Politics

To say the release of 91,000 classified documents has revealed a disconnect between our public position on Afghanistan and the actual situation on the ground is like inferring a disparity between yoga and bayonets. Dawn dishwashing liquid and green olive tapenade. A tray full of Southern Comfort old- fashioned sweets and a herringbone Segway.

Unlike the Pentagon Papers, we can't even work up a good outrage, mainly because come on, 91,000 documents. That's like reading all seven Harry Potter books thirty times over. I don't care how authentically rustic your wand is, nobody's doing that. There's even questions as to whether it's 91,000 documents, 92,000 documents, if all the documents have been released or more are being held in reserve for we mere Muggles.

I know. What's a thousand documents amongst friends? Well, there's your problem. We don't have any friends. Corruption over there is endemic, pandemic and epidemic. Our allies aren't necessarily allied on our side. The fighting is going badly and a halfway decent deep- dish pizza crust remains a concept the Afghanis seem unable or unwilling to embrace. Not to mention Democracy.

Unplug the drain and the ring around the tub is we've been there 8 years and things are so not getting better. As a matter of fact you could say the movement more resembles whatever is the opposite of getting better. Don't even mention quagmire. Hah. Hah. We sneer at your quagmire. Our Afghanistan participation makes a quagmire look like a refreshing dip in a spring fed pool with buckets of frosty beer within reach and cold cucumbers slices on our eyelids. Spa spangled bog.

This dastardly document dump also managed to tick off Pakistani officials who dispute claims that the ISI, their intelligence agency, is collaborating with the Taliban. "These allegations are always repeated." Hmm. Curious as to why those allegations would always be repeated, eh what? Maybe because, like the sun and those silly allegations about the rising in the East, they're... TRUE?

And for those of you surprised by the amount of grandstanding caused by the WikiLeaks disclosures, either you forgot it was an election year or have been making too many side trips to the magic brownie counter in your medicinal marijuana store. A veritable slew of Congressmen are sharpening their budget scalpels, asking how we can toss Pakistan a couple billion a year in foreign aid while they're helping Afghani insurgents? With friends like these, who needs enemy combatants?

As unexpected as a checkered tablecloth in a pizzeria, the Administration is playing down any revelations. "Nothing new to see here. Everything generally known. Move along." Perhaps, just not generally known by the general public. Privately, White House officials anticipate using these leaks to pressure Pakistan to play nice. Yeah. Right. Dream on, big river. You got a better chance convincing Lindsay Lohan to give up all her nasty habits and start wearing one.

If this leak tells us anything, it's that this is not a winnable war. Right now, America has a lot of stuff on a lot of plates and keeping them all spinning is neither cheap nor easy. Afghan plates, on the other hand, are not very full and they seem to like it like that. Especially when deep- dish pizza crumbs can get them beheaded. As they say in Animal House, "If I were us, I'd be... leaving." Will Durst is a San Francisco based political comedian who often writes. This being an example of questionable merit.

Catch his stand up at a benefit for the Oasis Theater Ensemble in Wausau, Wisconsin, on Friday August 6th. 2 shows.
And as part of the Comedy Talks series on August 15th at the San Francisco Presentation Theater with Robert Morse and Shelley Berman. For tickets: comedytalks.com or 800.838.3006.
His new CD, "Raging Moderate," now available from Stand Up! Records on both iTunes and Amazon.

This week, President Obama pushed back against his natural allies in civil rights groups and teachers' unions who have criticized his education policies -- particularly his Race to the Top initiative -- as anti-teacher and unfair to minorities. "Our goal isn't to fire or admonish teachers," he said. "Our goal is accountability." Teacher effectiveness is the single most important factor driving student performance. Yet, because of overly rigid union contacts, we cannot pay the best teachers more based on their performance -- and it's become next to impossible to fire even the worst teachers. Until we stop this insanity, our national report card will continue to be littered with Fs. The president should be applauded and given major leadership props for taking on this schlerotic status quo. This is what real, beyond-left-and-right bipartisanship looks like.

RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Chelsea Clinton wed her longtime boyfriend under extraordinary security at an elegant Hudson River estate late Saturday.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton announced in a statement that their daughter wed investment banker Marc Mezvinsky after weeks of secrecy and buildup that had celebrity watchers flocking to the small village of Rhinebeck for the evening nuptials. The site of the wedding, a Beaux Arts riverside estate called Astor Courts, was sealed off from the general public.

"Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends," the Clintons said. "We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc into our family. On behalf of the newlyweds, we want to give special thanks to the people of Rhinebeck for welcoming us and to everyone for their well-wishes on this special day."

Chelsea Clinton, wearing a strapless white gown with a full skirt and silver beading around the waist and carrying a bouquet of white flowers, was escorted down the aisle by her father. The former president and the groom wore dark suits, while the mother of the bride wore a fuchsia dress.

It is estimated that hundreds of guests gathered at the historic estate near the end of a near-perfect summer day of warm temperatures, blue skies and cottony clouds. The ceremony was conducted by a rabbi and a reverend as Chelsea Clinton is Methodist and Mezvinsky is Jewish, and included a poem by Leo Marks titled, "The Life That I Have," according to the family.

The wedding was a mix of high society and high security. The road to Astor Courts was blocked off Saturday – neighbors received bottles of wine for their troubles – and the sky above was declared a no-fly zone by federal aviation officials. Police and security guards fanned out around this usually sleepy town.

Consistent with Chelsea Clinton's desire for privacy, the family had released no details of the wedding beyond the date. But the scope of the event became apparent when more than a half-dozen busloads of wedding guests – men in black tie, women in dresses – were transported from a hotel in the village to the riverside ceremony as gawkers looked on.

Celebrities spotted in Rhinebeck for the event included actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, fashion designer Vera Wang, Madeleine Albright, who was secretary of state during Bill Clinton's second term as president and Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman. The former president's half brother, Roger Clinton, was spotted early Saturday afternoon with his son Tyler, picking up food at a restaurant.

Danson and Steenburgen said they were excited about the upcoming ceremony as they strolled through Rhinebeck toward one of the hotels being used for the wedding.

"I knew her since she was a baby so this is a big moment," said Steenburgen, who wed Danson in 1995. "She's a lovely, lovely girl."

Reporters, who had been searching for celebrities in vain for most of the day, quickly zeroed in on the couple, prompting Danson to ask, "Are we the only celebrities in town?"

Celebrity seekers jockeyed with reporters for sidewalk space over most of the day too. Donna Vena drove 50 miles to Rhinebeck from her home of Mount Kisco, N.Y., in the hopes of spotting a celebrity.

"Why not?" she asked Saturday morning, a camera slung over her shoulder. "Big story. Maybe see Oprah."

Nearby, two young women passed out slices of pizza with "I do" written in pepperoni.

Hundreds of people gathered outside the hotel where many of the guests are staying were rewarded Friday night when the Clintons exited a van arm-in-arm outside the Beekman Arms Hotel.

Shortly before 11 p.m., the former first lady, wearing a long green dress, waved to the cheering crowd waiting behind metal barricades and quickly went into the hotel. She left with the former president about a half-hour later.

Earlier Friday, Bill Clinton made an appearance around lunchtime, popping out of a car and walking a few blocks, greeting people on his way to a restaurant. Looking fit and relaxed in blue jeans and a black knit shirt, he gave easy answers to questions shouted by well-wishers and reporters.

Chelsea Clinton and Mezvinsky were friends as teenagers in Washington, and both attended Stanford University. They now live in New York, where Mezvinsky works at G3 Capital, a Manhattan hedge fund. Mezvinsky worked previously at Goldman Sachs as an investment banker.

Clinton completed her master's degree in public health earlier this year at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

Mezvinsky is a son of former U.S. Reps. Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky of Pennsylvania and Ed Mezvinsky of Iowa, longtime friends of the Clintons. His parents are divorced.

I don't know why it should be a surprise that the Anti-Defamation League joined the hate mongers in opposing the mosque at Ground Zero.

