Thursday, September 24, 2009

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Dr. Jon LaPook: Avoiding Esophageal Cancer Top
If you're from a Western country, there's a 10-20 percent chance that you suffer from classic symptoms of acid reflux: chronic heartburn and/or acid regurgitation. But if you don't have those classic symptoms you may still have acid bubbling up from the stomach into the esophagus, a condition called "gastro-esophageal reflux disease" (GERD). Over the past decade, research has suggested that acid reflux can cause atypical symptoms such as cough, hoarseness, sore throat, asthma, and even chronic sinusitis. GERD can also cause chest pain, especially if the acid causes the muscle in the esophagus to go into spasm. As an internist and gastroenterologist, I've seen patients who have suffered for years with atypical symptoms of GERD get better with treatment. Although I usually prescribe acid-reducing medication, I try to avoid an approach that relies exclusively on "better living through chemistry." In fact, my goal is to treat the symptoms with life-style adjustments alone if possible. Smoking and obesity both increase acid reflux and must be addressed. I tell my patients to limit alcohol, caffeine, chocolate, peppermint, and fatty foods (I know, basically anything that gives them even an iota of pleasure in life). I also suggest keeping a food diary to try to identify culprits such as tomato-based products or certain spicy foods. If their symptoms resolve then they can try to reintroduce the things they miss the most. Elevating the head of the bed can sometimes help. The most serious consequence of chronic acid reflux is esophageal cancer . About ten percent of patients with long-standing acid reflux develop changes in the swallowing tube that increase the risk of developing adenocarcinoma, a deadly cancer with a 5-year survival rate of less than fifteen percent. The condition is called "Barrett's esophagus. "Fortunately, only about one in 200 patients with Barrett's esophagus develops cancer each year. And over the last year a treatment called "radiofrequency ablation" has been found to be extremely effective in treating Barrett's esophagus that is starting to show signs that it may turn into cancer. It's estimated that almost 15,000 Americans will die from esophageal cancer this year. Fifty years ago, more than 95% of esophageal cancers were "squamous cell" -- the kind caused by smoking and excess alcohol use. As smoking has declined, the incidence of squamous cell carcinoma has dropped. But for reasons that are not clear, esophageal adenocarcinoma -- the kind linked to acid reflux (and smoking) -- has dramatically increased over the past forty years and now accounts for about half the cases of esophageal cancer . From 1975 to 2001 there was a 600 percent rise in esophageal adenocarcinoma . The obesity epidemic may well be playing a role by increasing the number of adults with acid reflux. Gastroenterologists can diagnose acid reflux by slipping a thin, flexible instrument (endoscope) through the mouth and down the esophagus. It's a lot easier than it sounds. Patients are usually given sedation and the back of the throat is sprayed with numbing medicine to avoid gagging. There's no problem breathing because the tube doesn't go into the breathing tube (the trachea). Biopsies can be taken from the last part of the esophagus to look for microscopic evidence of Barrett's and inflammation (esophagitis) caused by acid reflux. There is currently a controversy about who should be endoscopically screened to look for evidence of Barrett's esophagus. Only a fraction of the millions of patients with chronic reflux will ever develop Barrett's. And many patients with Barrett's have no symptoms at all. In a study in Sweden , 1.6% of the population had Barrett's but only about 40% had heartburn. And only about half of esophageal adenocarcinoma is estimated to be a result of reflux. The American College of Gastroenterology recommends against screening the entire population but says it may be appropriate in certain populations at higher risk - such as Caucasian males over 50 with longstanding heartburn. That would be me. So for this week's episode of CBS Doc Dot Com, I underwent an upper endoscopy, explained and performed expertly by Dr. Mark B. Pochapin, director of The Jay Monahan Center for Gastrointestinal Health at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. For more information about the Jay Monahan Center, click here . For information about GERD from the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, click here : To watch my upper endoscopy, click here : Watch CBS Videos Online
 
Robert Naiman: McChrystal's "Ground Truth": Need Half a Million Boots on the Ground Top
Journalist Andrea Mitchell has noted that General McChrystal's report to President Obama calls for 500,000 troops in Afghanistan. [That's not 500,000 U.S. troops, but 500,000 troops overall.] Mitchell correctly notes that if you don't believe that the goals in McChrystal's report for increasing the size of the Afghan army are realistic, that should lead you to question agreeing to send more U.S. troops, because the premise of the request for more troops is that if you add more U.S. troops there's going to be "success," and that success, apparently, requires 500,000 boots on the ground. If you don't believe there's going to be success even if you add more U.S. troops, then you shouldn't add more U.S. troops - you should do something else. McChrystal has suggested that without more U.S. troops we will "fail" - but the same logic says that without more Afghan troops we will also "fail." If adding the additional U.S. troops will not lead to the required addition of Afghan troops, then U.S. policy will "fail," even with the additional U.S. troops. Some have dismissed the concern occasioned by Mitchell's comments by saying of course there aren't going to be half a million U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It's certainly true that there aren't going to be half a million U.S. troops in Afghanistan. But supporters of sending more troops have to answer this: to defend sending another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, they have to defend their scenario that there's going to be 350,000 Afghan boots on the ground. Otherwise - according to General McChrystal - their plan is not going to work. Furthermore, they should say now what they will propose then if adding 40,000 more U.S. troops does not produce 350,000 Afghan troops. Do they promise not to ask for more U.S. troops? Would anyone believe such a promise? Those who fear a slippery slope don't have to point to a hypothetical future. If you look at the debate happening in Washington, it's clear that we're already on the slippery slope. It's already being argued that it's "too late" to revisit the decisions that President Obama made earlier this year - under pressure from the military. We're committed, they say. Can we trust supporters of military escalation not to argue in six months that "now we're really committed"? They wanted a surge; they got a surge. Their surge didn't work. In particular, dramatically increasing the deployment of foreign troops did not establish security for the Afghan election. Now they want another surge. How many surges must they get, before we can try something else - like, for example, dramatically pruning our list of enemies, as we did in Iraq, and talking about a timetable for military withdrawal, as we did in Iraq? Andrea Mitchell: "And the other big issue, of course, that's on everyone's mind, not discussed so overtly, is Afghanistan. And, with the leaks that have come, most likely from the military, about the troop strengths and all this, you have to really wonder, what would people expect? The numbers are really pretty horrifying. What they say, embedded in this report by McChrystal, is they would need 500,000 troops - boots on the ground - and five years to do the job. No one expects that the Afghan Army could step up to that. Are we gonna put even half that of U.S. troops there, and NATO forces? No way. "So, you have to ask, would you prefer to have a president who doesn't shift strategy when he gets this kind of 'ground truth' from the commanders? Would you like to be locked in, to 8 years, 10 years of this? I mean, I think that those are some reasonable questions before everyone says Barack Obama's shifting position." More on Afghanistan
 
