Suspicious Activity

"Colorado is one among of handful of states where hundreds of firefighters, paramedics, police, and even corporate employees are being trained to hunt down and report a broadly defined range of “suspicious activities.” They’re called Terrorism Liaison Officers. The federally supported initiative trains them to look out for “observed behavior that may be indicative of intelligence-gathering or pre-operational planning related to terrorism.”

Amy Goodman interviews Bruce Finley (Denver Post) and Mark Silverstein (ACLU) regarding this secretive new program for the government.

Suspicious Activity

The Girl Who Did Not Want to Grow Up

She just turned eleven and said "the best years of childhood are between eight and twelve". Lots of freedom and understanding but no big responsibilities, yet. She got her own mobile phone; she thought it was cool but she'd rather play in the fort. Most of her friends want to be at least "eighteen or in their twenties". She thinks that those years will be exciting, but she does not want to be there yet. Life is good now.
It's like she knows that it will never be the same, after this.
--- T

Sarcasm

Below is an interesting quote about the role of sarcasm in our lives. I certainly am guilty of using sarcasm and enjoying others' sarcastic sense of humor (when it's not too extreme, of course). A good joke (at others' expense) is sometimes the best cure for bordom, and it can make you see things in a new, unexpected light. Yes, it's easy to go overboard and hurt people's feelings, I know that. But most often it's still a worthy pursuit.
--- T

How might something so, well, sarcastic as sarcasm, be part of the human social toolbox?
Evolutionary biologists claim that sociality is what has made humans such a successful species. We are masters at what anthropologists and others call "social intelligence." We recognize and keep track of hundreds of relationships, and we easily distinguish between enemies and friends.
More important, we run our lives by social calculation. A favor is mentally recorded and paid back, sometimes many years later. Likewise, insults are marked down on the mental score card in indelible ink. And we are constantly bickering and making up, even with people we love.
Sarcasm, then, is a verbal hammer that connects people in both a negative and positive way. We know that sense of humor is important to relationships; if someone doesn't get your jokes, they aren't likely to be your friend (or at least that's my bottom line about friendship). Sarcasm is simply humor's dark side, and it would be just as disconcerting if a friend didn't get your snide remarks.

Meredith F. Small
LiveScience's Human Nature Columnist
LiveScience.com

Worker's Woes

I keep telling my American friends and colleagues that things could be different, they could have four weeks of vacation and a good job, and feel refreshed when they return from the summer cottage or from the vacation trip to a sunny place. They look at me with a puzzled, almost amused look: "I could not possibly take so much time off, my work is too important to be away from for that long. And I would look like a lazy, unmotivated person if I actually wanted some time off!" And then they put their heads down and immerse themselves in more work. They must look busy because they might be the next in line to get laid off. Such constant fear of falling keeps people timid, humble, quiet. Below is a column by Froma Harrop about how Europeans deal with vacations and time off...

--- T

Froma Harrop / Syndicated columnist

Plenty of stuff, little time to enjoy it

As we watch the economy slip into second-rateness, another depressing thought rises. All the toil and stress we've put into making America...

As we watch the economy slip into second-rateness, another depressing thought rises. All the toil and stress we've put into making America great never translated into the dolce vita (sweet life) for ordinary folks.

This may be the land of plenty — plenty of stuff and the debt to show for it — but it's also home of subsistence-level vacations. And rather than grow with prosperity, opportunities to restore our nerve endings have become ever scarcer.

"With all this wealth, when are we going to find the time to enjoy ourselves?" John De Graaf, producer of the 1997 PBS documentary "Affluenza," asks rhetorically. Then he chuckles, "It's positively un-American."

De Graaf heads a Seattle-based group called Take Back Your Time, which addresses issues of overwork and time poverty in America. The organization is pushing Congress to mandate at least three weeks of paid vacation for workers.

In the unlikely event that such legislation passes, an important question remains: If the president signs, will workers do the time? A study by Expedia.com found that a third of employed Americans don't even take all the vacation days they've been granted.

A Conference Board survey last April asked workers whether they planned to take a vacation in the next six months (which includes this summer). Only 36 percent(!) said they did, the lowest figure since 1978.

What's going on? One simple explanation is economic anxiety. Observing the layoffs and other signs of downsizing, people fear that a co-worker will be moved into their cubicle while they're away. (And in this country, a loss of employment may also mean no health coverage.) Some workers hold two or more jobs to keep up with depressed wages or loan payments. A vacation from the day job may not include time off from the gig at night.

European workers average more than a month's worth of vacation, and they get it by law. Americans have no such right. Two weeks off is the pitiful standard, and many companies don't match that.

About 23 percent of all private-sector workers get no paid vacation at all, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For women, that number is 31 percent.

Business groups argue that mandated vacation would hurt American competitiveness: We're fighting for advantage in a global economy. He who rests ends up dog chow.

