2010-08-31

Live Chat with President Obama's National Security Advisor following the President's address tonight

Good afternoon,

Tonight President Obama will address the nation from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. EDT regarding the end of the war in Iraq. I know many Americans have questions about our change in mission in Iraq, so immediately following the President's address, I will be hosting a live chat to answer your questions.

You can submit your questions and vote for your favorites now, and be sure to tune to WhiteHouse.gov/live http://www.whitehouse.gov/live?utm_source=email74&utm_medium=footer&utm_campaign=iraq at 8 p.m. EDT to watch the President's address.

I'm looking forward to answering your questions later this evening.

Sincerely,



Ben Rhodes
Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications

2010-08-30

Hurricane Earl

story by Reuters

MIAMI - Hurricane Earl strengthened to a major Category 3 storm on Monday as it lashed the Caribbean's northern Leeward Islands on a track that could see it swiping the U.S. East Coast in the next few days, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

Earl, now the second major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic season, was churning with sustained winds of 120 mph, the Miami-based center said. Additional strengthening was expected in the next 48 hours.

The hurricane was moving west-northwest on a curving track that the National Hurricane Center said would take it east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in the next few days.

Hurricane center forecaster Jessica Schauer said authorities along the U.S. eastern seaboard should closely monitor Earl's progress.

"Right now it's forecast to pass off the coast of Cape Hatteras, probably within about 300 miles but that forecast track can change," she told Reuters.

Schauer said a direct hit to the North Carolina coast could not be ruled out.

On its current path, Earl posed no threat to the Gulf of Mexico, where major U.S. oil and gas installations are located.

2010-08-29

Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream speech" August 28th, 1963

2010-08-28

New Orleans Post-Katrina Economy

story by Kaiser Foundation

According to a recent survey of New Orleanians by the Kaiser Foundation, forty-two percent of African Americans - versus just sixteen percent of whites - said they still have not recovered from Katrina. Thirty-one percent of African-American residents - versus eight percent of white respondents - said they had trouble paying for food or housing in the last year. Housing prices in New Orleans have gone up sixty-three percent just since 2009.

Eleven billion federal dollars went into Louisiana's Road Home program, which was meant to help the city rebuild. The payouts from this program went exclusively to homeowners, which cut out renters from the primary source of federal aid.

Even among homeowners, the program treated different populations in different ways. US District Judge Henry Kennedy recently found that the program was racially discriminatory in the formula it used to disperse funds. By partially basing payouts on home values instead of on damage to homes, the program favored properties in wealthier - often whiter - neighborhoods. However, the same judge found that nothing in the law obligated the state to correct this discrimination for the 98% of applicants whose cases have been closed.

At approximately 355,000, the city's population remains more than 100,000 lower than it's pre-Katrina number, and many counted in the current population are among the tens of thousands who moved here post-Katrina. This puts the number of New Orleanians still displaced at well over 100,000 - perhaps 150,000 or more. A survey by the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps found that seventy-five percent of African Americans who were displaced wanted to return but were being kept out. Most of those surveyed said economic forces kept them from returning.

2010-08-27

Show Thanks to the Troops by Saluting Their Service in Iraq


Watch on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, as President Obama addresses the nation on Iraq from the Oval Office at 8 p.m. EST.

On August 31, 2010, President Obama will mark the end of America’s combat mission in Iraq. At this key transition point, it is important to show our support to the troops and their families who have made tremendous sacrifices for our country. President Obama kicks off “Saluting Service in Iraq” with his own video message: LINK

“Saluting Service in Iraq” is a social media campaign to encourage all Americans to get online and use their own social networks to show their support for the troops through photos, videos and written messages.

It's easy to join in:

YouTube: Post a video response to the President's message on the White House YouTube channel or tag your video with SaluteTroops. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J22VfCPl0yc

Facebook: There are several ways to salute on facebook, you can update your status, change your profile picture or post your message of thanks on the White House Facebook Page. http://www.facebook.com/WhiteHouse

Twitter: Use the hashtag #salutetroops in your Twitter message. http://twitter.com/

Flickr: Salute the troops on Flickr with a photo and message by using the tag SaluteTroops. http://www.flickr.com/

Other: Submit messages through a form on WhiteHouse.gov. http://www.whitehouse.gov/salute/form

2010-08-26

Philippines Bus Hijack eight Hong Kong Chinese hostages killed

Mexico Migrants Massacre: Drug Cartel Suspected In Killing Of 72

story by Huffington Post

MEXICO CITY — Mexican security forces were bringing refrigeration equipment for the bodies of 72 Central and South American migrants massacred by drug cartel gunmen at a remote ranch in northern Mexico, while investigators tried Thursday to determine their identities and why they were gunned down 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the U.S. border.

The sole survivor – an Ecuadorean who escaped and stumbled wounded to a marine checkpoint on a highway – told authorities that his captors had identified themselves as Zetas, a drug gang whose control of parts of the northern state of Tamaulipas is so brutal and complete that even many Mexicans avoid traveling its highways.

If confirmed as a cartel kidnapping, the Tamaulipas massacre would perhaps be the most extreme case seen so far and the bloodiest massacre of Mexico's drug war.

President Felipe Calderon said cartels are increasingly trying to recruit migrants as foot soldiers – a concern that has also been expressed by U.S. politicians demanding more security at the border.

He insisted that such activities indicated the cartels have been battered by thousands of troops and federal police battling them in their strongholds, and are desperate for alternate means of income.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/26/mexico-migrants-massacre-_n_695299.html

Somali MPs among 32 killed in Mogadishu hotel massacre - Suicide bomber and gunmen dressed in army uniforms storm hotel, triggering deadly shootout with police in Somali capital

story by Guardian

At least 32 people were killed when gunmen and a suicide bomber dressed in army uniforms stormed a hotel in Mogadishu today in an attack that triggered an hour-long gun battle in the Somali capital.

Six members of parliament who were staying at the hotel, an 11-year-old shoe-shine boy and a woman selling tea outside were among the dead. Another MP staying at the Muna hotel said there were "dead bodies all over" and described the scene as a massacre.

A hotel worker who fled the building, which is located a half-mile from the presidential palace, said one of the attackers had blown himself up.

The attack came amid further fighting that began in Mogadishu yesterday. At least 40 civilians have been killed and 130 wounded, according to the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, Ali Muse.

The violence broke out after the spokesman for Somalia's most dangerous militant group declared a "massive war" on what he labelled "invaders", a reference to the 6,000 peacekeeping troops from the African Union propping up the weak Somali government.

The group, al-Shabab, said it had carried out last month's twin bombings in Uganda's capital that killed 76 people who were watching the World Cup final. It said the attacks were in retaliation for Uganda's deployment of troops with the AU.

Uganda said last month that it was willing to send 1,200 peacekeeping troops to Somalia to reinforce the 6,000-strong Amisom mission sent by AU countries. Al-Shabab has said it will continue to carry out attacks in Uganda and Burundi, in east-central Africa, as long as those countries send troops to Somalia.

Suicide attacks are relatively rare in Somalia, although al-Shabab has increased their use in recent years. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are believed to be helping to train the group's fighters.

The AU force is engaged in frequent fights with the Islamist insurgents that control much of southern and central Somalia. Al-Shabab controls around 80% of Somalia and is thought to number up to 7,000 armed men, with a main force of about 3,000 guerrilla fighters. It has an armed wing, known as the army of suffering, and a religious police force, known as the army of morality.

Hizb al-Islam, another group challenging the government, is threatening to attack and seize several districts and villages under control of the central government.

Somalia has been in a state of almost constant conflict since the collapse of the government of Siad Barre in 1991. The US and other countries say al-Shabab is linked to al-Qaida and consider the group a terrorist organisation. The rise of Islamist militancy in Somalia has alarmed the international community amid fears that it will spark regional unrest.

