mashable describes some of the features of the device: We see a very fluid interface where any item can be drag and dropped easily. The overarching metaphor is apparently dubbed the "infinite journal," where items can be clipped and stored from the web, annotated and highlighted, moved around, and modified with a palette of drawing and design tools. An on-board camera handles bringing in visuals and documents from the physical world as well. Everything is searchable for later retrieval, with a Courier Pen handling text input duties. Of course the device overall is a touchscreen, and designed with finger control and gestures in mind as well Check it out for yourself! WATCH: Courier User Interface from Gizmodo on Vimeo . More on Microsoft
 
John R. Bohrer: Because Bipartisanship Is Dead Until 2011: A Defense of Senate Moderates Top
After the Republicans got thrashed in the 1964 elections, a GOP senator told columnist Joe Alsop, "That damn Lyndon Johnson hasn't just grabbed the middle of the road. He's a bit to the right of center, as well as a bit to the left of center. And with Johnson hogging the whole road -- right, left and center -- where the devil can we go except into the ditch?" Well put. So they tried to steer clear of that ditch by claiming what little they could of the center. Republican Senate Whip Tom Kuchel, a moderate, had refused to endorse Barry Goldwater in the fall, and some more conservative members of the caucus called for his ouster. Alsop wrote that California's "Goldwaterites and John Birch Society members" were clamoring for his head, treating him "as though he were Chief Justice Earl Warren." Yet when the Senate Republican caucus met in January, not a single member opposed Kuchel's reelection as whip. He was even renominated by a Goldwater stalwart, John Tower of Texas. The Republicans worked with President Johnson on his signature initiatives (much like Democrats did sixteen years later, when they gave President Reagan dozens of Senate votes in deference to his victory). That was a different time, when Senate Republicans wanted to get out of the ditch, as opposed to wanting to drag everyone else down there with them. Together, the modern Senate GOP caucus represents forty 'no' votes -- forty members, camping in a ditch until they have A) a Republican president or B) the ability to stop business in the Senate. The latter is looking far more likely, and Vice President Biden is right when he says that GOP gains in 2010 could be the "end of the road" for the President's agenda. Biden is also right when he says, "It's not that Republicans are bad guys." In fact, most, if not all members of their caucus have done substantial things across party-lines before. It's just that, as Biden says, they've made a "bet" for the 2010 elections on the Obama administration looking like a failure. So they seek to diminish everything he does. And one of their best cudgels is denying him the ability to claim "bipartisanship" on any legislation he passes. New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, elaborated on this point , calling the Republican strategy of all-out opposition as one that "buys them momentum in the short term," but will be a burden by next fall. "Does anyone think," Menendez said, "that a year from now, fourteen months from now, that we will not be in better shape than we are today?... Republicans will have done absolutely nothing to have put us in better shape." The Republicans sat out the vote on the economic stimulus, save for three members (one of whom is now a Democrat). The other two are so spooked by their base that one is completely unlikely to vote for a health care reform bill and the other will only do it under extreme duress. These are the critical actions of this Congress, and when things get better the Republicans will be able to claim absolutely no credit. That's right, the GOP cannot even claim credit for bringing the bills to the middle of the road -- the Democrats are hogging all of it. And that is a good thing, despite what some may think. For example, Jonathan Chait wrote this about how President Obama approached health care reform in the same way he approached the economic-stimulus package. Obama began with hopes of winning broad bipartisan consensus for a sweeping overhaul. But staunch GOP opposition and the fecklessness of moderate Democrats forced him to scale back both his political and policy ambitions. Ultimately, he eked out a partisan bill, which moderates scaled back for no coherent reason other than to burnish their own centrist credentials. Chait makes a strong point, but the value of burnishing centrist credentials should not be discounted. Despite what Orrin Hatch is saying on Hardball , the Democrats have a sizable moderate contingent and it is important to keep them happy and influential. And who's to say that Obama is hoping for broad bipartisan consensus anymore? Judging by Biden's comments, the White House is well aware of the GOP's bet on absolute obstruction. Sure, some Republicans might have flirted with the stimulus early on, but health care? Forget about it.... Now, you might be wondering, 'How do Democrats benefit from all this tempering, all this self-restraint?' After all, modern politics tends to reward the cynical and the greedy, doesn't it?... Well, the GOP offers no variety, and where there is no variety, there is no depth. If the Democrats retain the left, the center, and a little bit of the right, they encompass the vast majority of Americans -- 'the new Silent Majority,' if you will -- who are sick of games and want results. So when we scratch our heads and wonder why Democrats are taking so long and having these debates within their own party, think about it as if this were a debate among the entire Senate. Because right now, their sixty-vote caucus is the United States Senate. And let's hope that when 2011 rolls around, and the Republicans look around their ditch to see fewer members, they'll stop and say, ' Hey, uh, maybe we should get back on the road? '... America will be better for it, and hopefully no party -- Democrat or Republican -- will ever make this kind of bet again. More on Health Care
 
Obama Admin Calls Distracted Driving An "Epidemic" Top
WASHINGTON — Driving while distracted is a growing peril in a nation reluctant to put down its cell phones and handheld devices even behind the wheel, the Obama administration declared on Wednesday. Officials said Congress and the public must team up to reduce the danger. Opening a two-day meeting to find ways to reduce drivers' use of mobile devices, the Transportation Department reported that nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million were injured last year in vehicle crashes connected to driver distraction. That includes drivers talking on cell phones and texting. "To put it plainly, distracted driving is a menace to society," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "Distracted driving is an epidemic and it seems to be getting worse every year." The meeting gathered experts to examine the potentially deadly mix of driving with cell phones, mobile devices, and other distractions that divert attention from the road. LaHood said he would offer recommendations on Thursday that could lead to new restrictions on the use of the devices behind the wheel. While the meeting focused on drivers using cell phones and mobile devices, participants noted that distractions could include reaching into the back seat, applying makeup or eating. "I have nightmares about the last moments of my mother's life," said Greg Zaffke of Chicago, whose mother, Anita, was killed in May when a vehicle rear-ended her motorcycle at 50 mph. The driver had been painting her finger nails at the time of the crash. Congress is watching the issue closely. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats are pushing legislation that would require states to ban texting or e-mailing while operating a moving vehicle or lose 25 percent of their annual federal highway funding. "We need every state to put safety first," Schumer told participants. LaHood said the government would draw lessons from past efforts to reduce drunken driving and encourage motorists to wear seat belts, urging a "combination of strong laws, tough enforcement and ongoing public education." The government reported that 5,870 people were killed and 515,000 were injured last year in crashes where at least one form of driver distraction was reported. Driver distraction was involved in 16 percent of all fatal crashes in 2008 and prevalent among many young drivers. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have passed laws making texting while driving illegal and seven states and the District have banned driving while talking on a hand-held cell phone, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Many safety groups have urged a nationwide ban on texting and on using hand-held mobile devices while behind the wheel. Researchers grappled with the question of whether using a hands-free device was safer than using a hand-held phone behind the wheel. One researcher cautioned that hands-free devices could still cause distractions if the driver needed to dial the phone or handle the device. "I think it's important that we recognize that hands free is not risk free," said Dr. John Lee, a University of Wisconsin researcher. Others said laws banning hand-held cell phone use by drivers would be easier to enforce and warned that total bans could preclude technologies such as General Motors' OnStar, an in-vehicle system that alerts emergency rescue officials to a crash. "You have to be really careful about unintended consequences of just saying we need a complete, total cell phone ban," said Dr. Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Family members of victims called for a complete ban by drivers and suggested technologies that prevent the mobile device from receiving e-mails or phone calls while the vehicle is in motion could address the problem. "This isn't just a small problem. This is an epidemic," said Jennifer Smith of Grapevine, Texas. Her 61-year-old mother was killed last year in Oklahoma City by a young driver talking on a cell phone. ___ On the Net: Distracted Driving Summit: http://tinyurl.com/ncozgx State laws on cell phones, driving: http://tinyurl.com/5k5bwy
 
