Saturday, September 5, 2009

Y! Alert: The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Yahoo! Alerts
My Alerts

The latest from The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com

Peter Clothier: The Willing Suspension of Disbelief Top
When Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined this richly associative phrase nearly two centuries ago he was talking, of course, about literature. Specifically, he wanted to justify his love of fantasy, arguing that "human interest and a semblance of truth" would serve to seduce the reader into an imaginative compact with the author. The thought came to mind this morning as I searched for a way to respond to yet another skeptical correspondent who demanded to know why he should continue to believe in the good faith of President Obama and his ability to enact significant health care reform. Friends write to me to let me know of their distress. I get sometimes bitterly angry comments to my online posts. I read and hear what the left-wing prophets of doom assert: that Obama -- if he was really anything other than one more crass politician who deceived us into voting for him -- has already capitulated to the corporate oligarchy and the strident voices of the right. He should never have been so naïve as to put his faith in the mirage of bi-partisanship. He lacks strength and sense of purpose. He should have spoken out earlier and more forcefully. He should be out there, leading... I know. I hear these things, and I share the deep and troubling concern that gives rise to them. There is a whole big part of me that is ready to give up on all of it; to abandon hope in the weak-kneed Democrats who lack the vision and the conviction to come up with a plan they can agree on; and, yes, to blame a President who at times seems aloof from the fray and disconnected from the people who placed their trust in him as the last great hope for change. And yet... there are times when the willing suspension of disbelief seems appropriate and necessary, in order to remain true to my own commitment to do what I can do for my fellow-beings with whom I share this planet. I share the skepticism. Call it, perhaps, realism: the facts of this country's recent history and its current affairs speak loudly. Deadlock and acrimony confront us everywhere we look -- here in my own state, California, and in the nation's capital. We are addicted to the material comforts of our lives, to such well-being as each of us has attained; and despite the demand for change on the left side of our national discourse, it seems that great power still lies in the hands of those who are adamantly, fiercely resistant to it. We are like some old, weary Gulliver, unable to break free from the multiple bonds of the Lilliputians who hold us captive. In this circumstance, one useful strategy that stands between me and despair is the willing suspension of disbelief. I realize that it's a choice: it's "willing." But for the sake of my own sanity in a political culture that my more rational self deems utterly deranged and utterly beyond redemption, I make the active choice, for now, to suspend my disbelief. The act falls short of actually believing. I hold on to a small mental space where I acknowledge it to be a matter of intellectual and emotional choice rather than rational conviction. But the choice is still an empowering one, requiring that I not sink back into inertia. It's also a "suspension." The mind-space I'm attempting to describe is temporal and provisional. I find that by suspending my disbelief I can more easily watch and wait, and find the patience needed to allow change to happen and, insofar as I am able, to help it along the way. It provides me with a place from which I can continue to act, in the hope that we can still return to our senses as a country, and that we can collectively reconnect with traditional values like compassion and responsibility toward others as well as for ourselves, with a sense of common social purpose, and with that truly American vision of "a more perfect union" that Obama has publicly embraced. Call me naïve. Okay. An idealist. I'd rather be an idealist than an ideologue. But I'm constitutionally and temperamentally averse to succumbing to the kind of inaction and despair I might find myself accepting if I chose to surrender my willing suspension of disbelief. I'll settle for "human interest and a semblance of truth." And for believing, passionately, that acting as if something were possible can be the catalyst to make it happen. This, at least, is the path I choose. More on Health Care
 
Teenage Jobless Rate Reaches Record High Top
This August, the teenage unemployment rate -- that is, the percentage of teenagers who wanted a job who could not find one -- was 25.5 percent, its highest level since the government began keeping track of such statistics in 1948. Likewise, the percentage of teenagers over all who were working was at its lowest level in recorded history.
 
What Obama Will Say In His Health Care Address Top
President Barack Obama plans to reach out to Republicans and reassure -- rather than confront -- his liberal supporters when he addresses an extraordinary joint session of Congress at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. More on Barack Obama
 
Reverend Billy: Changing History Was Never Like This Top
Many of us believe that change comes from the marketing of a faster, bigger computer, a product that comes over us like a soft tsunami. More billions of us believe that the most basic change must come from a fundamentalist God, who will kill us or resurrect us. And so we live our personal lives resigned to these great forces. We assume that these forces are running history. Another force, one that we have not noticed, was always creating most of the change. It has surprised us by refusing to remain hidden, and now it is taking over history. As this new era becomes "the way things are," it is clear that we as individuals are being offered a much different kind of role in the making of history. It will take some getting used to. The application for this citizenship is coming at us like a surprise Natural Law, recited in a terrifying harmony by all that is indigenous. It feels like science fiction but it is actually happening. The whole thing has come as such a surprise that we don't have a traditional name for it yet. Is it "all of life?" All the things with roots and wings, the rocks and invisible odorless life too... have taken over the old role of the gods and monarchs and technologies. And what are they saying? All the life that isn't the human kind is flamboyantly reporting to us the impact of what we have done. The "feed-back loop" of the stately rising gasses of climate is also looping messages to the humans living here. Life doesn't seem to ask for guilt, doesn't have time for our tragic embarrassment -- it wants a direct response. It is making it simple for us. It is showing the way. This feels like a new kind of citizenship. You could call it a democracy with the earth as the government. We can vote by how we live. This utterly reverses how we usually look at ourselves through history, or say, in the news. How we lived was never historically crucial. Not like this. Now the smallest, closest and most everyday things we do must receive the glorious importance once reserved for the great Waterloos and Hiroshimas and moon landings. The human foreground, within our sensual range, the things in our hands, must be subject to the most careful deliberations. This includes everything, from our loving and communicating, to how we travel and clothe ourselves... How we live radiates out to history. "Great men," and the new solves-everything product and the gods with the swiftest swords - these actors will still struggle to hold their old spotlight in history. But the diary of a person who has this new citizenship will decide what is on that stage. Our personal reports about living add up to our history. Changing history was never like this. And -- our growing participation in this democracy of life hopes to make a future. It is happening now as the old commercial media dies out. With the new discoveries of how we can live, many practical communications are rising up and going out that change others who are also changing how they live and so they are changing us in return... "How are you living?" "How are you living?" "How are you doing it?" - that will be the main signal between political states. So, if change comes from how we live, then what a time to be alive! Everything we do matters. The old history never respected us like this. The earth gives us an outlandish storm and the storm passes and the sky and the sea are quiet again, awaiting our response. We stand there, our mostly-water bodies, and we make our first move. Is it a thought? Is it a step? Is it a caress? What we do changes our history. It is immediately written down in the water that flows to the horizon... (photo by CQ) More on Green Living
 