Civilians Bearing Brunt of Somali Conflict


story by Voice of America
background video by Al Jazeera's Inside Story - February 2010 -

Amnesty International says the human rights situation in Somalia continues to deteriorate, with more and more civilians falling victim to the conflict.

“Amnesty’s main concern is obviously the dire human rights situation and the lack or protection for civilians in Somalia,” says Benedicte Goderiaux, Amnesty’s Somalia researcher.

Tuesday’s attack on the Muna Hotel was a direct attack on civilians, she says, and should be classified as a war crime. More than 30 people died in the suicide bombing and attack.

“And then you have all the people who are killed and injured in the fighting between both sides to the conflict, who use indiscriminate weapons, such as mortars, in densely populated areas. And these are obviously indiscriminate attacks, which are also forbidden by the Geneva Convention,” said Goderiaux.

All sides to blame

Transitional Federal Government (TFG) forces, AU (African Union) troops, al Shabab and other militias have all been blamed for civilian casualties.

"It is very difficult, of course, to get armed groups like al Shabab and Hisbul Islam to agree and to recognize the importance of respecting international law,” she says.

But as for TFG and AU forces, she says, “who are accused of using some of the methods that the arms groups are using, then I think the international community, which gives them support… there is a case… to put a lot more pressure so that, one, they respect international law and [two], when there are credible accusations, that a mechanism is put in place to make those who are accused of doing such things…accountable.”

Hold your fire

Asked how government and AU forces should respond if shelled by militias hiding in residential neighborhoods, Goderiaux says they should use restraint.

“When you have one party to the conflict which is committing abuses and violations of international law, that doesn’t justify the other side from also committing violations of international law,” she says.

She says AMISOM, the AU mission in Somalia, should respect international law at all times and assess the likely consequences of its counter attacks.

“If they are in a situation where they are being attacked by al Shabab and they see that in their response they are going to shell on civilian neighborhoods, then they shouldn’t shell,” she says.

Al-Shabab recently declared an all-out war against AMISOM forces.

Earlier this year, the force commander, Maj. Gen. Nathan Mugisha, said the terrorism triggered by the alliance between al Shabab and al Qaida was like “a virus.”

“Unless dealt with decisively, with all possible resources,” he added, “it spreads quickly. That is why it is vitally important to defeat the extremists who hide behind the perverted banner of religion and offer nothing but repression, violence and bloodshed to the people of Somalia and the entire region. Extremism has nothing to do with Islam and everything to do with indiscriminate murder and carnage.”

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/decapua-somalia-amnesty-25aug10-101471239.html

South African Strike Will Slide Into `Anarchy' If Police Join, ANC Says

story by Bloomberg
written by Nasreen Seria and Antony Sguazzin
photo by Reuters

A strike by 1.3 million South African state workers may descend into “anarchy” if police, traffic and prison officers join the wage dispute tomorrow, the secretary-general of the ruling African National Congress said.

The strike, which began on Aug. 18 after labor unions rejected an offer of a 7 percent pay increase, shut schools, delayed exams and saw patients turned away from state hospitals.

The scheduled action by 145,000 police and prison officers and a planned walkout by 52,000 municipal workers on Aug. 27 are stoking tensions between the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the labor federation that has backed the ruling party since the end of apartheid.

“We regard that as anarchy,” Gwede Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, told reporters in Johannesburg today. All parties should “scale down on unhelpful rhetoric.”

Government employees are demanding an 8.6 percent wage increase and a 1,000-rand ($136) monthly housing allowance. South Africa’s annual inflation is currently 3.7 percent.

The South African Municipal Workers Union in Gauteng province will stage a one-day walkout, while 16,000 members in the Eastern Cape province may begin a strike early next week, union spokesman Tahir Sema said today in an interview from Johannesburg. Gauteng includes Johannesburg and Pretoria.

School timetables are being disrupted with examinations being postponed.

Exams Postponed

“The current strike conditions make it difficult to continue with the exams immediately,” the Gauteng provincial education department said in an e-mailed statement today. Preliminary exams for final-year students, which were scheduled to start on Sept. 3, will take place in two weeks, it said.

As the strike worsens, President Jacob Zuma, who is in China on a state visit, should be at home to help revive negotiations that collapsed last week, said Thembeka Gwagwa, general secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South Africa. “Who do you go to” when the unions are unable to make progress with Cabinet ministers? she asked.

The municipal workers’ strike will disrupt services such as garbage collection, vehicle licensing and policing, Sema said.

Cosatu yesterday called on its 2 million members to stage a one-day strike on Sept. 2 to pressure the government to meet state workers’ wage demands. Unions in Cosatu represent workers in industries including mining and carmaking.

South Africa’s rand fell for a sixth consecutive day, trading at 7.3864 to the dollar as of 3:56 p.m. in Johannesburg, from 7.3741 late yesterday.

To contact the reporters on this story: Nasreen Seria in Johannesburg at nseria@bloomberg.net ; Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net .

2010-08-25

President Obama to Deliver Back to School Speech September 14

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________

WASHINGTON, D.C. – As students begin their school year, President Barack Obama will deliver his second annual Back to School speech on Tuesday, September 14. The President’s Back to School Speech is an opportunity to speak directly to students across the country. Last year, President Obama encouraged students to study hard, stay in school, and take responsibility for their education.

“Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide,” President Obama said to students last year.

President Obama’s Back to School remarks will be broadcast in schools and online nationwide. More details on the President’s speech will be announced soon.

U.S. to divert some Pakistan aid to flood recovery, official says

story by Washington Post
written by Karin Brulliard


SUKKUR, PAKISTAN - The United States is diverting some of its five-year, multibillion-dollar aid package for Pakistan to flood recovery and will reevaluate plans for the remainder because the disaster has dramatically altered the country's needs, the top U.S. aid official said Wednesday.

The floods, triggered by the start of monsoon rains a month ago, have submerged one-fifth of Pakistan, washed away entire settlements and sparked fears of unrest. More than a million homes have been destroyed. In places where schools or hospitals previously needed improvements, they will now have to be built from scratch.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082504792.html

2010-08-24

African-Americans, Women, Southerners Tops in Talking, Texting

story by Nielsen

When it comes to talking and texting on mobile phones, African-Americans, women and Southerners are the most active users, according to data released today by Nielsen.

African-Americans use the most voice minutes, more than 1,300 a month on average, followed by Hispanics with 826 minutes a month. Even Asians/Pacific Islanders, with 692 average monthly minutes, talk more than Whites, who use 647 voice minutes a month.

Blacks and Hispanics are also the most avid texters. Hispanics exchange about 767 SMS messages a month. while Blacks send and receive about 780 — far more than Whites (566 texts a month). The Nielsen data roughly corresponds with findings from a Pew Research Center study in May that showed Blacks and English-speaking Latinos are among the biggest mobile Web users.

Shirley Sherrod turns down White House job offer. For now.

story by yahoo news
photo by AP

It was an odd moment in the annals of thwarted public closure. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, when he scheduled a media appearance with former USDA official Shirley Sherrod, was plainly hoping for a moment of emotionally compelling vindication, to help put the embarrassment of Sherrod's forced resignation behind him and his agency. Instead, the news conference yielded no news: Sherrod said she's not planning to resume work at the USDA, at least for now.


Sherrod, you'll recall, was forced out of her post last month after a political firestorm sparked by what turned out to be a misleadingly edited video of her giving a speech on racial reconciliation.

