Friday, September 30, 2011
The Common Denominator is . . . . .
Can you identify who this actor is based on the blurred image? Can you tell me what is common between him and this other ACTOR? Your guess is as good as mine.
xoxo
Fashion PULIS
Bullitt County health board will appeal judge's ruling against smoking ban, with financial help from Clark County
The Bullitt County Board of Health will appeal a local judge's ruling that it lacks the authority to impose a smoking ban, and it will get some help from the board in Clark County, one of four where bans have been enacted by health boards instead of county fiscal courts.
The $5,000 will come not from tax dollars, but from "money received from the University of Kentucky for consulting services provided by Health Department Director Scott Lockard," Rachel Parsons of The Winchester Sun reports. UK "contracted with the Clark County Health Department so Lockard could work with the university and other local public health directors on smoke-free issues."
If the Bullitt County ruling is upheld, the decision could invalidate regulations enacted by health departments in Clark, Madison, Woodford and Hopkins counties. At the Court of Appeals, “If they uphold the lower court’s ruling, then we will have an injunction against our ruling until it goes to the Supreme Court, so we will suspend the enforcement of it until we get a final determination,” Lockard said. “We fully anticipate that the ruling will be in favor of the boards of health, because this is just a very narrow interpretation.” (Read more)
The $5,000 will come not from tax dollars, but from "money received from the University of Kentucky for consulting services provided by Health Department Director Scott Lockard," Rachel Parsons of The Winchester Sun reports. UK "contracted with the Clark County Health Department so Lockard could work with the university and other local public health directors on smoke-free issues."
If the Bullitt County ruling is upheld, the decision could invalidate regulations enacted by health departments in Clark, Madison, Woodford and Hopkins counties. At the Court of Appeals, “If they uphold the lower court’s ruling, then we will have an injunction against our ruling until it goes to the Supreme Court, so we will suspend the enforcement of it until we get a final determination,” Lockard said. “We fully anticipate that the ruling will be in favor of the boards of health, because this is just a very narrow interpretation.” (Read more)
Mike Tyson, Michael Vick and Maradona: What do they have in common?
The salaries paid to professional athletes are sometimes impossible for the average fan to comprehend. A $100 million here, a $100 million there and pretty soon it adds up to real money, to borrow loosely from an esteemed politician of the past.
Despite the crazy salaries, the sad (or satisfying, depending on your viewpoint) fact is that many professional athletes burn through their hordes of cash, often before hitting retirement.
What Maradona, Michael Vick and Mike Tyson have in common?
MARADONA, soccer: $26 million Lost
Diego Maradona is arguably the greatest soccer player who ever lived. His feats on the pitch for Argentina in the World Cup, Barcelona, Sevilla and Napoli among others made him a one-name legend. But the legend had a darker side, too.
The Italian stop may have been his Waterloo. There was the 1991 suspension for failing a cocaine test. That lasted 15 months.
Maradona’s troubles didn’t end with retirement. The Italian years caught up with him in 2009 when Italian tax authorities ruled he owed 37 million euros ($26 million at the time) in back taxes, penalties and interests. Having only paid a fraction of the bill (reportedly 42,000 euros, two wristwatches and some earrings), Maradona’s salary as head coach of Argentina’s national team was being garnished before he was dismissed from that post following a lackluster performance by Argentina in the 2010 World Cup.
Now, however, he has scored a lucrative coaching gig with Al Wasl FC in the United Arab Emirates league. Hopefully, someone helps him start practice on time.
MICHAEL VICK, football: At Least $50 Million Lost
The story of Michael Vick’s spectacular fall from grace has been well documented. The dynamic quarterback who led a woeful franchise, the Atlanta Falcons, to Super Bowl contention tossed it all away by investing in dog fighting. Then came prison and bankruptcy. Back in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Vick last month signed his second $100 million contract ($40 million guaranteed).
The happiest people might be his creditors, who stand to see much more of the $20 million they were owed than they might have expected.
MIKE TYSON, boxing: $400 Million Lost
Mike Tyson was on top of the world: Heavyweight champ, career earnings of about $400 million and all the adult toys anyone could want. But outrageous spending ($173,000 for a gold and diamond necklace, a pricey divorce, fancy cars and two Las Vegas mansions) and big tax bills (nearly $14 million owed in the U.S. and Britain) helped lead Tyson to bankruptcy court. There he declared debts of more than $27 million, to a former trainer, a former financial manager and even a music producer, among others. By that time Tyson’s $30 million paydays were a distant memory.
But he has gotten a measure of redemption, appearing in parts 1 and 2 of the hit comedy film, "The Hangover," and being inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame this year.
These superstars blew through their hoards of cash long before retirement, which means they could've used some good financial advice.
Looking for an independent financial advisor? Do you need to review your retirement plan? Life Insurance?
Contact us at anecamara@mintcofinancial.com
Visit our website: www.MintcoFinancial.com
Call us: 716-565-1300
International Execution
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| Anwar Al-Awlaki |
I previously wrote about the legal challenge brought by his father challenging the Obama Administration's policy of targeting an American citizen for assassination. I was particularly incensed by the criticism of the legal team that brought the lawsuit as having crossed some line by representing a suspected terrorist.
The judge ultimately dismissed the case without reaching the merits, finding that the father did not have standing to sue. But it is worth taking note of the New York Times Dec. 12th editorial entitled Judicial Scrutiny Before Death, which argued that despite winning in court, "the administration should remain very worried about the moral implications of its policy," which the district court judge "sharply questioned" despite dismissing the lawsuit. The Times noted that, as the judge wrote, one of the many unanswered questions remaining is whether "the Executive [can] order the assassination of a U.S. citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization”
The Times stressed the importance of judicial scrutiny, and suggested creating a court that operates in secrecy, "like the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which authorizes wiretaps on foreign agents inside the United States." Thus, at minimum, "the government could present its evidence to this court behind closed doors before putting a terror suspect on its target list."
After the death of Osama bin Laden, I wrote:
Of course the world is better off without Osama bin Laden, and it is far better that "the face of the Arab world in America’s eyes," as Jon Stewart said, will no longer be bin Laden's, but instead will be "the young people in Egypt and Tunisia and all the Middle Eastern countries around the world where freedom rises up.” But, while President Obama declared that "justice has been done," if it turns out that bin Laden could have been taken into custody alive without immediate risk to life when more than 20 Navy SEALS entered his compound, then his killing was retribution, not justice.This Administration's "relentless program of wiping out top al-Qaida leaders around the world through unilateral covert strikes" is deeply troubling, both morally and legally. More so for Al-Awlaki, an American citizen, who was never indicted and not afforded the due process rights to which American citizens are entitled. As Glenn Greenwald put it: "he was simply ordered killed by the President: his judge, jury and executioner."
"Proper justice," as Daniele Archibugi explains, "is made in the tribunals, not outside them." Perhaps there was no choice, but it would have been "much more judicially satisfactory," if less immediately gratifying, "to have arrested bin Laden," and to give responsibility to the courts, "rather than to a commando" to judge and punish.
As human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson states, justice "requires a fair trial before an independent court." . . . What should not be forgotten, as Karen Greenberg reminds us, is that the effect of bin Laden's reign of terror on the United States was to pervert our notion of justice: "Under the rubric of fighting terror, the United States rolled back its hallowed notions of civil liberties, its embrace of modernity, and even its reliance on its own courts. We delved into medieval-style torture, we reneged on our courts as a viable option for trying terrorists, and we blindly took aim at a religion, rather than its disaffected hijackers."
Jameel Jafar, the A.C.L.U.’s deputy legal director, argued that the government’s targeted killings violated United States and international law.
“As we’ve seen today, this is a program under which American citizens far from any battlefield can be executed by their own government without judicial process, and on the basis of standards and evidence that are kept secret not just from the public but from the courts.”
Social relations as a primary factor for children’s happiness
The relation between the global happiness and school-related happiness of 700 12-year-old Finnish students was examined.The results showed a strong relationship between happiness and social relationships.
The most popular choices of the happiness increasing factors were:
- success in school
- more free time
- success in a hobby
The least happy students more often than others wanted to have:
- more friends
- better looks
- more money
- a peaceful family life
The results confirm safe social relations as a primary factor underlying children’s happiness.