Eric Alterman: Falling for the Far Right's ACORN Agenda Top
Crossposted with the Center for American Progress. With Mickey Ehrlich One night last week, Jon Stewart asked his audience, "Where were the real reporters on this story?" He meant the exposure of several ACORN employees giving tax advice to a young man and woman pretending to be a pimp and prostitute. The misdirected animosity toward the "real reporters" in this instance was a rare misstep for the usually perspicacious press critic/comedian. When long-time journalists, editors, and educators decry the death of investigative reporting, this Borat-style stunt is certainly not what they have in mind. And yet in this brave new world of anything goes journalism, many in the media have taken up the scandal and accept the videos as incontrovertible evidence of ACORN corruption. In the October issue of The Atlantic , Mark Bowden explains that the most influential investigative reporting these days is being done by what he calls "political hit men," who circulate damaging information so that newsmen have very little work to do. Bowden uses as his primary example the smear campaign against Judge Sonia Sotomayor, but were the lead time at The Atlantic a bit shorter, the ACORN tapes would have been an even better example to prove his point. The Washington Post 's Darryl Fears and Carol D. Leonnig describe, "The $1,300 mission to fell ACORN." It started with a phone call to James O'Keefe III (the "pimp") from Hannah Giles (the "prostitute"), daughter of a conservative blogger named Doug Giles. The plan from the very beginning was to damage the reputation of the organization. O'Keefe admits that his enmity for ACORN derived from its success helping Democrats win elections, not from any charges of corruption. The Post also points out that in Philadelphia, ACORN employees called the police when the duo left the offices there. The videotape of that encounter has yet to be released, and so the prevailing image of ACORN in the mainstream media has been the one that the video makers, with a vendetta against the organization, wanted out there... You can read the rest of Eric Alterman and Mickey Ehrlich's analysis in their recent article, " Falling for the Far Right's ACORN Agenda ." Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals, was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation and is a regular contributor to The Daily Beast. Mickey Ehrlich is a freelance writer based in New York.
 
Richard Chin: New Momentum on Malaria Top
New Momentum on Malaria This week at the UN General Assembly meeting, African leaders launched an ambitious new anti-malaria campaign - The African Leaders Malaria Alliance - to eliminate all preventable malaria deaths on the continent by 2015. Another collaborative effort to combat malaria--the Artemisinin Project--was also recently in the news in an article by The New Yorker on synthetic biology: A LIFE OF ITS OWN: Where will synthetic biology lead us? " The Artemisinin Project is a unique, public-private-nonprofit collaboration that is based on an innovative idea: using synthetic biology to address global health challenges. Its goal is to develop a new source of artemisinin for artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) and make it available to meet global demand so we can achieve the goal of no preventable deaths from malaria by 2015. Since late 2004, OneWorld Health, UC Berkeley and Amyris have been working together as the Artemisinin Project to develop a new, low-cost technology platform to provide non-seasonal, high-quality and affordable artemisinin - semisynthetic artemisinin - a key ingredient in first-line treatments for malaria. The Artemisinin Project is based on breakthrough technology invented by Professor Jay Keasling at the University of California, Berkeley. Sanofi-aventis joined the collaboration in 2008. OneWorld Health received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the partnership's goals and for each partner to play a unique contributing role. Synthetic biology is a brand-new area of biotechnology. The goal is to use genetic engineering technology to build brand new biological machines and processes de novo. It's an exciting area that has tremendous potential. If technical milestones can be achieved, at commercial scale, this complementary artemisinin source would supplement the botanical supply that is currently extracted from the wormwood plant (Artemisia annua) and ensure enough artemisinin for ACTs to treat the more than 500 million estimated individuals who contract malaria each year. It would also improve the availability of high-quality artemisinin derivatives to drug manufacturers and contribute to stabilizing the price of artemisinin-containing antimalarials for the benefit of patients and payers. Increasing the stability of the artemisinin supply is crucial to making ACTs more affordable and accessible, and reducing risks of shortages and price fluctuations. The Artemisinin Project believes this supply chain problem can be best solved by a diversified, stable supply of artemisinin from both botanical and synthetic sources that is adequate to meet worldwide demand. That means farmers and scientists working together to create enough anti-malarial medication for all who need it.
 
