Looking For 10 Ninja Women

DL21C is the right organization. But to be frank I was not awfully impressed with the people on its women's issues committee. (Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues) They are good for what they are used to doing: creating events. But they are not good for what I think needs to be done and how. (2.0 Penetrates DL21C)

Planned Parenthood is not the organization I have been looking for. It is a great, great organizaiton, but it is not hard core political enough for me. But Planned Parenthood is so big as an organization, I should be able to shop around and from the motley crowd I should be able to find myself 10 ninja women.

I might have found a lead in Rosemary who I met at the first Planned Parenthood I went to. She happens to be gay. But I felt a rapport with her. If she is not one of the 10, I got the feeling she will lead me to those 10. I am going to look around at the event Monday to look for the potential ninja women.

What qualities am I looking for?

1. You are politically alert. The Spectrum On Gender makes sense to you. You feel the need to talk about gender to make progress on gender.
   
2. You are willing to meet once a month for an hour. The hour will be videoblogged. The power is in the conversation.
   
3. You know the term Web 2.0 and are comfortable with it. You have a high comfort level with the basic digital tools, all of which really are as simple as point and click.
   
4. You are extremely comfortable with your writings, photos and videos ending up online. You will do that to reach out to women in small town America. You recognize NYC is the progressive capital of America, the world. Politically active women in this city carry a special responsibility.
   
5. Ideally, we want to be replicated, in this city and across America. And we want all those groups of 10 women to link to each other's blogs. But there is no hierarchy. There is no central leader. Each group is independent and complete on its own.
   

The Need For A Race Gender Coalition
Muscular Gender Agenda

In The News

Obama wins Maine caucuses MarketWatch After Obama won contests on Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state, he was trailing Clinton by just 25 delegates. ....... Obama has tended to do well in caucuses to date, thanks to his grass-roots support, so he may edge Clinton out to complete a clean-sweep weekend.

Democrats neck and neck as Obama reclaims momentum with easy wins Independent, UK Wide margins of victory for Barack Obama in weekend voting have helped close the gap between the Illinois senator and Hillary Clinton ...... he may pull ahead by the end of this week. .... 796 so-called super-delegates ...... both camps have already launched a frenzied effort to woo super-delegates to their side. ..... He took both Washington and Nebraska by margins of roughly 68 per cent to 32 per cent. ...... voters in Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland are expected to favour him. ...... she had raised $10m (£5.1m) in new campaign cash since polls closed on Super Tuesday. Her aides meanwhile are pointing to 4 March, when they believe they can win in two key states, Ohio and Texas. ..... Obama has appointed the former Senate leader Tom Daschle to lead his lobbying. .... the possibility of an ugly floor-fight at the convention. .... if it is the delegates who finally break the tie in August, some will contend that the party will be making a mockery of the democratic process that came before in the primaries and caucuses.

Clinton shuffles team to blunt Obama's momentum Reuters Clinton replaced her campaign manager after a string of losses Saturday .... Maggie Williams, a top aide when she was first lady, had taken over from Patti Solis Doyle as campaign manager. Solis Doyle will move into the role of senior adviser. ..... the shake-up "can't be a good sign." ..... Obama's landslide victory in South Carolina seemed to be a turning point in the race. ...... if she does well in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, she could win the nomination.

The Need For A Race Gender Coalition

Race Gender

There are those who say but do you think America can handle a black man a-n-d a woman at the same time? The suggestion is that if Barack is the nominee, he should not pick Hillary as running mate. The alternate suggestion is that if Hillary is the nominee, she should not pick Barack as her running mate.

I am absolutely for a race gender coalition. This is not identity politics to me. If it were, I would say, let's have a black guy, white guy ticket, but I am not saying that. For me this is part and parcel of being a progressive. Progressive white guys, if they truly are progressive, will have to agree that a race gender coalition is not an anti white male suggestion any more than anti-segregation was an anti white thing.

Race is a really, really big issue. Gender is a really, really big issue. And that is precisely why both have to be tackled together. If you tackle only one, you will not make as much progress as if you tackled both together. So if you are for making major progress on race, you have to be for a race gender coalition. And if you are for making major progress on gender, you have to be for a race gender coalition.

Race and gender are identity, big time. But I am not talking identity. I am talking policy. Making progress on race is a progressive cause, it is not a black cause. Making progress on gender is a progressive cause, it is not a women's cause.

Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers

Both Barack and Hillary have acted like the less they talk about race and gender, the better it is. The important point is to get elected as a black man, as a woman, than it is to talk race and gender. And that might be smart politics. But there is a part of me that itches to have full blown conversations on race and gender. You don't make progress on race by talking about the weather. You don't make progress on gender by talking about the weather.

Tackling Race As An Issue The Average Person Way
The Grassroots Power Woman
Muscular Gender Agenda

I feel like there is an urgent need to declare a global war on domestic violence with a just say no kind of firmness. And I don't mean just domestic violence, big as that problem is: more than a third of the women in India end up getting beat up by their husbands. I am also talking the global trafficking of women. Which is worse, picking cotton or getting raped under bondage?

Global Trafficking Of Women

Women in America face gender as an issue on a daily basis. This country is nowhere close to resolving family and career as issues. Women end up facing a false choice. The outwardly suggestion is that women are free to pursue careers. But the reality is, well, not really. The American workplace has been designed for bodies that do not bear children. That is fundamentally wrong. Birthing children should not hamper your career at all. Both spouses should take maternity leaves. Both spouses should share the raising of children. There is a part about redesigning the workplace, and telecommuting options should make it easier over time. But then there is the part about changing gender attitudes of men. Men need to go to class on gender.

And then there are the legal battles waiting to take place on the question of equal pay. Sexism is a tool designed to give women less money for the same work. Racism is also a tool like that.

The important thing is to stake out policy positions that will take race and gender to the next level, and then to build progressive coalitions around those policy positions. So progress on race is not about saying, okay, black people, holler up. Progress on gender is not just about sounding a wake up call for women. We are not talking identity politics, we are talking issue politics, we are talking policy politics. Although there is not escaping identity politics when talking race and gender.