The fact is that neither the ADL or its twin, the American Jewish Committee (the other old, established Jewish anti-discrimination organization) has been about opposing bigotry or even anti-Semitism for at least a decade.

They now are entirely about defending Israel -- or, at least their right-wing version of Israel. That is why you are infinitely more likely to hear Abe Foxman, head of the Anti-Defamation League, or David Harris, chief of the American Jewish Committee talk about Ahmadedinejad, the Goldstone report, the Turkish flotilla, or the "campaign to discredit Israel" than about hate crimes against Americans (which is what they used to be about).

Even anti-Semitism is of little interest to them -- unless it is connected to Israel. In fact, Harris and Foxman have redefined anti-Semitism as opposition to Israeli policies (the Gaza war, the blockade, the occupation) rather than contempt and hatred of Jews for for simply being Jews. Check out this ad from the American Jewish Committee which is just neocon scaremongering on Iran or this recent statement by Abe Foxman denouncing Presbyterians for opposing Israeli policies on the West Bank.

And there is this -- the craziest of all. It's a video, an "Address to the Iranian People," by Malcolm Hoenlein, who is head of the Conference of Presidents of Jewish organizations, of which ADL and the AJC are members. In it, Hoenlein calls on the Iranian people to rise up and overthrow their oppressors. It's hilarious, especially since it comes from a guy whose constituent organizations are just dying to bomb the hell out of the very Iranians who he addresses with such presumptuous and unctuous compassion.

So what does this have to do with the mosque in New York? Simple. These organizations, and especially their leaders, hate and fear Muslims or, to use their term, "radical Islam." It is not because they are instinctive bigots. It is that they believe that the more acceptance there is of Muslims here at home, the less reflexive hatred there will be for Muslims abroad. And that, in their view, reduces America's sympathy for Israel.

Take this, for instance, David Harris of the AJC has made a specialty of trying to convince Americans that estimates of the number of Muslims this country are grossly inflated. His purpose is to prevent Americans from speaking about American Muslims -- as Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama routinely did -- as if they are central to America, part of the American fabric. Better that they be seen as a fringe group that can be ignored. Why else would the AJC even bother trying to discredit demographic data on Muslims? What, other than paranoia and racial animus, would even cause Harris to commission such a study: fear that one day Americans will speak of the religious makeup of their country as Protestant, Catholic, Jew...and Muslim. The fear is that such thinking could lead Congress, for instance, to start acting as if Muslims mattered too. And that Muslims who live and vote here are -- like Christians and Jews -- as American as apple pie.

Another reason for coming out against the mosque is to build relations with the American far-right. American Jews voted overwhelmingly for Obama -- and will again -- but these organizational types have not liked him from day one. And now they hate him and not because he has weakened the alliance with Israel. These guys just know that, left to his own devices, he would adopt the policy of "honest broker." They sense that, or, more precisely, fear it. They don't have to worry about that with any of the Republican likely candidates, for whom Islamophobia is in their DNA.

Bottom line. The ADL, AJC, Conference of Presidents, and the other "mainsteam" organizations are no longer Jewish organizations, let alone civil rights organizations. They are entirely about defending any and all Israeli policies and, to buttress that goal, demonizing Muslims.

That is why opposition to the mosque is a natural. The only reason that the other organizations aren't (yet) out there with Foxman is that they have better PR sense. But, who knows, they may not want Foxman to be out there as the lone Jewish Crusader.

Here's the good news. Most Jews are liberals. Only a tiny minority are members of these organizations. And even fewer are Israel-firsters. That, in fact, is why Foxman, Harris and Hoenlein are so hysterical. Their base is melting like the wicked witch in The Wizard Of Oz.

The real Israel-firsters have AIPAC which, to its credit, does not pretend to have any interest in domestic issues. These other organizations have nothing. Why not go with Islamophobia? Like its historic twin, old-fashioned Jew-hatred, it has real promise.

A recent MIT graduate acknowledged yesterday that he met and exchanged multiple e-mails with the Army private accused of providing thousands of classified war records to the whistleblower website WikiLeaks, but he adamantly denied any role in the massive intelligence leak.