Andy Ostroy: The Obama School "Controversy:" Has America Gone Completely Insane, or Just Plain Racist? Top
On Tuesday President Barack Obama will address the nation's school children in a speech promoting education, ambition, perseverance and the need to become civic-minded. It's a terrific message designed to challenge and inspire today's youth. But as expected, the issue has been hijacked by the right-wing lunatic fringe that's either gone completely mad or lost all control of its racial bigotry. Either scenario is equal parts frustrating, infuriating, shameful and scary. Wild, unfounded accusations of "indoctrination" are flying at the president, and many children will be kept home from school to avoid the speech. It's "America's Parents Gone Wild." I try to understand the opposition's concerns--which has unleashed a torrent of emotion and vitriol from many parents--but I simply can't . Because there's nothing rooted here in logic or rational thought. To the contrary, it's based on ignorance, fear and, yes, racism . I suspect that a majority of the most fervent protests are originating in those parts of the nation where the black population is the smallest, and where blacks hold few positions of power. Is it possible that these "concerned" parents simply don't want their very conservatively-raised children getting the message that it's ok for a young black man to be so powerful? Maybe the thought of their children being "lectured" by a black man repulses them? Doesn't it seem ironic that, in an effort to prevent their children from being "indoctrinated" by supposedly radical views, these parents are perpetrating the biggest mind-fuck of all on their kids by censoring outside influences and instead heaping on them their own generations of intolerance and prejudice? So who then is doing the actual indoctrinating? It's just plain moronic all this talk of indoctrination and of Obama "spreading his socialist views" on school kids. I mean, after all, we're talking about the office of the United States Presidency for crap's sake. This isn't 50-Cent or Pamela Anderson addressing our kids. Have people simply lost their minds ? To be sure, the movement to prevent Obama's speech on the above grounds, and to boycott school Tuesday, is the single most unpatriotic event in modern history, and so disrespectful and offensive to the president and what the office stands for. In fact, on its merits, it's truly unfathomable . The people behind it should be ashamed of themselves. The people stirring up all this school-speech trouble are no different than the misguided tea baggers, the town-hall goons, the birth-certificate 'truthers' or those who say Obama's a radical, a terrorist, a socialist, a communist and someone who's out to destroy America. Nah...he's just black , people. Get used to it. Because, whether you like it or not, he's gonna be running things for another seven-plus years.
 
One For The Table: One for the Table's End of Summer Cocktail Extravaganza Top
Whether you're cooling off by the pool, by the beach, or on the patio....! Our summer drinks to help you on your way. Beach Martini Bermuda Rum Swizzle The Bootleg Cuba Libre Key Lime Martini Long Island Iced Tea Mai Tai Mojito POMtiki Smash Sassy Sangria Sea Breeze Tequila Sunrise Watermelon Falls
 
