Earlier this evening, I was standing at my kitchen counter, sifting through the mail and half listening to someone on television ranting about the AIG bonus scandal.
Then I noticed that I had received a postcard from AIG. One of those big, 5 by 8, slightly thick postcards....
Carlos Watson | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Ah, March. My favorite time of year. I've been to the Super Bowl and the NBA Finals, but no sporting event compares to the NCAA basketball playoffs (better known as "March Madness"). The buzzer-beaters, the storylines, the way one game can change a young college player's life forever -- the...
Bertha Lewis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
This is from the "Have They No Shame?" department. For the past couple of months I've been talking about the abuses going on in Maricopa County, Arizona (that's where the fine city of Phoenix is located) at the hands of the local sheriff there, Joe Arpaio.
Arpaio's...
Howard Schweber | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
I am starting to be genuinely worried by the potential destructiveness of a growing torch-and-pitchfork mentality that is partly the result of cynical manipulation, partly a result of failures of understanding, and partly the result of perfectly justified by presently misdirected anger.
Start with a legal point. There is no...
Dr. Irene S. Levine | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
QUESTION
Hi Irene,
It's been two months since I attended a Mom's group and had a falling out with two of the mothers. They have pretty much soured my relationship with most of the other mothers in the group.
Three months ago, I cancelled a play date at my house...
Bonnie Fuller | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
How can it be possible for a healthy 45 year-old woman to take a spill on a "bunny hill" and end up brain dead within the day?
That's the question that I posed to neurologist Dr. Dexter Sun, who practices at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell in New York City. First...
Waylon Lewis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
Who wants "All-American" weak 68 calorie yellow beer trucked halfway around the US? I'd rather drink...water.
These days, I'm trying to green my drinking habits. Why? Because if I can substantially reduce the miles my...
Jill Brooke | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
There's no replacing mommy. It is one of those truisms that resonate when your mother is no longer available for hugs, a plate of chocolate chip cookies or the reliable oohs and aahs you come to expect when you come home with a math score or conquest at the soccer...
Scott Dodd | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
Where does your drinking water come from?
Natural historian Sidney Horenstein has been asking that question around New York City for decades. The answer he always gets is: "From the faucet."
This Sunday, however, is World Water Day, an event
Head of litigation for the Small Business Administration (SBA) Eric Benderson, denied the SBA actually lost a federal court case filed by the American Small Business League (ASBL).
Since the federal court ruled in favor of the ASBL, Mr. Benderson's statements in an article by Pamela A. MacLean for The...
Jessica Catto | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Is capitalism caput? The laissez-faire variety is badly wounded and on life support. Adam Smith and his brand of "let the good times roll" and "a rising tide lifts all boats" is in bad health. Just now the tide is out and we are stranded and frustrated. Beware these tides...
Chez Pazienza | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
Swallowed as a single, sour dose, the average episode of Glenn Beck's nightly cable show goes down like liquid acid and produces just about the same result. To the uninitiated viewer, watching an hour of Beck's psychotic ravings, crackpot conspiracy theories, maudlin tales of personal tragedy, and generally demented sky-is-falling...
Rep. Earl Blumenauer | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Never since the Great Depression has the financial industry had less credibility than at this moment. Since the beginning of this recession in December 2007, more than 3.6 million Americans have been added to the unemployment roles, and the losses of U.S. financial firms has totaled more that $700 billion....
Chris Weigant | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
[Updated, see below for additional information from Mark Blumenthal of Pollster.com.]
It really is a bit early to focus on President Obama's approval ratings in the polls, I know. But, rather than looking at the overall picture of how he's doing, I have been noticing something interesting which I don't...
Francine Hardaway | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
This poor dude Liddy, who retired from Allstate and came back to run AIG and be a hero for his country. I bet he's really sorry now.
I'm listening to him valiantly testify before Congress, admitting that he felt it necessary to give hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses...
John Wellington Ennis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Chicago
Nobody does St. Patrick's Day like Chicago.
Thanks to the Obamas' full-on display Tuesday, now the rest of the world knows it, too.
A St. Patty's bash at the White House is one thing I'm sure Irish presidents have held in the past. But green water in...
Mark Nickolas | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
According to the AP:
The Republican National Committee will report raising $5.1 million during February, Michael Steele's rocky first month as the GOP's party chairman.
That's according to figures obtained by The Associated Press.
While the RNC took in $13.2 million in January, I...
Sam Panayotovich | Posted May 25, 2011 | Chicago
Selection Sunday has come and gone and the 65 team field is finally complete for the 2009 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship. Now, the best part can begin -- the bracket contests. Whether it's a cheap five dollar pool with friends, an office-wide battle royale with co-workers or just...
Ted Johnson, Maegan Carberry, Teresa Valdez Klein | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
With the AIG bonuses dominating the news, there's talk of some good old fashioned populist uprising. Hosts Ted Johnson, Teresa Valdez-Klein, and Maegan Carberry tackle the big question: Is it real outrage? Are Americans actually going to get up off their couch, grab their pitchforks, and storm Wall Street? We've...
