Blagojevich Ousted by Unanimous Vote

"If I thought I had done something wrong I would have resigned in December. I didn't resign then and I'm not resigning now because I have done nothing wrong." ~Rod Blagojevich

"I am immune to his speech giving, because we've seen those tricks before. He can look sincere, he gives a good speech and he's a good performer. Perhaps he can get a job in the arts." ~Illinois State Senator (unnamed in source)

The Illinois State Senate voted unanimously to remove Governor Rod Blagojevich from office. The Senate then voted unanimously to bar Blagojevich from ever serving public office in the state of Illinois again.

After embarking on a week-long media tour, where he compared himself to Gandhi and MLK and derided the impeachment proceedings as a "witch hunt," Blagojevich suddenly reversed course and gave an hour-long speech to the Senate earlier today. It was not enough to save him.

Impeachment prosecutor David Ellis rebutted Blagojevich's closing statement:

When the camera's on, the governor is for the little guy, the little
people. When the camera's off, what are his priorities? 'Legal, personal, political.' Nothing in that statement about the people of Illinois.

Ellis also emphasized the fact that Blagojevich did not agree to appear under oath to be questioned.

Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn was sworn in as Illinois' new governor soon afterward. Gov. Quinn will have to deal with an estimated $5-billion shortfall in the state budget.

Headlines 1-29-2009

Here are some recent headlines worth checking out, compiled here for your convenience.

When Muntadhar al-Zeidi hurled his shoes narrowly missing George W. Bush at a press conference last December in Baghdad, he gained instant notoriety. Although he was arrested by the Iraqi officials, a sculpter has erected a statue commemorating his action. The statue of a shoe on a stand carved to look like a white sheet is located in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown approximately 80 miles north of Baghdad. For more information, please click here.

In other Iraq news, US Army officials announced that the suidice rate among soldiers has reached an all-time high. "Officials calculate the deaths at a rate of roughly 20.2 per 100,000 soldiers — which is higher than the adjusted civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War, officials told a Pentagon news conference," reports Pauline Jelinek of the Associated Press. For the rest of the article, please click here.

Blackwater Worldwide, a private security company, was officially booted out of Iraq today at the demand of the Iraqi government. Blackwater has been under harsh scrutiny for their lack of oversight and regulation, especially since September of 2007 when Blackwater employees allegedly killed 17 Iraqi civilians. For more, please click here.

Additionally, Reza Aslan, a renowned scholar on Islam and columnist recently published an article for The Daily Beast entitled "Obama's Nuclear Problem." In the column, Aslan stated that Barack Obama must clearly and publicly declare that a policy of regime change is no longer on the table. Aslan also writes that I.R. Iran may not actually want nuclear weapons for several reasons, but "only by convincing Iran that it has nothing to fear, either from Israel or from the US, or from the growing chorus of Arab states lined up against it, can we convince it to reign in its nuclear ambitions." For the full article, please click here.


In important domestic news, President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law today. The act effectively nullifys a 2007 Supreme Court decision on Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. that stated that an individual has a period of six months after the first instance of discrimination to file a pay-inequality lawsuit. Lily Ledbetter was employed by Goodyear Tires for 19 years and did not learn of the pay discrimination against her until the end of her career. About the signing, President Obama stated that "Equal pay is by no means just a women's issue, it's a family issue. And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month's paycheck to simple and plain discrimination." For the full article, please click here.

Busta Rhymes Busts His Brain

Busta Rhymes bust a few too many this time with his video "Arab Money." While BET has been playing the video, Busta Rhymes pulled it from play after controversy surrounding it.

The video is here:


Muslims and Arabs in the USA and the UK called for the video to be pulled due to the song's wrong (and racist) characterization of the Middle East, Arab culture, and using Islamic verses from the Quoran in a derogatory manner.

So, Dubai-based rapper The Narcicyst put out a song, "Real Arab Money," in reply to Busta Rhymes' video.

Check it out here:


Although this article reports that after Narcicyst released his song, Busta Rhymes contacted him apologizing for the video and stating that he would take the necessary steps to correct the action.

As Billy Johnson, Jr. of Hip-Hop Media Training writes,

So what prompted the re-release?

Has Busta done enough damage control and effectively communicated to the Arab and Muslim communities the message that there was no disrespect intended with the track and has since received their blessing to fully distribute the video?