Gerald Bracey: 'Leaders and Laggards' Vanishes, a Good Development Top
Two and a half years ago, The U. S. Chamber of Commerce and The Center for American Progress released a report on the condition of education in the U. S. It was the typical scare tactic, what we might call the educational variation on "Death Panels." Fortunately, no one paid any attention to it. If you put "Leaders and Laggards" into Google, you get hundreds of thousands of entries, but only one refers to the report. The cooperation between the Chamber and CAP stunned many of us -- they are usually at each other's throats. When we contacted John Podesta, Executive Director of CAP (and later leader of the Obama transition team), he said that they (CAP) thought that the collaboration might work. "We might be wrong, but we are not naive." Now that the Chamber has reverted to form, I queried Mr. Podesta on his feelings about the Leaders and Laggards project. My email to him follows. He has not replied. -------Original Message------- From: gerald bracey Date: 9/23/2009 1:15:13 PM To: jpodesta@americanprogress.org Subject: CAP and Chamber Reading that the Chamber of Commerce is leading the fight against President Obama's proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a project I would think CAP would enthusiastically endorse, I got to reminiscing about your joint venture with the Chamber on "Leaders and Laggards." I wondered if you suffer any of what we might term "partner's remorse." Apparently, the Chamber is taking a "death panel" approach to stopping the idea--lying and frightening people with its lies. So far as I can tell, the Leaders and Laggards' sole accomplishment was to provide a quote in deathless prose from your talk at the report's rollout: "It is unconscionable to me that there is not a single state in the country where a majority of 4th and 8th graders are proficient in math and reading." This has allowed me to note in numerous publications and speeches that if one maps NAEP results onto international test results, one finds that no country comes CLOSE to having a majority proficient in reading and only five do in math (only two in science). I sure hope you guys don't contribute to the reauthorization of NCLB. Sincerely, Gerald W. Bracey Port Townsend, Washington
 
Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj: Charter Schools Fail Immigrants Top
Over the course of the last two decades, charter schools have become a ubiquitous feature of the urban educational landscape. Their expansion is poised to continue under the Obama administration. According to the Center for Education Reform, forty states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws, and the U.S. Department of Education estimates that 1.4 million public school students, or 2.8 percent of the total, are currently being educated in charter schools. In New York State, the number of public charter schools has grown from five in 1999 to 141 in 2009. This September alone 21 new charter schools opened in New York City. While charter schools appear to have strong support from the U.S. Secretary of Education, many state governors, big city mayors, and urban education leaders, they remain a highly contested educational policy. Each year, researchers produce reams of competing data about how the academic outcomes of students in charter schools compare to similar students in public schools, and ultimately, the results are inconclusive. The merits of charter schools have also been challenged in terms of their impact on race- and income-based school segregation. This becomes a tricky debate when the question of culturally-specific charter schools comes into play. What is not yet clear is how charter schools are serving the needs of our newest Americans: English language learner (ELL) children of immigrants. Children in immigrant families are the fastest-growing sector of the school-age population in the United States today. Correspondingly, the number of ELL students has also risen dramatically in recent years. Between 1995-96 and 2005-06, the proportion of students in U.S. schools classified as ELL increased from 6.8 to 10.3 percent. Despite this massive population growth, remarkably few interventions have been designed with their needs in mind. In fact, there is evidence that ELLs may be systematically excluded from some of the newest educational innovations. Our recent analysis of New York State data showed that ELL students are severely underrepresented in charter schools across the state. While 7.4 percent of students in district public schools statewide were classified as ELL during the 2006-2007 academic year, they comprised only 2.1 percent of charter school enrollments. Moreover, sixty schools or 66 percent of all charter schools in New York State that year had no ELL students enrolled at all. Disaggregating the data to the district level reveals alarming results as well. In New York City, for example, where fifty-seven charter schools were operating in 2006-2007, while 13.4 percent of students in the district's public schools were classified as ELL only 2.3 percent of students in charter schools were ELLs. Furthermore, our research revealed that the majority of ELLs served in New York City charter schools that year was in fact concentrated in a single school. Removing this one school from aggregate calculations lowers the 2006-2007 ELL charter school enrollment in New York City to a mere 1.5 percent. Why the glaring mismatch between charter school enrollments and the growing English language learner population? Schools today are asked to meet increasingly rigorous standards while serving an ever more racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, and linguistically diverse student population. Many school administrators have limited or no experience working with ELL students. It's an open secret that others are plainly afraid that these students will bring down their school's academic performance and drain resources. Immigrant families may also be unfamiliar with charter schools and may be unaware of the possibility of participating in a charter school lottery. There are a variety of ways to address the failure of charters to serve ELL students. First, policy-makers should establish clear guidelines and benchmarks for ELL enrollment in charter schools along with smart incentives and supports. If the school leadership believes that serving ELLs will jeopardize long-term viability and if they do not receive adequate resources to meet these students' needs, they have no motivation to reach out and encourage them to participate in school lotteries. A number of exemplary schools already exist, and they can serve as models of how to effectively serve ELL students. Focusing on language development, creating a school culture of shared responsibility for ELL student progress, developing structures for collaboration among teachers, using student data to inform academic foci, and investing in efforts to engage families are only some of the strategies that schools have developed and adopted. Policy-makers and educators alike should seek out these schools as thought partners, mentors, and models whose practices can be customized to fit each school and student population. An arduous task lies ahead, but charter schools must take the steps necessary to embrace an ever more diverse student population and adapt to the challenges and opportunities of education in the twenty-first century. Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj is a Ph. D. Candidate at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco is the Fisher Membership Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ & the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education at New York University. Their forthcoming book, Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World, will be published by the New York University Press in the spring.
 
Lauren Mackler: Essential Keys to Success Top
Many people fail to achieve their goals because they never learned the skills that produce success. No one ever taught them how to set clear goals, create effective action plans, or sustain their motivation. Whether you want to become a better leader, create a more fulfilling career, or bring greater balance into your life, there are three keys to achieving any type of goal: focus, strategy, and commitment. Focus . A teacher of mine once said, "Where you focus is where you go." Without a clear picture of what you want, you're at the mercy of whatever life brings your way -- and you might not like what you're getting. To find your focus, ask yourself, "What would I do, be, or experience if I knew I would not fail?" Notice the things you feel passionate about or that you wish you could change. Finding your focus doesn't have to involve taking a major leap out of your comfort zone. It might be shorter-term goals like eating fresh vegetables everyday, or bigger goals that require a longer time span, such as completing a graduate degree or starting your own business. Strategy . Your strategy is the road map for bringing your goals to fruition. It involves identifying the steps needed to accomplish your goal, and the resources that can help you achieve it. Ask yourself, "What are the steps I need to take to achieve this goal?" Be careful not to overwhelm yourself by taking on too much at once. Start with three to six action steps for each goal. Once your initial action steps are completed, identify the next three to six action steps, continuing this process until your goal is achieved. It's also good to set a clear time line for each action step and put them into your daily or weekly calendar. Commitment . Being committed to your goals means honoring your agreements to yourself. To be committed, you have to feel deserving of what you want to achieve, and you have to love yourself. After all, you're not going to feel compelled to invest your time and energy in someone you don't like very much. This is why so many people lose their motivation to follow through on their goals. Instead of extending patience and compassion toward themselves, they berate and judge themselves -- further eroding their sense of worthiness. If you have a hard time keeping your commitments to yourself due to low self-esteem, developing a more loving relationship with yourself is a great first goal on which to focus. These three keys are important tools for "living deliberately" -- aligning your thoughts and actions with the results you want to have. As you start living more deliberately, recognize that you'll slip into old, self-defeating patterns from time to time. Being committed doesn't mean doing this process perfectly or following through on your action steps 100% of the time. It means acknowledging when you do slip up, being compassionate with yourself when you do, then gently moving yourself back on-course. Lauren Mackler is the author of the international bestseller, Solemate: Master the Art of Aloneness & Transform Your Life . She is a life, career, and relationship coach, psychotherapist, and host of the weekly Life Keys radio show on www.hayhouseradio.com . You can follow her on Twitter, watch her videos on YouTube, become a fan on Facebook , and read her Live Boldly blog You can contact her through her web site at www.laurenmackler.com .
 