References:
Global and School-Related Happiness in Finnish Children. JOURNAL OF HAPPINESS STUDIES, 2011.
Comments from Google Plus:
Howard Luks - Our children's lives are far too structured and planned. We have a neighborhood full of young children, yet we are the only ones outside playing. Others are being shuttled to this and that, etc... sad. Let them learn, let them explore, let them socialize and start to cultivate the skills that will last them a lifetime... all IMHO +Wendy Sue Swanson thoughts?
Ves Dimov - Let kids be kids: unstructured play time may be more important than homework
http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/let-kids-be-kids-unstructured-play-time.html
Howard Luks - Couldn't agree more. Love how you find your links so fast :-)
Ves Dimov - My blog is my searchable archive... And the word "unstructured" rang a bell... :)
Wendy Sue Swanson - I like this thinking. I like the freedom to imagine that children will have space to remain present in their moments, that they'll consider the future without boundaries like they can when roaming in the yard. The structured and planned is becoming a norm---but there is resistance and more and more, parents are thinking about leaving their kids to the space and time they were afforded. With all of the parenting advice that is ever-present, it's hard for some parents to turn it off and tune back into their instincts. When you hear about the necessities of children learning 3 languages before age 7 (because the brain is primed until that age, thereafter it's far more difficult) it's hard not to jump in the car to the language school. This is the curse of more and more research--we get misdirected. We feel we can "perfect parenting." We forget we need time to stare up at the sky...time in the backyard with our hands in the sand and our brother at our side. We need to be able to remember that when life is still and we reflect on what matters, it's unlikely to be the language lesson.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Cbeyond -- A True Character-driven Company
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| Jim Geiger. Photo by Leland Holder. |
Companies often say that their employees are their most valued asset. But, few actually live those values. I know of one exception, though -- Cbeyond, a leading Atlanta-based IT and communications services provider to small businesses.
I’ve served as a freelance writer for Cbeyond for the last year, assisting with numerous internal communications writing projects. Those assignments gave me frequent access to employees, who I interviewed on topics ranging from customer retention and call center efficiency to team building and integrity. While the story topics varied, one thing did not: how much Cbeyonders love their company. For someone who had long ago left the corporate ranks of Fortune 500 behemoths for independence from corporate politics, I found the culture at Cbeyond inspiring.
So, when the Atlanta
Some facts about Cbeyond:
n In 12 years, the company has grown from less than a dozen employees to more than 2,000.
n Cbeyond sells voice, data, mobile and cloud services as well as website hosting, and has grown into nearly a half a billion in revenues, mostly through organic growth.
n Today it serves 60,000 US
“We have very deep relationships with each one of our customers,” says Geiger.
The company establishes feedback loops in various ways to ensure communication is strong with customers and employees. These include ongoing customer surveys and a commitment to world-class service for every customer.
The company establishes feedback loops in various ways to ensure communication is strong with customers and employees. These include ongoing customer surveys and a commitment to world-class service for every customer.
In launching the company, Geiger was guided by the idea that “what we did was as important as what we did for a living.” He told seed investors that he wanted to “work with smart people I liked.” For the last 12 years, he has focused on making the internal culture at Cbeyond driven by character and engaged employees. Geiger frequently speaks to employees in person and through videocasts. He hosts employee lunches. In a company of 2,000 employees, there are only two assistants. Everyone works in cubicles. No one has job titles. When employees achieve their five-year anniversary, they are invited to a party – at Geiger’s home.
“I am dedicated and try really hard to be a good communicator to our employees,” he explains. From the beginning, Cbeyond’s entrepreneurial CEO recalled, “We had a very strong culture but it just wasn’t written anywhere.”
That changed a few years ago, when the company developed Cbeyond’s Character Statements. At the presentation, Cbeyond’s employee ambassadors in the audience took turns reading each character statement:
· Care Relentlessly
· Act Graciously
· Lead Courageously
· Learn Continuously
“We don’t place blame,” says Geiger, who also has found that as employees assume positive intent in every interaction, more positive behavior occurs and with it, a better working environment. “It’s a mindset,” he says. “It’s also okay to say, ‘I don’t know.’”
When hiring people, Geiger assumes that candidates are smart and capable, but what he really wants to know is if they will fit inside the character of the company. “If you are a jerk I am going to fire you,” says Geiger. That’s why employees go through several interviews before being offered a position.
“We are trying to desperately understand who you are as a person,” he says.
During the presentation, Geiger quoted Tom Cruise, who once said, “Life feeds work and work feeds life.” He urges employees to be themselves and to share who they are personally and professionally “because in my world I can’t separate the two.”
As Cbeyond has grown to 2,000 staff, Geiger has focused on developing and training employees to ensure the company has a strong base of leaders in the future given its intent to promote from within. To guide those efforts, Geiger created a leadership model – an eight-point star that encompasses values such as creating vision, achieving results, demonstrating integrity, listening and learning, and empowering and trust.
“Do what you are going to say you do” is part of the fabric of the company’s culture. As evidence of his inclusive style, Geiger invited audience members to shared ideas and feedback to him directly through e-mail.
“I’m happy to learn from you,” he told the group.
Most Unhealthy Places and Objects
Some of the things that we do not care back to us in our daily lives as the disease can return. Dirty or hazardous environments, knowing the unthinkable act, is of great importance in terms of protective and preventive health care.
Toothbrush and Toilet: Toilet in standing close to another is as harmful as a toothbrush. Has 2 million microbes per square centimeter of a toilet. Each siphon withdrawal for at least half of these germs, wash basins, floor and other objects are pushed on. This tool is extremely harmful to health of microbes to be submerged in the direct-to-mouth is the greatest danger in the tooth brushes. For this reason, personal hygiene and care products in the bathrooms should be kept in closed cabinets.
Shoes and Wardrobe: keep shoes in cupboards in the bedroom, albeit non-functional for many people is harmful to your health. Outside worn slippers and shoes, dirty materials, everything is on the path the allergens as installed. For this reason, shoes and slippers, lockers in them, especially not of their own bedrooms off a locker, so should be kept away from living areas.
Hot foods and Refrigerator: with states of the hottest food, cooked a perfect recipe for overcooking the refrigerator to put food poisoning. Refrigerator warm moist environment creates the ideal conditions for bacteria in food production. For this reason, food is cooked, cooled and then refrigerated and then taken off the loom.
Escalators: occurrence of thousands of people a day walking the stairs holding a germ paradise places. Especially because of the floating band swept the hands of millions of bacteria, removes all the surface of the sweeps. Intact or a necessity if you visit these places, hands should be disinfected after use.
Handbags: More women in the bags that threaten a shop. Harmful bacteria in a bag is 10 thousand per square centimeter. These points, the floor of a bus in a bag or a restaurant sink and contains much more bacteria. One bag is completely free from bacteria able to reduce if not impossible. It should not be left anywhere for the bags, should be kept in a chair or drawer, should be kept out of places where food is prepared and eaten.
Sinks: The indispensable kitchen sinks in a germ-store. Directly to those places where all kinds of food and cleaning process and the reduction in food should not be left to be disposed.
Headphones: Headphones provides a moist environment and suitable for the growth of microbes. Personal headphones, even thousands of aircraft or buses, especially distributed ürerken very dangerous bacteria. Bacterial growth, as well as continuous use of headphones can cause hearing loss.
Toothbrush and Toilet: Toilet in standing close to another is as harmful as a toothbrush. Has 2 million microbes per square centimeter of a toilet. Each siphon withdrawal for at least half of these germs, wash basins, floor and other objects are pushed on. This tool is extremely harmful to health of microbes to be submerged in the direct-to-mouth is the greatest danger in the tooth brushes. For this reason, personal hygiene and care products in the bathrooms should be kept in closed cabinets.
Shoes and Wardrobe: keep shoes in cupboards in the bedroom, albeit non-functional for many people is harmful to your health. Outside worn slippers and shoes, dirty materials, everything is on the path the allergens as installed. For this reason, shoes and slippers, lockers in them, especially not of their own bedrooms off a locker, so should be kept away from living areas.Hot foods and Refrigerator: with states of the hottest food, cooked a perfect recipe for overcooking the refrigerator to put food poisoning. Refrigerator warm moist environment creates the ideal conditions for bacteria in food production. For this reason, food is cooked, cooled and then refrigerated and then taken off the loom.