Earl Ofari Hutchinson: Obama Can't Thumb His Nose at the GOP, and Here's Why Top
The loud clamor from progressives, some liberal Democrats, and even a few self-described moderates for President Obama to get down and dirty with the GOP on health care and other big ticket legislative issues will always fall on deaf White House ears. There are good reasons why. Obama never had anything resembling the big, and popular mandate that the press and Democrats believed he had to make sweeping change. He ran against an aging GOP candidate saddled with the colossal burden of a divided, corruption and scandal plagued GOP, a Saturday Night Live joke line vice presidential running mate, a tanking economy, an unpopular war, and a GOP president whose ocean bottom ratings made Hoover Hoover look like the second coming of Lincoln. Yet Obama still got trounced among white voters. A good chunk of whites voted for him less because of his message of hope and change, than because of disgust and loathe of Bush bumbles, fumbles, and miscues. Candidate Obama delivered carefully calibrated rhetorical toss away lines about ending the war, single payer health care, nailing Bush lawbreaking officials, cracking down on the Wall Street greed merchants, and jumpstarting a new war on poverty. Yet he is and always has been a solid team playing Beltway, centrist Democratic and these political positions are anathema to centrist Democrats. To play the centrist political game correctly requires compromise, conciliation, and bipartisanship. Illinois Republicans, and that included some of the most conservative down state Republicans, repeatedly gave Obama high marks as the one upstate Illinois black Democrat who would continually reach across party lines to build consensus to get legislation passed. Obama learned early that this was the sure fire way to bag the big financial and corporate dollars, stay in good stead with the Democratic Party regulars, and garner favorable ink in the mainstream media. He gave a bigger hint that compromise and conciliation would be the watchwords of his administration in his coming of political age keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The punch line that brought swoons and wows was that Americans shouldn't be pigeonholed into Red States and Blue States and that he would work hard to close the political and ideological rifts and divisions between them. This was a political template for a non-confrontational; don't ruffle the GOP's political feathers approach to policy matters. Then there's the matter of race. The escalating GOP counterinsurgency against him is fueled by playing on the thinly veiled racial fears of a black liberal leaning president. A president that has allegedly suspect birth, religious ties, and patriotism, and who will subvert the liberties, and economic well-being of law abiding, patriotic hard working white Americans. This is pap and hogwash, but the scare tactic has worked. Polls show a big fall off in his approval ratings. Democrats are now inching up on Republicans in getting the blame for the mess in Congress. This makes Obama even more gun shy about trying to ram health care reform, or any other part of his agenda through Congress with Democrats only. This would draw not only howls of dictatorship but stir massive political and public disruption and unrest. This would open the door wide for Republicans to rebound and actually win back a few seats in the 2010 mid term elections. The specter of a rejuvenated, even more war like GOP is Obama's worst nightmare. The low intensity warfare against him would severely hamper his efforts to better shore up the economy; pass an immigration reform and revamped campaign reform law and wind down the wars. Imploring Obama to thumb his nose at the GOP and go it alone with Democrats shows pure ignorance of who and what Obama is and how he got where he got. It just ain't going to happen. Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book is How Obama Governed: the Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press, January 2010). More on GOP
 
Melissa Sue Robinson, Transgender Activist, Runs For Mayor Of Idaho Town Top
NAMPA, Idaho — About a block from a street concert in downtown Nampa, Melissa Sue Robinson strolls with purpose into a trendy coffee shop – the unofficial liberal embassy of this sprawling Republican stronghold in southwest Idaho. Dressed in a cream-colored pantsuit, a political flier clutched in one hand, a soft brown leather purse in the other, she orders a mocha and takes a seat as a group of teenagers stare at her from near the door. The 58-year-old was born male and still carries the slightly larger-than-an-average-woman build of Charles Staelens Jr., who legally changed his name and underwent surgery in 1998 to become a woman. She also kept his voice. He was married for 17 years, owned a construction company, and was a Republican when he ran for city council in Lansing, Mich., where he was raised with his identical twin brother until their parents divorced in the 1960s. Now she says she is celibate, a telecommunications worker who is "just another cog in the machine," and a Democrat who in 2004 became the first transgender to run for the state legislature in Michigan. This farming and manufacturing town of about 83,000 residents, where a sugar factory and a local hospital are among the biggest employers, doesn't seem to be all that concerned that Robinson previously lived as a man. But they are scratching their heads that a newcomer, a non-Republican, would run for mayor. For her part, Robinson says she has been warmly received in Nampa, just 15 miles west of Boise in the sagebrush-ridden high desert. "Idaho has a bad rap," she says. "I haven't found a person I don't like yet." There has been one conflict – in cyberspace. Robinson threatened to take legal action against the hugely popular micro-blogging Web site Twitter after stumbling on a fake account set up in her name under the title: "Woman with a penis." The account has since been closed. "You don't do that to somebody," said Robinson, who as an adult, always thought of himself as a woman but waited until his late 40s before undergoing the gender reassignment surgery. Her job moved her from Seattle last winter to southwest Idaho, where Nampa is the largest city in Canyon County and a Democrat hasn't held an elected seat in local government in more than a decade. Sen. John McCain received a landslide 67 percent of the vote here during the presidential election last year. Mayoral races in Idaho are nonpartisan, meaning that candidates do not have to declare a party. Robinson, who appeared in the pages of The National Enquirer in 2003 and was a guest on Oprah with her twin brother and ex-wife in 2005, is challenging a two-term incumbent mayor, former teacher, and a graduate of Northwest Nazarene University, one of eight liberal arts colleges in the country affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene. "It doesn't seem like her chances are high – or there at all," said Joseph Shafer, a boutique owners in Nampa. "We're one of the most conservative counties in the state. I think we're one of the most conservative in the country." Shafer also works as a barista at the Flying M coffee shop, where Robinson met on a recent evening with her campaign manager, Leah McManus, a coworker and 32-year-old mother of two. Robinson's ex-wife, Linda, serves as campaign treasurer. The two were married for 17 years and still live together. "People are going to say I haven't been here long enough, but if you get me behind the mayor's desk I'm going to run this city," said Robinson, a self-described activist. "Right now, it's a good ol' boys club." Still, she said, she feels hopeful that at least her gender status will not be used against her. While running for Lansing mayor in Michigan in 2003, Robinson said a religious group walked through the city with signs that screamed: "Homosexuality is a sin" and "Down with transgenders." During her 2004 run for the Michigan statehouse, pictures of her were posted online at the extremist Web site "Stormfront White Nationalist Community " Her name was listed on the primary ballot along with her former identity, Charles Edward Staelens Jr., because of a state law that required a candidate's former name to be included if it had been changed during the past 10 years. There are about 450 openly gay, lesbian and bisexual officials serving at the local, state and federal level, said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund. That's up from about 275 five years ago. The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group identifies, trains and supports openly lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender candidates and officials. The group has not endorsed Robinson. "Idaho has one openly gay in office in the entire state," Dison said. "The fact that there are not more tells you a little bit about the environment there ... it's still very difficult in a lot of places." Robinson says that if she's elected she'll bring transparency to city hall, including televising council meetings. She would also try to give tax breaks to small business and actively recruit corporate jobs. Last month, the state Department of Labor said one out of every eight workers in Canyon County did not have jobs and the unemployment rate had climbed to 11.9 percent. Statewide the rate was 8.8 percent in July, a 26 year high. "It's time for a change," said 32-year-old Gerald Walton-Grice, a lifelong Nampa resident. As for the candidates? "I don't care if they're gay, straight, transgender, red, yellow or purple," Walton-Grice said. "It doesn't matter." ___ On the Net: Melissa Sue Robinson: http://www.equalityidaho.org
 