Montrose County Uranium Mill: County Commissioners Approves Permit Top
MONTROSE -- It began with the audience turning, facing the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Just over an hour later, a special Montrose County commissioner meeting ended with the unanimous approval of controversial uranium mill permit that was as much an endorsement of American energy independence as it was a repudiation of environmental concerns. "The worst mining accident that I ever saw happened on 9/11," commissioner Ron Henderson told the crowd gathered in Friendship Hall to hear a decision on the proposed Pion Ridge mill. "There has never been a place on earth where the specific density of the air was ever any heavier than it was right there [in Manhattan], caused by political unrest.
 
'Punternet': Britain Asks Schwarzenegger To Terminate Prostitute Review Site Top
A British government minister asked California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday to shut down a U.S. website that allows men to rate prostitutes, including many working in London.
 
Brendan DeMelle: Wheels of Justice Are Grinding Too Slowly For Paul Minor and Other Political Prisoners Top
Attorney General Eric Holder did not hesitate to release Senator Ted Stevens and overturn his wrongful conviction when evidence emerged of the government's botched prosecution of the former Republican Senator from Alaska. So why has Holder's Justice Department left Democrats Paul Minor and Judges Walter Teel and John Whitfield languishing in jail despite extensive knowledge that these men are entitled to release from prison pending the outcome of their appeals process? Each of these men has raised "substantial questions" on appeal, remarkably similar to the quid pro quo substantial questions presented to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals which required the Justice Department to release former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman pending his own appeal. The federal bail statute is crystal clear on this point, requiring the release on bail of any appellant who raises substantial questions for the court's review. It is patently absurd for the DOJ to continue to oppose this no-brainer release requirement in the cases of Minor and the former Mississippi judges. Despite more than ample substantial questions presented in each man's appeal - highlighting the severe flaws in the government's prosecution and the undeniable fact that GOP politics trumped the law in their wrongful convictions - the government continues to oppose their mandatory release pending appeal that was readily granted to Don Siegelman, let alone the immediate release and overturned conviction granted to Ted Stevens. Attorney General Holder should make sure these men are reunited with their families while the 5th Circuit Court thoughtfully considers their appeals. More importantly, the Justice Department must expedite the review of Paul Minor's case in light of explosive new revelations that Dunnica Lampton - the partisan U.S. Attorney who indicted Minor - had refused to pursue an egregious case of fraud involving several prominent Mississippi Republicans that came to his attention during the same time period as Minor's July 2003 indictment. Minor's attorney, Hiram Eastland, wrote a letter to Attorney General Holder last week outlining "new evidence... that unequivocally establishes that prosecutive decisions made by U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton were based upon political motivations." According to the letter , Lampton went after Minor, a Democrat, while explicitly ignoring a massive fraud and money laundering scheme perpetrated by several major Republican supporters in Minor's home state of Mississippi. The letter indicates that "a previous undercover government witness" who worked on another large scale Justice Department investigation "is prepared to testify and provide documents indicating that U.S. Attorney Lampton chose not to prosecute a compelling multi-million dollar fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice case against several prominent Republican defendants in the exact timeframe as Mr. Minor's July 25, 2003 indictment." Eastland explains that this undercover government witness "is prepared to testify that he was informed by his assigned FBI investigator that the political 'fix' was in and that U.S. Attorney Lampton had indicated there would be no prosecutions because he did not want his legacy as U.S. Attorney to be the prosecution of some of the biggest Republican supporters in Mississippi." Lampton did not hesitate to indict Minor on overreaching bribery allegations, lacking any evidence that Minor ever engaged in a quid pro quo "this for that" agreement with Teel and Whitfield. He also did not hesitate to re-indict Minor immediately after a jury failed to convict Minor on the trumped-up charges in his first trial. Yet Lampton steadfastly refused to prosecute several Republicans he knew were engaged in starkly obvious fraud, money laundering and obstruction of justice. This new evidence of Lampton's partisan agenda undoubtedly calls into question the political targeting of Minor, Teel and Whitfield (who had already presented ample evidence that the government botched their prosecutions before this explosive development). Eric Holder now knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that a GOP operative pursuing a strictly partisan agenda targeted Paul Minor and the Democratic judges. Holder must immediately release these political prisoners during the remainder of their appeals process. Paul Minor has already endured the loss of his wife Sylvia to brain cancer while he sat in prison , and he deserves immediate release while the 5th Circuit thoughtfully considers his appeal. Attorney General Holder's very next move must be to launch an exhaustive investigation to reveal the depths to which Lampton and other partisan U.S. attorneys went to wrongfully target prominent Democrats across America during the Bush/Cheney administration. The Justice Department's reputation and credibility will be forever tarnished unless it fully exposes this repulsive partisan agenda and remedies the wrongful convictions of Minor, Teel, Whitfield and every other victim of political prosecution during the Bush years. More on Ted Stevens
 