The is the fourth in a series by students enrolled in my new course, Contemporary Issues in Economic Justice: The Subprime Crisis, at Georgetown University Law Center
Disclaimer
The views expressed here do not represent my views or the view of Georgetown University. The sole responsibility belongs to the...
Jesse Greenberg | Posted May 25, 2011 | Chicago
Illinois stands at the cusp of taking an important step to ensure that women's health care choices cannot be interfered with.
The Reproductive Health and Access Act (HB 2354) passed out of committee on March 11 and will be hitting the Illinois General Assembly floor soon.
Of course, those...
Kate Schmier | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
About a month ago, I arrived at work to find the face of a bruised and battered pop princess splayed across the front cover of The New York Post. Like many, I cringed at the disturbing photograph and gory details of Chris Brown's assault on the eve of the Grammy's....
Nicholas Weinstock | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
Translation: Fuck you. Generally found at the end of emailed instructions, as in "Please let me know, in the future, anytime you'll be occupying the conference room during an hour when my team is scheduled to use it. Thank you!" An expression of...
Jacob Soboroff | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
If it ain't broke, don't fix it, goes the expression. Well, according to the New York Times, the American voting system is broken. So let's fix it. For us here at Why Tuesday? it was an extreme pleasure to see an extra-long editorial making the case for election...
Rob Perks | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
This week, more than 150 activists from around the country walked the halls of Congress, urging their elected leaders to end mountaintop removal coal mining. We're trying to persuade Congress to pass the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310), a bill that would close the regulatory loophole enacted by the Bush administration which allows coal companies...
Patrick O'Sullivan | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
Here are some new adaptations of classic children's books that say the darndest things about the current mess.
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Best not to touch it. From the creators of “Where’s Waldo."
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Daniel J. H. Greenwood | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
Let's get real. This may be a nation of laws, but contracts are not sacred, and employment contracts are less sacred than any. When Enron's executives destroyed the company, Enron's secretaries lost their pensions. When General Motors' executives failed to plan for the possibility that oil prices might go up...
Scott Malcomson | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
The FT columnist Gideon Rachman wrote a column a couple of months ago about the need for world government, and he got more and different readers than he expected (lots of gun enthusiasts). Indeed, he sounded worried. Nevertheless, that column was on the paper's most-emailed list for ages. Following Rachman's...
Mark Blumenthal | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
The polling head-scratcher of the day: In a survey conducted March 12-15 (among 1,019 adults, margin of sampling error +/-3%), CNN/ORC obtained these results, producing the headline "Obama's Taken on Too Much":
Since he became president, do you think Barack Obama has tried to handle more issues than...
Jim Selman | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
I am getting ready to fulfill one of my dreams. I have always wanted to go to Africa, but for one reason or another it was always too expensive, too far away or the opportunity just didn't click at the right time. I will be going this month and I...
Maciej Ceglowski | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Today's New York Times features a fascinating front-page article by Andrew Ross Sorkin, entitled "The Case for Paying Out Bonuses at A.I.G.". Sorkin argues that if we do not pay $165 million in performance bonuses to executives at the failed insurer, we risk chipping at the very foundations of...
Leslie Harris | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
One of President Obama's first official acts in office was taking the power of the presidential pen and shredding the cloak of secrecy the Bush Administration used to bury important government information. "Openness prevails," the Obama memo on transparency and open government promised when it came to deciding whether or...
John Farr | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Tell me if you agree with the following assessment of contemporary life, and if you do concur, then let me know why you're not scared, or angry.
First, we're all moving at the speed of light, but we're not necessarily more productive. We receive more messages than ever before --...
Alon Ben-Meir | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
The collapse of the coalition negotiations between Likud Leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima's Tzipi Livni over Netanyahu's refusal to commit to the two-state solution may force him to form a narrow-based right-of-centre government. Such a government is likely to impede any progress or end up disintegrating under domestic and American...
Michelle Madhok | Posted May 25, 2011 | Style
When I first spotted the return of the jumpsuit, I figured it would probably come and go as so many other ill-advised flashback trends before it. But that may not be the case. Kim Kardashian alone has been photographed wearing no fewer than three different kinds, including this flattering
Bruce Kluger | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
When Taylor Gettinger, a high school junior from Dwight, Illinois, learned that she had brain cancer, it seemed as if the entire community showed up to support her and her family. Small-town America can be like that.
Barry Katz of Sudbury, Massachusetts, had...
Rep. Barney Frank | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Memory eventually fails us all, but apparently the decline strikes one party far more than the other.
In recent weeks, my friends across the aisle have expended a lot of breath proclaiming that the Democrats caused the present financial crisis by failing to pass legislation to regulate financial services companies...
Peter Dykstra | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
A dozen reasons why climate change deniers are the way they are:
No, there aren't only a dozen reasons, but some are bigger than others. Scientists and climate change advocates are constantly amazed and appalled at how durable the climate change denial machine is. Here are some of the varied...