Escalators: occurrence of thousands of people a day walking the stairs holding a germ paradise places. Especially because of the floating band swept the hands of millions of bacteria, removes all the surface of the sweeps. Intact or a necessity if you visit these places, hands should be disinfected after use.
Handbags: More women in the bags that threaten a shop. Harmful bacteria in a bag is 10 thousand per square centimeter. These points, the floor of a bus in a bag or a restaurant sink and contains much more bacteria. One bag is completely free from bacteria able to reduce if not impossible. It should not be left anywhere for the bags, should be kept in a chair or drawer, should be kept out of places where food is prepared and eaten.
Sinks: The indispensable kitchen sinks in a germ-store. Directly to those places where all kinds of food and cleaning process and the reduction in food should not be left to be disposed.
Headphones: Headphones provides a moist environment and suitable for the growth of microbes. Personal headphones, even thousands of aircraft or buses, especially distributed ürerken very dangerous bacteria. Bacterial growth, as well as continuous use of headphones can cause hearing loss.
Solve your frozen food problems with T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One!
This post brought to you by T.G.I. FRiDAY'S. All opinions are 100% mine.
I hate to admit it, but my hubby doesn't ALWAYS get home cooked meals as often as he would like. Luckily for me, he is the understanding sort! I work full time, as does he - so he knows that after a tough day at the office sometimes dinner consists of a frozen meal. Now don't feel sorry for us because not all frozen meals taste like "frozen meals". Luckily for him (OK, luckily for ME) the new line of T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One” solves frozen food boredom. Choices are key when trying to feed my guy! There are nine new entrées inspired by the T.G.I. FRiDAY’S restaurants. They include items like Sizzling Steak Fajitas to Cajun-Style Chicken Alfredo. Since they are individual portions we can each have what we want! We tried the Prime Rib Stroganoff. Hubby enjoyed it. Whew. Next up we'll probably try the Fajitas!
Visit T.G.I. FRiDAY'S on facebook for their Fun Freezer contest! Have some freezer fun by decorating yours with your own unique flair. Then by uploading a picture on Facebook you can take a chance to win cool prizes, including a home theater makeover! I'm sure all husbands out there could appreciate that!
I hate to admit it, but my hubby doesn't ALWAYS get home cooked meals as often as he would like. Luckily for me, he is the understanding sort! I work full time, as does he - so he knows that after a tough day at the office sometimes dinner consists of a frozen meal. Now don't feel sorry for us because not all frozen meals taste like "frozen meals". Luckily for him (OK, luckily for ME) the new line of T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One” solves frozen food boredom. Choices are key when trying to feed my guy! There are nine new entrées inspired by the T.G.I. FRiDAY’S restaurants. They include items like Sizzling Steak Fajitas to Cajun-Style Chicken Alfredo. Since they are individual portions we can each have what we want! We tried the Prime Rib Stroganoff. Hubby enjoyed it. Whew. Next up we'll probably try the Fajitas!
Solyndra "Scandal" About Big Oil, King Coal Power And Intimidation
By Dave Johnson, cross-posted from Campaign For America's Future
Last week big oil/big coal sent a not-subtle message to the country's investment community: if you back companies or technologies that compete with us we will crush you. Our media/political machine will accuse you of every crime in the book. Your picture will be plastered on the front page of every newspaper in the country looking like you are on the FBI's "Most Wanted List." We will haul you before Congress and grill you like a tri-tip on national television. The evening news will speculate that you should be in prison.
Here is the other message that is being sent out loud and clear to the rest of us: America is for oil and coal. If you want alternatives let China do it.
Extending To Everything
Here is what the conservative propaganda machine does. It sets a narrative, pounds out a drumbeat on that narrative, and then every news event is twisted to leach the lesson of the narrative. The oil-backed right had been on an anti-green kick for some time. In The Phony Solyndra Solar Scandal I gave some examples -- just a taste -- of this narrative development.
That is what they do. They develop the narrative -- in this case, anti-green, and when there is a story in the news they twist it to teach the lesson.
The Solyndra Lesson
So now Solyndra is in the news. On FOX news -- 2nd-largest shareholder is an oil billionaire -- the story is played 100 ways hour after hour. On talk radio it is repeated endlessly. In right-wing blogs it echoes everywhere. In right-wing newspapers, echoed in "mainstream" outlets by right-wing supported columnists, and driven into the mainstream. Lie after lie after lie, repeated until it becomes "truth."
Charles Krauthammer On Solyndra: A “Toxic Combination Of Lenin Socialism and Crony Capitalism”
So the narrative was that efforts to push for green-energy alternatives jobs was bad, Solyndra came along and was used to teach the lesson. Now that Solyndra is the narrative, it is being used to teach the larger lesson - anything government does is bad, anything opposing oil and coal and big multinationals is bad. Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, The birthing of Solyndra,
One side intimidates, and means it. So they are seen as the "serious" people -- deadly serious. If you cross them, you will have trouble. Serious trouble. The other side plays along, caves, accommodates, appeases, refuses to exercise power when they have it, does little even to enforce obvious lawbreaking by the big -- serious -- players.
Which side do you think people are going to take seriously?
The media won’t call out the intimidators because they are intimidated. One part of this intimidation is the organized, funded “liberal media” accusation. But that is just part of a larger strategy: neutralize those who might call you out on what you are doing. Yet another part of media intimidation is the effect on people’s careers. If you call out the right, you are a "leftist" and you career is in danger. If you are known as a liberal your career is not going to advance in most outlets. If you go after corporations you are "anti-business" and your career is not going far.
But you can say any silly thing, be as wrong or stupid as you can be, as long as it supports corporate/right positions. Nothing bad will happen to you. In fact you are more likely to do well careerwise – be promoted, make more money, get access, speaking fees, etc. And if you actually work for the right's machine, the sky is the limit. You will always, always have a job at an "institute" or in an "association" or even on the government payroll as a staffer. Seriously.
Seriously Using Power
Oh, and for those concerned about government subsidies, deals, etc.:
As for getting goodies from the government?
This is how power is used, and big oil/big coal/Wall Street/Big Multinationals have that power.
Solyndra - Government Doing The Right Thing
The first thing that needs to be emphasized here: the government -- under Bush first, then under Obama -- was right to assist Solyndra and other solar companies. Our government wants to help us capture some of the new green-energy industrial revolution for our country. It is millions of jobs and trillions of dollars coming down the road. To accomplish this the government stepped in to help explore promising new technologies, just like they do with cancer research. Solyndra had a promising new technology and that is why the Dept. of Energy started considering them for a loan guarantee - under the bush administration - that would encourage private investors to take the plunge.
That is all that happened here. Period. One company went under but the technology was promising and still is. Jobs were created - here. Research was funded - here. Facilities were built and will be used - here.
But China stepped in and put $30 billion into winning this bet - there - and this drove the prices down, so one company here went out of business. That is what happened.
Did it cost the government some money? Yes and no - the jobs, research, facilities, supply chain is all still here. And the money was nothing compared to the money the government puts into big oil, big coal, big ag, big financial, etc.
Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury News Silicon Valley observers say fears of 'more Solyndras' are overblown,
Here is the other message that is being sent out loud and clear to the rest of us: America is for oil and coal. If you want alternatives let China do it.
Extending To Everything
Here is what the conservative propaganda machine does. It sets a narrative, pounds out a drumbeat on that narrative, and then every news event is twisted to leach the lesson of the narrative. The oil-backed right had been on an anti-green kick for some time. In The Phony Solyndra Solar Scandal I gave some examples -- just a taste -- of this narrative development.
That is what they do. They develop the narrative -- in this case, anti-green, and when there is a story in the news they twist it to teach the lesson.
The Solyndra Lesson
So now Solyndra is in the news. On FOX news -- 2nd-largest shareholder is an oil billionaire -- the story is played 100 ways hour after hour. On talk radio it is repeated endlessly. In right-wing blogs it echoes everywhere. In right-wing newspapers, echoed in "mainstream" outlets by right-wing supported columnists, and driven into the mainstream. Lie after lie after lie, repeated until it becomes "truth."