Andy Worthington: A Truly Shocking Guantanamo Story: Judge Confirms That An Innocent Man Was Tortured To Make False Confessions Top
In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release was ordered last week by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ( PDF ). In the ruling, to put it bluntly, it was revealed that the U.S. government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth. The background: lies hidden in plain sight for five years To establish the background to this story, it is necessary for me to return to my initial response to the ruling a week last Friday, before these revelations had been made public, when, based on what I knew of the case from the publicly available documents, I explained that I was disappointed that the Obama administration had pursued a case against al-Rabiah, alleging that he was a fundraiser for Osama bin Laden and had run a supply depot for al-Qaeda in Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains, for two particular reasons. The first was because a CIA analyst had interviewed al-Rabiah at Guantánamo in the summer of 2002 and had concluded that he was an innocent man caught at the wrong time and in the wrong place; and the second was because, although al-Rabiah had said that he had met bin Laden and had been present in the Tora Bora mountains, he had provided an innocent explanation for both occurrences. He had, he said, been introduced to bin Laden on a trip to Afghanistan to investigate proposals for a humanitarian aid mission, and he had been at Tora Bora -- and compelled to man a supply depot -- because he was one of numerous civilians caught up with soldiers of al-Qaeda and the Taliban as he tried to flee the chaos of Afghanistan for Pakistan, and had been compelled to run the depot by a senior figure in al-Qaeda. These appeared to be valid explanations, especially as al-Rabiah, a 42-year old father of four children, had no history of any involvement with militancy or terrorism, and had, instead, spent 20 years at a management desk job at Kuwait Airways, and had an ownership interest in some health clubs. Moreover, he had a history of legitimate refugee relief work, having taken a six-month approved leave of absence from work in 1994-95 to do relief work in Bosnia, having visited Kosovo with the Kuwaiti Red Crescent in 1998, and having made a trip to Bangladesh in 2000 to delivery kidney dialysis fluid to a hospital in the capital, Dhaka. As a result, it appeared to me a week last Friday that Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted al-Rabiah's habeas petition because neither his meeting with bin Laden nor his presence in Tora Bora indicated that he was either a member of, or had supported al-Qaeda or the Taliban. However, now that Judge Kollar-Kotelly's ruling has been issued, I realize that the account given by al-Rabiah during his Combatant Status Review Tribunal at Guantánamo in 2004 -- on which I based my account of his activities -- was a tissue of lies, and that the truth, hidden for over six years, is that, like torture victims groomed for show trials throughout the centuries, he made up false stories under torture, and repeated them obediently, fearing further punishment and having been convinced that he would never leave Guantánamo by any other means. An introduction to the torture revelations, and an endorsement of al-Rabiah's explanations about his time in Afghanistan In her ruling, Judge Kollar-Kotelly methodically dissected the government's case to reveal the chilling truth. After noting, initially, that the "evidentiary record" was "surprisingly bare," because the government "has withdrawn its reliance on most of the evidence and allegations that were once asserted against al-Rabiah, and now relies almost exclusively on al-Rabiah's 'confessions' to certain conduct," she added, with a palpable sense of disbelief: Not only did al-Rabiah's interrogators repeatedly conclude that these same confessions were not believable -- which al-Rabiah's counsel attributes to abuse and coercion, some of which is supported by the record -- but it is also undisputed that al-Rabiah confessed to information that his interrogators obtained from either alleged eyewitnesses who are not credible and as to whom the Government has now largely withdrawn any reliance, or from sources that never even existed ... If there exists a basis for al-Rabiah's indefinite detention, it most certainly has not been presented to this Court. In dealing with al-Rabiah's background, and his reasons for traveling to Afghanistan, Judge Kollar-Kotelly was required to consider his own assertion that, after a preliminary ten-day visit in July 2001 to identify areas where humanitarian aid might be delivered, he returned in October 2001 "to complete a fact-finding mission related to Afghanistan's refugee problems and the country's non-existent medical infrastructure," against the government's claim that he was "'not an aspiring aid worker caught up in the front lines of the United States war against al-Qaeda' but instead was someone who traveled to Afghanistan in October 2001 as a 'devotee of Osama bin Laden who ran to bin Laden's side after September 11th.'" Concluding that "The evidence in the record strongly supports al-Rabiah's explanation," Judge Kollar-Kotelly noted that he had officially requested leave prior to his departure, and quoted from two letters sent to his family. In the first, on October 18, 2001, he explained that "for ten days he assisted with the delivery of supplies to refugees and that he was able to take video 'reflecting the tragedy of the refugees,' but that he was unable to leave Afghanistan through Iran (the route he took to enter the country) because the borders had been closed." As a result, he "wrote in his letter that he and an unspecified number of other persons decided 'to drive four trucks to Pakistan making our way to Peshawar,'" and he also asked his brother to notify his boss at Kuwait Airlines that he was having difficulties returning to Kuwait on time. After noting that "The evidence in the record establishes that al-Rabiah did, in fact, travel across Afghanistan towards Peshawar, ultimately getting captured (unarmed) by villagers outside of Jalalabad ... on approximately December 25, 2001" (with Maher al-Quwari, a Palestinian who also ended up in Guantánamo), Judge Kollar-Kotelly quoted from a second letter sent to his family, in which -- ironically, in light of what was to come -- he wrote that he was "detained by the American troops and thanks to God they are good example[s] of humanitarian behavior." He added that he was "detained pending verification of [his] identity and personality," and that the "investigation and verification procedures may last for a long time due to the great number of detained Arabs and other persons" who had been fleeing the situation in Afghanistan, which "turned upside down between one day and night and every Arab citizen has become a suspect." Discrediting the government's unreliable witnesses Moving on to the government's key allegations -- about Osama bin Laden and Tora Bora -- Judge Kollar-Kotelly dismissed the allegations regarding al-Rabiah's supposed activities in Tora Bora, which were made by another prisoner who claimed that he "was told that al-Rabiah was in charge of supplies at Tora Bora," by noting that, "Although his allegations are filled with inconsistencies and implausibilities, the Government continues to rely on him as an eyewitness." She also noted that, although the witness had identified al-Rabiah as the man under discussion, from his kunya (nickname), Abu Abdullah al-Kuwaiti, the government had conceded that another Abu Abdullah al-Kuwaiti, an actual al-Qaeda operative named Hadi El-Enazi, was present in Tora Bora, and also noted that an interrogator had expressed doubt about the supposed eyewitness at the time (much of the ruling is redacted, but this seemed to involve a claim that al-Rabiah's oldest son was with him in Afghanistan, when this was demonstrably not the case). Judge Kollar-Kotelly also dismissed two other sets of allegations by the supposed eyewitness. Noting further "inconsistencies and impossibilities" in his accounts, she stated that "the Court has little difficulty concluding that [his] allegations are not credible," and explained that, to reach this conclusion, she had also drawn on statements provided by al-Rabiah's lawyers, which further undermined his reliability, "based on, among other things, undisputed inconsistencies associated with his allegations against other detainees," and his medical records, which obviously indicated mental health problems (although the description was redacted). "At a minimum," she added, "the Government would have had to corroborate [his] allegations with credible and reliable evidence, which it has not done." Osama bin Laden, it then transpired, appeared in allegations made by a second prisoner, who "alleged that al-Rabiah attended a feast hosted by Osama bin Laden," where he "presented bin Laden with a suitcase full of money." This source also alleged that al-Rabiah "served in various fighting capacities in the Tora Bora mountains," and that he "funneled money to mujahadeen in Bosnia in 1995." After noting that the government had dropped "almost all" of these allegations, except for the one relating to Bosnia, Judge Kollar-Kotelly stated, witheringly, "the only consistency with respect to [these] allegations is that they repeatedly change over time." For particular condemnation, she singled out one claim that the feast had taken place in August 2001 (when al-Rabiah was in Kuwait, before his return to Afghanistan in October 2001), amongst other more outlandish claims, including an absurd allegation that al-Rabiah had trained the 9/11 hijackers. As with the first supposed eyewitness, Judge Kollar-Kotelly noted that there were "multiple exhibits in the record demonstrating [his] unreliability as a witness" (although, sadly, the exact number of prisoners against whom he had made verifiably false allegations was redacted), and concluded that, although the many "inconsistencies and impossibilities" in his statements "raise, at a minimum, a serious question about [his] mental capacity to accurately make allegations against al-Rabiah," the government "did not address them at the Merits Hearing" in August. After dismissing a third supposed eyewitness, because he had withdrawn his allegation (which was redacted) several months after making it, Judge Kollar-Kotelly dismissed a fourth, even though it was "undisputed" that al-Rabiah actually had contact with him in Afghanistan. Despite redactions, it seems that this man was Maher al-Quwari, and that his statement involved second-hand hearsay about al-Rabiah being seen with a gun. While this was sufficiently weak for the judge not to accept it without further corroboration, she also made a point of discounting it because the supposed witness only "made this allegation while he was undergoing a cell relocation program at Guantánamo called the 'frequent flier program,' which prevented a detainee such as [redacted] from resting due to frequent cell movements." While the description of a "cell relocation program" sounds relatively benign, Judge Kollar-Kotelly made a point of noting that it was, in fact, a program of sleep deprivation, adding that, "According to a report published by the Senate Armed Services Committee concerning the treatment of detainees in United States custody, sleep deprivation was not a technique that was authorized by the Army Field Manual." Although she also noted that "sleep deprivation became authorized at Guantánamo by the Secretary of Defense on April 16, 2003, the guidance issued by the Commander of USSOUTHCOM on June 2, 2003 prohibited the use of sleep deprivation for more than 'four days in succession,'" whereas the supposed witness's "allegation against al-Rabiah was made after one week of sleep deprivation in the program, and he did not repeat this allegation either before or after the program." False confessions obtained through torture Despite ruling out all of the government's supposed eyewitnesses, and noting that the government had withdrawn "most of its reliance on these witnesses" by the time of the Merits Hearing, Judge Kollar-Kotelly added that "it is very significant that al-Rabiah's interrogators apparently believed these allegations at the time they were made, and therefore sought to have al-Rabiah confess to them" -- despite the well-chronicled unreliability of the first two supposed witnesses, the withdrawing of the statement made by the third, and the fact, easily perceived by the judge, that the fourth made his statement only after being subjected to sleep deprivation that exceeded established guidelines and that was, therefore, not only unreliable, but also abusive. The judge also noted the significance of the evidence in the record indicating that al-Rabiah "subsequently confided in interrogators [redacted] that he was being pressured to falsely confess to the allegations discussed above," and also the significance of the fact that, although "al-Rabiah's interrogators ultimately extracted confessions from him," they "never believed his confessions based on the comments they included in their interrogation reports." After noting -- again with a palpable sense of incredulity -- that "These are the confessions that the Government now asks the Court to accept as evidence in this case," Judge Kollar-Kotelly proceeded to demolish them all, breaking them down into three periods: the first, when "there were no allegations directed toward al-Rabiah and al-Rabiah provided no confessions"; the second, when the supposed eyewitnesses "made their now-discredited allegations and al-Rabiah was told of the allegations against him, but al-Rabiah nevertheless made no confessions"; and the third (which, shockingly, continued "until the present"), when "al-Rabiah confessed to the now-discredited allegations against him, as well as to other 'evidence' that interrogators told him they possessed, when, in fact, such evidence did not exist." In the first phase, Judge Kollar-Kotelly noted that there was no indication "that interrogators believed al-Rabiah had engaged in any conduct that made him lawfully detainable," and explained that, "To the contrary, the evidence in the record during this period consists mainly of an assessment made by an intelligence analyst that al-Rabiah should not have been detained." As discussed in my previous article, this analyst was "a senior CIA intelligence analyst, who, almost uniquely, was also an Arabic expert," but although I wrote that "it amaze[d] me that no one in the Justice Department, under President Obama, investigated the CIA analyst's report," the truth, as revealed in the unclassified ruling, is even bleaker. It transpires that Justice Department officials had read the report, but tried to discredit the analyst's verdict, "arguing that it represented the opinion of only one analyst," ignoring his well-chronicled expertise, and obliging the judge to point out that, "according to the Government's own evidence, '[i]ntelligence analysts undergo rigorous tradecraft training [and] employ specific analytical tools to assist them in sorting and organizing various pieces of information," and are also "trained to recognize and mitigate biases, not only in the information presented to them, but their own cognitive biases as well." In the second phase, despite extensive redactions to the ruling, it is clear that al-Rabiah was repeatedly interrogated, although he "express[ed] frustration to
 