Did Busta just let the controversy calm enough so that he could take full advantage of an otherwise great, graphics-enhanced video with arguably more A-list cameos than any other video of the past year? Are the multiple remixes with Diddy, Bow Wow, Jim Jones, Juelz Santana, Akon, T-Pan, Swizz Beatz, Ron Browz, Lil' Wayne, etc. too good to toss, controversy or not?

Or has Busta just received enough support from fans who understand that he meant no ill will and was merely doing the ultimate hip-hop metaphor, bragging and boasting about experiencing all things lavish?

While I agree with Narcicyst about Busta's video, I guess it's nice that at least some segment of the American culture is for some portion of the Middle East, calling it "cool" and glorifying it, however terribly it's being done.

But that just leads us to what is "Cool"...

"The Cool" from Lupe Fiasco's album...

"The Cool is the physical manifestation of History's debt to humanity. Payback for every user abused and every family torn apart by History, The Cool walks amongst the living as a zombie. “He” – that term used lightly, considering The Cool isn't human – reeks of death, an ironic contrast to his polished three-piece-suit appearance. Searching for his purpose, The Cool haunts The Streets."

Mr. Wolverine Goes to Washington, Part 3

Part 3: "A Moment That Will Define a Generation"

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I slept through my alarm that morning. I set my alarm on my watch instead of the hotel's clock radio as my roommate was already in bed. I thought we were meeting for breakfast at 6, set my alarm for 5:15, and woke up at 6:57.

Luckily we were supposed to meet at 7, and there was at least one other person who didn't get there until 7:30. Then we headed out on our circuitous route to the National Mall. The group halved early as the people in the front walked quickly and didn't look back.

Our half of the group stopped at the expectant crowd gathered near the Hay-Adams Hotel. It was customary for the president-elect to pray at the church across the street and Obama was scheduled to arrive soon. His motorcade rolled in just as we were giving up. I didn't see Obama directly, but I did see Joe & Jill "Went-Up-the-Hill" Biden, and I can say that I was within 200 yards of Barack Obama.

We continued our trek to the Mall, momentarily ducking into a hotel for warmth, and finally entered by the WWII Memorial. We moved forward to the Washington Monument towards the cafe tent before our subgroup split. Four of us chose to go (and stay!) at the Hard Rock Cafe for warmth. Sara and I elected to stick it out. We headed back to higher ground at the base of the Washington Monument.

We tried to stay warm, talked to a family from Louisiana, and snapped pictures. Some highlights:

The signs. ("No more Bushit" and "From King to President")

The crowd's reaction to Bush. They booed when he was presented. Folks closer to the front sang, "Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye." When Bush the Elder was introduced, a lady behind me yelled, "Your son sucked as president!"

I swear the entire Mall laughed at Rick Warren's exaggerated pronunciation of "Ma-LI-a and SA-SHA!"

Aretha's still got it. The photo must not have turned out well, but she looked exactly as I pictured her, ridiculous hat and all.

"Air and Simple Gifts." John Williams, Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Aaron Copland. 'Nuff said.

Way to go, Justice Roberts!

Reverend Lowery's benediction was hilarious. "...when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what's right." At the time it was hard to tell if he had planned on saying that or if he was just trying to get the crowd's attention. Most of us, myself included, were headed out, as the benediction followed that hideous poem ("Picking lettuce"? Of all the crops that you could have chosen--oranges, apples, strawberries--you chose lettuce?) and Obama's inaugural address.

The part of the address where Obama discussed all of the problems we're currently facing was a major downer. Now, I understand that he needed to knock us down to bring us back up, and he needed to lower expectations.

The speech, as a whole, was amazing. There was one particular turn of phrase I enjoyed: "...we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." Brilliant. Throughout the speech, I kept nodding my head and thinking, 'Finally, a president who gets it!' My eyes welled up, but I didn't cry.

It was, unsurprisingly, chaos getting out. But I think it was particularly symbolic that the huddled mass of which I was part coped by singing "Lean On Me" and "I Will Survive." I wanted to start a rendition of "Don't Stop Believing," but I didn't think I had the support.

Sara and I didn't get back to the hotel until 3. What normally would have been a thirty-minute walk or so took two and a half hours. But that's what happens when you're one of two million people and they decide it's a good idea to send in a line of buses to block the foot traffic once it's over.