Sexism is not good for men, it is unhealthy, it is suffocating. Racism is not good for white people.
So making progress on race and gender is about building a progressive coalition of men and women, white and nonwhite.

Black Hispanic

I am surprised there is no major effort at the community level of black community leaders supporting Obama reaching out to the Hispanic communities across the country. Instead of the feeling that we are both Blac - Black, Latino, Asian Coalition - there is almost this antagonism among blacks and Hispanics. Who is the bigger minority? They ask each other in a foolish way. Both of you are minority, big time. That is a sign of a lack of political consciousness that such an antagonism exists.

Don't Do The Bill Richardson Thing
Barackface: Blacks, Hispanics At The Core Of The Democrat Rainbow ...

Minority Women

Black men and white women have the privilege of debating which is the bigger issue. Between those two groups, race is. But minority women don't have the privilege of asking that question. They are at the receiving end of both. A race gender ticket is needed for minority women more than for black men and white women.

Race Gender Coalition Got The Numbers

Between them, they got 65% of the country, and that is not even counting the progressive white men. Going together is the only way for Barack and Hillary to move forward to make the big gains they want to make on behalf of historically marginalized groups.

Only if both are in the White House together they will feel bold enough to give both race and gender the boldness they ask for. It is about time. Let's shape the 21st century as the one when race and gender no longer mattered, race and gender no longer held you back.

Grassroots Organizing

Barack will need more of that as president than while running for president. The black community has got to build family and community for the sake of it, to make use of opportunities that already exist, and to fight to expand the opportunities for blacks at all levels. One medicine for three challenges.

Tackling Race As An Issue The Average Person Way

New York City Women

Women in NYC have to take the lead on behalf of women nationwide. You build a huge, leaderless organization that is seamless 2.0 and 5.0. I believe that is the best way to make progress on gender. Women in NYC need to reach out to women in small town America. There is a culture among politically active women in NYC that says we just get together and socialize and partake in small political action, with the emphasis on socializing. I am all for socializing. But when it takes so little extra effort to reach out to women in small town America, why will you not do it as residents of the progressive capital of America and the world?

Martha Outed Kenton And Women With Issues

Michelle's Time To Shine

If Barack wants to carry February 5, he has to make sure America learns two things before then, that his mother was white, and that his wife is a South Side native, she really knows what it means to grow working class.

NYC Effort For Obama

From day one I have refused to sit on any committee, become part of any structure, refused any leadership role. But I have been big for Barack from day one. Of course there are so many more Obama volunteers today in the city than there were only a few months back. So many new leaders have emerged. And that is great. I try to show up and experience events, get to know a few people, collect a few emails to share my blog, but primarily I keep looking at the big picture to offer tips to the people running the show at the Chicago headquarters. I act like I were Obama 2008's self-proclaimed shadow national campaign manager. 2.0 makes that possible. If what you have to say is important, word will get through.

Yesterday I went to an Obama event. There were a few old-timers, but mostly I saw new faces. Mostly people who had come in after Barack's Iowa victory. I expect the crowd to swell during the final week before February 5.

It was a good event on West Houston. This guy Todd was the organizer, Brooklyn dude. I met some interesting people. I am so glad I went. I need to go to many more of these events to build my social muscles. I sure am going to the big rally tomorrow. (Barackface: Building Social Muscles)

I will have to work hard to get back my easy social ways of back in the days. I am recuperating. Physical exercise helps, eating oranges helps, but face time is where it really happens. You end up with many awkward moments while you are working at it.

"I am a nobody. I got a young startup."

"No, I am not Republican." The response I got to that was, I wouldn't give a damn even if you were.

I don't know where that comes from. I have got that a few times before. At Barack's Washington Square Park rally, one dude asked me if I was a Ron Paul supporter. Once I was in the Bronx for Fernando Ferrer, and one guy said to me earnestly, "Take Bloomberg's money if he gives it to you, just don't do the work." The first time Rudy, the state director for Obama 2008, met me, he asked me if I was a "spy!" Spy for who? Hillary? Rudy? My blog cured him, but that was an interesting start.

Once not long after I cut my hair short, I showed up at Drinking Liberally, and these two women were talking to each other, once in a while glancing at me: "Bloomberg has infiltrated the liberal groups in the city!"

It is not like I dress fancy. I am blaming Bobby Jindal.

Barackface: NYC, Obama, Structure, Me

Leah and Sylvan were there. Arthur was there. Sylvan said, "Come to the rally tomorrow with your video camera." Sure will. Leah asked me about my company.

"I found a great business partner. And that is making all the difference."