Salam Al Marayati: Closing Our Open Society is a Victory for Terrorism Top
The case of a diverted Air France flight involving Paul-Emile Dupret, a legal counselor to the European Parliament, is causing a stir over the Atlantic even though it's not a story in the US. Dupret opposes US policy on globalization, and for that reason, he is on the No Fly List. The case exposes a serious flaw in our national security programs--denying travel to political dissidents. The flight was detoured over the Caribbean and was delayed in Mexico. Many of the passengers missed their connecting flights. European hearts and minds were lost in this small incident. Some of you believe that if we want to catch the terrorist who wants to blow us up, then all of us have to deal with inconveniences. But let's make a distinction between inconvenience and insanity. The No Fly List may include suspects of terrorism, but the list also includes political opponents. Flawed or corrupted intelligence undermines our national security -- it makes us Americans look incompetent and/or arrogant. Other Europeans of Muslim background have been prevented from entering the United States. Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) is a citizen of the UK and was blacklisted. He has been recently cleared to re-enter the United States. Another high-profile case involves Tariq Ramadan, an Islamic scholar who resides in Paris. His visa to enter the United States was revoked even though the University of Notre Dame offered him a teaching position in peacemaking studies. Both Yusuf Islam and Tariq Ramadan were accused of supporting extremist Palestinian groups. No evidence has undergone the scrutiny of the public eye. Yusuf Islam was cleared recently to enter the United States. Tariq's Ramadan case is under appeal and recently received a favorable opinion by a federal court. These exploitations of current anti-terrorism laws affect American citizens as well. In October 2008, the Maryland State Police classified 53 nonviolent political activists as terrorists, and entered their names and personal information into state and federal databases, with labels indicating that they were terror suspects. The protest groups were also entered as terrorist organizations. During a hearing, it was revealed that these individuals and organizations had been placed in the databases because of a surveillance operation that targeted opponents of the death penalty and the Iraq war. I have received several reports of harassment at airports of humanitarian workers or shutting the door on diplomats and scholars. The only common denominator in all these cases is that these individuals have taken stands that are non-violent but are politically controversial. None of their cases involved ties to Al-Qaeda or a connection to 9/11. They were victims of political profiling. For Mr. Dupret , it's about the right to dissent on the policy of globalization. On a positive note, the Obama Administration is opening up reviews to demonstrate more transparency in its searches and investigations of individuals traveling to and from the United States. Our input is needed . Yes we all need to be more vigilant and support our law enforcement in protecting our country, and even take off our shoes during airport screenings and cooperate with law enforcement. But to divert planes and stop people from entering the United States because they disagree with our government policies undermines the principles underpinning our open society. If we close our society, terrorism wins. Our government is concerned about global relations and the US global image. But in the words of Admiral Mullen, the Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, "To put it simply, we need to worry a lot less about how to communicate our actions and much more about what our actions communicate."
 
Mousavi Calls For More Civil Disobedience Top
Iran's leading opposition figure today called on his supporters to continue acts of peaceful civil disobedience in his first major communiqué in weeks. More on Iranian Election
 