After meeting with her former boss behind closed doors to consider the offer of a new full-time position, Sherrod went before the media Tuesday to announce she'd turned Vilsack's offer down. You can watch the full video of the Sherrod-Vilsack conference below:


Explaining her decision to reporters, Sherrod said that she was "tempted to take" the position, but isn't ready to go back to work full time. "The secretary did push really hard for me to stay and work from inside, but I look at what happened to me," Sherrod said. "I know he's apologized, and I accepted it. I know a new process is in place, but I don't want to test it. I think I can be helpful to him and the department if I just take a little break."

She did not rule out the possibility of one day returning to work for the department, and she said she'll remain active in discussions of race in America.

"I've had many, many requests from around the country from people who want to hear from me," Sherrod said. "I'd like to hear from them, because I'd like to know — I'd like to hear about efforts that are being made in communities that are dealing with racism and discrimination, and I'd really like to highlight them. ... That's what this country needs. We're a great country, and there are people who care. We're hearing too much from those who would want to point out the negative right now, and I really would like to concentrate on the positive."

Asked by a reporter if she plans to go forward with plans to sue conservative muckraker Andrew Breitbart — the man who posted the doctored video of her speech online — Sherrod replied: "I really don't want to discuss that right now," Sherrod said. "I do think a suit will be forthcoming, but I don't want to discuss it at this time."

Vilsack then hugged Sherrod behind the podium and the two exited the room.

PRESS CONFERENCE CALL 1 P.M. EDT TUESDAY WITH SECRETARY DUNCAN FOR MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ON "RACE TO THE TOP" FUND

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Communications & Outreach, Press Office 400 Maryland Ave., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20202

MEDIA ADVISORY

EVENT DATE: 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 24
Contact: Public Affairs
(202) 401-1576 or press@ed.gov

PRESS CONFERENCE CALL 1 P.M. EDT TUESDAY WITH SECRETARY DUNCAN FOR MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ON RACE TO THE TOP FUND

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will hold a press conference call at 1 p.m. EDT for a major announcement regarding the Race to the Top program.

WHO: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan
WHAT: Press conference call for a major announcement on the Race to the Top fund
DIAL IN: 888-324-9653, passcode: "Competition"
WHEN: 1 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010

The falling of the rain

story by Afpak channel

As flood waters inundated dozens more villages in Pakistan's Sindh province, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari defended his government's response to the flooding, saying that the criticism over his trip to Europe is actually a sign of how much he is "wanted" at home (Geo, Dawn, ET, AP, Tel, Independent, Guardian, AP, McClatchy). Zardari also said recovery from the flooding will take at least three years. The Pakistani government has reportedly decided to issue three-month "relief work" visas to foreign aid workers, with the exception of Indians and Israelis (The News, Hindu). The government announced that it will give 20,000 rupees ($230) to every family affected by the floods, and a Pakistani official said that this week's full moon could increase the risk of more flooding in Sindh (AP, AFP).

Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, is set to hold talks today with senior doctors, health ministry officials, U.N. representatives, and NGOs to discuss the health implications of the flooding, which has put millions at risk for diseases like cholera (BBC, AP). Talks are underway between Pakistan and the IMF as Pakistan seeks to loosen the terms of the $11.3 billion lending program (FT). The BBC is featuring a map of areas affected by the floods, and the Post observes how $18 billion in U.S. civilian and military aid to Pakistan over nine years has not led to increased U.S. popularity there (BBC, Post).

2010-08-23

Tiger Woods, Elin officially divorced


story by Fox Sports

Tiger Woods’ marriage was officially over Monday morning.

Elin Nordegren and Woods, who have been living apart, were both present at Bay County Circuit Court in Florida as their lawyers filed the paperwork dissolving their six-year marriage.

The terms of the divorce were not disclosed.

It had been an open secret in golf circles that the divorce was imminent in the wake of Woods’ adultery sex scandal, which came to light last Thanksgiving.

Much like any divorcing parents, the two have spent the past few months deciding how their children would be raised and the amount of money Nordegren would receive from the world’s No. 1-ranked golfer.

A source with some knowledge of the divorce wouldn’t discuss the financial settlement other than to dismiss reports that Woods would pay $750 million. More recent reports put the figure at between $100-150 million.

“We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future,” Woods and Nordegren said in a joint statement released by their respective lawyers.

“While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us.

“Once we came to the decision that our marriage was at an end, the primary focus of our amicable discussions has been to ensure their future well-being.

“The weeks and months ahead will not be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our privacy must be a principal concern.”

The couple was married in a lavish ceremony in 2004 and have two children, a daughter, Sam, who is three, and a one-year-old son, Charlie.

Woods, who is 34, entered a six week in-patient program for sex addiction in Mississippi to try and keep his wife from leaving him, ultimately to no avail.

Woods is scheduled to play at The Barclays, the first of the FedEx Cup playoff events, this Thursday at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey.

Spike Lee Returns to New Orleans for ‘If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise’


story by the New York Times
written by Dave Itzkoff
photo by AP/HBO

Four years ago Spike Lee took his cameras to New Orleans to document the disaster wrought by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, as told by the people still dealing with its calamitous effects. The film Mr. Lee returned with was “When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts,” a four-hour HBO documentary that won a Peabody Award and three Emmys. So as the fifth anniversary of Katrina approached, Mr. Lee went back to New Orleans this year, hoping to tell the story of that city’s recovery and rejuvenation, starting with the Super Bowl victory of its underdog New Orleans Saints football team.

Instead, Mr. Lee’s new documentary, “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,” which HBO will show on Monday and Tuesday nights, and which Mike Hale has reviewed, ended up with a tone that is largely and eerily similar to its predecessor. As the new movie revisits many people seen in “Levees,” who are still grappling with the fallout from Katrina, they are dealt a second disaster: the explosion of a BP drilling rig that flooded the Gulf Coast with oil – and sent Mr. Lee and his team scrambling to rework what they thought was a finished film.

Mr. Lee spoke recently with ArtsBeat about the making of “If God Is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise,” how it was altered by news events and some of the famous figures who still would not speak to him on camera. These are excerpts from that conversation.

Q.How long after “When the Levees Broke” did you decide to go back to New Orleans?
A.We knew even before we finished. It was just a matter of deciding when we’d return.We saw the fifth anniversary’s approach, so we said let’s go back for five years. That was a fortunate decision or an unfortunate decision, depending on how you look at it. Our first day, we were shooting the Super Bowl. I had an NFL Films crew, which Roger Goodell was so kind to let us hire out, and my regular crew was in New Orleans watching people watch the game in this bar in Treme called Sweet Lorraine’s. Then they rushed over to the French Quarter to film the celebration. We thought that we had the end of the movie, because not only did they win the Super Bowl, it’s right in the middle of Mardi Gras.

Q.So at that point you thought you were making an uplifting movie about the city’s recovery?
A.Definitely. We forget what they’d gone through. When you’ve been stomped on, kicked and all this other stuff, and something great like this happens to you, it uplifts everybody.

Q.What would have happened to your narrative if the Saints lost the game?
A.It wasn’t going to happen. That was never a question. Peyton Manning, he might be the best quarterback in the N.F.L., but Peyton Manning, Unitas, Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montana, nobody was beating the Saints that day. They had a cause. If I was a betting man——

Q.If you were a betting man, you probably wouldn’t be able to afford to make as many movies as you do.
A.No, if I was a betting man, I’d be able to finance a couple more. Because I’d have bet the house on the Saints.

Q.But the tone of the film changed because of the BP oil spill?
A.Everything changed after April 20. We’d finished shooting. We got our material, we’re not making any more trips anywhere – then the rig blew up and 11 people died. So me and Sam Pollard, my co-producer and supervising editor, said: “You know what? The last hour we have now, it has to be on the DVD extras.” And we made eight or nine more trips down there. We were shooting as late as two weeks ago.

