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- Huff TV: Arianna Defends Alan Grayson, Discusses Urgent Need For Health Reform On "Countdown" (VIDEO)
- Disgrasian: The Murder Of A Young Asian Woman You've Never Heard Of
- Aaron E. Carroll: How to have a rational debate about health care reform
- PETA Video: Cows Suffer On Land O'Lakes-supplying Farm (VIDEO)
- Baby Missing After Mother Is Stabbed By Fake Immigration Officer In Nashville, Tennessee
- Lloyd Chapman: Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith Epitomizes Everything that is Wrong with Government
- Michelle Obama: Crime Won't Hurt Chicago Olympic Bid
- Spielberg, Katzenberg And Geffen To Endorse Jerry Brown
- Michelle Obama Makes Chicago Olympics Presence Felt In Copenhagen
- Hero Bus Driver Saves School Girls From Exploding Bus (VIDEO)
- Comcast In Talks To Buy NBC-Universal From General Electric
| Huff TV: Arianna Defends Alan Grayson, Discusses Urgent Need For Health Reform On "Countdown" (VIDEO) | Top |
| Arianna was a guest on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" tonight and she defended the remarks made by Democratic Congressman Alan Grayson (FL) about the GOP and health care reform, saying he has the truth on his side. She also stressed that the need for fundamental reform is urgent because the lack of health insurance is killing thousands of Americans every year. WATCH: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy More on Video | |
| Disgrasian: The Murder Of A Young Asian Woman You've Never Heard Of | Top |
| A young Asian woman was killed almost three weeks ago in September, and still no one seems to know who she was. I'm not, of course, talking about Yale graduate student Annie Le . Her last name was Lee, one letter removed from "Le," Felicia Lee , to be exact. Professionally, the Singapore-born, Australia-raised 31 year-old went by Felicia Tang, and in addition to having bit parts in Rush Hour 2 and The Fast and the Furious , she had appeared on Playboy TV and in adult films like Hotel Decadence and Asian Fever . In 2003, she was in an online erotic video with Tila Tequila where they fondled each other in a pool. In some reports, she has been described as a "porn star," but her career in adult entertainment does not appear to have been that extensive. Most recently, it was reported that Lee was working towards getting her real estate license. She was found in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Brian Randone, on September 11 in Monrovia, CA, east of LA, beaten and choked , after Randone had called 911 to report that she wasn't breathing. Randone, who has been described as a "self-styled preacher," a "Christian mime," a "former reality TV contestant" and a "pageant contestant" --having appeared on the 2000 Fox show The Sexiest Bachelor in America --was arrested within hours and charged four days later with killing and "torturing" Lee. The torture charges stemmed from the severity of Lee's injuries, which were described as "gruesome" by the Superior Court Judge who arraigned Randone Tuesday, and from evidence that Lee had suffered dozens of these injuries in the 24 hours before she died. As much as the details of Lee's life and death, true or inflated, would seem sensational enough (porn, Hollywood, torture, a pretty victim) for widespread media coverage, unlike Annie Le's murder, Lee's has largely failed to capture the public's imagination. In the week following her murder, only a scattering of newspapers and media outlets had actually bothered to report it. The San Gabriel Valley Tribune wrote a story about it on September 15 (Monrovia is in the SGV). The San Jose Mercury News posted one on the 16th. The LA Times Local section penned a blog post on the 17th. The closest thing to a national media outlet to report on Lee's death in that first week was CBS News' Crimesider blog, described as "The True Crime Destination from the Producers of 48 Hours Mystery," which published a story on September 18 entitled "The Preacher and the Porn Star, the Tragic Story of Felicia Tang Lee (Photos)." Within that same timeframe, several Chinese-language newspapers also picked up the story. To understand why Felicia Lee's murder has had less media "value" than Annie Le's, I re-read Joan Didion's "Sentimental Journeys," from her 1992 collection Ask Henry , in which she examined the way the media covers crime vis-a-vis the Central Park Jogger case . In the essay, Didion writes that the "preferred tabloid (crime) victim" is someone who's "presented as fate's random choice," "attended an expensive school" and/or "been employed in a glamour industry." Annie Le--high school valedictorian, Yale graduate student, fiancee of her college sweetheart--certainly fit that bill. Felicia Lee--topless model, adult film actress, girlfriend to the man who allegedly murdered her, whom she met around the MGM Grand swimming pool in April--did not. Felicia Lee, in the only non-made-up photo I could find of her on the internet, gardening with a friend To that point, it was a full two weeks after Lee's murder, on September 25, before the Associated Press finally got around to reporting it . By that time, about 600 articles could be found online about her death. Contrast that with the tens of thousands of stories about Annie Le, whose body was found two days after Lee's. Shortly thereafter, the blogosphere got around to reporting it, too. But only to an extent. The blog posts that have emerged haven't focused on Lee so much as they have on her boyfriend and alleged killer, Randone. The fact that he was on a reality TV show--albeit 8 years ago--has given the story legs. The fact that another reality TV contestant, Ryan