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Mighty Movie Podcast Interviews Hideaway Le Refuge Bran Nue Dae

Gonna warn you up front: The two films covered in this week’s episode are so different that you might get the bends when we transition from one to another. Yeah, there’s sort of a common theme of escape, but one film takes a literal and energetic approach to the subject, and the other, spiritual and introspective. Both are worthwhile to check out, particularly since one is by one of my favorite filmmakers, Francois Ozon. But if you want to make a double-feature of them, just be prepared for the shock.
Particularly because the Australian film, Bran Nue Dae, is such a radical treatment of the themes of racial and cultural identity and exploitation. Born as a set of songs in which the indigenous band Kuckles explored their youths, the music eventually had a story built around it for its transition to the live stage. Now, Rachel Perkins opens the tale up with considerable energy and humor. The film tells the story of an aboriginal teen (Rocky McKenzie) who runs away from a Perth boarding school to rejoin his girlfriend in the coastal town of Broome — along the way, we get wild caricature, broad comedy, and genuine, spiritual turmoil, mixed with eye-popping visuals and a veritable grab-bag of musical styles. It’s a road movie, done the Australian way, fun yet still incisive.
Meanwhile, Francois Ozon brings his customary sensuality and intensity to Hideaway (Le Refuge), the story of a young drug addict (Isabelle Carr) who, following the fatal overdose of her lover, discovers she’s pregnant with his child. Rather than have an abortion, as her departed lover’s family would wish, she retreats to a beach house, to eventually be joined by her lover’s gay brother, Paul (Louis-Ronan Choisy). As always with Ozon, the character interplay is complex, clear-eyed, and gripping, although the tone is more elegiac and nuanced than Ozon’s other matchup of expectant motherhood and the beach, See the Sea. The drama’s smart, naturalistic, and moving — Ozon at his best.
Click on the player to hear the show.
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More MMP on HuffPost:
Sean Baker on Prince of Broadway
David Michod on Animal Kingdom
Samuel Maoz on Lebanon
Check out the Mighty Movie Podcast homepage.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

To Doom or Not to Doom

Doom. Impending doom. Deep dark impending Democratic Party doom. Losing one if not both houses of Congress- deep dark impending Democratic Party doom. Deep dark impending Democratic Party doom of Biblical proportions destined to make 1994 seem like walk in the park with a loved one down a sun kissed lane strewn with fallen magnolia petals. Then again, wait. Maybe not so much doomishness.
A week ago, the Gallup organization released a tracking poll giving the GOP a 10 point lead when voters answered which party they favor. And much wailing and crowing ensued. Whispers grew into shouts and fear and joy swept the land. Democratic candidates avoided Obama like a plate full of haggis dipped in botulism toxin. Fox News Commentators boasted that independents would prefer having a sack full of snarling weasels dropped into their pants than vote for a Democrat. And being home to Bill O’Reilly, it was assumed they knew what they were talking about.
Then Gallup released a new poll showing the parties dead even. Same question, now we’re tied. Double- digit swing in a single week. Why? Nobody knows. Might be a backlash to Glenn Beck’s trek to the Lincoln Memorial to reclaim the civil rights movement for loud angry chubby white guys. Perhaps it was a collective sigh of parental relief after returning their budget busting vacationing rug rats to school. Or maybe it had to do with Obama coming back from ten days golfing with the big time swells on Martha’s Vineyard. And no, I’m not talking about Hurricane Earl.
And what a comeback. Worthy of Secretariat. With recharged batteries pinning the brim, the President shifted into overdrive. In Milwaukee on Labor Day he floated a program to rebuild America’s infrastructure. And who hasn’t rattled their teeth in a pothole big enough to qualify for its own area code? John Boehner maybe, that’s about it.
In Ohio, Obama proposed cutting taxes on businesses placing the GOP on the defensive since they offered up the very same legislation during the Bush years. Of course now they’re against it. Which, in the middle of an election year is less surprising than a big belt buckle on a rodeo star. Ski wax in a Telluride closet. A fat tortoiseshell cat napping on a Bed & Breakfast lobby counter.
At this point, all we can be sure of is that people are pissed. At everyone. For everything. At restaurants for stubbornly retaining pre- recession stratosphere scraping entre prices. At the Oakland Raiders for charging 33 bucks to park at a meaningless pre- season game. But then they’re all meaningless. At banks for turning greed into an art form. At Obama and the Dems for waiting so long to address the economy and at the Republicans for politicizing anything coming out of Congress including the Aren’t the Clouds Dreamy Proclamation.
So, to doom or not to doom. That is the question. And the answer remains Yes and No. There’s no way out and we’re stuck here until someone locates the key. Which could be tomorrow. Or the decade after next. Voters hate the Democrats. Except when they dislike Republicans more. We’re headed down the wrong path, but it’s the only one that’s lit. And that clears everything up like the view through the windshield of a VW Beetle going uphill with a blown head gasket. Also known as: politics as usual.
Will Durst is a San Francisco based political comedian who often writes. Such as this.
Catch Durst Friday and Saturday, the 10th & 11th at the Town Hall in Lafayette. Thtc.org
And don’t forget Comedy Celebration Day, Sunday September 19th. Noon to five. Golden Gate Park. Comedyday.com
His new CD, “Raging Moderate,” now available from Stand Up! Records on iTunes and Amazon.
Coming next year: “Where the Rogue Things Go.”

Follow Will Durst on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/willdurst

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Time for California to End The Unwinnable Marijuana War

Can More Arrests Ever Stop Marijuana?
Since the founding of the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1973, 15 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana.
That is more people than live in California’s 25 largest cities – millions more than live in Ohio, Pennsylvania or Illinois.
The DEA has led an aggressive national law enforcement effort that results in a marijuana arrest every 38 seconds, propelling the U.S. to become the biggest incarcerator on the planet, housing one out of four of the world’s prisoners. Despite mass arrests, incarceration and the tearing apart of millions of families, the war rages on with no end in sight.
Since the DEA’s founding, approximately 90% of youth have described marijuana as easy to get in annual federal surveys. It is easier for young Americans to buy marijuana than it is to buy alcohol or prescription drugs which are legally regulated and controlled.
Is there any reason to think that millions more arrests – with costs running into the billions – will win the marijuana war?
Last week every former U.S. DEA head came out against Proposition 19 which would end possession arrests and allow local jurisdictions in California to make marijuana legal. No surprise that drug enforcement bureaucrats want to defend their marijuana enforcement budgets. They even oppose medical marijuana for people suffering and dying. But, more important for the voter, this is an opportunity to look at the big picture. Voters should ask themselves:
Has the marijuana war, with more than 800,000 arrests each year, worked?
Will more arrests stop marijuana?
If not, isn’t it time to consider alternatives that could better control marijuana?
Thankfully, the DEA is not the only law enforcement voice. Recently the National Black Police Association came out in support of Prop. 19http://elections.firedoglake.com/2010/08/19/prop-19-national-black-police-association-endorses-marijuana-legalization/, following a slew of endorsements from unions, faith leaders and the NAACP. On Monday, simultaneous press conferences will be held at Oakland City Hall and in West Hollywood Park to announce a letter of endorsement signed by dozens of law enforcers across California.
Joseph McNamara, former police chief in San Jose, CA and Kansas City, MO, an active member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, describes the marijuana laws as much worse than ineffective: “they waste valuable police resources and also create a lucrative black market that funds cartels and criminal gangs with billions of tax-free dollars.” Federal researchers find marijuana to be safer than many legal drugs, so why waste precious law enforcement resources on it?
These officers, judges and prosecutors support Proposition 19 because it:
Stops wasting police on non-violent marijuana offenders and enables them to focus on preventing violent crime,
Cuts off funding to violent gangs and drug cartels,
Reduces marijuana access to children by instituting strict age-limits
and public safety controls,
Protects the lives of police officers now at risk in the “drug war,” and
Restores mutual respect and good relations between law enforcement and
communities bearing the brunt of the current marijuana laws.
These police views are shared by the California Legislative Analyst which says Prop 19 would enable California to put our police priorities where they belong saying it “could result in savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as well as the number placed under county probation or state parole supervision. These savings could reach several tens of millions of dollars annually. The county jail savings would be offset to the extent that jail beds no longer needed for marijuana offenders were used for other criminals who are now being released early because of a lack of jail space.”
Proposition 19 is a cautious reform that keeps in mind public safety. It empowers local jurisdictions to decide whether to bring adult use of marijuana within the law and how to regulate it. It maintains strict criminal penalties for driving under the influence, increases the penalty for providing marijuana to a minor, expressly prohibits consumption in public, forbids smoking while minors are present, and bans possession on school grounds.
In addition to being good policy that sets common sense police priorities and regulates marijuana so it is more difficult for children to get, it will generate $1.4 billion in tax revenue each year according to California’s tax collector, the Board of Equalization.
California voters should thank the federal drug enforcement bureaucrats for showing that – despite their best efforts over nearly four decades – the marijuana war cannot be won and it is time for voters to do what politicians refuse to do: tax and control marijuana.
Kevin Zeese is president of Common Sense for Drug Policy and executive director of Prosperity Agenda.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Demonstrations over Islamic centre held in New York

Competing demonstrations have been held in New York on the anniversary of 9/11 over plans for an Islamic cultural centre close to Ground Zero.
Hundreds of people attended both demonstrations which became heated but passed off without violent incident.
The radical Dutch politician Geert Wilders addressed one demonstration, calling for an end to the plans.
The demonstrations were held after ceremonies honouring those killed in the World Trade Center nine years ago.