In The News

South Carolina Democrats Head to Polls After Spirited Campaign U.S. News & World Report Obama had 38 percent, Clinton 30, and Edwards 19, with blacks overwhelmingly backing Obama and whites split between Edwards and Clinton. ...... much of the talk in the past few days has focused on former President Bill Clinton, who has gone on the attack against Obama, prompting some of his ex-advisers and friends to say he is going too far with his harsh tone ...... He's playing the role of a vice presidential candidate, the attack dog. He is becoming too much of an issue ..... accused Obama, his wife's main rival, of putting out a "hit job" on him. He also scolded a CNN reporter in South Carolina for playing up the racial issue, which he said the Obama campaign was "feeding" the media. ...... the Clinton strategy is working, at least in the short term, by causing Democrats to have second thoughts about Obama. To that end, the Clintons are questioning his experience, his toughness, his commitment to "progressive" ideas, and his electability. ...... "Obama is going to have to do something dramatic, something that shows he represents a new politics, or Hillary is going to win" ....... Clinton is favored to win the biggest states that have primaries on February 5, when 24 states will hold contests. Among her strong spots are California, New York, and New Jersey. It turns out that Clinton is benefiting from a sorting-out process within the Democratic Party. While African-Americans and many young people are gravitating toward Obama, Clinton is gaining support from women, Hispanics, and blue-collar workers
McCain Leads Giuliani in NY, NJ U.S. News & World Report
France, India fire up military cooperation, nuclear energy ties AFP
Was Al-Qaeda Behind Beirut Bombing? TIME heightened activity by al-Qaeda-related groups in Lebanon. ..... bin Laden described the U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon as "Crusaders" sent to Lebanon "to protect the Jews" of Israel ..... Al-Saadi Nahed, a Saudi extremist and veteran of the insurgency in Iraq, has been appointed "emir" for al-Qaeda in Lebanon ...... al-Qaeda's coordinator for Lebanon, Jordan and Syria ..... the truth behind Eid's death lies lost in the depths of Lebanon's Gordian knot of intrigue, conspiracy, prejudice and deceit.
The Democrats' Turnout Triumph Democratic primaries and caucuses in record numbers, doubling, tripling or even quadrupling the turnout totals ...... In Iowa, some 239,000 Democrats turned out at the caucuses, almost twice the all-time record. ..... In New Hampshire, some 287,000 Democrats turned out to vote, up from 156,862 in 2000 ..... In Nevada, more than 116,000 voters attended Democratic party caucuses in a state where, eight years ago, the gatherings attracted only about 1,000 votes. .... As of now, the level of primary participation is nearing the levels seen in general elections. ...... Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada are all closely contested swing states in presidential elections ..... Barack Obama, whose age and cross-party appeal has helped attract unusual numbers of independents and young people
Obama eyes South Carolina win, Clinton urges calm AFP Local councillor Bernice Scott asked: "If all the black people in the world voted for the black people where would we go?" ..... "I love you," someone shouted from the crowd "I love you back!" he joked. ...... being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth. Things have been said about Barack Obama's positions that are just plain untrue." .... Obama's standing among whites in the southern state had plunged 10 percent in just one week ...... troubling signs for Obama, showing Clinton now leads the Democratic race nationally among white Americans 53 percent to 24 percent, compared to a 40-23 percent margin last month.
Obama looks ahead to countrywide votes after South Carolina contestThe Canadian Press she's got an attitude of entitlement." .... South Carolina, which is plagued by a deep racial divide and economic inequities that include severe underfunding for rural schools where the vast majority of students are black ...... noting that he and his wife were once paying more each month on education loans than their mortgage. ..... told NBC she wouldn't stop responding to barbs from Obama.
Senior Dems to President Clinton: Back Off Bill NPR
Should Obama campaign against Clinton or against the Clintons? Chicago Tribune
Clinton calls for calm as Obama attacks Times Online
Delegate Math, Super Tuesday and Clinton Washington Post Clinton is urging her delegates to vote to seat delegates from Michigan and Florida ..... "I feel very good about Super Tuesday," she said. .... The audiences at Clinton's events over the last two days -- with the exception of a rally at a black college in Columbia on Friday -- have been largely white
Poll: Clinton maintains lead in Ariz., but Obama closing gap AZ Central.com Clinton had 37 percent to Obama's 27 percent compared with a similar November poll that showed Clinton further ahead, with 44 percent to Obama's 14 percent. ...... Clinton clings to a lead that appears to be shrinking ..... "What you see now won't be what you see a week ago."
Obama attacks Hillary over Iraq war vote Telegraph.co.uk Clinton aides hold out hope that they could squeeze a surprise victory that would effectively kill off Mr Obama's hopes. .... Obama accused Mrs Clinton of having "simply blamed the civilian and military leaders who carried out the policy she authorised". ...... "You can't undo a vote for war just because the war stopped being popular." ..... white voters and Hispanics are increasingly supporting Mrs Clinton.

Global Trafficking Of Women

We talk of global warming, and terrorism, and nuclear proliferation, and the energy crisis. And they have to be talked about. They are all challenges that no one country no matter how mighty can meet and the chain is only as strong as its weakest link. But we have to talk of the global trafficking of women in the same breath. Lincoln liberated the black slaves, who will liberate trafficked women? It can be argued these trafficked women fare much worse than those slaves. Which is worse? Being forced to pick cotton or raped daily while being held in bondage? Women get trafficked like they were so much cocaine.

Just like Palestine is the sore thumb to the goal of peace in the Middle East, I think the global women's rights movement needs to pick this issue of the global trafficking of women as its rallying cry. It should be picked up with the same fervor as the pro-choice movement in America.

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) - Home
Facts on Trafficking and Prostitution
Horrific abuse of Women
The Global Trafficking Of Women
Trafficking in Women
Fact Book Menu - Coalition Against Trafficking of Women
Sisyphe.org - Globalization and the Sex Trade : Trafficking and ...
Amazon.com: Global Trafficking in Women and Children: Books: Obi ...
[PDF] International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A ...



In The News

Clinton Camp: Obama’s Sour Grapes FOXNews
Clinton victory increases pressure on Obama Irish Times Bill Clinton promising to campaign door to door in black neighbourhoods. "Eleven days ago people were dancing on Hillary's grave - we have another thing coming now," Mr Clinton said. .... "It took us a while, but what's eight years among friends?" he said. ..... Mrs Clinton said that a vote for her should not be seen as a vote against Mr Obama. "I have the highest regard and admiration for my friend and colleague Senator Barack Obama. He is an extraordinary person with many gifts and contributions to our country and the world. I am honoured to be running with him," she said.
Obama faces uphill battle to survive Super Tuesday Independent
Delegates may alter Democrat picture The Age, Australia

On Eve of King Holiday, Race Dominates Campaign New York Times was doing something Sunday that he has rarely done in his months of campaigning for the presidency. ..... He was appearing before a black audience, and he was speaking about race. ...... “The division, the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others — all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty, injustice and inequality,” said Mr. Obama, of Illinois. “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down.” ....... all of whom will share a stage Monday at a debate that will be focused, in part, on racial issues. ...... race remained a strong undercurrent. ..... Obama suggested that he intended to “directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate.”