Jenkins, killed his lover recently, has made the story run. And since two murders with perceived similar circumstances--however tenuous--were committed within a month of one another, the story's suddenly become "news," in the way that Didion described it, in that it now offers "however erroneously, a story, a lesson, a high concept." Brian Randone in court Tuesday On Sunday, September 27, 16 days after Lee's murder, Gawker spelled out exactly what the story, lesson, and high concept was in the post, "Another Reality TV Contestant Accused of Murder, But There's a Twist!" : "So, the lesson here: America's popular culture, not the four horsemen, will spark the apocalypse. Also, if you meet someone who's been on a reality star, run, because they will kill you." Let's re-phrase. So, the lesson here: the story of Felicia Lee's murder isn't about Felicia Lee at all. It doesn't matter if she was a "porn star" or a "a human being, a daughter, a sister, a friend to many who continue to love and honor her," as the Lee family described her in a statement to the LA Times . (My god, to have to remind the world that your murdered loved one was a "human being.") She isn't, as it turns out, the story, the lesson, or the high concept. What an odd thing it is, to have to be cut out of your own narrative, in order for it to be told. [ Crimesider: The Preacher and the Porn Star, the Tragic Story of Felicia Tang Lee ] [ LA Times: 'She did not deserve to be beaten ... she was a nice gal and she didn't deserve it' ] [ Gawker: Another Reality TV Contestant Accused of Murder, But There's a Twist! ] More on Crime | |
| Aaron E. Carroll: How to have a rational debate about health care reform | Top |
| Is there anyone left willing to talk about health care reform calmly? At this point, the dialogue has become so partisan and stained that it seems that the only decision anyone needs to make is which team they’re on; then it becomes just a matter of saying anything you have to in order to win. Instead of a discussion of how we can make things better, or reduce the cost of health care to our economy, we’ve been spending time arguing about whether illegal aliens will be able to buy insurance, whether the government will force the elderly to decide when to die, or whether an optional public insurance plan is the equivalent of the Final Solution . While I have my opinions on health care reform, I try every day to remove them from my work. I’m a health services researcher , so it’s my job to study how we can improve the health care system. And the one thing I can tell you for sure about the way we are talking about reform is that it’s backwards. We’re looking for solutions, when we haven’t yet declared what the biggest problem is. Here are some facts. There are three factors that are critical to every health care system: Quality, Cost, and Access. On all of them, the United States performs poorly. It is a fact is that The United States spends about two to three times per person what most other countries spend. In 2007, we spent more than $7000 per person on health care. The UK spent less than $3000 per person. And we can quibble about the other differences between those two systems, but they’ve made a conscious decision to have an extra $4000 per person to spend on other things. Imagine if we had another $1.2 trillion dollars to play with. It is a fact that our quality is middling at best and sometimes shockingly bad. And we can argue which is the best metric to pick to judge a health care system’s quality, but the truth is that it doesn’t matter. Life expectancy, infant mortality, maternal mortality, immunizations for children, immunizations for the elderly, the number of CAT scanners, the number of practicing physicians, continuity of care, and – most importantly – the number of preventable years of life lost - on all of them, every single one, the United States is sometimes in the middle and often at the bottom when compared to similar countries. And, as one of the few countries that does not have universal coverage of its citizens, it is a fact that our access isn’t good. The latest census data showed that there are 46 million Americans who were without health insurance for all of last year. Almost half of those people have full-time jobs and are working. Many more have part-time jobs, or are retired, disabled, or stay-at-home parents. More than 15% of them are children. The uninsured aren’t shiftless, they aren’t lazy, and they didn’t choose this. Further bad news is that (short of scrapping the system and starting over) any movement we make to improve any one of these three things is likely to negatively impact one of the other two. Anyone who tells you that they can manipulate our current system to achieve universal coverage, improve quality, and reduce cost is lying - or a politician. If we want to have an honest debate, we have to be honest about the repercussions of reform. Want to do this right? First, we need to decide which of the three – access, quality, and cost – are most important. Then we need to decide what we are willing to sacrifice in order to achieve that goal. Do you want to improve access? Then you need to admit to the American people that it’s going to cost money, and you have to discuss how we are going to raise that money. You may also want to address how this will affect the quality of everyone’s care, because it might. Do you want to bring costs down? Tell us how. It’s going to have to come in the form of either covering less people or spending less on health care. That can negatively impact quality as well. You know what you can’t do? Scream about the cost and the deficit and then lose your mind whenever someone discusses