Mike Lux | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
I woke up this morning to read about conservative Democrats not wanting to govern without empowering the Republican Party (read my earlier thoughts about this group of Democrats), and to this delightful high-pitched whine from Judd Gregg:
"That would be the Chicago approach to governing: Strong-arm it...
Bob Edgar | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Something is horribly wrong when a company that receives billions in taxpayer money from the federal government gives its senior managers big pay raises and bonuses, particularly at a time when many families are facing unemployment and home foreclosure and as the global economy falls off a cliff - an...
James Heffernan | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
Blogger's note: To preclude any misunderstanding, the following is a complete fabrication meant to portray a certain kind of mindset. Any resemblance to the mindset of any actual AIG bonus recipient is purely coincidental.
OK, so I bagged a chunk of change: $4,605,321.54, to be exact. But I'm here...
Rashad Robinson | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
The New York Post seems to be awfully big on accountability lately.
Last week, the paper's editorial staff praised school reform in New York for creating "great accountability on all levels."
On Thursday, they slammed President Obama for signing the earmarks bill despite his reservations, citing his desire to...
Jeff Jarvis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
"Criticism of CNBC is way out of line," NBC President Jeff Zucker said at the BusinessWeek media summit at McGraw-Hill's headquarters today. "Just because someone who mocks authority says something doesn't make it so." It sounds as if he's trying to beat up Jon Stewart for bloodying his boy, Cramer....
Martin Garbus | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
President Barack Obama's team is continuing the mistakes of prior domestic presidents in his federal judicial selections. He is seeking, as President Clinton did, in the name (and the illusion) of bipartisanship, to nominate experienced moderate judges.
This is a disaster. The Republicans know better and have known better for...
Ian Welsh | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Geithner's proving to be a much smarter man than Paulson. Paulson, say what you will, went to Congress for his 700 billion dollar daylight robbery. Don't like it? It was at least voted on. What Geithner is doing right now is similar to how a magician works. First he gets...
Tom McCaffrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
Last Friday the 13th an open call for America's Next Top Model turned into a riot. There has been much speculation over what happened but someone has come forward and finally cleared the matter up. Apparently a gang of short women started the whole thing. For years the height requirement...
Eric Dienstfrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Gallup Poll
3/17/09; 1,012 adults, 3% margin of error
Mode: Live Telephone Interviews
National
Next, turning to reports that insurance company AIG , one of the companies that received bailout money from the federal government, is paying bonuses to its executives, how do you, personally, feel about these...
Bob Cesca | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Throughout history, there have been more than a few unfortunate and ill-conceived branding and marketing ideas to have been thrust into public view. I'm not just talking about minor infractions like the recent Cocaine energy drink or that children's candy with the hard plastic "prizes" suitable for choking buried...
Ashley Rindsberg | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
Wei Jingsheng, the leading anti-PRC dissident who spent two decades as a political prisoner in China, recently came out to voice disapproval of the selection of Chas Freeman for the position of National Intelligence Council chair. Mr. Freeman withdrew from the appointment last week, in part because of criticism he...
Yoani Sanchez | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
I left high school in the countryside feeling that nothing belonged to me, not even my body. Living in shelters creates the sensation that your whole life, your privacy, your personal possessions and even your nakedness has become public property. "Sharing" is...
Lincoln Mitchell | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
In the last months, because of the economic crisis a number of stories about the nature of American business have been brought to the attention of many Americans. These anecdotes include not only banks using bailout money for spas, travel and redecorating, CEOs of automobile companies flying on private jets...
Ray Hanania | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Jackie Mason isn't a comedian. He's a schmuck!
I can say that as a Palestinian because my wife is Jewish and also because at one time a few years back, I was on the vicious attack-end of Mason's grab for glory. But Mason seems to think that it is okay...
Rev. Lennox Yearwood | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Rarely in history have young people been blessed with the opportunity, or the responsibility, to serve as the solution to the crisis at hand.
In this economic decline there perhaps is no other option than to turn the reins over to the next generation. This recession is a mess...
Tim Berry | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
The trouble with a small business bailout is deeply rooted in practical logistics. Small business is as diverse and wide spread as the country is. There are something like 25 million small businesses, and 20 million of them have no employees. How does the government help them?
It's time to...
David Sirota | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
I've never been a fan of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner - he's a Rubinite who has been too close to Wall Street, and too focused on using government power to protect private shareholders. This is the guy who told the Senate that his primary goal in bailing out the financial...
Arianna Huffington | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
UPDATE II, 3-19, 4:40pm (EST):
Tim Geithner has now confirmed Chris Dodd's contention that the Treasury Department had insisted he include a loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed AIG to pay out bonuses, despite receiving bailout money. Still no word, however, from Geithner -- or anyone else...
Beth Shulman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
President Obama's focus on healthcare is essential; next his focus must be retirement security.