Obama Faces White Resistance In South, Polls Show Huffington Post While Obama is expected to pick up one out of five white Democratic primary voters, his margin among such voters in this deep Southern state lags from three to fourteen percentage points behind his support among whites nationally ...... This lag, which appears at present to hold across the entire South ..... "I've got to tell you that as a white Southerner, it gives me an immense amount of pride to see an African American who could really win the presidency. It would do great things for race relations in the country." ..... a number of signals pointing to difficulties for Obama in the South. ........ In the South, however, Edwards has run consistently ahead of Obama among whites. ....... "Obama comes in third among the white southern Democrats. Clinton gets 36 percent, Edwards 24 percent and Obama 17 percent." ....... in the South Carolina Democratic primary found that among whites, Hillary Clinton had the support of 39 percent of respondents, John Edwards 28 and Obama 20 ...... among white Democratic voters across the country; Obama does much better than among white southern Democrats. ...... One of Obama's weakest levels of white support is among Democratic union members in the South ....... Donna Brazile, who ran the 2000 Gore campaign, said "my sense is that it [white southern support for Obama] is independents, college students, high income, highly educated and urban whites who often back strong Black reform candidates for mayor and congressional offices."

In the Name of Honour - Iraq

Women For Obama

In The News

On Iran, US policy implosion causes grief for Europe International Herald Tribune
Human Evolution Speeding Up, Study Says National Geographic The pace of change accelerated about 40,000 years ago and then picked up even more with the advent of agriculture about 10,000 years ago ...... while humans are evolving quickly around the world, local cultural and environmental factors are shaping evolution differently on different continents. ...... in Europe natural selection has favored genes for pigmentation like light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair. .......... "Europeans and Asians are both bleached Africans, but the way they got bleached is different in the two areas"
Israeli military rolls into Gaza Strip Los Angeles Times
Obama 'had a great weekend' with Oprah Chicago Sun-Times
Hillary Clinton, according to Bill Los Angeles Times
Hillary Clinton ties with Barack Obama in polls Telegraph.co.uk Three weeks before voting begins, Hillary Clinton's lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has shrunk to a statistical tie with Barack Obama in the states that go to the polls first. ...... What was strongly forecast to be a procession to the finishing line has turned into a frantic scramble, with the former First Lady glancing anxiously over her shoulder towards the Illinois senator. ...... the candidates are effectively equal in all three states for the first time. ........ Though Mrs Clinton retains the lead in national polls, it has been cut by more than half in a couple of months to 10 points. ......... Yesterday a second Clinton volunteer in Iowa was forced to resign after forwarding a hoax email saying Mr Obama, a practising Christian, was a Muslim possibly intent on destroying the United States. ........... Mrs Clinton's support at its lowest yet in all three early states, which often set the tone for later results. ...... dated the start of her troubles to Oct 30, when at a televised debate ........ Her support had also dropped markedly among black Americans in South Carolina, who constitute 47 per cent of likely primary election voters, even before Mr Obama appeared with Oprah Winfrey before 50,000 people in the state on Sunday.
Saint Barack of Iowa Yahoo! News
Inside The New CBS/NYT Poll: Does Obama Have An Oprah Problem? CBS News (Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama has shrunk from 28 points to 17). ...... Iowa .... Fifty six percent of Democrats in the poll who are said they are supporting Clinton said they could change their minds. ....... Oprah Winfrey may not be having much of an impact on moving voters ...... Voters are paying more attention to the campaign at this point in the cycle than at any time since CBS News began asking the question in 1987. Among all registered voters, said they are paying a lot or some attention to the campaign, compared to just 76 percent61 percent at this point in the 2004 presidential campaign. ............ And among all registered voters, 48 percent said they would probably vote for the Democratic candidate while 31 said they would vote for the Republican presidential candidate.
Last duel for White House hopefuls before voting starts AFP a sunny former Arkansas governor ..... a come-from-nowhere surge ..... Huckabee is bracing for a ferocious grilling, amid unflattering scrutiny of his past life in the bear-pit politics of Arkansas. ..... While Obama is closing the gap on Clinton in some key polls, he has rarely shined in debates, sometimes coming across as long-winded and professorial in contrast to his fiery rhetoric in formal speeches. ........ John Edwards, the defeated vice-presidential nominee in 2004, banking on a strong performance in Iowa to stay alive in the race.
Giuliani has advice for SF on dealing with the homeless San Francisco Chronicle
Maoists attack Bihar village, kill four Hindustan Times Hundreds of armed Maoists attacked a village in Bihar's Vaishali district on Monday night and killed four people in apparent retaliation for attacks on the rebels. ...... The rebels also attacked the house of the village body head and tried to set it ablaze. ..... Official sources said Sukki village was targeted as it is dominated by landed upper caste-Bhumihars, who have been countering Maoist rebels in the area. .... Armed Maoists surrounded the village from all sides and stood guard while their comrades carried out the attack.
Laureate Gore puts heat on US, China The Australian
Central US Reeling From Deadly Ice Storms New York Times
Nokia Prepares for Fisticuffs with Google PC World
Amitabh Bachchan gets clean chit in land scam Hindustan Times The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday gave a clean chit to Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan in the Barabanki farmland scam. ...... Bachchan had challenged the order of the Faizabad additional commissioner who had dismissed his petition relating to purchase of government farmland at Daulatpur village in Uttar Pradesh`s Barabanki district
Kroger profit jumps 18%; grocer upbeat on full year MarketWatch
Dell Unveils Its First Tablet PC InformationWeek
Large Study Links Red, Processed Meat to Certain Cancers FOX News
Culture Speeds Up Human Evolution Scientific American increased vastly in numbers over the past 50,000 years or so—from an estimated five million in 9000 B.C. to roughly 6.5 billion today. ....... in the past 10,000 years a host of changes to everything from digestion to bones has been taking place. ..... the rate of human evolution over the past few thousand years is far greater than it has been over the past few million years ...... Roughly 10,000 years ago, humanity made the transition from living off the land to actively raising crops ...... the new agriculturally based diet offered its own challenges—including iron deficiency from lack of meat, cavities and, ultimately, shorter stature due to poor nutrition ....... "Ten thousand years ago, no one on planet Earth had blue eyes," Hawks notes, because that gene—OCA2—had not yet developed. "We are different from people who lived only 400 generations ago in ways that are very obvious; that you can see with your eyes." .......... the pace of change has accelerated to 10 to 100 times the average long-term rate ...... Africans show a slightly lower mutation rate. "Africans haven't had to adapt to a fundamentally new climate ...... "Europeans and East Asians, living in environments very different from those of their African ancestors and early adopters of agriculture, were more maladapted, less fitted to their environments."
Do Film Critics Know Anything? TIME we're essentially passing notes to one another, admiring our connoisseurship at the risk of ignoring the vast audience that sees movies and the smaller one that reads us. ...... You will be forgiven if, like my friends at Time, you are scratching your head and feigning interest ....... the art-industrial complex. ..... Moviegoers who are TV viewers don't want horse races; they want coronations — validations that somebody in Hollywood is ready to honor the movies they love. ...... But the Golden Globes and the Oscars, if they follow the critics' lead, will have V.D.D. — viewer deficit disorder. ...... The Oscars are largely an affirmative action program, where the industry scratches its niche. The show is a conscience soother, but not a crowd pleaser. And it all starts here, with critics fighting over which hardly seen movie they want to call the best of the year.
