Get to know this name: Kenneth Foster, Jr. You are going to be hearing a lot of it the next 30 days because I have a personal stake in this matter.
You see, one night in August 1996 one of my best friends, Michael LaHood, was murdered...
Art Brodsky | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
I was driving to the subway, listening to the radio, when Tucker Carlson, of all people, called me a "freak."
He didn't say that I, individually, was a "freak," but I certainly fit into a class of people that he did label as "freaks." I am proud to have...
Stephen Schlesinger | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
The primary failure of the Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack Op-Ed piece, "A War We Might Just Win" in yesterday's New York Times is that, while the authors may be right that the more US troops we can pour into Iraq, the more control we can exercise over the...
Maia Szalavitz | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Ok, this is getting really tiresome. Earlier this week, I debunked media coverage that claimed that marijuana increases risk of schizophrenia by 40% -- but none of the media bothered to mention that despite massive increases in marijuana use, schizophrenia rates have not increased.
Comes now a new...
Steve Young | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Republicans have been outstanding in couching the debate, quick to label issues, persons or an entire political party's position in terms so simplistic, yet deviously potent. A facile catchphrase feeds into the voters' darkest fears without engaging the least amount of analytical thought.
If you believe attacking terrorism where...
Jake Brewer | Posted March 28, 2008 | Business
Walking around Charleston, SC before and after the Democratic CNN/YouTube Presidential Debate, I was struck by three things:
First; based on what appeared to be very high demand, blonde hair dye is probably running about the same market rate as a barrel of oil in South Carolina. I...
Michael Giltz | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
The movie 300 -- a tale of Spartans dying gloriously in battle -- comes to DVD ($34.98; Warner Bros.) as the most surprising and polarizing movie of the year. It grossed an astonishing $70 million on its opening weekend in March thanks to a cool look that rivals The...
Rep. George Miller | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company recently sent Lilly Ledbetter a bill for $3,165.20.
It wasn't because Ledbetter bought new tires for everyone in her neighborhood.
Ledbetter, who worked at a Goodyear facility in Alabama for 19 years, was the plaintiff in a pay discrimination lawsuit against...
Reggie Cervantes | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani thinks his "plan for up to $15,000 in tax breaks to help families pay for coverage outside employer-based plans is the antidote."
I totally disagree.
How is a single mother of two with a monthly income of $1,500 or a family of four with an income...
Michael Moore | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Trisha Gura | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
They do it even in remote island villages.
In my last blog, several people who posed comments asked if the U.S. was the only country suffering eating disorders.
Here's my answer:
In Sigatoka, Fiji, eating disorders have emerged from, literally, nothing.
According to anthropologist Anne Becker,...
Lauren Rich Fine | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
One can forgive the Bancroft family for actually thinking they have a choice. Think about it. When the company went public, the family was able to maintain control despite selling an economic interest to the public. They did this by issuing two classes of stock and retaining a voting majority....
HuffPost Editors | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
The new Us Weekly, which hits newstands in New York and LA on Wednesday and nationwide Friday, features the battle over toddler sons Sean Preston and Jayden James, 22 and 10 months. The cover line mentions soda in baby bottles and mommy's many men. And despite the divorce being...
Anthony Kaufman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
A stinging rebuke against Cheney-esque black ops and torture tactics, Universal Pictures' The Bourne Ultimatum is more than just a heart-stopping international espionage thriller: It is Hollywood's most direct attack against the Bush Regime since George Clooney's one-two punch of Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana. If those more...
John Ridley | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
So I was going through my favorite news, information, pop culture websites this past weekend when I came across an interesting post. It was put up by your typical anonymous responder #54 (okay, truth be told he was the first responder on the thread, but I'm pretty sure Guido...
Art Levine | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
The folks who used lies and distortions to get us into the Iraq war are now using the same techniques to convince members of Congress they shouldn't vote for expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Debate starts this week on the Senate floor. As I point out in...
Zandile Blay | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
Vegas.
The name alone makes you shiver with expectation.
Big resorts. Big spenders. Big shows. And the potential to land a big score on and off the gambling floor.
So when I heard that my latest travel writing...
Neal F. Bermas and Sondra Stewart | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
A few news items tie it all together.
It's been noted how strange wars end up. The President of Vietnam came to the US recently to strengthen the economic ties between the two countries. He's the highest ranking official to visit the US since the war; the war they...
Sharon Waxman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
ROME - Marion True's trial may soon be over, I was told yesterday by Maurizio Fiorilli, one of two state prosecutors leading the case, who is also the man negotiating bilateral accords on restitution with American museums. The two issues are linked. He said he is close to...