Charles Krauthammer On Solyndra: A “Toxic Combination Of Lenin Socialism and Crony Capitalism”
So the narrative was that efforts to push for green-energy alternatives jobs was bad, Solyndra came along and was used to teach the lesson. Now that Solyndra is the narrative, it is being used to teach the larger lesson - anything government does is bad, anything opposing oil and coal and big multinationals is bad. Dana Milbank in the Washington Post, The birthing of Solyndra,
Since the solar-energy company went belly-up a few weeks ago — leaving taxpayers on the hook for $535 million in loan guarantees — a business that was once the poster child for President Obama’s green-jobs initiative has instead become a tool for Republicans to discredit most everything the administration seeks to do.The Serious People
Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah used Solyndra to argue against worker-training benefits. Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina used it to argue that the federal government should stay out of autism research. Disaster relief, cancer treatments, you name it: Solyndra has been an argument against them.
And this week, the government faced the prospect of a shutdown because House Republicans added a provision to the spending bill to draw more attention to — what else? — Solyndra.
One side intimidates, and means it. So they are seen as the "serious" people -- deadly serious. If you cross them, you will have trouble. Serious trouble. The other side plays along, caves, accommodates, appeases, refuses to exercise power when they have it, does little even to enforce obvious lawbreaking by the big -- serious -- players.
Which side do you think people are going to take seriously?
The media won’t call out the intimidators because they are intimidated. One part of this intimidation is the organized, funded “liberal media” accusation. But that is just part of a larger strategy: neutralize those who might call you out on what you are doing. Yet another part of media intimidation is the effect on people’s careers. If you call out the right, you are a "leftist" and you career is in danger. If you are known as a liberal your career is not going to advance in most outlets. If you go after corporations you are "anti-business" and your career is not going far.
But you can say any silly thing, be as wrong or stupid as you can be, as long as it supports corporate/right positions. Nothing bad will happen to you. In fact you are more likely to do well careerwise – be promoted, make more money, get access, speaking fees, etc. And if you actually work for the right's machine, the sky is the limit. You will always, always have a job at an "institute" or in an "association" or even on the government payroll as a staffer. Seriously.
Seriously Using Power
Oh, and for those concerned about government subsidies, deals, etc.:
- House GOP Blocks Vote On Oil Subsidies
- Republicans Filibuster Bill To Repeal Oil Subsidies
- Senate GOP Votes Down Bill To End Big Oil Subsidies
- GOP Whip McCarthy: Oil Subsidies Off The Table In Debt Talks, But Medicare Cuts Have To Be Part Of The Deal
- House GOP readies bill to prohibit EPA from regulating carbon emissions
- GOP Moves to Slash EPA's Budget
- GOP Proposes EPA Cuts; Backs Oil Subsidies
- GOP Begins New Push to Delay EPA Rules on Toxic Power Plant Emissions
- GOP: We need a ‘time out’ from regulations
As for getting goodies from the government?
- Koch Submits Winning Bid To Supply Additional Oil to Strategic Reserve,
- Halliburton's Deals Greater Than Thought,
This is how power is used, and big oil/big coal/Wall Street/Big Multinationals have that power.
Solyndra - Government Doing The Right Thing
The first thing that needs to be emphasized here: the government -- under Bush first, then under Obama -- was right to assist Solyndra and other solar companies. Our government wants to help us capture some of the new green-energy industrial revolution for our country. It is millions of jobs and trillions of dollars coming down the road. To accomplish this the government stepped in to help explore promising new technologies, just like they do with cancer research. Solyndra had a promising new technology and that is why the Dept. of Energy started considering them for a loan guarantee - under the bush administration - that would encourage private investors to take the plunge.
That is all that happened here. Period. One company went under but the technology was promising and still is. Jobs were created - here. Research was funded - here. Facilities were built and will be used - here.
But China stepped in and put $30 billion into winning this bet - there - and this drove the prices down, so one company here went out of business. That is what happened.
Did it cost the government some money? Yes and no - the jobs, research, facilities, supply chain is all still here. And the money was nothing compared to the money the government puts into big oil, big coal, big ag, big financial, etc.
Silicon Valley's San Jose Mercury News Silicon Valley observers say fears of 'more Solyndras' are overblown,
...the scandal has already created an unexpected roadblock for another area solar firm, San Mateo's SolarCity. Earlier this month, the company heralded conditional Department of Energy approval for a $275 million loan guarantee that would help put solar panels on dozens of U.S. military bases. On Friday, the company's CEO sent an urgent letter to Congressional leaders, saying new federal concerns in the wake of the Solyndra scandal could scuttle the SolarCity deal.
... "In the past 48 hours, the DOE has informed us that while they remain strongly supportive of Project SolarStrong, they will be unable to finalize their approval of the loan guarantee" prior to next week's expiration of the loan program.
Adding that the high-flying company ultimately may have been undone by the rise of lower-cost competitors, he said: "Solyndra isn't a sign of the failure of solar. It's a sign that this market is booming."
Knock on Her Door
Image courtesy of www.stockphotopro.com
It all started when this actor visited her place to check out some of the items that she was selling to him. He became friends with her after he bought a few pieces from her collection. Somewhere along the way, he got attracted to her physically and visited her more often.
Things have come a long way since the first time they met. This actor now regularly knocks on her door not to buy anything from her but to share intimate times with her. I just hope that the actor's girlfriend will not be banging on her door when she finds out about their secret rendezvous.
Congratulations to the Winner of the Somnio Running Shoes Promo
Congratulations to Miss Marie Bustonera, the winner of the Somnio Running Shoes contest. Thank you very much to all of you for participating.
Wikileaked At The State Department
The Only Employee at State Who May Be Fired Because of WikiLeaks
By Peter Van Buren, cross-posted from TomDispatch
On the same day that more than 250,000 unredacted State Department cables hemorrhaged out onto the Internet, I was interrogated for the first time in my 23-year State Department career by State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) and told I was under investigation for allegedly disclosing classified information.
The evidence of my crime? A posting on my blog from the previous month that included a link to a WikiLeaks document already available elsewhere on the Web.
As we sat in a small, gray, windowless room, resplendent with a two-way mirror, multiple ceiling-mounted cameras, and iron rungs on the table to which handcuffs could be attached, the two DS agents stated that the inclusion of that link amounted to disclosing classified material. In other words, a link to a document posted by who-knows-who on a public website available at this moment to anyone in the world was the legal equivalent of me stealing a Top Secret report, hiding it under my coat, and passing it to a Chinese spy in a dark alley.
The agents demanded to know who might be helping me with my blog (“Name names!”), if I had donated any money from my upcoming book on my wacky year-long State Department assignment to a forward military base in Iraq, and if so to which charities, the details of my contract with my publisher, how much money (if any) I had been paid, and -- by the way -- whether I had otherwise “transferred” classified information.
Had I, they asked, looked at the WikiLeaks site at home on my own time on my own computer? Every blog post, every Facebook post, and every Tweet by every State Department employee, they told me, must be pre-cleared by the Department prior to “publication.” Then they called me back for a second 90-minute interview, stating that my refusal to answer questions would lead to my being fired, never mind the Fifth (or the First) Amendments.
Why me? It’s not like the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has the staff or the interest to monitor the hundreds of blogs, thousands of posts, and millions of tweets by Foreign Service personnel. The answer undoubtedly is my new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. Its unvarnished portrait of State’s efforts and the U.S. at work in Iraq has clearly angered someone, even though one part of State signed off on the book under internal clearance procedures some 13 months ago. I spent a year in Iraq leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and sadly know exactly what I am talking about. DS monitoring my blog is like a small-town cop pulling over every African-American driver: vindictive, selective prosecution. "Ya’ll be careful in these parts, ‘hear, ‘cause we’re gonna set an example for your kind of people."
Silly as it seems, such accusations carry a lot of weight if you work for the government. DS can unilaterally, and without any right of appeal or oversight, suspend your security clearance and for all intents and purposes end your career. The agents questioning me reminded me of just that, as well as of the potential for criminal prosecution -- and all because of a link to a website, nothing more.