Even before the economy's free fall and the elimination of many employer matches to 401(k) plans, our retirement system wasn't working for most Americans. Only half of full-time workers have retirement plans through their employers...
Lanny Davis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Full disclosure: I am reviewing the book written by my oldest son, Seth Davis, "When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball," published by Times Books on the 30th anniversary of the 1979 NCAA college basketball national championship game between Indiana State University, led by Larry Bird, and Michigan...
Mairi Beautyman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
Would you like a family of beavers moving into your backyard? Seems this primarily nocturnal, semi-aquatic rodent could be returning to Europe after centuries of extinction.
According to The Guardian, up to four families of beavers will soon call a secluded forest in south-west Scotland home,...
Rick Shenkman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
It turns out that much of the money AIG paid out to banks wasn't to cover losses they suffered on bad real estate deals. Though we still lack all the facts, apparently most of the credit default swaps hadn't defaulted. They had only declined in value.
I repeat: THEY...
Lester Sloan | Posted May 25, 2011 | Style
Coffee culture is changing the rules of engagement for some residents of Los Angeles, forging a subculture that promotes a sense of community among people who remain wedded to their automobiles. This is not to say that we have gotten out of the habit of one person per car as...
Kirk Stambler | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Amid all the hand-wringing about whether or not the government has the power to stop AIG from paying bonuses to the very people who helped precipitate the current financial crisis, there is a way for the government to get the bonus money back: impose a surtax on the recipients to...
Ben Sherwood | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Natasha Richardson's death is a shock and tragedy for so many reasons. The 45-year-old actress was taking a private lesson on a beginner's run in Mont Tremblant, Canada. When she fell at the bottom of the trail, everything seemed okay. She didn't hit anyone or anything. She wasn't wearing a...
Stephen Zunes | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
The Obama administration's choice to head the National Intelligence Council (NIC) recently withdrew in face of a concerted right-wing attack. Veteran diplomat Chas Freeman would not have had to face Senate confirmation. Instead, he had to face attacks in the right-wing press and blogosphere. His withdrawal was a victory for...
F. Kaid Benfield | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
One of the sad ironies of our time is that, as demand for public transportation is soaring to levels not seen in 50 years, the recession has dampened government support for transit. Another sad irony is that, just as the federal...
Mallika Chopra | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
My family is a book family. As far back as I can remember, even before my father began writing books, our house was full of books. Piles and piles of books lying in every corner of the house. My mother was always trying to find space to build bookshelves. As...
Tina Dupuy | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
Former President George W. Bush was in Calgary this week, in his first foreign visit as a former head of state. There, he announced the subject of the book he will be writing. It's about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office.
Title suggestions? "I Was The...
Carrie Pollare | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
GIVING...it's something that most of us have cut way back on or even eliminated as our economy has slid into mayhem. No more checks to our favorite charities. No more fundraising events with their beckoning silent auctions. And, the charities/non-profit organizations, many of which are being called upon to support...
Philip Slater | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
We Americans seem to be incapable of learning from past mistakes. We learned nothing from the debacle of 1929. We learned nothing from Vietnam. And we learned nothing from Prohibition. The neo-conservative movement that Reagan initiated has managed to repeat all three.
Prohibition skyrocketed organized crime and violence, deprived the...
Daoud Kuttab | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
It was quite astonishing to hear world leaders so gushing in their praise for Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The western-trained former World Bank official was variously described as "professional", "transparent" and "effective". US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton managed to combine all these comments in her concluding press conference at...
Malou Innocent | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Recently former Vice President Dick Cheney had the audacity to claim the Obama administration, by reversing President George W. Bush's policy on the harsh interrogation of terrorist suspects, has endangered American lives and opened our country to another terrorist attack. Americans would be best served by ignoring the baseless accusations...
Randy Turner | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
The Tucson Citizen may print its last edition soon, and all Gannett employees are being forced to take a one-week unpaid furlough sometime during this quarter, but that is not preventing the company from awarding its five top executives, including CEO Craig Dubow, nearly $2 million in bonuses.
The company...
Irene Rubaum-Keller | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
I have a few money and calorie saving tips to share with you. During this recession we are all trying to save a few bucks. I have read that the recession will mean people won't eat as well and will gain weight. That doesn't have to happen. You can eat...
Medea Benjamin | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
On March 12, just one week before the sixth anniversary of the war in Iraq, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi was sentenced to three years in prison for throwing his shoe at George W. Bush. CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin talked about the incident with Hero Anwar Brzw, a Kurdish Iraqi woman...
Tri Robinson | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
What I am about to state seems indisputably clear to me as a Bible-believing and Bible-practicing Christian. After spending the better part of 30 years of my adult life studying and teaching the Old and New Testament, I believe that those who profess Jesus as Messiah and call his words...
Joe Cutbirth | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Pardon my excess here, but occasionally I just lose it. Someone needs to tell Pope Joseph Ratzinger to stop the demagoguery or abort this trip to Africa.