Andrea Learned | Posted March 28, 2008 | Business
Anyone who has even casually monitored the media for stories on the "greening" of brands and retailers has likely noticed a few disconnects between what is said and what is done.
For instance, can a brand tout environmental awareness while distributing bottled water as a promotional item (visualize a corporate-sponsored,...
Katie Halper | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
White Light/ Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagaski is a thoughtful, moving and frighteningly relevant documentary which sheds light on the history and the present-day legacy of the use of the atomic bomb. The film gives voice to the silenced survivors of the bomb while at the same...
H. Candace Gorman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
I was delighted last month when I read that one of the lawyers in the trenches of the Combat Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) process decided to come forward and expose that severely flawed and brazenly manipulated process. Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham is the latest hero to blow the whistle on...
Suzanne Nossel | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
I almost jumped out of my subway seat yesterday morning while reading Mike O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack's NY Times op-ed entitled: "A War We Just Might Win." The pair just returned from a trip to Iraq and declare:
Here is the most important thing Americans need...
Karen Dalton-Beninato | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
"The toga party chant of "How's Your House" turns the Hurricane Katrina tragedy into a wonderfully perverse taunt delivered with a sarcasm and wit that is much dryer than any bus load of blankets sent in by the good folks at F.E.M.A.
--Matt Parish
ink19 Music Review
Two years...
Carl Pope | Posted March 28, 2008 | Business
Detroit, MI -- For over a decade the Sierra Club has made the pilgrimage to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, to meet with the auto industry, the leadership of the UAW, and with Michigan political figures. And always with the same message: the American auto industry has real problems and it cannot...
Eric Alterman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Well, we have a done deal. Beelzebub himself has gotten hold of The Wall Street Journal. As I tried to illustrate in my Nation column, "All Rupert, All the Time," the purchase is a double-edged sword for liberals, progressives, centrists, indeed anyone but a rabid conservative. Murdoch will,...
Heather Wood Rudúlph | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
I enjoy watching the YouTube train wrecks of the week as much as the next guy -- you know, those forwarded clips of botched American Idol auditions, Philippine prisoners performing "Thriller" in their orange jumpsuits, anything Lohan. I laugh, I cry, I giggle with glee at these harmless guilty pleasures....
Bill Katovsky | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
History will determine Bush's ultimate comeuppance. A man this unaware, an Alfred E.Neuman caricature, is impervious to self-reflection, embarrassment, or introspection. He will vacate the Oval Office with the GOP base in shambles, his reputation tarnished in every quarter save for the delusional salons at Fox News and Weekly Standard.
...Eugene Volokh | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Missouri just enacted a new statute (2007 House Bill 820, revising Rev. Stat. Mo. § 546.720), which provides in relevant part:
3. A person may not, without the approval of the director of the department of corrections, knowingly disclose the identity of a current or former member of an execution...
Anastasia Goodstein | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
I know I'm about to sound like the stereotypical Gen Xer when I say you can learn from menial labor. I've written about this on Ypulse before, how the hot sweaty days I spent making bagels at 15 were character building. The latest labor statistics are showing that less...
Huffington Post Tastemaker | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
(Photo credit: The Daily Mail)
Tastemaker: David Hayes, The Daily Mail (UK)
Want to stay up with the trends - but keep your conscience clean? Then let a green fashion adviser show you how
Model Laura Bailey couldn't have put it any...
David Roberts | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
I've noticed that lots of people talk about a carbon tax and a gas tax as if they're interchangeable, or the same thing, or connected parts of some larger package.
That's bad. Please stop it.
A carbon tax is just that: a tax on carbon content. It could take numerous forms,...
Huffington Post Tastemaker | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
(Photo credit: web.ard.de)
Tastemaker: Laura Fitzpatrick, Time
Getting in touch with your inner Angelina Jolie is easier than it used to be. The so-called voluntourism industry, which sends travelers around the globe for a mix of volunteer work and sightseeing, is...
Charles Karel Bouley | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
Have you heard the news? Hillary Clinton has breasts! Yes, it's official, she really is a woman and has breasts, and when those breasts are put in the right outfit, she actually has cleavage, too. I know it's true, because I didn't read about it in the Enquirer, no this...
Trevor Butterworth | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
If you have been following the trials and tribulations of the diabetes drug Avandia, you might be surprised to have learned that after all the grim prognostication in the media, all the haughty criticism of the state of drug regulation by newspaper op-eds, the warnings of death-tolls exceeding 9/11, and...
Gigi Sohn | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Today, the Federal Communications Commission faced perhaps its most important decision of the past two decades. It voted on the rules and procedures for next year's auction of the most valuable part of the electromagnetic spectrum, that is, the public airwaves over which people receive broadcast television, satellite TV...