Johann Hari: Can We Finally Tell the Truth About Britain's Vile 'Queen Mother'? Top
It must be exhausting to be a monarchist, forever finding ways to pretend a family of cold, talentless snobs are better than the rest of us. They have to make gold out of mud. The system of monarchy -- selecting a head of state solely because of the womb they passed through, and surrounding them with sycophants from the moment they emerge -- produces warped and dim people, and demands we scrape before them. What's a poor monarchist to do? They can only lavish a thick cream of adjectives -- 'dignity,' 'charm,' 'majesty' -- over the Windsor family in the hope that some of us are fooled. This process corrupts even the most intelligent monarchists. A strange case study is the new authorized thousand-plus page biography of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon , The Queen Mother , by William Shawcross. He is a smart man: his study of the secret bombing of Cambodia by Henry Kissinger is extraordinary. Yet as a monarchist he has an impossible task. He has to present a cruel, bigoted snob who fleeced millions from the British taxpayer as a heroine fit to rule over us. His mind turns to mush. Before the real Bowes-Lyon is lost in a frenzy of royalist rimming, we should remember who she really was: more Imelda Marcos than the good fairy Glinda. By the time she died, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon was treating the British Treasury -- our tax-money -- as her personal piggy bank, with her bills running way beyond the millions she was allotted every year. Even the ultra-Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont complained that "she far exceeds her Civil List and the Treasury gets very het up about it." She used the money to pay for eighty-three full-time staffers, including four footmen, two pages, three chauffeurs (what do they do, split her into three parts for transportation?), a private secretary, an orderly, a housekeeper, five housemaids... the list goes on and on. She even insisted that it was a legitimate use of public funds to maintain a full-time 'Ascot office', whose job is to do nothing but keep a register of members of the Royal Enclosure and send them entry vouchers. She presented this spending -- enough to open and run a new hospital that would save thousands of lives every year -- as an act of selfless patriotism. Michael Mann, the former Dean of Windsor who knew her very well, explained: "She feels that Britain is Great Britain and that, therefore, ours must be no banana court. To lower standards [i.e., her spending on champagne, caviar and limos] is to denigrate the country and, insofar as high standards require big spending, so be it." When single mothers take 0.1 percent of this sum from the state, the same newspapers that laud Elizabeth as "the best of British" savage them as "scroungers." If they refused to pay tax -- as Elizabeth did -- they would have been put in prison. What did she do to earn these vast sums? Her parents were 'Lord' and 'Lady' Strathmore, and from birth she was waited on by a gaggle of servants including a butler, two footmen, five housemaids, a cook and numerous room maids. She grew up with four palaces at her disposal -- but it wasn't enough. She was obsessed with "bloodlines," which she believed determined a person's worth, and wanted to marry into what she regarded as "the best" -- the Windsor family. At first she tried to woo Edward Windsor, but when he wasn't interested, she settled for his stammering, highly strung younger brother, George. When Edward became King, she plotted to force his abdication so George could ascend and she could become 'Queen.' His "crime" was to fall in love with a divorcee -- and one with such poor bloodlines! Once Edward was successfully toppled, Elizabeth insisted he and his wife Wallace be driven into exile and blanked by royal circles. (The couple had plenty of real flaws, but Elizabeth was blind to them: it was the American-ness and the ambition and the divorce that she loathed.) This was her way with any relatives who displeased her by showing vulnerability. When her cousins became mentally ill, they were locked in asylums and never seen again. Elizabeth's entry in Who's Who falsely announced they were dead. This icy ruthlessness startled people who met her. In 1939, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier said she was "an excessively ambitious young woman who would be ready to sacrifice every other country in the world so that she might remain Queen." The most striking aspect of Shawcross' biography is that once she had contrived to marry, Elizabeth really didn't do anything else for the rest of her life except spend, spend, spend -- our money. He has to pad out whole decades. She didn't even raise her own children: she would see them for an hour a day, and get them to chant: "We are not supposed to be normal. We are not supposed to be normal." But to be fair, she did do one more thing. In her spare time, she supported far right politics. She was a passionate defender of appeasing Adolf Hitler, lobbying behind the scenes to garner support for Neville Chamberlain. The reasons are plain: even fifty years later, she bragged to Woodrow Wyatt that she had "reservations about Jews." Once the war began, she was rebranded as a symbol of Britain's heroic resistance to the Nazis -- but what did she actually do? Unlike everyone else, she didn't live on rations, but was fattened by pheasants and venison on the royal estates. She didn't stay in bombed-out London anything like as much as the myth suggests: she spent much of the war in Windsor, Norfolk and Scotland, far from the Nazi planes, surrounded by battalions of servants. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon kept up her support for far-right politics throughout her life. She did everything she could to bolster the torturing of white minority tyrannies in Rhodesia and South Africa, because -- as the journalist Paul Callan, who knew her, put it -- "She is not fond of black folk." Our beaming Queen Mum was Alf Garnett in a tiara. She believed Britain's class system reflected a natural hierarchy -- and the people below her creamy upper tier were inferior. She told Woodrow Wyatt, "I hate that classlessness. It is so unreal." At first, she was appalled by the idea of her eldest daughter marrying Phillip Mountbatten, because his "bloodlines" weren't good enough: his family had fallen from power, so they weren't "really" royal. When Diana Spencer started hugging AIDS victims and lepers, Elizabeth was disgusted. When Diana started rebelling, Elizabeth announced to friends the girl was "schizophrenic," but she was bemused because Diana came from "a good family." The rest of us, by implication, come from "bad families," where you would expect schizophrenia and other lower-class disorders. The defenders of Elizabeth were left claiming that her drunken inactivity was itself an achievement. W.F. Deedes, the late Telegraph columnist, claimed that "in an increasingly earnest world, she teaches us all how to have fun, that life should not be all about learning, earning and resting. In a world where we have all become workaholics, there she is...grinning at racehorses. Bless her heart." He was in favor of the dole after all -- provided it was worth three million pounds, and went to one single aristocrat. William Shawcross has won the favor of his fellow monarchists by taking this curdled life and presenting it as the best of British. It's the single most unpatriotic claim I've ever heard. If you don't think Britain can do better -- far better -- than this nasty leech and her stunted family, then you don't deserve to live in this Sceptred Isle. Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here . You can email him at johann -at- johannhari.com To read an archive of Johann's articles about the Monarchy, click here .
 