Ellen Snortland: Sicko Reprise, Please Top
Norwegians consider President Barack Obama to be a right-wing leader . I kid you not. My "people," the Norwegians, are out in front on so many social issues that even conservatives in Norway think Obama is too conservative. Nonetheless, when my husband and I were in Norway at the end of last year, our relatives and the people we met were absolutely overjoyed that Obama won. We literally had people in Oslo stopping us on the street (we were obviously Americans) and slapping our backs, shaking our hands and offering to help us with our luggage. AND they often reminded us they were flabbergasted at our primitive ways, especially about health care. Remember Michael Moore's movie, Sicko ? Moore and his editors decided to not use the footage they'd shot in Norway - it can be seen on the Special Edition DVD - because the Norwegian health care system is so pro-active and prevention oriented that it would strain credibility for many Americans to even know about it. I know this to be true. One of my relatives told me that Norwegian health care includes visits to shut-ins to play cards, read out loud, or just hang out. The government logic is that it's cheaper to keep a person company than it is to treat stress-related illness after the damage is done. I'm stunned at the Norwegian sense of generosity, common sense and ethics. Indeed, one of the Norwegian scenes that got omitted from the theatrical release of Sicko was an interview with a government "ethicist" whose job it is to make sure health care funds get invested in healthy - as in no harm to people - investments. How's that for goody-two-shoes government? Meanwhile, my husband and I have been wrestling with a health care plan here in the good ol' U.S.of A. that is generally pretty good EXCEPT that coverage is contingent on my husband working a minimum amount of time in an industry that has been socked by the recession... and guess what? They just raised the minimum. Oh, yeah, and then there's the "Big Brother" edict that came down the pike from the plan last month. Try to figure this out. I'm not quite sure why big pharmaceutical companies aren't fighting this. Here goes: we've now been told our plan will not cover prescriptions that we buy from our local pharmacies. We use Phoenix Pharmacy in Pasadena and Webster's in Altadena. We know the people who work there and trust them. We love our local pharmacies and make it a point to use them, even though we might be able to get a better price at a discount chain or online... maybe. We like to keep our local small businesses busy so they'll stay healthy and alive, with their employees employed, right? But now, we're told, we must get our pharmaceuticals ONLY via Medco - either submitted via mail or online, with the medications mailed back to us from Florida. In addition, if our prescription is not a generic they will refuse to fill it , even if the Doctor specifically asks for a brand name. I am facing dental problems I've had to put off because there's a cap on the amount of work I can get done within a year. I've been denied coverage on the replacement of a tooth that needs an implant, because Delta Dental has determined it is not close enough to the front of my mouth to warrant cosmetic considerations. In other words, they'd pay if I were losing one of my six most forward teeth. But the tooth that's giving me trouble is one that, if it's missing, will make me look like a Jack-o-Lantern, or in my case, a Jill-o-Lantern. A "partial" will also impact my ability to speak. Everyone knows an edentate woman performing a one woman show, or giving a keynote speech, is inspiring to other dentally challenged people! Sarcasm aside, since I am an actor and need to speak and sing in front of an audience, wouldn't a very visible tooth gap be considered a work related problem? No. I guess not. Thank goodness our problems are relatively non-catastrophic. I am grateful we are not contending with life-threatening conditions. Which brings me back to Sicko . As I watch the so-called health care "debates" and the ridiculous theater of town hall demonstrators , I can't help but wonder if there isn't some big pharmaceutical remedy for stupidity? Just as Viagra was originally developed for treatment of high blood pressure - it was discovered to have "side benefits" as a solution to erectile dysfunction (ED) - perhaps we should see if there are any drugs for flaccid minds , or mental dysfunction (MD.) This anachronistic paranoia toward anything that even remotely smacks of socialism or community welfare is deplorable, despicable and downright ridiculous. What can these yahoos demonstrating at town hall meetings be thinking? Oh, yeah, they suffer from MD. Someone get them a pill that helps get them some blood to their possibly shriveled, limp brains. Meanwhile, rent "Sicko," and give yourself a good reminder why the heck we need to emulate France, England and even Cuba... and someday perhaps, even Norway. More on Barack Obama
 
Conan Blows Up The Worst Car In America (VIDEO) Top
Conan O'Brien thought Cash for Clunkers was nice, if a little boring. "Couldn't you have a lot more fun with an old clunker than just trading it in for a boring rebate check?" He wondered allowed. So he decided to something about it. A month ago O'Brien launched a contest called "Conan, Please Blow Up My Car" in which viewers sent in videos of their clunkers with pleas for them to be obliterated. This week, Conan picked a winner (who received a new Lexus in return) and blew up his old crappy car. Unfortunately, some dolls-who-look-like-celebrities were hurt in the process. WATCH: Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on The Tonight Show
 
Gene Karpinski: Labor Day 2009: Protect the American Worker with a Clean Energy Economy Top
In one of life's cruel ironies, this year's Labor Day coincides with unemployment at its highest in 25 years. But it also represents an opportunity to re-emphasize the importance of the American worker and the future we must provide for our workforce. Last month, unemployment rose to 9.7% , the highest since 1983, as the economy saw 216,000 jobs lost. These numbers are too large for the returning Congress to ignore and they should immediately set to passing a comprehensive clean energy bill that can help reverse the direction of unemployment before we reach double-digit figures. Numerous studies confirm that transitioning to a clean energy economy is one of the most effective ways to pull our nation out of the current economic crisis. Clean energy sources like wind and solar power create up to 3 times more jobs than old, dirty sources like coal and oil that got us here in the first place. That's why it's good economic policy to switch to clean energy -- while also ensuring cleaner air and water for generations to come. More importantly real world experience bears this out: the leading manufacturers of wind, solar and other alternative energy technologies are thriving in Japan, Europe and China, while the U.S. lags behind. Only one-sixth of the world's top renewable energy manufacturers are based in the United States, which means we are losing out on millions of new jobs. That's why both major labor unions and leading business groups support the passage of clean energy legislation. Instead of allowing companies to continue shipping jobs and dollars overseas, the American Clean Energy & Security Act, which passed the House in June, would spark American ingenuity, help create 1.7 million new jobs , and make the U.S. a global leader in clean energy. Senators will certainly be pressured by their constituents to fix our jobs crisis and it's clear that their best bet at providing relief is by finishing what the House started: passing a comprehensive clean energy bill that will create jobs, cut our dependence on foreign oil, and reduce harmful global warming pollution.
 
Please Don't Change, VH1! (NSFW VIDEO) Top
Now that a contestant on a VH1 reality TV show has killed himself after brutally murdering his wife , the network is reconsidering some of their trashier television shows and Ben Hoffman is pissed. He doesn't want VH1 to go back to being that weird old-person's network that played a lot of Celine Dion, nay, he wants Flava Flav's ladies pooping on the floor and strippers trying to woo men on buses. WATCH: Get HuffPost Comedy On Facebook and Twitter! More on Reality TV
 