Jack Muse | Posted March 28, 2008 | Off The Bus
A week has passed since Sen. Barack Obama stated during the CNN/YouTube that he would meet with some of the world's most noxious heads of state within his first year of office without setting preconditions, causing Hillary Clinton to warn about "being used" and the press to react to the...
Taylor Marsh | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
The wingnuts are afire. Between the O'Hanlon-Pollack op-ed and other military news out of Iraq, Republicans think they've found a winner. The surge is "working," progress is being made. However, this discussion is happening in a vacuum that...
Huffington Post Tastemaker | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
(Photo credit: Jan Whitsitt)
Tastemaker: Jan Whitsitt, Huffington Post Blogs
I was invited on a 2 week trip to Mongolia (along with biologists, scientists, and ecologists) organized by an international conservation group to learn about saving the great grasslands of Eastern Mongolia....
Josh Silver | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
Today's news that the Bancroft family has agreed to News Corp.'s $5 billion dollar buyout offer for Dow Jones, is a powerful reminder of how media consolidation is constantly eroding the foundational structures of our democracy.
America's founders understood that a truly free press -- enlivened by...
Chris Meserole | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
In an op-ed yesterday, Senator Feinstein hit the nail on the head when it comes to the Military Commissions Act. "We must track down, prosecute and punish terrorists," she wrote. "But we must never forget that we are a nation of...
Dave Johnson | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
It is possible, just possible,that things have gotten just a little bit better in Iraq. If so, this is a good thing, for all concerned. Let's just hope it is true. Maybe with a bit of breathing room the world can start to find a way out of the terrible,...
Lionel Beehner | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
America does not understand Iran (if the baseline criteria to qualify a country for U.S. invasion is "know thy enemy," then Iran is hereby disqualified). Nor does it fully comprehend Iran's multilayered, complex leadership. For one, Americans pay far too much attention to the ranting of its lunatic president,...
Kathy Kastan | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
Because heart disease affects so many people, one may think that we as a nation have put the time and resources into figuring out how to reduce its devastating impact. There is, however, an element of flying blind when it comes to women and heart disease.
Women's heart disease...
Robert J. Elisberg | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
I try hard not to read Jonah Goldberg more than is humanly possible, since I tend to suffer from excessive head-spinning afterwards. But every once in a while, a headline makes such avoidance near-impossible, either from curiosity or the same gene that drives people to the circus or horror movies....
Huffington Post Tastemaker | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
(Photo credit: fermentation.typepad.com)
Tastemaker: Molly Laas, Huffington Post Blogs
It is hard to know what official position to take on pink wines. Not too long ago, no self-respecting drinker would touch the stuff, as pink wine meant sweet white zinfandel and the...
Jon Soltz | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Following up on my last post (which got more comments, I think, than anything I ever wrote), today, veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq wrote to President Bush, calling him to come clean on the death of former NFL star and Army Ranger, Pat Tillman, and we...
Jill Filipovic | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
I know there are at least a few HuffPo readers who self-identify as "pro-life." So here's a question for you: How much time should she do?
One goal of the anti-choice movement is to outlaw abortion. But, as Anna Quindlen points out, anti-choice activists are almost never...
Tim Ferriss | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
Words are thoughts.
The better we choose our words, the more we hone our thinking machine, and just like software, it's a case of GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. Thinking hard is pointless if we don't use the right tools.
Think and...
Joanne Bamberger | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Dear "Mommybloggers,"
We are so sorry that we couldn't be at your cute, little ladies' soiree in Chicago last week. You know how hard it can be to fly into O'Hare in the summer time -- it can really throw the campaign off schedule with those thunderstorm delays.
We...
Marvin Kitman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
Tom Snyder died July 29, the obituaries said, from complications associated with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which he had been battling since April 2005. He was 71.
Actually, Tom died eight years ago. The king of late late night talk rode off into the sunset, bit the dust, bought the farm,...
David Sirota | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
In the last two weeks, something profound started happening out on the 2008 campaign trail -- a momentum has started building like I haven't seen in my lifetime. Two out of the top three best-polling Democratic candidates are starting to engage in a battle for the populist mantle. How this...
Dennis Perrin | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
No surprise here. Nothing I haven't seen many times before. But occasionally, the covering up of genocidal violence in the corporate press does get to me, especially when encountered before my first cup of morning coffee.
The New York Times' Seth Mydans, reporting from Dili, East Timor, informs us...
James Heffernan | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
"Grossly inappropriate" and "insulting." So says the Clinton campaign of a recent article prompted by the fact that during a speech on the Senate floor, the New York Senator wore a black top with a neckline low enough to reveal a small amount of cleavage.