Summing Up Oprah & Obama Almost all of the 8,500 people packing the Center were white — and they were there to see two black people. Neither of whom would sing or throw a ball. ...... The wave was just one of the ways the audience tried to work off its nervous energy. They danced, they chanted. ...... her patented mix of girlfriend-style dish ("When Gayle and I talk... mmmm-mmm... we also talk about real things...") and campaign-style sermonizing ("Experience... means nothing unless that person is accountable for the judgments they made during the time they had.") ......... Oprah's role as a cultural arbiter ...... The slave Jane Pittman, Oprah said, looks for the one who might free her for years ....... The frenzy that then greeted Obama .... awe and hysteria ..... A lot people get excited to shake a politician's hand; not so many greet one as though he were about to heal them by laying his on them. ......... Secret Service agents stood every ten feet at the edges of the in-the-round stage, their impassivity glaring ..... the four rallies Opr-ama did over the weekend were not intended to change people's minds. They were about creating the kind of audacious political theater that makes supporters believe they're going to win, and casual observers into interested ones ....... less as an outreach program than as a reward system, distributing tickets to volunteers and those who had pledged to volunteer with higher priority than the general public
Attack in Algiers: A Warning to Europe a pair of powerful car bombs exploded, and claimed what early estimates placed as 62 lives ..... the work of al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), a group that formed an alliance with Osama bin Laden's global jihad in 2006. ...... AQIM is ramping up its violent struggle to bring down the Algerian government. And as the fourth big hit by AQIM in less than a year, the incident highlights the group's increasing organizational skills and establishes it as the greatest potential terror threat to continental Europe as well. ........ The point of impact was located outside two highly symbolic institutions of the Algerian state: the nation's supreme court, and neighboring constitutional court. ...... badly damaging the offices of two United Nations organizations: the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR), and the U.N. Development Program (UNDP). ....... The ability and determination of the AQIM to strike in stunning fashion was made even clearer two days earlier, when a suicide bomber charged the cortege of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika during a visit to the city of Batna, killing 22 people and injuring more than 100. ......... the effective recruitment among disenfranchised youths ....... The 15-year old terror group took on that name after affiliating with bin Laden on September 11, 2006. Since that time, AQIM has adopted the structured, stylized recruitment and attack methods of the original al-Qaeda. ........ The message is clear: We're now battling enemies wherever we can find them. ........ The threat of that kind of imported strike has grown since the AQIM promised to extend its Algerian jihad to Europe. Bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri has repeatedly threatened Europe — and France in particular — as enemies of jihadist forces.
The Top 10 Everything of 2007
The Early Word: Storming Iowa New York Times the last debate in this state before the Jan. 3 caucuses. ..... Not one of the Republican candidates is viewed favorably by even half the Republican electorate ..... Democrats are happier with their field and more settled in their decisions. For all the problems Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be having holding off her rivals in Iowa and New Hampshire, she remains strong nationally ..... what her aides acknowledge have been two of the roughest months of her candidacy ........ As governor of Arkansas, he implored President Bush to end the trade embargo with the communist nation ....... As governor, Huckabee supported in-state college tuition for children of illegal immigrants and stood up for illegal workers caught in a raid of a meatpacking plant. Now he wants all illegal immigrants to return to their native countries within 120 days. ....... he wrote a letter to Bush in 2002 describing how the Cuba trade embargo was hurting Arkansas rice growers. ...... Romney is broadcasting the first — well, sort of the first, negative ad of the campaign ..... the Arkansas Republican firing off yet another one of his memorable one-liners ...... You can expect immigration to continue to boil over at tomorrow’s debate. ...... “The correct, loving, caring social policy is to engage, not ignore … to discourage, not encourage” ..... “We would tell them, you can’t live on the street; you’re not allowed to.” ...... “If you need help finding something, we’re here to help … the one thing we’re not going to allow is just to live on the street,” he said. “That isn’t a good right. It’s not good for them. It’s not good for the city … it means they are crying out for help, and it should not be ignored.” ....... a grassroots Ron Paul home office in Manchester, N.H., and came out with frat house-like tales of cheese pizza, chips — even Coronas served in mugs ....... At first glance, the abundance of T-shirted youths with laptops gives this outpost the air of a fraternity or an Internet startup. Instead it represents a new type of political fundraising and may be a sneak peek at campaigns to come. … ...... He spends his days online ...... When filled, each of these houses — soon to number 20 across the state—will have different people and missions. But all will share certain tools of success: new technology, little hierarchy, microdonations and a democratic delegation of work. You could call it wiki-paigning. ......... “Innovation often comes from outsiders. It’s the people who have to throw the long bomb” ....... The country has not elected a bachelor president since 1884 ..... The last unwed candidate chosen by a major party was Adlai Stevenson, the divorced Democrat ...... his star-studded past love life ..... Ms. Shea-Porter earlier said she would remain neutral in the race, but now she’ll join the state’s other representative, Paul Hodes, in supporting Mr. Obama. ........ Michelle Obama campaigns in Iowa City, Sigourney, Fairfield, Mount Pleasant and Burlington, Iowa. ...... Hillary Rodham Clinton attends a “Conversation with Warren Buffett” in San Francisco.
Starting Gate: The Fog Of Primaries CBS News an opportunity for his primary opponents to try and define him on their own terms, and those efforts are well underway. ....... "I'm convinced as people take a good hard look at Mike Huckabee's record, they'll see this is a guy who is soft on criminals, soft on illegal aliens, but hard on taxpayers. ....... 96 percent of GOP primary voters in the CBS poll say illegal immigration is a "very serious or somewhat serious" problem and the issue tops the list of concerns for activists in Iowa in most surveys. ...... While Huckabee has blown up in the polls, he faces money and organizational problems. ..... Giuliani has pegged Florida for his big breakthrough but Romney, Thompson and now Huckabee are making noise there as well. ....... a Baptist minister from a town called Hope. And the forecast is for fog with a chance of severe surprises. ....... Noting the failed health care reform push the former First Lady led in the 1990s, Clinton insisted, "when she got beat she did what she’s always done when we got beat, she didn’t fold her tent. She started working for the Children’s Health Insurance program, which today insures 6 million kids in America, the biggest expansion since Medicare. We got better health care for cervical cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer and diabetes. We immunized 90 percent of our kids against serious illness for the first time in the history of the country and guess what? For the first time in a dozen years, the number of people with health insurance went down, not up like it is today.” .......... Clinton claimed yesterday that "over half of all the bankruptcies in this decade can be tied to personal health emergencies." ..... A day after Oprah-palooza, Obama goes Hollywood. ..... From The Road .... Renowned poet Maya Angelou voices a new radio ad for Clinton in South Carolina in which she refers to the candidate as, "my girl." ...... In yet another sign that the nation's media is desperate for a Bloomberg independent candidacy, the AP reports that the New York City Mayor is – a bachelor.
He received loud applause when he promised to end the Iraq war and end the genocide in Darfur. Obama also joked that he will be releasing his kindergarten papers in the morning – a reference to a jab from Hillary Clinton who said recently that Obama has wanted to run for president since he was in kindergarten. ..... “There is some scandalous stuff,” Obama said, “I experimented with coloring outside the lines when I was in kindergarten. Pulled on a girl’s pony tail once…and liked it.”