The WikiLeaks revelations clearly showed the unprovoked war crimes and unnecessary slaying of innocent Afghan civilians in Afghanistan. The WikiLeaks evidence should make war criminals of George Bush, Tony Blair and Barack Obama. They should all be brought to justice at The International Criminal Court at The Hague for crimes against humanity!

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The WikiLeaks revelations clearly showed the unprovoked war crimes and unnecessary slaying of innocent Afghan civilians in Afghanistan. The WikiLeaks evidence should make war criminals of George Bush, Tony Blair and Barack Obama. They should all be brought to justice at The International Criminal Court at The Hague for crimes against humanity!

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Recently, I feel transported back to the Clinton impeachment. You remember: a married man who received oral pleasure from someone other than his wife was caught lying about it to the Senate. At the time, America couldn't figure out whether the infidelity itself or the lying was worse; either way, the Republic was certainly doomed! Strange then that Hillary has exchanged Senator for Secretary and Bill has proven the most civic-minded former President since Jimmy Carter. (Love 'em or hate 'em as individuals, you've got to give it up for Habitat for Humanity and The Clinton Foundation.)

What brings this to mind is the rage surrounding Barack Obama. From conservatives and centrists (with jobs), we hear that Obama is a thinly veiled socialist who is dragging a liberty-loving country into the clutches of socialism. Illegal immigrants run wild - murdering, pillaging and occasionally picking strawberries. The unemployed lollygag on public assistance, paid for by hardworking Americans. Meanwhile, taxes are choking the country to death. (Never mind that the tax burden under the mighty Reagan was a good deal higher than it is now.)

Equally, the left despises the President but for totally different reasons. Obama has failed to deliver on health care, gay marriage, immigration, the repeal of don't ask / don't tell, reducing unemployment and the ending of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. After eight years of Bush-Cheney, there was supposed to be real change, not pragmatic centrism.

The one thing that both sides seem to agree upon is that Barack Obama is clearly not up to the job. Every day, it seems that someone has a new angle on how our President is failing to save or is actively destroying America. There's virtually no regard for the fact that he's chief executive - not a king - and that we have two other branches of federal government.

I'm not saying that the President is perfect, but truly, I can't think of a person who would be doing any better at the moment. And apparently, no one else can either. I've been conducting an experiment over the past couple of days. Every time someone expresses their disappointment, I ask them to name the ideal man/woman who they would install today. Off the bat, no one has proven capable of identifying anyone. True, I've gotten a few, feeble McCain's (eventually) but a dumbfounded stare is the common response.

So let's give the guy a break. Barak may not be the perfect guy for the job but no one else is either.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has a warning for Republicans who denounce the federal deficit but reject proposals to cut it.

Obama tells CBS, "I'm going to call them on their bluff."

The president promises to have "a bunch of ideas" for deficit reduction, but he didn't specify them in the broadcast interview.

Many analysts say both spending cuts and tax increases are needed to tame the soaring deficit.

Republicans in Congress oppose almost any form of tax increases, as do some Democrats. Lawmakers in both parties call for spending cuts, but they often hedge when cuts are proposed to specific programs.

Obama's interview was taped Friday, and will air on CBS's "Sunday Morning" and "The Early Show" on Monday.

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is halfway through its 20-state "One Man, One Woman" tour at which approximately one man and one woman seem to show up for them at each stop. But what NOM lacks in popular, grassroots support, it more than makes up for in funneling money for "anonymous" donors. Wednesday, NOM announced that it would spend untold sums to advertise in Spanish in California in support of Carly Fiorina, the failed CEO who wants to buy a Senate seat.

Not to be outdone, a few miles south of here in San Diego, a year-old right wing group called GOProud has carved out a niche for itself as the NOM of the gay right wing. GOProud, a so-called 527 organization that exists to influence the outcome of federal elections, is the first "gay" organization to accept funds from Doug Manchester and his Hyatt Hotel in San Diego that has been under boycott for two years. Mr. Manchester denies workers their rights and put $125,000 into the Prop. 8 campaign just as it qualified for the ballot.