Israel The OneState Solution Should be Taken Off the Table

“Right there, beyond those trees, is the Green Line,” our tour guide said, as he pointed to a valley on our right. I was a junior-high student in Haifa, and we were on a field trip on the way to Jerusalem. As our old bus slowly crawled up one of the roads winding through the foothills of Judea, I looked outside the window to where our guide directed us.
I was looking exactly where he pointed, and I indeed saw trees – but nothing else. There was no border, no fence. I remember being very puzzled by this. Even back then as a young teenager I read the newspapers, and of course I saw the terror attacks on TV. I knew about the Six-Day War, and I saw the Green Line on the maps. So, how could it be there was no border separating “us” from our “enemies”? No physical boundary? Nothing!? It was hard to grasp.
As I grew up, I later understood the political reasons for the absence of such a barrier. And I also understood the security reasons for the separation wall which was later to be built – albeit only partially. And, I more than understood – and despised – the malicious reasons for that wall carving deep into Palestinian territory, veering away from the Green Line in too many cases to count.
But as we all know, the wall is not (yet) a border – and in its current route, it never should be – and Israel is still a state where millions of people live without equal rights. Sometimes that’s also hard for me to grasp: I actually live in a country where millions of people have not had equal rights for over 40 years. Millions of people are second class, without citizenship.
Two main solutions have been discussed over the years to change this status quo: The two-state solution and the one-state solution, with the former apparently turning into an impossible mission. Since the Olso accords were signed the settler population has tripled, and the chances for a viable Palestinian state are getting slimmer by the minute.
The latter option has been sitting on the back burner for a long time until just recently, when it began to get more and more media attention in Israel. Unfortunately, this talk – now labeled almost in every op-ed or essay as ‘thinking out of the box” or “constructive debate” – is doing nothing but harm to the national aspirations of Palestinians and will further delay the implementation of an agreement between the sides.
The media starts to chew the bone
The media frenzy started in January with Meron Benvenisti’s essay in Haaretz on the death of the two-state solution. In February, sociologist Yehouda Shenhav published his book “The Time of the Green Line,” also claiming that a one-state solution is by far more feasible. Both Benvinisti and Shenhav claim that one of the reasons the left has long promoted the two-state solution is its yearning for that “golden era” before 1967. As Dimi Reider wrote in Foreign Policy, Shenhav believes the Israeli left is “bogged down in nostalgia for a mythically pure pre-1967 Israel”.
Both Noam Sheizaf and Reider later wrote this summer (here, and here) about how the one-state solution is gaining momentum – of all places – on the right wing of Israel’s political map. The most vocal of these have been Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Likud hawk Tzipi Hotobely and former Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
And just recently, George Bisharat’s op-ed in the Washington Post also received a lot of attention. Bisharat is for “one man, one vote”, and claims that the only obstacle to one state is “the belief that Israel must be a Jewish state”.
Just a slight problem
I must say, if that’s the only obstacle – Bisharat’s got me on the boat. Heck, we can surely figure out how to get around the Jewish state issue, right? Actually, it’s a tad more complicated than that – but just a tad.
First of all, a slight problem might arise from the right wingers’ plan to exclude Gaza from the equation. Gazans simply don’t exist for them. Furthermore, the motives behind their support for the plan is also something to look into a bit deeper. As Yossi Alpher, former Mossad executive, says:
And why, according to Alpher, are we seeing this momentum in the right?
So, in a way – the right wingers see that the two-state solution is indeed closing in on them. And how to stop it? With a delay of a generation or two by using strange “solutions” to fool not only the international community, but the Palestinians themselves. Sorry, but if you’re one of those who are charmed by Arens and Rivlin who suddenly after 43 years of occupation are suddenly showing concern for Palestinian rights – you’re about as naive as they come.
But we should also look at why the left wingers are supporting this. In my opinion, it’s the exact opposite of the right winger’s motives. If on the right there seems to be panic from the closing in of the two-state solution, on the left there is despair. There is frustration. There is a feeling that they’ve gotten so close after decades of efforts, only to see the settlers win again and again and ruin the chances for a viable Palestinian state. Their spirits are broken.
As part of the left wing camp, my problem with this is as follows: Frustration is no reason to switch solutions with such ease; it’s not like returning an entree and choosing another off the menu. Second, I would think that my fellow peace activists should have more respect for the national aspirations of Palestinians and not have the audacity to decide for them which solution suits them best.
A what democracy?
But enough about right and left. Let’s get back to feasibility. Can the one-state solution really work? And if so, what kind? In fact, there are so many different types to chose from, the first problem could indeed be deciding which one is best for Israelis and Palestinians. Furthermore, this decision making process could probably take longer than the decision to remove this settlement or that one.
Bisharat, as mentioned before, claims the “one man, one vote” system is the way to go. But he might not find a hopeful partner in Yehouda Shenhav, as Reider points out:
“Curiously for a decidedly left-wing manifesto, Shenhav rejects out of hand the “one man, one vote,” “state of all its citizens” model as an alternative to a two-state solution.
This model, he says, “presumes the existence of a homogenous population motivated by individual interests and ignores the fact that most people in the contested space are religious nationalists with tremendous differences within both the Israeli and Palestinian communities.” He opts instead for a consociational democracy: a system in which religious, cultural, national, and economic considerations will be balanced by mutual agreement, within a power-sharing government.
So, Shenhav doesn’t want a state of all its citizens. He claims the differences between us are too big, our societies are too different to mingle. I actually agree with him on that.
But then, if this is the case – what does Shenhav recommend? A consociationalist democracy, where there is proportionate representation in government. If Arabs in this future one-state will be 50%, they’ll get 50% representatives in government. They’ll also have to get 50% representation in the army. But then, what kind of army would it be? Are we talking a Jewish army to protect Jews? And that’s just one of the most difficult question that will have to be answered regarding security, government, symbols and more.
According to Wikipedia, a few of the conditions whereconsociationalism works best include “the presence of external threats common to all communities” and “overarching loyalties to the state.” I can’t see how that’s going to work in our case.
The only kind of consociationalism that might work in Israel and Palestine is confessionalism, which is “a system of government that distributes political and institutional power proportionally among religious communities” – such as in Lebanon. But the Lebanese example hasn’t been that great a success. And even though different religions were involved – they are all still Arab (and united by their hatred of their neighbour to the south). Let’s not forget, large portions ofIsraelis and Palestinians have racist opinions of each other. The hatred runs extremely deep.
So deep, that I honestly can’t understand how people would think that Israelis would give up the idea of a Jewish state, when Britain wouldn’t even give up the pound for the euro, for example. And there we’re talking currencies – not religion and land.
The only solution
The reasons not to go down a one-state solution are many: The numerous types of consociationalist democracies, their requirements and what would be needed from both sides to give up on, and so forth. But above all, the main issue is time. After 43 years of occupation, Palestinians need freedom now. They don’t need to wait another generation for all of us to make up our minds whether we’re going to be a Belgium, a Bosnia or a Lebanon.
Yes, the two-state solution has its problems, too. Is it unrealistic? No. Is it still more realistic than the one-state solution? Of course. Shenhav and Benvinisti may be right about the left being bogged down by nostalgia for days before 1967 – but they do not speak for me.
I was born after that war, in fact – I was born an occupier without anyone asking me. The same can be said for a majority of Palestinians who were born as occupied people. Speaking for myself, I have no nostalgia whatsoever for any period. I can not speak for the Palestinian youth, but I can only presume that their desire is to finally experience the taste of freedom. Nostalgia is not the issue.
Besides the difficult questions of Jerusalem, the right of refugee return and settlements, it seems today that most people complain about the disappearing viability of the future Palestinian state. Alpher has addressed this in the past:
Lack of territorial contiguity is indeed a potential impediment to Palestinian national viability. Even if the borders are eventually configured so as to provide reasonable contiguity between the northern and southern West Bank, the Gaza Strip will still be separated from the rest of Palestine by forty-some kilometers of Israeli territory. A lack of territorial contiguity proved disastrous for pre-1971 Pakistan/Bangladesh. Only the US, with distant detached states in Alaska and Hawaii, appears to be able to afford this luxury.
“Yet 40 kilometers is an easily bridgeable distance in the 21st century: by highway, railway, fuel and water pipes. Under conditions of peace and stability, Palestine’s dis-contiguity looks problematic but manageable.
“This means that the future state of Palestine can be viable if it wants to be; if it has the national will. This is the true challenge for Palestinian “viability”.
If the Palestinians have shown anything after over 40 years of occupation – it’s will.
Let me be clear – I’m not against one state. I’m not against “one man, one vote”. But not now. Now is not the time. You don’t abandon one plan just because it hits hard times. And you don’t force people to suddenly love each other, expect them to write a new constitution together and live in harmony after years of bloodshed.
What you do is find the solution to allow things to cool down. Just like a kindergarten teacher separates two boys who were fighting, so they can eventually return to play together after a calming down period. In diplomatic terms, this cooling down could take decades or a generation or more – just as it did in Europe, after WWII.
After the borders are set, and each makes decisions about its own fate, then – and only then – can both sides decide to tear the walls down and reunite as equals. Good fences make good neighbors, and when neighbors decide the fences are not needed – they are easily taken down. Then we can decide what kind one-state we want, when we’re not blinded by hate.
We cannot wait longer. We must all work for immediate separation, for Palestinian rights – now! No more delays, no more new “solutions”, no more disguises of gestures that are in fact nothing but clever ways to stall and steal more land. This talk of the one-state solution must be taken off the table, for it damages the chances to implement the real and only option.
We’re already so close. We can’t let frustration blind us. With a few brave decisions, it can happen sooner than we think.
The one-state solution is not as some of us call “thinking out of the box.” Now is not the time to think outside the box for a different solution. Now is the time to think outside the box in order to finally get the two-state solution back on track.
This article was originally posted on ++972 magazine.

Follow Ami Kaufman on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/amikaufman