De Graaf begs to disagree. "Americans are investing more money in the Netherlands than in China," he said, "and then we complain that we can't compete in the marketplace if we have different vacation time." The Dutch average 25 days of vacation annually.

For you who put price tags on everything, note that vacations can help prevent expensive health problems. The Framingham Heart Study (started in 1948) found that women who took a vacation only once every six years or less were nearly eight times more likely to develop coronary heart disease than those who took at least two vacations a year. And yes, the research was controlled for obesity, diabetes, smoking and income.

Another study reported that men at high risk for heart disease who didn't take annual vacations were 21 percent more likely to die from all causes. Their risk of dying from a heart attack was 32 percent higher.

When Americans tell pollsters that their children won't live as well as they did, they are referring to a material standard of living. Quality of life is another matter, and a high one must include the luxury of non-work.

"Scandal" is the word that best describes the time famine that afflicts the richest people on Earth. If rest and relaxation are not basic human rights, they should be.

Providence Journal columnist Froma Harrop's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is fharrop@projo.com

Congratulations, UW Graduates!

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The Evil Wolf and the Good Wolf

Bill Moyers did a wonderful speech at the National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis recently. I have attached a Youtube link here and an excerpt of the speech.
--- T

What does it matter? Why a media anyway? I’m going to let an old Cherokee chief answer that. I heard this story a long time ago, growing up in Choctaw County in Oklahoma before we moved to Texas, of the tribal elder who was telling his grandson about the battle the old man was waging within himself. He said, "It is between two wolves, my son. One is an evil wolf: anger, envy, sorrow, greed, self-pity, guilt, resentment, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is the good wolf: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.” The boy took this in for a few minutes and then said to his... grandfather, “Which wolf won?” The old Cherokee replied simply, “The one I feed.” Democracy is that way. The wolf that wins is the one we feed. And media provides the fodder.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Y0r71L7cojE

Katha Pollit

Like her or not, Hillary Clinton deserves praise

By KATHA POLLITT

Hillary Clinton came this close. Nobody really understands why: why she stuck it out this long, given the math, and why she gave such a grudging, graceless version of her stump speech after the South Dakota primary clinched the nomination for Barack Obama. Suggestions I've heard were not very flattering: She hoped to whittle down her multimillion-dollar campaign debt with donations from the deluded diehards screaming Denver! Denver! She wanted the No. 2 spot. She's a crazy narcissistic rhymes-with-rich. Maybe she was just ticked off because pundits have been trying to hustle her off the stage ever since her third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses.

Some think Clinton's loss, and the psychodrama surrounding it, will set women back. I think they're wrong. Love her or loathe her, the big story here is Americans saw a woman who was a serious, popular, major-party candidate. Clinton showed herself to be tough, tireless, supersmart and definitely ready to lead on that famous Day One. She raised a ton of money and won 17.5 million votes from men and women. She was exciting, too: She and Obama galvanized voters for six long months -- in some early contests, each of them racked up more votes than all the Republican candidates combined.

Once the bitterness of the present moment has faded, that's what people will remember. Because she normalized the concept of a woman running for president, she made it easier for women to run for every office, including the White House. That is one reason women and men of every party and candidate preference, and every ethnicity, too, owe Hillary Clinton a standing ovation, even if they can't stand her.

There's another reason to be grateful to her. Clinton's run has put to rest the myth that we are living in a postfeminist wonderland in which all that stands in women's path is women themselves. Like a magnet -- was it the pantsuit? -- Clinton drew out the nation's misogyny in all its jeering glory and put it where we could all get a good look at it. "Iron my shirt" hecklers. Wearers of Bros Over Hos T-shirts and buyers of Hillary nutcrackers. Fans of the Citizens United Not Timid Web site (check the acronym). Vats of sexist nastiness splattered across the comments section of hundreds of blogs and Web sites. It's as if every obscene phone caller and every exhibitionist in America decided to become an amateur political pundit.

As for the real pundits, thank you, Hillary, for showing us the snickering belittling of women that passes for media commentary: Rush Limbaugh, no Adonis, wondering out loud if "the country" was ready to watch a woman age in the White House; Chris Matthews, Don Imus and Tucker Carlson with their litany of insults -- she-devil, Satan, witch, Antichrist, Lady Macbeth. NPR's Ken Rudin compared her to Glenn Close's indestructible bunny-boiler character in "Fatal Attraction." And surely a special prize goes to Keith Olbermann for his indignant, hysterical bombast after Clinton's ham-handed reference to RFK's assassination. Rarely has men's terror of women with more brains than a Bratz doll been on such public display. And, of course, men were what we mostly saw up there on the small screen, yakking and blathering away.