How could anyone notice anything...
Lesley M. M. Blume | Posted May 5, 2008 | Living
One night, in a bygone era, the Oscar de la Rentas gave a dinner party. And at that party, the following exchange took place:
Swifty Lazar, the famed literary agent, turned to the great Diana Vreeland (then-editor of Vogue), and said:
"The problem with you, dollface, is that your whole...
Guy Kawasaki | Posted March 28, 2008 | Business
Judi Jennings | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
A New York Times travel writer recently discovered Appalachia as a vacation destination. Appalachia has been periodically "discovered" for over a hundred years now. John Fox Junior and the local color writers discovered it in the early 1900s. Anti-poverty warriors crusaded through it in the 1960s. And big energy companies...
Joel Barkin | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
After the collapse of the effort to address immigration at the national level, we saw good news last week at the local level on how progressives should be addressing the issue.
Across the country in 2006, 570 bills involving immigrants were introduced in state legislatures. In 2007, that number...
Marc Gunther | Posted March 28, 2008 | Living
There are days when I feel optimistic about the ability of the American people to deal with our environmental problems (they're buying organic food and hybrids!) and then there are days like today.
I'm in Bethany Beach, Delaware, on a working vacation, if there is such a thing. Today was...
Bruce Friedrich | Posted September 24, 2008 | Living
People have become increasingly aware that virtually all of the 10 billion land animals slaughtered in the U.S. each year for their meat, eggs and milk are terribly mistreated. In fact, routine farming practices are so abusive that they would warrant felony animal cruelty charges were they done to cats...
Sam Sedaei | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
The recent feud between Senators Clinton and Obama on the question of whether they would meet with President Ahmadinejad captured my attention because I was in Tehran in the run-up to the 2005 election that placed Ahmadinejad in power. But the reason for my trip was not about Iran's nuclear...
Thomas Bender | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
A former mayor of New York City, Rudolph Guiliani, is a leading Republican candidate for president. The current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is the subject of much speculation since he is said to be considering a run. Few mayors have had the national standing to aspire to the presidency.
In...
Nick Antosca | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
I watched The Bourne Ultimatum last night. It's a pretty spectacular piece of craftsmanship. Damon is convincingly brutal and desperate as the most existential of action film protagonists and the script is solid, but it's really Paul Greengrass who owns this thing and gives it such merciless, jittery energy.
A...
Joan Garry | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
At our house, we've tried to instill in our kids an understanding of the power of apologies. Each of our three kids has wound up in "time out" not for whatever the action was but for the refusal to apologize.
Apologies come in all different forms but typically the best...
Naomi Wolf | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
America is looking less and less like America. And more and more Americans are worried about it.
What country is this? The president is claiming the right to keep his aides from testifying for Congress about the U.S. attorneys scandal; hundreds of men -- according to a Seton Hall...
Peter Smith | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
"If there is a vacuum and if there's a real need for somebody to be prepared to debate Senator Clinton, then I would consider running. I think we'll know that in October," Gingrich said. Gingrich spoke on "Fox News Sunday."
Dear Newt,
Please run...
Lynn Sweet | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
WASHINGTON -- Some rank-and-file potential donors to a September fund-raiser hosted by Oprah Winfrey for Democratic White House hopeful Sen. Barack Obama at her California estate are being told the event is sold out.
Meanwhile, in other California 2008 presidential contest news, a forum on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender...
Bill Scher | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
Today, the Omaha World-Herald launches "Parties '08," an occasional op-ed series assessing the state of the two main parties throughout the '07-'08 political season. The initial package includes my own contribution analyzing the relationship between the Democratic Party and the netroots, which follows below.
Bloggers Promote Fresh Ideas, Help...
Ari Melber | Posted March 28, 2008 | Media
The blogosphere loves a good blogger-journalist fight. It may be the closest thing political junkies have to celebrity gossip. Most people perk up when Paris and Nicole squabble, but we get pumped when Joe Klein fires back at Atrios. And since liberal bloggers keep expanding their influence in media...
Mark Kleiman | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics
... "lefty blogs" did not engage in "hate speech" by "wishing for John Roberts's death." Instead, two prominent righty blogs forcefully stated the opposite of the truth. Surprised?
Tom Gregory | Posted March 28, 2008 | Entertainment
Just out on DVD is Hollywood's latest version of war.
An advertising blitz before the release of 300 boasted the film would change the style of movie-making forever. With a worldwide take of over $450 million, this film has more than altered movie-making; it has made an aggressive society...
Sean-Paul Kelley | Posted March 28, 2008 | Politics