Q.In addition to revisiting many of the people from “Levees,” you also talk to people who left New Orleans after Katrina and never returned. How did you find them?
A.When you’re doing a documentary film, a lot of this stuff is detective work. So we knew, unlike the first one, we had to go to Mississippi. We knew we had to go to Houston. A lot of those people have found a better way of life, a higher standard of living. And many of those people want to return, but they lived in public housing which was knocked down. You have people who had to evacuate because of mandatory evacuation, and when they come back, now it’s surrounded by barbed wire and they can’t get back in. And the rents have quadrupled since then. And there’s no jobs and they can’t afford to pay their rent. So they can’t come back.

Q.Were you there that day for the city council vote to tear down the public housing, which looks as if it almost turned into a riot?
A.Oh, no I was not. That was amazing. The pepper spray and people getting Tasered and put in Michael Stewart chokeholds.

Q.That’s just something you don’t expect to see in America.
A.Now that you mention it, look at those images from Katrina, of American citizens standing on top of their houses, holding up signs that say, help me, save me. Who’d have thought that would happen?

Q.Were there people you wanted to interview for this film but couldn’t get?
A.We put in requests to Bush, to Cheney, to Rove, to Condoleezza – she’s in the film, but that’s not anything. I asked her to do a quick “Who dat?” on the field before the Super Bowl. So she did that. We tried to get an interview with the Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. He was giving us some runaround. He didn’t want to do it. I was very happy that Michael Brown agreed to do an interview. After “Levees” came out, I was having a meeting at the Regency hotel and he happened to be staying there. So we talked and he said he wished he could have defended himself. I said, we were trying to get in touch with you but never heard back from you. So we exchanged numbers and when this happened he agreed to do it. His interview’s very important, because he says that [former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael] Chertoff didn’t know what the hell he was doing. And also I felt bad for him. Because even when we were doing “Levees,” my instinct told me that Michael Brown was the scapegoat. He’s the guy that took all the bullets.

Q.Did you try to speak with Chertoff for this film?
A.Yeah. And: no. Never heard back. The only person I heard back from was George Bush, who said he couldn’t do it. I think it was a phone call. I was told by the research department: “No. It’s not going to happen.” It was something like, he’s busy writing his memoirs. But we understood that. I wasn’t betting on getting those interviews. [Laughs.] I knew those were a 100-to-1 long shot.

Q.Do you think they’re turning you down because of who you are?
A.I think some people think that I’ve already had my mind made up and therefore they can’t win. But I disagree with that. I think that I’m a very fair documentary filmmaker. And at the same time, I’m going to ask some hard questions. For them, it’s a no-win situation, so I didn’t expect them to say yes.

Q.You were just in New Orleans for the debut of the film – how did that go?
A.Yeah, it was Tuesday night. Of course that’s like a hometown crowd, but it went great. We only showed two of the four hours – we showed the first hour and the last hour, which deals specifically with the BP oil disaster. But people love it.

Q.Do people there feel like the oil-spill disaster is now behind them?
A.No. People are not believing that 75 percent of the oil has disappeared. No one with any intelligence believes that. Only the most gullible person could believe that on one hand we had the world’s greatest oil spill – on the other hand, a couple days after it’s capped, 75 percent of the oil has disappeared? No thank you. Don’t believe it. One day, five, 10, 15 years from now – maybe sooner – we may find out that dispersant they used was more harmful than the oil. And they were using a ton of that stuff.

Q.Do you think you might go back to New Orleans and make another documentary there?
A.I’d like to, but I don’t want to be spurred on by another hit. These things, Katrina, the breach of the levees, and now this, the greatest oil spill in the history of the world, that’s a lot for any place to take in less than five years. That is a lot. And I know, and they know, they’re very resilient, strong, fierce proud people. But they’re still human beings nonetheless, and another one would really hurt. We don’t know how the story’s going to end, because it’s not over yet. That oil is still there. And we’re not through hurricane season yet. We’ve been lucky so far.

There are no “outsiders” here -- op-ed by Stephanie J. Jones

story in the Washington Post -- Saturday, August 21, 2010; A13 --
op-ed written by Stephanie J. Jones

Lost in the furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is a simple fact: The opposition to the center is the strongest argument in favor of it going right where it is planned. By most accounts, much of the opposition is based on an inaccurate conflation of Islam with terrorism, stemming from ignorance about the Muslim religion, culture and people. While troubling, this is hardly surprising in a nation in which a significant minority of Americans believe that our Christian president is Muslim (and so what if he were?).

Exiling the center to another part of Manhattan will expand and deepen the gulf between the Islamic community and its neighbors. The best way to bridge this gap is to help people understand that their trepidation is based not in reality but born of a myth that has been cruelly exploited. The Islamic cultural center can help span this chasm.

Of course, it's not fair to expect a minority community to educate the majority, especially when the majority is so hostile to it. Sadly, minorities have long shouldered the burden of proving to the majority that they pose no threat, that they are not inferior and that they, too, deserve everything the majority takes for granted as its due -- while patiently enduring misunderstanding and even abuse. They do all this in the face of demands that they are going too fast, pushing too hard and making life too uncomfortable for others.

That was the case in 1963 when white ministers in Birmingham, Ala., accused Martin Luther King Jr. of exacerbating racial tensions by leading protests against the city's segregation laws. They called his actions "unwise and untimely." Dr. King responded with his "Letter from Birmingham Jail,"( http://kirktanter.blogspot.com/search?q=letter+from+birmingham ) in which he wrote: "Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was 'well timed' in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.' "

Nearly 50 years later, it is Muslims who are being told to wait, to go away and remain out of sight until their presence can be tolerated by others. While much has changed in the past five decades, the drumbeat against the Islamic center echoes the calls of the well-meaning but misguided Birmingham ministers. Following in the footsteps of those who called for King and his "outsiders" to retreat, opponents of the cultural center urge that it be banished to another neighborhood because its presence near Ground Zero is unsettling and potentially dangerous.

But forcing the Islamic center out of sight will only allow ignorance and fear to fester and grow. It will keep more Americans from learning a lesson that King shared with the ministers: "Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds."

If the center is established in Lower Manhattan, the people most opposed to it now will eventually have a chance to learn that Muslims aren't the enemy. That they aren't dangerous or terrorists or even, in fact, outsiders. They are the lady who smiles at them in the grocery store; the teenager who roots for the Yankees; the little girl who plays with their daughter. Muslims are their neighbors. They are Americans. They are their friends.

The Islamic center needs to be right where it is planned because that's where human change will come about -- one parent, one child, one friend at a time. Instead of demanding that the Muslims get out, the residents of Lower Manhattan should be grateful that their fellow Americans are willing to stay put and make the effort, under difficult circumstances, to build bridges so that, as King said, "the deep fog of misunderstanding can be lifted from our fear-drenched communities."

The writer, a public affairs and government relations strategist, was executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute from 2005 to 2010.

2010-08-22

Protesters rally against, for planned Islamic center in New York

Police in New York on Sunday separate demonstrators on opposite sides of the controversy about a planned Islamic center

story by CNN

With chants and banners, protesters against the construction of an Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero faced off on Sunday with protesters in favor of the facility.

Hundreds of critics and supporters of the proposed center in New York showed up despite an overcast and drizzly sky to express their views amid the national debate over the facility.

Police estimated that by 11:30 a.m. supporters of the center numbered up to 250, and critics numbered about 450.

A banner on the anti-center side said, "Land of the free. Stop sharia before it stops you." Another sign read, "No mosque here. Preserve the dignity of our loved ones killed on 9/11."

Those in favor of the constructions said freedom of religion was the main issue in the debate.

"I am hoping there will be a more thoughtful discussion and that people realize it is just wrong -- it is un-American -- to paint an entire religion by the action of a few extremists," one supporter said.

At the conclusion of the protest, those opposed to the construction marched by ground zero.