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

And On The Third Day of Fashion There Was Prabal Gurung PHOTOS POLL

Winning the day is Prabal Gurung, who had every top editor in attendance, the power-buying crowd, Rachel Zoe, Barbara Bush and the blessing of the CFDA, with his architectural clothes looking spot-on. Unable to get past the watchful eye of KCD and unsuccessful at actually finding a seat, I watched square center as the dresses walked the giant pixelated runway. So close, yet so far away. This in no way detracts from the merit of the work, or the fact that he’s going to be the next Alexander Wang or Thakoon.
More shows reviewed below.
Prabal’s front row
1 of 18
Daisy Lowe Revives Biba, Wishes She Had Her ‘Wicked Way’ With Jimi Hendrix (PHOTOS)
Fashion’s Night Out Downtown: A Hot Mess (PHOTOS)
Christian Siriano Spring Summer 2011: Which Looks Are Fierce? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Vena Cava Spring 2011: Betty Draper on Holiday! (PHOTOS)
Jason Wu Spring 2011: Which Looks Should Michelle Obama Wear? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Alexandra Owen Debuts in America: Emerging Designer Alert! (PHOTOS)
Poppy Delevingne , Eletra Weidermann, Maggie Betts and Barbara Bush
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Lacoste
Sexy, feminine, sporty and clean. After last season’s mustard disaster, which looked like a Heinz bottle splattered the catwalk, it’s much appreciated. This is Christophe Lemaire’s final show for Lacoste before going to Hermès. The just-appointed Felipe Oliveira Baptista will be taking over next season.
“Just another sunny day in Monaco,” my friend whispers as we think of cabana cocktails and lazy days reading Hemingway. Linen and jersey so elegantly tailored as to suggest silk; architectural and plush, black and white leading up to a smattering of subdued shades of primary colors.
They’re launching a new jewelry line and Lacoste Live, an equally-new collection targeting “hip” young ones.
Fashion Lacoste Spring 2011
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And On The Third Day of Fashion, There Was Prabal Gurung (PHOTOS, POLL)
Fashion’s Night Out 2010 Takes New York, Los Angeles (PHOTOS, POLL)
Jason Wu Spring 2011: Which Looks Should Michelle Obama Wear? (PHOTOS, POLL)
BCBG Max Azria Spring 2011: Which Dress Would You Wear? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Daisy Lowe Revives Biba, Wishes She Had Her ‘Wicked Way’ With Jimi Hendrix (PHOTOS)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Blake Lively & Rachel Zoe Hit Chanel Party (PHOTOS, POLL)
The Lacoste spring 2011 collection is modeled Saturday, September 11, 2010, during Fashion Week in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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Jill Stuart
As I was leaving Stuart, Kim Kardashian almost ran me over. It’s at Koch Hall. A cavernous place, full of … well … space. It’s a better home in a lot of ways versus Astor Hall for the flouncy dresses that walked down the runway. Jill has returned to what made her strong: girly dresses for a young gal who’s going on a whimsical date, batting her eyes at the beau that’s pouring her another glass of Pinot Grigio.
Harkening back to an older “Mad Men”-esque aesthetic, the now divorced and remarried Betty Draper would wear one of these dresses to casually seduce the milk man and then pick up the kids from school.
There’s a lot of patent leather knee-high riding boots and platform power pumps bringing the look from retro-chic into the modern era. She’s now able to balance the hard edge of the moment with her own way of crafting a dress, instead of what we witnessed as fall’s armor.
MBFW Spring 2011 – Official Coverage – Runway Day 3
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Fashion’s Night Out 2010 Takes New York, Los Angeles (PHOTOS, POLL)
Nicholas K Spring 2011: The Art Of Wearable Clothes (PHOTOS, POLL)
Alex Casertano’s American Sportswear Should Meet My Wardrobe (PHOTOS)
Jason Wu Spring 2011: Which Looks Should Michelle Obama Wear? (PHOTOS, POLL)
And On The Third Day of Fashion, There Was Prabal Gurung (PHOTOS, POLL)
Alexandra Owen Debuts in America: Emerging Designer Alert! (PHOTOS)
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: A model walks the runway at the Jill Stuart Spring 2011 fashion show during the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Spring 2011 Official Coverage at Lincoln Center on September 11, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz)
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Adam
The Sleigh Bells seem to be fashion’s new soundtrack. They’ve been in more fashion shows than I have. “Run the Heart” and “Tell ‘Em” pumped through the speakers as a red leather sundress walked past. A laser-cut maxi that finished the show.
Adam has veered toward the more wearable. Having just been bought out by a bigger company, he’s moving in the mass-market direction. This isn’t a bad thing, as his company started from one solid t-shirt that was insanely comfortable to wear and won the hearts of women everywhere. He’s let go of the show-stopping feathers and, instead, choosing linen, chunky knit, and jersey. Why am I starting to feel like spring is the new fall?
MBFW Spring 2011 – Official Coverage – Runway Day 3
1 of 11
Nicole Miller Spring/Summer 2011 Collection (PHOTOS, POLL)
Edition Georges Chakra Spring/Summer 2011 Collection (PHOTOS, POLL)
BCBG Max Azria Spring 2011: Which Dress Would You Wear? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Ashlee Simpson, Coco Rocha & More Celebs Hit Friday’s Fashion Shows (PHOTOS)
The Project Runway 2010 Collections (PHOTOS)
Gulnara Karimova, First Daughter Of Uzbekistan, To Show Fashion Collection In New York (PHOTOS, POLL)
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 11: A model walks the runway at the Adam Spring 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at on September 11, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz)
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Follow Alex Geana on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

September 11th New Yorks Past and Future

This September 11th the news is filled with discussions about a proposed Muslim community center near the former site of the World Trade Center and about a previously unknown Florida pastor who has a congregation that can fit inside one subway car. Lost in the media are the reminders of the tragic loss of lives, the fear that was pervasive throughout America, the resulting lives lost or destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the fact that America’s security isn’t significantly better than it was 9 years ago.
Concerning the pastor (I will leave him unnamed), the media has succeeded at making a national figure out of someone whose goal was to be famous. I suspect that this pastor will soon follow-up with a TV deal, talk-radio, politics and/or a major book deal though I hope he returns to obscurity.
Concerning the community center, it reminds some people of the dance club that was opened inside an old tannery building in Auschwitz. While those dancing the night away in Poland are presumed to have nothing to do with the slaughter of over 1 million people, the dance club felt wrong. Their partying wasn’t going to impact those that were already dead but it diminished those lost lives. While those who seek to build a Muslim community center are presumed to have nothing to do with the extremists that destroyed thousands of lives, for many it feels wrong. It also feels wrong that there are strip clubs close to the World Trade Center site, souvenir shops near Pearl Harbor and tacky Lincoln statues next to Ford’s Theater where President Lincoln was murdered. Regardless of how Americans feel about the construction of this community center, as long as we have a Constitution and we believe that this document drives America’s rule of law and represents America’s values, then construction of the community center should be allowed to continue. The memory of those lost will be preserved in the hearts of the living and in monuments that will long outlast the generation that lived through September 11th 2001.
I was living in Washington DC during the attacks and recall the damage to the Pentagon as well as the militarized feel of our nation’s capital. Standing on the National Mall soon after the tragedy, I was struck by how quiet the center of our country’s government seemed, with no planes flying overhead and no tourists. In the years since that attack we have seen high profile, amateurish, terrorist attempts in the US like the shoe bomber or the recent Times Square car bombing attempt. No doubt there have been more sophisticated attacks thwarted by our government.
Having lived and traveled in societies that were closed, where movement was highly restricted and where I had to lock myself inside for safety every day, I treasure that America remains an open and free society. I love the fact that Americans and visitors can move within our vast territory without restrictions while generally feeling secure. Our freedoms keep us very vulnerable to further attacks. Our borders are porous, our airport security inconsistent, our port security virtually non-existent, our movements within the country generally untracked while guns and other weapons are easy to obtain.
There will be more terrorist attacks on American soil in the future and some will succeed. This is the world that we live in. As for New York, around the World Trade Center site, buildings will built and knocked down, businesses will be started and shuttered, babies will be born and people will die and New York will continue to thrive in its ever-changing fashion.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Post Textbook World

It’s time to put technology in the hands of students–real 24/7/365 learning opportunity. Last year we crossed a threshold where it’s cheaper to give kids devices and stop building computer labs and buying textbooks.
I appreciate the folks producing free textbooks, but with the shift to digital the whole notion of a textbook–a flat one-way tightly-edited trip through a sliver of the world’s knowledge as it existed a few years ago–just seems obsolete. Most online courses aren’t much better.
States and districts will adopt digital textbooks and review online courses for a while because it is a comfortable step into the digital world. But that won’t last long. Education is gradually shifting from approving inputs to focusing on student outcomes. And the number and quality of learning opportunities online is exploding.
Most of the digital courseware being used is decidedly first generation–it’s flat and sequential, not engaging and adaptive. But we’re beginning to see adaptive content libraries that enable personalized digital learning. There will still be a role for curation but that will come in the form of content collections, learning games and virtual worlds, and playlists that (like iTunes Genius but smarter) that stitch objects and sequences together.
Because learning object libraries will replace textbooks, eReaders won’t work be big education. They only make sense where there is a tight narrative. Tablets that can support a full web experience and are also a useful input device will compete with netbooks for 1:1 supremacy.
Digital native kids and teachers expect a more social experience than ‘log in, follow directions, and email me if you have a problem.’ The shift from digital textbook to content libraries requires more flexibility than current learning management systems offers and will kick off more data than anyone is ready to handle.
Dominant learning platforms will combine personalized content libraries, social learning features, smart recommendation engines, and aligned services for students, teachers, and schools–sort of Facebook, iTunes Genius, Google apps, and 1-800 support services for students and teachers.
It’s exciting to look ahead a school year or two, but devices are cheap enough and content is good enough that there’s no reason to wait–ditch the textbooks and go online. For teachers, it will unlock new opportunities to meet individual student needs. For students it will extend, engage, and expand learning. And it will beat lugging a backpack of textbooks home.

Follow Tom Vander Ark on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Applauding Humility and a good decision by Terry Jones

Humility is not easy. After all it shares the same root as “humiliation”. But the humility that allows us to say we are sorry and to change our mind or our actions is central to the Christian faith. The word “repentance” which has been badly abused and distorted means to “re-think” how we think and act (even in Spanish “pensar” means “to think”). It is about re-thinking what we know or what we do. Something healing happens when we say “sorry” or acknowledge wrongs and ask for forgiveness.
But none of us ever want to be wrong or to say we are sorry. And certainly pastors and politicians never admit their mistakes unless they get caught on tape. For this reason, just as the world was outraged when we heard of the decision of Terry Jones to burn the Quran, it is also worth celebrating his decision not to burn it.
I have no idea what went into the decision or what pressures are upon Mr. Jones, but I am certain this story could have ended differently. He could have stubbornly pushed forward with the decision. He could have refused to listen to people or God and re-think things, but he did not. And frankly, I think the world is a little better off. I’m certainly not ready to lift him up as a hero (nor am I refusing to allow him to become one), but I am all about applauding his humility to re-think this action. In fact, I just called to let him know I am thankful for his decision not to burn the Quran… maybe you want to do the same: 352-371-2487. Too often we demonize people as if they were not human, and we talk at them but not with them. And I’m sure he’s had plenty of mean calls, and might need some affirmation.
It’s easy to write people off, and think it is impossible for them to become anything different from what they have been. But the entire Christian story is about the possibility of change, of people being made into new creations – and there are taxcollectors and zealots, prostitutes and pious elites who are all re-thinking who they have been and who they want to be in light of Jesus. Today, I am thankful for a pastor in Florida who was willing to re-think what he was about to do before he did something that he, and all of us who claim the name “Christian”, would regret. As I told folks at his church today, I said in the conversation: “I am a Christian who wants the world to know the love and grace of Jesus… and I’m pretty sure burning the Quran is not going to get us closer to that.” They listened and thanked me for the call.
Bono once said something to the effect, “The fact that the Bible is full of messed up people used to disturb me, but now I find it a great source of comfort.” No one is beyond redemption. The Bible is full of people who make mistakes and are transformed by the grace of God and others – like David after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, like Peter with his instinct to pick up the sword to protect Jesus, like Paul during his aggressive persecution of the early Church. God’s grace is big enough for all sorts of messed up people to rethink who they are and do something new and beautiful for God. No one is beyond redemption – neither Terry Jones, Osama bin Laden, Saul of Tarsus, you or me. St. John of the Cross (and Leonard Cohen) coined the phrase – “It the cracks that let the light come in.” So let us thank God for a crack in the events in Florida, that may allow light to come in… it is a moment pregnant with possibility.
Let us pause us pause. Let us refuse to box anyeone in to who they have been and rob them of the possibility of becoming more fully who God has made them to be.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