It wasn't just men, though. Thank you, Hillary, for letting us get a good look at female sexism: the catty fashionistas and style page dingbats obsessing over her clothes, her hair, her weight, her cleavage, her laugh. Air America's Randi Rhodes calling her a "big f - - - - - - whore," New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd offering up her twice-weekly dose of vinegar and dozens of women writers musing prettily about why they and their friends all hate Hillary. Could it be they're jealous? Not, as novelist Mary Gordon has suggested, of Hillary's bagging of sexy Bill (yuck) but of her unsinkable ambition and drive. Hillary's run upset the carefully balanced apple cart of tradeoff and resignation and semi-suppressed frustration that is how women of the professional class accommodate to patriarchy lite.

Please note: I don't claim Clinton lost because she's a woman. (I think it was her Iraq vote, which she could never justify or renounce; assorted strategic mistakes; the bumptious interventions of her husband; and, most of all, that Barack Obama, a prodigiously gifted, charismatic politician, took the banner of change away from her.) The attacks on her may even have helped by making women voters identify with her. In New Hampshire, pols' and pundits' sexist mockery of her "misting" made women rally to her side and revitalized her campaign.

Now those women, not all white and not all working class, are on the political map, and so are the issues that made them identify with Clinton: the glass ceiling and the sticky floor, the inequality built into marriage and family life, sexual harassment and assault, lack of support for caring work -- paid or unpaid -- and, underlying them all, a fundamental lack of respect that over the years can make a woman feel fed up to here.

It's an irony of this campaign that Clinton was seen by the pundit class as a kind of über-diva whose attempts to reach out were transparently phony (beer and Canadian Club, anyone?) and yet millions of ordinary women -- white, Latino and black -- saw their struggles mirrored in hers. I won't deny that there's racism and xenophobia in the mix for some -- hatred of Obama as affirmative action trickster and secret Muslim. It's incredibly important for Clinton to do the right thing and rally those women to Obama, and I wish I felt surer that she would rise to the occasion. (Well, she did it yesterday with such passion, that even the biggest Clinton-haters must admit she was awesome. - T)

She could begin by pointing out that Obama is pro-woman and pro-choice and as president will pursue policies to benefit all women -- on labor, health care, sexual violence and many other issues. She could tell her supporters a vote for McCain is crazy. She could even tell them that a biracial man in the White House will make it easier for voters to imagine other nontraditional kinds of presidents -- like the next woman who decides to run.

Whoever that woman is, though, she'd better have the hide of a rhinoceros.

Hillary's Concession Speech

Hillary ended her campaign today in Washington DC with a speech that was touching, valiant, and gracious. She is a true hero. She understands that she must now unite the democrats for a bigger cause and set aside her own pain of defeat. Oh, what might have been! But she says not to think like that... Think big picture. Think future - one small step at a time...

- T

By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press WriterSat Jun 7, 5:41 PM ET

This one's for the girls.

That was Hillary Rodham Clinton's message Saturday as she ended her presidential bid — a final, full-throated acknowledgment of what her pioneering quest had meant to women.

It was a moving, genuine and unexpected moment for Clinton, who spent most of her campaign playing down her gender as a way to reassure voters who might have trouble imagining a female commander in chief.

Speaking to supporters at the National Building Museum here, Clinton finally seemed to jettison the counsel she'd received over the course of her 17-month campaign to be safe and non-controversial — advice that made her seem steely and dull and robbed her of the magic her barrier-breaking campaign might otherwise have had.

Also gone was the careful, poll-tested message of "strength and experience" she had pressed throughout the campaign, which emphasized her toughness at the expense of her humanity and warmth.

In defeat, the former first lady was finally free — and clearly eager to let it rip.

"Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it," Clinton said — a reference to the millions of voters who supported her in the primaries.

"The light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time," she said to applause and cheers.

The former first lady who made history with her election to the Senate in 2000 spoke of running for president as both a mother and a daughter. Her weeping 89-year-old mother, Dorothy Rodham, and 28-year old daughter Chelsea stood nearby.

She channeled suffragists who gathered in Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848. She noted that biases against women still exist. And she spoke to female insecurity, urging women not to take the wrong message from her defeat and fail to try to achieve their dreams.

"It would break my heart if, in falling short of my goal, I in any way discouraged any of you from pursuing yours," she said. "When you stumble, keep faith. And, when you're knocked down, get right back up and never listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."

The speech offered a telling glimpse into what might have happened had Clinton shed her pantsuit-clad androgyny and presented herself instead as what she was: a female trailblazer, going where no woman in this country had ever gone before.

Clinton's passionate female supporters recognized that side of her all along — hugging her on the rope line at campaign events and whispering into her ear as though she were one of their girlfriends. They proudly wore her campaign buttons and angrily pushed back on what they viewed as sexist trash-talk by television commentators and political opponents.