I had been out in the cold for seven and a half hours. My lower lip was literally white. I ate the pretzels they handed out, watched the parade on TV, and called people. It was impossible for anyone to call in when I was on the Mall. The cell phone towers were overwhelmed. I managed to get a text message out, but I didn't get the response until after I had left.

Around 6:30, I started changing into my tux for the UPIC gala. The buses took forever to ferry us from the hotel to the gala in the traffic-clogged streets. The gala was split between the Air & Space and Hirshhorn Museums.

The ball was a major letdown. The gala wasn't official, and no VIP showed up. The live band at Air & Space sucked and the DJ at Hirshhorn just played nightclub music. I don't know what I was expecting him to play, but suffice it to say that I didn't do any dancing. I went off with Teddy instead and explored the lower floor of the Hirshhorn. Some pretty interesting stuff. The fact that you could see my reflection in some of the pictures I took just adds another level of post-modernism to the works.

The buses going back to the hotel were even more nightmarish than to the ball. They weren't coming back frequently enough to accommodate those who were leaving. So Teddy and I took the Metro from L'Enfant Plaza back to the hotel. I turned in and left the packing for morning.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

I packed, went down for breakfast, texted my newfound friends goodbye (Heck, I would have slept in too if I could), and caught the bus to Reagan, making sure I had plenty of time to spare that day. One flight and three bus rides later I was back in my apartment in Ann Arbor.

DC was cold, crowded, and exhausting, but it was completely worth it.

Mr. Wolverine Goes to Washington, Part 2

Part 2: "The ground has shifted beneath them"

Monday, January 19, 2009

Two panels Monday morning. A lot of our group skipped both of them, but the foreign policy one sounded interesting to me, and I wanted to get my money's worth.

"If I knew there was going to be a podium, I wouldn't have worn pants."   ~Jonah Goldberg

I knew Peter Beinart and Jonah Goldberg from Bloggingheads. It was odd because Goldberg was the conservative but a much better and funnier speaker. In his opening, Beinart droned on and on and talked about whatever popped into his mind. He was much better in the Q & A. The Q & A did a fairly good job of covering the hot spots: Iran, China, Russia.

Then, Mike wanted to go to the poetry panel with former Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky. He gave a very Ralph Williams-esque lecture, and it was interesting because it was not about politics.

"'If you dyed your hair black, you'd look just like Al Gore.'"   ~Al Gore

We grabbed our box lunches, ate at the Marriott, then headed back to U-Maryland to hear Al Gore. He gave the expected become-involved and global-warming shticks. They only allowed two questions. I wish, like the guy behind me, that someone had asked him about nuclear power, but no.

As the director of UPIC came onstage to brief us about tomorrow, the audience booed and yelled. The conference, evident from day 1, had been horribly disorganized. The faculty advisors didn't know what was going on, and it seemed like they were making it up as they went along. I guess they were unprepared for the enthusiasm for Obama.

Some of the students were circulating a letter expressing their dissatisfaction. I guess some had been promised a smaller conference or reserved seats on the Mall. I was under no such illusions and tried to enjoy it as well as I could.

The group dynamic was interesting from a political/philosophical perspective. You sacrifice some of your freedom for the security and sociability of the group. I think everyone was frustrated with this at some time or another and the group started to splinter that night.

The first breakaway republic was Teddy. We were heading to this Italian restaurant (Again, a chain. I don't understand it. If you're visiting a city, why not go to a place they don't have anywhere else? We actually ate at a local chain but only because it was much closer to the Metro stop.) when Tedward got a call from one of the girls we had met on the bus ride after Gore. He went to have dinner with them.

Then, Christine, Mike and I left early and headed back to the hotel. I particularly did not want to keep window shopping. We explored the lower floors of the hotel, pretending that we were going where we shouldn't. We went back to my room to play cards. I called Mrs. Wolverine, they left, I went to bed.

Smooth, Grand Hyatt. Really smooth. Stay tuned for the third and final installment.

Headlines 1-26-2009

Here are some important headlines at your disposal.

First, Bolivia is in the process of ratifying a new Constitution. This constitution is supposed to empower Bolivia's Indians. Preliminary vote counts estimate 60% of voters have approved the new Constitution. While the Constitution nationalizes much of Bolivia's natural gas resources and officially recognizes 36 indigenous groups, it is unclear exactly how the implementation of the law will work or how the new Constitution will affect Bolivia, facing a recent economic downturn. Xavier Albó, a Jesuit scholar and linguist, stated that "the new Constitution may be the equivalent of Spain’s Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors in 1492. But instead of the blood spilled in that process, Mr. Albó said, Bolivia is 'advancing in a democratic process that does not exclude or subjugate anyone."' For more information, please click here.