His statement Tuesday, reported as a virtual Papal pronouncement -- that condoms actually increase the spread of HIV -- is frankly unconscionable....
Claire Bidwell Smith | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Last December, at four months pregnant, I went for my first ultrasound. While it was incredible to see the little baby inside me waving its arms about and stretching out its legs, my husband and I were shocked to also see a very large ovarian cyst looming alongside my uterus...
Stanton Peele | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
The Rihanna-Chris Brown case, in which the 19-year-old pop-soul star Brown choked, threatened to kill, and repeatedly punched his 21-year-old girlfriend and fellow music star, Rihanna, has revealed the ambivalence and impotence of standard advice to and about abuse victims. Inner city teens simply do not accept standard messages about...
By Matthew Segal, Caitlin Howarth and Maya Enista
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act yesterday by a vote of 321 to 105, a major victory for young people. Similar to its Senate companion, the Serve America Act, this bill will expand access...
Terry Krepel | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Newsmax has been basking in the glow of recent positive coverage in the kind of mainstream media it typically professes to despise.
A March 6 Forbes.com article called Newsmax "A Great Right Hope," touting it as "a news powerhouse and a must-read on the conservative media circuit." Forbes even...
Michael Wolff | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
On one side of the line there's a continued-to-be-employed managerial class, which includes, among others, the president and his Treasury secretary; and on the other side of the line there are the moralists, the PR savvy, and lots and lots of people who don't know from bonuses.
The former group,...
Eric Dienstfrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
CNN / ORC
3/12-15/09; 1,019 adults, 3% margin of error
Mode: Live Telephone Interviews
National
Do you approve or disapprove of the way Barack Obama is handling...
Judith Ellis | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Nassim Nicholas Taleb addresses some very important issues in an interview with CNBC. On my blog I have written more than a few posts on this brilliant thinker. His book, The Black Swan, is the single most important book that I read last year, followed by Enough by
Auren Hoffman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
The Early Bird (Who is Your Friend) Gets the Worm
It's not too radical to claim that people are more like their friends than they are like other people that fit their demographic or psychographic makeup. Social psychology has shown that people tend to develop relationships with those that have...
Johann Hari | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
Over the past fortnight, there have been torrents of emotional tributes to British soldiers from the country's politicians -- and they are all hollow. Yes, they meant it when they expressed sorrow at the young men murdered in Northern Ireland. Yes, they were genuinely repulsed when welcome-home military parades in...
Sahil Kapur | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
We live in a complex era. Our problems are challenging and daunting. Finding the right solutions demands that we abandon dogma in favor of pragmatism. This underscores the current political debate between liberalism and conservatism. Crooks and Liars offers an interesting take on conservatism and 13-year-old CPAC speaker Jonathan...
Eric Dienstfrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
USA Today / Gallup
3/14-15/09; 2.021 adults
Iraq questions: 1,024 adults; Afghanistan questions: 997 adults, 3% margin of error
Mode: Live Telephone Interviews
National
"Forty-two percent of Americans now say the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Afghanistan, up from 30% earlier this year...
Quinn Bradlee | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
There is something that I have been meaning to let everybody know, but also at the same time I have been a little scared and have not wanted to admit it... but it's true. My whole life I have had everything handed down to me and have mostly been able...
Brandon Friedman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
This is Dan.
(Military Times photo)
As you can see from the photo, Dan is a combat veteran of Iraq. Dan is not only an infantry officer, but he also has a degree in Arabic -- something very important if you're going to be in a...
The Media Consortium | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
By Lindsay Beyerstein, TMC MediaWire Blogger
This week, we bring you news of drugs, sex, and single-payer health insurance, including a fun video clip on Obama's new drug czar from the Rachel Maddow show. Now that Obama has chosen his top healthcare advisers, the administration is beginning to...
Liz Hamburg | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
I just got the bill to renew our corporate insurance policy. Normally, I pay it without a problem. I had always felt assured to know that, as a small business, we have the security of a giant, established company behind us. Yes, you guessed it. AIG is our insurance company.
...Steffany Stern | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
In the summer of 1881, the washerwomen of Atlanta were working long hours for meager wages, in harrowing working conditions. These were very poor, mostly black women, and their work was essential to sustain their families. Despite their endless hours of hard work, their wages stagnated over time, and most...
Wayne Besen | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
George W. Bush longed to escape his daddy's shadow, while Barack Obama has turned to shadowy preachers in his long search for a father figure. His filial approach to faith began with Rev. Jeremiah Wright and has now taken a sharp turn right.
The New York Times reports that...
Paul Rieckhoff | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Etched into the entrance of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a phrase from President Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address: "To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan." With these words, President Lincoln pledged America's solemn obligation to care for...
Joseph A. Palermo | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer and other right-wing mouthpieces are trying to frame future debates while they reinvent the George W. Bush years. Their eerie falsehoods, half-truths, revisions, and lies are given added weight because they sit atop a bed of chatter and static, often called the "echo chamber,"...