It was implied as well that even writing about the interrogation I underwent, as I am doing now, might morph into charges of “interfering with a Government investigation.” They labeled routine documents in use in my interrogation as “Law Enforcement Sensitive” to penalize me should I post them online. Who knew such small things actually threatened the security of the United States? Are these words so dangerous, or is our nation so fragile that legitimate criticism becomes a firing offense?
Let’s think through this disclosure of classified info thing, even if State won’t. Every website on the Internet includes links to other websites. It’s how the web works. If you include a link to say, a CNN article about Libya, you are not “disclosing” that information -- it’s already there. You’re just saying: "Have a look at this." It’s like pointing out a newspaper article of interest to a guy next to you on the bus. (Careful, though, if it’s an article from the New York Times or the Washington Post. It might quote stuff from Wikileaks and then you could be endangering national security.)
Security at State: Hamburgers and Mud
Security and the State Department go together like hamburgers and mud. Over the years, State has leaked like an old boot. One of its most hilarious security breaches took place when an unknown person walked into the Secretary of State’s outer office and grabbed a pile of classified documents. From the vast trove of missing classified laptops to bugging devices found in its secure conference rooms, from high ranking officials trading secrets in Vienna to top diplomats dallying with spies in Taiwan, even the publicly available list is long and ugly.
Of course, nothing compares to what history will no doubt record as the most significant outpouring of classified material ever, the dump of hundreds of thousands of cables that are now on display on WikiLeaks and its mushroom-like mirror sites. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (an oxymoron if there ever was one) is supposed to protect our American diplomats by securing State’s secrets, and over time they just haven’t done very well at that.
The State Department and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security never took responsibility for their part in the loss of all those cables, never acknowledged their own mistakes or porous security measures. No one will ever be fired at State because of WikiLeaks -- except, at some point, possibly me. Instead, State joined in the Federal mugging of Army Private Bradley Manning, the person alleged to have copied the cables onto a Lady Gaga CD while sitting in the Iraqi desert.
That all those cables were available electronically to everyone from the Secretary of State to a lowly Army private was the result of a clumsy post-9/11 decision at the highest levels of the State Department to quickly make up for information-sharing shortcomings. Trying to please an angry Bush White House, State went from sharing almost nothing to sharing almost everything overnight. They flung their whole library onto the government’s classified intranet, SIPRnet, making it available to hundreds of thousands of Federal employees worldwide. It is usually not a good idea to make classified information that broadly available when you cannot control who gets access to it outside your own organization. The intelligence agencies and the military certainly did no such thing on SIPRnet, before or after 9/11.
State did not restrict access. If you were in, you could see it all. There was no safeguard to ask why someone in the Army in Iraq in 2010 needed to see reporting from 1980s Iceland. Even inside their own organization, State requires its employees to “subscribe” to classified cables by topic, creating a record of what you see and limiting access by justifiable need. A guy who works on trade issues for Morocco might need to explain why he asked for political-military reports from Chile.
Most for-pay porn sites limit the amount of data that can be downloaded. Not State. Once those cables were available on SIPRnet, no alarms or restrictions were implemented so that low-level users couldn’t just download terabytes of classified data. If any activity logs were kept, it does not look like anyone checked them.
A few classified State Department cables will include sourcing, details on from whom or how information was collected. This source data allows an informed reader to judge the veracity of the information; was the source on a country’s nuclear plans a street vendor or a high military officer? Despite the sometimes life-or-death nature of protecting sources (though some argue this is overstated), State simply dumped its hundreds of thousands of cables online unredacted, leaving source names there, all pink and naked in the sun.
Then again, history shows that technical security is just not State’s game, which means the Wikileaks uproar is less of a surprise in context. For example,in 2006, news reports indicated that State’s computer systems were massively hacked by Chinese computer geeks. In 2008, State data disclosures led to an identity theft scheme only uncovered through a fluke arrest by the Washington D.C. cops. Before it was closed down in 2009, snooping on private passport records was a popular intramural activity at the State Department, widely known and casually accepted. In 2011, contractors using fake identities appear to have downloaded 250,000 internal medical records of State Department employees, including mine.
Wishing Isn’t a Strategy, Hope Isn’t a Plan
Despite their own shortcomings, State and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security take this position: if we shut our eyes tightly enough, there is no Wikileaks. (The morning news summary at State includes this message: “Due to the security classification of many documents, the Daily Addendum will not include news clips that are generated by leaked cables by the website WikiLeaks.”)
The corollary to such a position evidently goes something like this: since we won’t punish our own technical security people or the big shots who approved the whole flawed scheme in the first place, and the damned First Amendment doesn’t allow us to punish the New York Times, let’s just punish one of our own employees for looking at, creating links to, and discussing stuff on the web -- and while he was at it, writing an accurate, first-hand, and critical account of the disastrous, if often farcical, American project in Iraq.
That’s what frustrated bullies do -- they pick on the ones they think they can get away with beating up. The advantage of all this? It gets rid of a “troublemaker,” and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security people can claim that they are “doing something” about the WikiLeaks drip that continues even while they fiddle. Of course, it also chills free speech, sending a message to other employees about the price of speaking plainly.
Now does that make sense? Only inside the world of Diplomatic Security, and historically it always has.
For example, Diplomatic Security famously took into custody the color slides reproduced in the Foreign Service Journal showing an open copy of one of the Government's most sensitive intelligence documents, albeit only after the photos were published and distributed in the thousands. Similarly DS made it a crime to take photos of the giant U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, but only after the architecture firm building it posted sketches of the Embassy online; a Google search will still reveal many of those images; others who served in Iraq have posted them on their unsecured Facebook pages.
Imagine this: State's employees are still blocked by a firewall from looking at websites that carry or simply write about and refer to WikiLeaks documents, including TomDispatch.com, which is publishing this piece. (That, in turn, means my colleagues at State won’t be able to read this -- except on the sly.)
In the Belly of the Beast
Back in that windowless room for a second time, I faced the two DS agents clumsily trying to play semi-bad and altogether-bad cop. They once again reminded me of my obligation to protect classified information, and studiously ignored my response -- that I indeed do take that obligation seriously, enough in fact to distinguish between actual disclosure and a witch-hunt.
As they raised their voices and made uncomfortable eye contact just like it says to do in any Interrogation 101 manual, you could almost imagine the hundreds of thousands of unredacted cables physically spinning through the air around us, heading -- splat, splot, splat -- for the web. Despite the Hollywood-style theatrics and the grim surroundings, the interrogation-style was less police state or 1984-style nightmare than a Brazil-like dark comedy.
In the end, though, it’s no joke. I’ve been a blogger since April, but my meeting with the DS agents somehow took place only a week before the publication date of my book. Days after my second interrogation, the Principal Deputy Secretary of State wrote my publisher demanding small redactions in my book -- already shipped to the bookstores -- to avoid “harm to U.S. security.” One demand: to cut a vignette based on a scene from the movie version of Black Hawk Down.
The link to Wikileaks is still on my blog. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security declined my written offer to remove it, certainly an indication that however much my punishment mattered to them, the actual link mattered little. I may lose my job in State’s attempt to turn us all into mini-Bradley Mannings and so make America safe.
These are not people steeped in, or particularly appreciative of, the finer points of irony. Still, would anyone claim that there isn’t irony in the way the State Department regularly crusades for the rights of bloggers abroad in the face of all kinds of government oppression, crediting their voices for the Arab Spring, while going after one of its own bloggers at home for saying nothing that wasn’t truthful?
Here’s the best advice my friends in Diplomatic Security have to offer, as far as I can tell: slam the door after the cow has left the barn, then beat your wife as punishment. She didn’t do anything wrong, but she deserved it, and don’t you feel better now?
Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. His new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (The American Empire Project, Metropolitan Books), is published today.
By Peter Van Buren, cross-posted from TomDispatch
The evidence of my crime? A posting on my blog from the previous month that included a link to a WikiLeaks document already available elsewhere on the Web.
As we sat in a small, gray, windowless room, resplendent with a two-way mirror, multiple ceiling-mounted cameras, and iron rungs on the table to which handcuffs could be attached, the two DS agents stated that the inclusion of that link amounted to disclosing classified material. In other words, a link to a document posted by who-knows-who on a public website available at this moment to anyone in the world was the legal equivalent of me stealing a Top Secret report, hiding it under my coat, and passing it to a Chinese spy in a dark alley.