limiting coverage ( rationing ) or removing the profit incentive from insurance ( public option ). Both of those things have been shown, empirically and theoretically, to reduce cost. You know what else you can’t do? Demand universal coverage and then lose your mind whenever someone remarks that costs may skyrocket and that quality may suffer. Pointing those things out does not make you evil or mean you don’t care. It’s easy to demonize those who disagree. We have to stop - right now. People who disagree with me or with you don’t hate America. Nor do they hate the poor. They don’t hate insurance companies, they don’t hate sick people, and they don’t hate capitalism. It’s a myth that only one solution is available or that we can’t disagree about what to do. We should debate this; we should argue with each other passionately. That’s what Americans do. But let’s argue about the right things. There have to be trade-offs. What do we want out of a health care system? What exactly do we want to improve first? What are we willing to sacrifice to achieve that? Then, let’s figure out how we get there. P.S. Or we could scrap the whole system and start over, doing better in all three domains. Pretty much every comparable country in the world does so. Seems pretty rational, so it’s ironic that not doing that is the one thing everyone in this fight seems to agree on. Read more about health care policy and get your questions answered at Rational Arguments | |
| PETA Video: Cows Suffer On Land O'Lakes-supplying Farm (VIDEO) | Top |
| PETA representatives have released a video comprised of footage taken during an undercover investigation of a Pennsylvania dairy farm that contracts to Minnesota-based Land O'Lakes. The video depicts the gross mistreatment of cows, with animals being milked while covered in urine and feces. Cows that have collapsed from exhaustion are prodded by handlers, animals are covered in infections that have gone untreated and one cow in particular is marched off to what is presumably the slaughterhouse. Land O'Lakes has stated that they are investigating the issue and that they are committed to treating animals in their dairy farms humanely. WATCH: More on PETA | |
| Baby Missing After Mother Is Stabbed By Fake Immigration Officer In Nashville, Tennessee | Top |
| NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A newborn snatched from a Nashville home was missing and his mother recovering from stab wounds she said she suffered in a struggle with the woman kidnapper posing as an immigration agent, authorities said Wednesday. Maria Gurrolla told reporters she had never seen the woman before she showed up at her door Tuesday evening. She said the woman got a knife from the home and stabbed her several times. "I need my baby back," the 30-year-old mother said through an interpreter outside Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Gurrolla said the woman, whom she described as a robust white American, did not say anything about wanting to take the baby, who was on the sofa. "She said she was an immigration officer and she was there to arrest her," said Gurrolla's cousin, serving as interpreter. It was not clear if Gurrolla was an immigrant, but police said she has lived in Nashville for at least 10 years. The cousin said the family did not want to discuss her legal status. Gurrolla said she did not see the woman take the baby because she ran to a neighbor's home to get help. That neighbor, Eric Peterson, told The Associated Press that Gurrolla banged on his door and was "covered from her head to her toe with blood" with gashes on her neck and upper chest. She pleaded with him to rescue her children from the "lady in the kitchen" who had a butcher knife. He went to the home a few doors down and saw a woman speeding away from the home. He brought Gurrolla's 3-year-old daughter back safely to his house, but found no baby, he said. Police issued an Amber Alert with a picture and description of a 30-year-old woman. They found and questioned a woman matching the description near Buffalo, N.Y., then said they did not believe she was involved in the case. Gurrolla was in a wheelchair and covered by a blanket at the hospital. Her eyes were bloody and swollen and she had a long scratch on her face. Dr. William Dutton said she had a penetrating chest wound and her lung had collapsed. He said she also deep stab wounds to her neck, but was in stable condition. He said she still has physical signs that she gave birth recently. He described the birth as complicated but declined to elaborate. A blue yard sign outside Gurrolla's home in the community of mostly single-family brick houses in south Nashville announces, "IT'S A BOY!" Police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford said she doesn't know whether Gurrolla was targeted because of the sign. Peterson said as he was making his way to Gurrolla's house, a woman with a ponytail was behind the wheel of a gray 2-door Honda that sped away from the home. As he approached Gurrolla's yard, a young girl in a diaper walked from around the back of the house. He left her with Gurrolla and the woman he lives with and headed back to look for the baby. He sent his pet pit bull in first to check things out, then went in through the back door, "As I preceded into the kitchen, I saw a puddle of blood, a big puddle of blood," he said. He searched everywhere but found no baby. When he told Gurrolla, that's when she first started to cry. Police said the baby's father was at the home later Tuesday night, and Sharon Kimble, who lives with Peterson, said the toddler's father came later to pick her up. Police spokesman Don Aaron said investigators were interviewing Gurrolla