Secondly, Sri Lanken forces state that they have captured the last major base of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers), a group well known for the use of suicide bombings and its own air force. A Sri Lanken military spokesman stated that there were no LTTE leaders captured in the operation while the LTTE has not yet commented on the report. The Sri Lanken military states that they have isolated the LTTE into an area of 155 square miles (about 400 sq. km.) and that the LTTE has approximately 1,000 fighters left after the group's political headquarters were captured on January 2. The leader of LTTE is thought to have fled to Malaysia. For the rest of the article, please click here.

Additionally, Esteghlal, one of Iran's top soccer clubs, held a soccer match between the club's female team and its youth male team. However, as the Associated Press reports, "the first mixed soccer game—females vs. males—since the 1979 Islamic revolution led to swift punishment... as an Iranian soccer club said it had suspended three officials involved and handed out fines of up to $5,000." While a coach and two managers initially denied that the match had taken place, video footage from cell phones was used as evidence against them. In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that women should and would be allowed to attend soccer games. However, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (the final voice on all matters in Iran) disagreed, forcing Ahmadinejad to revoke his previous statement. For more information, please click here.

In domestic news, the FDA has approved a Californian biotechnology company, Geron, to begin the first-ever human clinical trials with embryonic stem cells. The participants will be patients who have recently suffered severe spinal cord injuries. Researchers are planning to inject the stem cells into the patients' spines and monitor carefully if the procedure is working. For more information, please click here.

In state-wide news, a gunman opened fire on an under-21 nightclub in Portland, Oregon, killing two and injuring several others. Police speculate that it was a random shooting. Among those injured were students, five from other countries. One victim is currently in critical condition, four others hospitalized but expected to live, and two were treated and sent home. The gunman is hospitalized in critical condition. For the article, please click here.

Mr. Wolverine Goes to Washington, Part 1

Part 1: You may ask yourself, how did I get here?

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Hectic beginning. Missed the Michigan Flyer, the bus that was supposed to take me to the airport. Had to call a taxi, which took 20 minutes to get to where I was and 40 minutes to get from there to the airport, $50. At least 16 cars had driven either off the road or into each other.

Somehow I made the flight. It helped that it was supposed to leave 20 minutes after I thought it would.

One of the ladies behind the counter complimented me on my scarf, saying it had "inspired" her to make one just like it for her son(?) who goes to U-M.

They said the flight was supposed to be fairly smooth. With the weather as it was on the ground, I had a little trouble believing the pilot. And of course, we hit a pocket of turbulence as soon as he said we probably would not.

It took more time to load the plane, taxi, de-ice, and taxi to the runway than it did to actually fly from Detroit to Washington.

The nice thing about flying into Reagan is that you fly right along the Potomac, and you see the National Mall, the Washington Monument, the Smithsonian, the Capitol, and the White House. The other side of the plane sees the Pentagon.

The airport itself is not so nice. It's old and it's ugly and I don't mind in the least bit that they named it after Ronald Reagan.

Because I was late getting into DTW, even though I made the flight, my bag did not. A handful of other people and I waited at the baggage claim for the next flight from Detroit to come in. Again, this took longer than the actual flight.

There was another group of people who came in late for various reasons staying at my hotel. (There were 5,000 people at the University Presidential Inaugural Conference (UPIC) spread over six hotels.)

And our group was horribly late. So late that we got to our hotel after Tim Russert's son started speaking at another hotel. So late that once we got to the other hotel, registration was closed and Russert had finished speaking. Luckily, there were some hors d'ouevres left. We gnoshed, returned, and hung out.

Our hotel, the Grand Hyatt, is luxe.

I mean grand-piano-on-its-own-island-in-the-atrium-fountain luxe.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

I didn't sleep well the night before. I would have had only five hours of sleep even if I wasn't tossing and turning.

Got up at 4:45, breakfast started at 5:15. Buses to the University of Maryland started at 6.

They packed us into the Cole Activites Building, having covered the basketball court with astroturf and set up a stage and chairs above that. The chairs and most of the seating section were filled. There were seven or eight thousand there, including the junior scholars. (The middle-schoolers and high-schoolers each had their own little conference.)