The agents demanded to know who might be helping me with my blog (“Name names!”), if I had donated any money from my upcoming book on my wacky year-long State Department assignment to a forward military base in Iraq, and if so to which charities, the details of my contract with my publisher, how much money (if any) I had been paid, and -- by the way -- whether I had otherwise “transferred” classified information.
Had I, they asked, looked at the WikiLeaks site at home on my own time on my own computer? Every blog post, every Facebook post, and every Tweet by every State Department employee, they told me, must be pre-cleared by the Department prior to “publication.” Then they called me back for a second 90-minute interview, stating that my refusal to answer questions would lead to my being fired, never mind the Fifth (or the First) Amendments.
Why me? It’s not like the Bureau of Diplomatic Security has the staff or the interest to monitor the hundreds of blogs, thousands of posts, and millions of tweets by Foreign Service personnel. The answer undoubtedly is my new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. Its unvarnished portrait of State’s efforts and the U.S. at work in Iraq has clearly angered someone, even though one part of State signed off on the book under internal clearance procedures some 13 months ago. I spent a year in Iraq leading a State Department Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) and sadly know exactly what I am talking about. DS monitoring my blog is like a small-town cop pulling over every African-American driver: vindictive, selective prosecution. "Ya’ll be careful in these parts, ‘hear, ‘cause we’re gonna set an example for your kind of people."
Silly as it seems, such accusations carry a lot of weight if you work for the government. DS can unilaterally, and without any right of appeal or oversight, suspend your security clearance and for all intents and purposes end your career. The agents questioning me reminded me of just that, as well as of the potential for criminal prosecution -- and all because of a link to a website, nothing more.
It was implied as well that even writing about the interrogation I underwent, as I am doing now, might morph into charges of “interfering with a Government investigation.” They labeled routine documents in use in my interrogation as “Law Enforcement Sensitive” to penalize me should I post them online. Who knew such small things actually threatened the security of the United States? Are these words so dangerous, or is our nation so fragile that legitimate criticism becomes a firing offense?
Let’s think through this disclosure of classified info thing, even if State won’t. Every website on the Internet includes links to other websites. It’s how the web works. If you include a link to say, a CNN article about Libya, you are not “disclosing” that information -- it’s already there. You’re just saying: "Have a look at this." It’s like pointing out a newspaper article of interest to a guy next to you on the bus. (Careful, though, if it’s an article from the New York Times or the Washington Post. It might quote stuff from Wikileaks and then you could be endangering national security.)
Security at State: Hamburgers and Mud
Security and the State Department go together like hamburgers and mud. Over the years, State has leaked like an old boot. One of its most hilarious security breaches took place when an unknown person walked into the Secretary of State’s outer office and grabbed a pile of classified documents. From the vast trove of missing classified laptops to bugging devices found in its secure conference rooms, from high ranking officials trading secrets in Vienna to top diplomats dallying with spies in Taiwan, even the publicly available list is long and ugly.
Of course, nothing compares to what history will no doubt record as the most significant outpouring of classified material ever, the dump of hundreds of thousands of cables that are now on display on WikiLeaks and its mushroom-like mirror sites. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (an oxymoron if there ever was one) is supposed to protect our American diplomats by securing State’s secrets, and over time they just haven’t done very well at that.
The State Department and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security never took responsibility for their part in the loss of all those cables, never acknowledged their own mistakes or porous security measures. No one will ever be fired at State because of WikiLeaks -- except, at some point, possibly me. Instead, State joined in the Federal mugging of Army Private Bradley Manning, the person alleged to have copied the cables onto a Lady Gaga CD while sitting in the Iraqi desert.
That all those cables were available electronically to everyone from the Secretary of State to a lowly Army private was the result of a clumsy post-9/11 decision at the highest levels of the State Department to quickly make up for information-sharing shortcomings. Trying to please an angry Bush White House, State went from sharing almost nothing to sharing almost everything overnight. They flung their whole library onto the government’s classified intranet, SIPRnet, making it available to hundreds of thousands of Federal employees worldwide. It is usually not a good idea to make classified information that broadly available when you cannot control who gets access to it outside your own organization. The intelligence agencies and the military certainly did no such thing on SIPRnet, before or after 9/11.
State did not restrict access. If you were in, you could see it all. There was no safeguard to ask why someone in the Army in Iraq in 2010 needed to see reporting from 1980s Iceland. Even inside their own organization, State requires its employees to “subscribe” to classified cables by topic, creating a record of what you see and limiting access by justifiable need. A guy who works on trade issues for Morocco might need to explain why he asked for political-military reports from Chile.
Most for-pay porn sites limit the amount of data that can be downloaded. Not State. Once those cables were available on SIPRnet, no alarms or restrictions were implemented so that low-level users couldn’t just download terabytes of classified data. If any activity logs were kept, it does not look like anyone checked them.
A few classified State Department cables will include sourcing, details on from whom or how information was collected. This source data allows an informed reader to judge the veracity of the information; was the source on a country’s nuclear plans a street vendor or a high military officer? Despite the sometimes life-or-death nature of protecting sources (though some argue this is overstated), State simply dumped its hundreds of thousands of cables online unredacted, leaving source names there, all pink and naked in the sun.
Then again, history shows that technical security is just not State’s game, which means the Wikileaks uproar is less of a surprise in context. For example,in 2006, news reports indicated that State’s computer systems were massively hacked by Chinese computer geeks. In 2008, State data disclosures led to an identity theft scheme only uncovered through a fluke arrest by the Washington D.C. cops. Before it was closed down in 2009, snooping on private passport records was a popular intramural activity at the State Department, widely known and casually accepted. In 2011, contractors using fake identities appear to have downloaded 250,000 internal medical records of State Department employees, including mine.
Wishing Isn’t a Strategy, Hope Isn’t a Plan
Despite their own shortcomings, State and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security take this position: if we shut our eyes tightly enough, there is no Wikileaks. (The morning news summary at State includes this message: “Due to the security classification of many documents, the Daily Addendum will not include news clips that are generated by leaked cables by the website WikiLeaks.”)
The corollary to such a position evidently goes something like this: since we won’t punish our own technical security people or the big shots who approved the whole flawed scheme in the first place, and the damned First Amendment doesn’t allow us to punish the New York Times, let’s just punish one of our own employees for looking at, creating links to, and discussing stuff on the web -- and while he was at it, writing an accurate, first-hand, and critical account of the disastrous, if often farcical, American project in Iraq.
That’s what frustrated bullies do -- they pick on the ones they think they can get away with beating up. The advantage of all this? It gets rid of a “troublemaker,” and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security people can claim that they are “doing something” about the WikiLeaks drip that continues even while they fiddle. Of course, it also chills free speech, sending a message to other employees about the price of speaking plainly.
Now does that make sense? Only inside the world of Diplomatic Security, and historically it always has.
For example, Diplomatic Security famously took into custody the color slides reproduced in the Foreign Service Journal showing an open copy of one of the Government's most sensitive intelligence documents, albeit only after the photos were published and distributed in the thousands. Similarly DS made it a crime to take photos of the giant U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, but only after the architecture firm building it posted sketches of the Embassy online; a Google search will still reveal many of those images; others who served in Iraq have posted them on their unsecured Facebook pages.
Imagine this: State's employees are still blocked by a firewall from looking at websites that carry or simply write about and refer to WikiLeaks documents, including TomDispatch.com, which is publishing this piece. (That, in turn, means my colleagues at State won’t be able to read this -- except on the sly.)
In the Belly of the Beast
Back in that windowless room for a second time, I faced the two DS agents clumsily trying to play semi-bad and altogether-bad cop. They once again reminded me of my obligation to protect classified information, and studiously ignored my response -- that I indeed do take that obligation seriously, enough in fact to distinguish between actual disclosure and a witch-hunt.
As they raised their voices and made uncomfortable eye contact just like it says to do in any Interrogation 101 manual, you could almost imagine the hundreds of thousands of unredacted cables physically spinning through the air around us, heading -- splat, splot, splat -- for the web. Despite the Hollywood-style theatrics and the grim surroundings, the interrogation-style was less police state or 1984-style nightmare than a Brazil-like dark comedy.