But to her skeptics, she was "just another Clinton" — a calculating politician driven by overweening ambition, ready to steamroll her opponents if that's what it took to get elected. They never for a second doubted she was tough enough to take the 3 a.m. phone call — they just wanted to elect someone else to do it instead.

Would things have been different had the New York senator peeled back the armor and embraced her femininity? No one will ever know. But she won the New Hampshire primary after finally showing some emotion.

Polls show Obama still has considerable work to do to win over Clinton's anguished female backers — a matter she addressed in her speech by acknowledging how much both candidates had in common.

To do so, she linked the milestones each had hit — she as the first serious female candidate, he as the first black to be nominated by a major party for president.

"Children today will grow up taking for granted that an African-American or a woman can, yes, become the president of the United States," she said.

Watching the speech at home in Chicago, Obama clearly recognized the message Clinton was sending to women and quickly embraced it.

"I honor her today for the valiant and historic campaign she has run," he said in a statement. "She shattered barriers on behalf of my daughters and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams."

Paul Begala

So, it's over now. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. So many people were foaming at the mouth to attack and demean Hillary from the start - and all other women along with her. She showed amazing strength and resiliency through it all. Yes, she made some mistakes, but so did Obama, his just didn't stick (yet) like Hillary's. Bill was her baggage. But she pressed on, fighting, smiling, speaking about the issues that affect our lives. She was brave and courageous and relentless. Thank you, Hillary!

Below is a piece written by Paul Begala in today's Huffington Post. Well said.

--- T

Ask my ten-year-old Little Leaguer, Charlie, who his all-time favorite baseball player is and you won't hear Jeter or Berkman or Big Papi. Nor even Mickey Mantle, whose autographed picture hangs in Charlie's room -- a gift from The Mick to Charlie's dad.

Without hesitation Charlie will say, "Jackie." As in Jackie Robinson. Not only was Jackie one of the greatest to ever play the game, his very presence in the game changed it forever and for the good.

So it is with Hillary. Her presence in the presidential campaign has not only been impressive on the merits, it's been historic for what she has had to overcome just to do her job. The sexist signs: "HEY, HILLARY: IRON MY SHIRT!" "QUIT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT AND MAKE ME A SANDWICH!" The Hillary Clinton nutcracker (get it?), and all the rest.

I expected that. What I did not expect was for the so-called mainstream media to behave little better than the bigots on the streets outside her events.

• The radio clown Glenn Beck called Hillary a "stereotypical bitch" and yet is treated as if he had something serious to contribute to CNN Headline News and ABC.
• MSNBC gave a platform to the magician-cum-comic-cum-crank Penn Gillette, who said Hillary did well in March because it was "White Bitch Month."
• Alex Castellanos, on a night when Hillary was winning a primary by 35 percent, told CNN's audience that Hillary is called "a bitch" because, well, some people deserve to be called by that epithet.
• MSNBC's Chris Matthews said Hillary owed her entire career to her husband's marital mistakes (and then, manfully, apologized).
• The Washington Post broke the news flash that Hillary, in fact, has cleavage.

Her figure, her clothes, her hair, her voice - all of it mocked and savaged in a way unimaginable if she were a man. She has not only endured the jeers and the sneers and the smears, she has triumphed over them. She never answered their hate with rage. She just went on winning.

Just like Jackie.

Women have been running for President since 1872, when Victoria Woodhull ran on the Equal Rights Party platform. And yet no woman -- from the estimable Shirley Chisoholm to the remarkable Pat Schroeder to the impressive Elizabeth Dole -- has ever won even a single primary. Until Hillary. She not only won 20 primaries, she earned 17 million votes in the primaries -- more than any woman before her. And more than any man before her as well.

To be sure, she's made her share of mistakes. As a strategist I have long seen her effort as an example of a candidate outperforming her campaign strategy at every critical juncture. Still, Jackie Robinson struck out hundreds of times.

The Democratic Party has decided, wonderfully, bravely, remarkably, to double-down on history this election. And so Hillary's struggle against sexism has played out parallel to Barack Obama's graceful and courageous rise above racism. He, too, has endured taunts and threats and bigotry. He, too, has answered hatred with dignity. He, too, knows how Jackie must have felt.

So when Barack praises Hillary's tenacity, her trailblazing spirit, it is not patronizing, as some Hillary supporters have suggested. It is, I think, an empathetic expression of a powerful truth. Nobody -- not even her husband -- can fully appreciate what Hillary has overcome. Except Barack.

For me this primary season ends where it began: with the firm conviction that there is no need to vote against anyone, but rather to vote for someone. I am so proud of the person I voted for. I do not know if a gal who grew up following the Cubs in the National League and the Yankees in the American League has ever stopped to think of the trailblazing Dodger. But I know this: if you ask Charlie who his favorite politician is, he unhesitatingly replies, "Hillary."