The Islamic center's leaders say the $100 million facility calls for a community center including a mosque, performing arts center, gym, swimming pool and other public spaces.

It will be built near where the World Trade Center was destroyed by Islamic extremists on September 11, 2001. The attacks killed more than 2,700 people.

Some New Yorkers say an Islamic center near the site is a painful affront.
The Coalition to Honor Ground Zero was organizing the rally against the construction of the center. The NYC Coalition to Stop Islamophobia staged the counter-protest.

Firefighters, families of the September 11 victims, first responders and residents of the neighborhood will join the protests, organizers of the anti-center protest said on their website.

Plans to build the center near the site have stirred emotions nationwide. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released earlier this month marked nationwide opposition to the proposed facility at 68 percent.

"What that tells me is the wounds of 9/11 haven't healed, and I think if they haven't, perhaps we can find ways to bring about that healing by perhaps creating a situation where people will feel more comfortable," New York Gov. David Paterson said last week.

Paterson said there is no local, state or federal statute that prevents the construction of the facility.

On Sunday, Daisy Khan, who is heading the development of the project with her husband, said moving the project to another site is not under consideration for now.

She added that a move could be considered after consultations with "all major stakeholders."

"We have to be very careful and deliberate in making any move," Khan said.

Survivors of Pakistan floods face growing health problems



story by CNN

Shahdadkot, Pakistan -- For almost a million Pakistanis, the misery of epic flooding covering one-fifth of the country has now taken the form of communicable illnesses.

Cases of acute diarrhea have topped 204,000, the World Health Organization announced Sunday. The number of skin diseases -- such as scabies -- has topped 263,300.

More than 204,600 Pakistanis have reported acute respiratory infections as filthy waters surround homeless flood victims, WHO said.

Thousands have cases of suspected malaria.

"Strong water and sanitation interventions, such as providing clean drinking water supply and addressing environmental hazards, are urgently needed to prevent outbreaks of waterborne diseases in" Charsadda, Nowshera and Peshawar, WHO said.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has called a meeting for Tuesday of senior Pakistani health officials, local officials, U.N. agencies and other international group to look into the emerging health crisis, state-run TV reported.

Meanwhile, the half-million residents of Shahdadkot frantically tried to flee their homes over the weekend as a wall of water threatened to burst mud berms and drown the entire city in Pakistan's Sindh province.

Three weeks into the worst natural disaster in Pakistan's history, people were still desperate to escape as a second wave of monsoon floodwaters surged southward. More than 1,500 people have died and 20 million lives have been disrupted.

Residents climbed onto heaps of belongings piled high in the beds of rickety trucks, packed buses, auto-rickshaws and carts to get out of town before the water came. Many did not know where they were going -- just that they had to reach dryer ground.

But there weren't enough vehicles for a mass evacuation.

Sunat Magsi and her 100-strong extended family lost their nine mud huts to the raging torrents. They sought shelter in an abandoned house but even there, the water was creeping higher. They only had one donkey and one cart left.

"We have so many children here," Magsi said, weeping. "We don't know how we're going to get out. We need help."

Pakistan is dotted with villages, towns and cities submerged like Shahdadkot. Floodwaters are expected to recede in the next few days as the last surges in the Indus flow into the Arabian Sea.

But the suffering is sure to continue. Health officials fear that the human toll will get a lot worse as people are forced to wade through unsanitary water while clean drinking water is scarce.

More than 200 health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, according to the World Health Organization, greatly reducing the available health care for millions of survivors in filthy conditions. At least 4 million people are homeless.

"The depth of suffering is incalculable as risks escalate of diarrhea, acute respiratory infection, malaria and other communicable diseases," said Dr. Guido Sabatinelli of the World Health Organization. "It is crucial that all humanitarian health providers, local and national, coordinate their relief efforts closely to save lives, reduce suffering and deliver the most effective response."

WHO said waterborne, airborne and vector-borne diseases, including acute watery diarrhea, measles, malaria and acute respiratory infections, are threats due to overcrowding, lack of hygiene and breakage in waterlines.

The focus is now turning to heading off more disease, particularly among young children, WHO said.

More than 100,000 children have been given polio shots in Charsadda and Peshawar regions in the first three days of a new vaccination program.

United Nations officials have appealed for $460 million over the next three months to help the roughly 20 million people in need of shelter, food and emergency care.

Imram Khan, a political activist and former Pakistani cricket player, said the real damage from the flooding will be witnesses once the water subsides.

"I don't think the international community fully comprehends the extent of the disaster, because ... the real problem is going to come when the water recedes," Khan told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" on Sunday. "The biggest fear is that about 20 million people will be completely impoverished. Now, most of these are subsistence farmers, so they have lost their crops. They have lost their animals."

The area affected by the flooding is also Pakistan's greatest area cotton crops, he said.

The desperation at camps for evacuees is such that people fight over aid trucks that come in, Khan said.

If the situation is not stabilized soon, the situation could become dire, he warned.

"The consequences in three months of this -- if this is not addressed by us -- the country is going to go into chaos," Khan said. "We could implode. We could have starving people. And you're talking, again, about 20 million people in dire straits. Where are they going to go with no food, no homes, no money, no crops, no animals?"

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund officials said they will meet with members of the Pakistani government in Washington next week to discuss the economic impact of the massive floods that have ravaged the country.

"The floods, which have hit Pakistan in recent weeks and brought suffering to millions of people, will also pose a massive economic challenge to the people and government of Pakistan," said Masood Ahmed, director of IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department.

Ahmed says the meeting will be an opportunity to evaluate the economic impact of the floods, assess what Pakistan's government is doing to respond to it and "discuss ways in which the IMF can assist Pakistan at this difficult juncture."

Despite 'all that money,' more than 1 million Haitians remain displaced by January earthquake

Haitan boy showers amidst the 'tent city' - Port-au-Prince - across from the National Palace in background

story by Washington Post
written by Edward Cody
photos by Washington Post's Rick Carioti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Immacula Pierre had a question. Why, she wanted to know, are she and 50,000 other homeless Haitians still living in a squalid tent city on the Champ de Mars, an esplanade in the heart of Port-au-Prince just across the street from the destroyed National Palace.

"I'm still here," she said, gesturing at a tattered tarp-and-plywood shelter that covered a soaked bed on ground left muddy by an overnight downpour. "I wake up every morning here, and I just stare up at the sky. Nothing else."

More than seven months after the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, an estimated 1.3 million Haitians -- 15 percent of the population -- are still living in tents or under leaky tarps, unable to protect themselves from the Caribbean's relentless summer rains, even though foreign governments and charities have pledged billions of dollars for relief and reconstruction.

The international spotlight returned to Haiti this month when hip-hop star Wyclef Jean announced his plan to run for president in November. His image as an outsider, born in Haiti but a longtime resident of New Jersey, brought a wave of optimism, especially among younger Haitians.

But Jean's disqualification Friday on the grounds that he did not meet the residency requirement left many worried that interest in Haiti will again fade despite the country's tremendous unmet needs.

The homeless are scattered in more than a thousand fetid camps; the Champ de Mars is far from being the worst. One tent city welcomes visitors as soon as they drive out of Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport. Residents live jammed together -- sleeping, eating, washing and waiting -- a situation that has promoted a surge in theft and rape, but also in self-help and solidarity.

None of the camps is as emblematic of the enduring crisis as the Champ de Mars. Flanked by ministries, barracks and the iconic eggshell-white palace, the site was Haiti's equivalent of the Mall. But since the earth shook, the palace droops in evocative ruins with no sign of repairs as the months tick by. The fountains have turned into sickly green pools, still clogged with plastic bottles that no one seems able to haul off. The once-proud historical monuments look down on a tight patchwork of rickety shelters and, inside, an increasingly resentful mass of idle people with nowhere to go.