In the end, though, it’s no joke. I’ve been a blogger since April, but my meeting with the DS agents somehow took place only a week before the publication date of my book. Days after my second interrogation, the Principal Deputy Secretary of State wrote my publisher demanding small redactions in my book -- already shipped to the bookstores -- to avoid “harm to U.S. security.” One demand: to cut a vignette based on a scene from the movie version of Black Hawk Down.
The link to Wikileaks is still on my blog. The Bureau of Diplomatic Security declined my written offer to remove it, certainly an indication that however much my punishment mattered to them, the actual link mattered little. I may lose my job in State’s attempt to turn us all into mini-Bradley Mannings and so make America safe.
These are not people steeped in, or particularly appreciative of, the finer points of irony. Still, would anyone claim that there isn’t irony in the way the State Department regularly crusades for the rights of bloggers abroad in the face of all kinds of government oppression, crediting their voices for the Arab Spring, while going after one of its own bloggers at home for saying nothing that wasn’t truthful?
Here’s the best advice my friends in Diplomatic Security have to offer, as far as I can tell: slam the door after the cow has left the barn, then beat your wife as punishment. She didn’t do anything wrong, but she deserved it, and don’t you feel better now?
Peter Van Buren spent a year in Iraq as a State Department Foreign Service Officer serving as Team Leader for two Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs). Now in Washington, he writes about Iraq and the Middle East at his blog, We Meant Well. His new book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People (The American Empire Project, Metropolitan Books), is published today.
Now is the time to get flu vaccine, state health officials warn
State public health officials are encouraging Kentuckians to be vaccinated for flu now to reduce the spread of the illness. Steve Davis, M.D., acting commissioner of the Department for Public Health, said in a news release, “Getting the flu vaccine each year is the best way to protect against the flu’s spread and severity.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends flu vaccine for anyone older than 6 months. People who should especially receive the flu vaccine, because they may be at higher risk for complications or negative consequences, include:
• Children age 6 months to 19 years;
• Pregnant women;
• People 50 years old or older;
• People of any age with chronic health problems;
• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;
• Health care workers;
• Caregivers of or people who live with a person at high risk for complications from the flu; and
• Out-of-home caregivers of or people who live with children less than 6 months old.
Healthy, non-pregnant people age 2-49 years can get either the flu shot or the nasal vaccine spray. Children younger than 9 who are being vaccinated against flu for the first time should receive a second dose four or more weeks after their first vaccination.
Flu is a very contagious disease caused by a virus. About 23,000 Americans die from seasonal flu and its complications in an average year, but actual numbers vary from year to year.
In addition to the flu vaccine, officials encourage all adults 65 or older and others in high-risk groups to ask their health care provider about the pneumococcal vaccine. This vaccine can help prevent a type of pneumonia, one of the flu’s most serious and potentially deadly complications.
For more information on influenza or the availability of flu vaccine, please contact your local health department or visit www.healthalerts.ky.gov.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends flu vaccine for anyone older than 6 months. People who should especially receive the flu vaccine, because they may be at higher risk for complications or negative consequences, include:
• Children age 6 months to 19 years;
• Pregnant women;
• People 50 years old or older;
• People of any age with chronic health problems;
• People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities;
• Health care workers;
• Caregivers of or people who live with a person at high risk for complications from the flu; and
• Out-of-home caregivers of or people who live with children less than 6 months old.
Healthy, non-pregnant people age 2-49 years can get either the flu shot or the nasal vaccine spray. Children younger than 9 who are being vaccinated against flu for the first time should receive a second dose four or more weeks after their first vaccination.
Flu is a very contagious disease caused by a virus. About 23,000 Americans die from seasonal flu and its complications in an average year, but actual numbers vary from year to year.
In addition to the flu vaccine, officials encourage all adults 65 or older and others in high-risk groups to ask their health care provider about the pneumococcal vaccine. This vaccine can help prevent a type of pneumonia, one of the flu’s most serious and potentially deadly complications.
For more information on influenza or the availability of flu vaccine, please contact your local health department or visit www.healthalerts.ky.gov.
Coping with stress - NHS video
From NHS Choices YouTube channel:
There are many ways of coping with stress. Professor Cary Cooper provides some techniques for managing stress, such as exercising and using relaxation techniques, and explains who you can talk to if you're feeling under pressure.
Get more tips and advice about dealing with stress here: http://nhs.uk/livewell/stressmanagement
Tips for managing stress:
- Take a few deep breaths
- Get plenty of exercise
- Socialize - don't stress alone, talk to someone and have a laugh
- Get out - go to the park
Participation in sport is associated with a with a 20—40% reduction in all-cause mortality compared with non-participation. Exercise might also be considered as a fifth vital sign, according to the Lancet: http://goo.gl/gyxYf
If nothing else helps, consider this: Chewing gum may reduce stress and improve memory
Related reading:
Children chewing xylitol gum were 25% less likely to develop acute ear infections. NYTimes, 2011.
New survey shows dramatic increase in employer-sponsored health insurance rates
The average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance has increased 9 percent for family coverage and 8 percent for individual coverage since last year, a new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research & Education Trust shows. "Both increases are the largest since 2005," Tony Pugh of McClatchy Newspapers writes, surpassing the national 2 percent increase in wages and 3.2 percent increase in inflation.
Since 2001, family coverage premiums have escalated 113 percent while workers' wages have only risen 34 percent and inflation – 27 percent, Pugh reports. Researchers are unclear if the increase in premiums is temporary or whether higher increases will continue. "We really don't know, and we won't know until next year," Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation told Pugh.
Employers pay on average about 72 percent toward family coverage and 82 percent for single coverage, Pugh reports, leaving workers paying 28 percent for family and 18 percent for single coverage. Of those surveyed, about 31 percent of covered workers were in high-deductible plans, a 10 percent increase from 2006.
Increasing costs in medical care is "the main culprit behind the rate increases," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans told Pugh. "Insurers' expectation of stronger economic recovery" and insurers' fears of increased costs from the 2010 Affordable Care Act may be driving higher premiums, Pugh reports.
Despite insurers' fears, an analysis by Kaiser and the federal government suggest that the 2010 Affordable Care Act accounts for only 1 to 2 percentage points of the increase. Only two measures, coverage of adult children to age 26 and no patient cost-sharing coverage on certain preventive medical services, were implemented thus far with the remaining provisions taking effect in 2014, Pugh reports. This month, insurers will be required to publicly disclose information about rate increases of 10 percent or more for review by state or federal officials to determine if the increase is warranted. (Read more)
Since 2001, family coverage premiums have escalated 113 percent while workers' wages have only risen 34 percent and inflation – 27 percent, Pugh reports. Researchers are unclear if the increase in premiums is temporary or whether higher increases will continue. "We really don't know, and we won't know until next year," Drew Altman, president and CEO of the Kaiser Family Foundation told Pugh.
Employers pay on average about 72 percent toward family coverage and 82 percent for single coverage, Pugh reports, leaving workers paying 28 percent for family and 18 percent for single coverage. Of those surveyed, about 31 percent of covered workers were in high-deductible plans, a 10 percent increase from 2006.
Increasing costs in medical care is "the main culprit behind the rate increases," Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans told Pugh. "Insurers' expectation of stronger economic recovery" and insurers' fears of increased costs from the 2010 Affordable Care Act may be driving higher premiums, Pugh reports.
Despite insurers' fears, an analysis by Kaiser and the federal government suggest that the 2010 Affordable Care Act accounts for only 1 to 2 percentage points of the increase. Only two measures, coverage of adult children to age 26 and no patient cost-sharing coverage on certain preventive medical services, were implemented thus far with the remaining provisions taking effect in 2014, Pugh reports. This month, insurers will be required to publicly disclose information about rate increases of 10 percent or more for review by state or federal officials to determine if the increase is warranted. (Read more)
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
R.I.P. Manuel Valle
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| Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution |
Justice Breyer dissented from the Court's order denying the stay, and would have granted review to consider whether being incarcerated on death row for more than thirty years constitutes cruel and unsual punishment. Breyer claimed to have " little doubt about the cruelty of so long a period of incarceration under sentence of death," and said it would also seem to be unusual given that the average stay on death row is almost 15 years.