What do these two organizations have in common? Quite a lot, it turns out.

NOM is under investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for failure to disclose contributors to the 2008 campaign to take marriage away from Americans. It is also under court order in Maine to disclose its contributors to the ballot measure there last November that took marriage away from more Americans. Both of these governmental investigations and actions are largely due to Fred Karger, the intrepid co-founder of the boycott against Manchester and now a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

NOM is accused of hiding the source of large sums of money directed to it by the Catholic and Mormon Churches into campaigns, ads and even tours. As Courage Campaign and our friends at Freedom to Marry have seen on our NOM Tour Tracker, the money is not used to get out crowds; it is used instead for fancy buses, staff and most importantly for raw politics. NOM is the classic, if well-heeled sock puppet.

But what of GOProud? It received at least $16,000 from Mr. Manchester's entities which constitutes 86% of its total reported budget. That's right. GOProud seems proud to go right to a sugar daddy who happily wrote checks to another front organization, apparently so Mr. Manchester and his Hyatt could say, "We're okay now. Even though we paid to take marriage away from potentially millions of people, we've just given money to a right-wing gay organization, the purpose of which is to raise and spend money to support candidates who oppose marriage and equality for all."

Are you following this? It's complicated, but it's in the tradition of Andrew Breitbart and right-wing dirty tricks. For two solid years, UNITE HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers union, has stood firm with groups like Courage Campaign and the entire LGBT community in San Diego to boycott Mr. Manchester's property. UNITE HERE fought diligently against Prop. 8 and has continued to demand equality at every opportunity. For two years, Mr. Manchester has suffered a huge loss in revenue. And for nearly two years, Mr. Manchester has retained the services of people like gay PR man Howard Bragman, who makes money by advising stars on coming out of the closet and donors to Prop. 8 in gay-washing their dirty money. (Mr. Bragman wrote here on HuffPo that he supports boycotts, but that seemed to change when Mr. Manchester started to pay him to break the boycott that he said he supported.)

The irony of it all is that Mr. Manchester and his advisors seem to have found their ideal fake solution to their anti-American, anti-equality money machine. They can give money to GOProud so that GOProud can be a gay voice in support of anti-gay and regressive candidates such as Mary Bono Mack, Oklahoma's Tom Coburn and Carly Fiorina. Indeed, GOProud advertised against Tom Campbell, the only Republican in the Senate race who supports full equality for LGBT people. GOProud proves that self-loathing knows no bounds.

Courage and our allies at UNITE HERE and virtually the entire LGBT community will proudly continue to honor the boycott of Manchester hotels as we all become increasingly wary of Hyatt itself. We'll also continue to track NOM on its tour and its money hose so that the true movement for equality and American progress can prevail.

Sock puppets and sugar daddies. It could the title of a book about the end of right wing, anti-family, fear mongers. In fact, it's a sad commentary on desperate people who realize that they stand at the fringes of America and history itself. Until progress prevails, we'll hold them all accountable.

(cross-posted at Courage Campaign Institute's Prop 8 Trial Tracker)

The Weekly Standard editor claimed political purity in bashing Journolist, but he's on the Republican payroll

It may be said that Barack Obama, among his other firsts, has become the first president of the Internet age. The Internet, specifically the World Wide Web, did as much as anything in his campaign, to help him win the presidency. And with some unprecedented techniques, he has governed through the internet, explaining his positions, publicizing his major proposals, making promises on issues such as Medicare and Social Security, and assuring prospective voters that his is one of the most open and tech-savvy administrations..

From the beginning of his campaign, through his first year in office, he has had great help from a booming, left-leaning blogosphere, including Move-On, the Center for American Progress, Buzzflash, Common Dreams, The Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Firedoglake, and the very profitable Huffington Post.

George Bush could have used the net, but as in most things worldly, he seemed ignorant about the internet and oblivious about its uses; and there seemed to no one able to teach him, if he was teachable. Towards the end of his presidency some corporations helped found a couple of phony grass roots groups and sites, such as Freedomworks,org, which was run by lobbyist and former House Majority Leader (under Newt Gingrich) Richard Armey, who helped create the Tea Party movement and now seeks the privatization of Social Security and Medicare, among other right-wing causes.