Allison Kilkenny: The Washington Post and "Journamalism" Top
1. Journamalism : An attempt to report the news marred with shoddy research, fact suppression, or a mere retyping of the press release/talking points. The Washington Post recently featured a story by reporter Monica Hesse that ran on the front of the Style section in which Hesse profiled Brian Brown, executive director of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM). NOM was active in supporting California's Proposition 8, which took away gay couple's rights to marry in that state, and the group continues to lead the fight against legalization of same-sex marriage. Hesse's story was called "Opposing Gay Unions With Sanity & a Smile," giving one a fairly accurate idea of how unbalanced the rest of the article is. Hesse calls the bigot Brown "instantly likable," a "thoughtful talker," and describes how "he is pleasantly, ruthlessly sane." Brown is the guy who claims gay people are demanding "special rights" as they fight for marriage equality. Quite frankly, he opposes gay marriage because he sees gay unions as alien, deviant, and something that must be contained and segregated from sanctimonious heterosexual unions. It doesn't matter how cute his wife is, or how pretty his smile is, this is what the man believes even if he's really "likable," "thoughtful," and "pleasant" while he does it. The rest of the article carries on in this fashion. At no point does Hesse balance her pathetically worshipful coverage of Brown with testimonials from gay couples, or gay rights advocates. The entire article is essentially a propaganda piece for the National Organization for Marriage. To Hesse's great surprise , she received a deluge of emails from gay marriage advocates after the article was printed. Worse than Hesse's omission is this comment from her editor, Lynn Medford: "The lesson is to always, in some way, represent the other side." Yes, Lynn. That's kind of critical to this whole "journalism" thing. A lot of the Post 's behavior suddenly makes sense to me. No one told them that shoddy research, fact suppression, retyping press releases and talking points, and totally marginalizing liberal advocates isn't real journalism. Cross-posted from Allison Kilkenny's blog . Also available on Facebook and Twitter . More on Wash Post
 
Jeff Kreisler: This Week In Cheating: Drugs Top
The drug industry is closely watching a trial in NYC - the first of about 900 state & federal cases - over the side effects from Merck's Fosamax. Merck , you may recall, also produced Vioxx, which garnered a $4.5 billion-ish settlement for about 200 court cases. Despite the litigation, Merck company stock has actually been upgraded to "strong buy"... for plaintiff's attorney. Across the pharmaceutical hallway, Pfizer will pay $2.3 billion to end allegations that it illegally marketed Bextra... just like it illegally marketed Neurontin... just like it'll illegally market 'Stop Hitting Yourself.'® Stop Hitting Yourself.® Why are you hitting yourself? So, let me get this straight: Pfizer is the one who'll lie to you, but Merck's the one that'll kill you? Got it. The $2.3 billion is less than three weeks of Pfizer's sales, so, it's unlikely to stop their practice. In fact, a recently released document shows how drug companies use their marketing power to sell ineffective, but expensive, pills on an uninformed and vulnerable public. Well, duh... as all cheaters know. People Are Dumb. Amy Schulman, Pfizer's general counsel summed it up best : "The vast majority of our employees spend their lives dedicated to bringing truly important medications to patients and physicians in an appropriate manner." What she left unsaid is that a small minority of their employees... don't. That small minority squeezes every last dollar out of our worthless lives, and that small minority is in charge . Kudos, drug industry. You've cheated yourself quite rich. -- Jeff Kreisler's first book, " Get Rich Cheating " (HarperCollins), is a Boston Globe bestseller and is available online or in most bookstores. "You'll be laughing all the way to the bank, assuming other cheaters haven't forced it into bankruptcy yet." - Rachel Maddow "Catcher in the Rye for evildoers" - Penthouse Magazine "A very funny book with a very timely message." - Terry Jones (Monty Python) "Laugh out loud - roaring!" - CNBC "A brilliant and brilliantly sustained satirical broadside." - Tony Hendra (National Lampoon) More on Rachel Maddow
 
List Of US Banks Closed By Feds Jumps To 89 Top
NEW YORK — The crippled economy and increasing loan defaults have forced financial regulators to close even more banks, including the only branch of the First Bank of Kansas City, which is reopening under a new name after its deposits are assumed. The number of banks that have failed this year stands at 89 after regulators on Friday shut down banks in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa and Arizona. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., an independent agency whose goal is to maintain stability and public confidence in the financial system, took over First Bank of Kansas City, which was based in Kansas City, Mo., and had $16 million in assets and $15 million in deposits. It shut down Sioux City, Iowa-based Vantus Bank, with $458 million in assets and $368 million in deposits. First Bank of Kansas City's deposits will be assumed by Great American Bank, based in De Soto, Kan., the FDIC said. It was to reopen Saturday as a branch of Great American Bank. The FDIC seized two banks in Illinois: Oak Forest-based InBank, with $212 million in assets and $199 million in deposits, and Platinum Community Bank in Rolling Meadows, which had $346 million in assets and $305 million in deposits. First State Bank in Flagstaff, Ariz., also was shuttered. It had $105 million in assets and deposits totaling $95 million. Vantus Bank's deposits will be assumed by Great Southern Bank in Springfield, Mo. All 15 of Vantus Bank's branches will reopen Saturday as branches of Great Southern Bank. The FDIC agreed to share with Great Southern Bank losses on about $338 million of Vantus Bank's assets. Nearly all of InBank's deposits will be assumed by MB Financial Bank in Chicago. Some brokered deposits won't be assumed by MB Financial Bank. InBank's three branches were to reopen Saturday as MB Financial Bank branches. The FDIC didn't find another bank to take over Platinum Community Bank's branches or deposits. Instead, it will pay out insured deposits at Platinum Community Bank. Government direct deposits, such as Social Security and veterans' payments, will be handled by MB Financial Bank's Palatine, Ill., branch. The FDIC insures accounts up to $250,000. Depositors with accounts larger than $250,000 will be able to receive details about whether their accounts are fully covered beginning Tuesday by checking the FDIC's Web site. First State Bank's deposits will be acquired by Sunwest Bank in Tustin, Calif. First State Bank's six branches will reopen Tuesday as branches of Sunwest Bank. The failure of First Bank of Kansas City is expected to cost the FDIC's deposit insurance fund an estimated $6 million. InBank's failure will cost the insurance fund $66 million, while Vantus Bank's failure will cost the fund $168 million. Platinum Community Bank's failure will cost the fund about $114 million. First State Bank's collapse will cost the FDIC's insurance fund $47 million. Hundreds more banks are expected to fail in the next few years largely because of bad loans for commercial real estate. The number of banks on the FDIC's confidential problem list jumped to 416 at the end of June from 305 in the first quarter. That's the highest number since June 1994, during the savings-and-loan crisis. The insurance fund has been so depleted by the epidemic of collapsing financial institutions that some analysts have warned it could sink into the red by the end of this year. The fund fell 20 percent to $10.4 billion at the end of June, the FDIC reported Thursday. That's its lowest point since 1992, at the height of the S&L crisis. The agency estimates bank failures will cost the fund around $70 billion through 2013. U.S. banks overall lost $3.7 billion in the second quarter, compared with a profit of $7.6 billion in the January-March quarter, the FDIC said. Surging levels of soured loans at banks dragged down profits in the April-June period. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said there were no immediate plans to borrow money from the government to replenish the insurance fund by tapping the agency's $500 billion credit line with the Department of the Treasury. The FDIC may, however, impose an additional fee on U.S. banks this year to bolster the fund, atop the estimated $5.6 billion from a new emergency premium that took effect June 30. More on Banks
 