Ellen Sterling: If Las Vegas Is a Foodie's Heaven, Raku Is One of the Pearly Gates Top
Because I really didn't know and I like the metaphor, I looked it up and there are twelve Pearly Gates into heaven. And since just about everyone I've ever taken to eat in Raku says it's "heavenly" (except the guys who say some variation of "great"), I thought I'd tell you about it, and about going there with my friend Melinda. I first went to the restaurant a few months ago on assignment for Luxury Las Vegas, the beautiful locals magazine that should really be read by everyone who lives and visits here, as it is always chock-full of good stuff about the city. Anyway, we -- Beth Schwartz the editor, Jim Decker the photographer and I, the writer -- fell in love with it and have gone since. (At that first visit, Beth and I were particularly struck by the green tea salt and the seven kinds of homemade soy sauce, each for use with a different food.) I've celebrated a few special occasions there and have brought several people. All say they want to go back. Now, this is not the only terrific restaurant in the city. If we didn't know Las Vegas had arrived as a restaurant center anyway, we'd know because this season of Top Chef is being done here. We'd also know by the proliferation of restaurants owned by star chefs and the fact that these celebrity chefs are often seen dining locally in restaurants where other people run the kitchen. A while ago, I saw Top Chef co-host Tom Colicchio dining at Raku. (Emeril Lagasse is opening another restaurant tomorrow that I'll tell you about. It's especially interesting because it's part of a sports book). Okay, Raku is a terrific restaurant but, as noted, there are lots of those here. What makes this so special? First, the price points are eminently reasonable. Second, the size -- which will expand from minuscule (seating 31 people) to small (seating maybe a couple of dozen more) makes the service very personal. Third, you'll eat Japanese food like you probably never have before. There is no sushi at Raku. But there's homemade tofu and specialties you can only get in Japan. Chef Mitsou Endo opened Raku in 2008 after serving as head chef at restaurants in New York and Las Vegas. Together with his manager, the very gracious Rie Warner, Chef Endo has created an environment where everyone is welcome and everyone knows the food will be superb. But, again, there are lots of great restaurants here with lots of great food. So why write about Raku? I'll tell you why. Last night's dinner at Raku with my friend Melinda was unlike any other dinner I've ever experienced. It was truly memorable and that wasn't solely because of the restaurant but greatly because of Melinda's reaction to it. First, let me tell you about Melinda. She's beautiful, smart and funny. A New Orleans native, she's got the southern charm thing down pat. She's lived in many places -- including Japan -- and is sophisticated. Her job with a hotel in Las Vegas puts her in contact with people from all over the world. And, of course, we've been out to dinner many times. So, we're sitting there. I'd asked that they bring us a sampling -- small tastes of what they offer. We began with Popeye salad -- spinach with bacon, onions, mushrooms and scrumptious dressing. Then, in no particular order, we were served chicken wrapped in bacon, chicken wrapped in its own skin, beef with wasabi, enoki, deep-fried tofu (delicious and I do not ordinarily care for tofu in any form) asparagus two ways that were each luscious and that amazing veggie shown in the inset of the photo of Chef Endo above. That is, clearly, corn. At first glimpse it looks like a slice of corn on the cob. But, look closely. Chef Endo has somehow managed to remove the cob in an operation that he keeps secret, but I'd imagine is like coring a pineapple. He then fills the corn with mashed potatoes and the delightful dish pictured here is what you get. That is, if not singular, then highly unusual. And delicious. Eating at Raku, if you didn't know it before, you learn that the Japanese often use bacon and paté in their cooking. Always something really new to discover. Our discovery of the evening was matsutake mushrooms. These are the Japanese version of truffles only they (1) taste better and (2) have an amazing scent like a floral bouquet. Although they grow in other parts of the world, these are a real delicacy in Japan and can sell there for up to $2,000 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Rie brought a taste to our table and it was a transformative moment. I'll no longer make the blanket statement, "I really don't like mushrooms." Now, back to Melinda. If you've gotten an idea of how much I enjoyed the meal last night and I've been there before, you can only imagine the response (and she said I could use her name in this article) on Melinda's part. Well, maybe you can't. So I'll tell you. There I sat, eating, chatting, savoring the food and my first taste (thanks to Melinda) of sparkling sake. We were quiet for a moment when, all of a sudden, I realized that across the table my ladylike friend (well, an earthy lady) was making the kind of noises one imagines you'd hear through the wall in a no-tell motel. "Oh, my God!!!" "That's so good!!!" "Ummm!!!" "Ohhh!!!" I've never heard anything like that in a restaurant and I guess I just paused and stared. I don't think other patrons heard her, but it was something. Melinda realized why I was staring and emitted a slight gasp. Putting her hand over her mouth she laughed and said -- not at all embarrassed -- "Was I doing that? You know, people tell me I make noises like that when I really like food. But I haven't done that in a long, long time." She didn't stop. And I didn't care. You see it's been a little while since something I've done -- in this case merely suggesting a restaurant -- elicited that reaction from anyone. So, when you're in Las Vegas, you really should make a reservation (which is necessary) and try Raku.
 
Jeremy Scahill: To the Dems Who Voted to 'Defund ACORN': Where is the Defund Blackwater Act? Top
Democrats joined Republicans in voting to "Defund ACORN," yet have done nothing to stop Blackwater's ongoing taxpayer-funded crusade in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republican Congressional leaders are continuing their witch-hunt against ACORN, the grassroots community group dedicated to helping poor and working class people. This campaign now unfortunately has gained bipartisan legislative support in the form of the Defund ACORN Act of 2009 which has now passed the House and Senate. As Ryan Grim at Huffington Post has pointed out , the legislation "could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex:" The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to "any organization" that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things. According to the Project on Oversight and Government Reform, this legislation could potentially eliminate a virtual Who's Who of war contractors, including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and KBR to other corporations such as AT&T, FedEx and Dell. Perhaps one of the most jarring comparisons here is the fact that ACORN is now being attacked while the Obama administration continues to contract with Blackwater, the favorite mercenary company of the Bush administration, which is headed by Erik Prince, who was a major donor to Republican causes and campaigns, including those of some of the Defund ACORN bill's sponsors, among them Indiana Republican Mike Pence, one of the key figures in hunting down Van Jones. Prince, of course, was recently described by a former employee as a man who "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and whose companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life." At present Blackwater has a $217 million security contract through the State Department in Iraq which was just extended by the Obama administration indefinitely. It holds a $210 million State Department "security" contract in Afghanistan that runs through 2011 and another multi-million dollar contract with the Defense Department for "training" in Kabul. All of this is on top of Blackwater's clandestine work for the CIA, including continued work on the drone bombing campaign in Pakistan and Afghanistan. This also does not take into account Blackwater's lucrative domestic work training law enforcement and military forces inside the US at the company's compounds in North Carolina, California and Illinois, nor the private "security" work it does for entities like the International Republican Institute, nor the work it does in training "Faith Based Organizations." It also does not include the contracts doled out to Erik Prince's private CIA called Total Intelligence Solutions, which works for foreign governments and Fortune 500 corporations. Then there is this fact: Blackwater was paid over $73 million for its federally-funded, no bid-security contracts with the Department of Homeland Security in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, billing taxpayers $950 per man per day, a spending decision the Bush administration called "the best value to the government." ACORN, meanwhile, only helped poor people who were suffering as a result of the government's total and complete failure to respond to Katrina. Meanwhile, a recent federal audit of Blackwater, compiled by the State Department and the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, suggests the company may have to repay some $55 million to the government for allegedly failing to meet the terms of just one federal contract in Iraq, which, it is important to note, is $2 million more than the total money allotted by the federal government to ACORN over the past 15 years . (The company also cannot account for one federally funded "deep fat fryer" in Iraq, according to the audit). Overall, Blackwater has raked in well over $1 billion since 2003 in security contracts alone -- all of which were kicked off by a fat no-bid contract to guard L. Paul Bremer. Let's also remember that Blackwater was estimated in Congressional hearings in 2007 to earn some 90% of its revenue from the federal government and Prince refused to disclose his salary, but said it was over $1 million. Blackwater has been or is being investigated by the US Congress, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, the Justice Department and the IRS, among other agencies, for a range of issues from arms smuggling to manslaughter to tax evasion. One of its operatives pleaded guilty to killing an innocent, unarmed Iraqi civilian, while five others have been indicted on manslaughter and other charges over the 2007 Nisour Square massacre during which 17 Iraqi civilians were gunned down. The company is also facing a slew of civil lawsuits alleging war crimes and extrajudicial killings in Iraq. Here is a question for those Democratic lawmakers that voted in support of the Defund ACORN Act: How do you justify making this a major league legislative priority while Blackwater continues to be armed and dangerous across the globe on the US government payroll? Where is the Defund Blackwater Act? Read more from Jeremy Scahill on RebelReports . More on Blackwater
 