Stephanie Gertler | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Once my kids were settled in school, I returned to work full-time at a Connecticut newspaper. It was truly starting over. Besides picking up everyone's slack as an editorial assistant/cub reporter, I was called "Blondie" by the macho sports writer and a twenty-something reporter who fancied herself a lot like...
Greg Mitchell | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
A surprising new poll by leading media organizations, as the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq queitly approaches this week, finds that despite progress there, most Iraqis still dislike or distrust America -- and wish we did not invade in the first place.
The new poll of more...
Miles Mogulescu | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Did Tim Geithner know in advance the amount of bonuses AIG paid to the executives of AIG's derivatives unit who designed and sold the financial insurance policies which helped bring down the global financial system? When did he learn about it and what did he do to try to do...
Michael Giltz | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
UPDATE: Results night was a doozy. I got the bottom two right: it was Alexis Grace and Michael Sarver and I correctly predicted Alexis would be going home. My only mistake was thinking Adam Lambert would get a scare. Instead it was Allison Iraheta, who handled the pressure gracefully, despite...
Aaron Glantz | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
As we approach the 6th anniversary of the war in Iraq, President Obama plans to draw down our troop presence there while beefing up the number of troops in Afghanistan, but another battle is brewing on the homefront. In January alone, 24 soldiers were believed to have committed suicide. I...
Liz Neumark | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
How often do we get to go back to the place we grew up? And what if there is more than one place? What does it look like -- and how will it feel in the context of who I was then and the person I am today?
Monday was...
John W. Delicath | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
The fact that the Bush administration routinely and repeatedly allowed politics to trump science in the policy-making process is well-known and extensively documented. Yet, the media continue to act otherwise.
During coverage of President Barack Obama's executive order on stem cell research and his presidential...
by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Matt Duss
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With the severe economic recession and continuing U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, the growing crisis of drug-related violence...
Jennifer Donahue | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
I am also confused, Meghan. Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter seem to really, really dislike you. We know they disliked your father, but going after you seems to be taking it a little far. You are 24 years old, not an elected official, not making policy decisions, and not running...
Peter A. Ubel | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Hiking in Switzerland several years ago, I came across a trail that seemed to dead-end at a farmer's gate. I looked around for a way to avoid the property, but there was none. Instead, the trail continued through the middle of the farm. I walked through the gate, side-stepping some...
Lt. General Robert G. Gard Jr. (USA, Ret.) | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of an international agreement that has prevented incalculable civilian deaths and injuries from war: the 1997 Landmine Treaty.
While 156 countries have signed on, the United States is one of a small minority of states that has...
Stephen Kent | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
I'm no economist, though I've worked with plenty of them. As a public interest and public policy PR consultant, the economic indicators I notice most are perceptual and rhetorical: things like the steady uptick in comparisons to the Great Depression, and the new CNN/Opinion research poll that says concern over unemployment...
Dan Dorfman | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
A sucker's rally? Or the kickoff of a new upswing in stock prices? That's Wall Street's $64,000 question following last week's spirited 9% Dow rally, the biggest weekly rise of the year. For some thoughts, here's what a bull and bear have to say. You choose!
From our...
Craig Newmark | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
That seems pretty good, respectful and ethical to me, maybe done infrequently, with a light hand.
Still, seems like...
Eric Dienstfrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
I hate caller-id. Sure, it allows me to screen calls from my mother, but it also allows foundations to screen my calls.
I run a charity. If my name pops up in your call id, chances are I'm about to ask you for something--money, free ad space, your first born....
John Morton | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Perhaps we're still answering Cain's question to God [Genesis, 4:9] and in a vital way for each one of us. To me, we are to be our brothers' and sisters' keepers and to do what we can to assist one another. That's when we experience our human connection and divinity....
Paul Hipp | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
Don't you kind of feel like someone at AIG needs to go to jail? Or maybe lots of people at AIG need to go to jail?
Well, while we wait for President Obama and team to swoop down and stop the bad people from stealing the money that we...
Bradley Burston | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
Originally published on haaretz.com
LOS ANGELES - I was determined to duck it. I was resolved to fly to the States, speak about the situation in Israel, and reply with nothing more than a half-smile and a "next question, please," to the well-read and otherwise openhearted...
James Moore | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
There is an old saw in marketing and public relations that if you don't quickly brand your company's products and services the public will brand them for you. Whether that brand ends up being good or bad becomes secondary to the fact that you are not likely to ever get...
Eric Dienstfrey | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Quinnipiac University
3/10-15/09; 1,299 registered voters, 2.7% margin of error
463 registered Republicans (4.6%), 506 registered Democrats (4.4%)
Mode: Live Telephone Interviews
Ohio
Job Approval / Disapproval
Pres. Obama (D): 57 / 33
Gov. Strickland (D): 56 / 30 (chart)
Sen. Brown (D):...