Barrett Brown: Stanley Kurtz Tries to Tie Gay Marriage to Divorce, Accidentally Proves Opposite Top
Does the legalization of gay marriage really contribute to the decline of heterosexual marriage? A good number of our fair republic's cultural conservatives seem to believe that it does, which is to say that it probably doesn't. But perhaps we should check anyway. "[I]n the Netherlands and places where they have tried to define marriage [to include gay couples], what happens is that people just don't get married," evangelical kingpin James Dobson told a typically credulous Larry King in November of 2006. "It's not that the homosexuals are marrying in greater numbers," he continued, although obviously homosexuals are indeed marrying in greater numbers since that number used to be zero and is now something higher than zero, "it's that when you confuse what marriage is, young people just don't get married." If what James Dobson says is true, several of the states which have been have been moving towards equal rights for gays are going to be in huge trouble, and Massachusetts, which legalized gay marriage in 2004, must already be. Of course, James Dobson is wrong. But where is the degenerate old fascist getting his disinformation from this time? The culprit in this case may be Stanley Kurtz, a regular contributor to the perpetually terrible Weekly Standard , the consistently amusing National Review , and the description-defying Commentary . A few years ago, Kurtz wrote a highly influential essay which set out to refute the work of William N. Eskridge, Jr., the John A. Garver professor of jurisprudence at Yale University, and Darren Spedale, a New York investment banker, who together had recently written a book called Gay Marriage: For Better or For Worse? What We've Learned From the Evidence . The authors discussed their preliminary findings in a Wall Street Journal op-ed before their work was more formally published (in fact, Kurtz weirdly dismisses it as "unpublished" several times in his article, as if it were somehow unseemly for a paper to exist between the time it is written and the time it is published). Denmark, the authors noted, began allowing for gay civil unions in 1989. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 10.7 percent. Norway did the same in 1993. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 12.7 percent. Sweden followed suite in 1995. Ten years later, the heterosexual marriage rate had increased by 28.7 percent. And these marriages were actually lasting; during the same time frame, the divorce rate dropped by 13.9 percent in Denmark, 6 percent in Norway, and 13.7 percent in Sweden. Confronted with statistics indicating that marriage in Scandinavia is in fine shape, Kurtz instead proclaimed that "Scandinavian marriage is now so weak that statistics on marriage and divorce no longer mean what they used to." Brushing aside numbers showing that Danish marriage was up ten percent from 1990 to 1996, our paper puritan countered that "just-released marriage rates for 2001 show declines in Sweden and Denmark." He didn't bother to note that marriage rates they were down in 2001 for quite a few places, including the United States, which of course had no civil unions anywhere in 2001; presumably this was left out due to space constraints. In all seriousness, though, I'm not accusing Kurtz of being dishonest; it's evident that he is simply unable to anticipate very obvious objections to his muddled, demonstrably incorrect analysis even despite having spent some years at Harvard obtaining a degree in social anthropology, a degree which is apparently worthless. I will defend Kurtz further. Having not yet had access to the figures, he couldn't have known that both American and Scandinavian marriage rates had gone back up in 2002, a year after the dip he deemed to be apocalyptic in gay-friendly Scandinavia while completely ignoring it in gay-adverse America. As for Norway, he says, the higher marriage rate "has more to do with the institution's decline than with any renaissance. Much of the increase in Norway's marriage rate is driven by older couples 'catching up.'" It's unclear exactly how old these "older couples" may be, but Kurtz thinks their marriages simply don't count, and in fact constitute a sign of "the institution's decline." And of course, it's clear from his phrasing that only a portion of the increase is attributable to these older citizens. So Kurtz's position is that Norwegian marriage is in decline because not only are younger people getting married at a higher rate, but older people are as well. I don't know what Kurtz makes per word, but I'm sure it would piss me off to find out. Kurtz also wanted us to take divorce. "Take divorce," Kurtz wrote. "It's true that in Denmark, as elsewhere in Scandinavia, divorce numbers looked better in the nineties. But that's because the pool of married people has been shrinking for some time. You can't divorce without first getting married." This is true. It's also true that Denmark has a much lower divorce rate than the United States as a percentage of married couples, a method of calculation that makes the size of the married people pool irrelevant. Denmark's percentage is 44.5, while the United States is at 54.8. Incidentally, those numbers come from the Heritage Foundation, which also sponsors reports on the danger that gay marriage poses to the heterosexual marriage rate. Still, Kurtz is upset that many Scandinavian children are born out of wedlock. "About 60 percent of first-born children in Denmark now have unmarried parents," he says. He doesn't give us the percentage of second-born children who have unmarried parents, because that percentage is lower and would thus indicate that Scandinavian parents often marry after having their first child, as Kurtz himself later notes in the course of predicting that this will no longer be the case as gay civil unions continue to take their non-existent toll on Scandinavian marriage. Since the rate by which Scandinavian couples have a child or two before getting married has been rising for decades, it's hard to see what this has to do with gay marriage - unless, of course, you happen to be Stanley Kurtz. "Scandinavia's out-of-wedlock birthrates may have risen more rapidly in the seventies, when marriage began its slide. But the push of that rate past the 50 percent mark during the nineties was in many ways more disturbing." More disturbing indeed; by the mid-'90s, the Scandinavian republics had all instituted civil unions, and thus even the clear, long-established trajectory of such a trend as premature baby-bearing can be laid at the feet of the homos simply by establishing some arbitrary numerical benchmark that was obviously going to be reached anyway, calling this milestone "in many ways more disturbing," and hinting that all of this is somehow the fault of the gays. By the same token, I can prove that the establishment of the Weekly Standard in 1995 has contributed to rampant world population growth. Sure, population growth has been increasing steadily for decades, but the push of that number past the 6 billion mark in 2000 was "in many ways more disturbing" to me for some weird reason that I can't quite pin down because I'm all Kurtzing out over here. Of course, I'm being a little disingenuous - by virtue of its unparalleled support for the invasion of Iraq, the Weekly Standard has actually done more than its part to keep world population down. Why is Kurtz so disturbed about out-of-wedlock rates? Personally, I think it would be preferable for a couple to have a child and then get married, as is more often the case in Scandinavia, rather than for a couple to have a child and then get divorced, as is more often the case in the United States. Kurtz doesn't seem to feel this way, though, as it isn't convenient for him to feel this way at this particular time. Here are all of these couples, he tells us, having babies without first filling out the proper baby-making paperwork with the proper bureaucratic agencies. What will become of the babies? Perhaps they'll all die. Or perhaps they'll continue to outperform their American counterparts in math and science, as they've been doing for quite a while. Read more at True/Slant. More on Wall Street Journal
 