During Bush;s tenure, Armey got money from corporations, to bring in audiences to the White House to support some of Bush's initiatives; I doubt that Bush knew. But Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney did not use or need the internet as long as they had the cheerleaders of Fox (faux) News. Now with no Bush to love, Fox has continued to have more influence that the pro-Obama blogs in its scurrilous campaigns, with Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, to cripple the Obama presidency. Think of what Fox did to Georgia Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod; it was a television lynching and Fox has still not owned up to its crime..

Obama has had relatively friendly relations with networks like MSNBC, and its commentators, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann. But they have not been Obama toadies, for they have been critical of the president and his policies, especially his compromises, when warranted. But they have not resorted to the kind of loony, hateful vindictiveness seen on Fox.

In an effort to bypass the mostly wrongheaded and irrelevant mainstream media, Obama has depended on several well done, professional web sites to get his messages of accomplishments across. The site www.change.org, ended with the beginning of Obama's presidency. And it became the president's perennial campaign site, "Organizing for America," at www.obama.com , where people can link with the Democratic Party, sign up for the latest news from the administration, volunteer to help Democratic campaigns, read the White House analyses of new legislation, such as the Wall Street reforms and the latest battles in the Congress. If you sign up, you'll get periodic updates and you may be asked to contribute to Democratic organizations.

When last I looked at the site, it was linked to just about every social networking service, under the heading, "Obama Everywhere." And I watched a fair but simplistic YouTube presentation on what the Wall Street reforms mean to homeowners. It does not include the giveaways to banks as a result of Republican opposition and Obama's compromises. If you want to know more you may click on www.financialstability.com , which is a private search engine for financial planning and advisors. I don't know if they have financial ties to Democrats.

As the administration perfects its internet strategy, it has created sites specific to the messages it wishes to deliver. The newest and most useful is www.HealthCare.gov ,which was launched earlier this month by the Department of Health and Human Services. The site was designed for relatively simple searching to learn what the new health care reforms are offering and how to find private insurance. You may choose your state and find coverage options for yourself and your family and you can familiarize yourself on the new regulations that prohibit cancellation of your insurance if you get sick or refusal of coverage for a pre-existing condition.

Also there is some handy information on what is now the law: Adult children can stay on their parents' insurance until age 26. If you enroll in Medicare are a private plan, after September 23, most preventive tests, mammagrams, prostate tests, colonoscopies and immunizations, will be free-no deductibles, or co-insurance. And I guess you know by now that if your Part D drug coverage finds you in the dreaded "doughnut hole," let HHS know and the government will ease your pain with a $250 check. Beginning next year the law calls for the gradual closing of the hole. The site has a link to one of the better nonprofit advocacy sites www.medicareadvocacy.org

All this internet stuff is good, but the White House internet machine and its blogger allies are missing an important audience that Obama has overlooked to his political peril. Older people, who should be his natural constituency, are not as enamored with Obama as many younger voters. One reason they are ignored; most of the elderly don't use the internet. And the Obomans have, from the start gone after the votes and enthusiasm of younger people.

But older people are the most consistent voters and their number is growing. The latest Pew Research poll reports that older voters are inclined this year to vote Republican by a 52-41 margin; even voters over the age of 49 say they'll vote Republican by a 45-43 margin. Only young voters say, by a 57-32 margin, they'll vote Democratic. Pew says Obama's approval rating has dropped this summer by nine points among white independents and 12 points among women over 50.

Those figures for older voters, which reflects how they voted in 2008, suggest they will be voting against their interests, for the Republicans promise to privatize Medicare and dismantle Social Security. But the older generation, may not believe those threats and may be more concerned about and afraid of the huge federal debt. They are, after all, still recalling the Great Depression.

Beyond that, Barack Obama's youth and his cool and cerebral style, according to many commentators, are not connecting with the older generations. Their members of Congress hold meetings about the health care reforms, but they reach only a few people.. And the Medicare manuals they will get can be confusing. Older people don't care much about the reforms in private insurance, which they don't use.