Jenny Darroch: Will Consumer Spending Change Once the Recession Ends? Top
Two of the big questions facing marketing managers today are: (1) when will consumers open their wallets again; and (2) will consumers behave differently when they do? We know that consumer spending accounts for 70% of all economic activity in the US and we know that consumers are being asked to consume to kick start the economy and end the recession, just as they were asked to do so after World War II and 9/11. Once again, spending is being positioned as an act of patriotism. But what makes this recession different from all other recessions is the extent to which damage has been inflicted on individuals: unemployment is nudging 10% (although many more are affected by the downturn in the labor market), retirement savings and college funds have been decimated, and people have lost their homes and subsequently, their sense of self worth. To hear grown men and women telling their stories, to hear the despair in their voices, the sense of betrayal they feel towards lenders and employers is revealing. Can people ever truly recover from the emotional and material damage this recession has caused? Along with a drop in consumption, we have seen some behavioral shifts take place: consumers are taking care not to engage in conspicuous consumption, which is one of the reasons Starbucks felt the need to reposition its brand. Many consumers no longer trust big brands, which is why American Express recently began a campaign to regain consumer trust. Consumers have become a lot more value driven, which is one of the reasons why private labels are doing so well. Consumers are delaying the purchase of big ticket items, which is why the sales of new cars have plummeted. Consumers are paying attention to their carbon footprint which is one of the reasons why ZipCar is doing so well and bottled water is not. Finally, consumers are paying more attention to the source of products they buy, which is why we have seen a resurgence in an interest in self sufficiency (remember Michelle Obama's vegetable garden?). If we take into account deep-seated cultural values, however, we realize just how hard it is to expect a permanent change. In the US for example, like many other market driven economies, business and government leaders are rewarded for generating economic growth and maximizing returns to shareholders -- often in the absence of regulations and without consideration for likely negative consequences. For evidence of this, we just need to look a the innovation and growth that occurred in the financial services sector, and the consequences of the Lehman Brothers collapse in September 2008 In the green shoots of economic recovery, it seems that there are also green shoots of behavior practices that resemble those which got us into trouble in the first place -- for example, businesses that help people renegotiate the terms of their mortgages with lenders for a fee (more like take the money and run). What this demonstrates is that there will always be ways to make money, ways that are not (yet) illegal but are still harmful to consumers. It won't be hard to identify an increase in consumer spending but it will be more difficult to detect whether in fact consumer values have fundamentally changed. Now that will be interesting. Jenny Darroch is on the faculty at the Drucker School of Management. She is an expert on marketing strategies that generate growth. See www.MarketingThroughTurbulentTimes.com
 
Mark Miller: The Workforce is Aging, but Where Are the Age-Friendly Employers? Top
The Great Recession is pushing older workers to postpone retirement, but will employers accommodate them? Demographics dictate that the workforce will age in the years ahead. By 2016, one-third of the U.S. workforce will be age 50 or older, compared with 28 percent in 2007, according to AARP. But the current brutal jobs climate raises questions about the future prospects of older workers. The jobless rate for adults age 55 to 64 has more than doubled since November 2007, just before the recession began; in July, 7.2 percent of workers age 55 to 64 were out of work. That's a troubling number, although it's still about 2.5 percentage points lower than the overall national rate of 9.7 percent in August. Even in a tough economy, older workers are valued in some industries. Technology-oriented companies that depend on experienced scientists and engineers are worried about brain drain as the baby boomer generation retires. Many are scrambling to implement retention programs aimed at keeping these high-value knowledge workers on the job as long as possible. Some offer flexible work arrangements to accommodate the changing lifestyle needs of older employees. Companies say older workers are among their most productive, and that this offsets their higher compensation and benefit expenses. One study several years ago for AARP, for example, attempted to quantify productivity and cost advantages of retaining and hiring older workers by showing that turnover and training costs can exceed 50 percent of a worker's annual salary, while higher compensation and benefit costs for older workers were only marginally higher than for younger people. At the same time, there's strong evidence of age discrimination by employers on the hiring and firing side. As I noted here recently, age discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission were at a record high in 2008, and researchers have been able to establish that it's much harder for older workers to land job interviews. Against that backdrop, it's instructive to see employers compete for the honor of being age-friendly. AARP conducts an annual contest culminating in the Best Employers for Workers over 50 award; the 2009 winners were announced earlier this month. The AARP award offers a snapshot of the most age-friendly large employers in the country. Employers submit comprehensive applications, answering questions about their human resources practices and policies. The selection criteria include recruiting practices; opportunities for on-the-job training; education and career development; flexible work arrangements; and employee and retiree benefits, such as pensions. One lesson I draw from the winners' list is that best employment practices for older workers are being implemented in a somewhat narrow range of economic sectors. This year, 40 percent of the top 50 come from education, government and the non-profit sector. The financial service sector was another big winner, grabbing 20 percent of the age-friendly awards. Some of the names popping up at the top of the list include Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc. After that, it's a potpourri of technology and service companies. What's the best way to identify prospective employers that are age-friendly? Read the full story at RetirementRevised.com .
 