Internet Addiction Center Opens In U.S. Top
If you have to take a quick break from reading this article to check your Blackberry, send a text or reboot your Xbox 360 before you reach the end of this paragraph, then the good news is that help is at hand. More on Addiction & Recovery
 
Vickie Karp: Ashton Kutcher talks public service, Star Trek, and football pants Top
In April 2009, Jake Coyle reported at huffpo that actor Ashton Kutcher and CNN were in a dead heat to see who could be the first to break a million followers on Twitter. Kutcher won. According to www.twitterholic.com, Ashton Kutcher's following on Twitter has since reached 3,471,076. It will probably surpass 3.5 as you read this. That's more than President Obama, Al Gore, or Oprah. Kutcher, an avid fan of social media and co-founder of Katalyst Media, has been suggesting to people he admires that they harness the power, but the concept tends to fare about as well as talking abstract expressionism or the public health option. Not so with Newark's Mayor Cory A. Booker, who took Kutcher's advice to talk with his constituents on Twitter. The Mayor began tweeting dozens of times a day about where he was going, what he was doing, sharing favorite quotes and spontaneous thoughts on the issues, and his online following rapidly rose to 65,000. This week, in a ">Ustream chat ", the actor spoke with Mayor Booker about community service, positive change, and an upcoming Sundance Channel premiere of "Bricks," a five-part documentary about Newark premiering September 21st. Halfway through, Kutcher challenged the Mayor to inspire 300 Twitter followers to send video "declarations" of community service to pledgeservice@gmail.com. If 300 video commitments come in, Kutcher has volunteered to wear a Giants jersey and hat, despite the fact that he is a devoted Bears fan, and go to a Giants game with the Mayor. "Go to serv.gov.,"Kutcher says in the interview. "Pick the thing you like to do. Send in the video. And we'll post it." "Can we put a challenge out there?" asked the Mayor. "We could do a little one on one. If we get ... what number do you want ... if we get 300 videos sent in?" "We go one on one and the loser has to, what, fill in the blanks, Mayor?" Kutcher asks. "I take you to a Giants game. I want you wearing the jersey, the hat, the football pants..." They settled on just the cap and jersey. 300 declarations of service to pledgeservice@gmail.com, then the one on one game, and the loser has to win the cap and jersey to the winner's favorite team's football game. A Kutcher/Booker Challenge. The results should be interesting. And you can bet you'll be hearing all about it on Twitter. More on Twitter
 

CREATE MORE ALERTS:

Auctions - Find out when new auctions are posted

Horoscopes - Receive your daily horoscope

Music - Get the newest Album Releases, Playlists and more

News - Only the news you want, delivered!

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

Weather - Get today's weather conditions




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

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)