Colorado killer 'hated Christians,' police official says Houston Chronicle
New poll shows big shake-up in GOP race CNN Rudy Giuliani leads Mike Huckabee 24 percent to 22 percent in new poll ...... Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 40 percent to 30 percent ..... December 6-9 ...... Huckabee doubled his support in October and doubled it again in November, going from 5 percent in October ...... who has spent the least time criticizing his opponents ...... The race is also tightening on the Democratic side. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York is still the front-runner, with 40 percent of Democratic voters backing her in the new CNN poll, down from 44 percent last month. ....... at 30 percent, up from 25 percent last month ..... "a similar thing is happening in both parties. Candidates are emerging who are likeable and who appeal to the party's base ....... "Obama's support has not hit 30 percent in any national poll since July; the fact that he has cracked that barrier this close to the start of the primary season indicates that he may finally be chipping away at Clinton's core constituency" ....... Forty percent in a late-December poll is a position most candidates in past years would envy.
Minister, 3 mps resign in Nepal Hindu Nepal’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mahantha Thakur, and three other lawmakers resigned from the government and interim Parliament on Monday to lead a separate political front in Terai. ..... would form a separate political front in Terai and launch an agitation to secure the rights of the Madhesi people. ..... “The government has failed to maintain even basic law and order in the Terai,” said Mr. Thakur. ..... The Madhesi lawmakers are uniting to give a “democratic” outlet to the Madhes crisis, Mr. Tripathi said. ..... He claimed that other Madhesi lawmakers would also soon resign from the interim Parliament and join them. ..... this will create a new political polarisation in Terai. ..... Various small political outfits, including Madhesi People’s Right Forum and splinter group of Nepal Sadbhabana Party, have already formed two separate political fronts in Terai. ........ More than a dozen armed outfits are currently engaged in armed rebellion along the Terai stretch, bordering India.
Nepal minister, mps resign over Terai problems Times of India vowing to launch an agitation to build a "peaceful and prosperous" Madhesh ... Thakur, who resigned from both the ministerial and party posts is one of the two powerful general secretaries of the ruling Nepali Congress party led by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala..... due to the "confusing attitude of the government" and the "vision-less moves" of the Seven Party Alliance, the southern Nepal plains is moving towards further conflict and violence..... "We want to see the formation of a peaceful, prosperous and autonomous Terai region and it is our common responsibility to achieve that goal through peaceful agitation," the statement said.
Nepal cabinet member, mps resign over unrest: officials AFP over the government's failure to tackle ethnic and communal violence in the south of the country ...... At least a dozen armed groups have sprung up in the last 12 months claiming to be fighting for increased autonomy for the region, home to around half on Nepal's 27 million people.
Putin Names A Successor Forbes Dmitry Medvedev, first deputy prime minister ..... Medvedev, at 42, is relatively young and modern, a lawyer by training who worked few of his adult years under the Soviet regime. ...... the siloviki, a powerful clique of former and current intelligence officials who hold jobs in government. ...... In choosing a less politically powerful ally, Putin may be trying to reverse a long-time Russian tradition: The successor undoing the authority of his predecessor. The pattern held throughout Soviet times, and has continued today. Yeltsin largely undid the legacy of Mikhail Gorbachev, and Putin then gave Yeltsin the same treatment. The chances that Medvedev could try to lessen Putin's power are lower, since Putin seems to plan to remain active from the sidelines. ....... His chairmanship of Gazprom, the publicly traded gas monopoly, is widely seen as evidence of the opacity--if not corruption--among Russian officialdom. If Medvedev is elected president, he would have to step down from the Gazprom chairmanship, a post which might then be filled by Putin himself.
On Iran, US stumbles and Europe grumbles International Herald Tribune Jalili's version of diplomatic outreach was to say: "Everything in the past is past, and with me, you start over. None of your proposals has any standing." ...... Another laugh-line for a world audience singled out from the NIE: "We assess with moderate confidence that convincing the Iranian leadership to forgo the eventual development of nuclear weapons will be difficult." ...... the report's finding that it was international pressure that led to Iran stopping its weapons program in 2003. ...... Jacques Chirac suggested as recently as this January that the world could well live with Iran producing a few nukes ..... an unhappy new reality: In this dispute, only the Iranians retain unpredictability as a credible weapon.
Letter from Washington: The faltering Clinton campaign 11 Democrats from Philadelphia who gathered last week to discuss the U.S. presidential race ..... were about equally balanced between the front-runners ..... Obama, they say, would be inspirational, motivating, charismatic and compassionate. ...... "Obama fits the year in terms of aspirations and hopes" ....... When these voters talk about America today, they want a picture that almost cries out for Obama. ..... she hasn't allowed voters to see who she is and her personal dimension ..... The Clinton camp has similar research. Things are tense in Hillaryland these days. ..... Her once-commanding advantage over Obama in Iowa and New Hampshire - the two critical initial contests - is evaporating. She has gotten the worst of recent exchanges over Iran and health care. There are political strains with her greatest asset and surrogate, Bill Clinton. The former president was quoted last month as saying he had really opposed the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. He later claimed he was misquoted. .... Top Clinton campaign officials were privately furious at the former