"You've got to have people who'll tell you you have no clothes on...That didn't come out right." ~Colin Powell

Colin Powell spoke a little about the election, but mostly about the qualities of a good leader. He was in Hong Kong when the results were coming in. He said that he was so overwhelmed with emotion, he had to sit down. He hoped he wouldn't cry all through Inauguration Day.

The speech was mostly interesting, at least it served to wake me up. Q & A was all right; most of the questions were thoughtful, asking about State, Darfur, Bush, and a youth program that he spearheaded. The bookends were terrible: asking about his shortcomings and the qualities he valued in a leader. (Dude, didn't you listen to the speech?)

From there, back to the Marriott for panels. We went to the Matalin-Carville one, an interesting bipartisan couple. (We were sitting in a weird spot; sorry, no pictures.) They were both funny, and Carville particularly exhorted us to participate actively in the political process.

Carville recounted a story where they were leaving their daughters at home to go somewhere. Matalin was telling them to be good. One of their daughters, "already exhibiting conservative tendencies," said, "If you give me a dollar, I'll be good." Matalin, without missing a beat, retorted, "Why can't you just be good for nothing like your father?"

Q & A brought up electoral reform. Said Carville, "Who left Iowa and New Hampshire in charge?" His answer? "Blow it up." Besides dynamiting the primary system, he suggested exploding the debate format, oddly supporting the unmoderated, town-hall debates that Obama spurned during the campaign.

We left the Marriott early, took the Metro back to the hotel, changed, and headed out. We ate at an overpriced seafood restaurant and headed to the opening inaugural festivities.

We ended up in front of the videoscreen between the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial, a full six blocks from the main event at the Lincoln Memorial.

We saw Herbie Hancock, Garth Brooks, Forrest Whitaker, Usher, Stevie Wonder, Shakira, Jack Black, Samuel L. Jackson and U2 before Obama gave his speech. I didn't realize he was going to give a speech here. For some reason, our little group of people started to leave halfway through the speech so I missed the end of it.

After the speech, we spotted a few religious fanatic protesters who admonished us to reject Obama and accept Jesus if we really wanted to embrace change; condemned "child-killing women", "porno addicts", and "Mormons" to hell; and warned that homosexuality was a threat to national security. Half of us went off to harangue them, while the other half headed off to the Lincoln Memorial.

No-go. Completely locked down for the Inauguration.

(On the way, I was accosted by a reporter from the Detroit News who wanted a Michigander's take on the festivities. My Michigan coat, scarf and hat are a dead giveaway. This was the same reporter who asked me questions when I was getting on the plane in Detroit-Metro.)

So we made our way back to the hotel, being thwarted by Washington's odd street layout, the fact that Pennsylvania Ave. was blocked off, (The stopped crowd was claustrophobically terrifying. It felt like I was in the scene in I Am Legend where everyone's trying to get off Manhattan before they close down the island.) and my inability to find our hotel on the DC map. I found the nearby Metro stop and like newly blinded people groping about, we were able to find the hotel.

The zombie crowd at Pennsylvania and 17th. Stay tuned for Part 2.

A Message to Barack Obama

While most of the country can agree with the Supreme Court's decision regarding the separation between religion and the state, Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson delivered a message to President Obama during an opening inaugural event on January 18, 2009, that was left out of the televised version. Although this was Bishop Robinson's prayer, I feel that the message is something worth paying attention to and echos the sentiments of many Americans, regardless of personal religious or spiritual convictions. Bishop Robinson's prayer is as follows:

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

January 18, 2009

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

© Copyright 2004-2006 by The Diocese of New Hampshire, The Episcopal Church.

For the link, please click here.

Back to Work

President Obama gets right back to work after Inauguration festivities signing some pretty serious executive orders. The first, a salary freeze on top executive branch officials (such as the national security adviser, press secretary, and White House counsel) earning more than $100,000 per year. Says President Obama, "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington."

The second act declared Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons abroad to close within a year. The act also banned harsh interrogation methods, such as waterboarding, and directed interrogators to follow the guidelines in the Army Field manual which explicitly ban threats, coercion, waterboarding, and physical abuse.

"The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism and we are going to do so vigilantly and we are going to do so effectively and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals," the president said.

I think little Sasha says it all.


For more information, please click here.