Stewart Nusbaumer: Launching Woodstock -- the Film Festival! Top
I squeeze into the narrow, packed bar. Twisting and weaving through the tangled mass -- muffled orange lights run under the long bar, dim red lights are high above, a large wall poster proclaims "Woodstock Film Festival." This is the launch party of the Woodstock Film Festival , held in the Catskill Mountains but launch partied on Manhattan's Lower East Side, at Libation Bar. Reaching the rear of the room jammed with film fanatics, I climb a tight staircase to the spacious mezzanine. Sitting in a booth wearing a short blue dress, her shapely legs crossed, her face glowing natural beauty, her eyes, well, sort of uneven and crooked -- but electrifying! "Move closer, so we can hear each other" she says in a soft voice laced with true grit. I quickly slide over, but not too close. Having recently returned from 5 months of brutal writing in Afghanistan, where women don't appear to exist, my behavior is still a little erratic. Lucy Liu, know from her roles in the films Charlie's Angles as the crime-fighting, and beautiful Alex Munday; in Kill Bill as the villainous, yet beautiful O-Ren Ishii; in the television series "Alley McBeal" as a vicious little animal, still beautiful Ling Woo. Yet, what brought us together very closely in this booth is not beautiful. The documentary REDLIGHT , which she narrates and produced, with her hand in the editing, is about the sexploitation of children. The film focuses on several young Cambodian victims and two women working to save their lives. It is heart wrenching! "People think slavery is something in the past. We have to make them understand it is happening today. I want audiences to be as horrified and outraged as I was," her hand touches my shoulder, for emphasis. It works. "First, they need to know this problem exists. Second, it is something we can change. Awareness -- education is a key -- then enforcing the laws that exist." A graduate of New York's highly competitive Stuyvesant High School, a graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, United Nation's Ambassador for UNICEF, Lucy Liu is no Hollywood bubble-head. She understands the causes are many and complex including abject poverty and psychological trauma and devaluation of females in societies. "Yes, it's going to take a long time. But we have to begin now." Wiggling and twisting myself to the bar, music thumping and voices roaring, I meet ruffled white hair, fiery blue eyed Richard Kroehling: "Science fiction has caught up with reality ... technology is catching up with prophesy ... change is transforming everything," he rattles off. "Come see my film, 2B ." "I will," shouting back as I work the maze to the other side of the room. "There are a number of things that set the Woodstock Film Festival apart from other festivals," says Meira Blaustein, director and co-founder of the festival. "It has the unique combination of showcasing some of the best contemporary independent film every year with a very high number of the most interesting and important industry members and filmmakers in attendance. And this happens in Woodstock, an intimate, friendly and casual environment with a long history of artistic appreciation." With dark bangs and large eyes and attractive face Meira kinda resembles Ura Thurman in Pulp Fiction , but she lacks that severely whacked-on-drugs look. "Another ingredient that sets this festival apart is our sidebars. One is called 'Exposure,' films that deal with political, environmental and social issues. 'Focus on Music' -- that's really unique -- adds another dimension that sets the Woodstock Film Festival apart." The kick off film is, appropriately, Woodstock: Now and Then , directed and produced by Barbara Kopple. An opening night highlight is The Messenger , directed by Oren Moveman and featuring Woody Harrison and Ben Forster. There will be the World Premiere of REDLIGHT , the documentary narrated and produced by Lucy Liu. There will be films on the Doors and Neil Young and on and on -- 150 films, shorts, animations, panels -- ranging from women in film to music in film to the changing face of independent filmmaking to how exponential technological change is reshaping our future -- with concerts and other events in Woodstock and several neighboring towns. On closing night will be Up in the Air , a film starring George Clooney and Vera Farmiga. "Woodstock the town plays a key role," Meira Blaustein says after returning with a refill, "it's close to metropolitan New York, a mecca of independent films. It has bucolic beauty, a feel of a get-a-way, the foliage, art galleries, some people go hiking. This is a unique and beautiful film festival, there are very few of them." Being the 10th anniversary of the Woodstock Film Festival, I ask how it has changed. "In many ways, but the heart has stayed the same: love of filmmaking and love of filmmakers. The festival has certainly grown in statue, now its considered a very important festival on the circuit. But the size cannot explode because we are in small venues and small towns. Nor is it our interest to become a gigantic film festival. We want to become a great film festival, that has great films with great participants. We want people to be inspired, feel empowered, where careers are launched, careers are developed, where everyone learns something and benefits." Weaving through the crowd, I bump into two animators, twins Joy and Noelle. It's not the first time one has seen double in a bar. Demonstrating my full knowledge, I ask, "Are all animations funny food for kiddies' brains?" Noelle flashes a gentle mother's look of piety. Joy suggests nicely that I want to check out some animations at Woodstock. After noting her advice, I weave and twist to the rear ... pull myself up the narrow stairs ... slip into a booth with actor Ben Foster. The man has an intensity that sobers you up fast. "Reading the script," he says slowly, "I was taken by how simple, how spare it was." His eyes are sharp, his stare steady. And his tattoos are real. With Woody Harrelson, in The Messenger they form a "Causality Notification Team" that informs next to kin of their loved ones death. There are many films about the horrors of war, many about the grieving at home, but this is the first about the exact moment when the horror is delivered to the instantly traumatized loved ones at home. It is a great film. Like REDLIGHT , like all grabbing independent films, its meant for thinking, feeling adults. "It's not overly political, Ben says. "What I want are people to have empathy for our soldiers, regardless of their political perspective." More on Ben Foster from the festival -- I'm now downstairs at the bar, which is floating somewhere along the 100 mile route between Manhattan's Lower East Side and the small Catskill Mountain village of Woodstock. Bars always move minds faster than bodies. See your body at Woodstock! For more information on the Woodstock Film Festival, which runs from September 30 to October 4, go to http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/ . For ticket information go to http://www.woodstockfilmfestival.com/ticketinfo.htm Stewart will be blogging from the Woodstock Film Festival. You can email him at SNusbaumer@gmail.com And if you have an extra ticket for When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors , please email him.
 