You Spoke Talbots Listened Fur Pulled from Shelves

iStockphoto
It turns out many Humane Society of the United States members are customers of Talbots — a nationwide chain of nearly 600 women’s apparel stores. A few weeks ago, our fur-free campaign staff started receiving emails from concerned supporters reporting that they had just seen animal fur in the Talbots catalog — a company we had listed as fur-free in our shopping guide. More and more emails arrived, so we contacted Talbots and learned that the company had in fact decided to start selling animal fur after years of being fur-free.
So last week, we asked members and supporters to urge Talbots to go back to being fur-free. Your response was overwhelming. Within days, thousands of emails had been sent, phone calls made, and comments posted to Talbots’ Facebook page — many from folks saying how much they like Talbots, but not the decision to sell fur. The message was pretty clear from our view, and it seems it was clear for Talbots as well. On Friday, the company issued this statement:
Talbots is to be applauded for retaining its policy against animal fur, and being willing to alter its course of action after realizing it had made a misstep. And our thanks go to all of you who were on alert and made your voices heard.
This post originally appeared on Pacelle’s blog, A Humane Nation.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Edition Georges Chakra SpringSummer 2011 Collection PHOTOS POLL

The line for the 2011 Spring/Summer Edition Georges Chakra show yesterday at the Lincoln Center stage was long and restless; guests weren’t allowed in until after the 2 pm start time. But once inside, a chic beige wonderland awaited, with low benches subbing in for the standard covered folding chairs.
Last year the most famous attendees were Alex and Simon from RHONY, but this year I spotted Kelly Rowland, sporting a sleek, sideswept ‘do and head-to-toe white. Embarrassingly, I was even more excited to see Jaslene Gonzalez, the winner of America’s Next Top Model Cycle 8. Jaslene looked like Audrey Hepburn post-My Fair Lady makeover in a shimmering silver dress and elbow-length opera gloves (from what I could overhear, however, she still sounded like pre-makeover Audrey).
The collection was entirely made up of gowns–Chakra’s specialty, from which he very rarely strays. And what gowns they were! Almost every look was encrusted with jewels or bedecked with crystals. A running theme was a woven pattern (popping up mostly in the bodices) that resembled a very high-end version of those potholder looms I had as a kid, or perhaps the skin of a haute couture jellyfish. A few gowns were paired with voluminous vests made of slender loops of silky fabric (perfect for wearing over a tee shirt and jeans for those of us who don’t generally get invites to the types of fetes that require Chakra’s exceptional level of luxury).
MBFW Spring 2011 – Official Coverage – Runway Day 2
1 of 13
Ashlee Simpson, Coco Rocha & More Celebs Hit Friday’s Fashion Shows (PHOTOS)
Ellen DeGeneres Struts Her Stuff At Richie Rich Spring 2011 Show (PHOTOS)
The First Day of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center: Cushnie et Ochs, The Sleigh Bells & More (PHOTOS)
Christian Siriano Spring Summer 2011: Which Looks Are Fierce? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Vena Cava Spring 2011: Betty Draper on Holiday! (PHOTOS)
Alexandra Owen Debuts in America: Emerging Designer Alert! (PHOTOS)
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 10: A model walks the runway at the Edition by Georges Chakra Spring 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at The Stage at Lincoln Center on September 10, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz)
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Nicole Miller SpringSummer 2011 Collection PHOTOS POLL

The Nicole Miller Spring/Summer 2011 collection debuted at 82 Mercer Friday night just as Fashion’s Night Out was getting underway and hordes of model types in six-inch stilettos were getting underfoot (or, more accurately, I was getting underfoot–wearing sensible flats, glasses, and a cardigan I must have looked to the fashion crowd not unlike Brainy Smurf or one of the Doozers from Fraggle Rock).
But model envy went out the window when I arrived at the top of a very steep flight of stairs to discover that I had a front row seat! My first ever! It even had my name on it, so naturally I stole the sign. Is that wrong?
After a few minutes I noticed flashbulbs going off at the other end of the runway–a sure sign of celebrity presence–so I shamelessly left my (FRONT ROW) seat and wandered down to see who it was (Perrey Reeves, who plays “Mrs. Ari” on Entourage; I also spotted nameplates for Nina Garcia and Mad Men’s Allison Brie).
The collection itself was largely neutral, extremely ethereal, and defied the wearing of bras (I spotted more than one set of nipples). Almost every look was punctuated by long, sheer trains or sheer knee-length culottes (yes, really). The show ended with some very striking printed dresses and separates, after which throngs of models, celebrities, and Doozers alike attempted to squeeze down the stairs and out onto the street to begin the evening’s festivities.
Nicole Miller – Front Row – Spring 2011 MBFW
1 of 20
Edition Georges Chakra Spring/Summer 2011 Collection (PHOTOS, POLL)
Daisy Lowe Revives Biba, Wishes She Had Her ‘Wicked Way’ With Jimi Hendrix (PHOTOS)
Ellen DeGeneres Struts Her Stuff At Richie Rich Spring 2011 Show (PHOTOS)
Jessica Simpson, Joe Zee & More Spotted At Thursday’s Fashion Shows (PHOTOS, POLL)
Christian Siriano Spring Summer 2011: Which Looks Are Fierce? (PHOTOS, POLL)
Alexandra Owen Debuts in America: Emerging Designer Alert! (PHOTOS)
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 10: Actress Sarah Wynter attends the Nicole Miller Spring 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at 82 Mercer on September 10, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by George Napolitano/Getty Images for IMG)
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Happy New Year Birtukan Invictus Unconquered

The great Nelson Mandela said, “In my country we go to prison first and then become President.” He assured the masters of the apartheid system, “You may succeed in delaying, but never in preventing the transition of South Africa to a democracy.” On the occasion of the Ethiopian New Year (2003) celebrated on September 11, I contemplate the words of Mandela as I admiringly think of Birtukan Midekssa, (Ethiopia’s No. 1 political prisoner and first ever political party leader), and the prospects of Ethiopia’s eventual transition from dictatorship to democracy.
In December 2008, Birtukan’s “pardon” from a kangaroo court conviction was revoked and her life sentence reinstated. She was literally snatched from the streets and thrown in solitary confinement for six months, despite a court ruling that such punishment was a violation of her constitutional rights.She is denied access to visitors except for her aging mother and five-year old daughter, despite a court order granting her visitor access without restrictions.She has been the object of ridicule by dictator-in-chief Meles Zenawi who has characterized her as a “chicken” who did herself in and an idle prisoner sitting around and “putting on weight”.
Mandela said, “Prison itself is a tremendous education in the need for patience and perseverance. It is above all a test of one’s commitment.” It is comforting to know that Birtukan is receiving “a tremendous education” at Kality “Unversity” Federal Prison where she continues to face daily humiliation, isolation, degradation and dehumanization. But Birtukan perseveres and shall certainly overcome. To paraphrase William Ernest Henley’s poem “Invictus” (Unconquered), for nearly two years Birtukan has been shackled in Zenawi’s “pit of wrath and tears” and faced the “horror” of solitary confinement and degradation without “wincing or crying out loud.” Her “head has been bloodied, but unbowed.” Though she faces the “menace of the years” in prison, she remains unafraid because she is the “mistress of her fate and the captain of her soul.”
It was in prison that Mandela realized the true meaning of freedom:
The Prisoner of the Prisoners of Hate, Prejudice and Narrow-Mindedness
It is remarkable how Birtukan’s views mirror Mandela’s. In all of my conversations with her during her visit to the U.S. in the Fall of 2000, (when she led the official delegation of the Coalition of Unity and Democracy [Kinijit]), her Mandela-like compassion and understanding of her jailors and tormentors was instructive and humbling. Like Mandela, Birtukan has steely resolve and unflinching commitment to the rule of law, democracy and human rights. But her political convictions never overpowered her deep compassion for others, including those who continue to mistreat and abuse her. Like Mandela who showed good will to the apartheid masters, Birtukan also shows genuine empathy and understanding for the ruthless dictators who are themselves “locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness”. Like Mandela, that makes Birtukan one of the most unique prisoners on the planet: A prisoner of the prisoners of hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Like Mandela, Birtukan understands that she must first free the prisoners of hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness before she can free herself or her country.
Like Mandela, Birtukan also hungers for freedom. Her hunger for freedom is not just for herself; it is for the freedom of all the Ethiopian people regardless of ethnicity, language, religion and region. Above all, she knows all too well “that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed.”
My New Year’s Resolution
It is customary in free societies to make resolutions for the new year. Accordingly, I pledge to continue to call attention and raise awareness of Birtukan’s unjust imprisonment in the court of world opinion, unceasingly continue to demand her release and the release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia, and urge all freedom-loving people throughout the world to do whatever they can to help secure the release of all political prisoners in Ethiopia.
I am sure that Birtukan’s captors will snicker and giggle at the very idea of releasing her from prison. After all they have declared her release to be a “dead issue.” It does not matter if they giggle or heehaw; the truth about her unjust imprisonment and abject prison conditions will be told and re-told a million times to the world. I also do not believe that prisoners of hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness have the moral capacity or basic human decency to set Birtukan or any other prisoner free. Only the “truth shall set her free”; and if Birtukan were to read my words here, she would gently correct me and say: “The truth shall set them free too from nineteen years of solitary confinement behind the locked steel bars and stone walls of hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness”.
MELKAM ADIS AMET! HAPPY NEW YEAR! Our Great Sister and Ethiopia’s First Daughter Birtukan Invictus (Ayibegere)! The truth shall set you free!
FREE BIRTUKAN MIDEKSSA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS IN ETHIOPIA.