"All that money, we have felt nothing from it," complained Jean-Michel Olophene, a civil engineer who has been a Champ de Mars resident since the quake and recently was hired by the government as a liaison.

Conscious of the symbolism, President René Préval has made it a personal mission to get the homeless off the Champ de Mars. According to aides, he meets several times a week with a group assigned to find a solution. But every time they propose something, according to a participant, he responds that he does not have the money to make it work.

As a result, the Champ de Mars has become another symbol: that of the Haitian government's inability to muster the leadership to inspire hope and promote recovery. Despite his commitment to moving people off the Champ de Mars, for instance, and even though he works in refurbished offices on the National Palace grounds 200 yards away, Préval has yet to walk over and talk with the homeless residents, Olophene said.

Two Haitian sisters at camp Champ de Mars adjacent to the Palace

"President Préval's actions do not suggest a departure from the self-destructive political behavior that has kept Haiti the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's senior Republican, complained in a letter last month accompanying a committee report that found a disturbing lag in recovery work.

The leading Haitian newspaper, Le Nouvelliste, agreed. "Nothing is easy, granted," it said in a front-page editorial this week. "But things could be moving faster. Everybody agrees with that. Everybody."

Slow shift from relief

Officials from the estimated 800 foreign aid organizations here point with pride at the relief effort they mounted after the magnitude-7 tremor. Even though more than 200,000 people were killed, 1.5 million were left homeless and government institutions were reduced to rubble, they note, there was no starvation, no water-borne disease and no rioting.

Some officials say the influx of doctors, nurses and medicine from international aid organizations was so great that Haitians have better access to health care now than before the earthquake. The American Red Cross alone provides health care to nearly half a million people. If disease has been avoided, it is in large part because Oxfam supplies clean water and latrines. Money from the U.S. Agency for International Development gives 20,000 people a day the wherewithal to feed their families.

But the shift from relief to reconstruction has seemed painfully slow, they acknowledge. In part, they suggest, this may be because outsiders underestimate how long rebuilding takes, or because they do not realize how poor and undeveloped Haiti was before the earthquake. Even as it lags, they maintain, reconstruction in Haiti is moving at approximately the same pace as that of Asian countries hit by a tsunami in 2004.

But mostly the pace seems slow because the challenge is immense. One relief expert called the destruction in Port-au-Prince, the capital where 3 million of Haiti's 8 million people live, the greatest urban disaster of modern times.

"Because we had an earthquake with a huge international relief response does not mean we are going to be able to rebuild Haiti in six months; that's just not going to happen," said Julie Schindall, an Oxfam spokeswoman.

One reason Préval's government has been unable to move people out of the tent cities, for instance, is the country's muddled land ownership, with competing deeds and contradictory surveys left by Haiti's history of dictatorships, coups and political instability.

Moreover, Haiti's trucks and earthmovers have proved insufficient to clear away rubble to allow people to return to their neighborhoods. One million of an estimated 25 million cubic meters have been cleared; the operation is expected to take years. Teenagers in the Fort National neighborhood, paid by an international cash-for-work program, struggle to haul away debris in gardening wheelbarrows, two dozen chunks at a time.

Another obstacle is a tradition of corruption. One reconstruction official already has been fired for trying to steer aid money to his company. The World Bank two weeks ago granted the government $30 million, to be accompanied by $25 million from other donations, to finance anti-corruption controls in its handling of nearly $10 billion in reconstruction money pledged at a conference in March at the United Nations.
 
To manage the money and police its use, the conference established the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, headed by Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former president Bill Clinton. After long delays, the commission held its second meeting Tuesday, approving $1.6 billion in recovery projects, $904 million of which have financing from the international donations, designed to emphasize rubble clearing and shelter building.

Clinton and Haitian leaders have described the recovery plans as an opportunity to defeat Haiti's poverty at last, giving the country the schools, roads and electricity network it has always lacked. Leslie Voltaire, a U.S.-educated urban planner and a candidate in November's presidential election, has drawn up blueprints to refashion Port-au-Prince into a shiny, less crowded city that he envisions as a commercial capital of the Caribbean.

But longtime observers recall similar dreams of new beginnings -- when the Duvalier dictatorship fell in 1986, for instance, or when the populist Jean-Bertrand Aristide came to power in 1990, or when he was restored to the presidency four years later in a U.S. military intervention ordered by Clinton. Each time, the hopes went unfulfilled, leaving disappointment among the people and increasing cynicism toward the government.

"Maybe the government doesn't have the possibility to help us get out of here, or maybe it doesn't have the will," said Lyncee Jean Hency, Pierre's neighbor in the Champ de Mars. "Myself, I think it's a question of will. President Préval has never even taken the trouble to show up here for a visit."
 
Rains but no houses

Corail-Cesselesse, a rock-strewn flatland 10 miles north of Port-au-Prince, was supposed to be one of the solutions. But so far, it has been a frustrating example of how difficult Préval's government finds it to get anything done.

Thousands of homeless families camping on a hillside golf course in the well-to-do suburb of Petionville were bused to a tent city in Corail-Cesselesse in April. The slopes in Petionville were dangerous, they were told, posing the threat of mudslides under the Caribbean's beating summer rains. Moreover, they were promised that they would soon receive what international aid groups call "transitional shelters," waterproof prefabricated houses on a concrete foundation.

Four months later, the season's downpours have arrived on schedule, but not the houses.

An estimated 100,000 people live in tents on the barren plain, said Jacques Saint-Louis, who helps administer the camp for the American Refugee Committee; they are fighting to stay dry, wondering where they might find a job so far from town and relying on relatives for food. On July 12, savage winds and rain swept in, blowing down many of the carefully aligned tents. Homeless Haitians put them back up again and kept on waiting.

"They say the houses are coming, but nothing's been done yet," said Fito Fortune, 45, who lives with his wife and five children in a white, sausage-shaped tent.

Préval visited the camp soon after it was set up, Fortune recalled, and he promised that houses would soon be made available. The months came and went, however, and only a model unit has been erected, assigned to serve as an administrative office.

Across the country, aid agencies say, 8,000 transitional shelters have been built, out of 125,000 that were scheduled to be in place by the end of the year.

A European engineer with the company contracted to build houses at Corail-Cesselesse said he and his team are ready to start any time and could swiftly get 1,300 of the little structures up at a cost of $4,500 each. But government officials are dragging their feet on the contract, he added, so the company is waiting.

"Things are very slow here," he said, "a lot of red tape."

Fortune, meanwhile, recently sent three of his children to live downtown with relatives -- also in tents -- so they can attend school. Asked how he could afford tuition without a job, he replied:

"A little here, and a little there, a little coming, and a little going. That's how I do it."

2010-08-21

Shirley Sherrod to meet Tuesday with Vilsack over job

story by CNN

Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from the Agriculture Department, will meet Tuesday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss a job offer, a department official confirmed Saturday.

It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two since a controversial sequence of events last month culminated in her stepping down.

Sherrod, who was the Agriculture Department's Georgia Director of Rural Development, has said she is being offered the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Advocacy and Outreach.

The position includes administration and outreach to improve the Agriculture Department's civil rights efforts and image nationwide.

The department official who confirmed the meeting asked not to be identified.

Sherrod was forced to resign in July after misleading and incomplete video footage of a speech she gave was posted on the internet and picked up in media reports. Vilsack apologized to her and offered her the promotion.

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted a portion of a speech Sherrod gave in which she spoke of not offering her full help to a white farmer. The original post by Breitbart indicated that the incident Sherrod mentioned occurred when she worked for the Agriculture Department, and news outlets quickly picked up on the story.

However, the incident took place decades before she joined the department, and her speech in its unedited form made the point that people should move beyond race. In addition, the white farmer who Sherrod mentioned has told reporters that she helped him save his farm.