Bethenny Frankel | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
I have to begin by saying "I love it!"
That isn't easy because it really is the Acela of train wreck television. Having been on the Martha Stewart Apprentice, I understand the game. Unlike the celebrities, though, we were sequestered for 2 months with no phone, TV, newspapers, credit...
Lawrence O'Donnell | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
The thing about Ron, the overwhelming thing, was the energy. I have never known anyone who could match Ron's energy. I never argued with him--I really only argue for money on TV--because I knew he could knock me over with the force of his energy before mounting his attack on...
ZP Heller | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
Where is the public outcry for congressional oversight hearings on the war in Afghanistan? Granted, the words "congressional oversight hearings" aren't particularly sexy--certainly not as alluring as "shock and awe," "insurgency," "counterinsirgency," "airstrikes," and "Hellfire missiles." But one thing that is always sexy is power, and Congress has the power...
Sophie Keller | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Have you noticed that when you get anxious or nervous you get an upset stomach, find yourself with a headache or become accident-prone? Are you the sort of person that eats more when depressed or stops eating altogether? When you're really happy, balanced and unchallenged you probably notice that you...
Howard Schweber | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
When AIG top management approached their staff about foregoing bonuses, the response - as described at The Hill -- was "take a hike." Management, in turn, felt they had not choice but to pay the bonuses. Partly they were afraid of the costs of potential lawsuits for breaching contracts...
Jose A. Garcia | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
Democratic lawmakers in Congress last week introduced legislation to create a Financial Product Safety Commission to ensure that mortgages, credit cards and retirement accounts do not pose unacceptable risks to consumers. Such a move would provide consumers with their first real protections in decades -- but the effort will...
Steve Young | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
Jon Stewart Interviews Jim Cramer
Has America gotten so callous that we no longer appreciate the fine art of securities fraud?
Am I the only one who's sick and tired of having pundits and holier than thou's demeaning the missteps of those who...
Frank Schaeffer | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
So now the Republicans decide the AIG bonuses are bad? So now FOX News' only takeaway from President Obama (on Leno) is an off the cuff remark about the Special Olympics? The no compassion, greed-is-good ethos that the Republicans labored so hard to nurture is forgotten when it suits them....
MJ Rosenberg | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Did you see Jake Tapper of ABC getting getting all medieval on Robert Gibbs at the White House yesterday? When did the president first learn about the AIG bonuses? Would you give us a tick-tock on what he knew, how he knew, and what his reaction was?
And the newspapers...
The Sportsman's Daily | Posted May 25, 2011 | Comedy
NEW YORK - President Barack Obama filled out his NCAA bracket for ESPN Tuesday, picking Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and Pittsburgh to make it to the Final Four - all number one seeds with the exception of No. 2 seeded Memphis.
On just about any other day, the President announcing...
Pavel Somov, Ph.D. | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
You've heard it again and again: diets don't work. But here's a new one for you: diets make you dumb. Some diets, that is. No, not metaphorically - literally!
The Monitor on Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association, reports in its February issue: "The Adkins diet and other...
Scott Mendelson | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
The Great Buck Howard
2009
90 minutes
Rated PG
"People die everyday, Frankie -- mopping floors, washing dishes and you know...
Lee Stranahan | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Ask an average American how they feel about executives at AIG getting bonuses and I bet their answer will be short, clear and definite. After a few days of wall to wall cable news coverage of the $165 million dollar outrage, it's something that nearly everyone knows about. But if...
Dr. Judith Rich | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
Impossible To Inevitable: Dare To Dream Big - Part IV
" What is it that makes you happy?
Stay with it, no matter what people tell you.
This is what I call, 'Following Your Bliss.'
If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a...
Shelly Palmer | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Apple unveiled new software for the iPhone yesterday at a conference in Cupertino, CA. The company also revealed new tools available to developers to build software applications for the iPhone. For users, the new iPhone update will finally allow for...
Bill Chameides | Posted May 25, 2011 | Green
Dr. Bill Chameides is the dean of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He blogs regularly at theGreenGrok.com.
Prince William Sound, 2009. Pictures of picturesque beaches and icy-blue waters might suggest that the effects of the 1989 oil spill...
Tom Watson | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
For journalists of a certain vintage, these are the days on the digital horizon that were long-feared and yet somehow unanticipated. The newspaper world is slowly asphyxiating, starved for the oxygen of classified advertising and simultaneously kicked in the chest by a massive recession that is hastening the tombstones in...
Ken Levine | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
Now that the kids not attractive enough for FOX have been weeded out we can get down to business. This was Country Night and the guest mentor was Randy Travis (or, for you non Country fans: Thomas Hayden Church).
By and large all of the vocals were good. I must...
Tony Sachs | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
You may not know Alan Livingston, who died on Friday at age 91, by name. But if you know anything about 20th century popular culture, you know his work. Livingston was doubly blessed, first by being a talented, creative guy with amazing instincts, and second by being in the right...