Follow Alemayehu G. Mariam on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Burning

Today, everyone in New York City resonates to the beautiful sky that blesses us on this day marked by September 11. It is a beautiful day. It is misleading to say we “remember.” We inhale that eternal moment of terror. It is embedded in our DNA. Like a chime that echoes our senses, we see our neighbors, colleagues, brothers, sisters, mama, papa, flailing at infinity anguished by the torch that was conflagrated by hatred, ignorance and self-righteousness. They are standing on the edge with nowhere to go. They are we. The difference that 2001 day is that they had no choice but to dive into darkness. Some held hands, many screamed, all vanished. Those who survive remain on the border of a dark pool.
As many, I worked on Wall Street 9 years ago just two blocks from the World Trade Center. I could see the monoliths from my cafeteria on our 47th floor where I ate my nightly dinner. That summer on my way to work I walked past the towers wondering how such structures in conflict with gravity could remain upright. I know that conquering this primeval tension between civilization and nature was a source of pride for many of us. I understand.
I also recognize our trauma. You may know those who were personally touched by that horrific day, wandering in the gray, silent mist frantic to find shelter. There were infinite moments of grace in those hours, minutes. People risked perceiving reality to help a stranger. Young (not so young) men and women climbed doomed staircases to stretch the limits of survival for those hopelessly trapped by timeless combustion. We know this because we have since exhaled words, syllables, sounds, challenging the impossibility of communicating the true music of a soul’s glory. Each year we come to the original sin so we may say the names of the disappeared. Each year the miracle of love’s presence envelop us. We speak within a lit shroud for the world to witness the spark of life.
This year, however, the inevitable strands of dormant hatred have surfaced from the shadow of our fear. We use this occasion to inflame dissonance, promoting this cause or the other. We burn each other’s belief in God. We decry our constitution in the name of pretended freedom. There are those of us who have fallen into the hollow of amnesia. We discard elegance and choose chaos. We choose to jump into madness.
And so to those of us who would burn holy books, mock righteous paths to love and allow our shadow to swathe our lives, I embrace you. If I could, I would strip away my anger, my hatred, my weakness so I may reveal your beauty and power. But you see I am not able to do that today as I sit in the middle of this beautiful, late summer day near New York City, for I share profoundly our humanity. It is always one’s peril that floats to the surface when contemplating trauma. We need to accept the waters in which we tread or we all will drown. When we recognize each other in all our splendid stain, we will endow our breath with waves destined to lift us into the radiance that emanates from our soul.
We do not burn in vain.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Arab media reflects on 911 anniversary US is at a crossroads

As a Florida pastor backed down on his plans to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, Kate Goodin looks to the Middle East to find out how the Arab world is coming to terms with the attacks that changed the world.
In the Arabic press, commentary on the anniversary of the attacks has tended to focus on the aspects of post 9/11 that most deeply affect the Arab world: American foreign policy after 9/11, and how the world sees Islam. As in the American press, recent controversies around the planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero and Terry Jones’ now cancelled Koran burning have prompted discussion in the Arab media of anti-Islamic and anti-Arab prejudice in America.
In leading Egyptian independent daily Al-Masry Al-Youm, Egyptian commentator Sahar al-Geara criticizes America for having become prejudiced:
In the land of dreams, you will only find one nightmare haunting everyone: the attacks of 9/11. Human rights and international charters no longer exist in the US, which has become the capital of “intolerance” and ethnic and religious discrimination. It is the natural evolution of Islamophobia!
Meanwhile Rafik Khouri, writing in the Lebanese newspaper, Al-Anwar, emphasizes that actions like burning the Qur’an further the cause of extremists:
We all know how much the conquest of New York, as Osama Bin Laden described 9/11, helped neo-conservatives in the United States and extremist Zionists in Israel and abroad. We also know how the United States’ eagerness to engage in the war on terror, to invade Afghanistan and Iraq, helped foster fundamentalist Arab and Islamic feelings… Even in their wildest dreams, Al-Qaeda could have never imagined a more suitable gift for the nine year commemoration of the 9/11 attacks than an extremist US priest, determined to celebrate the occasion as they used to in the Middle Ages: by burning copies of the Holy Koran in the town square.
Subhi Ghandour, writing in the Emirati newspaper, Al-Bayan, encouraged Americans to see this anniversary as an opportunity to change they way they respond to the tragedy:
What happened in New York and Washington in 2001 was certainly an act of terrorism; a tragic crime in all its details, dimensions and consequences. Washington could not find any other country that disagrees with her about this fact, nor about the need to punish those who planned this unprecedented crime…But Washington did find opposition, under the Bush administration, to how it responded and the limits of its response, as well as the definition of terrorism as dictated by the US authorities….
[...]
The US as a nation is at a crossroads: whether to use what happened to build an American national unity that does not discriminate between followers of one religion and another, nor between ethnic roots or on the basis or color or culture… or to walk the other road that breaks the unity of the American fabric, a fabric made up of many faiths and sects and ethnicities and cultures.
2001 .
[...]
: .. .
For further translated commentary from the Arab press, go to Meedan.net.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

THE NYGMEN PODCAST Week 1 PREVIEW The Panthers Come to Town

In this 2010 Season Opener Preview, we take a look at the finalized roster for the 2010 New York Giants, focusing on the offensive line, the running game, the linebackers, Perry Fewell’s new defensive scheme, and which familiar G-Men faces will no longer be seen around the Giant lockerroom. Also, we recount our trip to Albany for training camp, including our run-in with Leonard Marshall, and we offer our analysis of HBO’s “Hard Knocks”. Carolina comes to town on Sunday at 1 o’clock. LET”S GO BIG BLUE!!
And find our training camp episodes at www.giantspodcast.com.
Listen to The NYGMen Podcast Episode #27 here:
For more, go to www.giantspodcast.com.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Jerry Browns Off To A Rollicking Start Against Billionaire Meg Whitman

Jerry Brown finally began his advertising campaign this week in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of California and he’s starting off in a good position. As I’ve been saying for the past few months, he’s come through the period from the June primary to Labor Day weekend without billionaire Meg Whitman and her biggest-spending non-presidential campaign in American history getting the 12 to 15-point lead it had planned on. In fact, she doesn’t have any lead at all.
A new poll from CNN shows the race dead even, despite Whitman having spent over $125 million, some three times more than all her opponents — Republican primary rival Steve Poizner and Democratic independent expenditure outfits like California Working Families and Working Californians — combined. (That doesn’t count millions spent on Whitman’s behalf by the shadowy “Small Business Action Committee,” which refuses to divulge its true contributors for this advertising, but shows in other reports that it gets its money from very big business.) As for Brown, he hadn’t spent a dime during his many months of Zen rope-a-dope. Until a few days ago.
Jerry Brown launched his first TV ad of this campaign a few days ago.
Now Whitman is hoping that her latest attack ad — she’s been running them since the beginning of February — doesn’t show that she’s overstayed her welcome on California’s airwaves. She’s hoping voters take seriously an attack leveled over 18 years ago against Jerry Brown by Bill Clinton, then running against Brown in the Democratic presidential primaries. The problem for Whitman is that the election is not next Tuesday.
Well, that’s one problem. Another is that her ad repeats claims already widely debunked, including by factcheck.org. And the California Department of Finance, now overseen by Whitman’s fellow Republican, Arnold Schwarznegger, says that, contrary to Whitman’s repeated false claims, taxes went down during Brown’s first go-round as governor. (In the heat of his 1992 presidential campaign against Brown, Clinton cited data from CNN that used the wrong years.)
But Whitman refuses to withdraw the ad — To be clear, this is “Big Lie” propaganda in action — and, let’s face it, lying Meg Whitman ads are nothing new.
What is new is that, while Brown is on the air with a positive TV ad and a positive radio ad, the California Teachers Association just launched, late on Friday, a TV assault against Whitman. It’s a very tough TV ad, airing around the state, attacking Whitman for her non-serious budget plan of big tax cuts for the wealthy and the threat it poses to the state’s education system.
Continuing one of his themes from last weekend’s Labor Day round of appearances before sizable rallies around the state, Brown ripped Whitman on Thursday for her tax cut and budget proposals. Which I’ve previously deconstructed here.
“Her so-called jobs plan, which is as phony as a three-dollar bill, is to give tax breaks to herself in one of grossest conflicts of interest I’ve ever seen in a campaign,” Brown said during his weekly interview on San Francisco’s KGO radio.
Brown noted, correctly, that Whitman’s plan to eliminate the capital gains tax would create at least a $5 billion hole in the state’s already wildly out of balance budget, mainly benefiting only the richest Californians.
“It’s a gigantic ripoff,” Brown said.
Some shallow thinkers believe that this Whitman ad recycling long debunked charges against Brown is brilliant. Actually, it is anything but.
The Whitman campaign is playing cynical games with its latest TV attack ad because it is desperate, far behind its plan coming out of Labor Day weekend. Whitman is only running even with Brown because the attorney general and former governor is under-performing with Democrats and hasn’t yet taken the lead with independents, with whom he historically runs very well. That’s why they have this seemingly clever but, as you see, ultimately backfiring ad showing Bill Clinton attacking Brown on the air now, to try to block what Brown should be able to do.
Here’s the text of Brown’s first TV ad of this campaign:
Voiceover: As governor, he cut waste – got rid of the mansion and the limo. Budgets were balanced. Four billion in tax cuts. World-class schools and universities. Clean energy promoted. One-point nine million new jobs created. California was working.
Jerry Brown: I’m Jerry Brown. California needs major changes. We have to live within our means, we have to return power and decision-making to the local level, closer to the people, and no new taxes without voter approval.
Voiceover: Jerry Brown. The knowledge and know-how to get California working again.
That’s actor Peter Coyote, chairman of the California Arts Council during Brown’s first go-round as governor, doing the narration.
Brown is underperforming among Democrats, where younger Dems need more inspirational information about him and moderate Dems need reassurance that he won’t be a spendthrift in a time of grave economic uncertainty.
The California Teachers Association just launched this statewide TV ad attacking Whitman for her big tax cuts for the wealthy that the CTA says will lead to even more cutbacks for education.
He also needs to improve with independents, who aren’t as liberally oriented as they were a few years ago in happier economic times.
His messaging going into and through the Labor Day weekend, along with the beginning of his positive TV advertising campaign this week, will help in all those areas. His initial ad, which features Brown speaking to camera — unlike the Whitman ads, where that has always been problematic, as I reported in my very first piece on her advertising — is workmanlike but seems to work.
Brown this week agreed to a third debate and is trying to get Whitman to go for another in Los Angeles. All the debates agreed to so far are north of the Tehachapis.
Brown, of course, is still challenging Whitman to 10 town hall debates up and down the state. Whitman prefers the more staid panel of reporters approach, which makes continuity and follow-up much harder and allows the less fluent candidate to escape extended scrutiny.
With his positive TV ad launched around the state, Brown launched a positive radio ad on Thursday.
Here’s the script.
Announcer: Never accused of following conventional wisdom, Jerry Brown took on the status quo. As Governor he refused to take a pay raise and vetoed pay raises for state employees – dumped the Governor’s mansion and the limo to save money.
And with Jerry Brown as Governor, California was working. Four billion in tax cuts – 1.9 million jobs created. Jerry Brown has the knowledge and know-how to get California working again.
Jerry Brown: As Governor, I was known for frugality. I thought if people were cutting back, Government should too. Today our state is in serious trouble. We need to make major changes – think differently and govern differently. By making the tough decisions now, we can get California back on track. We have to start living within our means. We need to return power and decision-making to the local level, closer to the people. And no new taxes without voter approval.
Announcer: Jerry Brown. The knowledge and know how to get California working again. Paid for by Brown for Governor 2010
The narrator on the 60-second radio spot, as on the TV ad, is actor Peter Coyote.
Jerry Brown launched his first radio ad of the campaign at the end of the week.
Also on Thursday, Brown received the endorsement of the nation’s largest state-level association of law enforcement officers, PORAC, the 62,000 member Peace Officers Research Association of California.
While Brown philosophically opposes the death penalty (which as many readers know, I do not), he has a lengthy background on law enforcement issues, having enacted the “Use a gun, go to prison” law during his first time as governor, increasing the police force and cutting crime as mayor of Oakland, pioneering new uses of DNA technology and executing major gang round-ups as California attorney general, and intervening along with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to stop a statewide initiative to do away with the state’s three-strikes law.
To try to counter this, Whitman has her thoroughly dishonest attack ad against Brown. It’s kind of clever, but not so much in the end.
Incidentally, in the latest example of the dramatic decline of the state press corps, the joint Capitol Weekly/Los Angeles Times web site published this little gem: “Last year, Clinton took the unusual step of endorsing Brown’s then-rival, Gavin Newsom, in the governor’s race.”
In reality, as I’ve mentioned many times, and reported here last year, this is a canard.
Clinton was on a national payback tour for dozens of politicians who had helped Hillary Clinton in her campaign. Newsom was a national co-chair.
Clinton did one low-level fundraiser for Newsom in Los Angeles, made a very tepid statement about him, then spent the next three days in San Francisco, where Newsom is mayor, and proceeded to ignore him. Newsom dropped out a few weeks later, as first reported on my New West Notes blog.
How was I so sure that there would be no Clinton push against Brown for governor? Well, Clinton’s longtime man in California, former senior White House aide John Emerson, was the best man at my first wedding. And because I knew what the former president was doing around the country to pay back politicians who helped Hillary in her primary race against Barack Obama.
You can check things during the day on my site, New West Notes … www.newwestnotes.com.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Brazilian Election What Does South American Giant Want in PostLula Era