Sherrod spoke about the incident Saturday at a meeting of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives Land Assistance Fund in Epes, Alabama.

She said her work with other agencies to help poor counties in south Georgia was overlooked during the controversy.

Sherrod said Saturday she has no criticism of President Barack Obama and believes the NAACP, which also urged her to resign before learning the video had misconstrued her comments, was tricked.

NAACP President Ben Jealous spoke Saturday at the Alabama meeting.

Repeated calls to Sherrod were not returned Saturday.

MSNBC Reexamining the Beltway Sniper Case



story by MSNBC

MSNBC Films is planning a special that will reexamine the 2002 Washington DC sniper killings.

Called "I Married the Beltway Sniper," the film will feature an interview with "Mildred," the ex-wife of sniper John Allen Muhammed.

Wyclef Jean vows to help Haiti after presidential bid rejected

story by MSNBC
photo by Getty Images

PORT-AU-PRINCE — Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean urged supporters to respond "peacefully and responsibly" to a Haiti provisional electoral council ruling that he is not eligible to run as a presidential candidate in the Nov. 28 election.

Singer-songwriter Jean, 40, an international celebrity who is popular in his impoverished and earthquake-ravaged homeland, was left off the list of approved candidates published by the council.

Council spokesman Richard Dumel said election officials accepted 19 candidacies and rejected 15 others. Jean's candidacy was turned down because he did not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Haiti for five years before the election.

Jean said in a blog posted at The Huffington Post: "Though I disagree with the ruling, I respectfully accept the committee's final decision, and I urge my supporters to do the same."

He urged supporters to respond "peacefully and responsibly to this disappointment."

"Ultimately, we must respect the rule of law in order for our island to become the great nation we all aspire for it to be," he said.

He vowed to continue working for Haiti's renewal.

Washington DC is the Nation's Strongest Job Market

story by BusinessWeek
written by Venessa Wong

No. 1 Strongest Job Market: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va.

Who's hiring: Wholesale/retail trade, Professional & business services, Government
Companies planning to hire in Q3: 23 percent
Population: 5,476,241 (+1.8 percent YOY)
Unemployment rate: 6.2 percent
Mean annual income: $59,470

The D.C. area, which has seen its unemployment rate drop from 7.1 percent in February to 6.2 percent in May, has maintained the strongest average employment outlook this year. In Manpower's most recent report, 23 percent of survey-takers in the area planned to increase employment in the third quarter and 4 percent planned to decrease employment; a majority, 69 percent, had no plans to change employment this summer. According to the Conference Board, there were 190,800 online ads for jobs in the area in June, up 28.3 percent from a year earlier. Accenture, for example, plans to add 1,000 jobs in the D.C. area, reported the Washington Business Journal. Deloitte's Federal Practice has also hired 1,200 new employees in the D.C. metro area so far this year and plans to hire about 160 per month through the end of May 2011.

Jobs Surge in U.S. Capital

"We're a lot better off than one year ago" in terms of job availability, says Jeff Quinn, a senior director of research at Monster Worldwide. "Year-on-year there are strong, positive signs. However, we still have not regained all of the ground lost during the recession. It will take some time."

Where is hiring strongest? Businessweek.com ranked the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas, based on Manpower's data about businesses' Q1, Q2, and Q3 hiring forecasts. So far this year, Washington has shown the strongest overall employment outlook, followed by San Antonio and Greenville, S.C. Employers display the worst employment outlook in Las Vegas, Reno, Nev., and Detroit.

In Manpower's survey, 23 percent of Washington area employers plan to increase staff levels in the third quarter, while 4 percent plan to decrease employment and 69 percent envision no change.

Washington is the only metropolitan area in which the number of advertised job vacancies in May (201,000) was greater than the number of unemployed (184,600), according to the Conference Board.

2010-08-20

Black Journalists’ Group Calls for Forum on ‘Talk Show Hate’ -- Group Says Dr. Laura And Media Companies Must Be Held Accountable

The following is a statement from Kathy Times (photo left), President of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) on the recent criticism of conservative talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger for using a racial slur on the talk show:

"I will never forget the first time I was called the n-word. In fact, a young white man in Alabama hit me with a double dose of hate and called me a n—– b—-. It was 2002. It was my first day on a new job as an investigative reporter. It took a few seconds for the full impact of the slur to hit me. Then, it felt like I’d been sucker punched in the gut.

I can imagine that is how the African-American caller felt when she and other listeners heard Dr. Laura Schlessinger use the n-word 11 times… taken aback, shocked, and speechless.

When will people learn it’s never OK to use the n-word, no matter how many times it is uttered in the name of entertainment, sarcasm or disgust? Instead of helping one of her callers, Dr. Laura chose to go on a tirade that appeared to reveal deep-rooted thoughts on politics and black America.

Dr. Laura apologized for using the offensive language. She does not have the right to use racial slurs on public airwaves. She says she will not do radio anymore, but there are deeper issues that must be addressed by the company that syndicates her show – Premiere Radio Networks. Why wait until the next on-air personality slips up?

Is it time for the n-word and other racial epithets to be added to the list of seven dirty words (made famous by comedian George Carlin)?

The use of those words hit broadcasters where it hurts them most – on the bottom line with fines and lost advertising revenue. But the fear of losing ad dollars should not be the only reason to end this era of hate on the public’s airwaves.

It is past time for a movement to address “Talk Show Hate.” As the president of the National Association of Black Journalists, my goal is not to change the inherent mindset of provocateurs and consumers of any controversial media platform, but instead to lead the charge in forums that educate those who dare to think for themselves. I believe most people are open to embracing people of all races based on the content of their character. We invite Dr. Laura and Premiere Radio Networks to join us in a conversation leading to change in the public discourse, which both embraces their right to free speech and our desire to end the use of racial slurs and epithets on the public’s airwaves.

By the way, that young white man who called me those terrible names eventually apologized and gave me an interview. I accepted the apology, but I’ll never forget the venomous sting that my ancestors must have felt when their slave masters conjured up the n-word."

Massive egg recall: How to check your carton for recalled eggs

written by Dan Shapley
photo by FDA

A massive egg recall by Write County Egg has sickened hundreds of people, and affected 13 retail brands that the egg factory packages. The culprit: Salmonella on egg shells.

The egg brands affected by the recall include: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms, and Kemps.

Eggs are packed in 6- 12- or 18-egg cartons with Julian dates ranging from 136 to 225 and plant numbers 1026, 1413, and 1946.

Dates and codes can be found stamped on the end of the egg carton. The plant number begins with the letter P and then the number. The Julian date follows the plant number, for example: P-1946 223.

Consumers should not eat the eggs and should return recalled eggs to the store where they were purchased for a full refund.

Bacterial contamination on modern industrial-scale chicken farms (factories, really) is a growing problem. Cramped conditions are breeding grounds for disease. Widespread use of antibiotics is creating drug-resistant strains of bacteria.

One antidote to the problem is to choose locally sourced eggs from farms that allow their chickens to run free. Though be aware that the label "free range" doesn't mean what you might think.

Salmonella poisoning symptoms

Within 6-to-72 hours of eating an egg, you may experience lower abdominal cramps, diarrhea (sometimes bloody), vomiting, fever, chills, malaise, nausea or headache. Symptoms may persist for as long as a week. While most people recover without treatment, some patients require hospitalization.

Among the 21,244 cases of foodborne illness reported from tainted food-related outbreaks in the United States in 2007 (the last year for which data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), salmonella was the No. 2 cause of illness, causing 27% of foodborne illness outbreaks, including 55% of multi-state outbreaks, and 81 illnesses attributed to salmonella in eggs; five deaths resulted from salmonella-contaminated food. The two biggest foodborne illness outbreaks that year were caused by salmonella, in hummus and frozen pot pies.