Breyer also wrote: "The commonly accepted justifications for the death penalty are close to nonexistent in a case such as this one. It is difficult to imagine how an execution following so long a period of incarceration could add significantly to that punishment’s deterrent value. It seems yet more unlikely that the execution, coming after what is close to a lifetime of imprisonment, matters in respect to incapacitation."
This is the 37th execution in the United States in 2011, the first in Florida.
R.I.P. Derrick Mason
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| Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution |
Governor Robert Benchley denied a request for clemency despite a letter from the sentencing judge who claimed that this was his first death penalty case and that his own lack of experience led him to impose the wrong sentence. The judge also noted the lack of experience of Mason's trial lawyers, a brother and sister team who each had been practicing less than five years and had no previous trial experience. They failed to present evidence that Mason was under the influence of drugs at the time of the crime and failed to inform the jury about Mason's struggles with drug addiction, mental health problems, and that he was the victim of physical and sexual abuse.
This is the 36th execution in the United States in 2011, the fifth in Alabama. Derrick Mason is the fourteenth African American executed this year.
Jose Reyes Plays It By The Numbers
Jose Reyes, going in to the last game of the season today was leading Milwaukee's Ryan Braun for the National League batting title by .336 to .335. After getting a bunt single in his first at bat, Jose asked to be taken out of the game to preserve his lead, disappointing the Met fans, many of whom came out to see this dreadful team for no other reason than to cheer Jose on in what might be his final game as a Met. Ryan Braun will need to go 3-for-4 in his game tonight to overtake Jose.
I love Jose Reyes, an extraordinary talent and arguably baseball's most exciting player. He is about to become a free agent and, as I've written before, the Mets would be making a huge mistake if they don't resign him. But leaving the game early to win the batting crown seems contrary to his passionate and joyous approach to the game. Dare I suggest that Jose did so because he recognized that leading the league in hitting will help him in negotiating a new contract?
Jose Reyes will likely become the first Met to ever lead the league in batting average. Cleon Jones came in third in 1969 (behind Pete Rose and Roberto Clemente) and in 1998, Jon Olerud finished second behind Larry Walker. This is a great achievement and Jose had a spectacular year. But as with everything else about the Mets lately, even when something positive happens, there is a downside.
A Balloon Bouquet - Letting Go of a Lifetime of Color
This beautiful tribute to the late Cindy Gwynn, who passed away last January after an eight-year battle with breast cancer, was written by her younger sister, Marcia Coatsworth. Marcia graciously allowed me to post it here on The Writing Well.
I am honored to be connected with Cindy and Marcia and the rest of the Coatsworth's through my husband's family. We have enjoyed many Thanksgivings together at Marcia and Cindy's dad's home. Their mother, Marian, was one of the moms featured in a memoir I penned after losing my mom to lung cancer. If you ever have lost someone close to you, you will identify with this very personal reflection of a much-beloved and much-missed sister. Thank you, Marcia, for sharing.
*******
In my mind’s eye there is a sea of helium balloons tied with streams of curly ribbon. Deep in color, dancing, each taking on a life of its own, collectively named Cindy.
Randomly I pick one out of the bunch, each in turn my favorite color.
Blue, her personal favorite, the color of her eyes. Her eyes, expressive, knowing and caring. Ever watchful not to miss a small detail that could make a difference. A difference perhaps only detected by her and that was what mattered. Look deeply into the baby blues and you would find a wealth of information carefully stored to be used at the right time. Eyes that smiled with softness when shown even the slightest gesture of kindness or unsolicited recognition. A steely grey/blue when unfairness entered her line of sight or aggravated by events beyond her control.
Gosh, I just want to hold on tight to all of the beautiful balloons. Keep them in my sight to enjoy all by myself. Yet at the same time what a glorious sight to see all of them take off in a gentle breeze making their way into the limitless sky, representing never ending life. Set free from the grasp of human life to rejoice in a place without pain, fear, heartache and sin. A place where each color has its own reward and leaves behind its own memory. A long life-short lived, serving an awesome God, finding the perfect resting place, well deserved.
Black the darkest of all the balloons, unwelcomed. The balloon that hangs the lowest because it is so heavy representing Cindy’s darkest thoughts sometimes shared with me. The regret of leaving her son and the shock of leaving so suddenly looms. Finding numerous copies of “Gone From My Sight-The Dying Experience” and” My Friend, I Care-The Grief Experience,” both by Barbara Karnes. In an adjoining envelope countless sayings, poems and thoughts of life and death copied at some time or passed on from someone who knew of her struggle. The heaviest balloon takes flight the quickest because Cindy’s work and worry here on earth are done.
9/27/11 I wrote the above shortly after Cindy’s passing. I stopped writing because of the pain it caused me. I put on my “to do list” to finish “My Balloon Bouquet” when I was ready. I look back at the grammatical errors hi-lighted in annoying colors and ignore because it is how I speak and write “Mississippianease.” Look that one up in the dictionary….let me know what you find. Here is my attempt to finish the arrangement on a beautiful running day that reminds me of her. As I let the rest of the balloons go, here are my thoughts. I can’t help but notice the difference in the thoughts.
PICTURE THIS:
Pink -- a tenderness presented at times in a prickly package because that is how she chose to show her emotions. A softness easier seen on her face rather than in a hug from an older sister to a younger one, knowing, caring and accepting.
Yellow -- the carefree, fleeting times of youth, health, learning and enjoying simple things. An unburdened time of discovery, growth and anticipation of “what’s next” shared like co-conspirators. It is a happy color associated with my sister because of the joy she brought to my life.
And then there is Green -- calming, life giving and one of mama’s favorite colors. The color of money that held less value to Cindy than time on earth with the one she loved.
White -- the color of angels with gold dust on their wings. Cindy, my angel, forever watching over me. She still hovers over me while sleeping, running and my daily attempt to get it right.
Purple -- vibrant, strong, a stand out in any crowd as Cindy was. She didn’t demand respect but received it because of how she lived her life and the friend that she chose to be.
Orange -- somehow an unnoticed contributor to a group, unsung but ever present; wow, that was my sister. She brightened up a group just by being there, didn’t expect to be noticed but was.
Silver -- as in there is a silver lining. I have come to believe that in my sister’s death that there is a silver lining.
She stayed with me long enough to kick me in the behind enough to say, “I can do it,” whatever that looks like. That was her job, you know! I miss her like crazy but I rest in knowing she is where I hope to be one day.
With that I say goodbye to my old thoughts of colors and look to a renewed colored vision of the future. “Colors of Life”…a chapter or book….. yet unwritten.
Wangari Maathai (1940-2011)
Professor Wangari Maathai Remembered
cross-posted from openDemocracy
Following the death of Wangari Maathai, noted activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, openDemocracy remembers her through her own words and those of her fellow Nobel Peace Laureates.
Back in May of this year Wangari Maathai presented a message to the third international Nobel Women's Initiative gathering, focusing on ending sexual violence in conflict.
This video was originally published by the Nobel Women's Initiative.
Message from Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, and Mairead Maguire:
We are terribly saddened by the death of our beloved friend and sister Nobel Peace Laureate, Professor Wangari Maathai. Wangari was a true visionary whose work and life served as a powerful example to women everywhere. She showed us that the eradication of poverty, the empowerment of women, and a sustainable future for our planet are all essential building blocks of a more just and peaceful world. She lived her belief that all of us have a role to play in creating sustainable peace.For more information, visit the Green Belt Movement or the Nobel Women's Initiative web sites.
It has been a great privilege to know and work with Wangari through our joint efforts in the Nobel Women's Initiative, launched in January 2006. Her tireless commitment to humanity was evident in everything she did--from planting trees and listening to women in refugee camps to amplifying the voices of the disempowered to leaders and decision makers around the globe
Wangari's fearless strength in adversity, her creative approach to building a peaceful, healthy planet and her hard work to inspire and empower women will live on. Her passion and commitment have moved countless people to take action to improve their communities. We will miss her great shining smile and her indomitable spirit but all those she has inspired will keep her vision alive through each small action we take toward a better world.
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