While more and more older Americans are taking to the internet, large numbers depend on the mails, television, their neighbors and doctors to figure out how the health reforms will or won't affect them. I'm not aware that HHS is reaching out to older people with mailings. And all they know is that they don't want the government messing wit their Medicare.

write to saulfriedman@comcast.net Friedman also writes for www.timegoesby.net

Some parents might take their son to see a film on his birthday, but Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have gone one better: they’ve put their son in a film of his own.

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Some parents might take their son to see a film on his birthday, but Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have gone one better: they’ve put their son in a film of his own.

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Among the bayonet-like minarets of ancient Istanbul, an East wind is blowing. It will chill us all… says The Mail On Sunday columnist.

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Updated at 9:12 p.m. EDT, July 31, 2010 An unconfirmed message purportedly from Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, who was Iraq's military commander under Saddam, was released to the media. In it, the voice warned the government of attempting to root out Ba'ath loyalists. At least 15 Iraqis were killed and 39 more were wounded in attacks unrelated to the threatening message. Several of the attacks occurred yesterday but went unreported until today. Separately, an Italian anti-death penalty group reported that state executions rose in number last year.

I don’t know why it should be a surprise that the Anti-Defamation League joined the rightist haters in opposing the mosque at Ground Zero.

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MiamiHerald.com A revelation that should make a difference
Khaleej Times
…war crimes and unnecessary slaying of innocent Afghan civilians in Afghanistan. The WikiLeaks evidence should make war criminals of George Bush, …
The terrible truth about the "good war"Socialist Worker Online

all 715 news articles »

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MiamiHerald.com A revelation that should make a difference
Khaleej Times
…war crimes and unnecessary slaying of innocent Afghan civilians in Afghanistan. The WikiLeaks evidence should make war criminals of George Bush, …
The terrible truth about the "good war"Socialist Worker Online

all 715 news articles »

More: continued here

The situation in US K12 education is really bad: states are broke and the calcified system is unable to respond creatively; deep inequities persist; and urban centers are unable to elect and sustain effective school governance.

The situation in US K12 education is really good: Race to the Top created more policy reform in eight months than we saw in the last eight years; there is some attention to chronic failure; and voluntary common standards will unleash investment and innovation. And then there is the undeniable press of learning technology--a storm surge behind a stubborn levy of employment contracts, outdated policies, and monopoly certification rights. The sector is a generation behind the rest of the economy, but new learning apps are sneaking into the formal system and even more rapidly into personal technology.

It's official: anyone can learn anything anywhere and usually for free. So what the heck is school for? It's an expensive custodial service, ineffective credentialing service, and varies widely as a motivational and instructional service. For teens, school is primarily a physical manifestation of their social network.

As learning online continues to double every 2-3 years, new learning options will be developed and traditional schools will incorporate blends of online and onsite learning. School will become more relevant, more effective, and more efficient. In places where innovation is encouraged and productivity is sought, we'll see six big shifts:
1. From annual tests to the instant feedback of embedded assessment
2. From age-cohorts slogging through print to individual learning pathways: adaptive lessons, courses, and schools
3. From classrooms and courses to online communities
4. From master schedules to playlists and projects
5. From institutions to individuals: the multi-provider transcript
6. From haphazard systems to School-As-A-Service available 24/7

How does this happen? It's hard to force organizational change; it's possible but uses up a lot of political capital. It's often more productive to let change happen--providing incentives, reducing barriers, granting permission, more judo than sumo.

Options and incentives allow change to occur where and when ready. Statewide choice is a great place to start--simply eliminate school district monopolies and allow students to enroll anywhere (space permitting). If money follows the student to the best option, more good options will develop.

This week we saw traditional civil rights groups protecting the status quo and criticizing the president for providing incentives for states and districts willing to innovate to improve education for low income and minority students. Gap-closing equity advocates like Michael Lomax, co-chair of Education Equality Project, strongly support the President's agenda.

Progress will be uneven but it is inevitable: high expectations, responsive services, efficient delivery, and multiple options. Let change happen.