Giannoulias Gets Big SEIU Endorsement, Shot From Rival Hoffman Top
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias earned the endorsement of one of the state's largest unions Thursday, and a shot from a rival in return. The Service Employees International Union announced it is putting its considerable political weight behind Giannoulias, the first-term state treasurer, in his bid for President Obama's former Senate seat. "I am very proud that [SEIU] has joined the growing movement supporting this campaign," Giannoulias said at the announcement. "Their relentless pursuit of progressive polices, fair wages and holding our elected leaders accountable is a fight that I will take with me to Washington, D.C.." The campaign of rival candidate David Hoffman lit into Giannoulias for the endorsement. In a blog post on the campaign's web site Thursday, Daniel X. O'Neil, Hoffman's new media director, chastised Giannoulias for saying he was a candidate for change but who was "no doubt excited about stepping up to the same trough that netted Blagojevich more than a million dollars in campaign cash." Accepting the SEIU endorsement plays right into the national GOP's strategy of making the race a referendum on the disgraced Blagojevich, O'Neil wrote, and Giannoulias is "serving them up a free punch ... This kind of merry-go-round involving the same cozy insiders doing the same political dance is what's wrong with Illinois politics." The Hoffman camp tried to make clear that it has no problems with the SEIU's 170,000 Illinois members -- just with their head honcho, Tom Balanoff, who met with Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy but has not been charged with any crime or wrongdoing. "David's beef is not with the rank and file members," campaign manager Michael Powell told the Huffington Post. "His beef is with Alexi. You can't run as the candidate of change and then be willing to accept the endorsement of the man who acted as Blagojevich's emissary to selling the very seat he's running for. The hypocrisy is breathtaking." The Giannoulias campaign fired back its own statement back at Hoffman. "It is not lost on us or progressives to see Hoffman, a guy who worked for ultra conservative Judges Rehnquist and Jacobs, echo a Republican smear campaign against working families," a campaign statement read. Hoffman, a former federal prosecutor and until recently Chicago's inspector general, has made no secret of his clerkships for conservative judges and said that they don't mean that he shared their ideology. Hoffman has worked to cast himself as the reform-minded outsider in the race against Giannoulias and Cheryle Jackson, the former Chicago Urban League President and Blagojevich spokesperson. The Hoffman campaign's prediction that the SEIU endorsement would make for a "good morning" for Republicans didn't exactly work out as planned. A statement from the Illinois Republican Party noted that one of Hoffman's chief supporters has benefited from SEIU contributions and called on him to renounce that Senator's endorsement. The Illinois Republican Party called on Illinois Senate candidate David Hoffman to renounce his endorsement by Illinois State Senator Jeff Schoenberg - a leading recipient of SEIU campaign contributions and the man who introduced Hoffman at his campaign kick-off event. [...] According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, Schoenberg accepted $13,400 in campaign contributions from SEIU. In addition, state records show Schoenberg also contributed $12,500 to Rod Blagojevich's campaign. More on Senate Races
 
10 Most Awkward Political Hugs Top
The G-20 Summit is here (completed with G-20 security). Put on your fancy pantsuit and get ready for the most awkward political hugs you will ever see on stage. We love a good awkward political hug. We love it so much we want to give one to you right now... but we won't. (We may give you a kiss like Captain Kirk.) Check out the 10 Most Award Political Hugs on the market.
 
Hosam Maher Husein Smadi Arrested For Dallas Bomb Plot Top
DALLAS — A 19-year-old Jordanian man living in Texas was arrested Thursday on charges he intended to bomb a downtown Dallas skyscraper, federal officials said. Hosam Maher Husein Smadi was arrested after placing what he believed to be a car bomb outside the 60-story Fountain Place office tower Thursday, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Dallas. The decoy device was given to him by an undercover FBI agent, the statement said. Smadi is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. Federal officials say the case has no connection with the major terrorism investigation under way in Colorado and New York or the Thursday arrest of a man facing the same charge in Springfield, Illinois. Court documents do not list an attorney for Smadi. He was in federal custody in Dallas without bond, said Special Agent Mark White, spokesman for the Dallas FBI office. Legal representation is usually addressed at initial court appearances like the one scheduled for Smadi on Friday, White said. The case is unrelated to that against Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old shuttle driver at the Denver airport also indicted in New York on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. It was also unrelated to the case against Michael C. Finton, who was accused of planning to bomb the federal courthouse in Springfield, Ill, White said. White declined to comment on the specifics of the Dallas case. The FBI kept Smadi, who lived in the small north Texas town of Italy, since and undercover agent discovered him in an online group of extremists, according to an FBI affidavit that did not specify a date. "He stood out based on his vehement intention to actually conduct terror attacks in the United States," FBI supervisory special agent Thomas Petrowski wrote in the affidavit. Three undercover agents who are native Arabic speakers eventually communicated and met with Smadi over several months, posing as members of an al-Qaida sleeper cell, according to the court documents. They allege he discussed targeting military recruiting centers, credit card companies, the airport or an armory before settling on a building containing a bank branch. Smadi also allegedly said he wanted to attack on Sept. 11 but chose to wait until after Ramadan. Agents provided Smadi with what he believed was a car bomb but was actually an inert device, according to Petrowski's affidavit. Smadi drove to Dallas on Thursday, met one of the undercover agents and then drove to the targeted building, the FBI agent wrote. Smadi then allegedly drove a vehicle with the device inside into the parking garage beneath the building, parked it and attempted to detonate the bomb by setting the device's timer and flipping its power switch. Smadi met again with the undercover agent, who drove several blocks away and Smadi dialed a cell phone he was led to believe would detonate the car bomb, according to the affidavit. ___ Associated Press Writer Terry Wallace contributed to this report.
 
Law Professor Confronts O'Reilly Over Fox News And The Far Right: "Fox News, Far Right Have A Race Deck, And They Play The Ace Of Spades Every Day" (VIDEO) Top
Dr. Jeremy Levitt, a law professor at Florida A&M University, confronted Bill O'Reilly tonight over Fox News' role in fomenting racial tensions regarding President Obama. Specifically Dr. Levitt cited Glenn Beck and the network's role in encouraging the 9/12 protests, which featured an assortment of racist signs . O'Reilly dismissed the racist right-wing attacks on Obama as part of a fringe group, insisting that an equivalent group exists on the left. He also stated that 10 percent of the nation is racist. Dr. Levitt would not let up, however, telling O'Reilly that "Fox News and the far right have a race deck, and they play the ace of spades every day." WATCH: ( H/t D.J. ) 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
 