Dr. Cara Barker | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
"Best to lay low today, you know," mumbled the sweating, balding, portly, 60-something guy on the treadmill to my right. Pointing to the monitor overhead, tuned to Fox News, his rant continued: "Look at what's going on: drug wars on our borders, people losing their homes, AIG bonuses to crooks....
Stewart Acuff | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has begun a global organized labor effort to help U.S. unions pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
In a letter from the General Secretary Guy Ryder to all ITUC affiliates he writes: "The violation of freedom of association and the rights to organize and...
Karen Leland | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
In a few short days the vernal equinox will rear its well-organized head and instead of being made to feel like a compulsive neat freak, I can spring-clean with societal approval and encouragement.
I particularly look forward to going through my wardrobe at this time of year. I use...
Jerry Weinstein | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
If you're a luddite who isn't interested in twittering about your commute or heading out for pizza, you're missing the point, Failing to Twitter is like refusing to believe that TV had a future. Twitter is a new communications medium, and if you're ignoring it, you're missing your best opportunity...
Jack Myers | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
If you're a luddite who isn't interested in twittering about your commute or heading out for pizza, you're missing the point. Failing to Twitter is like refusing to believe that TV had a future. Twitter is a new communications medium, and if you're ignoring it, you're missing your best opportunity...
Cenk Uygur | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
There are now conflicting stories about when Tim Geithner knew about the AIG bonuses. The administration says he found out last week. But Congress (and obviously the administration) knew of plans to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses last fall. There was an SEC filing to pay...
Marshall Fine | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
When actress Ali Wentworth launches the third season of Head Case on Starz on Friday, March 20, her character, Dr. Elizabeth Goode, has wedding fever.
Or maybe it's fever blisters.
After all, her fiancée, agent Jeremy Berger (Rob Benedict), has admitted to her that, among other things he's bringing...
Robert Scheer | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
There must be a criminal investigation of the AIG debacle, and it looks as if New York's top lawman is on the case. The collusion to save this toxic company in order to salvage the rogue financiers who conspired to enrich themselves by impoverishing millions is being revealed as the...
Phillip Martin | Posted May 25, 2011 | Politics
No one can blame the Obama Administration for apparently misreading the level of public rage toward AIG executives, who have collected millions in bonuses while racking up billions in taxpayer bailout money.
The president's chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, did not exactly shrug off the issue of AIG bonuses...
Arianna Huffington | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
When Metro US asked me to be guest editor of their daily newspapers in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, it immediately reawakened my early love affair with print, going back to my school years in Athens when my father was a newspaper editor, and newspaper after newspaper that he...
Wajahat Ali | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
For many American Muslims, the mainstream presentation of their diverse voices seems lost in a vacuum dominated by simplistic, cardboard stereotypes depicting them as fundamentalists or perpetual suspects. Thankfully, Link TV has provided this unfairly maligned group with a multicultural konch to creatively showcase their voice in their annual
Thomas Crampton | Posted May 25, 2011 | Media
Early this month the Financial Times launched China Confidential, a high-end, China-focused news service headed by former China bureau chief, James Kynge.
I recently interviewed Rob Grimshaw, the London-based Managing Director of FT.com, who explained in a video interview (below) why people would pay 2,000 pounds per...
Art Levine | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
The union movement has been buoyed by a new independent Gallup Poll yesterday showing that a majority of Americans favor the Employee Free Choice Act that would make forming unions eager.
(So far in the bruising battle between unions and corporations, the polling...
The New Power Girls | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business
The scene at the gorgeous Oceana hotel in Santa Monica, CA is one that I've seen played out dozens of occasions throughout the past four years of being a startup founder in business. Sunlit tables facing the ocean side and across the back outdoor patio are dotted with women...
Diane Tucker | Posted May 25, 2011 | World
Just last month and for the first time in history, a Saudi king appointed a woman to his council of ministers. Noor Al-Fayez is the new deputy minister for women's education in Saudi Arabia, a country where women are still not allowed to drive a car. The astonishing...
Jonathan Handel | Posted May 25, 2011 | Entertainment
Though it gets less play than the stalled SAG TV/theatrical talks, SAG and AFTRA have been jointly negotiating for several weeks with the advertising industry over the commercials contract. That contract is SAG's second most important, economically, and represents hundreds of millions of...
Lea Lane | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
The messy news about Natasha Richardson's skiing tragedy has been grotesque and rushed. So is last week's Enquirer headline, "The End," featuring a photo of a gaunt, bald Patrick Swayze. Rush Limbaugh recently assured his millions of listeners that Ted Kennedy won't make it to see health care reform.
...Mark Goulston, M.D. | Posted November 17, 2011 | Healthy Living
a.k.a He'll NEVER stay that into you
There are no positive reasons for dating a married man. Even the good reasons don't stand the test of time and turn out to be bad ideas in good ideas' clothing. If you find yourself on the brink of temptation, look at these...
Alex Keyssar | Posted May 25, 2011 | Business