and her family again about the abduction. No one, including the family, has been ruled out as a suspect, he said. A sketch artist is working to come up with a drawing of the kidnapper's face. Police said Gurrolla described the woman as a white woman in her 30s, approximately 5 feet, 4 inches tall, with her blonde hair in a ponytail. "We don't have any indication at this point that this is anything but a stranger child abduction," Mumford said. "We're not ruling out anything, but we have no reason to believe that the family is not being completely truthful." Mumford said police are retracing the mother's activities before the attack, such as a visit to a local Walmart. Hoping to find a witness, police released a photo of a car that was parked near Gurrolla's at the Walmart and later followed her down the road. Aaron asked the public for tips on the case and said it was a top priority for police in the area. "There is an infant child that cannot care for himself who is missing and time is of the essence," said Kristin Helm, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. More on Crime | |
| Lloyd Chapman: Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith Epitomizes Everything that is Wrong with Government | Top |
| Huntsville Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith (D-AL-5) is claiming that he accidentally included language in his new bill, H.R. 3558, which would allow some of his largest campaign contributors and their subsidiaries to receive billions of dollars in government small business contracts. In an article published in the Florence, Alabama based Times Daily newspaper, Congressman Griffith stated the language in the bill that would have allowed his two top campaign contributors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, to continue to hijack federal small business contracts were "unintended consequences." ( http://www.timesdaily.com/article/20090930/ARTICLES/909305008/1011/NEWS?Title=Griffith-Bill-needs-more-work ) The American Small Business League (ASBL) uncovered the blatant and colossal loophole for corporate giants immediately after reading the exceedingly short, 283-word legislation. Congressman Griffith's claim that he really meant to write a piece of legislation to help small businesses, but accidently included language that would divert billions of dollars in federal small businesses contracts to Fortune 500 firms and their subsidiaries is ludicrous. He is either a moron or a liar. Apparently the same person that writes Congressman Griffith's legislation must also be writing his excuses. It's amazing how accident-prone Washington bureaucrats are when it comes to giving small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. The SBA has been claiming that every day for the last ten years Fortune 500 firms get federal small business contracts accidentally through "data entry errors" and "miscoding." I guess Congress would also claim "unintended consequences" when it passed the Comprehensive Test Program, which helps major Pentagon contractors cheat small businesses by removing the reporting function and any penalties for non-compliance with small business goals. Parker Griffith's H.R. 3558 is just the most recent example of a crooked politician being bribed by big business to pass legislation that will fill their pockets at the expense of the middle class. Congressman Griffith is a Randy "Duke" Cunningham wannabe that would have succeeded had it not been for the diligent work of the ASBL's staff. Like Cunningham, who is now serving 8-years in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion; Congressman Griffith appears to have an extremely cozy relationship with Fortune 500 defense contractors in his district. You would think if Congressman Griffith was telling the truth, and his bill did "unintentionally" contain language that would hurt small businesses as opposed to helping them, he might be grateful to the ASBL for pointing it out. He accused us of seeking "notoriety" as opposed to our goal of shining the light on another piece of anti-small business legislation from another crooked politician doing the bidding of big business. Quite the contrary, my goal is not to gain notoriety for the ASBL or myself, my goal is to gain notoriety for Huntsville Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith. I want to make Parker Griffith the poster boy for dishonest slime balls in Washington that think they can pass legislation to make their fat cat campaign contributors rich by cheating small businesses and the middle class. It is no coincidence that virtually all of the nation's largest defense contractors are major contributors to the House Small Business Committee. Gee, I wonder if that would explain why over a dozen federal investigations found that hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have been diverted to those same Fortune 500 defense contractors and Congress has never passed a single piece of legislation to stop it. I know Congressman Griffith's staff is reading everything I am writing on this subject, so let me say this to Congressman Griffith and his staff. I meant to write a really complimentary piece about you, but I unintentionally wrote this piece calling you a lying crook, a moron and a slime ball politician that should be investigated by the FBI for bribery. OOPS. More on Washington DC | |
| Michelle Obama: Crime Won't Hurt Chicago Olympic Bid | Top |
| First Lady Michelle Obama, off to Copenhagen on Tuesday night to lobby for Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid, said the rash of crime in Chicago won't hurt the city when the International Olympic Committee votes on Friday. More on Olympics | |