president, saying he had revived the complaint that the Clintons lack credibility, unfairly tarnishing his wife in the process. For his part, the former president, one close associate says, is bouncing off the walls at the campaign's ineptitude in the past few weeks. (It is not known whether the Clintons shared any of these sentiments with each other.) ...... Hillary's campaign is off-balance. ....... Except her attacks were neither focused nor effective. This strategy raised more questions about her than about Obama. ..... her campaign has a near-obsession with what it perceives as a hostile press. ...... a good bet that Clinton, encouraged by her husband, is weighing a shake-up, like bringing in John Podesta, the former White House chief of staff, to direct the overall campaign .... she may well finish third in the Iowa caucuses and lose to Obama in New Hampshire. In the past 30 years, no candidate has lost both these tests and won the nomination.
Police Find Secret Passage Through a Wardrobe to Darwin's Hideout ABC News
Why Oprah Gives Obama Political Leeway FOX News Oprah-palooza is a big test for her famous power to bring in women, particularly white women. White women are, of course, the basis of her great success. ....... So she is telling her female audience don't buy that solidarity thing and vote for a woman — Hillary — but telling black people do buy the solidarity thing and vote for the black man. ....... It's odd listening to her appearance before church people. She slipped easily into a slower and more sing-songy Southern cadence, and we know when Hillary tried the same thing she got slammed for it. Oprah won't be criticized. She can affect a "Color Purple" voice and get away with it. .... the messianic tone of her introduction to Barack Obama ..... when she's around, nobody notices anything else but Oprah.
Oprah leads the way for Obama Financial Times
The Daily Five: Shea-Porter Endorsing Obama? Atlantic Online Obama has events out west; he'll start a 5-day bus tour on Friday ...... The New Hampshire Union Leader's breaking news alert has Rep. Carol Shea-Porter endorsing Sen. Barack Obama tomorrow
Clinton, Obama ads reveal the candidates Boston Globe
GOP Voters Are Uninspired by Candidates New York Times
Hillary Clinton as LBJ? Washington Post his wife on a detour through California ..... He compared her favorably to former President Lyndon Johnson ..... he did challenge Obama's ability to bring about change. "It's one thing to have good intentions; it's another thing altogether to change the reality of people's lives," Clinton said. "It's important, communication is. But it's also important to know how to get from a good intention to a specific result." ..... Both Clinton and Obama are on the West Coast, their schedules locked in by a previous commitment to attend a Democratic debate that was eventually cancelled due to the writers' strike.
Showing signs of vulnerability, Hillary Clinton shifts her focus ... International Herald Tribune The sense of inevitability that her campaign once stoked had dissipated. And rather than discussing her candidacy, Clinton explained the caucus process and showed a video entitled, "Caucusing is easy." ....... giving her Democratic opponents a chance to show that she can be beaten. ..... the Clinton campaign, which to some Iowans had appeared ignorant of the political subtleties here if not arrogant about them ....... "Here's the bottom line: they had not worked this state" ...... Her aides said she has largely cleared her schedule this week to prepare for the Democratic debate here Thursday sponsored by the Des Moines Register, the final encounter here among all the candidates before the caucuses. ..... a private dinner Friday evening with David Yepsen, the influential Des Moines Register columnist, who has repeatedly question whether Clinton appreciates the nuances of the state. ....... Most of her senior staff have moved from the campaign's national headquarters in Virginia to a windowless cluster of desks in Mrs. Clinton's headquarters in an office complex on the east side of Des Moines. Over the next few days, Howard Wolfson, the face of the Clinton war room, is driving out here from Washington. .......... Clinton has begun displaying a level of personal interest in the details of the campaign here that is unusual for even a presidential candidate named Clinton. ..... her aides acknowledged that, tactical problems aside, Iowans might well have taken a long and informed look at Clinton and decided not to vote for her. ...... Clinton was having trouble mastering the political intricacies of this significant if idiosyncratic state was echoed by Democrats in other campaigns, and reflected by the evidence of the sometimes tin-ear quality of the Clinton campaign in this state. ....... On her first trip here last January, one adviser said, Mrs. Clinton repeatedly expressed frustration, confiding to one associate that she "had no feel for the place." In one example of that, she responded with bewilderment when informed that she should not assume that she now had the support of an Iowa Democratic leader even after spending 40 minutes over coffee with him. ..... Clinton spent much of the early part of the year working huge rallies in big media market in the belief that the coverage from those rallies would reverberate into the more sparsely populated rural areas. But that is not the way things work in Iowa. ..... methodically worked rural areas, appreciating the importance of personal appeals to small groups of voters - but also, the peculiarity of caucus vote allocation that gives outsized influence to rural areas.
Clinton Shies From Full Iowa Schedule New York Times Mrs. Clinton stayed off the campaign trail Sunday and has no public events today; on Tuesday, her only event is in San Francisco (a good deal west of Iowa), where she will appear at a lunchtime “conversation” with Warren Buffett. To be sure, she is returning to Iowa Wednesday to campaign, and then taking part in the big Democratic debate in Des Moines on Thursday, before returning to New York for a gala fundraiser on Friday. ...... two days out of six in Iowa – less than four weeks before the caucuses – is pretty unusual ..... and New York lieutenant governor David Paterson are campaigning here as well. ...... One other detail: There are more than 400 people here for Mr. Clinton’s event at the Fisher Theater here on the Iowa State campus. Still, there are about 25 empty seats in the audience; at a university with 26,000 students, is it unusual that the theater isn’t standing-room-only? ....... And as it happens, not everyone here is a Clinton supporter; the woman who just sat next to me happens to be an Obama supporter, and is talking to reporters around us about how important Oprah Winfrey’s endorsement of Mr. Obama is.