Martha St Jean: Winning: A Talk with Carla Harris Top
For the fifth conversation in this series, I spoke to Carla Harris. Carla Harris is a managing director at Morgan Stanley. She has received numerous accolades and awards. She wrote the book, Expect to Win: Proven Strategies for Success from a Wall Street Vet . Within the book you will find Carla's "pearls," which are lessons she has learned during her twenty-plus year journey. She is also an accomplished singer . I first heard you speak at a women's power breakfast and was captivated for the 45 minutes you spoke. How do you do it? By it , I mean stay focused and relate to people from all walks of life. First of all, I sort of think of myself as every woman, if you will. Relating to people is not a problem. I honor everybody's power. No matter who they are or whatever station in life they are in. That in itself is the connection. You are considered a titan on Wall Street. And you happen to be an African-American woman and Wall Street titan. How has that shaped you? In what ways has that changed how you use your voice? It has not shaped me particularly. I don't necessarily think of myself as a titan. I think of myself as a woman who worked very hard to get to the top of her profession; and I use the platform and voice to motivate and help others to reach their potential and goals. This question is personal for me. I have been speaking to many women -- peers, colleagues, and younger women, including teens, about their futures. My career is in its initial stages. It is at times hard for me to give advice. How do I help people figure out if something like journalism is right for them? Your focus is to try to give them the tools that you have learned so far, whatever that is, and their focus is to execute what you have given them. If you are focused on helping other people, you will get your returns; you don't really do it to expect something back. You will get your returns in ways that you can't even imagine. You recently wrote a book, Expect to Win . Growing up did you picture yourself as someone who would one day wield such power and influence? I knew that I would do something that was important. I always wanted to have power, in order to motivate others to reach their goals. When did you see yourself as an author? Probably within the last five years when I was giving speeches at college campuses , at Fortune 100 companies and professional conferences. As I would articulate the pearls in the speeches people would invariably come up to me afterwards and say, "Do you have a book" or "I didn't get the sixth pearl, could you repeat it?" I finally got the divine message and decided to put the pearls in a book. There's no doubt about it that you are successful. There are so many different definitions of success. Can you give us a piece of advice about defining success for ourselves? The one piece is know yourself well and make sure that you can hear your own voice. Many times we lose our voices. Easily. We give away our voices and our power so easily. If you think about it, from age zero until age 22, i would argue, we are really articulating somebody else's definition of success for us. It's probably around the college age through age 25 or 26 that you begin to find your own definition of success and you start hearing your own voice. It is imperative that you hear your own voice when trying to define what success means to you. If you don't have that, how do you define what success means to you? Success really becomes what others have said should be your definition of success. From my understanding, your family was supportive in your endeavors. What should young women do who do not have the support? You should actually continue to find other people who will be supportive of your endeavors. None of us chooses the family we have been born into. You can find other people and meet other people who are excited about you and will celebrate towards you and the things that you want to accomplish. It could be teachers, friends, parents of friends, clergy people. There are a lot of people that you could come into contact with that will serve as that support and as members of your success team. The first thing that struck me when I met you was your attitude of humility. How do you maintain grace under pressure? Again, it goes back to the first question of feeling like I'm every woman. Really owning that is what comes across as humility. I don't think that I am better or worse than anybody. That's what people would recognize as humility. Grace under pressure is really about faith -- recognizing who really is divinely running my show. If you know that you know who is running the show and that things will always turn out for your good, then you don't get frazzled and let things get to you. I would like to talk about the economy. Morgan Stanley refashioned itself about a year ago as a bank holding company making itself more or less like a commercial bank to survive the economic crisis. How are things going now? Things are going well and we are well positioned to take advantage of an improving environment. You've probably heard me say that I'm a bull and that I'm bullish generally. As we speak, the market is up 137 points. What conversation about the economy do Americans, especially the younger generations need to be having now? Number one -- assert their voices. The younger generation should assert their voices about opportunities they see for growth. My generation cannot see everything and certainly don't have the perspective of the millenials. Number two -- assert themselves. Get involved now with the growth and put your imprimatur on it now because you will be leading things in the next twenty to thirty years. Is America headed in the right direction? I think so. Here's the bull talking again. I am very excited about where we are headed as a country and the opportunities that lie ahead of us. What should college students and young adults be thinking about money? Is there a certain way we should be thinking about money? They should be thinking about learning to manage money, having a good relationship with money, understanding money. The requirements of managing their money will be a lot different than the requirement of two generations before them. Financial education is an important imperative for college students and below right now. I have heard you say some things about maintaining a balanced life. Can you speak about the outside activities you participate in? I think it's very important that you have other things in your life besides your professional pursuits that bring you joy, that you are passionate about, that will keep you balanced. If all you have is work -- then your life becomes a function of someone else's day. I am passionate about serving. So, I am involved in non profits focusing on education, the arts, health care, and hunger. So those are some of the things I do. I am passionate about singing, so I do a lot of that as well. More on Economy
 
Nancy Wadsworth: The Greening Cow Town Top
To get this blog off the ground I thought I'd post about something I've been musing on over the last year: how my beloved "cow town" is gradually manifesting greener pastures. I'm no sustainability expert, but in the eleven-plus years I've called Denver home, I've watched us undergo some significant paradigm shifts. These give me hope for humanity, and particularly for cities "out West" that don't especially like to be told how to live. So here are my Top 10 Signs that Lifestyle Paradigms are Shifting Here in Denver . I'd love for any of you out there who work in sustainability or green technology to confirm or dispute my unscientific findings: 10. There is a seeming decrease of SUVs on the road. When I first moved here from California (sorry) in 1990, SUVs weren't the dominant presence they became a few years later. When I came back from grad school out East in '97, my Honda Civic was dwarfed by the behemoths; everyone drove an SUV but few had any clue how to navigate them. Felt like whenever I drove through the Speer/University intersection in winter, another pair of SUVs had collided on their way out of Whole Foods. But lately I can drive down Speer in my same trusty Honda in the company of Priuses, Mini Coopers, and reasonably sized sedans. Thank god for that year that gas went to four bucks a gallon, because I don't know what else would've stopped the SUV pox. 9. Related to that, I can't remember the last time I saw a stretch Hummer in LoDo . Hummers were all the obnoxious rage here in the 1990s. But maybe my not seeing them is a sign that I don't get out enough anymore. 8. More people are bringing their own bags to King Soopers. I know, I know: bags are a pretty measly indicator of how serious Americans are about sustainability. Americans will jump for just about any trend that looks fashionable on their arm. But, then again, as I've learned as I struggle to replace all my plastic with the compostable paper option and to bring my own bags for my grocery errands, changing ingrained habits is a sign of rising consciousness, and it's hard to do. Folks pulling it off has gotta count for something. 7. The Brown Cloud. Everyone talked about The Brown Cloud when I moved here. It was the shame of Denver, a source of mockery from other Coloradans, and it was pretty obvious a lot of the time. I had trouble being intimidated by it, being from the L.A. area, but it was a big deal. I don't know if I don't hear about it anymore because we've moved into total denial or what, but it doesn't seem as apocalyptic. Am I off here, or have we somehow reduced our emissions and industrial pollution enough to turn the cloud a lighter shade of beige? 6. Scooters. Let's face it: we became a Scooter town somewhere around Y2K. It started with young, retro cool-cats but now it's anything goes: young, old, fat, skinny, cool, dorky -- it doesn't matter. If you want to commute on less than $10 a month and put out fewer emissions than, um, passed gas, you get yourself a scooter. 5. Sustainable and local gourmet culture. You want delicious food grown locally and/or sustainably? A quick search on Yelp will pull up a dozen options. Take your pick: Duo, Vine Street Pub, Olivea, Root Down, Squeaky Bean--I'm just tickling the surface. Two clicks online and you can be sitting in a lovely dining room, listening to farmers tell you about how they grew the fresh squash blossoms you're eating, and how you can join their food cooperative. That's pretty badass. 4. Farmers markets all over town. Now watch out on this one, because all the stands may not be as local as you think, but it's a major start. It's getting hard to imagine life in Denver without the sweet juice of those Palisade peaches running down your chin in August. 3. Urban food gardening. Whether it's a membership with Denver Urban Gardens, a public school garden, a guerrilla veggie garden next to the sidewalk (as are cropping up all over my neighborhood in Whittier), or just some out-of-control patch of zucchini in the backyard, Denverites are growing their own food in unprecedented numbers . Did you read about the Colorado seed banks selling out early this year and having to restock? It's a good thing. Time to slice into that heirloom tomato I picked yesterday. 2. Denver Composts! I feel so darn lucky to be just inside one of the pilot areas of the new city composting program . I now compost all my food and yard waste, plus soiled paper. My girlfriend's mother comes over once a week to add hers to the bucket. I'm down to taking out the trash only about once every 2 weeks. Composting has the potential to be a windfall for the city, as it saves money on landfill fees and profits off the compost itself. So I'm crossing my fingers the program will be extended past the current March 2010 deadline. 1. We have a full-blown urban bike culture now. And I'm not talking about the avid road bikers who Ride the Rockies, though they're impressive. I'm talking about using bikes to get you around town as a part of ordinary life. I started commuting to DU for work a couple years ago, and between the new bike lanes, Bike Denver, the New Belgium Tour de Fat (like a gay pride parade for urban greenies), and the current cruiser cruising crowd, it seems like we're getting almost to a critical mass presence. I'm counting 20, 30 other commuters passing me just on my D6 route these days. I know what I'm saving on gas alone, so if you multiply that plus the emissions reductions plus the number of commuters? Well, I'm no genius but this has got to be a milestone. I'm proud of these changes and, having navigated some of myself, am holding out a vision for an even more sustainable, cutting edge mountain West city in the coming years. To Denver, and our greener pastures! More on Sustainability
 