For information from the New York Times, please click here.

Fair Pay

The Ledbetter Fair Pay and Paycheck Fairness Acts are currently before the Senate. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is named after Lilly Ledbetter, who sued her employer under the Equal Pay Act (1963) after she discovered that she was being paid less than her male counterparts.

The case went to the Supreme Court. The Equal Pay Act requires plaintiffs to sue within 180 days of the alleged discrimination. Ledbetter argued that the discrimination occurred with each paycheck; with this interpretation, she had filed under the 180-day deadline. The Court found this interpretation inconsistent with the act and ruled 5-4 in her employer's favor. The Ledbetter Fair Pay Act would amend the Equal Pay Act so that the 180-day statute of limitations would renew with each paycheck.

The fact is that the average man will earn $434,000 more over his career than the average woman. You can find the pay gap by state and by occupation or education here:

Email your senators and tell them to vote yes on the Ledbetter Fair Pay and Paycheck Fairness Acts. You can find more information here.

The Problem with Bagram

"The Obama Administration is inheriting not so much a shrinking Guantánamo as an expanding Bagram."     ~Tina Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network

Bagram Air Force Base lies 40 miles north of Kabul, Afghanistan. It currently holds 670 detainees, more than 2.5 times the amount currently at Guantánamo Bay. And these detainees are being held without a trial, without any charges, and without an end.

The Bush Justice Department, in response to human rights groups bringing the case to the Federal District Court, said this in a filing for the court:

Federal courts should not thrust themselves into the extraordinary role of reviewing the military's conduct of active hostilities overseas, second-guessing the military's determination as to which captured aliens as part of such hostilities should be detained, and in practical effect, superintending the Executive's conduct in waging a war...

Given the ongoing war, there is every reason to believe that our military mission in Afghanistan would be compromised if the writ [of habeas corpus] is extended to Bagram. To provide alien enemy combatants detained in a theater of war the privilege of access to our civil courts is unthinkable both legally and practically.

Maybe the Bagram detainees don't legally have access to civilian courts, but the military mission in Afghanistan would hardly be compromised by providing them basic rights. We cannot win the "war on terror" by abandoning our democratic principles. Imagine the fear and anger we would be instilling into the very "hearts and minds" that we are supposed to be winning if we could just disappear innocent people in such an Orwellian fashion.

We must try to improve the lives, the economies, and the governments of the Middle East if we are to prevent the root causes of terrorism. We should either charge or release the detainees. Those who are charged should be tried in local courts. If there is a problem with the local courts, we should attempt to improve them or try them in military courts, preferably both.

And now, I leave you with a quote:

"Sometimes a democracy must fight with one hand tied behind its back. Nevertheless, it has the upper hand."     ~Aharon Barak, former President of the Israeli Supreme Court

The Conflict in Gaza

"We have to talk to the other side, we have to have peace, so that we can all - us and them - live safely."     ~Mirvat Abu Shwab, who lost two children in early 2008 as Israelis and Palestinians battled outside their home

Background

On June 19, 2008, a six-month cease-fire between Hamas and Israel went into effect. The cease-fire was never absolute; during the six months, rockets were fired from Gaza into Israel, and Israel conducted raids against Hamas and closed the border crossings into Gaza. But violence had decreased. 329 rockets and mortars were fired during the cease-fire, while 2278 were fired in the preceding six months.

Hamas decided not to renew the cease-fire after it expired on December 19. Fifty rockets were launched on December 21, followed by sixty more on Christmas Eve. The same day, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were authorized to attack Hamas in Gaza. Although at that time, "[m]ilitary sources said a major operation - such as conquering the Gaza Strip - was not currently on the agenda."

Operation Cast Lead

On December 27, the IDF began Operation Cast Lead, a series of air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. 225 were killed on the first day alone. On the 28th, the IDF began targeting tunnels that ran between Egypt and Gaza, which transported arms (and needed supplies due to the Israeli-imposed blockade) into Gaza. Civilians died from the beginning, and the IDF bombed a mosque, a refugee camp, the Islamic University at Tel al-Hawa, and the Education Ministry. (In the IDF's defense, the Islamic University is "one of the prime means for Hamas to convert Palestinians to its Islamist cause.")