How Dick Morris Is Making Seniors Feverish About Health Care Reform (VIDEO) Top
Standing in a medical exam room, a neurosurgeon in a white lab coat stares solemnly into the camera and warns that President Obama's health care plan "will hurt our seniors" and "end Medicare as we know it." Two networks, NBC and ABC, declined to run the 30-second ad, but it has probably reached millions of people on Fox, CBS and local stations as well as on the Web. How this ad - one of dozens of health care spots making the rounds -- came to be produced and distributed provides a case study in modern American political advocacy. It shows how a quickly assembled group with uncertain origins and funding can make a mark on one of the most contentious public policy debates in memory. The group that says it paid for the campaign- the League of American Voters - incorporated less than two weeks before the ad was released online. The League's executive director, its only employee, declined to identify its founders or donors but claims that in less than two months of existence it has built a membership of 16,000 and raised about $1.7 million in donations. The group says it rents space inside a downtown Washington, D.C., office, an address shared with at least four other conservative groups. Interviews and a review of public records show that a wide-ranging group of people coalesced to launch the League or its ad campaign: Dick Morris, a former aide to President Bill Clinton and one of the nation's more flamboyant political operatives; a one-time West Virginia political candidate; a New York City public relations executive with ties to health care groups; a New York rabbi; a filmmaker best known for an ad questioning the patriotism of Vietnam War veteran and then-Georgia senator Max Cleland; and a Florida doctor who once settled a state medical board allegation that he had operated on the wrong site during a spinal procedure. 'Lean' Operation From the start, it was clear that Morris had a strong hand in the video titled "Protect American Healthcare." The spot debuted on Morris' YouTube site on Aug. 3. That day, Morris appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News program and talked up the ad, saying he had created it with what he called the "American League of Voters." In his long career as a political consultant, Morris is perhaps best known for being chief political advisor to President Clinton, a post he resigned in the wake of news reports that he let a prostitute listen to his conversations with the White House. In recent months, the health care debate has helped raise Morris' profile in Washington again and propelled his latest book, "Catastrophe," onto the best-seller list. Morris has been moving easily between roles as activist and journalist-commentator on the health care issue. He explained to Hannity his strategy for stoking opposition to Obama's reform plan: "If senior citizens are united in their opposition to this and they really go crazy on this issue, this is dead." At the same time he has been writing columns in The New York Post and The Hill newspaper, once offering the analysis that the elderly are working themselves into "a fever pitch" about Obama's plan. Less than two weeks before Morris' appearance on Hannity's show, the League of American Voters incorporated in Delaware and launched its Web site. By mid-August, the League began identifying Morris as its "chief strategist" and the writer of its first ad. Precisely when and how Morris connected with the group is not known. He did not respond to requests for an interview. The League's executive director, Bob Adams, did agree to an interview. He declined to say exactly how and when the group formed, but he did say that Morris was involved from the beginning and came on board as a volunteer. "I don't want to get into too many of the nuts and bolts in terms of how we put the organization together," Adams said. Adams said that the League's office on 12th Street in downtown D.C. affords him space "a little smaller than a cubicle" and a mail drop. "I believe in a very light, lean and trim operation," Adams said. "Do I have a big staff and a big office? No. Not at all." The address is registered to at least four other conservative nonprofit groups, including Americans for Tax Reform, led by Grover Norquist, the longtime anti-tax activist. The League has "no affiliation whatsoever" with Norquist other than as a tenant, Adams said. Adams lives in West Virginia, where he twice ran for public office, including for state treasurer in 2004. At the time, the Associated Press reported that Adams was late filing campaign finance reports, a violation of state law. He also worked as an aide to former Republican Congressman J.C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma and for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative group that drafts model legislation for state legislators. At one point Adams campaigned to build support among Latinos for bans on same-sex marriage; the League's Web site is registered to Latinos USA, a nonprofit venture that Adams said never got off the ground. On the site, leagueofamericanvoters.com, the group says it is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, meaning it is exempt from paying taxes so long as it operates "exclusively to promote social welfare," according to Internal Revenue Service rules. Since Delaware does not require its corporations to publicly list names of employees and board members, or even an address, until June 1 of the year following its incorporation, the League will not have to make that disclosure until the current health care debate is over. In the interview, Adams had difficulty coming up with the names of his board of directors. He said they included Alexandra Preate, a New York public relations consultant, a rabbi from New York and a third member whose name he could not recall. Several days after the interview, names of the board members were added to the League's Web site: Preate; Rabbi Morton Pomerantz, a retired New York state chaplain; and Phil Brennan, identified as a onetime aide to President Gerald Ford. 'Right on Message' Nonprofits are not required to disclose their donors, and the IRS does not require social welfare organizations like the League to apply for tax-exempt status. Adams said he saw no reason to offer names of any donors beyond himself. He said he made the first contribution to the League's bank account while on vacation in late July, walking into a branch with his incorporation document and depositing a $20 bill. The League now solicits donations through Morris' Web site and its own, seeking support for its "media campaign to expose the Obama health care plan." The largest donations have been between $5,000 and $10,000, Adams said, but the League is mostly funded by individual donations in the range of $25 to $50 rather than by "industries, by corporate interests." Some individuals have written checks from corporate accounts, he said. "We've been attacked by, you know, some outside groups saying we're a front for this or a front for that," he said. "I get the mail and I see where the money is coming from. . .They're coming from all walks of life, all over the country. Republicans, Democrats, independents." The donations have been used in part to circulate the group's ad. Adams said the ad was "right on message" and "hit the President's proposal right between the eyes." But he declined to say much more about it because he "wasn't involved in crafting and creating" it. Adams said that Preate, the board member and New York public relations specialist, helped arrange the marriage between the League and the ad's creator, Morris. Contacted for an interview, Preate referred the Investigative Fund back to Adams. "He tells me he spoke with you," she wrote in an e-mail. According to the Web site for Preate's firm, CapitalHQ, she "works with clients ranging from high level government officials domestic and foreign to Fortune 500 companies, Wall Street firms and national and international media organizations." The site does not name her clients but states that the firm has secured news coverage for them in several health care media outlets, including Health Care News and Insurancebroadcasting.com. According to news accounts and press releases, her firm has represented at least two health care groups. One is Duravest, Inc., a public holding company that invests in and develops medical technologies. The other is the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, a nonpartisan think-tank that focuses on health care policy. The center's president, Peter Pitts, recently wrote an op-ed published by Reuters that described Obama's proposed public health insurance option as "expensive, radical and unnecessary." Preate's site also links to The Galen Institute, which describes itself as "a research organization focusing on free-market health care reform." Without assistance from Preate, Adams or Morris, the Investigative Fund tracked down the producer of the ad on its own. The trail led to a conservative Tallahassee-based media consultant named Rick Wilson. Wilson has produced a number of political TV ads for Republican and conservative causes. One of his most controversial projects was the 2002 spot that flashed a picture of Osama bin Laden and questioned the patriotism of Georgia Democratic Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated veteran who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam. Cleland was defeated in his bid for reelection. Wilson said he was paid to produce the health care ad before Bob Adams was involved in the League of American Voters -- which raises the question: who hired and paid Wilson? Wilson declined to say. "I treat my clients with the confidentiality that they expect from me," he said. The physician who stars in the League's ad, Mark J. Cuffe, also works in Tallahassee. He is a neurosurgeon who has practiced in Florida since 1993. In the ad, Cuffe begins: "How can Obama's plan cover 50 million new patients without any new doctors? It can't. It will hurt our seniors." Cuffe also was advertised as a panelist on health care policy at a recent local public forum. Florida records show that in 2007, he settled a complaint by the state medical board that he had operated on the wrong site during spinal surgery. Without admitting to wrongdoing, Cuffe agreed to pay $7,500 and perform 50 hours of community service, which he spent working at a hospice. He did not respond to requests for comment. Autographed Books After Wilson was finished producing the ad, it appeared on two YouTube sites, one operated by Morris and the other by the National Republican Trust PAC, where the meter showed it was viewed more than 60,000 times in about six weeks. Federal election records show that the National Republican Trust has worked with both Morris and Wilson in the past. When contacted, however, the group's director, Scott Wheeler, said the Trust had nothing to do with the health care ad. The ad was removed from the group's site shortly after the interview. Morris himself is not among those distancing themselves from the spot or the League. He continues to tout his role in his TV appearances and on his Web site. The League's site promises a free autographed copy of his latest book to anyone who donates $250 or more. Morris also continues to straddle the worlds of advocacy and journalism, using his Web site and TV appearances to stoke opposition to health care legislation among senior citizens while reporting in a recent column for The Hill: "fears of rationing and the denial of care are stoking opposition to a fever pitch among the elderly." Until this week, The Hill identified Morris as a bipartisan insider: "Morris, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and President Bill Clinton, is the author of Outrage." Asked on Monday whether Morris' involvement in the League should also be mentioned, Hugo Gordon, the newspaper's editor, said only that he has been pleased with Morris' columns. The following day, however, Morris' column carried a new disclosure to his biography: "In August he became a strategist for the League of American Voters, which is running ads opposing the president's healthcare reforms." Morris' columns in the New York Post do not carry a similar disclosure. Meanwhile, the ad Morris created has raised a new problem for the League of American Voters. The spot shocked a member of the League of Women Voters, a 90-year-old nonpartisan group that supports health care reform, who confused the names of the two organizations. The League of Women Voters then wrote Adams a letter asking him to "cease and desist from using a name so deceptively similar." "Your organization is playing on our good name and reputation and thereby seeking to add credibility to yours, which clearly has none," wrote Mary Wilson, the president of the League of Women Voters. Adams has not responded to Wilson. "I don't work for her; she's not entitled to a response from me," Adams said. "It was a hysterical, obnoxious letter." More on Health Care
 