Mike Stark: Republicans and Their Strategic Fainting Spells Top
The minor dust-up in the House of Representatives today is a "controversy" over some hyperbolic rhetoric used by Alan Grayson, a freshman Democrat. Grayson, a favorite amongst progressives for his Howard Dean-ish traits of plain-spokenness and contempt for village protocol, spoke on the House floor and said that the Republican health care plan was "Don't get sick." And if you do? "Die quickly." Here is the YouTube: Of course, today Republicans are running about like headless Chicken Littles, telling anyone that will listen how mean and nasty Representative Grayson's comments were. Funny, when I asked scores of Republicans what they thought about Rush Limbaugh's comments regarding Nazism -- specifically that Nancy Pelosi had a lot in common with Adolph Hitler and that ObamaCare -- nationalized medicine -- is akin to Nazi policy, well, the very same folks so upset today had very little to say: More on Health Care
 
Matt LeBlanc Returning To Comedy TV Top
NEW YORK — Showtime network says "Friends" alum Matt LeBlanc is returning to TV in a new comedy. LeBlanc will star in "Episodes," a single-camera series about a husband-and-wife producing team whose witty hit comedy on British TV is turned into a dumbed-down American sitcom starring LeBlanc, who plays himself. "Episodes" is a send-up of the TV world and LeBlanc's image as a sitcom veteran. The show will be a co-production of Showtime and the BBC and will begin shooting a six-episode season in London and Hollywood this winter. It is scheduled to air next year on Showtime and BBC Two. LeBlanc played Joey Tribbiani on "Friends" for a decade. He followed that NBC hit in 2004 with a sitcom based on the same character, "Joey," which flopped. ___ On the Net: http://www.sho.com
 
Article In Military Journal Endorses Repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Top
WASHINGTON -- In an unusual show of support for allowing gay men and lesbians to serve openly in the armed forces, an official military journal article argues forcefully this month for repealing the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law that requires homosexuals in the services to keep their sexual orientation secret.
 
John Travolta Testifies About Threats After Jett's Death Top
NASSAU, Bahamas — John Travolta testified Wednesday that a Bahamas paramedic threatened to sell stories to the news media suggesting the movie star was at fault in the death of his 16-year-old son. Travolta said paramedic Tarino Lightbourne, who is now on trial for extortion, demanded $25 million. If he did not pay, Travolta told the jury, Lightbourne indicated he would use against him a consent document that the actor initially signed refusing to have his son Jett sent to a local hospital. The document cleared Lightbourne of any liability. "They were stories that would imply that the death of my son was intentional and I was culpable in some way," Travolta said. Travolta was testifying in the second week of the trial of Lightbourne and Pleasant Bridgewater, a former Bahamas senator who allegedly negotiated with the actor's lawyers for the medic. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Travolta testified last week that he signed the document because he initially wanted his son flown to Florida for treatment. But Jett, who had suffered a seizure at a family vacation home on Grand Bahama island, was taken instead to a local hospital, where he died on Jan. 2. Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, left the Nassau courthouse immediately after his testimony in an entourage of cars with their attorneys and bodyguards. A Bahamian attorney for Travolta, Allyson Maynard-Gibson, has testified that Bridgewater told her in a January meeting that the paramedic was talking with a woman from an unidentified American news outlet "who said it might be beneficial to him if he could show that Travolta was negligent." She said Lightbourne was also in talks with several other media companies. The actor testified that he authorized his lawyers to contact Bahamas police after hearing about the alleged threat from Lightbourne. The trial began Sept. 21 and is expected to last several weeks.
 
India Cricket Team Instructed To Have Sex Before Matches Top
NEW DELHI, India -- Gary Kirsten, the coach of India's cricket team, has some advice for his players: Have sex before matches, boys. And if no partner is available, then "go solo." It says so, right in the team's training manual leaked to Indian media. More on Sports
 
Gingrich Group Withdraws Invitation To Topless Club Top
Dawn Rizos didn't need any formal recognition that The Lodge, one of the best-known gentlemen's clubs in Dallas, was a successful small business. But when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's conservative group named her an "Entrepreneur of the Year," she was thrilled by the opportunity to accept the award in Washington and speak about ways to help small businesses.
 
Logan Bomb Note: Plane Inspected At Boston's Logan International Airport After Threatening Note Found Top
An American Airlines plane is being held at Logan International Airport this afternoon for inspection after a threatening note was found in the lavatory of the plane, Massport officials said.
 
Harkin Doubles Down: We Still Can Get 60 Votes For A Public Option Top
One of the loudest champions of a public option for health insurance coverage insisted on Wednesday that he still had the 60 votes needed to get it through the Senate despite the finance committee's rejection of the provision yesterday. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told the Huffington Post that he was confident that Democrats could break a Republican filibuster on the public option provided it was the right version. He noted that the one offered by Senator Chuck Schumer as an amendment to the finance committee's legislation "only lost by three votes." "That's pretty darn good," said Harkin. "But it wasn't ours. It wasn't the HELP Committee's. Our public option was adopted by the Blue Dogs in the House as a bridge. So yes, I think ours is the way to go and I think we can get to 60 votes for the public option. I really do." The chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, Harkin helped author one of the four pieces of health care legislation that contained a public plan. The proposal hit a major roadblock on Tuesday after the finance committee twice shot down amendments that would have added a version of the government-run plan to its health care legislation. But Harkin insisted that the impasse was not permanent. The Iowa Democrat said his Democratic colleagues should "absolutely" commit to "voting for cloture" even if they opposed the bill. If the full caucus makes such a commitment, it would ensure that the reform legislation receives an up-or-down vote. Harkin also stressed that conservative Democrats skeptical of the public plan were out of touch with the sentiments of the rest of the country and predicted that the party's popularity rankings would skyrocket once reform with a public option was passed into law. "This is not some throwaway," he told the Huffington Post. "This is not some, well maybe this or maybe that. The vast majority of the American people, over 60 percent of the American people say we have to have a public option. This isn't even a close question."
 