2010-08-19

59 Killed, 100 Wounded in Iraq Army Recruitment Centre Attack

story by Al-Manar

A suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded army recruitment centre in Baghdad killing 59 people Tuesday, officials said. The attack, the deadliest this year, wounded at least another 100 people and came a day after Iraq's two main political parties suspended talks over the formation of a new government five months on from elections, and as the US withdraws thousands of its soldiers from the country.

"We have received 59 corpses this morning," an official at Baghdad morgue said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A doctor at Medical City hospital, close to the scene of the attack, said they had so far received 125 wounded.

The bomber blew himself up around 7:30 am (0430 GMT) at the centre, a former ministry of defense building that now houses a local security command, in the Baab al-Muatham neighborhood of central Baghdad. An interior ministry official said the majority of the victims were army recruits but that some soldiers who were protecting the recruitment centre compound were also among the casualties.

Iraqi security forces cordoned off the area following the attack, and security was stepped up across the capital, leading to traffic gridlock during the morning rush hour.

Also on Tuesday, two separate bomb attacks against judges in Baghdad and the central city of Baquba left four of them wounded, security officials said. The recruitment centre explosion was the bloodiest single attack in Iraq since December 8, when a series of coordinated blasts in the capital killed 127 people.

Iraq is mired in a political stalemate, with the winner of its March election breaking off talks with his main rival Monday evening, dampening already faint hopes that a government could be formed before the holy month of Ramadan ends in the middle of September.

Salmonella recall expands to eggs sent to 17 states

The Iowa producer of shell eggs linked to hundreds of illnesses in a massive salmonella outbreak has expanded its recall to include eggs sent to 17 states, federal health officials said Thursday.

Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, now says the potentially tainted eggs were distributed to wholesalers, distribution centers and food service companies in California, Arizona, Missouri, Minnesota, Texas, Georgia, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Illinois, Utah, Nebraska, Arkansas, Wisconsin and Oklahoma.

At least 380 million eggs have been implicated in the outbreak, which is confirmed to have sickened people in four states and is suspected in several more.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with state health departments to investigate the illnesses. No deaths have been reported, said Dr. Christopher Braden, a CDC epidemiologist involved in the investigation.

Initially, 228 million eggs, or the equivalent of 19 million dozen-egg cartons, were recalled by the company Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa. But that number was increased to nearly 32 million dozen-egg cartons.

Other states have seen a jump in reports of the type of salmonella. For example, California has reported 266 illnesses since June and believes many are related to the eggs. Colorado saw 28 cases in June and July, about four times the usual number. Spikes or clusters of suspicious cases have also been reported in Arizona, Illinois, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says the state Department of Health Services has linked all 21 confirmed cases of salmonella-related illnesses in Wisconsin to a Kenosha, Wis., restaurant. One of the 21 diners at sickened by a salmonella bacteria linked to contaminated eggs has filed a lawsuit. Tanja Dzinovic, of Pleasant Prairie, Wis., is suing the egg producer, Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, and others after getting sick from a Cobb salad at Baker Street Restaurant and Pub in June.

2010-08-18

Despite her claims, 'Dr. Laura' is no media victim

story by Baltimore Sun
written by David Zurewik

In announcing an end to her radio show Tuesday night, Laura Schlessinger tried to paint herself as a victim of the contentious media and political times in which we live.

"When I first started out in radio, people would disagree — they disagreed, they didn't hate. They didn't try to censor, they didn't try to destroy an opposing point of view," she said.

In today's media world, however, Schlessinger says that "self-appointed activist types breed hate, breed anger, breed destruction should anyone hold up a mirror or dare to disagree."

The media climate today is indeed contentious, rude and often even ugly, but don't buy Schlessinger's "poor me" nonsense for one second. She is the mainstream media, and she embodied some of its worst impulses for decades -- and made piles of money off it. For her to try and paint herself as a victim of today's media and political climate is outrageous.

The end of her radio career (in January when her contract concludes) is the result of her own ugliness on-air with a caller last week who asked "Dr. Laura" about the use of racially charged language. Schlessinger used the N-word repeatedly in her answer, and listening to the tape, I was shocked by the aggression that I could hear building in Schlessinger's voice. She was using the word as a weapon.

Some of my colleagues have used the glib phrase "she lost it" to describe Schlessinger's comments in that exchange, but I think it was almost the opposite: I think perhaps she was letting her speech connect to some deep seated feelings she had, and that is what made her words all the more troubling to me.

Schlessinger is spinning a mile a minute as her career in the mainstream media ends and she moves into a more marginalized terrain. And she is good at constructing phony narratives after all her years as a talk radio star.

"I want my First Amendment rights back, which I can't have on radio without the threat of attack on my advertisers and stations," Schlessinger says, stressing that she is not retiring when she leaves the radio airwaves in January.

"I will be stronger and freer to say my mind through my books, my YouTube Channel, my blog and my website," she says.

Whatever, Dr. Laura. But don't blame the media for what you did to yourself.

South Carolina Mom makes first appearance on murder charges



Police identified the dead children as Ja'van T. Duley, 1, left, and Devean C. Duley, 2.

Dr. Laura Schlessinger's Racial Rant On Radio Show

GM files to sell shares to the public

story by CNN Money
written by Ben Rooney

NEW YORK -- General Motors filed documents Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell shares of common stock to the public again.

The automaker said the number of shares to be offered and the price range have not been determined. The shares will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the company's previous ticker symbol of "GM." At the same time, GM said it will offer an unspecified number of Series B preferred stock.

Separately, the Treasury Department said it has agreed to be a selling shareholder of common stock in GM, although it did not say how much it might sell.

The current GM was created out of the ashes of the automaker's bankruptcy process in July 2009, and is owned by combination of taxpayers, former bondholders and union-controlled trust funds.

A majority of the stock is held by governments that bailed out the automaker to keep it operating through the bankruptcy process. The U.S. Treasury received 60.8% of the company's 500 million common shares, while the Canadian government received 17.5%. In order to get back most of the taxpayer money spent on the bailouts, stock needs to be sold to investors.

The U.S. Treasury gave $50 billion to GM, receiving common and preferred stock in return for most of that money. While GM has since paid back almost $7 billion in loans to Treasury, the company's stock will need to reach a total market value of roughly $67 billion in order for U.S. taxpayers to break even on Treasury's common shares.

That level might be possible -- experts have forecast a market value of between $64 billion and $90 billion. But it is far from certain.

In addition to the government-owned shares, union-controlled trust funds have an additional 17.5% stake. Those trust funds were set up to cover the promised health care expenses of GM retirees and their family members.

Creditors of the old company, primarily bondholders, will end up splitting about 10% of the new company's stock. Top GM executives will be issued about 1% of the stock, six months after the IPO.

228M eggs recalled following salmonella outbreak (Pass on to family, colleagues, friends etc...)

story by AP
by Mary Clare Jalonick


WASHINGTON – An Iowa egg producer is recalling 228 million eggs after being linked to an outbreak of salmonella poisoning.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said eggs from Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa, were linked to several illnesses in Colorado, California and Minnesota. The CDC said about 200 cases of the strain of salmonella linked to the eggs were reported weekly during June and July, four times the normal number of such occurrences.

State health officials say tainted eggs have sickened at least 266 Californians and seven in Minnesota.

The eggs were distributed around the country and packaged under the names Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph's, Boomsma's, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemp.

The Food and Drug Administration is investigating.

In a statement, company officials said the FDA is "on-site to review records and inspect our barns." The officials said they began the recall Aug. 13.

The most common symptoms of salmonella are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within eight hours to 72 hours of eating a contaminated product. It can be life-threatening, especially to those with weakened immune systems.