Arne Duncan Joins Growing Chicago Olympics Delegation For Copenhagen Top
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Arne Duncan will travel to Denmark next week to support his hometown of Chicago's Olympic bid. Duncan will join first lady Michelle Obama and White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett in Copenhagen for the Oct. 2 meeting of the International Olympic Committee. The committee will be choosing a host city for the 2016 Summer Games. Duncan was a co-captain of Harvard's basketball team and later played professionally in Australia. A White House official says no decision has been made on whether President Barack Obama will also attend. The White House sent an advance team to Copenhagen Monday to make preparations in the event the president does travel. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because a final decision has not been made. More on Olympics
 
Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized After Feeling Faint Top
WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was hospitalized Thursday after becoming ill in her office at the court. A statement from the court said the 76-year-old justice was taken to Washington Hospital Center at 7:45 p.m. EDT as a precaution. The statement said Ginsburg had received an iron sucrose infusion at 4:50 p.m. to treat an iron deficiency that had been discovered in July. About an hour later, she "developed lightheadedness and fatigue," the statement said. She was found to have a slightly low blood pressure, which the court said can occur after the type of treatment she received. Although an examination found her to be in stable health, she was given fluids and taken to the hospital as a precaution, the court said. The July evaluation found "that she was in completely normal health with the exception of a low red blood cell count caused by deficiency of iron. Intravenous iron therapy was administered in a standard fashion," the court statement said. Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in February but returned to work quickly. Two months after her surgery, Ginsburg told law students at a symposium at Ohio State University that serving on the Supreme Court was "the best and the hardest job I've ever had." She said at the time that she wanted to match the tenure of Justice Louis Brandeis, who served for more than two decades and retired at age 82. After the retirement in January 2006 of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Ginsburg was the only woman on the nine-member court until Sonia Sotomayor joined the court last August. Nominated by President Bill Clinton, Ginsburg took her seat on the Supreme Court on Aug. 10, 1993. She had been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit since 1980.
 
General McChrystal 60 Minutes Interview: Overwhelming US Firepower Not The Way Forward In Afghanistan (VIDEO) Top
America's top commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, warned that overwhelming firepower from the United States is not the way forward in winning the Afghan war because the damage done to civilians is ultimately detrimental to our strategic goals. Interviewed by David Martin of 60 Minutes , McChrystal said he was surprised at the levels of violence in some parts of the country: Asked if things are better or worse than he expected since his arrival a few months ago, the general replies, "They're probably a little worse. I think that in some areas that the breadth of the violence, the geographic spread of violence, is a little more than I would have gathered." Watch an excerpt from the interview below. The full segment can be seen this Sunday on 60 Minutes. Watch CBS Videos Online 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 Afghanistan
 
Krugman Pans Sarah Palin's Hong Kong Speech On Maddow: Absence Of Facts Didn't Seem To Matter In Palin's Speech (VIDEO) Top
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman was a guest on "The Rachel Maddow Show" last night to discuss Sarah Palin's speech to a global group of investors in Hong Kong. When Maddow informed him that the speech lasted an hour and half, not including the Q & A period, Krugman's horror was written on his face as he quipped, "That's half a Castro." Palin's speech blamed too much regulation as one of the origins of the financial crisis -- a theory that Krugman ably picked apart, noting the "absence of any facts" to back up Palin's claim. WATCH: Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy 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 Rachel Maddow
 

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