Barry Rithotlz: Giving The SEC Teeth Top
The problems at the SEC were decades in the making. The agency is supposed to be an investor's advocate, the cheif law enforcement agency for the markets. But that has hardly been how they have been managed, funded and operated run in recent years. Essentially the largest prosecutor's office in the country, the SEC has been undercut at every turn: Their staffing was far too small to handle their jurisdiction -- Wall Street and public Corporations. Their budgets have been sliced, and they were unable to keep up with the explosion in corporate criminality. Many key positions were left unfilled, and morale was severely damaged. A series of disastrous SEC chairs were appointed -- to be "kindler and gentler." Not only did they fail to maintain SEC funding (via fines), but they allowed the worst corporate offenders to go unpunished. Gee, go figure that under those circumstances, they sucked at their jobs. How hard was it for the Inspector General of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), H. David Kotz to find items to critique? I am sure the two reports outlining 58 steps to improve the agency's enforcement and inspections units are perfectly adequate. But the question I want to pose is this: Do they address a decade of neglect? Let's start with looking at adequate levels of funding and staffing . . . Yes, we need to overhaul how investigators scrutinize tips, plan probes, tap expertise, verify information and train employees, etc. None of these various recommendations are groundbreaking (giving examiners access to industry publications and databases? Establishing protocol for how to analyze this outside information?) The bottom line of the SEC is this: If we are serious about corporate fraud, about violations of the SEC laws, about a level playing field, then we fund the agency adequately, hire enough lawyers to prosecute the crimes, and prevent Congress critters from interfering with the SEC doing its job. To be blunt: So far, there is no evidence we are sincere about making the SEC a serious watchdog with teeth. Congress sure hasn't been. Staffing levels have been ignored, budgeting has been cut over the years. And its the sort of administrative issue that does not lend itself to bumper sticker aphorisms or tea party slogans. The SEC doing its job correctly is about good government -- like picking up the trash, haivng the trains run on time, or hiring quality teachers. Its not sexy, its not fun, its administrative policy wonk junk. This is something we have become increasingly lousy at doing as a society as we have become ideologically polarized. And as the government has gotten demonized, it becomes even less likely for departments to get proper funding, or to accomplish their basic goals. Give me a good pragmatic technocrat any day . . . (Image via SEC .) Courtesy of Barry Ritholtz. Check out Ritholtz blog, The Big Picture here . More on Financial Crisis
 
Karla Giraldo Monserrate's Girlfriend Breaks Down While Testifying Top
The girlfriend of alleged face-slasher Hiram Monserrate broke into tears while testifying this afternoon -- rushing from courtroom and throwing her boyfriend's assault trial into a temporary recess. Karla Giraldo began to sob as a prosecutor played a video that shows her bleeding last December in the hallway of the her boyfriend's apartment building. After returning to the courtroom, Giraldo told the judge she doesn't want to watch the video anymore and he explained she has no choice. More on Crime
 
Baby Ponzi Scheme: Brian Cohen Arrested For Adoption Scam Top
MINEOLA, N.Y. — An attorney who claimed his own experience as an adopted child motivated him to help people seeking to start families is suspected of running a Ponzi-like scheme that ripped off couples from New York to Texas, promising children that didn't exist. Kevin Cohen, 41, pleaded not guilty Friday to grand larceny and other charges after one Long Island couple told prosecutors they paid him $60,000 in fees for a promised baby that he never delivered. Since then, 15 other couples from New York, Georgia, Ohio and Texas have contacted a prosecutor in New York's Nassau County, telling similar stories. Cohen's attorney, Matin Emouna, said the disputes are civil matters and not something requiring criminal prosecution. Cohen, of Roslyn, once ran an adoption agency called the Adoption Annex and has had many satisfied clients, he said. Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice has likened the case to a Ponzi scheme because Cohen partially refunded some disappointed couples with proceeds he had collected from other people to whom he promised babies. In a traditional Ponzi scheme, early investors are paid "proceeds" from a scam investment with money raked in from later investors. "This was so much more than just a fraud scheme," Rice said. "The emotional turmoil he put these couples through is unimaginable. You have couple after couple who just want to provide a nice loving home for a baby." Cohen's arrest stems from his dealings with Deborah and Milton Josephs, a middle-class couple from Port Washington on Long Island. Deborah Josephs, a 44-year-old former human resources executive who now works as a consultant, and her 41-year-old husband, Milton, an elementary school special education teacher, already have one 6-year-old daughter and had prepared their home for a new child who never arrived as promised in August. Deborah Josephs said they paid Cohen $35,000 in legal fees and expenses for the birth mother in March. They said he contacted them shortly after that payment, saying he had another potential mother, but needed an additional $25,000 to secure that adoption. "At the end of the day, things kept dragging on and on, excuse after excuse, and we got suspicious," she said. Cohen is being held on $500,000 bail. A grand jury is considering additional charges, although an indictment is not expected until after prosecutors can pin down how many couples may have been victimized. Aside from families in New York and Texas, couples have come forward in Eatonton, Ga., and Cleveland. "Who knows what the end of the road is going to be?" Rice said. "We believe this is going to be even more expansive." Cohen was also arrested in December after prosecutors said he tried to claim ownership of a home being held in trust for him. That case is pending. Cohen had advertised himself as an adoption expert and boasted of his childhood with adoptive parents as his reason for entering the field, but Rice said investigators are trying to determine whether that claim was true. Cohen may have arranged legitimate adoptions at one time, Rice said, but her investigation has uncovered only disappointed couples who say they were victimized. "He was spending all the money on his own personal lifestyle, improvements to his home," Rice said. "He was living very high on this money with no other motive than pure, unadulterated greed." Gloria Houchman, a spokeswoman for the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia, said that although instances of attorneys scamming potential adoptive parents are rare, any prospective parent should be "very wary about any monetary arrangements." Adoption agents and attorneys are paid for their services. The average cost is about $30,000, which usually goes for fees, court filings and sometimes to pay the medical expenses of the birth mother, Houchman said. Adoptive parents can get an $11,000 tax credit, which helps defray some expenses. "When you are very desperate, people might think nothing of handing over $65,000," she said. "They don't realize this is above and beyond what an attorney should be asking." Cohen provided a variety of excuses for why no baby ever showed up, Deborah Josephs said. "Supposedly the babies were born, but the birth mothers hadn't made up their minds," she said. Another time they were told that a cesarean section prevented an adoption – although it wasn't clear why. They had even bought their excited 6-year-old a "Big Sisters Rock" T-shirt, which she hasn't gotten to wear. Brigid and Ben Vogt of Seaford, also on Long Island, met Cohen about three years ago. The first adoption attempt he handled for them fell through because of what she called "complications." Cohen again contacted them on Sept. 21, saying that he had a prospective mother willing to give up a child and that he needed $20,000 from the couple immediately, she said. The Vogts scrambled for a loan and even added $2,500 when Cohen said he needed more money the following day. "He was so aggressive," Brigid Vogt said. "He called us constantly, saying if we want a baby he needed the money right away. Looking back, there were a lot of red flags." Vogt, who said she was recently laid off from a job in a doctor's office, realized when she learned of Cohen's arrest on Friday night that the money was likely gone forever. "I feel very foolish," she said. "I feel like I was punched in the stomach."
 
James Degorksi Ruled Elgible For Death Penalty In Brown's Chicken Massacre Top
The jury that convicted James Degorski on seven counts of first degree murder unanimously ruled Wednesday that the former Hoffman Estates man is eligible for the death penalty.
 

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