Throughout the air strikes, Hamas continued to fire rockets, landing deeper into Israel than ever before. Rockets landed in Beersheba, 24 miles inside Israel, two days in a row. Anger in the Arab world rose not only against Israel, but also against Egypt, which had originally brokered the six-month truce and is not allowing refugees to escape from Gaza into Egypt. Hamas gunmen and Egyptian border guards have even exchanged gunfire. And the IDF massed troops along the Gazan border.

The Invasion

On January 3, Israeli troops entered the Gaza Strip. And whatever international support Israel had evaporated. There are those who turned against Israel for reasons of realpolitik. Says Joe Klein, who was initially very supportive of Israel's actions:

The more I think about it, the ground assault has the potential to be a...big mistake. It has made a symbolic defeat more possible, if still unlikely. If the IDF gets hung up in alley-fighting in Gaza City, with significant casualties--that will be seen as a defeat. If Hamas guerrilllas can kidnap or use suicide bombers to attack the IDF positions outside Gaza, that will also be seen as an indication of Israeli vulnerability. The problem is that the expectations for Hamas--which already has had its military capability smashed decisively, if truth be told--are so low.

And the New York Times divines that Israel's goal is to remove Hamas from power and is highly skeptical. What would be the human cost? Who would fill the power vacuum left behind? Neither Fatah, a more moderate Palestinian organization nominally in control of the West Bank, nor Israel could legitimately do so.

And then of course there is the moral outrage. Israel air-dropped leaflets that read:

Hamas is getting a taste of the power of the Israeli military after more than a week and we have other methods that are still harsher to deal with Hamas. They will prove very painful. For your safety, please evacuate your neighborhood.

Unfortunately, as many neighborhoods received the same message, residents had nowhere to go.

More evidence that Israel has acted terribly:

• A Norwegian doctor working in Gaza City reports women and children made up 25% of the death toll and 45% of the wounded.
• Ambulances and hospitals are being attacked, and on-duty paramedics are being killed. Hospitals in Gaza lack the most basic supplies.
• Israel is giving Gaza what they term "humanitarian respites," irregularly scheduled, three-hour suspensions in fighting every other day. (The same article reports that over 700 Palestinians, including 219 children, have been killed in the first eleven days of the assault.)
• A UN-run school was struck by Israeli artillery, killing 40 and wounding 55 more.
• The Vatican's peace and justice minister, Cardinal Renato Martino, said that Israel had turned the Gaza Strip into "a big concentration camp."
• The UN and the Red Cross had to scale back aid after their trucks were hit by Israeli fire.

The Future

As the Israeli assault seemed more reprehensible, international calls for a cease-fire, led by Egypt and France, increased. Israel wants an end to the rocket attacks and arms smuggling into Gaza. Hamas wants an end to the Israeli-imposed economic blockade. Israel has accepted this in principle, but "there is a potentially long gap between accepting principles and applying practice."

The UN Security Council is meanwhile torn between two extremes. Arab countries want a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire, while the US, Britain, and France (all permanent, veto-wielding Council members) "are pushing for a weaker statement welcoming the Franco-Egyptian initiative."

On Thursday, January 8, three rockets were fired from Lebanon into northern Israel. Hezbollah has maintained that they were not responsible for the attack and warned Israel not to use it as a pretext for opening a second front. So far it appears to me that Israel will not do so. And they should not do so. The Gaza offensive is terrible enough, and the last time Israel attacked Lebanon (in 2006), it did much to solidify Hezbollah's position there.

Jeffrey Goldberg shares a smart idea for Israel: "Why not erect a massive tent hospital in Sderot, staff it with Israeli army doctors, and treat the Palestinian wounded there?" It would be great morally and politically, so it's probably not going to happen.

For more: The BBC, per usual, has excellent reporting of the conflict. Particularly helpful is their timeline of the assault, which can be found here.

Give Life....only to take it back in a divorce?

Generally when people donate organs, whether they are living donors or not, they are doing so because they and their family members want to share life with all people who need a second chance. All major religions support organ donation as a truly selfless act of compassion that one can fulfill.

So what's with a New York surgeon who took the Hippocratic Oath before practicing, became a living donor of a kidney to his wife, and now, in the midst of a messy divorce, he wants his kidney back. That, or $1.5 million dollars for compensation of the organ when he discovered that his wife was having an extramarital affair.

Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center on Long Island, says that he is seeking compensation for the kidney he donated to his wife, Dawnell, in 2001. Richard Batista says she began having an extramarital affair after the transplant.