Giuliani, Huckabee Tied; Clinton Up The Associated Press
Clinton Says Hillary Was Always the One The Associated Press Campaigning for his wife, former President Clinton says that when they were starting out he was and ability so struck by her intellecthe once suggested she should just dump him and jump into her own political career. ...... "She laughed and said, 'First I love you and, second, I'm not going to run for anything, I'm too hardheaded.'" ....... "I thought she was the most gifted person of our generation," said Clinton, who said he told her, "You know, you really should dump me and go back home to Chicago or go to New York and take one of those offers you've got and run for office." ........ she has "the best combination of mind and heart." ...... "When she came down there and we got married, I was a defeated candidate for Congress with a $26,000 salary and a $42,000 campaign debt," said Clinton. "If she were half as calculating as someone said, that's a really great way to run for president." ......... "She's the best non-incumbent I have ever had a chance to vote for. In my whole life I've never met anyone like her." ...... "He did an excellent job as president and we need some changes," said 82-year-old Morris Mericle, who attended Monday's event and said he wanted to see a former president he had voted for. ...... "I'm out of politics now except every two years the Democrats kind of haul me out of the barn like an old horse to see if I can make it around the track one more time," he said. ....... "They always send me to rural areas," said Clinton. "I've got boots that have been worn and I know one end of a horse from the other."
Gordon Brown asks Google to help the poor Telegraph.co.uk The Prime Minister is in talks to involve leading international companies, including internet giant Google and investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, to tackle a “development emergency” in the world’s poorest countries. ..... telecoms company Vodafone, and American supermarket firm Wal-Mart. ..... “There are 72 million children not going to primary school, in some countries one woman in six dies in childbirth, over a billion people do not have access to safe drinking water. ...... "The key to achieving the development goals is to concentrate on helping the very poor.” .... the prospect of initiatives in financial services, mobile telephones and agriculture
Office Live Workspace narrows Google App gap while playing to MS ... ZDNet the Redmond-based company is not about to get caught with its pants down the way it did in the mid-1990s when it was forced to regroup after being blind-sided by the Web. ....... OLW is primarily designed to use the Web as a shared workspace through which people collaborate on Microsoft Office-based documents. Much the same way the standard edition of Google Apps is free, OLW, which includes 500MB of free storage, will be available to users for free. Though they may not get to take full advantage of all that OLW has to offer, users need not have a copy of Microsoft Office to initiate and use an Office Live Workspace. Microsoft plans to support the service with advertising ..... it’s clear that Microsoft is really only a few lines of code away (code that’s probably already finished, but not activated yet) from offering a fully Web-based suite of its own ...... a matter of choice more than it is any inability to produce such an offering ...... “an extension” to Microsoft Office. ..... from within Microsoft Office, users can check-out documents (Word, Excel, etc.) from the shared workspace for editing at which point others must wait until that copy is checked back-in before they can edit it ...... Whereas Google’s approach to this sort of collaboration drives like a platform-independent Ferrari, Microsoft’s is still the same old Edsel.
Auction will alter wireless world Chicago Tribune the potential to make talking on cell phones, surfing the Web on a mobile device and watching TV on your handset easier and less expensive. ...... lead to the creation of the long-desired "third pipe" of high-speed Internet access to compete with phone and cable service. ........ a new era of wireless communications where networks are open to whatever devices or applications people want to use, and scanning Web sites and watching streaming video are as common as making phone calls and sending text messages. ....... The spectrum promises to help the U.S. catch up to Asia and Europe in the availability and speeds of wireless Internet and other mobile services. ....... Google, which wants to extend its Internet empire to the wireless world. ....... more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet ...... Mobile advertising, which is expected to grow dramatically, is one of Google's biggest potential new markets. ...... "Their basic strategic objective is to make sure that the wireless Internet resembles the wired Internet" ........ The airwaves are considered the beachfront of the wireless landscape.
Why Sprint should promote wimax to Wall Street until they get it ZDNet
Reliance leading the wimax Charge in India Words that Work
Amitabh Bachchan in DON sequel ! India Target
Harvard overhauls financial aid to cut tuition costs Reuters
Harvard Steps Up Aid for Middle-Class Students New York Times
Why Dell needs a handheld CNET News.com
Motorola to Be Taken Over by RIM, HP or Dell: CNBC SYS-CON Media
linkedin Makes Its Move BusinessWeek (Facebook is mostly for socializing with people you already know, while LinkedIn is for meeting people you don’t know, for professional purposes, through people you do know). ...... LinkedIn News starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, products, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs. Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business -- the articles they need to read that day. ..... 17 million LinkedIn users ...... (LinkedIn is projecting it will have $75 million to $100 million in revenues next year.)