In a scene from my first book, Hugo Chvez: Oil, Politics and the Challenge to the U.S. (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006), I discuss how Brazil became an ally of Venezuela during a key moment of heightened political tensions. It was December, 2002 and Venezuelan President Hugo Chvez was facing down an economically damaging lock-out of the oil sector launched by the right wing political opposition.
As a result of the lock-out, Venezuela was obliged to import gasoline for domestic use. Chvez, who at the time was locked in a bitter political struggle with the Bush White House in Washington, desperately needed allies. Fortunately, just across the border Venezuela found an important diplomatic supporter in Brazil. In a clear sign that the South American giant was in no mood to cooperate with U.S. efforts designed to isolate Venezuela, Brazil shipped half a million barrels of oil to the Chvez government.
Luiz Incio “Lula” da Silva of the Workers’ Party had just won the Brazilian presidential election two months earlier, defeating conservative challenger Jos Serra. Though he had not yet officially taken office, Lula was reportedly involved in the sensitive decision to ship oil to Venezuela. In moving to help Chvez, Lula had his own political concerns: if the Venezuelan was overthrown, Lula said privately, “tomorrow” it would be his turn and this could give rise to a domino-like effect throughout the region.
Eight years later, Brazil is nearing the end of charismatic Lula’s second term in office and must decide whether it wants to continue to pursue a more independent foreign policy which could ultimately risk Washington’s ire. While the two leading candidates vying to succeed Lula in Brazil’s October 3rd presidential election do not differ substantially on domestic issues, they have staked out very different positions when it comes to the country’s role on the world stage.
Serra, Lula’s erstwhile challenger in 2002, is now back again. As candidate of the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party or PSDB, he would prioritize relations with the United States and Europe while having little patience for the likes of Chvez or the Castro brothers in Cuba. Workers’ Party candidate and former Minister of Energy Dilma Rousseff meanwhile would maintain friendly ties with the U.S. but continue Lula’s warm embrace of Venezuela. The election, therefore, has real geopolitical consequences for South America’s so-called “Pink Tide,” which in recent years has swept leftist regimes into power.
In an inflammatory move, the PSDB candidate has accused Bolivia of complicity in drug trafficking. Moreover Serra, a former congressman and governor of the heavily industrialized state of So Paulo, laid into Lula for refusing to recognize the new government of Honduras, which was dubiously elected while the coup regime was still in power in Tegucigalpa. In other respects, Serra tows the U.S. line: the Brazilian candidate accuses Venezuela of sheltering FARC insurgents, the main guerilla group fighting the pro-Washington Colombian government in Bogot.
Perhaps even more seriously, a Serra presidency could derail South American economic and political integration which has taken place along progressive lines. Serra has expressed skepticism about the South American trade bloc Mercosur which groups regional nations into a common market.
As I point out in my last book, Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, 2008), many countries within the group are left-leaning and major energy producers. In recent years Lula has prodded Brazilian state energy company Petrobras to invest in Bolivia and Venezuela so as to enhance regional integration. It might be said, then, that energy has helped to solidify tighter economic ties amongst politically aligned countries within the region.
Mercosur is merely a free trade bloc and hardly constitutes a viable break with market capitalism. However, to the degree that South American countries encourage their own free trade zone, Mercosur promotes independence from the U.S. Currently, Mercosur prohibits member countries from signing separate accords: like the musketeers of yore it’s all for one and one for all.
Serra might drive a wrench through such integration plans by taking a tough line in trade disputes with Argentina and Mercosur. Reportedly, the PSDB candidate told a group of Brazilian investors that he was fed up with Mercosur as the bloc represented “an obstacle for Brazil signing its own individual trade agreements.”
With an open question mark hanging over Serra’s adherence to Mercosur, integrationists may take some comfort that Rousseff is currently surging in voter surveys. According to Datafolha, a leading Brazilian polling organization, the Lula protg is favored by the public with 49 per cent of the vote compared to just 29 per cent for Serra. If her lead in the polls holds during the election, the Workers’ Party candidate could actually win an outright majority of votes on October 3rd, thus invalidating the need for a second runoff on October 31st.
While Rousseff is expected to maintain Brazil’s ties to the U.S., embracing Washington adversaries like Chvez could place her relationship with the White House under strain. A former guerrilla who was active during Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship, Rousseff supports Latin American integration and gives top priority to Mercosur. On a regional level, she has remarked, Brazil should “strengthen ties with all our South American neighbors…through solidarity and not imperialism.”
What might one expect from a Rousseff administration in terms of South American energy integration? For answers, one need merely look at the record. Up until recently the Workers’ Party candidate served as chairwoman of the board for the Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras which has an important energy profile within the wider region. Even more importantly, as Minister of Energy Rousseff met with her regional counterparts in an effort to form Petrosur, a pan-South American oil company favored by Hugo Chvez. Additionally, she signed important deals to share technical and energy know-how with Venezuela.
In neighboring Bolivia, the leftist government of Evo Morales has pursued a course of energy nationalism in an effort to reclaim sovereignty over the nation’s gas sector. Brazil, a voracious energy consumer which must service burgeoning sectors of its economy such as agribusiness, receives significant natural gas from Bolivia where Petrobras operates. Far from balking at Bolivia’s new-found resource nationalism, the Lula government and Rousseff have pursued friendly relations with Morales which in turn provides La Paz with important political cover. What is more the future looks bright: in a recent interview with the Bolivian paper La Razn, Rousseff said she would build upon energy ties as president so as to enhance relations with the Morales government.
Beset with its own internal problems and contradictions, Latin America’s Pink Tide may not see a vast political advance any time soon. The key question therefore is how the Pink Tide conserves necessary breathing space which will allow it to take stock of its situation. While a Rousseff triumph will not transform the left bloc’s fortunes, it will give neighboring countries a necessary respite from Washington and international pressure.
From September 30-October 5 Nikolas Kozloff will be in Brasilia, writing about Brazil’s presidential election. He will also sit in on the nation’s last presidential debate and interview representatives from the major presidential campaigns. For media inquiries, click here.
Kozloff is the author of Revolution! South America and the Rise of the New Left (Palgrave, 2008) and No Rain in the Amazon: How South America’s Climate Change Affects the Entire Planet (Palgrave, 2010). Visit his website, www.nikolaskozloff.com.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