"There's no deeper pain or betrayal from somebody you loved and devoted your whole life to," he told reporters Wednesday.

Richard Batista said he went public with his request after becoming frustrated with ongoing divorce negotiations...

Dr. David Cronin, the director of liver transplantation at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has been performing liver, kidney and pancreas transplants for more than a decade. He says a price tag cannot be placed on a human organ.

"Any efforts that have been made to sell organs, broker organs … have come up and been squashed," he said about Richard Batista's legal tactic.

Cronin likened donations from live donors to a contract in which the donor agrees to give up the organ to the recipient and expect nothing in return.

The National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 says that an organ donation from a living donor is a gift and is not eligible for "valuable consideration."

...As far as Richard Batista's getting his kidney back from his soon-to-be ex? That isn't going to happen either, according to Cronin.

"That's just foolish," he said.

But if a judge were to award the surgeon compensation for the kidney specifically and not just divorce-related damages, that could challenge the notion of organs as gifts.

Cronin likened the whole story to a soap opera, calling it an "entertainment blip."

While the anger that Batista feels is understandable, nothing justifies reclaiming an organ given to save another's life. His actions cast a terrible shadow of misconception onto the issue of organ donation which already is an extremely misunderstood by so many.

No price should be placed on a human life, nor on human organs that save them. For a surgeon to demand his kidney back, knowing full well that he faces far greater risks of infection in such action as well as the inherent demise of his ex-wife's health potentially killing her, is nothing more than revenge.

For the complete article, please click here.
For reliable information on organ donation, please visit this website: Gift of Life.

Oh John McCain, Look What You've Done!

God save the Middle East. When John McCain unleashed "Joe the Plumber" in the midst of the presidential debates, who would have thought that months later, "Joe" (who is not a licensed plumber and whose first name is actually Samuel) would have opinions that matter.

Apparently, conservative blog pjtv.com thinks "Joe" has a few more things for the world to hear. So, in their infinite wisdom, "Joe" is heading over to Israel to cover the current conflict in Gaza as a war correspondent in the Middle East for the blog.

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher (WUR'-zuhl-bah-kur) says he'll spend 10 days covering the fighting.

He tells WNWO-TV in Toledo that he wants to let Israel's "'Average Joes' share their story."

Wurzelbacher gained attention during the final weeks of the campaign when he asked Barack Obama about his tax plan.

He later joined Republican John McCain on the campaign trail. At one stop, he agreed with a McCain supporter who asked if he believed a vote for Obama was a vote for the death of Israel.

For more information, please click here.

Winds of Change?

Oscar Grant, a 22 year old man and father of a four-year-old daughter, went out to celebrate the New Year's like millions of others across the globe. The difference between Oscar and everyone else is that Oscar was shot in the back and killed by a Bay Area police officer while lying handcuffed, face down on the platform of a BART metro. He died in the early morning hours of January 1st, 2009.

While raw footage and eye-witness accounts of the shooting point towards the officer murdering Grant, BART authorities are still investigating the shooting:

There has been speculation that Mehserle [the officer who shot and killed Grant] may have believed he was reaching for his Taser to stun Grant rather than reaching for his gun to shoot him. To Burris [civil rights attorney for the family of Oscar Grant] such a distinction is not that important.

"If the officer had a Taser and he thought he was pulling it, to me that's still a criminal act," Burris said. "It means you're negligent, as opposed to knowing you pulled your gun." That, he said, would be "murder."

"I don't want to believe that an officer would just kill someone this way," said Burris, who called on BART officials to say whether Mehserle carried a Taser. "On the other hand, I'm not going to disbelieve my eyes either."

Grant had been celebrating New Year's Eve in San Francisco and was heading back to his East Bay home on a BART train when a fight broke out between two groups of riders about 2 a.m.

BART police met the train at Oakland's Fruitvale station and ordered passengers -- including Grant -- onto the platform.

Video taken by spectators with cellphones shows a chaotic scene, with uniformed officers pulling riders out of a train and then shoving one man onto the ground. While that man is face down, an officer stands over him, pulls his gun and shoots...

...According to the claim filed Tuesday, Grant was unarmed "and offered no physical resistance" to BART officers.

Here is the video of the shooting. Please be cautious, as the video could disturb some viewers.

The family of Oscar Grant is currently filing a $25 million dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency. For more information, please click here to view the article by the LA Times.

For updates, please click here.