| Spielberg, Katzenberg And Geffen To Endorse Jerry Brown | Top |
| DreamWorks founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen are endorsing Jerry Brown's gubernatorial bid and will be co-hosting a fundraiser for him on Nov. 18. | |
| Michelle Obama Makes Chicago Olympics Presence Felt In Copenhagen | Top |
| COPENHAGEN — Having one-on-one VIP meetings, dining with dignitaries and stars, flattering Olympic officials by taking notice of the little things that count, Michele Obama wasted no time going to work for her hometown. Her job: pitching Chicago for the 2016 Olympics and making every minute count. The first lady arrived here Wednesday to lend her support to the city's efforts to win those games. As head of Chicago's delegation – and her husband's representative until he arrives Friday – she plans to meet with as many International Olympic Committee members as possible to try to persuade them to pick the city over Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo. "She is one impressive lady," said Kevan Gosper, a senior IOC member from Australia. "She has got great charm, great presence. She's very friendly, very informal, a very good listener. She's a great advocate for the games." President Barack Obama has been an ardent supporter of the bid since he was a U.S. Senator, and he's been working the phones in recent weeks. But when it looked as if the health care debate might keep him in Washington, he asked his wife to go to Copenhagen to meet with IOC members. Funny, gracious and accomplished, she also happens to know Chicago neighborhoods, having grown up on the South Side. She lived just a short walk from the planned Olympic stadium before moving to Washington. "We understand that sports save lives, that it makes dreams come true, that it creates visions in kids' heads that they can be the next David Robinson, the next Barack Obama," Mrs. Obama told 300 Chicago supporters at a welcome dinner, her voice catching. "If we can show people that we understand that power and that possibility, then they will have the confidence that not only will we have the Olympics in a city that works, but we'll execute this thing with a kind of passion and openness and sincerity that the world so greatly wants to see in us. So let's get it done." Although IOC president Jacques Rogge has taken great pains to say heads of state aren't expected to attend, their presence has been instrumental in recent votes. Tony Blair is widely credited for tipping the 2012 vote in London's favor, spending two days doing one-on-one meetings with IOC members in his hotel suite. Vladimir Putin did much the same thing two years later, when Sochi won the 2014 Olympics. Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president and former vice chair of Chicago 2016, met with Blair last week to get advice on making the best use of these last few days. While she won't divulge details, she said his input was "extremely helpful." Of course, the Obamas and Jarrett have a little experience of their own with elections. As the first lady walked through the hotel lobby, she spotted IOC member Nicole Hoevertsz, who a day earlier had been appointed permanent secretary of Aruba's Council of Ministers. "She said, 'Congratulations on your new appointment.' She already knew," said Hoevertsz, who gave Mrs. Obama a pin. "That was a very nice detail." She began a "pretty lengthy" list of one-on-one meetings with IOC members in the Chicago 2016 suite, where pictures of the city and its planned venues decorated the warm, bright rooms. A few hours later, she joined talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Olympians David Robinson and Nadia Comaneci and others at a dinner for about 300 supporters of Chicago's bid. "It's tremendous that we are all here as we now sprint to the finish line on Friday with the best team captain and co-captain we could ever have," Winfrey said, drawing cheers as she introduced Mrs. Obama. While the first lady promoted all facets of the bid, what mattered most, she said, is what the games will leave behind. Not the stadiums, not the Olympic village, but the inspiration that just might change a child's life. Watching Comaneci score a string of perfect 10s in gymnastics at the Montreal Games, the first lady recalled thinking, "I can do that, too." "I didn't know then I'd be 5-11," she said. "It is so important for us to raise up the platform of fitness and competition and fair play, to teach kids to cheer on the victors and empathize with those in defeat. But most important, to recognize all of the hard work it takes to do something special." ___ AP Sports Writer Steve Wilson in London contributed to this report. More on Olympics | |
| Hero Bus Driver Saves School Girls From Exploding Bus (VIDEO) | Top |
| A school bus driver in South Florida is being hailed as a hero after he rescued eight school girls from their bus as it exploded into flames. There's no word yet as to what caused the explosions, but they were caught on tape by a passer-by and it's incredible that these girls escaped with their lives. The driver pulled them one by one out of the back of the bus. WATCH: Send us tips! Write us at tv@huffingtonpost.com if you see any newsworthy or notable TV moments. Read more about our media monitoring project here and click here to join the Media Monitors team. More on Video | |
| Comcast In Talks To Buy NBC-Universal From General Electric | Top |
| Comcast, the nation's leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, is in talks to buy the entertainment giant NBC-Universal from General Electric, according to a knowledgeable individual. More on NBC | |
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