One Americans Search for Community

During this period of deep pain and hardship for many people, what can often be most healing is a sense of community, either creating it or re-discovering it. Some might call it simple nostalgia, and things surely were not perfect in suburban Houston in the 1970s. But the public schools in our neighborhood were fantastic. We played in woods and in a creek, which was full of crayfish, snakes and bullfrogs, and which appeared at least to be clean. Most of the doors to the neighbors’ homes were unlocked and we came and went as children until the sun went down, feeling pretty safe. My mother went with other mothers to a farmer’s market to buy food for several families regularly, and we joined other families at the best hamburger joint (Roznoski’s) and the best barbeque (Otto’s) and the best deli (Nielsen’s-can’t have a funeral without ‘em) in Houston, which were inexpensive and damn good.
Then there were years spent in Austin in the 80s, in neighborhoods that felt like neighborhoods. Whole Foods was not yet a chain and still located in a hippy-filled wooden structure a short bus ride form the campus. Later, in Seattle in the 90s, the city was growing but in a human way it seemed. In between were years of study abroad and travel in Paris and Scandinavia, where authentic neighborhoods and safety were pretty much the norm. People watched out for one another’s children. Quality of life had less to do with wealth than with knowing how to spend one’s time. Student-life gave way to work life, but even on a first job salary, these places were easy to live in and enjoying oneself was possible, in fact a daily event. Full on globalization had not yet hit and the choice of vegetables in Oslo markets was limited, and in Paris eating anything out of season was unheard of…
When I returned to the US for graduate school, I remember looking at cities where I wanted to live, in addition to schools which had programs I was interested in or places where I knew people. But what I found myself actually searching for was a sense of community like I had experienced: local markets, places where I could walk and bike, which felt safe, and, imagined trying to live quite a bit like I had lived in Europe and even how we had lived as children back in Texas. I had never had a car at that time, so public transportation was a must, as was an affordable school, so at last I settled on Seattle. There I found not only a great community and a city which functioned, at the time it was possible to live centrally on a student’s income, enjoy the nearby nature for free, have a beer or an (original) Starbucks for a buck, in other words, the standard of living for the money was great. This democratization of a good quality of life made for happier people who were more open to helping others. The fact that pretty much everyone was also within 5 minutes of a gorgeous (free) view did not hurt.
People were, in all of these places, even if personally conservative, extremely tolerant. It felt more like live and let live than anything else. People also seemed to be more self-reliant. Everyone I knew, even those in small apartments, had some kind of garden. We shared a lot, bringing fruits and vegetables form our gardens, salmon we had caught, flowers from the Public Market and wine to one another’s homes for great meals. I live much like this still when in Paris. We have a great building in which we know everyone, stop over and have a drink with neighbors, or call one another in an emergency. Nearby is a park where we do Easter egg hunts and have great picnics several months of the year. We are not rich and some of us have had major job upheavals in the past year, but we do not feel the fear of credit card debt and houses which have plunged in value. It was always understood in a city several hundreds of years old that you can’t get something for nothing.
We can walk and bike or take a bus easily to most places. There are lots of free cultural events, museums, etc. A mint tea in the garden of the nearby mosque is only 2 euros. A year’s family pass to the zoo and many museums in the Jardin des Plantes is 20 euros and the gardens themselves are free. The public schools are still pretty darn good still but it is a constant battle to keep them that way. Yes, the financial climate is less than great, and it may indeed get much worse. But if you focus on what matters, and realize that the best things in life are indeed free or pretty close to it, friendship, love, a nice long walk… you will feel pretty wealthy indeed. In fact, when times get rough, this kind of relationship and community building is how people survive without giving up their humanity.
Here we live at a much slower pace, one that reminds me nostalgically of how we lived in America back in the 1970s. We sit down for a full meal with partners and family and friends. Marketing and cooking are part of the experience and I look forward to my Sunday mornings at the Marche d’Aligre and the Sunday fish lunches and magret de canard I make for my daughter who loves it. Lunches take time and my partner and I spend a few hours cooking, then during meals talking and listening to our children. I would argue that sharing meals is one of the best and most enjoyable ways of creating community.
But what stands out the most for me here is the sense of belonging to a greater community, neighborhood, humanity. When the recent protests against raising the retirement age and job cuts were held last week, those striking came not just from unions, but also from private companies. We will have more strikes later this month and people will have to walk and bike and flights will be cancelled. But heck, just a few months ago the Icelandic volcano shut down airspace in Europe and we survived it. I am thankful there have always been protests. There are more of Us than Them and we can shut things down if we want… but that takes community and solidarity.
People here know how to make do, organize their lives accordingly, and as I was reminded while waiting a really really long time yesterday at the Italian food cooperative to buy good products, it’s often worth the wait here! I remember thinking while standing in line watching the Ricotta being sliced, that people in the US would go nuts having to wait like this. I on the other hand, noticed the people in the shop, one was Italian, another a old fashioned gentleman coming for his lunch meats, another who knew the owner of the shop well and he gave her a little better price. He worried what I was buying would be too heavy to carry and paid attention to how he bagged it as he saw I was on a bicycle.
Yesterday evening I turned off my phone, which I try to do as often as possible in the evenings and on weekends (whoever told someone that a ringing phone had to be answered?), and was happy to discover invitations to a last-minute picnic from two friends this morning. I turned off my phone in order to focus on the person I was with and I was reminded that we cannot really focus on creating the human contact which is the first step of building community if we do not cut off from all the noise and really listen to one another.
You cannot build a community by over-planning everything and filling up time with internet and car driving and other activities which isolate. When I choose to cut off and be more alone I do. But most of the time, just walking to work or going to the market in a city and neighborhood like this, one runs into many people one knows, whose children are also at the local school. Being part of a real community means being aware of the needs of others, as well as one’s own needs.
This kind of community still exists in parts of America too, but in some places we have destroyed it. We need to use this time of economic slowdown to bring back communities and help one another and get to know one another again. We need to begin sharing more and offering help, to babysit, help move, build a piece of furniture, volunteer…
Americans are so very generous already. We need to be more generous with ourselves and not by buying another wide-screen tv or a luxury vacation, but by turning our country back into one of real communities. Participating in the schools and markets and discussions and politics is part of who we are and how democracy works.
They say you can’t go home again. But I would argue we can build an even better home. It starts with Ourselves, one step, one garden, one vote, one neighbor, one reaching out, one child at a time. And before we know it, America will resemble America again. I Am Another Yourself.

Follow Vivian Norris de Montaigu on Twitter:
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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Dont Call Todays Republicans Conservative Goldwater Dirksen et al Would Be Insulted

There was a time when I was reporting on Congress, that I admired, respected and even liked some of the most stalwart conservatives in the Senate. But that was before the conservatives of the Republican Party metamorphosed into a rancid rabble of radicals who seek to cripple a president, the federal government and the Constitution of the United States.
The lawmakers to whom I refer were conservatives in the classic, dictionary definition of the word. They favored “traditional views and values, tending to oppose change…to conserve; disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions; or restore traditional ones and to limit change.”
According to Wikipedia, the views of Edmund Burke, the philosophical patron saint of traditional conservatives , were “a mixture of liberal and conservative. He supported the American revolution but abhorred the violence of the French revolution, He accepted the [then] liberal ideals of private property and the economics of Adam Smith…but believed that capitalism should be subordinate to the medieval social tradition…that the business class should be subordinate to the aristocracy.”
American conservatism, as I knew it in my reporting days, was based on the ideas of Burke, and included respect for traditional institutions and public service, along with the flexibility that life and politics demand and, yes, elements of liberalism and electoral pragmatism. Although many of us may have disagreed with them, conservatives were, for the most part, people of principle who took their jobs seriously and believed in government. And with the National Review founder William F. Buckley setting the tone, conservatism had some intellectual heft. With these criteria, I don’t believe today’s right-wing radicals should be called conservatives. They are know-nothing bullies.
One of my conservative heroes was Sen. Sam Ervin, a North Carolina Democrat and former justice of that state’s Supreme Court. This generation my remember him best as the grumpy, drawling chairman of the select Senate committee that investigated Watergate. But he also took on the demagogic anti-communism of Sen. Joe McCarthy, and he uncovered the U.S. Army’s domestic spying program called COINTEL. Today’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was one of its results.
Ervin headed the Judiciary subcommittee on Constitutional Rights. And while he was a segregationist who opposed, as unconstitutional, the Earl Warren court’s 1954 school desegregation decision, there was no greater champion of civil liberties and the Constitution. He later changed his mind about the Supreme Court’s decision, but continue to oppose forced desegregation as excessive federal power.
But I came to know him in my first year on Capitol Hill, in 1966 when the segregationists of both parties sought constitutional amendments to set aside the court decisions on school desegregation and to make prayer compulsory in the public schools. Indeed, in the wake of the court decisions and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, there was a great clamor for a constitutional convention, which Ervin saw as a great danger, if, for example the First and Fifth amendments were put to a popularity test. Ervin was able to shut down the call for a convention because of his knowledge of the law and the Constitution, and because he was respected by his colleagues as an even keeled, independent, conservative. He was “Mr. Constitution.”
That historic 1964 Civil Rights Act, could not have passed without the crucial help of the Senate Minority Leader, conservative Republican Everett McKinley Dirksen, of Illinois, who had served in the House of Representatives from 1933-49, before coming to the Senate in 1951. And during his tenure as leader, Dirksen served another, pragmatic conservative Republican, President Eisenhower, and he was leader of the loyal opposition, supporting the Vietnam War, when Lyndon Johnson was president. But his defining moment came on June 10, 1964, when all 100 Senators were present and the longest filibuster in the chamber’s history was droning on.
In those days it took 66 votes to break a filibuster, and the floor had been held for 83 days by the southern segregationists led by Republican Strom Thurmond, of South Carolina. A friend once asked his South Carolina colleague, Olin D. Johnston, a conservative Democrat, what moved Thurmond. He replied, “The trouble with ol’ Strom is he really believes that s–t.
Late that morning, Dirksen rose to address the Senate. He had been working long hours helping to craft the bill with the help of the Johnson White House, fellow Republican Sen. Thomas Kuchel of California, and the Democratic leadership. He spoke 15 minutes. His florid style was gone and his voice was tired as he spoke: “There are many reasons why cloture should be invoked and a good civil rights measure enacted. It is said on the night he died, Victor Hugo wrote in his diary, substantially this sentiment, ‘Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come.’ The time has come for equality of opportunity in sharing of government, in education, and in employment. It must not be stayed or denied.”
An hour later the 67th vote was cast and the filibuster was broken with the help of Republicans. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed the Senate by a vote of 73-27 and was signed a month later. With Dirksen’s help, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, broke the back of southern intransigence. Unfortunately, as Johnson had predicted, Richard Nixon’s 1968 “southern strategy” campaign led the Republican Party down a dark path from which it has not returned.
One of the “nay” votes against cloture and the bill came from Sen. Barry Goldwater, who held that the federal government was intruding into the rights of the states and interfering with the rights of private businesses to serve whom they wished. That position cost him millions of votes that year when he was overwhelmingly defeated for the presidency by Lyndon Johnson. But the conservative movement rose out of the ashes and Goldwater was”Mr. Conservative.” His partner and benefactor in that rise was Ronald Reagan, who made a stirring, nationally televised speech. “A Time For Choosing,.” on Goldwater’s behalf. Even among the far right, their conservative credentials cannot be challenged.
Yet Goldwater, who collected Kachina dolls and was a champion of American Indian rights, was also a supporter of abortion rights. He called himself a libertarian and in 1989 said the Republican Party had been taken over by a “bunch of kooks.” In a 1994 interview with the Washington Post, Goldwater said, “When you say ‘radical right’ today. I think of moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye.”
A former officer in the Air Force, Goldwater was a strong defender of the military but criticized its ban on homosexuals. “You don’t have to be straight in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” He told right-wingers: “Do not associate my name with anything you do. You are extremists and you’ve hurt the Republican Party much more than Democrats have.”
In 1996 he told fellow Republican, Bob Dole, who had been trashed by the elder George Bush, “We’re the new liberals of the Republican Party. Can you imagine that?” That year Goldwater, to the dismay of the Christian right, endorsed an Arizona initiative to legalize medical marihuana. As the senate Republican leader Dole was another principled conservative who ran afoul of the right-wing, perhaps because he joined Sen. Ted Kennedy in sponsoring legislation to provide for elementary school lunches for low-income American students.
There were other staunch conservatives who made the Senate work:
–Sen. Robert A. Taft, of Ohio, who died before my time covering the Senate, was “Mr. Republican,” a powerful “isolationist,” an opponent of the New Deal and Franklin Roosevelt’s effort to go to war against the Nazis. But he was the son of a trust-buster, William Howard Taft and came to support Social Security, unemployment insurance, strict banking regulation and, after the war, the United Nations.
–Democrat Richard Russell of Georgia, a segregationist to the end, who nevertheless helped Lyndon Johnson become the Majority leader.
–Democrat Robert Byrd, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, who defeated Ted Kennedy for a leadership post and became a fervent fighter against the growth of executive power to engage in wars.
–Republican Robert P. Griffin, of Michigan, who I knew, helped defeat Richard Nixon’s worst Supreme Court nominees, Clement Haynesworth, and Harold Carswell, as well as Johnson’s attempt to make a political crony, Abe Fortas, the Chief Justice. Another staunch conservative Republican, Roman Hruska, defended Carswell, but contributed to his defeat by saying that even the mediocre need “a little representation.”
Although not in the Senate, even Ronald Reagan, in partnership with then Senate leaders Robert Dole, tempered his conservatism as he grew in office. A year after his sweeping tax cuts, one-third across the board, Reagan thought better of the growing federal deficit and reluctantly approved record tax increases. After denouncing Social Security for years, and trying to make it voluntary, Reagan presided over the rescue of Social Security in 1983 that has built its $2.6 trillion trust fund. And after declaring the then Soviet Union as the “evil empire,” his peacemaking and arms agreements with Moscow from 1986-88, helped end the cold war. After his presidency, Reagan, who once hoped the United Nations would leave the U.S., became a champion of the United Nations and called for a humanitarian “army of conscience” to rescue the beleaguered people of Africa.
These conservatives were not like those radicals of today, pouncing on every opportunity to change the Constitution. Reagan was opposed to abortion, but did not press for legislation or a constitutional amendment to ban it. And as far as I know, after Ervin put the kibosh on the proposal for a constitutional convention, the drive to change the Constitution and the Bill of Rights has abated-until now. And it’s more than ironic that people who call themselves “conservatives,” and “strict constructionists,” are seeking to end rather than “conserve” and “preserve” fundamental liberties.
Consider the differences between those traditional and flexible conservatives and the lockstep Senate Republicans under leader Mitch McConnell, who are setting new records for filibustering to block virtually every presidential initiative and nomination. Almost as one, they deny the science of climate change, oppose all abortions, even when rape or incest is involved, would cut taxes for the wealthy and deny that will increase the deficit, complain that unemployment insurance will keep the jobless from working, would repeal health reforms as a federal takeover. Intellectual? Try Republican Sen. Lindsay Graham, (SC), testing Supreme Court nominee Elana Kagan’s faith by asking her where she was on Christmas. Her glorious put down: “Like all good Jews I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.” Graham was one of the few Republicans who voted to confirm her.
Ben Evans, writing for HuffingtonPost, counts 42 proposed constitutional amendments filed in this congressional session by the most right wing members. (In fairness, Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., of Illinois has proposed a package of 27 amendments, none of which would repeal any part of the Constitution, but would enhance voting rights and deal with congressional succession in a natural disaster.)
The Republican proposals, however, would limit freedoms as defined by Supreme Court decisions. They include:
– a flag desecration amendment, although the courts have said such acts pf protest are protected by the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment;
–an amendment to require a balanced budget, which would stunt all federal government growth and give the nation the problems the states are having because most are required to balance their budgets;
–an amendment to require a super majority in Congress (two-thirds) to raise taxes;
– a parental rights amendment giving parents the right to raise their children as they see fit;
–a “human life” amendment, banning abortion;
– a federal marriage amendment banning same sex marriages;
–repeal of the 17th Amendment (1913) requiring that senators be elected rather than appointed;
–an amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment (1913) (proposed by Tea Party activists), which gives Congress the right to levy taxes and spend money;
-an amendment prohibiting government ownership of private businesses (as in the bank and automobile manufacturers bailouts);
-an amendment to limit the “commerce clause,” which from earliest days has given the federal government power to regulate “interstate commerce,” meaning the economy (as in the health reform requirement to have medical insurance).
- And an effort, supported by Republican leaders, who have long abandoned Lincoln’s legacy, to repeal parts of the 14th Amendment (1868) which, among other things, gave former slaves American citizenship to counter the notorious Dred Scott case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that slaves were chattel and not persons.
That current drive to repeal the 14th Amendment (one of three passed during post Civil War Reconstruction to expand American freedoms) move was prompted by hostility towards undocumented immigrants whose children born in the U.S., automatically become citizens (although their parents do not.) This hostility was carried to ridiculous extremes by a Texas nut congressman who claimed the 14th Amendment would allow women to come to America to have “terrorist babies,” who would become citizens so they could one day attack America. The pity of this idiocy, it’s aided and abetted by the current Republican leaders and the most active and outspoken right-wingers.
The 14th amendment, if you don’t have a copy, also includes: “nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” That has become the basis of the school desegregation decision, women’s rights, the right of an accused to have a lawyer and countless other advances in individual liberties. Once it is opened for change, can we trust these hard-shell Republican radicals to leave the “due process clause” alone?
Constitutional historian Richard Beeman writes: “Perhaps the most significant and far-reaching amendment to the Constitution, the 14th Amendment,” is viewed by many scholars and jurists as the provision of the Constitution that has brought the principles enunciated in the preamble of the Declaration of Independence into the realm of constitutional law–life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
write to saulfriedman@comcast.net Friedman also writes for www.timegoesby.net

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

The Antidote to Intolerance Amplifying the Voice of Compassion

At a time when religious intolerance is creeping into public consciousness, now is an important moment to highlight Karen Armstrong, who won the TED Prize in 2008, and then made her wish to create a Charter for Compassion.
To be specific, this is a charter that shows that the principal of compassion is at the core of all major faith traditions.
Calls to burn the Koran on this September 11th — which thankfully are not moving forward — demonstrate a religious intolerance that does not reflect how most Americans feel. We need better, more open dialogue about the world’s religions, and to foster acceptance and discussion rather than fear and hate.
Karen Armstrong has done just this, first as a Roman Catholic nun, then as an author who has written extensively on religion and spirituality, and now as a leader at the helm of Charter for Compassion.
Since being awarded the TED Prize, and then coming up with her wish, her vision has evolved and become a union of 130 partner organizations and a website — unveiled less than a year ago — that has drawn more than 53,000 people from across the globe (from all religions) who have affirmed their belief in religious compassion and tolerance.
As the first line of the charter states, the principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
One of our earliest Charter partners was Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who has devoted his life to healing the relations between Muslim Americans and their neighbors. He is also the person behind the community center near Ground Zero, and sadly he has become a target of the intolerance he works so tirelessly eradicate.
At a pre-launch event for the Center, we recorded talks on compassion from different leaders of six major faith traditions, and I encourage you to watch Imam Feisal’s speech.
These difficult moments reaffirm what the TED Prize and larger TED community can help inspire- in this case becoming part of a movement that has united tens of thousands of people to advance religious compassion.
Clearly there is work to be done. We need to turn up the volume of the compassionate voice, one that isn’t getting much notice in today’s media. Each name added to the Charter amplifies that voice. Visit the Charter, add your name, and in the next two days share it with your family and friends: www.charterforcompassion.org

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Kate Gosselins New Public Attack on Jons Parenting Was Selfish Hurtful To Her Kids

I was shocked today, Sept 10th, when you told Regis & Kelly that when your children have their visitation times with Jon “I basically wait for the phone call, for how many of them want to come home.” Dig!
Kelly and Anderson Cooper — who was filling in for Regis — looked aghast when you continued, saying that your children “want to be home playing with their toys and sleeping in their beds and spending time with ME!” Double digg! Kate, you then admitted that when they call you from Jon’s place, “I bring them home.” Punch!
And then when Anderson told you , “but you’re saying that basically they don’t enjoy being with him [Jon],” Kate ,you admitted that at “different days and different times, some of them don’t mind “spending time with him.” Slam!
Kate, you got another dig in at Jon when you said “I do try to keep it as peaceful as possible … I speak for myself.” Slug!
I was just as flabbergasted as Kelly and Anderson, who were glued to your every shocking word. You sat there in your bright red sleeveless blouse, red liptick and new long side-parted ultra-blonde blowout and just kept the digs coming You claimed that you understand that your children have a need to “see Jon” because “he is their father,” but you clearly don’t see that at all. Your anger and bitterness oozed out of your every word and pore.
Kate — you’re 35, but you’re acting like a self-centered two-year-old having a public hissy fit. You’re airing your dirty laundry in public and that’s NOT OK, when children are involved.
Click to read why both Kate & Jon are behaving like bad parents!
Jessica Simspon looks better bigger!
Watch Kim Kardashian get botox!
Watch Megan’s sexy new underwear commercial!

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Will Virtual Farming Surpass Actual Farming

Newspapers and currency are going digital, so is it any surprise that farming is, too?
A representative of Zynga, the social game company behind 4 of the top 5 top Facebook apps of the moment, said this week that the 60 million players of its virtual farming game, FarmVille, have farmed 500 million acres of digital strawberries, corn, watermelons and more. Contrast that with the 930 million acres of actual farmland in America, and that’s a pretty sizable chunk of territory.
Oh, and FarmVille has only been out for a year.
It may seem silly to compare a video game to one of the world’s largest professions, but the sheer numbers behind FarmVille — a game in which users essentially mimic farm work for as many as 70 million hours a week — are astonishing.
Click through to see the entire infographic on Farmville vs Real Farms.
(via Mashable.com)
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Shane snow is a web entrepreneur and writer in New York City, founder of PrintingChoice, the online printing price search engine. See more of his infographics at ShaneSnow.com.

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Source:www.huffingtonpost.com

Happy Grandparents Day No Need to Mail a Card

This year on Grandparents Day, more children might want to honor their grandparents, but they won’t need to mail acard to do it.
So far the recession has brought American families apossible stall in divorce rates anda drop inbirth rates, as well as a rash of child abuse and other violence. Now there is more evidence that the recession is bringing families closer together — in this case physically — in the data on children’s living arrangements. The number of children who live with at least one grandparent has spiked upward.
The Census Bureaureports that 7 million children were living with a grandparent in 2009, or 9% of kids under 18. Among those, half (4.5 million) live in the grandparents’ home, rather than hosting a grandparent in their parents’ home. (The new Pew Center report making news provides more detail on care arrangements, but only includes Census data through 2008.)
Interestingly, as the figure shows, the jump in multigenerational living was greatest for the non-poor (those over 200% of the poverty line). In addition to fallout from job losses, one can imagine this includes families displaced by foreclosure and job loss, grandparents who can’t afford to move into retirement communities because they can’t sell their homes, and other complications of the real estate crash.
The children most likely to live with grandparents, however, are the near-poor — those between 100% and 200% of the poverty line. This might include a lot of would-be poor families in which the grandparents are employed, bringing the total family income over the poverty line.
My older research into multigenerational living produced compelling evidence that these arrangements are usually not a first choice in the U.S. these days — because the more money people have, the less likely they are to share housing. Still, the effect of all this could be more intergenerational solidarity and close relationships. But I wouldn’t assume that.
Cross-posted from the Family Inequality blog.

Source:www.huffingtonpost.com